November 13, 2014
Want to know the real status of Pan Am Games construction? That will be $4,219.10
Publication: Toronto Star
The Toronto organizing committee for the 2015 Pan Am Games is asking more than $4,000 for access to information on the construction progress and delays of the sports facilities. This, as Michael Geist, Common Law Section, explains, is a good example of different federal and provincial open government policies. “That’s unquestionably a problem when we’ve got both federally and provincially open government mandates that haven’t done a very good job on the access-to-information side, but at a minimum at least speak to more open government. They don’t have either uniform policies or similarly understood policies on some of these issues.”
What Barack Obama’s call for Net neutrality means for Canadians
Publication: National Post
President Obama called for some commonly advocated Net neutrality rules, including prohibiting ISPs from blocking legal sites and intentionally slowing down sites. Michael Geist, Common Law Section, argues that telecommunications companies in Canada and the U.S. don’t actually operate in a free market and, as such, Net Neutrality might be a good idea. “It might be true that in an environment full of robust competition, a consumer could choose another network provider. The reality is that the U.S., much like Canada, there may be more than a handful of players, but they’re divided up geographically in such a manner that most consumers only have two major choices.”
Racism in Canada finds fertile ground online
Publication: CBC
Joanne St. Lewis, Common Law Section, are mentioned in this article.
Ottawa intends to limit powers of Canada's chief doctor
Publication: CTV News
Members of Canada's public health community are expressing concern about intended changes to the authority of the country's chief public health officer. Steven Hoffman, Common Law Section, said “it doesn’t make sense. We had a good model that at least provided some measure of independence for the chief public health officer. And moving towards a model that’s maybe more comfortable for the current political leadership and cabinet is not helpful for public health.”