Podcasts

Upgraded patient care areas opening at Royal Inland Hospital by Province of British Columbia https://flic.kr/p/2qeGUtB CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 228: Kumanan Wilson on Why Canadian Health Data Requires Stronger Privacy Protection in the Trump Era

The craziness of the Trump administration relationship with Canada was on full display this past week as seemingly every day involved some form of policy change on tariffs – first on, then slightly delayed for some goods, then slightly delayed for more goods and by week’s end threats of new tariffs. Given the uncertainty, I recently co-wrote an op-ed in the Globe and Mail together with Dr. Kumanan Wilson that sought to put the spotlight on another issue that could come to the fore if the economic battle moves beyond tariffs to other issues. In this case – privacy, data localization and health data.

Dr. Wilson is a specialist in General Internal Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital,  Chief Executive Officer/Chief Scientific Officer, Bruyère Research Institute, a Professor and Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Chair in Digital Health Innovation at the University of Ottawa and member of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. He joins the Law Bytes podcast to discuss why we should be paying attention to health privacy, AI and the location of our data.

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March 10, 2025 — 1 comment — Podcasts
512px-Camera_TV_-_Radio-Canada_-_CBC_News by Chicoutimi, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 227: Tara Henley on How to Save the CBC

Debates over the role and future of the CBC are seemingly about as old as the CBC itself. Those debates have become increasingly fractious in recent years as some see the public broadcaster as essential to Canadian culture and to address concerns about misinformation, while other insist it is hopelessly biased, outdated, and a threat to marketplace competition. Tara Henley is a Canadian writer, journalist and podcaster who spent years at the CBC. Several years ago, she quit the CBC in very public fashion and has since developed an important presence online through her podcasts and Substack. She’s recently wrote an important piece on how to save the CBC and she joins the Law Bytes podcast this week to discuss.

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March 3, 2025 — 1 comment — Podcasts
Patent by Brook (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/3fKqYy

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 226: Richard Gold on Why Canada Should Target U.S. Patents To Help Counter Tariff Trade Pressure

The trade battle between Canada and the U.S. took a brief break last week as hours before the Trump tariffs were scheduled to take effect, President Trump agreed to a 30 day delay in return for various border measures. That brought a sigh of relief but no real sense that the issue is over. Indeed, quite the opposite – as future battles over tariffs and other measures appear very likely. Professor Richard Gold of McGill University’s Faculty of Law specializes in intellectual property. On last week’s Law Bytes episode, I referenced his proposal to consider suspending patents in key sectors such as pharmaceuticals and AI as a mechanism to counter US pressure. He joins me on the Law Bytes podcast to expand on his idea, explaining why there would be benefits for Canadian firms and frustration on U.S. firms that could spark domestic support to counter potential measures targeting Canada.

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February 10, 2025 — 9 comments — Podcasts
Foreign Leader Visits by Trump White House https://flic.kr/p/UZnZHF PDM 1.0

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 225: How Canada Can Leverage Digital Policy to Retaliate Against Trump’s Tariffs

Canada now finds itself in economic war with the United States as President Donald Trump has levied a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods (10% for energy), which are scheduled to start on Tuesday. In response, Canada will levy retaliatory tariffs valued at $155 billion with $30 billion coming this week and another $125 billion in several weeks time. It is seemingly impossible to make sense of this deliberate targeting of an ally and claims this is linked to fentanyl that crosses the Canadian border into the U.S. doesn’t add up. Should this escalate further, the prospect of additional measures seem possible and that is where digital policy may come in. This week’s Law Bytes podcast examines the potential role of digital policy in support of retaliation against the Trump tariffs, including both defensive and offensive measures.

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February 2, 2025 — 6 comments — Podcasts
Foreign Leader Visits by Trump White House https://flic.kr/p/TKVLTD PDM 1.0

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 224: Why Prorogation and Donald Trump Spell the End of an Era in Canadian Digital Policy

A lot has happened over the past six weeks since the last Law Bytes episode that provided a  year-end review. TikTok briefly went offline in the US,  Meta changed its content moderation policies in a major shift designed to curry favour with Donald Trump, Amazon announced it is laying off all of its Quebec-based employees, and Bell obtained an expansive court blocking order covering copycat sites to name just a few developments. Future episodes will dive into these issues but for the moment, the biggest story for podcast devoted to digital policy from a Canadian perspective is government’s decision to prorogue Parliament on January 6th and the inauguration of Donald Trump two weeks later on January 20th.  Those two weeks effectively mark the end of the past five years of Canadian digital policy. Having devoted multiple episodes to various bills and laws, the bills are dead due to prorogation and many of the laws seem likely to die due to Donald Trump. This week’s Law Bytes podcast takes a closer look at what just happened and will consider what lies ahead in next week’s episode.

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January 27, 2025 — 6 comments — Podcasts
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