Roundtable on the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act

As part of its newly re-introduced overhaul of privacy legislation, the federal government has included a completely novel regime to regulate AI through the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA). AIDA marks the first such regulatory regime in Canada that expressly governs AI and there are many questions, concerns, and issues to be discussed as a result.

The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy has assembled an incredible panel of experts to sift through the Act and provide initial analysis and reactions.

Please join us on Thursday, July 7th from 12:00-1:15pm EDT for what is sure to be a lively roundtable discussion, moderated by the Centre's Director of Policy & Engagement, Supriya Dwivedi.

NOTE: The roundtable will be held on Zoom. The event link will be accessible to registered attendees through Eventbrite -- simply follow the instructions in the reminder emails or log into your account to join the event. If you are having any difficulty login in, please email mtd@mcgill.ca.

Roundtable Participants

Ignacio Cofone

Ignacio Cofone is the Canada Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence Law and Data Governance at McGill University. He specializes in data governance and AI policy, particularly with regards to privacy and potential harm caused by algorithmic discrimination. Initially practicing law as a legal advisor to the city of Buenos Aires, Cofone would go on to hold Fellow positions at NYU and Yale before becoming an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Law at McGill. Some of Cofone’s recent publications focus on AI’s role in judicial decisions and privacy law reform.

Phil Dawson

Philip Dawson is a tech & AI analyst who has spent around a decade as a senior policy adviser. Having earned an LL.B. at McGill University, Dawson briefly practiced law before taking up a series of positions which have included advisory roles to the UN and the Government of Canada. In late 2020, he founded Dawson Policy, a public policy firm with an emphasis on digital technology and AI. He also maintains other advisory roles, including at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the Responsible AI Institute, and is the co-chair of the Canadian Data Governance Standardization Collaborative.

Erica Ifill

Erica Ifill is an economist and journalist who founded Not In My Colour, an equity and inclusion consultancy that builds inclusive workplaces. She is the co-founder and co-host of the “Bad + Bitchy” podcast, which focuses on politics and pop culture from an intersectional feminist perspective, and was nominated for “Best Podcast in Ottawa” by Faces magazine. With over a decade of federal government experience, Ifill uses her training to produce in-depth political and policy analyses in her weekly Hill Times column to advocate for marginalized communities. Her other published writing includes: The National Observer, The Globe and Mail, Press Progress, Refinery29, Chatelaine, and Maclean’s; she has appeared on The Current, CPAC, CBC News, CTV News, and CBC Radio One.

Emily Laidlaw

Emily Laidlaw is a lawyer and scholar whose work primarily focuses on cybersecurity, human rights, and the regulation of online communication technologies. For nearly a decade, Laidlaw lived in England where she studied at LSE, obtaining an LLM and a PhD, and worked as a lecturer at the University of Sussex, LSE, and the University of East Anglia. Since 2014, she has been a professor at the University of Calgary, where she is a tenured professor who has researched and taught extensively about the intersection of online media and law. Laidlaw also currently serves as the Ethics Advisor to the City of Calgary.

Fenwick McKelvey

Fenwick McKelvey is an Assistant Professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. Amidst discussion of the Internet of Things, McKelvey studies the Internet as Things — the machines, bots, artificial intelligence, algorithms, and daemons that make up the digital world around us. He is the author of Internet Daemons: Digital Communications Possessed (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), winner of the 2019 Gertrude J. Robinson Book Award. He is also a member of the Educational Review Committee of the Walrus Magazine as and is the Director of the Algorithmic Media Observatory.

Christelle Tessono

Christelle Tessono is a Fellow at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. She is from Montreal, a graduate of McGill University, and a former parliamentary intern at the House of Commons of Canada where she supported the legislative work of both opposition and government Members of Parliament. Tessono is deeply interested in tackling the relationship between racial inequality and digital technology. Her primary focuses are on privacy and biometrics, but she has also done research on political content moderation, broadband, and food delivery platforms.

Supriya Dwivedi (host)

Supriya Dwivedi joined the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy in March 2022 in the new role of Director of Policy and Engagement. Supriya has extensive experience in government relations and public affairs, where her work has largely focused on providing strategic counsel to both international and Canadian clients on public affairs campaigns at all levels of government, maintaining and building stakeholder relationships, and assessing the policy implications of legislation within the Canadian regulatory framework. Supriya has a B.Sc. from McGill University, as well as LL.B. and J.D. degrees from Université de Montréal. She is a highly sought-after media commentator, appearing weekly on CBC’s Power & Politics and writing regularly for the Toronto Star and the National Observer as a contributing political columnist.