NEWS RELEASE OCTOBER 11, 2016   Supreme Court hears FIPA’s Election Act challenge The Supreme Court of Canada reserves decision on striking down ban on unregistered speech in BC’s election law VANCOUVER, October 11, 2016 – The Supreme Court of Canada will take the time to make its decision in the BC Freedom of Information […]

The federal government has taken a while to get moving on its election promise to make amendments to Bill C-51, but it now looks like things may be starting to stir. There have been a number of false starts to date. For example, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, writing in the Huffington Post in early […]

With the provincial election just around the corner, FIPA’s fight against restrictions on freedom of expression in BC’s Election Act is going to make its final stop in the Supreme Court of Canada this October. This is barely six months before the BC election campaign begins. The Election Act requires any persons or groups who […]

In 2015, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada chose “Reputation and Privacy” as one of its priority areas for the next five years. The OPC wanted to examine the risks “stemming from the vast amount of personal information posted online”, with the goals of enriching the public debate, ensuring they can advise Parliament […]

On May 18, 2016, FIPA and the BC Civil Liberties Association filed a complaint with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of BC relating to their investigation  into “the disclosure of details of active freedom of information requests on the Open Information website.” We point to a number of issues with the BC government’s seemingly out-of-the-blue announcement that […]

In response to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s call for input on online reputation and privacy, FIPA’s submission discusses some of the considerations we must make when we discuss the mitigation of online reputational risks, and the rights and interests we must seek to balance. Download submission.

FIPA has been fighting against free speech restrictions in BC’s Election Act for years, and that battle will culminate in our upcoming appeal in the Supreme Court of Canada. This is an important case for freedom of speech during BC elections – and for setting the standard the government must meet in order to impose […]

FIPA is celebrating a step forward in our battle for free expression during elections in British Columbia. On Monday, the Supreme Court of Canada granted FIPA leave to appeal the BC Court of Appeal’s split decision to uphold third-party ‘advertising’ restrictions in the provincial Election Act. We expect that our appeal will be heard in […]

On June 22, 2015, FIPA filed an Application for Leave to appeal the judgment of the Court of Appeal for British Columbia on our Election Act challenge. The BC Election Act makes something as simple as putting a handwritten sign in your window during the election period without registering with the authorities an offense, which […]

Click to read our latest blog on the Huffington Post The spring session of the B.C. Legislature has just wrapped up with a bang. The NDP released a letter from a former Liberal executive assistant to the minister of transportation alleging that he was ordered to delete dozens of emails related to the Highway of […]

“No responsive records” systematically used by Government to avoid releasing documents in Freedom of Information requests VANCOUVER— The BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) is concerned that the alleged destruction of email records related to missing women on the Highway of Tears is a new and disturbing part of an ongoing trend by […]

In a 2-1 ruling handed down April 23, the BC Court of Appeal has upheld an earlier decision which found that although third party ‘advertising’ provisions of the Election Act violated the Charter, they could still be justified. The law makes something as simple as putting a handwritten sign in your window during the election […]