SherpaCarta
Executive summary & introduction
A clear overview of the project, its goal, how participation works, and practical next steps in Canada — for public servants, elected officials, and community leaders of every background and language community.
“Privacy is not a feature. It is a birthright.”
Why this matters now
Public and private power over daily life increasingly runs through data, platforms, and algorithms. Profiling, automated decisions, and surveillance at scale often proceed without clear explanation, meaningful consent, or equal recourse. Existing frameworks help — yet they remain geographically limited, slow to adapt to artificial intelligence, and uneven in enforcement.
SherpaCarta meets a simple civic need: a shared, living statement of digital human rights that people can read, sign, translate, improve, and carry into law-making — with humility, transparency, and respect for every community. It does not replace democracy; it gives citizens and legislators a common reference when rights are under pressure.
What SherpaCarta is — and is not
It is
- A living charter of 114 articles on privacy, data sovereignty, expression, and algorithmic rights
- A moral and political declaration in the lineage of the 1215 Magna Carta and the 2011 Icelandic crowdsourced constitution
- CC0 public domain — free to copy, translate, and adapt worldwide
- Funded only by voluntary Bitcoin donations; open source; zero tracking
- Open to everyone: any language, inclusive by design; conversation without requiring an account
It is not (yet)
- Binding legislation or a treaty by itself
- A partisan campaign or corporate compliance product
- A surveillance system — we do not build dossiers of signers on our servers
- A claim that technology can replace careful democratic process
Its force grows through adoption: people, organizations, and statutes that echo its principles.
The goal
To establish a clear, global, people-owned reference for digital rights — and to help turn moral clarity into better law and practice, starting where partners are ready. Under Article 114, rights may only expand, never contract.
Four pillars
How it works
Honesty about signatures
We separate campaign support (movement-building, cryptographic receipts, public discourse) from official parliamentary instruments (House of Commons e-petition or original paper petitions presented by a Member). That honesty protects both democratic procedure and the project’s credibility.
Selected articles of interest to lawmakers
| Article | Focus |
|---|---|
| Art. 11 | Privacy as default — “Privacy by Design,” not buried settings |
| Art. 12 | Data sovereignty — individuals own and control personal data |
| Art. 13 | Limits on surveillance capitalism without meaningful consent |
| Art. 47 | Right to erasure / to be forgotten under fair conditions |
| Art. 61–62 | Algorithmic transparency and protection from algorithmic discrimination |
| Art. 114 | Living charter — rights may only expand, never contract |
Canada — a practical beachhead
SherpaCarta is global. Canada is a natural first jurisdiction: privacy culture, federal–provincial law-making, and room to modernize frameworks such as PIPEDA for platforms and AI. British Columbia is often our organizing focus — not because other provinces matter less, but because every movement needs a place to begin. On a federal paper petition, a signature from any province or territory is already a Canadian federal signature (city and province written on the sheet).
Respectful ask of elected friends: (1) Review the charter and this briefing; (2) Consider authorizing or presenting a federal petition when the text is ready; (3) Use SherpaCarta as model language when modernizing digital privacy and algorithmic accountability — without requiring agreement on every article at once.
Important links
- Full charter (home)sherpacarta.org
- Canada petition hub/canada/
- Digital campaign sign/canada/sign
- Print federal paper sheet/canada/paper
- Official e-petition path/canada/official
- Press kit & facts/press-kit
- On-chain treasury/treasury
- Open-source repositorygithub.com/kitsboy/sherpacarta
Home
Canada
Closing
We do not claim perfection. We claim a shared starting point: that human dignity online deserves the same seriousness once given to liberty under parchment law. We welcome critique, translation, amendment (rights only expand), and partnership from every community and political tradition that defends the person against arbitrary power.
Public document — not legal advice. Official petition rules are set by the House of Commons and provincial legislatures. Contact: hello@giveabit.io · Subject: Sherpacarta.