Democracy needs its champions. Here’s a proposal on how to fund them

Democracy means more than just holding regular elections.

Among other things, it needs a public sphere where citizens can inform themselves about pressing issues, engage in dialogue and form public opinion.

Civil society organizations play a key role.

They educate the public and spur discussion about key policy issues.

Groups that support free expression, privacy or voting rights are particularly important in maintaining democracy.

These bodies have expertise that can make important contributions to the legislative process through testimony before parliamentary committees and other advocacy.

However, Canada’s democracy-focused civil society organizations — known as NGOs — are facing a resource crunch as a result of decreasing government funding for human rights causes and a challenging landscape for private philanthropic support.

National security issue Amid rising global authoritarianism and growing threats to Canadian sovereignty — many specifically targeting Canadian democracy — the strength of these NGOs is also a matter of national security.

As government budgets currently focus on cost savings, it’s difficult to imagine an increase in public funding for this sector.

However, there may be another way to boost Canada’s civil rights community, allowing it to diversify its revenue sources without forcing governments to add a new line to the budget.

Canada could create a funding mechanism that uses fines imposed on those who transgress laws protecting our democratic rights to fund organizations that defend it.

This idea, while novel in civil and political rights movements, is not unprecedented.

Courts have a long history of using what are known as cy près awards to direct damages from class-action lawsuits to organizations that work to advance the interests underlying the litigation.

The Environmental Damages Fund (EDF) is a federal fund bankrolled by fines, penalties or other payments imposed by 14 environmental statutes and made available to non-profits undertaking projects that benefit the environment.