Can the Police Search my Phone?

This Know Your Rights guide is intended to help you understand your rights if you are asked to show your phone to the police. It is the second in a series aimed at helping you understand your legal rights to free expression and privacy. The Know Your Rights series is partially funded by IFEX and is part of PEN Canada’s Canadian Issues program.

We Should All Worry About Cellphone Searches

Bill Kowalski, chair of PEN’s Canadian Issues Committee writes about the implications of a recent ruling made by the Supreme Court that allows police to search search the cellphones of people under arrest without a warrant.

PEN International Announces Shortlist for New Voices Award

On August 22nd, PEN International announced its inaugural New Voices Award shortlist. Claire Battershill, author of “The Collective Name of Ninjas”, has been shortlisted for the award and has been invited to read her work at the 79th annual PEN International Congress in Reykjavík.

News Human Rights Freedom of Expression PEN Canada News and Releases

Same Message, Different Medium

This year, PEN International is celebrating the rights of all citizens on Press Freedom Day. As always, we champion the rights of media organizations and journalists to safe, uncensored reporting and publication and pay tribute to those who have been killed and disappeared. But we celebrate especially the rights of all citizens to untrammelled access to information and truth…

PEN Canada press release

Jiang Weiping on Bo Xilai

Bo Xilai, the former boss of the Chongqing Communist Party, was recently sacked after a corruption scandal involving his family. Jiang Weiping, an Honorary Member of PEN Canada, is a Chinese journalist who served a six year prison sentence for “inciting subversion of state power” after he published an exposé of Bo’s corruption more than a decade ago.