Disruption & Technology

Past Event

Advances in big data, algorithms and cloud computing over the past decade have contributed to the emergence and widespread use of digital platforms in Canada. Whether it be through Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, Etsy or Shopify, a growing number of Canadian workers and businesses are interacting in these platform-based and controlled markets. This phenomenon, known as the emergence of the Platform Economy, has significant implications for the Future of Work in Canada. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this trend as more Canadians than ever before turn towards digital platforms to support their livelihoods.

Digital Transformation During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

Political polarization is growing across the globe. In this first report on the urban-rural divide in Canada, Sean Speer teams up with Peter Loewen and the University of Toronto’s Policy, Elections and Representation Lab (PEARL) to explore the theory that a “perception gap” exists between those who live in cities, the suburbs and rural communities. How do Canadians' distorted beliefs of one another’s circumstances fuel polarization?

How can we create a vibrant digital public sphere that doesn’t by design expose people to an ocean of baser instincts — much less to hatred and abuse? The Citizens’ Assembly on Democratic Expression explores the question of online harms, as Canadians spend more and more time on the Internet, particularly in the COVID-19 pandemic. These 42 members, randomly selected from a pool of volunteers, who we hope represent the widest possible range of voices and perspectives, come together to provide 33 recommendations that balance the harms of misuse of technology with freedom of speech.

In Spring 2020, threat actors wearing lab coats instead of trench coats were infiltrating our labs in hopes of stealing valuable COVID-19 vaccine research. It forced Canada’s top secret intelligence agency CSIS to step out of the shadows and warn those most at risk.

Canada’s economy has had its ups and downs, crashes, failures and recessions, but how do you measure the business impact of a country that simply stopped working and intentionally shut down its economy to halt the spread of COVID-19?

Our institutions must build uncertainty into policy-making and program design. This “uncertainty screen” will help ensure a vision of the future that reflects today’s uniquely complex environment.

Little did Alberta Health Services' Digital Experience team know this moment would shift the province’s whole pandemic strategy, and become the core of Alberta’s COVID response. Their assessment tool with online booking and results would get attention from across North America, and spark a form of collaboration that would cast lasting doubt on the way things have always been done.

COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for Canada’s entrepreneurial economy. This paper shows why some entrepreneurs have thrived while others are facing more barriers than ever.

Six months after the release of New North Star II, the case for a mission-driven economic strategy is even more relevant. The pandemic has highlighted the need for a new industrial strategy to cultivate domestic innovations and technologies in Canada's national interests and authors Robert Asselin and Sean Speer revisit their analysis and recommendations and find a compelling model in the US’s DARPA model.

Today’s media systems include the powerful social media companies that watch, commodify, and manipulate us as they buy and sell our data. Mike Ananny urges a more sophisticated understanding of the privately controlled infrastructures where important decisions are made shaping behaviours, beliefs and online news. These might look like boring, messy, technical places where only engineers work, but regulators need to grasp their complexities and tackle the prevailing secrecy to better protect the public interest.

Artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, the sharing economy and other emerging technologies were expected to upend the nature of how people work, eliminate an array of routine and repetitive tasks, and put pressure on social support frameworks designed for a different era. These impacts expected to be felt in the near to medium term suddenly find themselves present. The need to reinvent Canada's social and economic policy frameworks has a newfound urgency.

By drawing parallels to elections, climate change and the anti-vaccination movement, author Christopher Dornan illustrates how disinformation about COVID-19 can pose significant risks for public health, social cohesion and collective trust. Dornan identifies several useful recommendations for citizens, governments and social media platforms to consider to effectively combat disinformation and engage in evidence-based discussion about scientific findings.