Michael Geist

The CRTC's Online Streaming Act ruling isn't just a streaming levy. My post on why it likely violates CUSMA by dictating how foreign capital must be deployed in Canada and who must own the result, handing the U.S. the right to impose matching tariffs.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/from-levy-to-liability-why-canada-risks-facing-hundreds-of-millions-in-retaliatory-tariffs-due-to-the-crtcs-online-streaming-act-ruling/

Bill C-22 has gone off the rails. My post explains how the government scrapped one bad lawful access provision, but created a two-headed monster of mandatory metadata retention and a technical capability mandate that could apply to all digital providers.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/the-lawful-access-two-headed-surveillance-monster-how-bill-c-22-went-off-the-rails/

The government's new video claims lawful access "respects Canadian privacy and Charter rights." But it avoids four Bill C-22 concerns critics keep raising: metadata retention, a lower subscriber info threshold, encryption risks, and incomplete oversight.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/slick-videos-wont-save-lawful-access-why-the-governments-bill-c-22-defence-avoids-the-charter-privacy-and-security-concerns-raised-by-critics/

Social media and AI chatbot bans for kids are fast becoming a political consensus in Canada. But @smgrimes@mastodon.social, 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/

For months, Canadian privacy and security experts have been warning about the risks of lawful access. US Congressional leaders have now joined the fight, citing Bill C-22's harm to national security, citing the drastic expansion of Canada’s surveillance powers.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/u-s-congressional-leaders-warn-canadian-lawful-access-plans-harm-u-s-national-security-and-economic-interests/

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/

Privacy commissioners, civil liberties groups, and privacy experts have all concluded that the current privacy safeguards for political parties are inadequate. My post on how the government is betting no one notices as it limits committee study on Bill C-25.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/05/going-through-the-motions-how-parliament-is-shutting-down-study-and-debate-on-political-party-privacy/

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/

In a year in which AI has dominated much of the news cycle, the story of Anthropic’s Mythos and the cybersecurity concerns may be the biggest story of them all. Jason Miller joins the Law Bytes podcast to talk about Mythos and the AI governance challenges.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/the-law-bytes-podcast-episode-265-jason-millar-on-claude-mythos-project-glasswing-and-the-governance-crisis-in-frontier-ai/

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/

Sovereignty preferred, but not mandated: Canadian AI Sovereign Compute program prioritizes but doesn’t mandate data residency, is ok with companies contractually controlled but not owned by Canadians, and must only limit instances of foreign access to data.
https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/program-guide-artificial-intelligence-sovereign-compute-infrastructure-program-scip#3a

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/

Data sovereignty is a global structural trend. The U.S. is fighting it by asserting legal access wherever data sits and pressuring countries that try to move their data beyond that reach. The follow-up to my Globe and Mail op-ed catalogues what the 2026 U.S. National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers actually says about cloud computing and data sovereignty worldwide.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/the-global-battle-for-data-control-how-the-2026-u-s-report-on-trade-barriers-targets-data-sovereignty-worldwide/

Heads They Win, Tails We Lose: What Lies Behind the U.S. Trade Battle For Control over Data
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/04/heads-they-win-tails-we-lose-what-lies-behind-the-u-s-trade-battle-for-control-over-data/

My Globe op-ed on the U.S.’s two-pronged strategy over data. First, leverage the CLOUD Act to assert jurisdiction over data wherever it is stored. Second, treat responses that involve data localization rules or sovereign AI initiatives as a trade barrier.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-the-us-isnt-happy-about-canadas-quest-for-digital-sovereignty/

Setting Canada’s AI Policy Priorities: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/03/setting-canadas-ai-policy-priorities-my-appearance-before-the-standing-committee-on-industry-science-and-technology/

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 261: Ian Goldberg on the Privacy Risks of Age Assurance Technologies
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/03/the-law-bytes-podcast-episode-261-ian-goldberg-on-the-privacy-risks-of-age-assurance-technologies/

Government used AI to summarize expert reports from its AI consult. I did the same by uploading them to Chat GPT/Perplexity AI to generate new summaries. I found the government consistently softened advice creating an illusion of consensus that isn’t really there.
https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2026/02/aiconsultresults/