New video - action plan to tackle Canadian privacy deficit

New video sets out action plan to tackle Canadian privacy deficit, as hundreds of thousands continue to speak up against Bill C-51

Plan lays out tangible steps for federal government to take to restore Canadians’ digital privacy

OpenMedia has just released a new online video, based on input from over 125,000 Canadians, which outlines a clear plan to address Canada’s stark privacy deficit. With Bill C-51, warrantless spying, thousands of privacy breaches, and a multi-billion dollar governmentspy palace, Canadians have serious reasons to be concerned about their privacy rights — and have stepped up to build a solution.

Watch the video here: https://PrivacyPlan.ca/video

The video sets out three key priorities for how Parliament should strengthen Canada’s privacy safeguards, by 1) requiring a warrant to spy on Canadians’ personal lives, 2) ending mass surveillance, and 3) embracing accountability for Canada’s spy agencies. It’s all part of Canada’s Privacy Plan, which found that over 80% of Canadians support wide-ranging pro-privacy reforms, and over 94% want a comprehensive parliamentary review of surveillance oversight mechanisms.

“Privacy and Bill C-51 are shaping up to be huge issues in the upcoming federal election with hundreds of thousands of Canadians demanding a full repeal the government's controversial bill,” said Laura Tribe, OpenMedia's Digital Rights Specialist. “But today Canadians are sending a positive message about how we can strengthen privacy in Canada. It’s time for politicians of all stripes to commit to implementing these common sense proposals.”

Key findings of Canada’s Privacy Plan include:

• 94.1% of Canadians want an all-party Parliamentary Committee to conduct a thorough review of Canada’s existing oversight mechanisms, and make recommendations for improvements.

• 93.8% said a warrant should be required for government agencies to access Canadians’ sensitive, personal information.

• 87.8% want to empower an independent, arms-length body to oversee spy agencies.

• 94.7% want rules to prevent telecom companies from handing their customers’ personal information to the government or other third parties.

• 84.2% want to prevent spy agencies collecting personal information that people post on Facebook.

The National Observer, iPolitics, Rabble.ca, and The Tyee are OpenMedia’s official media partners for the launch of this video.

Canada’s Privacy Plan is available at PrivacyPlan.ca, and as a PDF, or you can view the high-level recommendations here. You can view the video at https://PrivacyPlan.ca/video.

ENDS

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