Past Present: Canadian Digital Sovereignty in the AI Age

The brings together policymakers, civil servants and researchers for a day of working conversations featuring leading voices from across Canadian policy, civil society and academia. Our goal is to bring the challenges of the present into dialogue with Canadian histories of infrastructure, sovereignty, and industry to help imagine uniquely Canadian yet globally interoperable approaches to digital and AI ethics, governance, and innovation.

We will explore how questions of data control, platform power, AI, cybersecurity, trade, and technological dependence are tied to public safety, economic sovereignty, and democratic resilience. We will also explore how to rethink critical questions around data ownership to strengthen and reimagine sovereign digital ecosystems.

How can Canada better protect its communications and financial systems in an age of accelerating fraud? What forms of accountability, coordination, transparency, standards, and digital policy are needed to address fraud that increasingly operates across borders?

How are cybersecurity, cognitive sovereignty, information integrity, and other risks posed by digital technologies impacting Canadians? What protections and capabilities are needed to strengthen resilience from the national level to individual Canadians?

How are trade, tariffs, and digital infrastructure being used as tools of geopolitical and economic leverage? How can Canada respond through sovereignty-focused policy, national capacity-building, and trade diversification?

How can Canada strengthen digital democracy, civic engagement, informed policymaking, and institutional resilience? What investments in employment, training, and post-secondary education are needed to ensure institutions can adapt to technological change?

Past Present: Canadian Digital Sovereignty in the AI Age brings together policymakers, civil servants, researchers, civil society, industry, and the public for a day of working conversation featuring leading voices from across Canadian policy, civil society, and academia.

Our lineup of acclaimed speakers includes Brian Ritchie (CEO, kama.ai/Chapleau Cree Nation); Vass Bednar (Canadian Shield Institute); Patrick Leblond (University of Ottawa); Ann Fitz-Gerald (Balsillie School of International Affairs); Donna Kidwell (CISO, University of Toronto), and many more.

The project is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and by CIRA’s Net Good program. We thank our partners, the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, CAMP, Students Commission of Canada, OpenMedia, Project Liberty, Canadian Shield Initiative, Protocols for Publishers, Modal Foundation, Samara Center for Democracy, and Gander Social.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Beau Hayward at [email protected].

Event venue & nearby stays

Ottawa Art Gallery, 50 Mackenzie King Bridge, Ottawa, Canada

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

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