OPINION: Will Canada keep a raft of terrible digital trade policies just to stick it to Trump?

By: Matt Malone & Drew May Upswells of nationalism can stir dangerous currents. Canada saw this happen in 1995, when an estimated 100,000 people from outside Quebec flooded into the streets of Montreal to celebrate national unity. Then came the Sponsorship Scandal. Well-intentioned efforts to promote Canada became a prelude to unethical and even illegal conduct. This is a lesson we need to remember today, as Canadian resolve in standing up to United States President Donald Trump washes over the country — and risks drowning out healthy criticism of policies that need it. This is a particularly high-risk area when it comes to Canada’s digital policies. In recent years, Canada has passed a series of deeply flawed policies that are reshaping the country’s digital landscape while failing to address root problems of our online environments. The Online News Act failed to revive a faltering journalism industry and wreaked havoc, especially on new, independent, and smaller outlets. Meta Platforms Inc.’s retributive ban on news links cut off vital information to many Canadians and throttled money-making traffic to countless sites. In their place came a torrent of disinformation. The federal government’s $100 million deal with Alphabet Inc.'s Google helped retain that company’s control over our information ecosystem, barely redistributed that company’s financial windfall from the collection and use of Canadians’ personal data, and failed to incentivize organic solutions to the perpetual revenue issues of Canadian media. The Online Streaming Act also came with its own host of problems, making it harder for Canadian artists to break through globally and funnelling support for Canadian culture through a very specific mechanism — mandated contribution requirements — instead of allowing more targeted support. Then there is the Digital Services Tax — a law that flouts Canada’s OECD commitments and could make many companies unprofitable, in turn leading to Canadian consumers paying more for their services or the companies leaving altogether, resulting in fewer options for consumers. (Actually, this already happened.) Many Canadians supported these policies because they thought they would give American companies — especially Big Tech — a black eye. But it is Canadians who are paying the price. And yet now, unfortunately, Canadians might be even more supportive of these policies, since the Trump administration has been putting them in its crosshairs. The United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) recently published National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers identified the above three laws (as well as Quebec’s Bill 96) as areas of concern for imposing undue financial burdens, undermining innovation, and discriminating against American companies. Aha, many Canadians might think: What could possibly be better than sticking it to Trump? Well, for one thing, these laws never began to address the fundamental issues that define our online environments, including the lack of privacy and data protection, in particular for the most vulnerable users, children, and youth. They also fortified corporate actors operating in captured markets. They enshrined the state of play where control of personal data has become the price of trade and consumption. While governments have purported to help journalists, they have eviscerated the transparency frameworks that allow journalists to hold government accountable. Despite the federal government’s posturing against Meta, Canadian government officials — including the official who determines what apps can and cannot be downloaded on federal government-issued devices — use its tools to send disappearing messages, bypassing transparency frameworks. Canadian political parties also use Big Tech services to engage in the type of targeted advertising that has become so poisonous to our democracy. All three mainstream political parties have unified in opposing stricter privacy rules that would rein in the use of Canadians’ personal data in their political machines. And yet none of this may matter anymore. With President Trump’s jingoistic talk of making Canada the 51st state, surging Canadian nationalism has reoriented digital policy discourse, like so much else. Many Canadians are ready to overlook poorly crafted policies because President Trump dislikes them. This is the conundrum we find ourselves in. Flawed policies that were never the right way to bolster Canadian culture, identity, or sovereignty in our online environments risk becoming emblems of our new nationalism — even if they entrench some of the worst problems of our digital era. Matt Malone is an Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and Director of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. Drew May is a third-year law student at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. The Wire Report welcomes submissions of opinion pieces from outside contributors who are knowledgeable on the subject matter discussed. For more information on what should be included with opinion piece submissions, click here: hilltimes.com/submit-an-article. Submissions can be sent to editor Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca. To see previous opinion piece submissions, click here: thewirereport.ca/tag/opinion/.

OPINION: Will Canada keep a raft of terrible digital trade policies just to stick it to Trump?

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| May 2, 2025

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OPINION: Will Canada keep a raft of terrible digital trade policies just to stick it to Trump?

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