Democracy Watch (Canada)
| Abbreviation | DW |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1993 |
| Legal status | active |
| Purpose | advocate and public voice, educator and network |
| Headquarters | Ottawa, Ontario |
Region served | Canada |
Official language |
English French |
| Leader | Duff Conacher |
| Website | Democracy Watch website |
Democracy Watch, established in 1993, is a Canadian organization that advocates on democratic reform, government accountability and corporate responsibility issues. It provides information and support, and works in conjunction with, good government and corporate responsibility organizations from other countries, including especially GlobalIntegrity.org (which assesses the state of democracy and good government in various countries). Duff Conacher is a founder and was the Coordinator of Democracy Watch from September 1993 to June 2011.
While other organizations have been established in various countries since 1993 called Democracy Watch (for example, in Australia, Bangladesh, Liberia, Nepal, Pakistan, Somaliland, Thailand, Ukraine), these organizations are not affiliated with Democracy Watch in Canada. Democracy Watch in Canada focuses on democratic reform in Canada, while the other organizations focus on democratic reform in their countries.
Staff
Coordinator
Tyler Sommers has worked as a researcher and community organizer focusing his efforts on understanding the motivations for political involvement and assisting Canadians in becoming active and effective community participants.
He is a founder of the Canadian Youth Assembly, an organization seeking to educate youth about community participation, to encourage community participation, and to strengthen the bonds between youth and community leaders.
Directors
Democracy Watch has three directors. Duff Conacher is the founder of Democracy Watch, was coordinator from 1993 to June 2011, and is still a director and spokesperson on many issues for the organization. He now heads the firm GoodOrg.ca Consulting which provides advice and services to governments, businesses and citizen organizations in the areas of good governance, ethics, responsibility, communications, stakeholder and public relations.
Bradford E. F. Duplisea has worked as an environmental community leader, public interest researcher and advocate on environmental and public health issues. He is a researcher on food biotechnology issues (especially the relationship between government regulators and the biotechnology industry) and has represented the Biotechnology Caucus of the Canadian Environmental Network at international negotiations of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.
Josephine Grey is a human rights activist who has been active in economic and social justice for more than 20 years. She wrote and presented the Ontario People's Report to the UN Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights in 1998. She has served as the International Secretary for Canada Without Poverty (formerly the National Anti-Poverty Organization) and continues to work at the community level on empowering people to stand up for their rights.
Democracy Watch (Canada) is not affiliated with Democracy Watch (International).