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/

@mgeist it’s the same govt that say they can’t do anything about the CSAM generator formerly known as Twitter…. Like applying criminal code. Incompetence indistinguishable from malice.

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/

@mgeist Reform is not how I'd describe the updated legislation. That infers some kind of improvement, which this is not (except perhaps from the viewpoint of government insiders who are better able to block or ignore any ATII requests).#onpoli

@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca @mgeist@mas.to I believe it should be legal for you to record a movie in a movie theatre and sell it to people in the street more than I believe it should be legal for an AI to be trained on your writing/art/etc without your explicit opt-in consent.

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/