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The Canadian Library Association, along with Telecommunities Canada (FreeNets), is organizing a national Information Rights Week to be held April 21 - 27, 1997. This follows three successful years of Information Rights Week events in Canada. Libraries and FreeNets across Canada, and other community groups and organizations will be organizing events for this week.
The purpose of Information Rights Week is to provide a public forum to focus on Access to Information issues. Only two of these issues, corporate consolidation of information and entertainment companies, and the development of the electronic highway, have received much coverage over the last few years.
Libraries and community computing activists have been leaders in expressing concern and alarm at the trend to turn information into a commodity and charge for access to it. There are now opportunities to work with other groups to focus attention on information rights issues.
Major policy initiatives are underway at the Federal, Provincial, and Municipal Government levels that will have broad impact on public access to information and the role of libraries and freenets. The CRTC deregulated telephone service in 1992 and has just held hearings to determine the new regulatory environment. This could include Local Metered Service.
Treasury Board, Industry Canada and other federal government departments have a number of information policy initiatives underway. A number of provincial governments have developed policy papers. The federal government, and the governments of B.C. and Ontario are developing "Tradeable Information" policies. Stentor, the Information Technology Association of Canada, and the cable companies have all produced vision documents and videos.
Missing from most of these documents and discussions is an expression of the public interest. Who is defending the public's right to inexpensive universal telephone service; to widely available literacy and ESL programs; to access to government information; to free access to the new electronic highway; and to personal privacy? Who is calling for resources to be available for the creation, in the public domain, of a wide range of educational, cultural and political content?
Your organization can participate in Information Rights Week by working with other organizations to sponsor programs and debates. Many organizations are becoming concerned about these issues. Information Rights Week provides an opportunity to work with Civil Liberty Associations, journalists, FreeNets, libraries, teachers, telecommunications workers, academics, students, Freedom of Information & Privacy Associations, social action groups, and many others in creating programs and forums for public discussion.
To help you participate in Information Rights Week, the following documents are available on this site:
The Canadian Library Association is providing coordinating support for this campaign. For further information or to order additional material (poster or brochure), please contact:
Information Rights Week
c/o Canadian Library Association
602-200 Elgin Street
Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1L5
tel: (613) 232-9625
fax: (613) 563-9895
Social, economic and political events are making the active participation of freenets, libraries and others in the information policy debates a matter of necessity for the future of public access to information and the public's right to know. I hope you will participate in making the first national Information Rights Week a success.
Brian Campbell
Convenor, CLA Information Policy Committee
Jacqueline van Dyk
Member, CLA Information Policy Committee
email: [email protected]
Copyright © 1995 BCLA Information Policy Committee