Michael GeistOpinion

The Lessons of 9/11 We Forgot After October 7th

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins at sundown tonight. This year, it falls at the same time as the 25th anniversary ...
Michael GeistOpinion

Be Careful What You Wish For: Why Asking Google Maps to Defy the U.S. on Lake Ontario Would Undermine Canadian Digital Sovereignty

I woke up early on Monday morning for 14 interviews focused on digital sovereignty on CBC Radio stations across the country ...
Michael Geist

Named to Canadian Lawyer’s Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers

Canadian Lawyer released its 2026 list of the Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada yesterday and I am grateful to be ...
Michael Geist

The Government Doubles Down on News Sector Support: Fiscal Update Opens the Door to Tens of Millions in Tax Credits for Bell, Rogers and Corus

The government is doubling down on its support for the Canadian news sector by proposing to massively expand the Labour Journalism Tax Credit to include television and radio news. The announcement in ...
Michael Geist

The Commission: How Bill C-34 Creates an Internet Super-Regulator That Will Touch the Lives of Millions of Canadians

The proposed kids’ social media ban is capturing the headlines, but lost in the debate over Bill C-34 is that its most consequential element may be the creation and powers of the government agency the ...
Michael Geist

A Massive Own-Goal for the Government: Google to Stop News Links in Canada Due to Bill C-18

The worst case scenario for Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the Canadian news sector, and the Canadian public has come to pass: Google has announced that it will block news links in Canada ...
Michael Geist

Privacy At Risk: Government Buries Lawful Access Provisions in New Border Bill

The pressure from Canadian law enforcement for access to Internet subscriber data dates back to 1999, when government officials began crafting proposals that included legal powers to access ...
Michael Geist

The Hidden Lawful Access Tradeoff: How Bill C-22 Lowers the Evidentiary Standards for Police Access to Subscriber Information

The return of lawful access in Bill C-22 has unsurprisingly focused on the government’s significant shift on warrantless access to subscriber information, which was the headline concern with Bill C-2, ...
Michael Geist

Starting Over: Court Filing Confirms the CRTC’s Streamer Contribution Decisions Are Dead With a Full Online Streaming Act Reset to Come

When the government announced plans last month to kill the CRTC’s Online Streaming Act ruling, it left a critical question unanswered: was the target only the Commission’s decision to increase ...
Michael Geist

Government Doubles Down in Defending Bill C-2’s Information Demand Powers That Open the Door to Warrantless Access of Personal Information

The return of the House of Commons from the summer break brings with it a resumption of debate on government bills. Topping the list this week is Bill C-2, the omnibus border measures bill, that ...
Michael Geist

Make It Make Sense: My Appearance Before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Bill C-22’s Lawful Access Plan

Fresh off appearing before a Senate committee on AI on Wednesday, yesterday I provided expert testimony to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security as part of its study on Bill ...
Michael Geist

CRTC Bill C-11 Ruling “Makes Web Giants Pay” But it is Canadian Consumers That Will Get the Bill

The CRTC has released its much-anticipated Bill C-11 ruling on the initial mandated contributions from Internet streaming services. The headline the Commission and government will promote is that the ...