Tag: transparency
REPORTBACK: We asked YOU about the future of AI
Survey uncovers public sentiment on AI: Hope, Worry, and the Urgent Call for Safeguards
Our Location Data: Three Essential Questions for the Ethics Committee
Parliament’s ethics committee is investigating the use of our location data by the federal government. Here are our top three questions we need answers to, and why.
CRTC’s new Internet Code of Conduct falls short of expectations
While a step in the right direction, the Code fails to provide a sufficiently robust framework to protect customers from Big Telecom’s widespread predatory practices
British Columbians spoke out by the thousands calling for better cell phone plans
The B.C. government’s survey on cell phone contracts was a huge opportunity for cell phone users. Here’s how the OpenMedia community rallied to speak out for bold change.
The B.C. government wants to hear your cell phone horror stories—let’s make sure they listen
The B.C. government has announced its plan to improve customer protections for cell phone users and it could result in much needed, ground-breaking changes.
NAFTA: The unfinished consultation and campaign update
What’s happened in the NAFTA consultation, and an update on one of our campaign actions on the issue.
Civil society groups are calling on Canadian government to release NAFTA public consultation results
11 organizations urge the federal government to release over 45,000 NAFTA public consultation submissions and fulfil its promises of transparency.
Over 55,000 voices are on their way to Minister Freeland’s office
This week we delivered over 55,000 signatures calling for the protection of our digital rights in the new NAFTA to Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland — and you bet it’s going to make an impact.
Your voices helped shape the new TPP
Yesterday Canada joined 10 other countries in reaching a deal on a reworked version of the TPP, suspending some Intellectual Property and ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) provisions that would have had detrimental impacts on the open Internet. The work doesn't end here, but this win for the Internet community would have not been possible if it wasn't for you — so thank you for speaking out!
Standing Committee on International Trade Publishes NAFTA Study: Supports Balance in Copyright and Protecting Data Privacy
The Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT) recently published a report on a study on how NAFTA affects Canadians, bearing encouraging news for Internet advocates.
Our TPP ads are up right outside Prime Minister Trudeau’s office!
OpenMedia community: your message against the TPP is right outside of Parliament for Trudeau to see and this would have not been possible without you — THANK YOU!
Copyright in the new TPP: A milestone or a PR move?
The Canadian government pushed for significant improvements to the Intellectual Property chapter in the new TPP, but it's still too early to throw confetti, here's why:
Washington Principles on Copyright Balance in Trade Agreements: OpenMedia joins over 80 global experts and advocates to advance fair copyright in trade
OpenMedia is proud to be a signatory to the Washington Principles on Copyright Balance in Trade Agreements, a joint statement by dozens of international and regional copyright experts, academics, lawyers, and advocates in copyright, trade, and digital policy.
Canada agrees to modified version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership without the U.S.
The government’s decision demonstrates a blatant disregard for the voices of Canadians, coming only days after the national consultation on TPP closed.
How Can NAFTA Get It Right on Copyright? We Went to Washington D.C. to Find Out
OpenMedia's external legal counsel Cynthia Khoo reports back from collaborating with copyright experts and allies in Washington, D.C., to help craft user-centric copyright principles for an updated NAFTA.
Over 11,000 Canadians have spoken: NO to pursuing TPP negotiations
Once again, Canadians have come together in the thousands to send a clear message to the federal government: The TPP is a bad deal for our country, regardless of U.S. involvement. Thanks for speaking out!
TPP: Enough is enough
Canadians told the government loud and clear: The TPP is a bad deal for Canadians over the past five years. Yet here we are again, with the government pursuing negotiations with 11 of the original signatories without the U.S.
Defending Your Digital Rights in NAFTA 2.0
We recently submitted a brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT), recommending what the government should do to ensure Canadians’ best interests are protected when it comes to how our digital rights are treated in a new NAFTA.
Taking Your Voices on NAFTA to Ottawa
OpenMedia's external legal counsel Cynthia Khoo reports back from meeting with Tracey Ramsey, NDP Critic for International Trade and Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade
Privacy Commissioner’s report calls on the RCMP to increase transparency around the use of cellphone surveillance tools
A complaint launched by OpenMedia into the use of IMSI-catchers (a.k.a Stingrays) reveals that six warrantless deployments of the device violated the Charter
Civil society urges trade decision-makers to consider the impacts of NAFTA on digital rights
Organizations from Mexico, Canada and the United States highlight the need for increased transparency and urge the exclusion of intellectual property provisions
Over 88% of the first round of National Security Consultation submissions that mention Bill C-51 support its repeal
A crowdsourced analysis reveals that 88.7% of submissions that mention Bill C-51 support the repeal of the controversial surveillance legislation.
The TPP is trying to make a sneaky comeback – so let’s send it back to its grave
Corporate greed has insatiable thirst and so, lobbyists are gathering in Toronto to try and resurrect the infamous TPP. But we are not going to let that happen, so here’s the plan.
Back from the grave — Secret TPP talks to resume in Toronto
As Toronto hosts two days of high-level TPP talks in an undisclosed location, civil society groups warn that TPP cannot be the basis for Canada’s future trade relationships
#Crowdsource C-51: taking back transparency
Bill C-51 is finally up for reform, after months of public consultations. But how do we know our feedback is being taken seriously? Presenting CrowdsourceC51.ca
How Canadians can ensure we never repeat the mistakes of the TPP
Writing for Common Ground magazine and Rabble.ca, our own Meghan Sali argues that our Let’s Talk TPP Citizens’ Report shows that Canadians cannot support trade deals made in secret.
Release of security consultation submissions is a win for transparency, but litmus test will be how government responds
Submissions from 12,156 Canadians have been published online by Public Safety Canada, with remaining submissions expected to be made public in the coming weeks.
As the U.S. formally pulls out of the TPP, we’re calling on the Canadian government to reject the deal and learn a lesson
It's official, U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to formally withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and we are calling on the Canadian government to learn from this lesson to include citizens in the process of future trade deals.
All Out Against the TPP: Vancouver Edition
The TPP in its original form may be dead, but some of its poisonous components remain – and big media lobbyists will continue to push for them. Join us for a mobilization against secret and undemocratic agreements!
Rogers releases third annual transparency report
Encouraging to see Rogers shed a light on the company’s disclosure of subscriber information to law enforcement and challenge ‘tower dumps’ in court. We hope to see other big telecoms take on similar transparency initiatives.
We’re meeting with Minister Goodale on C-51, and we want you to make sure your voices are heard: What should we say?
We are meeting in person with Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Ralph Goodale to discuss Bill C-51 and we need you to tell us what you want us to say to him. Comment away below!
OpenMedia demands answers from VPD on potential Stingray cell phone surveillance
BC Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner could set important precedent for transparency, with its decision on this case.
UK’s Investigatory Powers Bill must not be rushed through Parliament
The bill has repeatedly been criticized by citizens, civil society, and parliamentary reports, for handing too much power to spy agencies without effective safeguards.
Adopting the UK model won’t be enough for Ralph Goodale to address Canada’s spy oversight woes
Minister Goodale’s plan to adopt the UK’s model of spy agency oversight leaves a lot of key questions unanswered.
Truth Out: What’s Going On With the TPP?
TPP Update: After years of secret negotiations, we’ve just learned U.S. Trans-Pacific Partnership officials have decided to appoint a “Chief Transparency Officer.” So who did they pick? One of their own lawyers, Tim Reif. Not exactly encouraging. TPP provisions will grievously hurt the Internet and our right to free expression! We need to speak out at StopTheSecrecy.net/Canada
Article by Maira Sutton (EFF) for Truth Out
How Canadian companies can fight surveillance
Canadian Internet Service Providers are eerily silent when it comes to information about whether or not they have assisted ultra-secretive spy agency CSEC with their surveillance of law-abiding Canadians. Jon Penney discusses what Canadian companies can do to help fight surveillance.
Article by Jon Penney for The Citizen Lab
The Communications Security Establishment’s surveillance practices raise significant privacy concerns but full answers, transparency, or substantive reforms ensuring democratic oversight from either CSEC, or the Canadian Government, are not likely forthcoming. Canadians should also care about what to do in the meantime. Professor Michael Geist has recently posted about what average Canadians can do about mass online surveillance and Professor Kent Roach has written about where to direct reforms. Here, I want to talk about what Canadian internet companies can do, or do differently, to help fill Canada’s transparency void.
Last week, CSEC chief John Forster appeared before the Senate’s national defence committee and did little more than deny allegations of mass surveillance on Canadians, while Senators struggled to pin him down. Given the Prime Minister’s vote of confidence in CSEC, via his top security advisor, any change, or full accounting of the agency’s activities, is unlikely anytime soon.
Michael Geist: Secrecy the standard at Trans-Pacific Partnership talks
Another round of talks has concluded on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secretive trade agreement that could criminalize everyday Internet use, confiscate online data and give more power to corporate lobbyists. With Canada having joined the TPP as a 'second-tier' status member, it's clear that our government has little to gain but Canadians have much to lose.
Join us in speaking out against the TPP's Internet trap at StopTheTrap.net. We're working hard to amplify Canadians' voices, but we need your help to continue. Please consider making a contribution to OpenMedia.ca at OpenMedia.ca/Allies and let's move forward together.
Article by Michael Geist
Despite growing opposition in Canada, Ottawa has begun formal participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, aimed at establishing one of the world’s most ambitious trade agreements.
As nearly a dozen countries — including the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Mexico and Vietnam — gathered in New Zealand last week for the 14th round of talks, skeptics here have already expressed doubts about the benefits of the proposed deal.
Canada has free-trade agreements with the United States, Mexico, Chile and Peru, leaving just six countries — currently representing less than 1 per cent of Canadian exports — as the net gain.
Huffington Post: Canada creating secret ‘insider group’ of lobbyists through TPP
The government has mistakenly sent us at OpenMedia a non-disclosure agreement intended for lobbyists involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. This is confirmation that this secretive and extreme agreement is being put in place on behalf of bureaucrats, not citizens.
We're on the ground at the ongoing TPP negotiations, set to read out your comments to officials this Friday. Send in your messages at OpenTheTPP.net and help us speak out against the TPP's Internet trap.
Article by Daniel Tencer for The Huffington Post
The Harper government is creating a secret “consultation group,” likely comprised of lobbyists, who are getting inside information about Canada’s participation in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, observers allege.
Advocacy group OpenMedia has obtained a non-disclosure agreement (see below) it says the federal government mistakenly sent to it, asking the recipient to keep secret the information it receives about negotiations on the controversial economic and trade agreement.
“I think it confirms that lobbyists are being permitted to have access to information about the TPP that is otherwise kept secret from public interest groups and citizens in general,” OpenMedia executive director Steve Anderson told The Huffington Post Canada in an email.
You told us, we told them: A report-back from our meeting with Telus
When several senior representatives from Telus asked us to meet with them we knew immediately what we wanted the meeting to include: direct citizen stories about disrespectful and expensive cell phone service in Canada. This was clearly a unique opportunity to bring Canadian voices directly to executives running one of the big three cell phone giants.
We shared a story from John, who was unexpectedly hit with a $300 bill from Telus after asking for a voice-only plan and unknowingly using expensive, metered data services. John quite effectively articulated the limited options facing customers: “What do I do to not pay this outrageous fee? Spend more hours on the phone? Spend thousands on legal fees to fight $300? Refuse to pay it, and have my credit rating dinged?”
Reps from Telus discussed the various steps that they have taken to address these kinds of complaints. We highlighted some of the themes we’ve been hearing from you via Cell Phone Horror Stories, and on our Facebook wall: disrespectful customer service with unreasonable hold times; long contract lengths with expensive termination fees; false charges on your bills and a refusal to remove them; and high roaming fees in a context where cell phone service is already very expensive.
Another victory for Canadians as CRTC calls for increased transparency
A CRTC decision came down on Friday for more transparency to how Big Telecom assigns wholesale rates and pricing. This is another sign of progress for the +500,000 Canadian citizens who spoke out through StopTheMeter.ca.
Use our online tool at OpenMedia.ca/Switch to find independent providers in your area and read more about the CRTC transparency decision.
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