General

November 27, 2023 Department of Justice FOIPOP Modernization PO Box 7 Halifax, NS B3J 2L6 foipop.modernization@novascotia.ca RE: Review of Nova Scotia Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIPOP) Dear Working Group members, Thank you for the opportunity to provide you with our association’s feedback on Nova Scotia’s review of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP Act) and related legislation and regulations. We hope this submission provides you with some insightful guidance into the challenges that working journalists face when attempting to access documents subject to the Act when producing quality public service journalism. I am [...]

The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is pleased to learn that the federal government and Google have been able to reach an agreement, announced earlier today, that will see the tech giant pay $100-million annually to Canadian news organizations.  "Achieving this détente is a critical step in beginning to address the complicated and uneven relationship that has existed between tech platforms and journalism for quite some time," said Brent Jolly, CAJ president.  "At the same time, however, this announcement also provides everyone involved with an incomplete picture of how the money will be divided and how it will be used [...]

TORONTO, Nov 2, 2023 - The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is utterly dismayed by the fact that photojournalist John Morris was arrested for taking photographs whilst on public property in Quebec City earlier this week. In a democratic country, a journalist carrying a camera should not instill fear in anyone. The fact that Mr. Morris, however, was detained, cuffed and searched by police because his fixed non-zoom lens could allegedly creep inside the windows of the U.S. Embassy's consulate in Quebec City is a particularly outrageous insinuation that stretches all possible limits of credulity. After consideration, we would hope [...]

TORONTO, ONT., Oct 24, 2023 /CNW/ – The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) calls on Conservative Members of Parliament to rescind their motions demanding that senior members of CBC’s leadership team appear before House of Commons committees, as it infringes on journalistic independence.  Last week, two Conservative MPs tabled motions calling for Catherine Tait, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, and George Achi, the CBC’s director of journalistic standards and public trust, to testify before parliamentarians. The move was in response to the corporation’s language policy around when CBC journalists should and shouldn’t use the term ‘terrorism’ in their stories. These [...]

TORONTO, ONT., Oct 16, 2023 /CNW/ - The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is appalled by the preposterous statements made by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in a court filing to justify the arrest – and the breach of the Charter rights – of award-winning photojournalist Amber Bracken while documenting the construction of TransCanada’s Coastal GasLink pipeline on unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in late 2021.  Late last week, The Canadian Press reported on the public release of the RCMP’s response to a civil suit filed by Bracken and The Narwhal, for whom Bracken was on assignment at the time of [...]