The Canadian government’s consultation on online harms concluded earlier this week with a wide range of organizations and experts responding with harshly critical submissions that warn of the harm to freedom of expression, the undermining of Canada’s position in the world as a leader in human rights, and the risk that the proposed measures could hurt the very groups it is purportedly intended to help. I posted my submission and pulled together a Twitter stream of other submissions.

There has been some press coverage of the consultation response from the Globe and Mail and National Post, but Canadian Heritage officials have said they will not post the submissions they received, claiming some “may contain confidential business information.” Keeping the results of the consultation is secret is incredibly damaging, raising further questions about whether the government plans to incorporate the feedback or simply march ahead with an extreme, deeply flawed proposal.

I have filed an Access to Information request for the submissions, but in the meantime have posted links to all the publicly posted submissions I have found. I am happy to continue to update this post, so feel free to forward links to other submissions (I can also post the submission itself if preferred).

Online Harms Consultations Submissions

Organizations

Access Now
Canadian Civil Liberties Association
Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)
Citizen Lab (Cynthia Khoo, Lex Gill, Christopher Parsons)
Cybersecure Policy Exchange
Global Network Initiative
Independent Press Gallery of Canada
Internet Archive Canada
Internet Society Canada Chapter
LEAF – Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund
OpenMedia
Ranking Digital Rights

Individual Experts

Blayne Haggart and Natasha Tusikov
Darryl Carmichael and Emily Laidlaw
Fenwick McKelvey
Michael Geist
Valerie Webber and Maggie MacDonald

The post Tracking the Submissions: What the Government Heard in its Online Harms Consultation (Since It Refuses to Post Them) appeared first on Michael Geist.