New NGO initiative opens discussion on AI impacts and how Canada should govern it
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association and other civil society organizations have announced the launch of the People’s Consultation on AI, a collaborative initiative aimed at advancing AI law, policy, and regulation that focuses on human rights and the public interest.
With submissions open until Mar. 15, the new civil society initiative has provided a platform for discussion on whether the federal government should adopt AI in Canada and how it should govern the use of this technology.
According to a joint press release, the People’s Consultation on AI welcomes submissions spanning:
- neighbourhood discussions regarding AI’s daily impacts
- extensive expert analyses
- a broad range of participants, including public interest groups, academics, affected communities, and individuals across the country
Participants in the initiative will post submissions on the consultation website and share them with Canada’s government. The website also offers resources on AI’s implications, general guidance, and community facilitation tools for those preparing collaborative submissions.
Per the press release, the People’s Consultation on AI poses a meaningful alternative, given the Canadian government’s failure to ensure a meaningful consultation during the development of the national AI strategy.
“The federal government’s approach to a national AI ‘strategy’ has resembled a parody of AI boosterism, with their purported consultation a thin veneer for manufacturing consent where they know there is none,” said Cynthia Khoo, a technology and human rights lawyer, in the press release.
‘National sprint’ on AI
Last October, more than 160 civil society organizations and experts signed an open letter criticizing the federal government’s “national sprint” on AI, which ran from Oct. 1–31, 2025, and highlighting the negative impacts of AI integration in all aspects of Canadian society.
“Reckless adoption of AI systems is already undermining substantive equality in our daily lives,” said Rosel Kim, a senior staff lawyer at the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund (LEAF), in the joint press release.
The open letter identified flaws in Canada’s development of the national AI strategy, which began with a task force speedily organized for that purpose. According to the organizations, the task force prioritized industry participation, with only a few members equipped to address AI’s broad ethical, social, and political impacts.
The organizations added that the federal government’s public consultation on the development of the national AI strategy provided only 30 days for input, a short timeline that prevented those most affected by AI from having their voices heard.
“We need regulatory controls that centre human rights and substantive equality to mitigate the profound harms of this technology, but the government is developing a national strategy on AI without hearing from those who will be the most impacted,” Kim said in the press release.
“It is a slap in the face to every historically marginalized community and vulnerable person who has already been harmed by the carelessness and arrogance of robber tech barons prioritizing profits over people and ego over ethics,” added Khoo, who is a senior fellow at Citizen Lab.
According to the organizations, the survey questions focused more on AI’s economic benefits than its negative consequences. AI technology, rather than government officials, has been assessing responses to the questions.
Khoo described the People’s Consultation on AI as a way to help Canada avoid repeating ‘profound’ mistakes.
“If we have learned one thing repeatedly from the cascading and discriminatory harms of so many cycles of tech hype—whether big data, social media, algorithmic decision-making, or genAI—it’s that those hardest hit often see the future first, but are the last to be heard,” Khoo said.
