My canadian brothers/sister theadvancedapes, lil and sounds_sound, is this an accurate depiction of the state of freedom in Canada from what you gather?
Part of the issue is how the system is set up here. We are following the US trend of having a leader as the main draw to the party. The problem is that Harper has made it clear that its his way or the highway, and Conservatives are being made to tow the line. Imagine if the POTUS was the leader of the party in power, by number of seats. Imagine that the president can then tell his majority to do whatever it is he wants it to do. Now picture him being hard on people who don't fall in line. This is what's going on in Canada. No one is sticking up to Harper except the Opposition parties, who can do a lot of huffing and puffing, but can't blow anybody's house down. The message to people who disagree with the government is to wait it out. So people are paying less and less attention to politics, which seems to be what they want. It's a downward spiral right now.
State of Freedom in Canada: I agree with Adam somewhat. Freedom is always threatened and our current prime minister StepHen Harper continues to encroach. In terms of access to information, the current government has severely limited information gathering. There has been talk for some time about our current government muzzling scientists. Today, as it turns out, the information commissioner has launched an investigation into this exact thing. We still have an information commissioner who is supposed to independently investigate complaints against the government. As freedoms are potentially eroded to supposedly ensure other freedoms (that is, peek into private email to root out potential terrorists), there is a pushback by others who are still awake to potential injustice. Running a government, a company, or a school is a difficult messy business. We make decisions based on incomplete information always.