Behind the Mic

Across the world, democracies are grappling with declining trust, political polarization and questions about how to involve citizens more meaningfully in public decision-making. One response has been the rise of deliberative mini-publics: innovative processes that bring together representative groups of ordinary citizens, selected by lot, to learn, deliberate and make recommendations on complex legal and policy issues.

In this episode of Group Chat, we bring together civil society and academic perspectives to consider how advances in AI and declining transparency from social media platforms are shaping Canada's democratic culture. How can citizens be equipped to navigate online spaces and engage with accurate and trustworthy political information online? How can our government respond to this moment of rapid change with effective and common-sense methods to safeguard our country’s security? Host Sabreena Delhon is joined by Beatrice Wayne (Samara Centre for Democracy), Anatoliy Gruzd (Social Media Lab, Toronto Metropolitan University), and Ana Brandusescu (McGill University) for this panel discussion recorded live at the Samara Centre for Democracy as part of Toronto Tech Week.

Parental anxiety, even desperation about keeping kids safe online is driving countries to adopt legislation that limits access to online spaces based on age. This type of legislation is called age-gating and countries like the United States, France and Brazil are all exploring some form of it. Here in Canada, the federal government and a number of provinces are seriously considering age-gating legislation as well. In this episode, host Sabreena Delhon is joined by fellow team members at the Samara Centre, Beatrice Wayne (Director of Research and Policy) and Alex MacIsaac (Research Manager) to discuss what age-gating actually looks like in practice. Is age-gating enough? Can we do better?

In this period of global democratic backsliding we’re seeing political pressures in the United States reverberate in Canada. Top American scholars are moving here while Canadian researchers are facing growing scrutiny over what they study. What does this all mean for the health of our democracy?

With technology bridging communities across borders, global and local politics are connected more than ever. We explore how diasporic politics shape local democracy, the threat of foreign interference, and the power of belonging in civic life with Anita Li, The Green Line, and Jaskaran Sandhu, Baaz News.