Cyber Threats to Canadian Democracy

Emily Laidlaw

Dr. Emily Laidlaw is a Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Calgary, and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation. In addition to her academic work, Dr. Laidlaw is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Cybersecurity Consortium.

Dr. Laidlaw researches and advises at the intersection of technology regulation, human rights and corporate governance, with a special focus on platform regulation. She actively contributes to law reform and other advisory work, with recent projects on online harms, mis- and disinformation, defamation law, and intimate image abuse. Dr. Laidlaw's experience is international, having spent a decade in the United Kingdom, where she completed her LLM and PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science and was an assistant professor at the University of East Anglia Law School.

Dr. Laidlaw is author of two books: Regulating Speech in Cyberspace: Gatekeepers, Human Rights and Corporate Responsibility (Cambridge University Press, 2015), and co-editor with Florian Martin-Bariteau of the forthcoming book Security of Self: A Human-Centric Approach to Cybersecurity (Ottawa University Press, 2025).

John Ferris

John Ferris is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada. He is Professor Emeritus in History at the University of Calgary, and Honorary Professor at The School of Law and Politics, Brunel University and The Department of International Politics, The University of Aberystwyth, and Associate Member, Nuffield College, The University of Oxford. He has written five books and 130 academic articles and chapters in aviation, imperial, intelligence, international, military and naval history, and strategic studies. His most recent book is Behind the Enigma, The Authorised History of GCHQ, Britain's Top Secret Cyber Intelligence Agency (Bloomsbury, London, 2020).  

Rob Hubert

Rob Huebert is a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary. He also is the Director of the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies. He was appointed as a member to the Canadian Polar Commission (now renamed Canada Polar Knowledge) for a term lasting from 2010 to 2015. He is senior fellow with the Laurier MacDonald Institute; a fellow with the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies; a research fellow with the Canadian Global Affairs Institute; and a senior fellow with the Conference of Defence Associations Institute. Dr. Huebert has taught at Memorial University, Dalhousie University, and the University of Manitoba. He publishes on the issue of Canadian Arctic Security, Maritime Security, and Canadian Defence. His work has appeared in International Journal; Canadian Foreign Policy; Isuma- Canadian Journal of Policy Research and Canadian Military Journal. He was co-editor of Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security and Stewardship; Commercial Satellite Imagery and United Nations Peacekeeping and Breaking Ice: Canadian Integrated Ocean Management in the Canadian North. He also comments on Canadian security and Arctic issues in both the Canadian and international media. 

Michael Nesbitt

Michael Nesbitt is a professor of law at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Law, where he is also the Associate Dean, Research, and Director of Graduate Programs, as well as a Fellow with the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies (CMSS). Michael researches, publishes, and teaches in the areas of national security, cybersecurity, criminal law, Canadian sanctions, anti-terrorism laws, supply chain compliance and import/export restrictions. He is actively recruiting graduate students at the LLM (law), Masters (CMSS), and PhD (both law and CMSS) levels.

Michael has consulted for governments, think tanks, universities, and private businesses at the intersection of national and cyber security, sanctions laws and compliance, and criminal threat mitigation and response. He has previously worked as a diplomat for Global Affairs Canada where he specialized in international law, geopolitical and terrorist threats, and sanctions. Before that he was a lawyer for Canada's Department of Justice as well as the United Nations at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Michael holds an SJD (University of Toronto, Faculty of Law), an LL.M. (NYU), an LL.B. (University of Ottawa), and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) (Queen's University).