Canada is criminalizing sexual deepfakes and sextortion, but it likely won’t be enough. In a new post, I look at how prevalent this conduct is in Canada and why regulating AI tools and platforms may matter more. robertdiab.substack.com/p/sexual-dee...

Bill C-8 (the proposed Cyber Security Act) has flown under the radar — but it raises serious Charter questions.

Bill C-2 is back. After a recent roundtable with the Minister of Public Safety calling for ideas for how to improve the bill, I’ve posted “Five Ways to Fix Bill C-2 – and Better Protect Our Privacy” robertdiab.substack.com/p/five-ways-...

My nominations for the 2025 Clawbies: - @mgeist.bsky.social for LawBytes, a podcast I have found indispensable for years — celebrating its 250th episode this year. - @privacylawyer.ca for his outstanding YouTube channel, Privacy Guy — enormously informative and insightful. #clawbies2025

Can lawyers safely use AI on client files or Crown disclosure? Law society and Crown policies don’t offer clear answers. Even “legal AI” tools like Lexis’ Protégé leave room for doubt. Some lawyers — and courts — are turning to the nuclear option: running AI offline.

When you're not sure commercial AI platforms are private enough to trust with client information or Crown disclosure, running your own model may be the answer, writes @robertdiab.bsky.social nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

Should law students use AI to summarize cases, draft outlines, or edit writing? I explore 10 ways students are using AI in law schools worldwide, and the key challenge of avoiding over-reliance. www.slaw.ca/2025/11/10/h...

Looking forward to it as well. Glad it's finally happening!

Do police and CSIS need new “lawful intercept” powers to keep up with technology? Parliament says yes. But in a new declassified report meant to justify Bill C-2, it offers little hard data to back this up.

Do CSIS and police really need new “lawful intercept” powers? Parliament says yes — but the evidence is thin. Why a new declassified report making the case for Bill C-2 doesn’t hold up. robertdiab.substack.com/p/do-csis-an...

Video generating #AI like #Sora2 highlight the technology's voracious thirst for energy and water, costs that must be transparent if growth is to be sustainable, argues @robertdiab.bsky.social theconversation.com/openais-newl... #sustainability

OpenAI’s new Sora 2 can turn text into lifelike video, but at what environmental cost? As AI moves from words to video, its power and water demands are set to soar. My latest for The Conversation/Substack asks how sustainable the next AI leap really is. robertdiab.substack.com/p/openais-ne...

Publishers are suing Google over AI Overviews, claiming traffic losses. But as Robert Diab argues: “The attempt to rely on copyright and antitrust law is really an indirect attempt to assert what can’t be claimed directly: a property right in clicks.”

Which is not to say that some of those controversial provisions might not return in a separate bill. But not if no other party is on board…

David, thanks for being the first to post. The new bill is now out. Most of the criminal stuff and — more crucially — the lawful access regime (the SAAIA) is gone. Money laundering, sex offender provisions still there, but no "information demand"; no subscriber ID on lower grounds. A big sigh...

Thank you to @karanicolas.bsky.social for alerting me to this: Liberals backtracking on C-2, tabling a revised bill this week... www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Happy to see this -- now all opposition parties opposed to new search powers in C-2. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Trying out Perplexity's Comet browser, made free to all users yesterday. Had been using Arc's Dia browser. Found that enormously useful. P's Comet so far faster, more functional. Will write about it shortly... Here's a table comparing the two...

BC Court of Appeal turns down doctors' class action against RateMDs — no privacy in names and contact info, no commercial exploitation of docs' identities. canlii.ca/t/kfhmc

Early impressions of Canada’s new hate crime bill (C-9): @richardmoon.bsky.social: flag waving offence may be redundant; the CCF, it may chill speech. Here’s my take: robertdiab.substack.com/p/will-canad...

Will new hate speech offences in Bill C-9 impact speech online? Will they fill real gaps in the law? I put them in context here… robertdiab.substack.com/p/will-canad...

No shortage of hype around AI and productivity. But in my own work, the gains have started to feel tangible. Not incremental, but structural, like moving from typewriter to word processor. I unpack this shift in National Magazine: www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

What photography did to painting, AI may now be doing to writing. Does this mark the death of authorship, or its reinvention? robertdiab.substack.com/p/authorship...

Just spoke with Ian Hanomansing on the CBC about Bill C-2, trying to convey in a short space some of the many privacy concerns with it. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...

The latest issue (vol 58 no 2) of the UBC Law Review is now available on CanLII! With contributions from Jon Festinger, Céline Castets-Renard, Robert Diab, Bradley Henderson, Katie Szilagyi, Peter Wills, Isabelle St-Hilaire, David Cohen + Matthew Peters. #ai #techlaw #legalcommentary zurl.co/DKCqY

What happens when AI leads to self-harm or criminality? Could lawsuits unfolding in the U.S. be brought here in Canada? robertdiab.substack.com/p/when-ai-tu...

"Google has declined to implement the Commissioner’s recommendation"... The Commissioner is "considering all available options"...

Thanks David!

Bill C-2 Backgrounder — the missing manual! t.co/y2ORIYSoHI

The CBA's National Magazine has a good article on #BillC2, including comments from me, @mgeist.bsky.social, @robertdiab.bsky.social and @citizenlab.ca www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

A closer look at the new lawful access act in bill c-2 for CIGI... www.cigionline.org/articles/can...

Striking that most common device for YouTube is now TV… www.techpolicy.press/google-is-po...

I noticed a big uptake in student use of AI this spring at TRU Law. Does this prevent you from becoming a good lawyer? Topic of my new post at Slaw.ca www.slaw.ca/2025/07/01/s...

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 236: Robert Diab (@robertdiab.bsky.social‬) on the Return of Lawful Access www.michaelgeist.ca/2025/06/law-...

Tucked into the new Strong Borders Act (Bill C-2) tabled this week are major new police search powers — possibly the most consequential for digital privacy in a decade.

On the raft of new search powers in the Strong Borders Act and Charter fault lines… theconversation.com/the-proposed...

Not sure it's a slam dunk under s 8... Texting while driving cases tend to assume no REP in what police see glancing in car while driving by. Not seeing a huge difference here. Just a thought...

"It seems likely that AI will take over more of the audio transcription we do in law. A good place to start is where it might work best for the client," writes @robertdiab.bsky.social. nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

Experimenting with GPT's new image capabilities... Sartre on the seawall...

In our 'law and AI' course, we had a great debate about using AI on law school exams and assignments. Here's what I learned... www.slaw.ca/2025/03/26/s...

Interesting post this morning by @teresascassa.bsky.social on use of facial recognition by retailers in BC and Quebec — and consensus emerging under privacy law:

Does it matter that Canada has just signed the first global treaty on AI? My latest for the Centre for International Governance Innovation www.cigionline.org/articles/can...

Ontario school boards suing Meta, Snapchat, and TikTok survived a summary dismissal motion Friday, judge holding: "The statistics, if true, and the methods and outcomes of social media ...impact not only the immediate access to the right to an education, but to the futures of many young people”…

More efficient, cheaper AI may cause demand to explode and energy consumption to soar, writes Robert Diab, who says we won’t make real progress on environmental sustainability in AI without binding obligations on companies to be more transparent.

On what Deep Research might mean for law robertdiab.substack.com/p/testing-th...

The Paris Summit on #AI indicates that there is broad interest to regulate the technology regarding inclusion and #sustainability, despite non-participation by the US and, perhaps, Canada's next gov't, argues @robertdiab.bsky.social theconversation.com/the-paris-su...

"I’ve assumed legal research with AI wouldn’t improve for a while. Fortunately, I may be wrong," writes @robertdiab.bsky.social www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articl...

Are sexual deepfakes a crime in Canada? Following up on my blog post earlier this month with a deeper dive for Criminal Law Quarterly...

A high schooler in Toronto used AI to make sexual images of classmates, police weren't sure it was a crime. On the gap in the Code that makes it harder to prevent this... robertdiab.substack.com/p/are-sexual...

On TikTok's challenge to the order to leave Canada -- how an earlier case (involving China Mobile) offers a roadmap of how this will play out...