Scams, disinformation, and hate. Online media is now the primary medium for political and civic information, and the landscape will only get worse as hostile actors use trolls, bots and AI to manipulate our thinking. We've seen how this creates division, mistrust, and discrimination.

Most troubling of all is the impact on our younger generations. Media literacy promotes skills essential for engaging in civic discourse, making well-informed life decisions, and safeguarding mental health. In the 2000's Canada was a leader in media literacy but we’ve fallen behind. Nordic nations are now the most media-literate, with school children at every level being taught skills for identifying fake news and resisting online manipulation.

We need the Federal government to provide leadership, sustained funding, and a cohesive national strategy. We need an MP whose portfolio includes media literacy. We need Provincial governments to advance media literacy curriculums from optional to required. This isn't breaking new ground. There are already successful models from Scandinavia which we can adapt to Canadian needs. What's needed is support from enough Canadians to get our governments to take action.

Media literacy is an investment in our democracy, and the situation has never been more urgent. Teaching children how to discern and deal with disinformation now is cheaper than trying to reverse the harm later. Let's start now and going forward there will be generations of young Canadians who are equipped to resist disinformation. 

Mandatory media literacy from K - 12 is possible. Other countries have done it.

Surely Canadian children deserve as much.