Dear Prime Minister and Honourable Ministers,

We, the undersigned Canadian authors, believe that digital media literacy is essential to the well-being of our country and its democratic institutions. Digital media is now the primary medium for political and civic discourse; this makes us deeply concerned about disinformation, online hate and violence, frauds and scams – especially when it affects our younger citizens.

Media literacy enables informed choices, and by extension, an informed population. Therefore we urge the federal government to fund, champion, and work with provincial ministries to make digital media literacy a required component of school programs.

Canada’s reputation for having the most highly-educated citizens in the world counts for little if we don’t help our younger generations navigate an increasingly complex world; they need the skills to counter media influence, apply critical thinking, and practice digital responsibility. Embedding such skills into our education system is more than possible, as proven by the Scandinavian countries, which have long emphasized media literacy as fundamental to a well-rounded education; it promotes skills essential for: safeguarding mental health, engaging in civic discourse, and making well-informed life decisions. In this respect, Canada has fallen behind.

The Canadian government has ramped up spending for military defense, a necessary precaution. Yet internal division is as destructive to national security as any external threat. Digital media literacy skills are no longer optional. Young Canadians must learn how to recognize bias, distinguish between fact, falsehoods, opinion, and analysis to resist manipulation and understand the influences behind harmful content.

Surely this is as valuable an investment in national security as fighter jets and at a lower cost, and with generational benefits. We ask the federal government for three things:

• Establish a shared vision for digital media literacy that brings together expertise, sets metrics, avoids duplication, and ensures accountability. For decades, organizations such as MediaSmarts, the Digital Citizen Initiative, as well as various federal departments have made efforts in this direction, but it’s been a fragmented effort. The federal government needs to assign this mandate to a new or existing ministry. 
• Stable, sufficient funding. A national strategy must do more than bring courseware into the classroom. The Federal government needs to ensure stable funding for a national path to digital media literacy. Funding should also cover: ongoing research to deal with changes in the media landscape, teacher training for media literacy, and results tracking.
• A national framework. While provinces and territories are responsible for their own public education systems, this doesn’t prevent Canada from achieving a cohesive national strategy. National frameworks in environmental learning and public health are already in place, and media literacy can follow this model of alignment across provinces and territories combined with flexibility for local needs. We urge you to begin by reviewing strategies such as the K-12 Framework developed by MediaSmarts.

Divisive content spreads online, amplified by trolls, bots, and AI. There’s very little we can do to stop it, but if our children are equipped with media literacy, perhaps those messages will fall on barren ground.

Respectfully signed by the authors, poets, and members of the literary community (so far):