Digital Policy Hub April 2026 Research Conference

Tuesday, April 28, 2026 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM EDT (UTC–04:00)
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Public Event: Conference (Hybrid)
Speakers:
Apr
28

CIGI’s Digital Policy Hub is a transdisciplinary space where students and professionals from across Canada come together to produce research on the rapid evolution and governance of transformative technologies. To showcase the work of the current cohort, the Hub is hosting a research conference at the CIGI Campus in Waterloo, Ontario, on Tuesday, April 28, 2026. This full-day event is open to Hub fellows and supervisors, alumni, family, friends, CIGI staff and the wider community.

Each Digital Policy Hub fellow will present findings from their winter term paper to be published on the Hub website. Presentations will spotlight policy questions and solutions regarding the emergence of disruptive technology across sectors in Canada and internationally.

An overview of the cohort and their research aims can be found at cigionline.org/digital-policy-hub.

Conference Agenda

9:00 am - Breakfast

9:30 am - Opening Remarks

9:45 am - Keynote - Anne Gaviola, Toronto-based journalist and technology commentator specializing in AI, Innovation and the Future of Work

10:30 am - Panel 1: Institutionalizing AI: Policy, Education, and Civic Design

Moderator: Laila Mourad, DPH Alum

  • Mehrsa Ehsani - From Experimentation to Embedding: Governing SMEs' Use of Generative Systems in Canada
  • Julianna Kowlessar - Developing AI Policies in Ontario Schools with Critial Media Literacy
  • Julian Lam - From Deficit to Design: Civic Technology as Democratic Infrastructure for AI Governance
  • Anna Legault - Multilingualism as design: Building digital architectures
  • Mark Robbins - From CivTech to Combat: Ukraine's Pre-War Digital Transformation through to Defence Capability

11:45 am- Break

12:00 pm - Panel 2: Strategic Autonomy: Protecting Africa's AI, Energy, and Digital Trade Assets

Moderator: Andrew Heffernan, DPH Alum

  • Amal Hussein - Beyond the Frontier: A Framework for Open-Weight AI in Africa
  • Clarence Sokolambe Lakpini - Do Not Disclose: Trade Secrets and Nigeria's Energy Transition
  • Kyle Volpi-Hiebert - Soldiers of (Mis) Fortune: Mercenaries and Digital Propaganda Campaigns in Africa

1:00 pm - Lunch

2:00 pm - Keynote - Dr. Derek Newton, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Mitacs

2:45 pm - Panel 3: Reimagining Canada’s Online Harms Response and Public Digital Spaces

Moderator: Caleigh Wong, DPH Alum

  • Karmvir K. Padda - Half the Players, Half the Safety: Misogyny on Gaming Platforms
  • Alexander Martin - Beyond a Canadian Facebook: Interoperable Public-Interest Social Media for Canadian Democracy
  • Dylan White - AI Companions and Canada's Online Harms Framework

3:45 pm- Break

4:00 pm - Panel 4: Sovereignty and Security in the Digital Age

Moderator: Shirley Anne Scharf, DPH Alum

  • Alonso Munoz Sanchez - Geoeconomics and the AI Chip Race: Lessons from Taiwan for Middle Powers
  • Jeffrey Klinck - Blueprint to Implementation: A BIS-inspired Unified Ledger for Canada
  • Gabrielle Lim - Technoimaginaries and the Search for Infinite Power
  • Fabrice Blais-Savoie - Trade in Services as Transboundary Data Regulation: Data Marketplaces, Data Commercialization and Data (Re-) Purposing
  • Nathaniel Sukhdeo - Protecting Canadian Digital Economic Sovereignty: Operationalizing Distributed Ledger Technologies

5:15pm - Closing Remarks

5:30pm - Reception

Event Speakers

Anne Gaviola

Anne Gaviola is a Toronto-based journalist who has covered business and technology for nearly two decades. Her areas of expertise include disruptive innovation and the future of work. Her journalistic experience includes Global News, CBC, CTV, BNN Bloomberg and VICE. Her work has taken her to Palo Alto during the early days of Facebook, to an intimate dinner in Toronto with Nobel laureate and AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton. Anne took a hiatus from journalism to study computer science and work in the fintech/blockchain industry in 2018. She’s a self-described AI optimist and realist.

Dr. Derek Newton

Dr. Derek Newton is a recognized leader dedicated to advancing Canada’s research and innovation capacity. As Senior Vice-President Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at Mitacs, Derek fosters transformative industry partnerships, champions entrepreneurial ventures, and helps companies tap into Canada’s top research talent to develop and adopt transformative technologies.

Derek's career spans senior roles at the University of Toronto, Western University, and the Ontario Genomics Institute where he worked alongside provincial and national funding programs to drive research excellence and innovation. He is widely regarded for helping companies unlock the value of university partnerships, connecting them with top talent, breakthrough research, and impact. His efforts have resulted in enduring collaborations that translate research discoveries into real-world solutions.

With a PhD in Medical Biophysics from the University of Toronto and degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Waterloo, Dr. Newton combines scientific expertise with strategic leadership to advance Canada’s research and innovation ecosystem.

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