Canadian Intelligence for the Dangerous Decades

The last major upgrading of Canada’s intelligence capacity took place following 9/11. Today’s threat environment features renewed great power competition, compounding cycles of technological change, climate disasters, and the fear that we are entering an age of serial pandemics. Canada needs to upgrade its intelligence collection and assessment, and match its resources to the certainty that we face decades of international volatility that will directly affect the lives and prosperity of Canadians.

In his report, the sixth in CIGI’s Reimagining a Canadian National Security Strategy series, Greg Fyffe outlines the features such an upgrading strategy should incorporate.

Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen has urged European law makers to force social media platforms to do better in dealing with problematic content beyond the English-speaking world. As Stephen Maher writes, these parliamentarians may be more effective than their US counterparts in forcing changes. Europe is home to the most powerful and effective regulatory states, and the need for regulations to reduce harms is not subject to the same partisan conflict as in the United States.

“I would stand with the individual or the citizen against the might of the state,” Justice Jairus Ngaan said last month, delivering a major blow to the Kenyan government’s planned rollout of a population-wide biometric ID system. The vast collection of data involved in digital ID schemes that directly track and surveil our lives has equally vast human rights implications. As such systems proliferate, Elizabeth M. Renieris writes, this judgment should inform similar debates around the world.

Faced with such climate-related threats as human insecurity, economic disruption, humanitarian crises and increased domestic conflict, Canada must consider climate change as a key factor in national security and work to foster greater international cooperation on the issue. This briefing highlights some of the research and analysis by CIGI experts on these themes.

Nov. 25 – 2:00 p.m. EST (UTC–05:00): Online abuse targeting marginalized groups has real-world consequences, including silencing voices and exacerbating existing inequalities in society. Moderator Suzie Dunn and Florencia Goldsman, contributors to CIGI’s research project Supporting a Safer Internet: Global Survey of Gender-Based Violence Online, will discuss the flawed policies of social networks that require more accountability and how women and LGBTQ+ groups have adopted strategies to protect themselves online.

Learn more and register to attend here.

Dec. 7 – 9:30 a.m. EST (UTC–05:00): CIGI is pleased to host His Excellency Cong Peiwu, China’s Ambassador to Canada, for a conversation with CIGI President Rohinton P. Medhora about China’s role in the global economy. In the wake of the G20 leaders’ summit and the WTO Ministerial Conference, this conversation will explore China’s role and influence in issues preoccupying governments worldwide, such as technology, trade, investment, climate change, and cyber and data governance. A Q&A period moderated by Medhora will follow.

To join us online on December 7, please register here.