November 13th, 2025
CIGF 2025: Canadian Leadership Through Change
From AI governance and digital rights to trade policy and cybersecurity, the forum will bring together leaders from government, civil society, academia, and the private sector for timely, forward-looking discussions on Canada’s role in shaping the future of the internet.
Details
Agenda
Morning
Afternoon
Program
- Registration
- Time: 8:30 A.M.
- Location: Foyer
- Continental breakfast
- Time: 8:30 A.M.
- Location: Dining area
- Welcome to Canadian IGF 2025: Canadian Leadership Through Change
- Time: 9:00 A.M.
- Location: Plenary stage
- Speaker: TBD
- Keynote 1: Byron Holland, President & CEO, CIRA
- Time: 9:15 A.M.
- Location: Plenary stage
- Panel 1 - Canadian Digital Sovereignty: The Government of Canada’s Digital Agenda
- Time: 9:45 A.M.
- Location: Plenary Stage
- Speakers: TBD
- Without digital sovereignty, can Canada’s digital policy agenda truly move forward, or will it remain shaped by the priorities of its largest trading partner? Our opening panel will serve as a broad framing conversation, introducing a range of key digital policy themes, including digital sovereignty that will be explored in greater depth during later panels.
- Networking break
- Time: 10:45 A.M.
- Location: Dining area
- Panel 2 - Cybersecurity in Canada
- Time: 11:00 A.M.
- Location: Plenary Stage
- Speakers: TBD
- This panel examines the most pressing cyber threats facing Canadians today and discuss how the country can strengthen its defences. Panelists will explore how Canada’s cybersecurity governance must adapt to address an evolving and increasingly complex threat landscape.
- Lunch
- Time: 12:00 P.M.
- Location: Dining area
Program
- Keynote 2 Title TBD
- Time: 1:00 P.M.
- Location: Plenary stage
- Panel 3: AI Governance: the next frontier for digital policy
- Time: 1:30 P.M.
- Location: Plenary stage
- Speakers: TBD
- This panel explores how governments can balance the drive for innovation with the need for digital protections. How should policy makers and AI programmers harness the transformative potential of AI to address complex social and economic challenges, while ensuring that its development and use remain firmly rooted in the public interest?
- Networking break
- Time: 2:30 P.M.
- Location: Dining area
- Panel 4 - Towards WSIS +20
- Time: 2:45 P.M.
- Location: Plenary stage
- Speakers TBD
- Twenty years after the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), this panel reflects on lessons learned and assess the relevance of the multistakeholder model in an era of fragmented platforms and shifting geopolitics.
- Townhall: The Government of Canada’s Digital Agenda
- Time: 3:45 P.M.
- Location: Plenary Stage
- Speakers: TBD
- Where does the next generation of policy makers and influencers see potential, and risk, from what’s over the horizon? How do our issues resonate for non-expert audiences? The closing Town Hall session of CIGF 2025 opens the floor to new everyone in the room and online to pose follow-up questions, fresh ideas, and challenges to recommendations and themes from earlier in the day.
- Reception
- Time: 4:30 P.M.
- Location: Dining area