THE CAMPAIGN GOAL
Our goal is to change the law to make non- disclosure agreements unenforceable for anything other than their original purpose.
NDAs were devised during the “tech boom” when many new technologies were being invented and products developed. Their purpose was to prevent the unauthorized sharing of confidential business information and trade secrets before they could be protected by trade marks or patents ( (“intellectual property”), which could take several years.
But now NDAs are used widely by employers, organizations and institutions to cover up complaints about sexual misconduct, harassment and discrimination that may harm their reputation. They are being used to “bury” damaging information and to shield perpetrators, who often go on to repeat their wrongdoing.
In responsive to this misuse of NDAs, legislation is being passed around the world, including in Ireland, the UK, Victoria Australia and currently 35 US states. Canadian legislators need to speed up attention to this urgent issue and move forward with law reform in Canada. Meanwhile, Can’t Buy My Silence is determined to keep advocating for victims and survivors who have been pressured into signing NDAs.
OUR STRATEGY
Our campaign focuses on 4 strategies.
Lobbying government and policymakers to recognise that NDAs are currently being used to create dangerous environments and that the law needs to be changed
Building public awareness of the immoral use of NDAs and give people the information and power to say “no” to signing an NDA
Advocating for Voluntary Pledges by universities, churches, trade unions and businesses to publicly committing to stop the use of NDAs to hide information about harmful people, practices and products. Legislation is coming, so get ahead and do the right thing!
Providing a safe platform for people who have been pressured to sign an NDA to anonymously step forward and share how it has affected them.
WHO WE ARE
JULIE MACFARLANE
Professor Julie Macfarlane is a Canadian law professor and, Member of the Order of Canada, who has won many awards for her work in advocating for access to justice. She was formerly the Director and Founder of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project. She has a long history of empirical research and published books and articles. As a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, she sued the Anglican Church in 2014 and discovered their expectation she sign an NDA (she did not). Instead she persuaded the Church and their insurer to end the default practice of forcing NDAs on victims of clerical abuse. In 2018, she discovered that her university (the University of Windsor) had given an NDA to a faculty colleague who had been terminated, following an investigation, for misconduct and harassment of students. After an 18 months-long unsuccessful effort to persuade the university to commit to no more NDAs to shield perpetrators going forward, she resigned her position as Distinguished University Professor of Law on principle and started Can’t Buy My Silence with Zelda Perkins.
Director & Founder, Canada
PARTNERS
Below are some of our amazing partners who we are working with to realise the goals of the Can’t Buy My Silence campaign.
SPEAK OUT REVOLUTION
Data Insights Partner
Speak Out Revolution is an award winning not-for-profit, founded in 2020, with a mission to cancel the culture of silence on harassment and bullying in our workplaces. They provide a safe platform for targets of workplace harassment and bullying to anonymously speak out via their Speak Out Dashboard and use the collective insights to raise awareness, educate and empower everyone to become allies for more inclusive work environments. Find out more about their work at speakoutrevolution.co.uk. You can help us collect information on the prevalence of NDAs as well as bullying and harassment by completing our survey here.
