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Canada

Monthly Event Reports

June 2023 | Online News Act becomes law

On 22 June the Online News Act became law.  According to the government, the Act aims to ensure a fair distribution of revenue between news sites and social media and online platforms (the latter would have to pay news organizations when their content is accessed on online platforms). As explained by the government, journalism lost major revenue streams from advertising to online platforms. It further claims that the Act will also facilitate the relationship between news media outlets and social media platforms, as well as strengthen media freedom. Because of the financial implications to their operations, Meta and Google have announced that they will cease providing Canadian news content on their websites. This reaction has been criticised, given the proportion of Canadians who access news through social media (social media comes in third after the internet and television).  In response, the Canadian government said it would stop advertising on Facebook and Instagram.  

May 2023 | Parliament calls on rapporteur on foreign interference to resign
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On 31 May, by 174 to 150 votes, Parliament voted to call on David Johnston, the rapporteur on foreign interference appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau’s government, to resign, given the opposition’s claims that he was not impartial after he recommended a series of hearings instead of a public inquiry on the allegations of foreign meddling in elections. According to Johnston, a public inquiry is not possible due to the classified nature of the information that led him to conclude that foreign officials attempted to interfere with candidates. Instead, he suggested hearings on the way in which the intelligence agencies communicated this information to other government institutions. The lawmakers’ motion, which is non-binding, was presented after criticism of the rapporteur’s alleged partiality, given reports of his personal ties to Prime Minister Trudeau. While Johnston initially rejected the call to resign and insisted he has not had a personal relationship with the PM in decades, in early June he presented a letter of resignation, in which he stated he would leave the role of rapporteur by the end of the month. 

March 2023 | Court approves settlement with First Nations over residential school harms

A settlement reached in January between the Canadian government and representatives of First Nations whose members were day scholars at residential schools between the mid-1800s and up until the 1990s, has been approved by a Federal Court. The settlement approved a 2.8 billion Canadian dollars payment to an Indigenous-led association that will manage the funds to implement measures to reverse loss of heritage, language and culture. The settlement is intended to address the collective harm suffered by day scholars who attended residential schools. It does not include claims over the death and disappearance of Indigenous children forced to attend these schools.

February 2023 | Report finds that use of emergency powers regarding ‘Freedom Convoy’ was justified

Pursuant to the Emergencies Act of 1988, the Government of Canada established the Public Order Emergency Commission to carry out an inquiry into the use of emergency powers to end the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests of February 2022. The inquiry concluded that the use of emergency powers by Prime Minister Trudeau’s government was justified, as the high threshold needed to invoke the Emergencies Act had been met. The Commission’s report was presented on 17 February, and in it, Justice Paul Rouleau, Head of the Commission, rejected claims that protests were peaceful. He was nevertheless also critical of some of the measures taken by the government, such as the freezing of accounts of those participating in the convoy and the absence of a delisting mechanism for frozen accounts. The report was also critical of the lack of engagement of the Ontario government and Prime Minister Trudeau’s comments characterizing the convoy protesters as a fringe minority. The report includes recommendations to federal, province and city authorities, and was submitted to the House of Commons.

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GSoD Indices Data 2013-2022

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Basic Information

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Population Tooltip
38 246 110
System of government
Parliamentary system
Head of government
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (since 2015)
Head of government party
Liberal Party
Electoral system for lower or single chamber
First Past the Post
Women in lower or single chamber
30.5%
Women in upper chamber
48.9%
Last legislative election
2021
Effective number of political parties Tooltip
3.79
Head of state
King Charles III
Selection process for head of state
Hereditary or election by hereditary state rulers
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) date
11/05/2018
Latest Universal Periodic Review (UPR) percentage of recommendations supported
74.55%
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Human Rights Treaties

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State Party State party
Signatory Signatory
No Action No action
United Nations Human Right Treaties
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
State Party
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
State Party
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
State Party
Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
State Party
Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment
State Party
Convention on the Rights of the Child
State Party
International Convention on Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
No Action
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance 
No Action
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
State Party
International Labour Organisation Treaties
Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention
State Party
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention
State Party
Equal Remuneration Convention
State Party
Abolition of Forced Labour Convention
State Party
Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention
State Party
Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
State Party
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention
State Party
Regional Treaties
American Convention on Human Rights
No Action
Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
No Action
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Categories of Democratic Performance

Representation neutral Representation
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Representation neutral Rule of law
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Representation neutral Participation
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Global State of Democracy Indices

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Explore the indices
Representation
Representation
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high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rights
Rights
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high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Rule of Law
Rule of Law
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high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Participation
Participation
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high 0.7-1.0
mid 0.4-0.7
low 0.0-0.4
Annual value

Factors of Democratic Performance Over Time

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