CIRCLE WITH A DOT

Social media and AI chatbot bans for kids are fast becoming a political consensus in Canada. But @smgrimes, who has spent decades working on children's rights and digital policy, sees a moral panic in the making. She joins my Law Bytes podcast to discuss.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/the-law-bytes-podcast-episode-268-sara-grimes-on-the-moral-panic-behind-banning-kids-from-social-media-and-ai-chatbots/

The government says it has no choice but to act on a ban on social media and AI chatbots for kids. My post argues that there is a choice. Reject harmful age-gating policies that sacrifice privacy and increase surveillance, and get on with effective AI regulation.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/government-has-a-choice-why-an-ai-chatbot-ban-for-kids-is-an-even-worse-idea-than-a-social-media-ban/

The government seems to think that if it ignores potential violations of Charter rights, the issue magically disappears. Its charter statement on lawful access (Bill C-22) says nothing about mandated metadata collection or risk of systemic vulnerabilities.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/wilful-blindness-how-the-lawful-access-charter-statement-skips-bill-c-22s-most-constitutionally-vulnerable-provisions/

Three years after the Rogers-Shaw merger was approved, the fallout is arriving: buyouts for half the workforce, rising consumer complaints, and a company pivoting toward sports and media. Peter Nowak joins the Law Bytes podcast this week to discuss.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/the-law-bytes-podcast-episode-267-peter-nowak-on-rogers-the-shaw-merger-aftermath-and-the-limits-of-canadian-telecom-policy/

Ontario's Ford government just completed the most significant reform to its access to information regime in decades. It did so retroactively to 1988, without a single public hearing or meaningful debate, and despite explicit objections from the province's Information and Privacy Commissioner. Bill 97, buried in an omnibus bill, passed within weeks of tabling. Justin Safayeni joins my Law Bytes podcast to explain what happened and why it matters.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/the-law-bytes-podcast-episode-266-justin-safayeni-on-the-ontario-governments-overnight-evisceration-of-access-to-information/

The Heritage committee's new AI report is framed as a way to protect Canadian creators. But its leading recommendation of opt-in consent for all training data would do the opposite, making Canada an outlier and reducing Canadian content in AI models.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/ai-without-canada-why-the-heritage-committees-ai-report-could-lead-to-less-canadian-content-in-the-training-data/

AI is one of the most consequential policy challenges we face. In my opening remarks before the Senate TRCM committee, I focus on three critical issues: privacy, copyright, and the need for an AI Transparency Act.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/addressing-the-ai-policy-challenge-my-appearance-before-the-standing-senate-committee-on-transport-and-communications/

After four days of debate, lawful access heads to committee with risks more exposed. MPs targeting metadata retention, security vulnerabilities, and weakened subscriber info standard. Government's only answer: we're the only G7 without this. Not a defence.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/lawful-access-heads-to-committee-the-opposition-found-its-voice-the-government-never-found-its-defence/

The AI privacy debate typically focuses on what data goes in. My Globe op-ed discusses the flip side: what AI figures out by reconstructing identities from fragments never meant to be personal data. De-identification, a core part of privacy law, is broken.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-privacy-threat-that-ai-poses-isnt-what-it-learns-its-what-it/

I don’t typically add new posts on the weekend. But when the government offers misleading defences of lawful access by citing a non-existent “mere suspicion” standard to justify weakening the protection for access to subscriber information in Bill C-22…
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/a-standard-that-doesnt-exist-parliamentary-secretary-for-justice-offers-misleading-defence-of-bill-c-22s-lower-threshold-for-subscriber-information/

The government's case for lawful access just got more alarming: it now admits Bill C-22 is a first step and it is open to going further. Metadata retention and embedded intercept infrastructure aren't the ceiling. They're the surveillance starting point. https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/more-surveillance-demands-to-come-government-admits-bill-c-22s-lawful-access-provisions-could-be-expanded/

My post on the Blacklock's copyright case. The FCA decision comes with a catch: Federal Court's fair dealing and TPM analysis stands as the most thorough treatment of these questions in Canadian copyright law, serving as a roadmap for future cases.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/win-lose-or-draw-the-federal-court-of-appeal-overrules-a-key-copyright-case-on-procedural-grounds/