Canada’s Election: A Review of the Green Party Platform on Digital Issues

Greenzo

Thank you so much for this collection of articles. The Green party membership I know are involved in the open access and online privacy debate in Canada. The method for building the Green platform was quite wiki in nature, using digital technologies to have members build the platform from the bottom up. To be clear, open access and online privacy are important to the greens (can you tell I'm a member) and here is the evidence: http://greenparty.ca/media-release/2011-04-06/greens-pledge-protect-internet-access-and-open-communications quote from the above link: “The Greens are proud to be the first party to announce support for OpenMedia’s proposition,” said Green Party leader Elizabeth May. “The internet is critical for modern day citizen engagement and an integral part of our economic competitiveness. The Greens pledge to adhere to OpenMedia's Stop the Meter campaign on Internet access. We are committed to enhancing broadband access, competition, transparency and choice.” Openmedia comes across well on net neutrality issues although there's not much mention of copyright or privacy per se. Creative commons and consumer protection go hand in hand with net neutrality as y'all know. Openmedia.ca Mission To advance and support a media communications system in Canada that adheres to the principles of access, choice, diversity, innovation and openness. Mission Statement OpenMedia.ca is a national, non-partisan, non-profit organization working to advance and support an open and innovative communications system in Canada. Our primary goal is to increase public awareness and informed participation in Canadian media, cultural, information, and telecommunication policy formation. We strive to make media and telecommunications more transparent, with broader and more representative public participation. Our job is to shine a spotlight on key media policy developments, and provide essential tools and information for citizen engagement. I'm voting Green this election because I live in a solidly conservative riding. I would encourage people looking to avoid a Harper majority to check out the catch22 strategic voting website to see if your riding can help swing the balance of power: Here is the strategic riding list: http://catch22campaign.ca/notes "A voter powered capaign to defeat the Harper Conservatives"

We have finished reviewing all the parties that were elected in office last session. The digital issues of all those parties were interesting, even if they were surprisingly disappointing. So now we are including the Green Party in our reviews.

We have already finished reviewing the platforms of the Conservatives, Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP. So we have chosen to move on to the party that garnered the next most votes. While not winning seats, the Green party did garner a large vote base and came close to winning a seat in two elections in a row.

The party platform can be found on their official website. The link is on the right column that says “(Download Platform PDF)”.

The Green Party Platform

We tried looking through the platform for issues surrounding surveillance, but nothing was found. We tried looking for issues surrounding copyright and there simply was no reference to it. So we tried something more general and looked for any mention of the word “Internet” and found this:

Strong communities means creating opportunities for young Canadians. Young people build community, both where they live and where they connect through the internet in virtual communities. Energized youth are part of a real green future.

So, in general, forget about privacy and surveillance. Forget about copyright. The most you’ll get out of the platform is a simple mention of the internet. There is one word that comes to my mind when I see this: “Sad”.

Overall Impression

Normally, I would sum up what I’ve read in this platform, but I’ll have to go to the track record instead. I’ve personally spoken to members of the Green party about these issues in the past. I asked at one meeting what their position was on privacy and I was told that it was shocking that the government is considering implementing such surveillance laws in the first place. The consensus was that they aren’t aware of anyone that would support such a thing. I didn’t get the opportunity at the time to discuss copyright. Bear in mind that this was a meeting two elections ago now, so whether or not things have changed is actually hard to say.

So, overall, if the election were held specifically on this issue, I can’t say such a track record is good enough for my vote. Since it almost sounds more like lip-service for the internet community, I’d say I wouldn’t vote for the Green Party.

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Drew Wilson
Drew Wilson is perhaps one of the more well-known file-sharing and technology news writers around. A journalist in the field since 2005, his work has had semi-regular appearances on social news websites and even occasional appearances on major news outlets as well. Drew founded freezenet.ca and still contributes to ZeroPaid. Twitter | Google Plus

Every party releases a platform during an election that is a mere subset of their overall policy. In the Green's case, you have to look to Vision Green, the overall policy document. (There are also more detailed policies that have been voted on by the members, but these may be harder to obtain. There are a couple of spots in Vision Green which mention copyright: - Page 85: Ensure that copyright policy allows students to properly conduct and create research in a manner that is consistent with a thriving information commons, fair dealing principles, and moral rights. - Page 90: Protect the copyright for artists so it is not surrendered to museums and galleries in the process of permitting exhibits. Section 6.6 is titled "Supporting the Free Flow if Information" Section 6.7 is titled "Open Government Data" I'm not sure about the surveillance issue you are talking about, so I can't comment on that specifically.

Review

So you didn't find a position so you assume it's bad? Rubbish. And you vote purely based on Internet policy? Idiotic.

Russell McOrmond

I think it isn't useful to try to summarize a party by individual candidates, any more than it is useful to summarize a candidate by the statements made by the party. There are good candidates and bad candidates from each party. The Green candidate you met was one of the less technical, but you have to remember that the party also has people as technical as myself in it as well. In fact, in the 1990's most of the most technical people I knew in Ottawa who were also involved in politics were involved with the Greens. In 2008 when I spoke at University of Waterloo at a time that overlapped the election, the only candidate that showed up based on my invitation was a Green. Her discussion of her platform and her own style (and being interested enough in technology law to show up!) convinced a number of people there to vote for her. http://creform.ca/5306

Drew Wilson

I take it things work differently when there's someone other than a Conservative being a candidate. Whenever I speak to my candidate, the answers to my questions are either something scripted or, "I'm out of communication from Ottawa, so I can't comment." For me with my incumbent MP (who I never vote for anyway), there is no difference between candidate and party stance. Sounds like other parties operate differently where they actually care about individual constituents.