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Digital ID | Excess Deaths in Canada | Covid lockdowns and the value of freedom | Freedom of Expression | Other
Digital ID
Digital ID, Surveillance, and the Value of Privacy – Part One
Released: April 4, 2023
Information technologies with data-tracking and/or user-profiling capabilities generate significant privacy concerns. Proposals for Canadian digital identification frameworks often make accommodations for those frameworks to have data-tracking and user-profiling capabilities and do, therefore, generate privacy concerns.
Digital ID, Surveillance, and the Value of Privacy – Part Two
Released: August 9, 2023
Digital ID (and other technologies with tracking and profiling capabilities) may be used by governments and partnering agencies to collect data about citizens. Among other problems, these technologies may threaten the privacy of their users.
Canada’s Road to Beijing: The digital threat to the Charter rights and freedoms of Canadians
Released: Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Canada is moving quickly toward a greater reliance on digital identification (digital ID) and digital currency technologies to form the basis of the relationship between state and citizen. Like physical ID, digital ID technologies allow users to prove their identity and to access services and goods. But digital ID is more comprehensive than physical ID, capturing data attributes such as (for example) usernames and passwords, birth dates, social security numbers, medical histories, online search activities, and even purchasing behaviors. These technologies enable Canadian governments to access vital personal and financial information about Canadian citizens and to store this information in databases. Further, these technologies arm Canadian governments to act upon what they know about their citizens: to intervene in their affairs and, in some cases, to place unjustified restrictions on their Charter-protected rights and freedoms.
Excess Deaths in Canada
The rise of excess and unexplained deaths in Canada
Released: Friday, August 25, 2023
This report shows that excess deaths in Canada continue to be a significant problem in 2022 for all age groups. They increased to 37,000 in 2022, a 75 percent increase from 2021, with a quarter of them still unclassified or attributed to "ill-defined or unknown causes. Despite this, Canadian authorities cited excess "Covid" deaths as justification for their stringent pandemic restrictions. This report unveils the scarce analysis of, and reporting delays, regarding causes of deaths, highlighting that their accuracy was questionable (potentially overreported), while emphasizing the need for timely access to vital statistics to ensure public trust in stringent government interventions.
Excess deaths contradict narrative of success
Release: Thursday, September 15, 2022
This Report draws attention to 2020-22 excess deaths in Canada and suggests that these have been caused by the indirect impacts of Canadian government Covid lockdown policies. This Report concludes that any evaluation of the success of Canadian governments’ responses to the Covid pandemic must also thoroughly consider the harms caused by those responses.
Covid lockdowns and the value of freedom
Protecting citizens’ freedoms during a public health emergency
Released: Friday, October 27, 2023
The Justice Centre has submitted to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and all MLAs a proposal for amending Alberta’s Public Health Act. The proposed amendments would empower MLAs to hold the Chief Medical Officer of Health to account for any laws or health orders that violate the Charter rights and freedoms of Albertans.
Two weeks to flatten the curve, Two years to flatten our freedoms
Released: Tuesday, March 15, 2022
It has now been two years since lockdown measures were imposed by governments across Canada in mid-March of 2020. Canadians have typically behaved as though their love of freedom was deeply ingrained. But a seeming majority of our neighbours apparently did not understand freedom or did not value it, as they mostly without complaint or questions accepted the governments' unscientific restriction on their Charter freedoms to move, travel, assemble, associate, worship, and exercise autonomy over their own bodies. Two years into this “two weeks to flatten the curve,” Canadians cannot fly on an airplane unless they have taken two of Covid vaccine doses. The "two weeks to flatten the curve" has resulted in years of changing objectives and moving goalposts, all amounting to nothing more than Unscienfitic perpetuation of failed policies. The Justice Centre recommends the repudiation of all such unnecessary, unscientific, and unconstitutional policies across all provinces in Canada.
Who had the worst bunk in Canada’s locked down barracks?
Released: Thursday, April 14, 2022
"Which governments have been the worst violators of Charter rights and freedoms in the two years prior to its 40th Anniversary? On April 17, 2022, Canadians will mark the 40th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms becoming part of Canada’s Constitution. Sadly, the anniversary is marred by two years of Charter rights and freedoms violations, perpetrated by its federal and provincial governments during which Canada became in many ways more like a police state than the “free and democratic society” which the Charter sets out as its ideal."
Covid versus the Spanish Flu of 1918: Does the virus merit the government’s response?
Released: Friday, January 28, 2022
"The report compares the historical data of past influenza outbreaks throughout the world and in Canada with the current data on Covid, and analyzes the extreme government response to Covid. Contrary to the grossly inflated predictions of Imperial College London’s Dr. Neil Ferguson in March 2020 which led to worldwide lockdowns, the government’s own numbers reveal that the current pandemic is far closer to the flu outbreaks of 1957 and 1968 in Canada than to the devastating 1918 Spanish flu which killed an estimated 55,000 Canadians, at a time when the population of Canada was less than a quarter of what it is now.
Based on wildly inaccurate fatality rate estimations, Canada’s federal and provincial governments hastily imposed severe restrictions on society and on the economy, with little if any serious analysis of lockdown harms and costs. Did the virus merit the government's response? "
Are lockdowns worth their cost?
Released: Wednesday, December 15, 2021
"How foolish it would be to lose a dollar on a horse race, then bet another dollar on the instant-replay. Yet, unless Canadians draw the right lessons from their lockdown experiences, that is what they risk. As Canada enters the 21st month of dealing with government restrictions on their Charter freedoms, it is of the utmost importance that we draw the right conclusions from the restrictions on our Charter freedoms to move, travel, associate, assemble and worship.
Other Justice Centre papers have addressed Charter violations and why Covid need not be feared nearly as much as media and politicians suggest. This paper is focused on lockdown harms: Are they worth their high cost?
It is possible that “lockdown will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in Canada’s history,” writes Douglas Allen, an economics professor at BC’s Simon Fraser University."
Lockdowns and the Science of Covid, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya
Released: Wednesday, June 23, 2021
At the request of several Applicants in charter challenges against the Government of Manitoba, this repart was prepared by Dr. Jay Bhattacharya for submission to Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench. Based on extenstive research and evidence, it discusses and unveils the answer to a serious of questions, such as: Does Covid pose a real or immenent serioius threat to the health ot the population? Can asymptomatic individuals spread Covid? Are lockdown measures necessary to maintain and enhance the health and well-being of the population? Can religious services be held safely? Can restaurants and bars be opened safely?
Unprecedented and Unjustified: A Charter Analysis of Ontario’s Response to COVID-19
Released: Tuesday, June 23, 2020
The Justice Centre has released a comprehensive Charter analysis of the violations of Ontarians’ freedoms to move, travel, assemble, associate and worship, as protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Freedom of Expression
Protecting academic freedom and freedom of expression on campus : A submission to the Quebec government on bill 32
Released: Tuesday, May 24, 2022
A climate of self-censorship and ideological conformity is unfortunately defining the university experience for today’s faculty, staff, and students. A bill on academic freedom will reiterate that universities exist to promote truth-seeking and open inquiry – a reminder that many on campus are desperately in need of.
Reflecting on Freedom of Expression in Canada
Released: Wednesday, February 15, 2023
In this Short Reflection, the Justice Centre considers institutional, legal, and social pressures on the enjoyment of freedom of expression in Canada. On Canadian campuses, powerful actors appear to be silencing “controversial” perspectives and creating conditions that undermine the possibility of genuine inquiry. Meanwhile, Canadian elected and unelected officials are passing laws that would grant authorities extraordinary powers to regulate and censor online content and broadcasting. And, across Canada and the world, a culture of dialogue and disagreement has been replaced by a culture of cancelling and intolerance. In certain cases, this culture is being reinforced by the Canadian legal system.
Government has no place in determining the truth for all
Released: Thursday, May 19, 2022
The truth of the Holocaust should not blind us to the danger of truth being legislated by government, by way of criminalizing the public expression of falsehoods. In the “free and democratic society” which the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms holds out as its ideal, it is the Canadian people themselves, not their governments, who determine what is true or false, right or wrong, good or evil. When governments declare — and impose — what they deem to be true in the realms of science, philosophy, art, culture, literature, politics, theology, medicine or history, the result is authoritarianism rather than freedom.
Resisting Censorship on Campus: Your Right to Express Your Opinions
Released: Friday, September 20, 2019
Do you feel hindered from sharing your opinions honestly on campus? Do you sense the disapproval of others for raising controversial topics? Is there a general belief on your campus that if expression offends or disturbs people, it should be silenced?
“Hate” or “Disagreement”? Respecting Charter-protected freedom of expression in a digital world
Released: Friday, May 31, 2019
"(Brief to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights)
In order to preserve Canada’s liberal democracy, federal and provincial governments must pay closer attention to their constitutional obligations. The intent to protect the constitutional right of freedom of expression must begin to be “fundamental” to governments, not an afterthought, or an inconvenience."
Inclusion, harassment, and discrimination: addressing barriers to free expression at WLU
Released: Sunday, May 20, 2018
In March 2018, the Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU) Task Force on Freedom of Expression received the written and oral submissions of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, and submissions from other external experts, to be considered during the Task Force’s preparation of a Draft Statement in support of free speech. In April 2018, the Task Force released its Draft Statement on Freedom of Expression and invited feedback, which the Justice Centre hereby provides.
Free Speech on Campus: The Pursuit of Truth as the Purpose of Education
Released: Tuesday, February 20,
"Canadian universities must stop merely paying lip service to freedom of expression, treating it as an aspiration or ideal that cannot be attained. Freedom of expression is a core component of intellectual inquiry and the basis for academic freedom. There should be no greater celebration of, and protection for, freedom of expression, including the expression of minority viewpoints, than at institutions of higher learning.
Other
Unconscionable and Unconstitutional: Bill C-8’s Attempt to Dictate Choices Concerning Sexuality and Gender
Released: Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Under the guise of prohibiting “conversion therapy,” the federal government’s Bill C-8, An Act to amend the Criminal Code (conversion therapy) (“Bill C-8”) proposes to use the blunt instrument of the Criminal Code to take away personal choice and essentially impose gender transition as the only acceptable treatment for children experiencing gender identity distress. Bill C-8 creates new criminal offences that are not narrowly targeted to address the specific and demonstrated harms typically associated with “conversion therapy.”
2019 Judicial Freedom Index
Released: Monday, May 20, 2019
An analysis of Supreme Court of Canada rulings on Charter section 2 fundamental freedoms, 1982-2018
Parental Rights are Human Rights: Alberta’s Bill 24 violates Charter freedoms
Released: Monday, November 20, 2017
"Bill 24, An Act to Support Gay-Straight Alliances (GSA), undermines parental rights by prohibiting parents from knowing if their child is being
exposed to sexual content through a GSA or a related “activity” as defined by the School Act. Parents will be prevented from knowing who has access to their child, and what their child is being taught about sexuality and morality. Bill 24 is a serious infringement on the constitutional right of parents to be fully informed about what goes on at the schools attended by their children, what their children are taught, and by whom children are taught."
The Fundamental Importance of Freedoms under the Charter
Released: Friday, October 20, 2017
"It is not the state’s job to make people good. Government’s job is found in the Constitution. Fundamental freedoms are of conscience, religion, speech and association. That means that a government’s fundamental obligation is to ensure the exercise of these rights. But increasingly, governments across this country are overstepping the lawful exercise of state power in favour of an ideological state idol.
(Jay Cameron, B.A., LL.B. Speaking notes for the oral presentation to the Parliamentary Forum on Constitutional Freedoms - October 30, 2017)"