Dear OCLA Supporter,
This email is to give you an update on the Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA)’s work and activities in 2019.
2019 OCLA Civil Liberties Award – Kelly Donovan
Kelly Donovan, a police whistleblower and public-protection advocate, was this year’s recipient of the OCLA Civil Liberties Award.
Ms. Donovan is a former police constable and use-of-force instructor with the Waterloo Regional Police Service. Her efforts to report bias or arbitrariness of disciplinary measures against police officers who sought improvement or redress were met with gagging measures, further discipline, and publicly-funded tribunal litigation against her person. But she never gave up, and in 2019 as a self-represented litigant, she won a matter at the Court of Appeal for Ontario, reinstating her right to sue both the Board and the Police Chief.
Kelly was also recently awarded her litigation costs in both the appeal and the case in the lower court, a rare and important accomplishment for a self-represented litigant.
Full details about the award, including Kelly’s acceptance video, are posted on the OCLA’s website here, and an excellent media report in Brant.One is available here.
Research report “Geo-Economics and Geo-Politics Drive Successive Eras of Predatory Globalization and Social Engineering”
OCLA researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt authored a 78-page research report about the influence that two large-scale, post-WW2 geopolitical transformations had on individual rights, democracy, and societal organization in Western countries.
The report seeks to demonstrate how geopolitical and global economic conditions are at the root of many of the erosions of civil liberties that have been underway in Western societies during the past several decades.
The report can be read here, and a media summary published in CounterPunch is available here.
OCLA opposes the international campaign to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism
In June 2019, the OCLA endorsed the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)’s expressed opposition to the international campaign to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, and we issued our own public statement opposing the campaign.
The OCLA’s position, which can be read at the link here, repeats our previously expressed argument (detailed in our July 2018 letter to the Attorney General of Ontario) in opposition to the “hate speech” provisions of the Criminal Code.
OCLA interviews Tony Heller on social media censorship
One current area of severe censorship is any questioning of the “climate emergency” or of the dominant mediascape view of “climate change”.
OCLA researcher Dr. Denis Rancourt recently interviewed climate activist Tony Heller about the need for freedom of expression amid censorship by mainstream and social media corporations. The video interview is available here.
OCLA Executive Director earns PhD
OCLA Executive Director Joseph Hickey completed his PhD in Physics in 2019. His thesis, “A Complex Systems Study of Social Hierarchies and Jurisprudence”, studied simple models of the formation and evolution of social hierarchies, with implications for the role of individual freedoms in maintaining the stability of societies. The thesis also contains a statistical analysis of the citations between Canadian judicial decisions, which explores possible reasons for the explosion of family litigation that occurred in Canada in the 1990s.
Joseph’s thesis is available online here.
Media coverage
- 2019-07-04: “In Canada and elsewhere, freedom of speech is on the endangered list”, LawNow
- 2019-07-16: “Patients flagged as potentially violent wait months for appeal” London Free Press
- 2019-09-07: “Man under deportation order due to terrorist links to speak at University of Toronto” Canadian Jewish News
- 2019-09-25: “‘Nasty’ digital warnings from authorities putting chill on FoCo bashes”, London Free Press
- 2019-12-01: “Debate on the ‘Take Back the Toronto Public Library’ Protests”, Stranger Tides Podcast
How to stay connected and donate to the OCLA
Website: https://ocla.ca
Twitter: @oncivlib
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/110883345731728/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKqbht2j2BPu4Wb2epM4BKw
The OCLA is an independent, volunteer-run organization. Donations help cover operating costs such as booking rooms for public events, printing promotional material for campaigns and events, and paying for court filing fees and court document production costs (copies and binding) for court and tribunal interventions on civil liberties issues.
As we are an entirely volunteer-run organization with a very small budget, we do depend on donations to continue our work, and appreciate any contribution you can make.
Donations can be made in two ways:
1) Through PayPal, by clicking the “Donate” button in the top-right corner of https://ocla.ca; or
2) By sending a cheque to “Ontario Civil Liberties Association” to our mailing address:
Ontario Civil Liberties Association
170 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 603
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1P 5V5
The OCLA is not affiliated with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) or the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA). All three associations are separate and distinct.
Thank you for your support and all the best for the New Year!
Yours truly,
Joseph Hickey
Executive Director
Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA)
