Digital technologies have become extremely important to journalism work, but this also means there is a growing number of tools and platforms that can be used against journalists as means of surveillance, identification and harassment by states and non-state actors alike.

Protecting yourself no longer means just securing your physical safety; it must also include securing your digital safety. Any breaches to your online life put your physical life at risk.

At Sunday night's Golden Globes ceremony, Meryl Streep used her acceptance speech for a lifetime achievement award to denounce President-Elect Donald Trump, and to call on the audience to support the work of a free and independent press.

"We need the principled press to hold power to account, to call [Trump] on the carpet for every outrage," Streep said. "That's why our founders enshrined the press and its freedoms in the Constitution."

It was a wonderful start for a new federal government. The first piece of legislation Stephen Harper's Conservatives placed before Parliament in 2006 was an omnibus bill that promised a new era of openness, transparency and accountability.

The legislation was a breath of fresh air for Canadians who had been outraged by the Sponsorship Scandal -- a corrupt operation in Quebec that siphoned off about $100 million to national Liberal party operatives and senior members of advertising firms from a government-funded program to promote federalism in that province.

On June 6 (the same night that the trans human rights Bill C-279 advanced to committee) Conservative MP for Westlock - St. Paul, Brian Storseth's private member's bill C-304, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (protecting freedom), passed third reading in the House of Commons, and advanced to the Senate for ratification. Bill C-304 abolishes Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which pertains to electronic communication of hate speech.