The Competition Cage Match

Canadians deserve more choices when it comes to where and how they shop. What stands in the way?

Join the Policy Prompt crew for a different kind of episode, recorded before a live audience at Perfect Books in Ottawa.

Host Paul Samson talks to Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar, authors of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians (Sutherland House). They discuss “kayfabe capitalism” and how Canada can promote competition, encourage citizen engagement and create a more level playing field: “Change is possible, change is happening. Here’s how to be a constructive element of that.”

Listen to episode 8 here.

Are collective data rights really necessary? Or, do people and communities already have sufficient rights to address harms through equality, public administration or consumer law? Might collective data rights even be harmful by undermining individual data rights or creating unjust collectivities? If we did have collective data rights, what should they look like? And how could they be introduced into legislation?

In this special report, Jeni Tennison considers these questions, examining the legal remedies currently available in the United Kingdom in three scenarios where the people affected by algorithmic decision making are not data subjects and therefore do not have individual data protection rights. The goal is to identify whether and where new collective data rights might be needed to avoid, or gain redress for, collective data harms, and hence to inform future regulation of data and artificial intelligence (AI).

China is far ahead of the United States and other countries in terms of generative AI patent applications. In this opinion, Alex He asks whether this lead could be “a game changer in the ongoing global AI arms race? Or is it simply an extension of China’s ‘quantity first’ patent strategy into a new domain?”

He writes that although the impressive figures do not necessarily position China at the forefront of technological and industrial development, several new developments warrant consideration when assessing the quality of Chinese generative AI patents.

In this commentary, Daniel Araya writes about the new era of “multinodality,” in which power is understood in terms of geopolitical influence. “Power depends on a nation’s position within a web of relationships. In a multinodal system, power depends on dominating the world’s trade arteries, energy markets, sea lanes, transportation corridors and technology clusters.”

Although hard power still matters, “coercion is more likely to lead to stalemate or crisis than to dominance.…It is estimated that the US government has spent more than $8 trillion on war over the past two decades. Rather than aiming for attrition through war, America should focus on addition through trade.”

Every December 1, Costa Ricans recall the moment in 1948 when the founder of the modern republic, José Figueres Ferrer, took a sledgehammer to the walls of the Bellavista Fortress in San José to mark the abolishment of the army. Ever since, Costa Rica has been a “model of stability in a volatile neighbourhood,” John Ivison writes, “at least in part because the savings on military spending have been directed toward improving the health and education of its citizens.”

But Costa Rica is now facing external pressures — crime and corruption, a flood of irregular migrants, and rising tensions created by its authoritarian northern neighbour, Nicaragua — “that mean the great powers are taking an almost unprecedented interest in the region, and the reinstatement of Costa Rica’s army is no longer unthinkable.”

DPH Hosts Its Third Research Showcase

On December 17, the Digital Policy Hub (DPH) showcased the work of its 2024–2025 cohort of DPH fellows at its fall research conference at CIGI. Presentations spotlighted policy questions and solutions relating to the emergence of disruptive technology across sectors in Canada and internationally.

New Publications

As well, two more working papers by Hub fellows from the summer 2024 cohort have been released.

Paula Martins: “Applying a Tech Lens to the Right to Information: Part 2”

Elia Rasky: “Balancing Stakeholder Interests in Bill C-27”

Follow the links on the Hub webpage to learn more about the Hub scholars and their work.