Episodes 224
Avg. Duration 33m
Activity Highly Active
Apple Rating 5.0 (2)
Since Aug 2021
Latest Episode Jun 2026

Publishing Details

Schedule
Weekly
Format
Episodic
Consistency
50%
Hosting
feeds.castos.com

Contact & Outreach

About This Podcast

In recent years the intersection between law, technology, and policy has exploded as digital policy has become a mainstream concern in Canada and around the world. This podcast explores digital policies in conversations with people studying the legal and policy challenges, set the rules, or are experts in the field. It provides a Canadian perspective, but since the internet is global, examining international developments and Canada’s role in shaping global digital policy is be an important part of the story. Lawbytes is hosted by Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law and where he is a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society.

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Recent Episodes

Episode 271: Taking Stock of a Wild Week in Canadian Digital Policy With the Online Streaming Reversal, AI Strategy Release, and Lawful Access Review

Jun 08, 2026 18m

In the span of a few days last week, the government announced it was reversing the CRTC’s Online Streaming Act ruling, released its long-awaited national AI strategy, and kept pushing Bill C-22, the…

Episode 270: Roundtable on the Bill C-22 Risks for Canadian Tech Companies Featuring VPN Services Tailscale and Windscribe

Jun 01, 2026 28m

Over the past week, the concerns over Bill C-22, the government’s lawful access bill, continued to mount. Many companies, notably including Apple, Google, Meta, Signal, and DuckDuckGo, have spoken…

Episode 269: Inside the Bill C-22 Committee Hearing for the Case Against Government’s Lawful Access Plans

May 25, 2026 33m

The government’s lawful access bill has been the target of criticism for weeks, with companies, governments, and experts on privacy and security all sounding the alarm. Much of the momentum against…

Episode 268: Sara Grimes on the Moral Panic Behind Banning Kids from Social Media and AI Chatbots

May 11, 2026 47m

The question of children’s social media and AI chatbot ban has emerged as one of the most talked-about digital policy issues in recent memory. Premiers, the Liberal convention, and the media have all…

Episode 267: Peter Nowak on Rogers, the Shaw Merger Aftermath, and the Limits of Canadian Telecom Policy

May 04, 2026 35m

The recent announcement that Rogers is offering buyouts to half of its workforce is just the tip of the iceberg in a series of developments involving one of Canada’s dominant communications…

Episode 266: Justin Safayeni on the Ontario Government's Overnight Evisceration of Access to Information

Apr 27, 2026 43m

Just over a month ago, the Ford government tabled Bill 97, an omnibus bill with provisions fundamentally restructuring Ontario's access to information system. Information and Privacy Commissioner…

Ep. 265 - Jason Millar on Claude Mythos, Project Glasswing, and the Governance Crisis in Frontier AI

Apr 20, 2026 34m

In a year in which AI has truly dominated much of the news cycle, the story of Anthropic’s Mythos may be the biggest story of them all. A version of the popular Claude AI service is reportedly so…

Episode 264: Jon Penney on Chilling Effects in the Digital Age

Apr 13, 2026 41m

“Chilling effects” is a term people hear all the time: in court rulings, in debates over content moderation, in dealing with online harms, or in news coverage of surveillance and legal reforms. The…

Episode 263: The Lawful Access Act Roundtable With David Fraser and Robert Diab

Mar 30, 2026 58m

Lawful access is back. The decades-long battle has entered a new phase with the introduction of Bill C-22, the Lawful Access Act. This bill follows last spring’s attempt to bury lawful access…

Episode 262: Zack Shapiro on the Claude AI Native Law Firm

Mar 23, 2026 42m

What are the limits of using AI to help run a legal practice? There is much discussion about what an AI future might look like, but with the rapid development of AI tools, the future may be now. The…

Episode 261: Ian Goldberg on the Privacy Risks of Age Assurance Technologies

Mar 16, 2026 32m

Age verification, estimation or inference is seemingly all the rage right now. Vendors are promoting it as the solution to thorny challenges to limit access to certain sites and services and…

Episode 260: What the Government Didn’t Want You To Hear About Bill C-4 And Its Weak Political Party Privacy Rules

Mar 09, 2026 44m

Last spring, the government quietly inserted provisions that exempt political parties from the application of privacy protections in Bill C-4, an “affordability measures” bill. The government barely…

Episode 259: The Privacy and Surveillance Risks of AI Chatbot Reporting to Police

Mar 02, 2026 21m

Over the past ten days, Canada has witnessed one of the fastest-moving technology policy debates in recent memory. What began as reporting about a tragic act of violence – the shootings in Tumbler…

Episode 258: Jaxson Khan With an Insider Perspective on AI Policy Development in Canada

Feb 23, 2026 38m

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 258: Jaxson Khan With an Insider Perspective on AI Policy Development in Canada Earlier this month, the government quietly released a “what we heard” report this…

Episode 257: Lisa Given on What Canada Can Learn From Australia’s Youth Social Media Ban

Feb 09, 2026 32m

Social media bans for younger users have begun to take hold in various countries, particularly in Europe. In Canada, Bill S-209 may ostensibly be about underage access to pornography sites, but the…

Episode 256: Jennifer Quaid on Taking On Big Tech With the Competition Act's Private Right of Access

Feb 02, 2026 45m

Concerns about the dominance of big tech companies has been steadily mounting for years, leading to an increased emphasis on the role that competition law might play. The government recently expanded…

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 255: Grappling with Grok - Heidi Tworek on the Limits of Canadian Law

Jan 26, 2026 29m

The Law Bytes podcast is back, starting with an episode on the limits of Canadian law in addressing the concerns associated with Grok AI, the AI chatbot that garnered global attention over the…

Episode 254: Looking Back at the Year in Canadian Digital Law and Policy

Dec 22, 2025 26m

Canadian digital law and policy in 2025 was marked by the unpredictable with changes in leadership in Canada and the U.S. driving a shift in policy approach. Over the past year, that included a…

Episode 253: Guy Rub on the Unconvincing Case for a New Canadian Artists' Resale Right

Dec 08, 2025 35m

The creation of an Artists' Resale Right has been adopted in many countries to at best mixed reviews. They’re unsurprisingly widely supported by potential beneficiaries, but the data on who actually…

Episode 252: Len St-Aubin on the CRTC’s Plan To Modernize Canadian Content Rules

Dec 01, 2025 41m

The CRTC recently released its much anticipated decision on Canadian content rules, the first of two decisions that could reshape broadcasting and film/TV production in Canada. The Commission…

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Law Bytes has published 224 episodes since August 2021, covering topics in Arts, Technology.

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Law Bytes is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 33m.

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