Canada's AI policy paradox

Are we in a regulatory black hole—or will we take creative control?

As the Canadian population gets more patriotically self-aware, we’re also feeling more invested in shaping our own future. With the development of AI accelerating worldwide, the need for a distinct, homegrown approach to policy has never been more urgent.

Canada’s Bill C-27 was set to bring in long-overdue governance, giving creatives and businesses some clarity on how AI could be used, developed, and—most importantly—regulated.

But with parliament being prorogued, and Mark Carney replacing Justin Trudeau as the current prime minister, this much-needed bill has been cast aside despite recent gestures, effectively putting the country’s AI policy in limbo.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world isn’t waiting around.

Days after his inauguration, Donald Trump revoked the previous administration’s AI policy, betting that fewer rules mean more innovation. The European Union, on the other hand, is all-in on more robust AI regulations, treating artificial intelligence like a high-risk technology that needs guardrails at every turn.

That leaves Canada somewhere in the middle—except now, without even a solid plan.

It has left creative industries in an interesting spot. Less regulation could mean fewer roadblocks for AI tools, opening up new ways to create music, art, films, and design at lightning speed. If AI-driven creativity is the future, then Canada could become a hub.

On the flip side, no regulation means no protection. If AI models can scrape work without permission, Canadian artists, musicians, and writers could find themselves competing against AI-generated iterations of their own work—with no legal recourse.

The lack of clarity for Canada’s copyright rules also casts a shadow of ambiguity for the recent high-profile lawsuit, which finds most national news media outlets jointly suing OpenAI for copyright infringement.

As I work toward my AI Governance Professional (AIGP) certification, a program based on the E.U.’s more stringent AI regulation style, I wonder if the risk management, accountability, and ethical safeguards I’m learning will be implemented in a meaningful way.

If North America moves toward a “light-touch” approach, will all that knowledge still be useful in Canada? Or will I just be the person at the party talking about AI compliance while everyone else is off building the next Midjourney or ChatGPT without any restrictions? Maybe.

But maybe it also means that countries like Canada will need a new model—something between America’s opportunistic approach and Europe’s regulation rigmarole. I will be closely watching Cohere, the Canadian AI powerhouse developer that recently released Command A, a low-cost answer to OpenAI and DeepSeek.

Even before the gap widened on global policy, AI copyright confusion was already happening worldwide. We’ve seen lawsuits from artists in the U.S. and U.K. who discovered their work had been used to train AI models without their permission.

AI-generated music is now nearly indistinguishable from their human counterparts, and stock agencies are releasing photos that compete directly with human photographers.

So, if Canada doesn’t put legal protections in place, we could end up watching an entire creative economy get undercut by AI-generated content that never had to follow the rules in the first place.

My grain of thought

Right now, Canada has a chance to get this right.

By supporting AI innovation while protecting creatives, we could become a leader in these industries. But if we passively let AI companies operate with zero accountability, the damage will be impossible to undo.

The Canadian government has a real decision to make: does Canada step up and create smart and balanced AI policies that benefit both tech and the creative industry? Or do we sit back and let everyone else make the rules while we deal with the fallout?

For creatives, this isn’t just a tech issue—it’s about survival in an industry that’s already tough enough. AI is here, and it’s changing everything.

The question is whether Canada will shape that future, or let others shape it for us.