2025 Sterling Prize Ceremony with Ron Deibert

Ron Deibert is the 2025 recipient of the Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy in recognition of his ongoing battle at the intersection of global security, digital technologies and human rights, and for his counterintelligence work on behalf of civil society.

The founder and director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Deibert heads a team of digital detectives who expose cyber espionage and uncover threats to human rights in the digital space and hold governments and corporations accountable for their unethical use of information technology.

Deibert and the Citizen Lab detectives work on behalf of citizens to help better understand information technology threats to individuals and groups, like human rights activists. While the work is rewarding, it can be unnerving due to their success exposing bad actors around the world.

The award ceremony will be followed by an engaging and wide-ranging conversation between Deibert, lawyer and PHS Community Services Society CEO Micheal Vonn and journalist Charles Campbell. Together, they will explore the complex challenges of defending privacy, freedom of expression, and accountability in an age of surveillance, disinformation, and digital authoritarianism. The discussion will provide deeper insight into Deibert’s work and what’s at stake for civil society in an increasingly monitored and manipulated digital world.

Doors open at 6:00pm. The event will start promptly at 6:30pm, and will be followed by a reception, which all attendees are invited to join. Registration is free and open to all.

Click here to read the SFU News story about Ron Deibert and this year's Sterling Prize!

The Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy was first awarded in 1993 and remains committed to recognizing work that provokes and contributes to the understanding of controversy, while presenting new ways of looking at the world and challenging complacency. The prize recognizes work across disciplines and departments and is awarded annually by the Sterling Prize committee.

Ron Deibert, (O.C., O.Ont., PhD, University of British Columbia) is a professor of political science, and the founder and director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. As Director of the Citizen Lab, Deibert has overseen as principal investigator and been a contributing author to more than 180 reports covering path breaking research on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, Internet censorship, and human rights.

Deibert’s work as Director of the Citizen Lab and as a scholar has received extensive recognition. In particular, he has been awarded the University of Toronto’s Outstanding Teaching Award (2002), the Northrop Frye Distinguished Teaching and Research Award (2002), the Carolyn Tuohy Award for Public Policy (2010), and the President’s Impact Award (2017). Deibert was named among Esquire Magazine’s “Best and Brightest List” of 2007, listed among SC Magazine’s 2010 top “IT Security Luminaries”, and named one of the top “Humans of the Year” in 2017 by VICE.

In 2013, Deibert was appointed to the Order of Ontario and awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal, for being “among the first to recognize and take measures to mitigate growing threats to communications rights, openness and security worldwide.” In 2022, he was named Officer of the Order of Canada – the country’s second highest civilian order of merit. Read more about Deibert here.

Micheal Vonn is a lawyer and was the Policy Director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association from 2004 - 2019. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Law and in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, where she has taught civil liberties and information ethics. Her publication credits include Birkbeck Law Review, Surveillance & Society, Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, and contributor to anthologies including Big Data Surveillance and Security Intelligence: The Canadian Case. Ms. Vonn has been a frequent speaker on a variety of civil liberties topics, including national security, policing, surveillance, and free expression. She has been a collaborator on the Big Data Surveillance project (Queens University), an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Free Expression (Ryerson University), and an Advisory Board Member of Privacy International. Since September, 2019, she has been the chief executive officer of PHS Community Services Society.

Charles Campbell is a Vancouver journalist who edited the Georgia Straight, worked at the Vancouver Sun as a department head and editorial board member, and is a founding contributor to The Tyee website. He longs for the old days when most of the big problems arose in the office of the publisher upstairs.

As this event is free, and free events routinely have a high number of no-shows, it is our policy to overbook. In case of a full event, registration may not guarantee entry. Seating is limited and will be available to registered attendees on a first-come, first-served basis.

The event will be hosted at the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at 580 W Hastings St.

Public and gender-neutral washrooms are available. All public washrooms are equipped with wheelchair accessible stalls.

There will be ASL interpreters for in-person attendees. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this event’s accessibility, feel free to connect with us at [email protected].

Our community guidelines are intended to ensure the safety of all guest speakers and event participants, and to foster honest, socially accountable dialogue at our events. Thank you for respecting our community guidelines!

• Above all, there will be zero tolerance for those who promote violence or discrimination against others on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, or disability. Anyone who incites harm towards other participants (whether through chat, video, audio or otherwise) will be removed at the discretion of our technical team and moderator.
• Don’t assume pronouns/gender/knowledge based on someone’s name or appearance. Please refer to people using the usernames and/or pronouns they provide.
• Take space, make space: share your perspective, and make space for other voices to be heard too. Recognize that we are all here to learn.
• Practice self-care in whatever way you need to. If you need to get up or take a break, please do so.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, 580 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, Canada

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