Restricting teenagers’ access to artificial intelligence sites like ChatGPT and online social media platforms are among the key policy resolutions on the table at the Liberal Party of Canada’s national convention in Montreal this week.
The convention will bring together about 4,000 members of the Liberal party and Prime Minister Mark Carney to the Palais des congrès from Thursday to Saturday. They will be debating 24 policy proposals, ranging from health-care reform to curtailing use of the notwithstanding clause.
The convention comes as the Liberals and Carney are riding a wave of popular support and are poised to gain a slim majority in Parliament. Currently holding 170 seats out of 343 in the House of Commons, the party is predicted to win at least two of three federal byelections on April 13. Two are in Ontario Liberal strongholds.
The other is in Terrebonne, a traditional Bloc Québécois riding that went Liberal by one vote in the April 28 federal election last year. That outcome was contested by the Bloc candidate who lost her case in Superior Court, but then won it in Supreme Court on Feb. 13.
Without the drama of a leadership vote, as was seen during the Conservative convention in Calgary last January when Pierre Poilievre handily won his leadership review, the Liberal convention is not likely to garner as much attention.
But the coming together of the party faithful with Carney at the helm could give the Liberals a boost on the eve of the byelections, said Geneviève Tellier, a professor of political science at the University of Ottawa.
“There will be more talk about the Liberals on the weekend before the votes, and Mark Carney will be there, which will also create an event,” she said. “It will perhaps be good for him to be seen surrounded by Liberals because that’s not something we’ve seen much of lately.”
It will be interesting to gauge the buzz in the room a year after Carney was elected leader in a landslide vote in Ottawa, where he was fêted as a “saviour,” Tellier said.
“I’d like to see if we will find the same atmosphere” at this convention, Tellier said. “I think they will be in a good mood.”
Recent polls show the Liberals with a 16-point lead over the Conservatives, with 48 per cent of decided voter intentions, and high approval ratings for Carney’s performance as prime minister.
As to the policy resolutions on the agenda, there’s little there that’s controversial that could confront the prime minister’s leadership publicly, Tellier said. The resolutions, which are not binding, could eventually shape party policy, but are not as important as the party platform.
“From what I saw, most of the resolutions appear to be taken from what’s in the news, so they’re not very visionary,” Tellier said.
Members will also take part in panel discussions, update campaign training strategies and elect their next board of directors.
The two policies regarding putting age limits on social media platforms proposed by the Quebec branch of the Liberal party come months after the province imposed a ban on cellphones in elementary and high schools.
One resolution asks that the government of Canada be urged to impose an age limit of 16 “on access to all AI chatbots and other potentially harmful forms of AI interaction.” The proposal argues that AI and chatbots such as ChatGPT “are having negative effects on the mental health of Canadian children and teens leading directly to a range of harmful behaviours. These technologies have been shown to limit desire for interaction with peers, pushed some young people into sexual conversations and have even recommended suicide to vulnerable youth.”
Another resolution, sponsored by the national caucus and Quebec, recommends Canada follow the example of Australia, which imposed a minimum age of 16 for social media accounts to reduce the risks of psychological distress, cyberbullying and unsafe online interactions.
Carney said during his trip to Japan in March that age limits for social media use “merits an open and considered debate,” but he had not decided whether Canada should adopt its own legislation.
Local laws could see widespread public support, according to data from the Angus Reid Institute. A March survey of 4,000 Canadian adults found that 75 per cent support barring children under 16 from using social media platforms.
Another resolution out of British Columbia calls for the Liberal party to limit use of the notwithstanding clause by invoking “disallowance on any provincial legislation that proactively invokes the clause before court challenges are exhausted.” The proposal argues that provinces have used the clause to legislate matters that are not aligned with Canada’s constitution.
The clause, which was created when the Constitution was patriated in 1982 to allow provinces to override charter rights in order to protect regional differences, has been under scrutiny because it is increasingly being used pre-emptively to protect legislation before it can be challenged in court. Bill 21, Quebec’s law barring people in positions of authority including teachers from wearing religious symbols, is one of the best known examples of the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause and was debated last month in the Supreme Court.
Justice Minister Sean Fraser recently told the media he has no intention of invoking disallowance, a constitutional tool that has not been used by the federal government since 1943, to curb provincial laws.
Other party resolutions that will be debated include enforcing the Canada Health Act against privatization of medical services, creating a national rail strategy to explore high-speed rail projects and opening up the electoral reform debate to replace the first-past-the-post election system.
rbruemmer@postmedia.com
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