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FRONT BURNER ISSUES

CCLA is always working to protect your civil liberties.

Below is a list of all our latest updates, issues, briefs and activities.

Be sure to check back often, to stay up to date with the latest news about your civil liberties.

COVID-19

Stay updated with all the latest news from CCLA, including our work monitoring the response to COVID-19 to ensure it’s based on science and is not unnecessarily intrusive to our liberties

VIEW LATEST COVID UPDATES

   
COVID Vaccine Passport

Vaccine Passports

The lines are being drawn between those who support and oppose some version of a vaccine passport. At CCLA, we have flashed red and yellow lights at any effort by a Canadian government to mandate public disclosure of private health care information.
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Strip Searches in Ontario Prisons

June 21, 2022

Emergencies Act

April 7, 2022

COVID-19

Stay up to date with all the latest work that CCLA is doing to monitor the response to COVID-19, ensuring it’s based on science and is not unnecessarily intrusive to our liberties.

COVID Vaccine Passport

Vaccine Passports

Prisons are densely populated making social distancing protocol impossible and living conditions hazardous during the COVID-19 pandemic. Proactive steps are immediately needed to reduce the population of prisoners in institutions to the greatest extent possible consistent with public safety, especially for those who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 due to age or underlying health conditions.

Bill 21

Bill 21 is a law which disproportionately impacts people who are already marginalized. New Quebec laws ban Canadians working as teachers, lawyers, police officers, and more from wearing religious symbols such as crosses, hijabs, turbans and yarmulkes. This not only affects people currently working in the public sector, but also the youth who aspire to those careers.

Fill Up On Free Speech

The Ontario legislature passed a law that forces gas station owners to put up stickers with the government party line on pollution pricing or the carbon tax. The government should not force anyone to share their message. If the station owners choose to not put up the stickers, they can be handed a new fine every day. That’s called “compelled political speech.” That’s unconstitutional.

Defending Mobility in NL

June 28, 2021

Privacy During COVID

Providing personal health information directly to law enforcement is an extraordinary invasion of privacy. It is difficult to understand how first responders will effectively use testing information that is both incomplete and out of date. There is a real risk that using this database will create a false sense of security when first responders are interacting with individuals who have not been flagged, thus serving to create rather than mitigate danger. If having this information is not strictly necessary to respond to the pandemic, then sharing it is not legal.

Racial Profiling

Waterfront Toronto contracted with Google’s sibling Sidewalk Labs to create a smart city project in downtown Toronto. This project would be a sensor-laden neighbourhood, collecting data on people who live, work, or visit the area. Losing the ability to be a face in the crowd, and so much of our privacy, is what’s at stake. So we launched a legal action to reset the project.

Fighting for Safe Shelter

June 25, 2021

Families & COVID

Children’s Aid Societies are responsible for the delivery of child protection services, in accordance with legislation, regulations, and ministry policy and standards. This includes decisions around how best to proceed with family visits during the pandemic while safeguarding the safety and well-being of children, youth, caregivers and families. At CCLA, we believe while the existence of a public health emergency requires caution, denying parents and children the opportunity to be together or risking a loss of the valuable child-parent bond is a violation of human rights and freedoms.

Reproductive Rights

Bill 21 is a law which disproportionately impacts people who are already marginalized. New Quebec laws ban Canadians working as teachers, lawyers, police officers, and more from wearing religious symbols such as crosses, hijabs, turbans and yarmulkes. This not only affects people currently working in the public sector, but also the youth who aspire to those careers.

Fighting Strip Searches

In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada called strip searches “one of the most extreme exercises of police power” and “inherently humiliating and degrading”. So why has Canada’s federal prison system carried out hundreds of thousands of unnecessary strip searches since then? These are not trivial intrusions. Canadians serving sentences are forced to undergo highly invasive searches in low-risk situations, such as leaving a secure area, or even upon release from prison. These searches can inflict severe psychological trauma, particularly for those with a history of being abused. We’re asking the federal government to end these harmful practices.

Fighting Solitary Confinement

Solitary confinement is the practice of confining someone in conditions of extreme isolation. Getting the practice ruled unconstitutional has been a major goal of both CCLA and BCCLA. We went to Canada’s highest court for a showdown with the federal government.

Toronto’s Smart City

Waterfront Toronto contracted with Google’s sibling Sidewalk Labs to create a smart city project in downtown Toronto. This project would be a sensor-laden neighbourhood, collecting data on people who live, work, or visit the area. Losing the ability to be a face in the crowd, and so much of our privacy, is what’s at stake. So we launched a legal action to reset the project.

COVID + Enforcement Report

Waterfront Toronto contracted with Google’s sibling Sidewalk Labs to create a smart city project in downtown Toronto. This project would be a sensor-laden neighbourhood, collecting data on people who live, work, or visit the area. Losing the ability to be a face in the crowd, and so much of our privacy, is what’s at stake. So we launched a legal action to reset the project.

Protecting Civil Liberties in Thunder Bay

In 2001, the Supreme Court of Canada called strip searches “one of the most extreme exercises of police power” and “inherently humiliating and degrading”. So why has Canada’s federal prison system carried out hundreds of thousands of unnecessary strip searches since then? These are not trivial intrusions. Canadians serving sentences are forced to undergo highly invasive searches in low-risk situations, such as leaving a secure area, or even upon release from prison. These searches can inflict severe psychological trauma, particularly for those with a history of being abused. We’re asking the federal government to end these harmful practices.

Detasking Toronto Police

Waterfront Toronto contracted with Google’s sibling Sidewalk Labs to create a smart city project in downtown Toronto. This project would be a sensor-laden neighbourhood, collecting data on people who live, work, or visit the area. Losing the ability to be a face in the crowd, and so much of our privacy, is what’s at stake. So we launched a legal action to reset the project.

Protest Rights & the G20

The Ontario legislature passed a law that forces gas station owners to put up stickers with the government party line on pollution pricing or the carbon tax. The government should not force anyone to share their message. If the station owners choose to not put up the stickers, they can be handed a new fine every day. That’s called “compelled political speech.” That’s unconstitutional.

Latest Briefs and Updates

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Decision in Taylor v. Newfoundland Case

On May 11, 2020, CCLA sent a letter to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador…
August 17, 2023
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