How Can We Bridge the Rural-Urban Digital Divide?

When COVID-19 emerged, the world pivoted to remote and online work, learning and socializing. Digital infrastructure and capacity became more critical than ever. Yet, in Canada, despite decades of warnings, many rural communities were left poorly serviced or disconnected. As S. Ashleigh Weeden and Wayne Kelly explain, ensuring everyone in Canada has access to high-quality, affordable, high-speed broadband internet is a matter of equity.

National security is supposedly the priority for governments today. But governments in Canada clearly haven’t grappled yet with climate security. As Simon Dalby writes, the lack of preparation to deal with extreme climate conditions and their impacts, such as the record-breaking temperatures and hundreds of heat stroke victims this summer in British Columbia, suggests governments aren’t thinking about what Canadians need for security in their own communities today.

In this episode of Big Tech, Taylor Owen speaks with Geoffrey Cain, author of The Perfect Police State, about the technology used in China’s Xinjiang region to oppress its Uighur population. Through a network of surveillance systems, social credit scores and algorithm-driven pre-crime computer software, China has built a chillingly real Orwellian police state and a society in which people fear their own neighbours.

Do the United States’ recent package of antitrust measures aimed at the tech giants and Canada’s passing of Bill C-10 signal a tipping point in governments’ willingness to enter the fray of regulating big tech? CIGI asked several experts for their opinion on what this moment signifies in platform governance.

According to the findings of a recent report, Canada’s global public health surveillance system, GPHIN — once considered a leading example of Canadian innovation — wasn’t up to the task during the COVID-19 pandemic. Adrian Levy and Wesley Wark outline the many areas of reform required to ensure GPHIN will be ready to deal with the next biological threat: better leadership, better organization, better integration of effort across government, more resources and enhanced use of technology.