Revealed: Which party gets the worst grade for digital policies on affordable access, online privacy, and free expression?

As digital rights issues including the TPP and Bill C-51 continue to play major election role, OpenMedia publishes crowdsourced report card assessing the leading parties on policy priorities shaped by over 250,000 Canadians

“We also hope these grades will encourage all the parties to listen more closely to Canadians and put our digital future front and centre this election. We know from our work with grassroots organizations, including pro-privacy conservatives and businesses, that many will be disappointed by how their party fared. We hope that Canadians will contact their local parties and candidates to tell them to up their game before Canada falls further behind.”

Each party was assessed against the priorities set out in OpenMedia’s crowdsourced platform. Here are the grades each party received:

• Overall: Conservatives D+, NDP A-, Liberals C, Greens A

• Affordable Access: Conservatives C+, NDP B+, Liberals C, Greens A

• Privacy: Conservatives F, NDP A, Liberals C+, Greens A

• Free Expression: Conservatives D+, NDP A-, Liberal C, Greens A

As a post-partisan group, OpenMedia won’t be endorsing any party or candidate in the election, but says it wants all Canadians to have the information needed to cast an informed vote on October 19. These grades will be updated if the parties reveal major new initiatives between now and election day.

The full report card grading each of the parties can be found at OurDigitalFuture.ca/Report. Click here to download a PDF of the crowdsourced platform setting out the policy priorities of Canadians. Click here to download a visual overview of the high-level grades each party received across privacy, access, and free expression.

OpenMedia’s tool that citizens can use to contact local candidates can also be found at: https://ourdigitalfuture.ca/candidates

About OpenMedia

OpenMedia is an award-winning community-based organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy by engaging hundreds of thousands of people in protecting our online rights.

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Contact

David Christopher

Communications Manager, OpenMedia

[email protected]

+1 (888) 441-2640, ext. 1