How do we navigate the complex intersection of climate justice and digital technology? How are digital tools and infrastructures being used as both promising sites of collective environmental justice and scaling up extractivism? What promises does our media ecosystems offer in building climate justice and in what ways do they fuel misinformation?

Launching the Centre’s forthcoming Climate & Technology Essay Series, this event will include panels on:

• Climate Misinformation and Journalism

• Environmental Data Justice

• Climate Justice Impacts of Tech and AI

• Climate Justice and Technology Advocacy

Join us as experts from academia, advocacy, journalism, and policymaking dissect the intersection of climate justice and digital technology.

Agenda:

• Welcome and Opening Address

  • Helen Hayes, Research Manager, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy.

• Panel 1: Climate Misinformation and Journalism - This panel will examine the question of climate misinformation, the role of digital media platforms, and journalism in engendering public debate and understanding.

  • Geoff Dembicki, Investigative Climate Reporter, DeSmog

  • Esli Chan, Ph.D. Candidate, McGill University

  • Chris Russill, Associate Professor, School of Journalism & Communication, Carleton University

  • Moderator: Sonja Solomun, Deputy Director, Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy

• Keynote: Climate Disinformation and the Role of Tech

  • Catherine McKenna, CEO of Climate and Nature Solutions, Former Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, Chair of UN Secretary General’s Expert Group on Net Zero.

• Panel 2: Environmental Data Justice - This panel will consider how data and knowledge practices are being mobilized by communities in building environmental justice and combating environmental racism. The authors bring experience in and beyond academia in environmental justice led-innovation practices, multi-cultural technologies, remote sensing, and conservation data justice.

  • Naolo Charles, Founder of the Black Environmental Initiative and Co-Founder of the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice

  • Joycelyn Longdon, Ph.D. Candidate and Founder, ClimateInColour

  • Ufuoma Ovienmhada, Ph.D. Candidate, Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, MIT

  • Moderator: Rachel Bergmann, Fellow for the Climate Justice, AI, and Technology Team, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy.

• Panel 3: Impacts of Tech and AI on Climate Justice - This panel will emphasize the climate justice impacts of digital technology, especially artificial intelligence.

  • Dr. Mél Hogan, Associate Professor, Film and Media, Queen’s University

  • Sanjana Paul, Co-founder and Executive Director, Earth Hacks

  • Camille Minns, Deputy Director, Earth Hacks and & Co-Founder, Environmental Justice in Technology (EJIT) Project

  • Melissa Gregg, Senior Industry Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, RMIT University

  • Michael Khoo, Climate Disinformation Program Director, Friends of the Earth

  • Moderator: Janna Frenzel, PhD Candidate in Communication Studies, Concordia University

• Book Talk: Petroturfing - Refining Canadian Oil Through Social Media - What role does social media play in rebranding Canada’s extractive industry as a social good? Jordan B Kinder will speak about his recently released book on the limitations of social media networks in promoting environmental justice.

  • Jordan B. Kinder, Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

  • Moderator: Hannah Tollefson, Ph.D. Candidate, McGill University, Project Lead, Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy.

Bill C-63 Unpacked: Making the Internet Safer for Kids will dive into how the proposed bill requires social media platforms to minimize users’ risk of exposure to seven kinds of online harms, to responsibly design products likely used by children, and to immediately takedown two types of content: intimate images shared without consent, and child sexual abuse material.

We will discuss how these provisions make the internet safer for kids and where it falls short. Our panel will unpack the proposed duty to protect children, its alignment with international best practices, and the extent to which the Bill’s takedown measures and content-specific mandates ensure that children are protected when they’re online.

This virtual roundtable will be moderated by Taylor Owen, Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy and Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Calgary.

They will be joined by panelists:

• Samantha Reusch, Executive Director, Apathy is Boring - L'apathie c'est plate

• Valerie Steeves, Professor of Criminology, University of Ottawa

• Keith Baybayon, Chair of the Youth Advisory Council, Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario

• Marie-Ève Nadeau, International Advocacy Manager, 5Rights

• Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, Inc.

Watch the recorded livestream on our YouTube channel.

Does Bill C-63 propose criminalizing thoughts? Life in prison for hate crimes? What is the value and risk of reintroducing hate speech to the remit of a human rights tribunal? What does hate speech even mean in law? “Those provisions” of the Online Harms Bill, which comprise approximately 10% of the bill, have generated most of the controversy. It is time to unpack them, dispel myths from reality, and identify crucial points of concern.

In this second roundtable of our series on the Bill, we will discuss Bill C-63’s proposed amendments to the Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act. Our panel will unpack what the amendments mean in practice, the risks and benefits. With a wide range of opinions and perspectives, our conversation will reveal the nuances of ongoing debates around the Bill.

The roundtable will be hosted by Taylor Owen, Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, and Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Calgary.

They will be joined by panelists:

• Sandy Garossino, National Affairs Columnist, Canada’s National Observer

• Kenneth Grad, Adjunct Professor & Ph.D. Candidate, Osgoode Hall Law School

• Sunil Gurmukh, Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean, Faculty of Law, Western University

• Richard Moon, Law Professor, University of Windsor

The virtual roundtable will take place on March 27th from 12 p.m.-1 p.m., and will be live-streamed to our YouTube channel.

The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy presented a virtual roundtable to discuss initial reactions to the Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) by five members of the Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety to the Government of Canada.

The panel was hosted by Taylor Owen, Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, and Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Calgary.

The featured panellists:

• Amarnath Amarasingam, Assistant Professor in the School of Religion and Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. Expert in terrorism, radicalization and extremism, conspiracy theories, and online communities.

• Heidi Tworek, Canada Research Chair, Associate Professor of International History and Public Policy at UBC, and director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Expert in history and policy around communications, especially on the effects of new media technologies on democracy.

• Vivek Krishnamurthy, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Law School and Director of the Samuelson-Glushko Technology Law & Policy Clinic. Expert in public policy and the intersection of human rights and technology.

This is the first in a series of conversations we will be having on the bill as the legislative process moves forward.

View the full recording of the event on our YouTube channel.

A panel discussion among Canada-based journalists writing for U.S. media news outlets

This event is free, but registration is required. Register by clicking here.

Talking to a U.S. audience, the Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau once famously said: "Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United States has produced. We're different people from you and we're different people because of you.”

While Canadians spend a lot of time thinking about the United States, most Americans seldom think about Canada, especially if they don't live in a border state. In this context, how do Canadian-based journalists working for U.S. media outlets pitch and tell stories about Canada for their readership in the U.S. and beyond? How do U.S. media outlets perceive Canada, and how has this perception changed over time? Has the image of Canada in the U.S. changed and, relatedly, how has the job of reporting about Canada for a U.S. and broader international audience evolved?

Join us for a panel discussion among Canadian journalists working for prominent U.S. media news outlets about their work and changing U.S. perceptions of Canada within and beyond the mass media.

Featuring:

Dan Bilefsky

Amanda Coletta

Emma Jacobs

Moderated by David Shribman

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A and reception. This event is co-organized by the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada and the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at the Max Bell School of Public Policy.

Bios:

Dan Bilefsky spent nearly 20 years as an international correspondent for The New York Times in Paris, London, New York, Brussels, Istanbul, Prague and Montreal. He was previously a reporter for The Wall Street Journal and FT and is author of the true crime thriller, The Last Job, which he’s adapting for a podcast.

Amanda Coletta is a Toronto-based correspondent who covers Canada and the Caribbean for The Washington Post. She previously worked in London (UK), first at the Economist and then the Wall Street Journal. Coletta began her career as a freelance journalist covering the business and governance of sport for publications including Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Emma Jacobs is a Montreal-based freelance journalist who has worked in radio and podcasts for over a decade. She has covered Canada for NPR since 2019 and produced podcasts for organizations ranging from National Geographic to the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Previously, she worked for NPR member-stations WHYY and WNYC.

David Shribman, executive editor of the Post-Gazette from 2003 to 2019, writes a nationally syndicated column in the United States; prepares a separate column on Americans affairs for The Globe and Mail; is scholar-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University; and teaches American politics at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. Shribman was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for his writing on Washington and the American political scene. He led the coverage of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre that won the Pulitzer Prize a quarter-century later.

Entre méfiance, désinformation et cohésion sociale, cette table ronde discute des conséquences de la pandémie et du trumpisme sur le paysage politique et médiatique québécois. Un panel d’experts des milieux académique et du secteur public présenteront leurs observations en lien avec l’élection provinciale québécoise de 2022.

Cette table ronde est organisée par le Centre pour les médias, la technologie et la démocratie (MTD), la Chaire UNESCO en prévention de la radicalisation et de l’extrémisme violents (UNESCO-PREV), le Centre d’études sur les médias (CEM) et le Centre pour l’étude de la citoyenneté démocratique (CÉCD).

From distrust to disinformation and social cohesion, this roundtable discusses the consequences of the pandemic and Trumpism on the political and media landscape in Quebec. Hear from an expert roundtable of academics and public officials about their observations in relation to the 2022 Quebec provincial election.

This roundtable is organized by the Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy (MTD), the UNESCO Chair in Prevention of Radicalisation and Violent Extremism (UNESCO-PREV), the Centre d’études sur les médias (CEM), and the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (CSDC).

À propos des panélistes / About the Speakers

• Mathieu Lavigne est le Directeur du Projet sur la désinformation électorale au Québec et chercheur affilié au Centre pour les médias, la technologie et la démocratie et au Centre pour l’étude de la citoyenneté démocratique. Il se spécialise dans l’étude de la communication et des comportements politiques, avec un intérêt particulier pour la désinformation, la confiance dans les élections, la polarisation politique et la santé de l’écosystème d’information. Ses recherches ont été publiées dans Party Politics, le Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review et l’Elgar Encyclopedia of Technology and Politics.

• Sylvain Bédard est détenteur d’une formation multidisciplinaire et d’une expérience pratique en communication et en stratégie politique, Sylvain Bédard agit comme coordonnateur scientifique à la Chaire UNESCO-PREV. Il travaille principalement sur les questions liées au conspirationnisme, à la désinformation et à la résilience démocratique.

• Éric Bélanger est professeur titulaire au département de science politique de l’Université McGill. Il est aussi membre du Collège de nouveaux chercheurs et créateurs en art et en science de la Société royale du Canada ainsi que du Centre pour l’étude de la citoyenneté démocratique. Ses recherches portent sur la politique canadienne et québécoise, les partis politiques, l’opinion publique et les comportements électoraux. Il a publié plus de 70 articles sur ces sujets dans plusieurs revues scientifiques, notamment Comparative Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly, Electoral Studies, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, le European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, Political Communication, Nations and Nationalism et la Revue canadienne de science politique. Il a également coécrit 9 livres, dont Le comportement électoral des Québécois (2009) et Le nouvel électeur québécois (2022), et codirigé 3 ouvrages collectifs, dont Les Québécois aux urnes (2013) et Voting in Quebec Municipal Elections: A Tale of Two Cities (2022).

• Kathia Légaré mène des recherches et des analyses sur la désinformation et la mésinformation en contexte électoral chez Élections Québec. Elle est responsable de la coordination des actions de l’institution en la matière. Elle a obtenu un doctorat en science politique de l’Université Laval.

• Colette Brin est professeure titulaire au Département d’information et de communication de l’Université Laval et directrice du Centre d’études sur les médias. Sa recherche et son enseignement s’articulent autour des transformations actuelles du journalisme, notamment par l’entremise des politiques publiques et des initiatives organisationnelles, et des pratiques informationnelles des citoyens. Elle coordonne l’édition canadienne du Digital News Report (Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism) et a codirigé l’ouvrage Journalism in Crisis : Bridging Theory and Practice for Democratic Media Strategies in Canada (University of Toronto Press, 2016). Elle préside le Comité consultatif indépendant pour l’admissibilité aux mesures fiscales pour soutenir le journalisme de l’Agence du Revenu du Canada. Enfin, Mme Brin siège au Comité scientifique de l’Observatoire international sur les impacts sociétaux de l’intelligence artificielle et du numérique.

• Marie-Eve Carignan, Ph.D., est professeure agrégée au département de communication de l’Université de Sherbrooke, co-titulaire et directrice du Pôle médias de la Chaire UNESCO en prévention de la radicalisation et de l’extrémisme violents (Chaire UNESCO-PREV). Elle est professeure chercheure au sein du groupe de recherche en communication politique (GRCP), chercheure régulière au Centre de recherche Société, Droit et Religions de l’Université de Sherbrooke (SoDRUS) et chercheure associée au Centre de recherche sur la régulation et le droit de la gouvernance (CrDG) ainsi qu’au Centre de recherche sur l’enseignement et l’apprentissage des sciences (CREAS). Professeure Carignan concentre principalement ses recherches sur l’analyse de contenus médiatiques, l’impact des médias en société, la désinformation, la communication de risques et de crise ainsi que les stratégies de communication. Elle a collaboré à plusieurs ouvrages collectifs et publié dans des revues nationales et internationales en communication, en santé, en journalisme, en politique et en histoire. Marie-Eve Carignan est co-autrice des livres « La Maison-Blanche vue du Québec : La couverture des élections américaines par les médias québécois », paru aux Éditions La Presse en 2021, et « Mon frère est complotiste : rétablir le lien et le dialogue social », publié aux Éditions de l’Homme en novembre 2022. Impliquée dans des initiatives scientifiques d’envergure, elle est notamment membre du Comité de rédaction des Cahiers du journalisme et siège au Comité directeur du projet La Science d’abord ainsi qu’au Comité National de Rapprochement, Arts, Culture et Santé.

• David Morin est professeur titulaire à l’École de politique appliquée de la Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Ses champs d’expertise et son expérience professionnelle portent sur les questions de sécurité nationale et internationale, en particulier sur l’extrémisme violent, la radicalisation, la désinformation et le conspirationnisme. Il est cotitulaire de la Chaire UNESCO en prévention de la radicalisation et de l’extrémisme violents (Chaire UNESCO-PREV). Il a siégé sur le groupe consultatif d’experts sur la sécurité en ligne chargé de fournir des conseils au gouvernement du Canada sur un cadre législatif et réglementaire permettant de lutter au mieux contre le contenu préjudiciable en ligne. Il siège également, à titre d’expert désigné, sur le comité de pilotage du Réseau francophone de prévention de la radicalisation et de l’extrémisme violents pouvant conduire au terrorisme (FrancoPREV) appuyé par l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Enfin, outre de nombreuses activités scientifiques et auprès des milieux de pratique, le professeur Morin contribue activement au débat public et dans les médias sur ces questions.