This latest podcast from the Public Policy Forum will take you on a journey through sticky policy topics of the day. We'll dive deep together and come up the other side with a better understanding of the landscape, the background and the policy options before us, and we'll do it in three short episodes per topic.

In the first episode of this series, we try to understand what Canada’s innovation agenda needs to do to level the playing field. In 2018, Canada ranked 12th out of 16 in all OECD nations on the Innovation Scorecard.  In this first series, we focus on innovation policy.

We’re joined by Sue Paish (CEO of Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster), Navdeep Bains (Vice-Chair of Global Investment and the former minister of Innovation, Science Economic Development), Sarah Doyle (Chief of Staff to Mariana Mazzucato), John Knubley (former deputy minister of Innovation, Science Economic Development), Sean Speer (PPF Scotiabank Fellow in Strategic Competitiveness at the Public Policy Forum ) and Robert Asselin (Senior Vice-President, Policy at the Business Council of Canada).

Next week, we'll be back with the big picture for Canada's innovation policy right now and in two weeks time will wrap up talking about the proposal for CARPA, a Canadian advanced research agency.

After that, we'll be exploring a new topic in the next Deep Takes series.

This latest podcast from the Public Policy Forum takes you on a journey through sticky policy topics of the day. We dive deep together and come up the other side with a better understanding of the landscape, the background and the policy options before us, and we do it in three short episodes per topic.

This first series focuses on innovation policy. In the second episode of this series, we look at how COVID-19 showed us what was possible in Canadian innovation and how we can take the lessons of a ‘mission’ to refocus our innovation policy as a whole.  We’re joined by Sue Paish (CEO of Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster), Navdeep Bains (Vice-Chair of Global Investment and the former minister of Innovation, Science Economic Development), Sarah Doyle (Chief of Staff to Mariana Mazzucato), John Knubley (former deputy minister of Innovation, Science Economic Development), Sean Speer (PPF Scotiabank Fellow in Strategic Competitiveness at the Public Policy Forum ) and Robert Asselin (Senior Vice-President, Policy at the Business Council of Canada).

Next week, we'll be back talking about the proposal for CARPA, a Canadian advanced research agency. 

In the third and final episode of our series on innovation policy, we talk about the proposal for CARPA, a Canadian advanced research agency

We’re joined by Sue Paish (CEO of Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster), Navdeep Bains (Vice-Chair of Global Investment and the former minister of Innovation, Science Economic Development), Sarah Doyle (Chief of Staff to Mariana Mazzucato), John Knubley (former deputy minister of Innovation, Science Economic Development), Sean Speer (PPF Scotiabank Fellow in Strategic Competitiveness at the Public Policy Forum ) and Robert Asselin (Senior Vice-President, Policy at the Business Council of Canada).

We’re back with our next Deep Takes series. In the first episode of this series, we look at the issue of online harms — what it is, why does it matter, and can anything be done about it?

We’re joined by Evan Balgord (Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network), Mohammed Hashim (Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation), Heidi Tworek (Associate Professor, jointly appointed at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and History at the University of British Columbia), Chris Tenove (Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of British Columbia), Cory Doctorow (blogger, journalist, author and activist) and Michael Giest (Law professor and University of Ottawa).

Next week, we'll be back with the options in front of us for regulating online harms.

We’re back with our Deep Takes series on Online Harms. In the second episode of this series, we look at regulating online harms.

We’re joined by Evan Balgord (Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network), Mohammed Hashim (Executive Director of the Canadian Race Relations Foundation), Heidi Tworek, (Associate Professor, jointly appointed at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and History at the University of British Columbia), Chris Tenove (Postdoctoral Research Fellow at University of British Columbia), Cory Doctorow (blogger, journalist, author and activist) and Michael Giest (Law professor and University of Ottawa). 

Next week, we'll be back with perspectives from 3 Commissioners on Democratic Expression

In this #DeepTakes series, we’re exploring online harms and what Canada can do about them. Today we’re talking about PPF’s Commission on Democratic Expression and their work to grapple with the challenges at hand.  

The Commission grappled with the very same challenges outlined by our guests in episodes 1 and 2 of this series so I wanted to know they came to consensus on necessary steps forward.  

I’m pleased to be joined by three of the Commissioners: Taylor Owen, Merelda Fiddler-Potter, and Amira Elghawaby. 

The Year 1 Commission report, Harms Reduction: A Six-Step Program To Protect Democratic Expression Online, provided six key recommendations. 

1. A Duty to Act responsibly for platforms 
2. A new digital regulator,  
3. A world-leading transparency regime,  
4. A social media council,  
5. E-tribunals, and  
6. A mechanism to remove content that provides an imminent threat to a person.  

For Year 2, the Commission considered how to make social media platforms more transparent and accountable to Canadian users. Their report was released on May 4th and can be found here