About Canadians for Digital Sovereignty
Canadians for Digital Sovereignty reflects a growing community of Canadian organizations and individuals who are deeply concerned that the digital services and infrastructures vital for Canadian social, economic, cultural and political life are controlled by giant US tech firms that are answerable to the US Administration and beyond the reach of democratic governance
We call urgently upon the federal government to reset the nation’s digital policy agenda to prioritize strengthening all key aspects of Canada’s digital sovereignty – including the underlying technical infrastructure, cloud platforms and the digital services Canadians encounter in their everyday lives.
Steering Committee
Andrew Clement
Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto
Andrew Clement is a professor emeritus of information at the University of Toronto, where he has coordinated the Information Policy Research Program since the 1990s. With a PhD in Computer Science, he has had longstanding research and advocacy interests in the social and policy implications of digital technologies, specially in the areas of privacy, surveillance and network sovereignty. His most recent research project is IXmaps.ca, an internet mapping tool that helps make visible the routing of Canadian personal data through the US (aka “boomerang” routing) and NSA mass internet surveillance sites in particular. In 2025 he co-founded Canadians for Digital Sovereignty.
Annick Charette
President, Fédération nationale des communications et de la culture-CSN
A graduate in communications from UQAM and HEC, Annick Charette worked for several years as a journalist before joining Télé-Québec in 1997 as a multimedia program and project manager. In this capacity, she has been involved in the creation of several flagship programs for the public broadcaster, including Les Appendices, Ça manque à ma culture, Les Brutes, Di Stasio, Les Francs-tireurs, Belle et bum, and several podcasts, including Trafic. Since 2000, she has served as vice president and president of the Syndicat général des employé-e-s de Télé-Québec, before being elected to the executive committee of the FNCC–CSN in 2015.
Barry Appleton
Managing Partner, Appleton and Associates International Lawyers
Prof. Barry Appleton, FCIArb, is one of North America’s leading legal architects of sovereign economic policy, trade law, and investment treaty arbitration. As Managing Partner of Appleton & Associates International Lawyers LP in Toronto and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for International Law at New York Law School, he advises governments and strategic sectors on how to navigate and shape the evolving legal terrain of international commerce, digital sovereignty, and geopolitical risk.
Dmitri Vitaliev
Founder, technology director of eQualitie
Founding director of eQualit.ie developing technologies for website protection deflect.ca; distributed systems for censorship circumvention ceno.app; decentralized file sharing ouisync.net and the splintercon.net conference series, among other activities for self-determination in the digital world.
John Matheson
Senior Fellow, Tech Policy at McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy
John Matheson is an Advisor at Reset Tech, a global charity whose mission is to guard against digital threats to people’s security, safety, and fundamental rights. He is also a Senior Fellow, Tech Policy at McGill University’s Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy, an interdisciplinary research organization dedicated to understanding and responding to the social, political, and policy challenges posed by our evolving information ecosystem and digital technologies. He held various roles in the federal government at the Department of Innovation, Science, and Industry, the Office of the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, and the Department of Canadian Heritage, where he served as Chief of Staff to the Minister. He holds an undergraduate degree from McGill University and a graduate degree from the University of Oxford.
Marc Hollin
Researcher at Unifor National
Marc is a researcher with Unifor, covering the media, hospitality and forestry sectors. Unifor is Canada’s largest private sector union, with more than 320,000 members across the country, working in every major sector of the Canadian economy. His work has involved strategic comprehensive campaigning, policy development, financial and corporate research, collective bargaining support, government relations, and member and community organizing. Marc has supported Unifor’s 10,000 media sector members in the fight to bring foreign digital giants and streaming platforms under regulation, and his work also focuses on building a new, sustainable financial model for local news in Canada. Marc lives in Toronto with his family, including his Bernedoodle, Arlo.
Matt Hatfield
Executive Director at OpenMedia.org
Matt is OpenMedia’s Executive Director. His previous work focuses on bridging the gap between good policy and messy political reality, with 5 years experience leading international digital rights advocacy at IFEX, and previous experience with the UN Environment program and Canopy Planet. He holds a BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia, and a Masters of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto. He loves cats and swing dance, and only infrequently attempts to combine the two.
Matthew Gray
Director of Public Policy & Media Partnerships, Torstar Corporation
Matthew Gray is the Director of Public Policy and Partnerships at Torstar Corporation, a progressive written news company that owns the Toronto Star. He has spent over a decade working to strengthen public institutions and create a more fair, healthy, and just digital society. He served two Ministers of Canadian Heritage, leading efforts to pass the Online Streaming Act and revitalize public service media, and the Minister of National Revenue, helping deliver pandemic relief and create a more fair and inclusive tax and benefits system. He co-founded Ontario’s digital government initiative, promoting digital inclusion and open government, and Civic Tech Toronto. He is a co-founder of Canadians for Digital Sovereignty.
Michel Lambert
General manager at eQualitie, a Canadian organization whose mission is the development of open source technologies aiming at protecting online rights
Michel is engaged in various initiatives supporting Civil Society organization’s rights to engage securely over the Internet. He has launched several tech projects starting from the Quebec Center for Alternative Media in 2000, Civil Society internet portals in the Democratic Republic of Congo (2002) and in the Maghreb-Mashreq (2007), and digital security schools in Montreal and Tunis. More recently he contributed to launching the LabDelta initiative. Also active on Internet governance issues, Michel was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for Progressive Communications between 2017 and 2020, then a founding member of the Canadian Internet Governance Forum . He has contributed to multiple GISWatch issues. He’s also engaged with Isoc-Quebec.
Renee Black
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GoodBot
As founder of goodbot, Renee is passionate about understanding the complex evolution of technology in society, preventing harmful disinformation and bias, and establishing frameworks that protect digital rights. Prior to goodbot, Renee was the founding Executive Director of PeaceGeeks, a Canadian nonprofit working at the intersection of technology, conflict, and humanitarian response. Renee holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Dalhousie University, an MA in Public and International Affairs from the University of Ottawa, and a certificate in conflict resolution from Cornell. She is a fellow of the UN Alliance of Civilizations and a Google Impact Award Winner.
Charter
Our charter outlines the core vision, values and principles that define Canadians for Digital Sovereignty (C4DS) as an organization and how it works. It is intended as a living document that will evolve as C4DS develops in response to evolving needs and opportunities. We welcome feedback.
For media inquiries and other outreach, contact us at Contact@Canadians4DigitalSovereignty.ca.