Natasha Tusikov

Statement by Prime Minister Carney and Minister Anand on the situation in the Middle East Canada’s position remains clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world’s worst human rights records, and must ...

Not a single word about international law—these attacks are clearly, unambiguously illegal.
Not a single word about sovereignty—Carney’s supposed bedrock value, as claimed in Davos.
No concern about Iran being attacked by the US while pursuing diplomacy—as Canada embarks on existential USMCA talks.

WIN!!! ✊ Just got news SFU has decided NOT to renew its contract w/ @hootsuite.com. Our university made the right choice, choosing not to be associated with a tech company aiding and abetting fascism in the US.

France says au revoir to US videoconferencing software : French govt says state-run service 'Visio' will be more secure. Now where have we heard that name before?

4. Join European efforts that are exploring actual digital sovereignty like alternatives to Zoom (like France's Visio) & open-source alternatives to Microsoft (like the Netherlands is doing). Instead Canada is doubling down on data centres & chatbots.
www.theregister.com/2026/01/27/f...

3. Carney says to work with like-minded democracies but signed an MoU with the (non-democratic) UAE & $70 billion trade deal to develop AI. www.canada.ca/en/innovatio...

Microsoft Admits: US Law Supersedes Canadian Sovereignty Microsoft representative says US CLOUD Act comes before other country's sovereignty

2. Craft a digital & AI strategy that strengthens digital sovereignty. Working with Microsoft & other US tech giants won't help us. Microsoft 'pledges' to protect our data but Microsoft has admitted, they cannot protect data if the US govt wants it.
www.cyberincontext.ca/p/microsoft-...

How Canada can put Carney’s Davos speech into action For a start, Ottawa must condemn U.S. attacks on the International Criminal Court. It also needs to show it really understands digital sovereignty.

New from me: Here's how Carney puts his Davos speech into action. 1. strong public support for the ICC, which Canada helped establish. Trump is attacking Canadian ICC judge Kimberly Prost, who is shut out of the banking system & blacklisted by US tech firms

policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/02/carn...

OpenAI says it would've flagged Tumbler Ridge shooter's account to police under new protocol | CBC News OpenAI says it would've referred the Tumbler Ridge, B.C., shooter's ChatGPT account to police under new safety policies the company has implemented in recent months.

This is decent journalism but it’s not great. It’s the 20th+ piece that I read from varied outlets that don’t mention the fact that self-regulation is the norm. Canada’s trade strategy welcomes American tech then lets the sector regulate itself. Why is this context always missing?

One of the reasons that the Carney government’s been caught flat-footed on AI governance is that their hand-picked AI panel and their overall, rushed, AI-summarized Potemkin Consultation was designed to minimize and exclude critical pro-regulation experts.

Chinese EVs in Canada: what are the risks and policy responses? Canada’s decision to import Chinese EVs has raised fears of foreign surveillance. Yet the real issue should be to modernize Canada’s laws.

Great article on (overstated) fears of security & privacy risks to Canadians from Chinese EVs by Guillaume Beaumier in @policyoptions.irpp.org. Canada needs updates rules, including on privacy, to deal w/ all EVs, not just Chinese ones.
policyoptions.irpp.org/2026/02/chin...

No ‘substantial’ new safety measures offered by OpenAI following Tumbler Ridge shooting, says minister OpenAI officials were summoned to Ottawa to meet Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon over reports the AI firm did not warn authorities after learning of concerning content tied to the shoote...

What a surprise that AI tools built on theft & deception won't voluntarily change their business models. PM & AI Minister, this is where you act like a govt & actually regulate. Don't settle for industry 'transparency' & voluntary best practices. Set binding rules.
www.thestar.com/news/canada/...

Account Closed Without Notice: Debanking Adult Industry Workers in Canada — • Maggie MacDonald •

For more info, see their just-released report on sex & adult entertainment workers debanked in Canada, (open access) www.internetmaggie.com/debanking

Opinion: Moral judgment has no place in deciding who gets to bank or not By treating sex-work earnings as criminal proceeds, banks have too much power to decide who gets to use the economic infrastructure that makes participation in society possible

Important editorial (paywall) by @internetmaggie.com & Val Webber on Canadian banks' debanking sex workers with claims of high-risk transactions & risks to corporate reputations. Result is financial discrimination & stigma.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...

and to learn more, read our full report!

Account Closed Without Notice:
Debanking Adult Industry Workers in Canada 🍁

www.internetmaggie.com/debanking

@publicpubics.bsky.social @ntusikov.bsky.social @mskatesinclaire.bsky.social @islamoon.bsky.social @charlyjezebel.bsky.social

Excellent article: US sex workers organising to protect their digital rights, pushing back against sweeping contracts that would sign over their likeness (& IP) to employers. AI models of workers could be created for ads, products, or porn, but without their workers' knowledge or consent.

The Palestinian Olympic Committee reports that 1,007 members of the sports community in Gaza have been killed, 265 sports facilities destroyed, and 5 athletes remain missing during the genocide.

Settler Colonialism–Genocide–Athleticide: The Destruction of Sport in Occupied Palestine in Sociology of Sport Journal Derek Silva * , Nathan Kalman-Lamb , Chen Chen , Kristi Allain , Jason Laurendeau , Janelle Joseph , Daniel Sailofsky , Shrehan Lynch , Anthony Weems , Leyla Hamed , Priyansh , Adam Ali , Roc Rochon , Zuleikha Chikh , Charlotte Phillips , Jules Boykoff , R. Taha , Jess Nachman Zeana Hamdonah,7 Thomas Ross Griffin,15 Anima Adjepong,16 and Jeffrey Montez de Oca17 In this paper, our scholarly collective traces how athleticide—defined here as the obliteration of sport, sporting cultures, and athletics through the killing, arrest, detention, or disabling of athletes, coaches, staff, officials, and administrators and the destruction of athletic infrastructure and history—has been part of the US–NATO-funded Israeli state’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023. Although much of the literature focuses on the philosophical, ethical, and political foundations of events that are conventionally described as “genocide,” little scholarly attention has been paid to genocide in the disparate fields that make up sports studies. Even less attention has been paid to the role that sport, sporting cultures, and athletics may, or may not, play in genocide and genocidal campaigns. To address this gap, we advocate for the development of a sociology of athleticide as one possible point of departure for advancing sports studies’ understanding of the role that sport can, and often does, play in times of genocide and the impact of state violence on sport. There is no neutrality, there can be no neutrality or objectivity about Palestine : : : . There is no indifference, no objectivity, no neutrality because there is simply no room for them in a space that is as crowded and overdetermined as this one. (Said, 1986, pp. 29–30) In this paper, our scholarly collective …

The Palestinian Olympic Committee report 1,007 members of the Gaza athletic community have been murdered by Israel.

Athleticide.

journals.humankinetics.com/view/journal...

UK bank bosses plan to set up Visa and Mastercard alternative amid Trump fears Exclusive: First meeting to be held over domestic payments system aimed at reducing reliance on US networks

“If Mastercard & Visa were turned off, it would send us back to the 1950s.” The UK is exploring a sovereign payment system because of fears that Trump could disrupt the credit card network. What are Canada's plans for a sovereign payment system?
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Netanyahu again flies through Canadian airspace en route to Washington | CBC News Online flight trackers show that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew hundreds of kilometres through Canadian airspace on his way to meet U.S. President Donald Trump this week — despite Prim...

Canada had to provide prior & express permission to Israel to allow a plane carrying #ICC suspect & PM Netanyahu to enter Canada's airspace.

This flies against not only the Court's warrant but any sense of justice and accountability.

Why, @anitaoakvilleeast.bsky.social?

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Canada discreetly puts money down on 14 additional F-35s | CBC News Ottawa has started to make payments for key components for 14 additional U.S.-built F-35s, even as the Carney government has been reviewing future fighter-jet purchases in the context of trade tension...

I’ve been saying for months that how the Carney government jumps on the F-35 will tell us a great deal about whether they truly intend to distance Canada from the US.
Carney is still moving Canada toward deeper US integration.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Valuable new report on debanking & sex workers / adult entertainment workers in Canada. A must read on financial discrimination with recommendations for financial inclusion.

Also, chatbots should be regulated as medical devices. If they’re not fit for purpose, they should be removed from the market.
Unless our government simply doesn’t care about actually doing their job. Which increasingly seems to be the case.

As AI enters the operating room, reports arise of botched surgeries and misidentified body parts Medical device makers have been rushing to add AI to their products. While proponents say the new technology will revolutionize medicine, regulators are receiving a rising number of claims of patient ...

A warning to other countries like Canada that depend on FDA regulation of AI medical devices. With FDA cutbacks, "federal regulators are now less equipped to handle the flood of new ones." More patient injuries & medical errors as firms rush these devices to market.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Was your pornographic, lewd, erotic, NSFW, or sexual game hosted on Steam or itch.io in July 2025? If so, consider participating in our online survey about the impacts of the changes to NSFW platform policy. More info about the project, the research team and how to participate at www.pppproject.com

Carney’s government is cutting hundreds of environment and science jobs. Here’s what that means for Canadians | CBC Radio Scientists and labour leaders are warning that cuts to Environment and Climate Change Canada could significantly impact the health and safety of Canadians as well as Canada's wildlife and environment.

Can Canada maintain its critical public science functions in the face of civil service job cuts?

“Public science is the science that isn't as glamorous, it isn't profitable…. Public science is the science that needs to be done.”

www.cbc.ca/radio/whaton...

In contrast to Europe, Canada’s response has been to leave X/Musk’s many, many inexcusable actions to the largely toothless Privacy Commissioner, with AI Promotion Minister Evan Solomon reassuring everyone via a Midnight Tweet (on X — classy) that Canada wouldn’t be banning X.

France dumps Zoom and Teams as Europe seeks digital autonomy from the U.S. Around Europe, governments and institutions are seeking to reduce their use of digital services from U.S. Big Tech companies and turning to domestic or free alternatives.

Unlike Canada, Europe is actually taking steps to secure its digital autonomy.

This one stood out: “The Austrian military said it has also switched to LibreOffice, a software package with word processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs that mirrors Microsoft 365’s Word, Excel and PowerPoint.”

Beyond the App Store: Reproductive Governance and the Limits of Digital Autonomy - Balsillie Papers Marika Jeziorek and Natasha TusikovDigital contraceptive and fertility-tracking apps are increasingly central to how reproductive autonomy is imagined, marketed and managed. This paper interrogates ho...

Interested in femtech? Marika Jeziorek & I have a policy paper comparing the governance of 3 period-tracking apps through a lens of feminist political economy. These apps must be understood not as neutral health innovations but as infrastructures of governance balsilliepapers.ca/bsia-paper/b...

Canadian military goes to U.S. for F-35 ceremony despite renewed trade tensions | CBC News The Lockheed Martin event in Texas comes as the future of the CF-18 replacement program is under review because of the ongoing trade and political disputes between Canada and the United States, and as...

“After the Davos speech, I expect to see a change in defence policy. Otherwise, I wonder if the prime minister really believes what he is saying, or if it's rather a way to put pressure on the United States.”
@plagasse.bsky.social lays it out precisely.

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Great. I’m glad the Prime Minister is keen on Canadian culture. I’d therefore like to know why all of the “nation building” projects that were re-announced were focused on mining, port, and energy infrastructure, and not a single one focused on cultural infrastructure.

The Department of National Defence buys a Sky Tractor Canada’s purchase of US F-35 fighter jets will create enormous security vulnerabilities, for which there are no easy answers. Whether it’s an F-35 fighter jet or a John Deere tractor, i…

Critiquing the F-35 purchase isn’t emotional, irrational anti-Americanism, as James Fergusson baselessly claims here. It’s based on a sound, rational understanding of how networked devices function. Pretending the problem doesn’t exist won’t make it go away.
blaynehaggart.com/2025/03/08/t...

Here is the latest on possible job cuts in the federal public service Hundreds of public servants have already received layoff notices in Ottawa and across Canada, as the federal government begins to issue notices of potential job cuts in departments. CTVNewsOttawa.ca l...

Carney's Davos speech called for middle powers to build institutions. That's going to be pretty difficult w/ Carney's gutting of scientific experts in public health, agriculture, & environment, & with the loss of diplomatic & trade experts.
www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...