I’m writing this blog from Berlin, where the city is alive with conversations about freedom. Artists, activists, journalists and exiled dissidents have gathered for the inaugural Berlin Freedom Week,  a celebration of those who refuse silence, and a reminder of what is at stake when civic space closes. In the heart of Europe, amid stories of courage and repression, one truth echoes everywhere: democracy survives only where people can participate freely, organize openly, and hold power to account.

In a few months, Ottawa will host its own first:  the inaugural Ottawa Civic Space Summit, a global gathering dedicated to defending those same freedoms. If Berlin stands as a monument to the fall of walls, Ottawa can become a city that builds bridges,  a place where ideas, movements, and institutions come together to reclaim democracy’s most vital foundation: civic space

For me, this is personal. Three years ago, exile pushed me across borders more times than I can count. I came to Ottawa searching for safety. What I found was something I thought I had lost: democracy in daily life. Parents debating in school gyms, neighbours organizing around local issues, journalists asking hard questions. Ottawa reminded me what civic space feels like. Now it has a chance to defend it, not only for Canada but for the world.

Across continents, civic space is closing at an alarming pace. According to Freedom House, authoritarianism has been advancing for nearly two decades. CIVICUS estimates that only about two per cent of the world’s population now lives in societies where people can truly speak, organize, or protest without fear. Activists are labelled as threats, journalists as traitors, and digital spaces are flooded with disinformation and hate.

Even long-standing democracies are showing cracks. Canada is not immune. Local newsrooms, the lifeblood of accountability, are vanishing. Online extremism is deepening polarization. Indigenous land defenders continue to face intimidation for exercising rights the rest of us take for granted. And foreign regimes are increasingly targeting exiles on Canadian soil through harassment, surveillance, and threats — a rising form of transnational repression.

If Davos is where the world debates the economy, and Munich is where it debates security, Ottawa can become the place where humanity debates and defends democracy.

Democracy does not die only through coups or stolen elections. It dies quietly when participation shrinks and fear replaces trust. Defending democracy in this moment requires protecting the civic spaces where people can gather, disagree, decide and act together.

That is what the Ottawa Civic Space Summit is about. If Davos is where the world debates the economy, and Munich is where it debates security, Ottawa can become the place where humanity debates and defends democracy. The summit’s ambition is not just to host another conference, but to build a lasting civic engine — one that connects governments, civil society, universities, philanthropy, and the private sector in a shared purpose of democratic renewal.

This work begins at home. Canada’s credibility abroad depends on how we protect democracy within our own borders. That means ensuring journalists can work without intimidation, strengthening civic education, and countering online hate not with censorship but with resilience. It means treating reconciliation not as a symbolic exercise but as shared democratic power.

Canadian allies are looking for credible democratic leadership, one that is built on inclusion, not exceptionalism. Canada has the moral authority to play that role, but only if we act with courage, urgency and clarity. Hosting an annual civic-space summit in our capital signals that Canada is ready to lead by building bridges, not walls, and by defending the public square as a global public good.

Around the world, people are still willing to risk everything for the freedom to speak, assemble, and imagine a better future. Those of us who live in open societies must do more than admire their courage — we must match it.

The message from Berlin this week is clear: hope is not naïve; it is necessary. Around the world, people are still willing to risk everything for the freedom to speak, assemble, and imagine a better future. Those of us who live in open societies must do more than admire their courage — we must match it.

Ottawa can be the place where that courage gathers strength. Not just as the seat of government, but as the beating heart of a global movement to keep civic space open.

That would be a legacy worthy of Canada, and a future worthy of democracy.