It’s time for Canadians to show their Government how to be the best and most transparent relationship with a tech giant.
On Monday, the Federal cabinet will meet with senior executives from Facebook, Twitter, Google and Amazon in what is shaping up to be the biggest meeting between American and Canadian technology companies and a Canadian government in years. For a generation, Canadians have been embarrassed by our inability to control the tech giants that are wrecking our digital world. How can we expect them to do any better in our bedrooms?
Yet as bad as it has been, it’s only the latest chapter in a long saga of Canadian disappointment with technology.
Since the 1990s, Canada has tried to learn how to communicate with tech giants as they have expanded and grown. The government has even designed regulations for private sector data collection and I have been a vocal advocate of new laws to give parents more control over how their kids’ data is being collected, used and sold.
After more than two decades of admonition to be more innovative and entrepreneurial, the tech sector has failed us. If the Canadian government wants to control Facebook, Google and the rest of them, they must come up with a plan.
