The Code of Silence Award for Outstanding Achievement in Government Secrecy is awarded annually by the Centre for Free Expression, Canadian Association of Journalists, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and News Media Canada to call public attention to governments, government departments, and agencies that distinguish themselves by denying public access to government information to which […]

MEDIA RELEASE October 17, 2018 USMCA Puts Privacy at Risk VANCOUVER, October 17, 2018 – The pending free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States (USMCA) conflicts with existing provincial legislation around data localization and puts the privacy of British Columbians at risk. The Freedom of Information and Privacy Association of British Columbia […]

July 18, 2017 FIPA’s Submission on NAFTA Consultation With the US government’s extremely concerning list of objectives for the upcoming NAFTA negotiations put forth yesterday by the US Trade Representative, BC FIPA has sent Minister Freeland and Global Affairs Canada our submission regarding the dangers facing our information and privacy rights in the coming NAFTA […]

VANCOUVER, November 5, 2015 – The BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) is strongly concerned for British Columbia’s privacy law, following the release of the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The group had been worried that provisions of the TPP—a multinational trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and ten other countries, […]

Federal government summary states domestic data storage requirements are banned under TPP  VANCOUVER, October 8, 2015 – The BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association (FIPA) is expressing concern that certain legal requirements in BC’s privacy law will be undercut by the now-finalized Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal. According to a summary of the TPP posted by Foreign […]

The United States Trade Representative has identified BC‘s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) as a trade barrier (see page 60-61), but the BC government claims it doesn’t have any records of complaints or communications with the USTR. We at BC FIPA have obtained internal USTR documents through the American Freedom of […]

The ink was barely dry on the federal government’s new copyright reform bill when they signed on to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a controversial new trade agreement that could toss that piece of legislation under the bus, along with the minimal protections it provided to Canadians who use intellectual property. That’s just one reason why […]

The day before the beginning of a long weekend in both Canada and the United States, our governments finally released perimeter security privacy protection principles that were supposed to have been completed on May 30. It really wasn’t worth the wait. You can see the full text of the document here. Adding irony to the […]

Canada’s federal government should take all steps necessary to ensure he standards and values behind Canadian privacy laws are not diminished as programs to fulfill the Canada-US perimeter security action plan aredeveloped, say Canada’s privacy guardians. Recommendations made by the federal Privacy Commissioner in a June 2011 submission to government are not addressed in the […]

Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver – In advance of today’s anticipated Canada-U.S. border deal signing in Washington, D.C., FIPA and seven other Canadian civil liberties groups have released a 12-point statement of principles they hope will help guide public and parliamentary debate in the months to come. The joint statement of principles was developed over the […]

Joint FIPA-Newspapers Canada Letter To Secretary Clinton Corrects the Record Newspapers Canada and the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association have joined forces to correct the federal government’s claims about their performance on transparency and Access to Information made in a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The joint letter to […]

The Canadian government is secretly negotiating an international trade agreement which could broaden the power of law enforcement officials to invade your privacy, snoop into the content on your personal electronic devices and make a lot more copied content illegal. Led by the United States, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) would revamp copyright laws and […]