On that historic day when Canada’s Constitution came home — April 17, 1982 — freedom of the press was enshrined with the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Section 2b of the Charter explicitly states that we all have the right to “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.”
Do you cherish the Charter? Does Section 2b make you proud to be a Canadian?
You can be sure that most journalists will tell you they care deeply about this fundamental freedom. It is the foundation of all that we do.
But, 30 years on from the proclamation of the Charter, what is the status of free expression in Canada for journalists and the citizens we serve? Is this a right we now take for granted? Are there battles still to be fought on the freedom of expression front?
These were the important questions explored this week at a two-day conference at Ryerson University marking the 30th anniversary of the Charter. The conference, organized by Ryerson’s Journalism Research Centre and Law Research Centre brought together journalists, lawyers, academics and students to take stock of the status of press freedom in Canada.
The overall consensus: While journalists in Canada are not dying for their stories, which is all too common in some countries, neither journalists nor anyone else in Canada should be too smug or take this fundamental freedom for granted.
In Canada, judges still impose too many publication bans that stop journalists from reporting on public court proceedings; bureaucrats routinely block requests for public information; control-mad governments shut down access and politicians refuse to speak to journalists, who seek to hold them to account on the public’s behalf.
Journalists can’t escape responsibility here. As was stated repeatedly at the conference, we don’t always stand up and shout for our Charter rights — or even fully exercise them, as we must.
“We are far too knee-bending to political and judicial elites and we allow them to function in secret far too often,” said Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke. “We buy the word ‘confidential’ and we need to replace that word with ‘secret’ and we need to stamp out that word ‘secret.’ ”
Cooke, who worked in newspapers in New York and Chicago before returning to the Star three years ago, compared Canadian attitudes toward the right of free expression to the United States where freedom of expression is enshrined in the First Amendment.
“We don’t cherish our Charter; there’s not a lot of evidence to indicate that Canadians care about the Charter,” he said. “In Canada, it’s nothing like in America where you hear the words ‘First Amendment’ all the time.”
Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with our U.S. neighbours may well relate to that. I remember my first exposure to this very American preoccupation. I was the token Canadian participating in a week-long U.S. fellowship program for journalism educators in 1990. Day in, day out, I kept hearing the words, “First Amendment” in every discussion.
Eventually I noted that, “This First Amendment thing really seems to mean a lot to you Americans.” I was promptly set straight that “this First Amendment thing” means everything to Americans and my naive comment became the humorous meme of the week.
So why doesn’t this Section 2b thing mean so much to Canadians?
As Ivor Shapiro, chair of the Ryerson School of Journalism, wrote in an article about the conference published in J-Source last week: “What would it take to get Canadians to give a damn about free expression?
“Everyone I know unambiguously supports press freedom and agrees that it is a pillar of democracy. Almost no one I know does so with any evident passion.”
Certainly there was much passion evident at this week’s inspiring conference. But the sessions also made it clear that both passion and perseverance are necessary to realize the full extent of our right to press freedom and free expression, which has been enshrined in Canada for only three decades — a far cry from the 236 years of that First Amendment thing.
As Cooke said, in commenting on the Star’s perseverance in its almost seven-year pursuit of public information about Toronto police and racial profiling through repeated Freedom of Information requests: “We have to be relentless and never give up.”
Thirty years ago, before the Internet created our wired world, Pierre Trudeau called on all Canadians to “breathe life” into the Charter. With the many new digital tools that connect us today, it should be easier than ever for a new generation to achieve the vision of free expression for all Canadians.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Kathy English
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