Articles by: Michael Geist

Silence-Schild auf dem Gelände der Communauté de Taizé by Maik Meid CC-BY-SA-3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taize-Silence.jpg

The Sound of Silence: On Being Jewish in Canada in 2025

Deborah Lyons, Canada’s recently retired envoy for combatting antisemitism, this week lamented that the effort to shine a light on increasing antisemitism in Canada had left her “despondent and despairing about the fact that it was hard to get people to speak up, to speak with clarity, to speak with conviction about what we were seeing happening here on Canadian soil.”

Jewish communities have long known silence. My The Hub opinion piece notes that at its worst, it has manifested in some communities as synagogue floors covered in sand to mask the sound of feet shuffling during silent prayers or by those hidden during the Holocaust to escape capture by the Nazis. In today’s Canada, silence comes in different ways. Some Jews quietly conceal their identity by refraining from displaying a Star of David or kippah, families remove mezzuzahs from their front doors to avoid telegraphing that it is a Jewish home, and the community avoids widespread promotion of events hosted in community centres due to security concerns.

July 25, 2025 — 3 comments — Columns

Higher Education in London by Sam Saunders https://flic.kr/p/2nVzDou CC BY-SA 2.0

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 241: Scott Benzie on How Government Policy Has Eroded Big Tech Support for Canadian Culture

TikTok’s decision to pull support for multiple Canadian cultural organizations and events in light of the federal government’s decision to ban the company from operating in the country has sparked growing concern. Putting the spotlight on TikTok makes sense, but it risks missing the bigger picture which involves a steady stream of funding cancellations in response to Canadian digital cultural policy. Netflix, Meta, Spotify, Disney and others have all had their own announcements with millions lost due largely to Canadian policy.

Has Canada killed the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg on cultural support? Scott Benzie is the executive director of Digital First Canada and CEO of the Buffer Festival. He’s seen the impact first hand and he returns to the Law Bytes podcast to discuss what has been happening, identify why, and sort through the impact.

July 21, 2025 — 3 comments — Podcasts

Tiktok statement on National Security, SXSW, Austin, Texas, USA by Cory Doctorow https://flic.kr/p/2omHwrb CC BY-SA 2.0

What Is the Canadian Government Doing With Its Incoherent Approach to TikTok?

My latest Globe and Mail op-ed notes that TikTok has long presented a thorny challenge for Western governments. The security and privacy concerns resulting from its link to China have pushed some to ban the app altogether. Others, cognizant of its enormous popularity with younger demographics and its support for the cultural sector, have sought to establish regulatory safeguards, required sales of controlling interest, or demanded localized versions that limit the potential for Chinese influence or interference.

Ottawa has faced many of the same issues, yet what has emerged is an incoherent approach that leaves Canadians with the worst of all worlds: less protection against security and privacy risks, less support for the cultural sector, and less certainty about what the government is trying to achieve.

July 16, 2025 — 6 comments — Columns

Google Translate by Jon Russell https://flic.kr/p/RZZzgY CC BY 2.0

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 240: Dean Beeby on Why Canada’s Language Laws May Stop Government From Posting Access to Information Records Online

Canada’s outdated and discouragingly ineffective access to information system has languished for years to the frustration of many transparency advocates. One potential fix – or at least improvement – would be for government departments and agencies to make the full text of the records from access requests available to the public by default online. Yet the biggest barrier to that approach has been Canada’s language laws and a recent decision from Commissioner for Official Languages may have killed the possibility altogether for the moment. Dean Beeby, an investigative journalist and freedom of information specialist recently wrote about the case on his Substack. He joins the Law Bytes podcast to discuss both the case and how technology may provide a solution, if the government is open to some legislative reforms.

July 14, 2025 — 2 comments — Podcasts

The Day I Knew I Was Old ;) by artistmac https://flic.kr/p/jnHv7a CC BY-SA 2.0

Risky Business: The Legal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory Age Verification Technologies

When the intersection of law and technology presents seemingly intractable new challenges, policy makers often bet on technology itself to solve the problem. Whether countering copyright infringement with digital locks, limiting access to unregulated services with website blocking, or deploying artificial intelligence to facilitate content moderation, there is a recurring hope the answer to the policy dilemma lies in better technology. While technology frequently does play a role, experience suggests that the reality is far more complicated as new technologies also create new risks and bring unforeseen consequences. So too with the emphasis on age verification technologies as a magical solution to limiting under-age access to adult content online. These technologies offer some promise, but the significant privacy and accuracy risks that could inhibit freedom of expression are too great to ignore.

The Hub runs a debate today on the mandated use of age verification technologies. I argue against it in a slightly shorter version of this post. Daniel Zekveld of the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada makes the case for it in this post.

July 9, 2025 — 5 comments — Columns