Press
Find commentary and op-ed pieces from the Centre, press coverage, and news releases below.
For media inquiries, please contact media@mediatechdemocracy.com.Commentary and Opinion Pieces
Maddie Case, Zach Severyn, Ava Smithing & Maddie Freeman
Emily Laidlaw & Taylor Owen
Supriya Dwivedi & Phaedra de Saint-Rome
Sonja Solomun & Christelle Tessono
Over the last decade, as the business of journalism has gone through substantial decline, governments around the world have struggled to develop policies to support them. The most polarizing idea to date has been the idea of forcing platforms and publishers into forced arbitration (Taylor Owen).
Photo by Timothy Hales Bennett via Unsplash.
Taylor Owen & Supriya Dwivedi
Taylor Owen & Supriya Dwivedi
Media Interviews
Press Releases & Statements
June 8, 2026 - A redrafted Online Harms Act is expected this week. Taylor Owen identifies four things to watch out for in the new bill, drawing from his submissions to the AI Task Force and the Expert Panel on Online Safety, and on the federal and provincial policy work that followed the Tumbler Ridge shooting. For each, Owen address specific details about the design choice, the likely objection, and the risk to passage if it is handled badly.
April 30, 2026 - When we set out to design Gen(Z)AI: Canada’s Youth Assembly on Artificial Intelligence, we were animated by an urgent conviction: that young people, among the most exposed to and affected by AI systems, should not merely be subjects of this technology, but architects of its governance. What followed – across seven months, four cities, one hundred in-person participants, and thousands of virtually engaged young Canadians – exceeded our initial ambitions.
April 7, 2026 - From the Toronto Star
Left To Their Own Devices is a finalist for a prestigious Peabody Award, one of the highest international honours in journalism.
Hosted by Centre Youth Fellow, Ava Smithing, Left To Their Own Devices is a 10-part investigative podcast that explores the profound impact of social media and technology on youth. The Star partnered with Paradigms and the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University on the series which investigates how social media algorithms fuel obsessive use and addiction, push children toward self-harm, dieting content and violent pornography at younger ages.
March 16, 2026 - AI companies built their products using Canadian journalism without permission and without compensation, and are now delivering that journalism to consumers as their own product. Existing copyright and media policy frameworks were not designed to address this.
In February and March 2026, we conducted the first large-scale empirical audit of how AI models use and distribute Canadian journalism.
February 24, 2026 - The Centre’s Founding Director, Taylor Owen, and Helen Hayes, Associate Director of Policy, are calling for immediate action to scope AI chatbots into a revised Online Harms Act.
January 22, 2026 - In the Fall of 2025, the Minister of AI and Digital Inclusion Evan Solomon announced the creation of Canada’s National AI Task Force. The Centre’s Founding Director, Taylor Owen, was asked to be part of it. The members of the task force had one month to develop recommendations on different AI-related themes. Taylor’s focus was governance, safety and trust. His full memo is included below.
We are thrilled to announce that Anna Jahn will be joining McGill as Executive Director of the newly merged Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy and Media Ecosystem Observatory. Anna will also serve as Associate Professor of Research at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy.
This report presents the findings of a two-year study that draws on best practices in public service media from within Canada and in 17 other countries around the world. It is informed by consultation with a broad range of media and public media experts, as well as insights from our national survey, “Do We Need the CBC?” We sought to understand the current role of public media in the larger Canadian media landscape, to assess its relevance, and to propose appropriate recommendations to bring the CBC/Radio-Canada — and the resources allocated to it — in line with needs and expectations of Canadians today.
Haugen will support the Centre’s research and public engagement on online safety policy, youth digital rights, and data transparency.
Photo by Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Media Ecosystem Observatory/Observatoire de l’écosystème médiatique
