Suzanne Stein, Emma Westecott, JC Zhang

"OCAD U’s Digital Futures program welcomed Cory Doctorow (https://craphound.com/) to OCAD University for a public lecture as part of “Jailbreaking Canada”, a three-day playshop presented by Super Ordinary Lab (https://superordinarylab.com/) and game:play Lab (https://www.gameplaylab.ca/) with SFI Alum Madeline Ashby (https://www.madelineashby.com/) to playfully co-fabulate possible futures for Canada in the contemporary climate of late-stage capitalism. Cory’s talk will be “(Digital) Elbows Up: How Canada Can Become a Nation of Jailbreakers, Reclaim Our Digital Sovereignty, Win the Trade-War, and Disenshittify Our Technology”. “The internet sucks, and it's not your fault. The monopolies that dominate our digital environment didn't gain power because you were a careless shopper. Nor is this the fault of the ketamine-addled zuckermuskian monsters who run the shitty companies of the enshitternet. Those jerks owe their power to the enshittogenic *policy environment* that rewards cheating, greed and cruelty with wealth and power. The internet sucks because of *policy*. Named individuals, in living memory, enacted pro-enshittification policies that gave tech giants the power to cheat their way to dominance, and to prey upon us with impunity. Those policies also left us defenseless, creating new IP crimes that felonise modifying your own property so that it respects your privacy, your human rights, and your pocketbook. It doesn't have to be this way. We need not be eternal prisoners of the terrible policy blunders of the first quarter of this century. There has never been a more urgent need to pursue digital sovereignty and a post-American internet. That internet is ours - if we want it badly enough. It's time to seize the means of communication” – Cory Doctorow. https://www.ocadu.ca/news/jailbreaking-canada-imagining-future-through-play "