Disinformation and online harms targeting Canadian women leaders: a threat to democracy (Ontario)

With support from the Department of Heritage’s Digital Citizens Contribution Program, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) is delighted to launch the Canadian Women Leaders' Digital Defence Initiative.

The initiative will study the impact of disinformation and online harms targeting Canadian women leaders in two parts.

First, in partnership with Nexalogy, an AI analytics company, a crowdsourcing study will provide qualitative and quantitative evidence regarding the patterns of harassment and disinformation experienced by female politicians and journalists. Second, a series of virtual roundtable discussions will be convened to better understand how digital disinformation and online harms targeting Canadian women are impacting Canadian democracy and social cohesion.

In total, in collaboration with the National Council of Women of Canada and other partners, three virtual events will take place in the coming weeks highlighting the experience of invited politicians and journalists, followed by a broader roundtable conversation among attendees. Recordings will be available on YouTube.

This first roundtable will focus on the experience of journalists and politicians based in the Province of Ontario.

Speakers

• Lisa Raitt, former Canadian politician who served as the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (2017 to 2019)
• Supriya Dwivedi, journalist and panelist, Power and Politics
• Lana Cuthbertson, founder and chief executive officer, Areto Lab
• Mercedes Stephenson, Global News' Ottawa bureau chief
• Marilou McPhedran, Canadian senator

More roundtables

• The second roundtable will focus on the experience of journalists and politicians based in the Province of Quebec.
• The third roundtable will focus on the experience of journalists and politicians based in Western Canada.

Both events will be held in March.

A white paper summarizing project findings as well as policy recommendations will be published on MIGS’s website in April 2021.