Throw Phone In Garbage, Manitoba Premier Says In Provocative Critique Of Big Tech
Source: CBC, Ian Froese
Photo: Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told Democracy Live, an event held at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on Monday, that he still believes in the power of technology, but its various harms, including surveillance, shouldn’t be discounted. (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)
Industry’s giants deserve same scrutiny and regulation as other sectors: Wab Kinew
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told a democracy summit the best thing we can do to strengthen our democracy and children’s education is to “all throw our phones in the garbage.”
He made the comment at Democracy Live, an event hosted by the Walrus and DXC+ by DemocracyXChange, at the Winnipeg Art Gallery on Monday.
“We ban it for kids because I’m trying to get re-elected, and I know banning Facebook for you would get me tossed in the garbage, but everything that we’re saying is bad in tech for kids applies equally to you,” Kinew said.
While untangling our lives from phones might be unrealistic, Kinew argued the ails of algorithms, blue lights emitting from screens and corporations collecting the personal data of users doesn’t evaporate when a young person turns 18.
“It’s easy for us to make the case as a government that these things, surveillance capitalism, is bad for children and our children shouldn’t be exploited by it, but I hope people understand that we are making that public interest argument to everyone in our society.”
The premier shared his views on technology’s growing influence after being asked by Walrus editor-in-chief Carmine Starnino about his government’s various attempts to target Big Tech, including banning cellphones in schools and personalized pricing in grocery stores, while also proposing a first-in-Canada ban on social media and AI chatbots for youth.
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David Gerhard, a University of Manitoba computer science professor, said the premier made a provocative case for ditching our phones, but offered a measured explanation questioning technology’s dominance.
Gerhard agreed with Kinew that the public should be skeptical of the way technology is being served.
“Most of the technology that we see today, especially in the context of social media, is there to serve advertising to our eyeballs,” he said. “That makes it a different motivation from using the technology to make my life better or to help me do a thing I need to do.”
Kinew said he still believes in technology’s promise to decentralize knowledge but is a “healthy enough skeptic” to recognize the industry deserves to be regulated like any other.
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“Why is this thing that has been designed by thousands of PhDs who understand your inner mental [processes], why is that not subject to regulation and subject to review by the public sector?”
He also told the crowd at the democracy event that U.S. President Donald Trump’s chaotic administration is proof our democracy “is not a static entity.”
Kinew said the checks and balances meant to protect the three branches of the U.S. federal government have been upended by unethical Republicans, pointing to the transformation of the Supreme Court as one example.
“There is a limit to what the structure can accomplish,” he said. “Ultimately, it has to come down to the people.”
Kinew said Canada can learn from those lessons. In particular, he worries about declining voter turnout and civil participation.
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More people need to be engaged in the civic sphere, he said.
“We need to make politics more engaging and entertaining, but we also need to cultivate through the education system and through our broader culture, the understanding within the individual in our society that you have the responsibility to participate in our democracy.”
Kinew didn’t elaborate on what that would look like. He didn’t take questions from reporters afterward.
The premier also spoke about his government’s promise to end chronic homelessness. Three years after the NDP formed government, Kinew said around 500 housing units have been built.
He acknowledged housing advocates want the government to build faster, but he said he’s limited because he still wants to balance the provincial budget by 2027-28.
“If we come in and we borrow an exorbitant amount of money, and we got voted out of office in one term, guess what’s going to happen to all the great policy ideas we had for social housing in that one term? Gone immediately,” Kinew said.
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“You have to move in an incremental approach, to the extent that the voting public views that you’re still in their corner.”
Kinew said last week’s federal announcement to spend $1 billion to build 2,000 housing units in Winnipeg for people who currently live without, and a new health-care centre for people with mental health and addictions, hasn’t gotten as much positive news coverage as it deserves.
He called it “the biggest investment Manitoba has received in my lifetime, and probably before my lifetime.”
Premier Wab Kinew told a democracy conference on Monday that big tech deserves to be scrutinized, as he argued the potential harms of technology apply not just to kids, but to adults as well.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ian Froese covers the Manitoba Legislature and provincial politics for CBC News in Winnipeg. He serves as president of the legislature’s press gallery. He studied U.S. culture, media and politics as a 2025 World Press Institute fellow. You can reach him at ian.froese@cbc.ca.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/premier-kinew-big-tech-criticism