March 2025

Freedom, Interrupted

Hosted by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network,
the Media Ecosystem Observatory, and McGill University’s
Max Bell School of Public Policy. 

This event is part of the Slater Family Canada-US Policy Series


March 13-14, 2025
Montreal, Quebec

In a 1969 introduction to essays on liberty, philosopher Isaiah Berlin argued that ‘the fundamental sense of freedom is freedom from chains, from imprisonment, from enslavement by others’. Today, fifty-five years later, in a digital world that has both extended and constrained our liberty, democratic freedom now also demands: elections free from foreign interference; citizens free from online harms and subtle manipulation; researchers free to examine power without fear of persecution; speech free from opaque algorithmic bias; politicians free to hold corporations to account; and all of democratic society free to consume and contest ideas based on factually accurate information.

The flow and integrity of information is critical for a healthy democracy and for protecting political institutions from malign interference. Today’s democracies are vulnerable to a multitude of threats to their information ecosystem, threats that undermine the stability of their political systems and impair their capacity to cooperate on global challenges. We are all made weaker by a poor, confused, and imprisoned media ecosystem.

Canada and the US face similar digital threats to their democratic integrity. We share the same digital infrastructure, we face similar foreign threats from Russia, China and Iran, and we share the need to balance national security and economic growth with democratic accountability, the rule of law, and freedom of expression.

The Media Ecosystem Observatory has the goal of empowering people to navigate the complexities of the modern digital age. This conference will inform and provoke cooperation between the United States and Canada on critical dimensions of the defense of democracy. We will convene a global group of policymakers, politicians, civil society leaders, journalists, and scholars to situate the digital threat to democratic institutions alongside wider national security threats, to explore the specific character of digital threats, to better understand the nature of foreign interference in elections around the world this year, and how governments, platforms and civil society responded, and most importantly, to identify how Canada and the United States can learn from these experiences.

CONFERENCE Agenda

  • 9:00am Welcome and Opening Remarks

    Jennifer Welsh, Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy

    Taylor Owen, Director, Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy


    9:45am A Year for Elections

    Emerson Brooking, Director of Strategy and Resident Senior Fellow, Digital Forensic Research Lab

    Shirin Anlen, Media Technologist, WITNESS

    Felix Kartte, Mercator Senior Fellow, Stiftung Mercator 

    Moderated by Paul Wells, Journalist and Host, The Paul Wells Show


    10:15am Fireside Chat: Canadian Election Preparation

    Stéphane Perrault, Chief Electoral Officer of Canada

    Paul Wells, Journalist and Host, The Paul Wells Show


    — 10:45am Coffee Break —


    11:15am America as a Security Partner for Canada?

    Harry Coker Jr., Former US National Cyber Director and Secretary of Commerce, Maryland

    Karen Gibson, Former Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate

    Vincent Rigby, Slater Family Professor of Practice, Max Bell School of Public Public Policy 

    Moderated by Jennifer Welsh, Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy


    — 12:15pm Lunch Break —


    1:00pm Keynote Conversation: Technological Advances, Economic Transformation and Democratic Societies

    Joseph Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University and Nobel Laureate Economist and Jayme Poisson, Host, CBC Front Burner


    2:00pm Challenges to Understanding the Online Ecosystem

    Iris Boyer, Head of the Observatory, Forum on Information and Democracy

    Nina Jankowicz, Former Executive Director, Disinformation Governance Board of the United States and Co-Founder and CEO, The American Sunlight Project

    Sarah Gilbert, Research Manager, Citizens and Technology Lab, Cornell University

    Moderated by Aengus Bridgman, Director, Media Ecosystem Observatory


    — 3:00pm Coffee Break —


    3:30pm Responsible Reporting on Foreign Interference

    Robert Fife, Ottawa Bureau Chief, The Globe & Mail 

    Mark Scott, Senior Resident Fellow, Digital Forensic Research Lab

    Atte Jääskeläinen, President, Sitra

    Moderated by Anya Schiffrin, Director, Technology, Media, and Communications Specialization, Columbia SIPA


    — 4:30pm Cocktail Break —


    5:00pm Keynote Conversation: The Evolution, and Collapse, of Journalism in Democratic Societies
    (Live Podcast Recording: Machines Like Us)

    Jay Rosen, Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University

    Taylor Owen, Director, Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy

  • 9:30am Keynote Address: Platform Accountability and Transparency

    Ethan Zuckerman, Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst 


    10:15am New Platform Politics and Social Fracture

    Imran Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Centre for Countering Digital Hate

    Max Read, Senior Research Manager, Institute for Strategic Dialogue

    Kat Duffy, Senior Fellow for Digital and Cyberspace Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

    Moderated by Damian Collins, OBE, former UK MP and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy


    11:15am Platform Responses to Online Hostility

    Udbhav Tiwari, Vice President, Strategy and Global Affairs, Signal

    Lisa A. Hayes, Head of Safety Public Policy and Senior Counsel for Americas, TikTok

    Lea Endres, CEO, NationBuilder 

    Moderated by Rachel Pulfer, President, Journalists for Human Rights


    12:15pm Closing Remarks

    Aengus Bridgman, Director, Media Ecosystem Observatory

    Christopher Sands, Director, Wilson Center

Event Speakers

  • Aengus Bridgman

    Director, The Media Ecosystem Observatory

  • Anya Schiffrin

    Director, Director, Technology, Media, and Communications Specialization, Columbia SIPA

  • Atte Jääskeläinen

    President, Sitra

  • Christopher Sands

    Director, Wilson Centre

  • Damian Collins

    OBE, former UK MP and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy

  • Emerson Brooking

    Director of Strategy and Resident Senior Fellow, Digital Forensic Research Lab

  • Ethan Zuckerman

    Professor, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

  • Felix Kartte

    Mercator Senior Fellow, Stiftung Mercator

  • Harry Coker Jr.

    Former US National Cyber Director and Secretary of Commerce, Maryland


  • Imran Ahmed

    Founder and CEO, Centre for Countering Digital Hate

  • Iris Boyer

    Head of the Observatory, Forum on Information and Democracy

  • Jay Rosen

    Associate Professor, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, New York University

  • Jayme Poisson

    Host, CBC Frontburner

  • Jennifer Welsh

    Director, Max Bell School of Public Policy

  • Joseph Stiglitz

    Nobel Laureate and Professor, Columbia University

  • Karen Gibson

    Former Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate

  • Kat Duffy

    Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

  • Lea Endres

    CEO, NationBuilder

  • Lisa A. Hayes

    Head of Safety Public Policy and Senior Counsel for Americas, TikTok


  • Mark Scott

    Senior Resident Fellow, Digital Forensic Research Lab

  • Max Read

    Senior Research Manager, Institute for Strategic Dialogue


  • Nina Jankowicz

    Former Executive Director, Disinformation Governance Board of the United States and Co-Founder and CEO, The American Sunlight Project

  • Paul Wells

    Journalist and Host, The Paul Wells Show


  • Rachel Pulfer

    President, Journalists for Human Rights


  • Robert Fife

    Ottawa Bureau Chief, Globe & Mail

  • Sarah Gilbert

    Research Director, Citizens and Technology Lab, Cornell University

  • Shirin Anlen

    Media Technologist, WITNESS


  • Stéphane Perrault

    Chief Electoral Officer of Canada

  • Taylor Owen

    Founder and Director, Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy

  • Udbhav Tiwari

    VP, Strategy and Global Affairs, Signal

  • Vincent Rigby

    Slater Family Professor of Practice, Max Bell School of Public Public Policy

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