The government unveils its long-awaited national AI strategy this morning. AI Minister Evan Solomon has made it clear that the strategy will emphasize trust, noting that Canadians will only embrace the technology if they are confident their privacy is protected and safeguards are in place against potential harms. The privacy assurances are likely to take the form of a new private-sector privacy bill that includes European-style rules, stronger penalties, and recognizing privacy as a fundamental right. The government has proposed as much before, adding fundamental-rights language to the Consumer Privacy Protection Act in Bill C-27 before that bill died on the order paper. But the government is, at the same time, pressuring the public safety committee to pass Bill C-22, whose mandatory metadata retention regime is the single largest privacy risk in Canada in years and one that comparable countries have already struck down as a violation of the fundamental right to privacy. The disconnect is dizzying: the government cannot claim privacy as a fundamental right in the morning and enact mandatory metadata retention that overrides it in the afternoon.
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From Making Web Giants Pay to Making Taxpayers Pay: Government Announces Plan to Kill the CRTC’s Online Streaming Ruling
The government today killed the centrepiece of its broadcasting policy, announcing it plans to issue a new policy direction to override the CRTC’s Online Streaming Act decision on Internet streaming service contributions less than two weeks after the Commission released it. The reversal, which undoubtedly reflects the harm the decision caused as part of trade negotiations with the United States, comes at a cost to taxpayers; the government promised a $600 million payout to the audio and audiovisual sectors to cover anticipated lost revenues. Canadian Culture Minister Marc Miller framed the move entirely in terms of affordability and consumer choice, cautioning that the Commission’s requirements could be borne by Canadian consumers through higher prices. That risk has been obvious since the government introduced the legislation years ago. In fact, it is close to word-for-word for the case I made before the Commission in December 2023 that consumer interests, competition, and affordability belonged at the centre of broadcast and Internet policy.
Digital Self-Sabotage: Why Canada’s AI Strategy Is Set to Fail Before it Even Launches
The Canadian government’s long-awaited and much-needed AI strategy is finally set to be unveiled this week, with AI minister Evan Solomon promising a plan that prioritizes AI adoption, investment, and regulatory guardrails to enhance trust, privacy and safety. My Globe and Mail op-ed argues the strategy seems doomed to fail, even before it is released, with the government’s own digital policies working against it. An astonishing series of developments in recent weeks amount to digital self-sabotage, leaving global technology giants alarmed and Canadian tech companies openly considering leaving the country.
Why Mark Carney’s Antisemitism Speech Did Not Meet the Moment
For more than two and a half years, antisemitism in Canada has moved from the margins to a daily feature of Jewish life. Synagogues have been shot at, including several Toronto-area congregations this spring, (among them the Shaarei Shomayim, the synagogue where I was married). Jewish schools now operate with police at the doors, community events screen attendees and withhold their locations from public disclosure, protesters target Jewish residential areas, and many Canadian Jews have quietly taken the mezuzahs off their doorposts or tucked a Star of David out of sight. Despite antisemitism rates that have attracted increasing global attention, leadership prepared to directly confront Canada’s antisemitism problem has too often been lacking.
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 270: Roundtable on the Bill C-22 Risks for Canadian Tech Companies Featuring VPN Services Tailscale and Windscribe
Over the past week, the concerns over Bill C-22, the government’s lawful access bill, continued to mount. Many companies, notably including Apple, Google, Meta, Signal, and DuckDuckGo, have spoken out against the bill. So too has the VPN sector, with some warning that they can’t remain in Canada if the bill goes ahead as is. This week, the CEOs of two of the companies that have spoken out against Bill C-22 join the Law Bytes podcast to explain. Avery Pennerun, the CEO of Tailscale, and Yegor Sak, the CEO of Windscribe, explain their businesses, discuss concerns about mandatory metadata retention and backdoor access to encryption, and consider what the law might mean for the future of their companies in Canada.
Recent Posts
New Privacy Rights in the Morning, Mandatory Metadata Retention in the Afternoon: How Bill C-22 Undercuts the AI Strategy Before It Launches 
From Making Web Giants Pay to Making Taxpayers Pay: Government Announces Plan to Kill the CRTC’s Online Streaming Ruling 
Digital Self-Sabotage: Why Canada’s AI Strategy Is Set to Fail Before it Even Launches 
Why Mark Carney’s Antisemitism Speech Did Not Meet the Moment 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 270: Roundtable on the Bill C-22 Risks for Canadian Tech Companies Featuring VPN Services Tailscale and Windscribe
