Library Associations Call For Unfettered Access To Government Publications In Face Of COVID-19

Last month, the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA) and the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) called on the federal and provincial governments to assign a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) to publicly available government information in an effort to eliminate barriers to government documents:

"Over the past months, as they faced unprecedented challenges caused by COVID-19, Canadians have relied on their governments for information related to the novel coronavirus and its impact. Now more than ever, unfettered access to taxpayer-funded government information is of fundamental importance to a democratic society and to the health of its citizens."

"Unfortunately, pre-existing barriers and confusion related to Crown copyright have exacerbated the issues associated with accessing government information. For example, onerous and unnecessary permission requests to government departments are subject to extensive delays; existing digital content remains unnecessarily restricted; and questions about the control and dissemination of both print and digital works, as well as data collections, hamper their sharing and redistribution (...)"

"Over the past months, as they faced unprecedented challenges caused by COVID-19, Canadians have relied on their governments for information related to the novel coronavirus and its impact. Now more than ever, unfettered access to taxpayer-funded government information is of fundamental importance to a democratic society and to the health of its citizens. Unfortunately, pre-existing barriers and confusion related to Crown copyright have exacerbated the issues associated with accessing government information. For example, onerous and unnecessary permission requests to government departments are subject to extensive delays; existing digital content remains unnecessarily restricted; and questions about the control and dissemination of both print and digital works, as well as data collections, hamper their sharing and redistribution. "

Many library associations such as the Canadian Association of Law Libraries have been asking that the federal government reform or abolish Crown copyright.