Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and other organizations have written to the Minister of Canadian Identity and Heritage urging the expansion of the Online Harms Act (OHA) to address disinformation and systemic risks posed by big tech platforms.

• The authors argue that the digital information ecosystem is compromised by platform architectures designed for profit and engagement rather than safety, noting that false stories reach people six times faster than true stories.
• The document cites several instances of disinformation impacting Canada, including foreign 'Slopaganda' from the Netherlands promoting Albertan secession, Russia paying a Canadian conservative influencer $10,000,000 for climate disinformation, and American disinformation networks driving half of Canadian climate conversations on platform X during the 2025 election.
• Disinformation is characterized as a public health risk, with the Canadian Medical Association reporting that 97 per cent of doctors have intervened to counter the effects of misleading online information on patients.
• The letter references international frameworks as models for Canada, specifically the EU's Digital Services Act—which fined platform X 120 million euros for transparency breaches—and Spain's institutionalized protocol that treats disinformation as a threat to national security.
• The authors provide six recommendations for the Online Harms Act: implementing a duty of care for safety and crisis response; ensuring transparency and researcher data access; requiring auditable financial disclosure for monetization; mandating safe advertising practices and advertiser verification; establishing a digital sovereignty framework for Canadian jurisdiction over data and AI; and investing in information resilience through public-interest research and a pluralistic media ecosystem.

APA

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (n.d.). Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf

Chicago

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE. n.d. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |title=Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{canadianassociationofphysiciansfortheenvironmentndonline, author = {{Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}}, title = {{Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE}}, publisher = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }