Demand Privacy

Justin Trudeau and the government of Canada are absolutely failing us when it comes to protecting our privacy.

Every day, we’re hurt by the government's unwillingness to fix our digital privacy. Sensitive information about us — like data related to our health, finances, and location — is being bought, sold, stolen, lost, and used against us, without any significant repercussions. 

Enough is enough: We’re tired of inaction, broken promises, and bad bills. If we act together right now, we can DEMAND that the government finally passes the privacy laws we need to protect ourselves in this digital era. Sign the petition and #DemandPrivacy now!

To: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

CC: Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Philippe Champagne and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti

Click here to see petition text

I’m writing to insist you make implementing strong digital privacy protections an urgent priority for the federal government of Canada. 

You’ve been the Prime Minister of Canada for six years. You promised us strong privacy protections through the introduction of the Digital Charter nearly three years ago. One year ago, you tabled the flawed privacy reform Bill C-11 and you allowed it to die rather than fixing and passing it.

Over those six years, my personal information has become more and more vulnerable to careless breaches, secret collection, sale, and theft. There is an entire economy built on the collection and use of personal information that does not rely on consent. And, most troubling, this kind of information is being actively used against me. 

You are allowing businesses to undermine my privacy, autonomy and freedom of choice — all without any significant repercussions. 

I’m tired of waiting. Your stalling, broken promises, and inadequate legislation must stop. You must step up and give me the privacy rights that I urgently need to protect myself in this digital era. 

My safety and security depends upon it.

This campaign is hosted by OpenMedia. We will protect your privacy, and keep you informed about this campaign and others. Find OpenMedia's privacy policy here.

Justin Trudeau’s government must finally move to defend our privacy. Justin Trudeau has been the Prime Minister of Canada for six years. Three years ago, he promised us new privacy rights with the introduction of the Digital Charter.1 And just one year ago, his government tabled federal privacy Bill C-11, then let it die rather than fixing it.2 

Stalling on privacy law reform hurts us every day. Since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister: 

  • One of Canada’s two credit reporting agencies, Equifax, gave our sensitive personal information to a foreign company that lost it;3,4 
  • TransUnion, the other major credit agency, didn’t ask our permission before giving our personal financial information to the Canadian government;5 
  • Cadillac Fairview, the company that owns most of our malls, secretly installed cameras that collect our biometric data;6 
  • And an American company, Clearview AI, stole all of the pictures of our faces from the Internet and sold them to law enforcement;7
  • Telus, one of the Big Three telecom companies in Canada, gave eight months of detailed location data collected from 33 million Canadian mobile devices to the federal government.8

Despite all of these CLEAR privacy violations, there have been no significant repercussions for any of the offending companies — and there wouldn’t have been under fatally flawed Bill C-11, either.9

Canada’s digital privacy landscape is rapidly deteriorating under Justin Trudeau, and change is desperately needed.

The government has made commitments to table legislation that “takes on Big Tech” in their first 100 days, but nowhere have they mentioned privacy law reform.10,11 If the government is genuinely interested in addressing the growing power imbalances between Big Tech and Canadians, they need to start by giving us meaningful digital rights.

So we’re counting down: 6, 3, 1 — #DemandPrivacy. We’ve waited long enough. Six years since Trudeau took office, three years since he promised us new digital rights, and one year since he abandoned federal privacy law reform. 

Time is up: No more inaction, no more broken promises, no more bad legislation, no more waiting — we’re demanding our digital privacy rights NOW. It’s time that Justin Trudeau and the government of Canada gets the message loud and clear that we need new tools to protect ourselves. 

Speak up NOW: demand the government give us meaningful privacy rights for the digital age!

Sources

  1. Trudeau government unveils plans for digital overhaul - CBC News
  2. Jim Balsillie: Liberal privacy bill fails to curtail surveillance economy or protect Canadians - National Post
  3. Equifax hack may have exposed 100,000 Canadians’ personal info - Global News
  4. Equifax fell short of privacy obligations to Canadians, says privacy commissioner - CBC News
  5. StatCan scooped up 15 years of personal financial data from Canadian credit bureau - Global News
  6. Cadillac Fairview raises privacy concerns with its use of cameras inside mall kiosks - The Star
  7. Clearview AI broke Canadian privacy laws with facial recognition tool, watchdogs say - CTV News
  8. Canada's public health agency admits it tracked 33 million mobile devices during lockdown - The National Post
  9. Will Bill C-11 #FixPrivacy in Canada or make it worse - OpenMedia
  10. Clock already ticking on Liberal promise to introduce host of bills in first 100 days - CBC News
  11. Throne speech doubles down on botched approach to tackling Big Tech - OpenMedia

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Press: Matt Hatfield | Phone: +1 (888) 441-2640 ext. 0  | [email protected]