Next Steps for a Connected Canada

Abstract

Citizenship is digital, and Canada needs to understand the new digital context.

The aim of this collection is to help establish and expand a research and policy agenda for understanding citizenship in a digital context in Canada. We have created this collection with the hope that it can be a useful resource for policy-makers, civil society groups, and researchers, among others, as they advance their work in this space. The goal is to highlight gaps in what we know about how Canadians make use of, and interact with, digital tools as well as how Canadians feel about various actors in society making use of digital tools and digital data. Building on the Connected Canada inaugural conference in 2017 which highlighted the value in bringing people together from various sectors including government, law, journalism, civil society, and academia, this collection extends and broadens the conversations we started at the conference.

Across the previous chapters, leading and emerging voices discussed some key and urgent research and policy issues which arise from enacting citizenship in a digital context. Chapters discuss the missing voices in typical conversations about citizenship in digital contexts, government service delivery and multi-stakeholder engagement in policy making, as well as a selection of legal challenges for citizens and governments in the digital context. In this final chapter, we present and review their main arguments and identify 15 key recommendations for policy-makers to build a more inclusive, diverse and safe connected Canada. We then discuss some of the limitations and research needs in order to propose ways to advance research and policy in the Canadian digital context.