Tag free speech ain’t always free

Green is good! Purple is bad.

You may remember that back in February I announced that yours truly would be writing the country report for Canada for Freedom House‘s annual “Freedom on the Net” report. Yesterday, the work of all the excellent worldwide authors and me was released. I could not be prouder to have participated. My Canada Report is here, but I encourage you to take a look at all the reports, especially those countries where the internet is not free. We have it pretty darn good here in Canada.

My report would not have been possible without a few people, all of whom are way smarter than me. The 2016 report was basically just an update of the two previous years’ reports, written by Michael Geist. Michael’s incredible work in the previous years made my job a piece of cake. My editor at Freedom House Jessica White was a joy to work with and all her corrections and suggestions were right. My old law school friend (now brilliant law professor in Australia) Alana Maurushat recommended me to Freedom House in the first place. I sincerely thank all of them for what they did.

And finally you commentors who gave me your thoughts in that announcement post were a real help as well. While I maybe didn’t use your comments directly, your ideas certainly were in my mind as I wrote. Gracias.

Ooh boy this post was well short on my usual snark and profanity. Internet freedom is too serious an issue I guess. I’ll get back to my usual bullshit in the next post.

That sounds like a fascinating question! And guess what internet expert has been tasked to answer it? Wrong! It’s me.

So the fine folks at Freedom House, a long-standing and tremendously well-respected “independent watchdog organization dedicated to the expansion of freedom and democracy around the world”, do amazing work. As part of it, they publish numerous in-depth reports about freedoms and rights around the world. One of the reports is Freedom on the Net, an annual worldwide study of, uh, freedom on the net. They ask internet experts around the world to write reports about their country. The 2014 and 2015 Canadian reports were written by none other than Michael Geist. This year, they asked some idiot with a blog. I am humbled and honoured. But I am still an idiot.

So please, help me! Hit that big blue comment button below this paragraph and tell me – do you think we have internet freedom in Canada? Are you free to say what you want? To do what you want? To download what you want? Are the ISPs or the government screwing you over? Are you being blocked somehow? Are “they” watching you? (go easy on that last one steve). Help me help the world understand if we have internet freedom in Canada. This is a big responsibility and I need your help. Thx.