Dr. Fenwick McKelvey presented before the Standing Committee on Industry and Technology (INDU) for its study of Opportunities, Risks, and Regulation of AI in Canada’s Strategic Industries on 30 April 2026. His remarks are below:
Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. I would like to begin by acknowledging I am speaking from unceded Indigenous lands. The Kanien’kehá:ka Nation is recognized as the custodians of the lands and waters on the place I call home.
I am Fenwick McKelvey, an associate professor in Information and Communication Technology Policy in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University.
My remarks draw on over 10 years of research experience in algorithmic and AI governance in Canada. In that time, I have been a lead on major national and international research projects, a co-director of an AI research institute, and a commentor on Canada’s AI strategy. I have been a witness, critic, and an occasional participant in the Pan-Canadian AI Strategy too.
Canada has a right to regulate AI. These technologies are inherently public technologies. In the same way that railways, highways, and cell phones required public regulation, AI does too.
AI regulation should be social not just economic. The production and use of AI inherently interacts with human rights and the government has a duty to protect those rights especially gender-based impacts. Canada’s “Branch-plant” industrial policy on AI so far has moved too slowly on protecting human rights. We cannot focus on productivity while ignoring quality of work, or economic opportunity with seeing the winners and losers. Such myopia puts Canadians at risk, puts government at risk too. Politician and parties need to read the room and understand the growing public sentiment against the AI industry today.
AI regulation requires new approaches to commons management and protection of public knowledge systems. AI is a commons-management issue, and we are already feeling the strain generative AI has put on our collective institutions like our media systems and public knowledge. We have a history of building public media in this country and an opportunity to public AI too. We need to define a vision for the future of the technology that works for all Canadians, and future policy must ensure we have the regulatory capacity, independence, and financial means to deliver on this vision.
Universities are critical to steward the knowledge commons but are in in crisis. The Pan-Canadian AI Strategy must expand beyond its three research centers and include greater participation from the social sciences, arts, and humanities. If AI truly is a problem for all Canadian society, that challenge demands the participation all of Canada’s public universities and facilities from coast to coast.
Canada must do better with public participation when developing its AI policy. Sprints and AI-assisted “What We Heard” reports undermine the ethos of democratic participation, contributing to consistent public opinion polls reporting low trust by Canadians around AI. By contrast, a coalition of civil society organizations launched the People’s Consultation of AI in French and English that received over 70 submissions. Fellow researcher Dr. Joanna Redden and I are working on analyzing these comments. At first glance we were struck by the depth and sophistication of the responses. To build Canada’s capacity to regulate AI, we need voices civil society and from those affected most by AI to be better included in our shared dis missed in Canada’s approach so far.
Indigenous voices need special consideration in Canadian AI governance. Canada’s true potential with AI can only happen through reconciliation and respect for nation-to-nation governance that understands and celebrates the distinct knowledge systems contained within our shared territories.
The challenge ahead is daunting and exacerbated by a long-term regulatory gap. We are trying now to deal with AI empires when we have in the past struggle with social media, platforms, and even newspapers barons. The task is great, but now is the time to act toward a more inclusive, social, and economic approach to AI governance that meets the challenges of our time.
Please see below a list of my publications that I draw upon for these comments.
Chartier-Edward, N., Grenier, E., Marinov, R., Dandurand, G., McKelvey, F., & Roberge, J. (2024). Sciences et dissonances: Les discours multiples du secteur pancanadien de la recherche en IA (2012-2023). https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/16002/
Dandurand, G., Blottière, M., Jorandon, G., Gertler, N., Wester, M., Chartier-Edwards, N., & McKelvey, F. (2023). Training the News: Coverage of Canada’s AI Hype Cycle (2012-2021). Institut national de la recherche scientifique.
Dandurand, G., McKelvey, F., & Roberge, J. (2023). Freezing out: Legacy media’s shaping of AI as a cold controversy. Big Data & Society, 10(2), 20539517231219242. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517231219242
Ferrari, F., & McKelvey, F. (2022). Hyperproduction: A social theory of deep generative models. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory, 0(0), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2022.2137546
Jones, M., & McKelvey, F. (2024). Deconstructing public participation in the governance of facial recognition technologies in Canada. AI & SOCIETY. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-024-01952-w
Lepage-Richer, T., & McKelvey, F. (2022). States of computing: On government organization and artificial intelligence in Canada. Big Data & Society, 9(2), 20539517221123304. https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221123304
McKelvey, F. (2023a, April 3). Let’s base AI debates on reality, not extreme fears about the future. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/lets-base-ai-debates-on-reality-not-extreme-fears-about-the-future-203030
McKelvey, F. (2023b, August 28). Wait—Is ChatGPT Even Legal? [Walrus Magazine]. https://thewalrus.ca/wait-is-chatgpt-even-legal/
McKelvey, F. (2025a, September 28). Generative AI might end up being worthless—And that could be a good thing. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAM.4urwg6fct
McKelvey, F. (2025b, December 9). Et si l’IA générative ne valait rien ? Ce ne serait pas forcément un problème. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAP.5tep3g9vq
McKelvey, F. (2026a). Blowing artificial intelligence bubbles: Studies of technological hype. Journal of Communication, 76(2), 204–208. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqag002
McKelvey, F. (2026b). SimPolitics: America’s Quest to Solve Politics with Technology. MIT Press.
McKelvey, F., Dandurand, G., & Roberge, J. (2023, June 8). L’IA profite d’une couverture partiale des médias. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAP.q9pejhsak
McKelvey, F., Gertler, N., & Megelas, A. (2025). Algorithmic Impact Assessment: From Risk Assessments to Community Research. In E. B. Laidlaw & F. Martin-Bariteau (Eds.), The security of self: A human-centric approach to cybersecurity (pp. 149–160). University of Ottawa Press.
McKelvey, F., & Hunt, R. (2023). Remodelling internet infrastructure: A first look at platform governance in the era of ChatGPT. OSF. https://doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/9zqje
McKelvey, F., Rajabiun, R., & McPhail, B. (2022, February 2). AI accountability can’t be left to the CRTC. Policy Options. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2022/ai-accountability-crtc-oversight/
McKelvey, F., & Redden, J. (2024, April 11). The federal government’s proposed AI legislation misses the mark on protecting Canadians. The Conversation. http://theconversation.com/the-federal-governments-proposed-ai-legislation-misses-the-mark-on-protecting-canadians-227186
McKelvey, F., Redden, J., Roberge, J., & Stark, L. (2024). (Un)stable diffusions: The publics, publicities, and publicizations of generative AI. Journal of Digital Social Research, 6(4), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v6i440453
McKelvey, F., Simon, B., & Frizzera, L. (2026). Generative AI and the Information Commons: Controversy, Copyright, and Closure. Information, Communication, and Society.
McKelvey, F., Toupin, S., Jones, M., Dandurand, G., Blottiere, M., Chartier-Edwards, N., Gertler, N., Wester, M., LePage-Richler, T., & Hunt, R. (with Dandurand, G., & Marinov, R.). (2024). Northern Lights and Silicon Dreams: AI Governance in Canada (2011-2022) . Algorithmic Media Observatory. https://doi.org/10.11573/spectrum.library.concordia.ca.00995548
Powell, A., & McKelvey, F. (2024). AI policymaking as drama: Stages, roles, and ghosts in AI governance in the United Kingdom and Canada. Journal of Digital Social Research, 6(4), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.33621/jdsr.v6i440468
