Law Bytes

Canada’s pivot to Europe took another step at last week’s Canada-EU summit in Montreal, where the two sides launched what they call an “Alliance for the Future.” The announcements ranged from critical minerals and firefighting aircraft to supercomputing and payment systems. The digital commitments received less attention, but they raise many of the same sovereignty questions that have dominated the Canada-U.S. relationship this year. Indeed, the leaders committed to reciprocal access to each other’s cloud and AI markets and concluded Canada’s first Digital Trade Agreement.

Mikołaj Barczentewicz is a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of Surrey, where he is research director of the Surrey Law and Technology Hub, and a Senior Scholar at the International Center for Law & Economics. His recent work has examined how the EU has addressed cloud and AI policy and what it means for its allies. He joins me on the podcast to discuss Europe’s digital sovereignty push, its proposed Cloud and AI Development Act, and the implications for Canada.

Parliament is back in full swing and with it debate on a wide range of digital bills, including lawful access, social media rules, AI regulation, and privacy reform. This week’s Law Bytes podcast provides an update on recent developments and highlights what to watch for in the weeks ahead as both the Senate and House launch hearings on high-profile digital legislation.

The Lawbytes podcast returns after a brief hiatus in late summer and early fall by turning to the debate on data and digital sovereignty. Last week, I was pleased to deliver the dinner keynote speech at the NREN Assembly, an annual gathering hosted by CANARIE that brings together staff and leadership from CANARIE and all thirteen provincial and territorial partners of Canada’s National Research and Education Network. With their kind permission, this week’s episode features the keynote in full, titled Digital Sovereignty: Control, Choice, and Connection.

Sovereignty, whether digital sovereignty, data sovereignty, or AI sovereignty, has been the hot-button issue in Canada for months. Governments have shifted policies in hopes of addressing the issue, the public has expressed interest in Canadian alternatives, and the business community has rushed to meet that interest. But what does it actually take to create a true, sovereign alternative? We now have a live experiment with Gander, a new social network that looks a bit like X or BlueSky, but with data sovereignty. The company has worked to ensure that data remains in Canadian control and developed identity systems that may offer a preview of what’s to come if the social media ban takes hold. Leading the way has been Ben Waldman, Gander’s co-founder and CEO. He joins the Law Bytes podcast this week to talk about Gander’s origin story and to walk through the real-world challenges of creating a sovereign social network.

The Canadian government’s surprise decision to sign the UN Cybercrime Convention has sparked many questions about the convention, its risks, and what changed over the past nine months between Canada no-showing the signing in Vietnam and this month’s reversal. To help answer those questions, there is no one better than Kate Robertson, a senior research associate at the Citizen Lab, who has been vocal on the convention since negotiations began years ago. She joins the Law Bytes podcast to discuss her concerns and how the Convention fits within the broader global political and policing frameworks.

Despite repeated studies and promises for reform, Canada’s access to information system has long been plagued by long delays, overbroad exclusions, insufficient resources, and an Information Commissioner without the resources and powers needed to fully ensure compliance.

The government is currently undertaking yet another reform process as the Treasury Board has released proposed changes. They’ve left Caroline Maynard, Canada’s Information Commissioner, largely unimpressed. She is relieved the government is open to change, but warns that the approaches “lack ambition” and, more pointedly, that the review “must not become a justification for further secrecy.” Commissioner Maynard joins the Law Bytes podcast to walk through her concerns with the government’s plans and her proposals for improving Canada’s access to information law.

The government’s privacy reform bill was supposed to earn applause for its effort to modernize outdated rules and provide Canadians with stronger privacy protections. Yet the decision to strip the Privacy Commissioner of Canada of responsibility for private-sector privacy law and shift that responsibility to the Digital Safety Commission has sparked widespread concern among Canadian privacy experts. This week’s Law Bytes podcast speaks to David Loukidelis, one of Canada’s best-regarded former privacy commissioners. Loukidelis served as BC's Information and Privacy Commissioner from 1999 to 2010, where he was responsible for the enforcement of BC's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection Act, which came into force in 2004. He joins me on the podcast to share his thoughts on the enforcement changes in the bill and what it may mean for privacy in Canada.

Earlier this month, the government shocked the culture sector by announcing it was effectively reversing the CRTC decision that implemented the Online Streaming Act. Culture Minister Marc Miller tried to cushion the blow with a promise of $600 million in support for the audio and audiovisual sectors, but there was no escaping the anger from some over abandoning a policy that had been years in the making. Mark Musselman is a former entertainment lawyer, longtime Canadian movie producer, and the author of the excellent White Paper Black Coffee Substack. He returns to the Law Bytes podcast to discuss the reversal, the stakeholder reaction, and the challenges that lie ahead.

Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, has quickly become a lightning rod for debate since its introduction earlier this month. The issue that invariably tops the list is the kids’ social media ban. Bill C-34, along with the recently introduced Bill C-36, will be covered from multiple angles in the weeks ahead. For the moment, I am pleased to rebroadcast a recent episode of the Globe and Mail’s The Decibel podcast. I was invited to appear on the program, where I was interviewed by Sherrill Sutherland about Bill C-34, the ban, and online harms and safety more broadly. I am grateful to the Globe for granting permission to rebroadcast the episode on my podcast uncut, in its entirety.

The release of the government’s AI strategy has sparked a wide range of reactions and a flurry of additional legislative initiatives. While the legislative side is being fleshed out, the debate over the broader strategy remains, including whether it features sufficient safeguards and enough ambition. To address the latter issue, Lucy Hargreaves, the Co-Founder and CEO of Build Canada, joins the Law Bytes podcast to assess the strategy, some of the remaining challenges, and discuss how Canada can “work to build AI companies the world can’t live without.”