Category:Proposed Legislation

From Ad IDEM / CMLA

We are also tracking legislation of interest or concern on our Legislation Watch page.

Revised Draft Defamation Act 2012 (May 10, 2012)
After recommendations from the Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill (the Mahwhinney Committee), the revised draft of the Act now contains a defence in s. 5 for website operators with respect to user generated content.

U.K. Defamation Act (May 31, 2011)
Ad IDEM provided submissions on the draft Defamation Bill. The draft Defamation Bill is of considerable interest to Ad IDEM, as Canadian and English defamation law is similar and developments in England are of interest to Canadian courts. However, Canada has gone in its own direction on some of the issues raised in the Bill, which may be of interest to the Joint Committee.

CRTC Regulations (February 11, 2011)
Ad IDEM joined over 2000 other concerned parties who have made submissions to the CTRC regarding proposed amendments to its regulations. The proposed changes affect: the prohibition on broadcasting false or misleading news; the prohibition on broadcasting programming that contains obscene or profane language; and the submission of information by licensees to the CRTC.

Ontario Anti-SLAPP Report (January 5, 2011)
The Ontario government has received a report recommending the adoption of Anti-SLAPP legislation. The government is waiting for public response before taking further action. Interested parties should read the report.

Nova Scotia Personal Health Information Act (December 6, 2010)
Ad IDEM made submissions today to the Law Amendment Committee of the NS legislature concerning problems with its current version of a proposed health information act. Most alarmingly it potentially make it a crime for a journalist to make inquiries at a hospital about an patient.

Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act, Bill C-25 (March 22, 2004)
The "new" federal government introduced Whistleblower legislation for first reading. While it may give some comfort to whistleblowers blowing the whistle within the government, it gives precious little comfort when they take their whistling outside, where Canadians are more likely to hear it.

Ontario seeks comments on new draft Privacy legislation (February 6, 2002)
A new Privacy of Personal Information Act has been drafted by the Ontario government. It aims to "establish clear principle-based privacy rules across Ontario and ... govern how the private, not-for-profit and health care sectors collect, use and disclose personal information". Comments are sought by March 8, 2002.

Anti-Terrorism Bill C-36 (December 18, 2001)
Making Canada safe from terrorism, and ensuring that nothing, not even rights, will get in the way. The Bill is now law, and the submissions of the Canadian Bar Association, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and Open Government Canada, among others remain on record.

Cookies, anyone? (November 14, 2001)
Cookies can't be placed on someone's machine without his or her consent, at least according to the European Union.

Ethics and Transparency in Public Matters Act, 2001 (October 11 , 2001)
Greater openness in government? Keep dreaming...