In this episode, our guest is Dr. Emily Laidlaw, an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law and the Co-Director of the Canadian Network on Information and Security. Emily joins us to discuss Canada’s Online Harms Act and her experience serving on the expert advisory group on online safety in the development of the legislation.

Overall, the conversation covers both the benefits and pitfalls of the novel act. Particularly, Emily shares her thoughts about the important need for law to better protect children and vulnerable people on Social Media. However, she also shares her criticisms about how that need has been muddied by the problematic inclusion of the amendments to the Criminal Code, the criminal designation of “hate speech”, and the attached maximum penalty of “imprisonment for life.”

In the latter portion of the episode, Emily shares some of her recent work with us on the online abuse of elected officials and its ramifications on our democracy. More information on Dr. Laidlaw and her work can be found here.

Hosted by Robert Diab

Music by AudioCoffee: https://www.audiocoffee.net