The Independent Press Gallery is raising alarm over the federal government’s decision to co-sponsor the United Nations’ new Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change — a document that lays the groundwork for global restrictions on journalism, scientific inquiry, and open debate.
Canada played a leading role in drafting and launching the declaration at COP30 in Belém, Brazil. The effort was overseen by Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture — the minister now responsible for federal online-speech regulation and censorship powers. Guilbeault’s former organization, Équiterre, not only participates in the UN-aligned “Climate Action Against Disinformation” coalition but was directly involved in pushing this declaration forward.
The declaration urges governments, platforms, media, and civil society groups to adopt “adequate policies” to ensure “accurate and reliable coverage” of climate issues. It promotes global “information integrity” enforcement, climate-narrative protections, and the development of science-publication controls — giving governments and UN bodies wide latitude to determine which viewpoints are acceptable.
The document is tied to the broader Global Digital Compact, which commits nations to promote “science-based” and “timely” information. This framing provides cover for suppressing dissenting work and elevating only material that aligns with UN-approved climate messaging.
The public square demands more openness, not less, and independent media play a crucial role in sustaining informed, civil debate in a democratic society free from government contamination. A healthy democracy benefits from questioning, scrutiny, and competing interpretations — not from international agreements that empower governments to referee what citizens may say or investigate.
Canada’s central role — with its censorship minister fronting an initiative advanced by his former activist organization — represents a significant escalation of federal attempts to regulate permissible speech both domestically and abroad.
The Independent Press Gallery urges the federal government to withdraw its endorsement and reaffirm Canada’s commitment to unrestricted debate on climate science and policy.
Sheila Gunn Reid
President, Independent Press Gallery
www.IndependentPressGallery.com