On March April 6, 2021, the Max Bell School hosted Regulating the Internet: Can Canadian Democracy Survive Big Tech?, a panel discussion on whether the government should regulate online platforms and the internet more broadly.
Moderated by Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy Director, and Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications at the Max Bell School, Taylor Owen, this event brought together The Right Honourable Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of Canada, in conversation with leading Canadian journalist Andrew Coyne. This event was hosted by the Max Bell Foundation and the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University.
Watch the video of the conference below.
SPEAKERS
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Taylor OwenDirector, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, Max Bell School of Public Policy"The core challenge facing governments such as Australia’s and Canada’s is that no single state has enough power (save perhaps the United States) to really take on Big Tech. What is needed is not a litany of national approaches, each of which can be fought and picked apart by local lobbyists, but a global one." BiographyTaylor Owen is the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, the founding director of The Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, and an Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He is the host of the Big Tech podcast, a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a Fellow at the Public Policy Forum, and sits on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He was previously an Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia and the Research Director of Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism. His Doctorate is from the University of Oxford and he has been a Trudeau and Banting scholar, an Action Canada Fellow and received the 2016 Public Policy Forum Emerging Leader award. He is the author of Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2015) and the co-editor of The World Won’t Wait: Why Canada Needs to Rethink its Foreign Policies (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State (Columbia University Press, 2016). His forthcoming book with Emily Bell will be published by Yale University Press in 2021. His work focuses on the intersection of media, technology, and public policy and can be found at www.taylorowen.com and on Twitter.
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The Right Hon. Beverley McLachlinFormer Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Canada"The internet revolution has been a great force for the flourishing of free speech and expression, which is not only a basic human right but an essential element of democratic governance. But unchecked, the internet can also be used to transmit abusive and violent expression in powerfully new and destructive ways. The law has long imposed limits on harmful speech. But these limits have proved ineffective in regulating harmful online speech. Canada, like other countries, is now struggling with the issue of how we can retain the vibrant energy the internet brings to free expression and democratic discussion, while curbing its use to promote hate, bullying, pornography, and collective disinformation calculated to undermine our democratic institutions. Finding the proper balance between free expression online and curbing the harms it can promote is critical to maintaining human rights and democracy." BiographyBeverley McLachlin grew up in rural southern Alberta and went on to earn a B.A. (Hon.), M.A (Philosophy) and LL.B (law) at the University of Alberta. She practiced as a litigation lawyer in Edmonton and later Vancouver, and taught as an Associate Professor of Law at the Faculty of Law at UBC. She was appointed to the County Court of Vancouver in 1981, to the Supreme Court of British Columbia later that year, and to the Court of Appeal of British Columbia in 1986. She became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 1988. In 1989 she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, where she served as a Justice until January 7, 2000, when she was appointed as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Ms. McLachlin served in the position until December, 2017, making her the longest serving Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. Since retiring from the Supreme Court, Ms. McLachlin has been active in promoting access to justice and other justice-related endeavours. She also is engaged in arbitration, mediation and dispute resolution, and is a member of the Singapore International Commercial Court and the Supreme Court of Hong Kong. She is a co-author of The Law of Canadian Architecture and Engineering, and has written a fiction book (Full Disclosure) and a Memoir (Truth be Told). Beverley McLachlin is a Companion of the Order of Canada and a Commandeur de la Legion d’Honneur de France. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees.
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Andrew CoyneColumnist, The Globe and Mail"Why haven’t social media companies been able to fill the gatekeeper role? If there were many of them, perhaps they could. But given the quasi-monopoly Facebook and Twitter currently enjoy, they take on some of the attributes of the state, making their attempts at editing look like censorship. Hence, their initial reluctance to intervene, and hence the blowback when at last they did. Perhaps this is the best reason to break up Big Tech: to give us back our choice of gatekeepers." BiographyAndrew Coyne is a columnist for The Globe and Mail. Raised in Winnipeg, Mr. Coyne is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the London School of Economics. He has worked previously for The National Post, Maclean’s and Southam News, contributing as well to a wide range of other publications in Canada and abroad, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, and The Walrus. He is also a weekly panelist on CBC’s The National.
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