Category: civil liberties

Civil Liberties, Constitutional Rights Groups Launch Legal Challenges Against Ottawa’s Invocation of Emergencies Act

Canadian civil liberties and constitutional rights groups say they intend to take the federal government to court over its use of the Emergencies Act to deal with the ongoing protests against COVID-19 mandates. In a press release issued on Feb. 17, the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) announced it is launching a legal challenge to the…


Video: Lawyers Launch Campaign to Protect Civil Liberties in Canada

For Bruce Pardy, professor of law at Queen’s University, it’s important to ensure that people who are suffering the effects of “COVID overreach” from pandemic policies know that they are not alone and that there are still lawyers out there who don’t accept the erosion of fundamental freedoms in Canada. “When you have been suspended…


No Definitive Conclusion Whether Governments Can Legally Ask Canadians to Disclose Vaccine Status: Privacy Commissioner

Canada’s privacy commissioner says it is not clear whether governments can legally ask Canadians to disclose their vaccination status in order to access public services. “During the pandemic, is it reasonable, for public health purposes, for governments to require the disclosure of this information? The question is not as clear-cut as it might seem,” said…


Religious Freedom Groups Oppose Biden Proposal to Rescind Trump-Era Exemption

Civil liberties advocates oppose President Joe Biden’s proposed rescission of a Trump-era broadening of a regulatory exemption protecting religious employers against being forced to hire individuals who don’t share the organization’s faith views or practices. In a proposed rule posted Nov. 9 on the Federal Register for official public comment, the Department of Labor’s (DOL)…


COVID-19 Ushers in Slippery Slope for Rights, Freedoms in Australian State: MP

A Victorian state MP has said that the rights and freedoms of Australians have been incrementally chipped away during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the unprecedented newly proposed pandemic laws potentially making Victorian leaders have “unfettered power” over the lives of the state’s residents. Neil Angus, the Liberal Party member for Forest Hill, says that 20…


‘Civil Liberties Caucus’ Not a Challenge to O’Toole’s Leadership: Tory MP

Conservative member of Parliament Marilyn Gladu says the ‘civil liberties caucus’ that she and sine other Tory parliamentarians are forming is not a challenge to Party Leader Erin O’Toole’s leadership, but rather a means to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 mandates on Canadian civil liberties. “This is not about Erin O’Toole’s leadership. Has nothing to…


Civil Liberties Group Tells Commission to Reject Left’s Supreme Court-Packing

A Texas-based civil liberties group delivered a letter and petition telling the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States (PCSCUS) that it should reject proposals to expand the nation’s highest tribunal to make it more amenable to progressive legislation to expand the federal government. “Since our country’s founding, the Constitution has stood…


DHS Touts Counter-Domestic Extremism Plan, But Rights Groups Fear Threats to Civil Liberties

At the Sept. 21 Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on counterterrorism, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas touted a raft of new programs aimed at combating domestic extremism—many of which are raising red flags among interest groups across the political spectrum. The new DHS plans follow a March 2021 intelligence community report that deems white supremacy and violent…


DHS Touts Counter-Domestic Extremism Plan; Rights Groups Cite Threats to Civil Liberties

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is touting a raft of new programs aimed to combat domestic extremism—many of which are raising red flags among interest groups across the political spectrum. The new DHS plans follow a March intelligence community report that deems white supremacy and violent domestic extremism as the most dangerous terror threat…


Core Constitutional Rights Under Threat From ‘Quasi-Totalitarian Movement’: Constitutional Scholar

Rob Natelson, a Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Independence Institute in Denver, warned of a “quasi-totalitarian movement” that is threatening the core rights enshrined in the Constitution, from the right to be locally governed to freedom of fair and honest elections. A leading constitutional scholar whose work has been repeatedly cited in the…