2026 Canada Youth Internet Governance Forum

This year’s forum explores key themes in AI and the environment, misinformation and disinformation in Canada’s public sphere, digital sovereignty in a changing global order, and youth perspectives on safety-by-design and digital accountability. Through keynote remarks, panel discussions, a fireside chat, and an interactive workshop, participants will engage with the opportunities and risks that define today’s digital ecosystem and the role young people can play in shaping its governance.

Connect, learn, and lead the conversation on how Canada’s youth can build a safer, more inclusive, and rights-based digital future.

Info: Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how societies understand, manage, and respond to environmental challenges. This panel explores the dual reality of AI as both a powerful tool for climate action and a growing source of environmental strain. On one hand, AI systems can accelerate breakthroughs in climate modelling, biodiversity monitoring, clean‑energy optimization, and sustainable urban planning. On the other, the energy demands of large‑scale models, expanding data‑centre infrastructure, and opaque supply chains raise urgent questions about carbon footprints, resource extraction, and long‑term ecological impact. Youth in Canada are uniquely positioned to shape how these technologies evolve. This discussion brings together technologists, environmental advocates, policymakers, and young innovators to examine where AI meaningfully advances sustainability goals and where it risks undermining them.

Info: Dana and Mira having a fireside chat discussing some of the unknown history of YDLC, the ups, the downs, and centering the importance of Canadian youth as active participants in domestic digital policy and global digital governance.

Info: Misinformation and disinformation are reshaping Canada’s public sphere, influencing everything from democratic participation to community trust and environmental degradation to public health. From vaccine hesitancy to viral conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation spread rapidly across digital platforms, eroding confidence in institutions and complicating emergency response efforts. This panel will examine how information disorders intersect with broader social, political, and technological dynamics, and what it will take to build a more resilient information ecosystem. Bringing together a diverse multistakeholder panel, the discussion will explore the mechanics of misinformation ecosystems, the role of platform design in amplifying harmful content, and the impact of communication failures on public trust. Panelists will highlight emerging governance approaches, community‑based interventions, and youth‑driven strategies for strengthening media literacy.

Info: Across Canada and around the world, young people are increasingly questioning how large technology companies collect data, shape online experiences, and influence democratic and social systems. This hands-on workshop equips participants with the knowledge and practical skills needed to identify harmful practices, understand their rights, and take action when large technology companies cross ethical or legal lines.

Info: The past two years have marked a period of change, both in Canada and across the world. Increasingly, people are taking a larger interest in conversations of independence on the international stage, and what independence looks like in the digital arena. The global, interoperable Internet is dependent on inter-country cooperation.

However, as vulnerabilities in Canadian digital infrastructure, including weak control over our own digital assets, become harder to ignore, the discussion of how to assert Canadian autonomy over all aspects of our digital infrastructure and ecosystem has taken center stage. In other quickly evolving fields, the changing world order has led middle powers to create deeper ties. Will the same technique work for digital sovereignty?

This panel will explore why digital sovereignty continues to make headlines. Discussion will touch on immediate and long-term steps Canada can take to carve a path towards functional digital sovereignty.

Info: As digital platforms become central to social, educational, and civic life, young people are demanding technologies that prioritize safety, transparency, and accountability from the ground up. Safety‑by‑design–the principle that platforms should embed protections into their architecture rather than rely on after‑the‑fact fixes–is emerging as a critical framework for shaping a healthier online ecosystem. This panel examines how safety‑by‑design can move from aspiration to implementation, and what meaningful accountability looks like from a youth perspective.

Bringing together youth advocates, technologists, policy experts, and platform representatives, the discussion will explore how design choices influence online harms, what responsibilities companies should carry, and how regulatory approaches such as duty‑of‑care models and risk‑assessment requirements can shift industry behaviour.

Event venue & nearby stays

80 Gould St, 80 Gould Street, Toronto, Canada

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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