A study on the legal history of printing press regulation in early modern England yields insights relevant to contemporary debates on the regulation of emerging technologies like AI and virtual reality, a McGill researcher says.
“Two key insights emerge,” said Ali Ekber Cinar, doctoral candidate at the McGill Faculty of Law and author of the paper. “First, effective influence over regulation required both financial resources and a direct connection to the technology. Second, preventing problems like monopolies and censorship depended on having diverse voices involved in regulation.”
Cinar examined the legal responses to the printing press in England from the 1470s to the early 1700s, with a particular focus on long-term social and institutional changes. His objective was to better understand how societies regulate new technologies.
“Many of the same issues – such as the concentration of power and the need for balanced regulation – are repeating today,” explained Cinar.
The research highlights how the state, religious authorities and economically powerful groups such as printers both wrestled and collaborated with each other over time to protect their own interests regarding the technology, and how their responses were also influenced by various political and social upheavals.
“Just as economic power and direct involvement shaped regulation in the past, today’s tech giants influence how AI is governed. Similarly, while the printing press transformed knowledge into a commodity, AI is now driving the commodification of data. Learning from history suggests that involving a broad range of stakeholders is essential to avoid monopolization, ensure transparency, and protect public interest,” he said.
According to Cinar, the research aligns with existing scholarship on the interest-driven nature of regulation, emphasizing how legal change is often shaped in the long run by economic power and interest groups.
Cinar said he hopes to continue to expand this research to provide policymakers with a more informed and historically grounded framework for addressing the complex challenges posed by today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape.
Given how contentious copyright continues to be to this day, it seems odd to look at its and the printing press’s history for hints about AI regulation.
For those unfamiliar with the history of the printing press and to satisfy my pedantic tendencies, it has a complicated history and not all of it centered in Europe. From the ‘History of printing’ Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
Printing emerged as early as the 4th millennium BCE in the form of cylinder seals used by the Proto-Elamite and Sumerian civilizations to certify documents written on clay tablets. Other early forms include block seals, hammered coinage, pottery imprints, and cloth printing. Initially a method of printing patterns on cloth such as silk, woodblock printing for texts on paper originated in Tang China by the 7th century, to the spread of book production and woodblock printing in other parts of Asia such as Korea and Japan. The Chinese Buddhist Diamond Sutra, printed by woodblock on 11 May 868, is the earliest known printed book with a precise publishing date. Movable type was invented in China during the 11th century by the Song dynasty artisan Bi Sheng, but it received limited use compared to woodblock printing. However, the use of copper movable types was documented in a Song-era book from 1193, and the earliest printed paper money using movable metal type to print the identifying codes were made in 1161.[1] The technology also spread outside China, with the oldest extant printed book using metal movable type being the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377 during the Goryeo era.
Woodblock printing was also used in Europe until the mid-15th century. Late medieval German inventor Johannes Gutenberg created the first printing press based on previously known mechanical presses and a process for mass-producing metal type. By the end of the 15th century, his invention and widescale circulation of the Gutenberg Bible became responsible for a burgeoning economical book publishing industry spreading globally across Renaissance Europe and eventually among the colonial publishers and printers that emerged in the British American colonies. This industry enabled the communication of ideas and the sharing of knowledge on an unprecedented scale, leading to the global spread of the printing press during the early modern period. Alongside the development of text printing, new and lower-cost methods of image reproduction were developed, including lithography, screen printing and photocopying.
…
Getting back to the matter at hand, here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,
A June 22, 2026 Metacreation Lab newsletter landed in my email box and here are some of the items that caught my attention,
…
Philippe Pasquier Presents at SIAT [School of Interactive Arts and Technology] Graduate Research Colloquium Speaker Series
In February [2026], Metacreation Lab Director Dr. Philippe Pasquier was invited as one of the opening speakers for the SIAT Graduate Research Colloquium Spring Speaker Series. Hosted by the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University, the series brings together researchers and students to engage critically with emerging technologies and their broader cultural and social implications.
Philippe Pasquier Presents Laser Talk at Texas A&M University
Dr. Philippe Pasquier recently delivered a Laser [Leonardo Art Science Evening Rendezvous Talk at Texas A&M University, exploring the artistic and aesthetic foundations of the Metacreation Lab’s work in creative AI. The talk situated contemporary generative AI within the broader histories of generative art and practice-led research, highlighting the diversity of AI approaches that extend beyond the current focus on large-scale commercial models.
The presentation was followed by an interdisciplinary discussion with faculty and students from across the arts and humanities, covering topics such as creativity, authorship, and the evolving role of AI in artistic practice.
New Mitacs Project Explores AI for Interactive Music Generation
The Metacreation Lab has launched a new Mitacs-funded research collaboration with Audiokinetic, the creators of the widely used Wwise interactive audio platform. Led by Metacreation Lab’s Master’s student Paul Triana under the supervision of Dr. Philippe Pasquier, the project explores new AI-driven workflows for adaptive music in video games and interactive media.
The research will develop a generative music pipeline that combines automatic music transcription, symbolic music generation, and neural audio synthesis to create seamless musical transitions and variations. By leveraging the lab’s recent advances in symbolic music AI, including MIDI-GPT, the project aims to provide composers and developers with more flexible and controllable tools for creating responsive soundtracks.
The collaboration will investigate how AI can support, rather than replace, human creativity, enabling richer interactive musical experiences while reducing production barriers for game developers and digital artists.
Mitacs-Funded Research Examines AI for Type 2 Diabetes Management
Researchers at the Metacreation Lab, in collaboration with Vancouver-based QiiQ Inc., have completed a Mitacs-funded scoping review investigating the current state of AI in consumer-facing mobile health applications for Type 2 diabetes management. The project, led by Metacreation Lab’s PhD student Dhruv Adhia with collaborators Dave Brown (QiiQ’s CEO) and Dr. Philippe Pasquier, analyzed 1,569 records across seven academic databases, ultimately synthesizing findings from 17 studies.
The review identified six major AI capability domains, including clinical decision support systems, AI-assisted dietary management, conversational AI, behavioural interventions, continuous glucose monitoring with AI coaching, and wearable sensor analytics. Across controlled studies, AI-supported interventions demonstrated meaningful improvements in diabetes management outcomes, including reductions in HbA1c levels.
The findings provide an evidence-based overview of which AI capabilities are currently demonstrating clinical value and which remain promising opportunities for future translation into consumer health products. The manuscript has completed supervisor review and is currently being prepared for journal submission.
Philippe Pasquier Discusses AI Literacy Beyond Polarization
Dr. Philippe Pasquier recently presented AI Literacy Beyond Polarization as part of the symposium Teaching AI: Art & Design Education Under Automation, organized by The Ohio State University.
The talk explored alternatives to the increasingly polarized debates surrounding generative AI, arguing for greater awareness of the diversity of creative AI approaches. Drawing on research and development at the Metacreation Lab, Philippe highlighted approaches centred on small data, model crafting, local and open-source tools, direct manipulation, and human-centred co-creation.
The presentation also featured Autolume, demonstrating how artists can train, adapt, and perform with their own generative models using small datasets and accessible workflows. The talk is now available online as part of the symposium’s public lecture series.
For those who are curious about Leonardo and Mitacs, First, I have a little more. Leonardo, from the About page,
Fearlessly pioneering since 1968, Leonardo serves as THE community forging a transdisciplinary network to convene, research, collaborate, and disseminate best practices at the nexus of arts, science and technology worldwide. Leonardo’ serves a network of transdisciplinary scholars, artists, scientists, technologists and thinkers, who experiment with cutting-edge, new approaches, practices, systems and solutions to tackle the most complex challenges facing humanity today.
As a not-for-profit 501(c)3 enterprising think tank, Leonardo offers a global platform for creative exploration and collaboration reaching tens of thousands of people across 135 countries. Our flagship publication, Leonardo, the world’s leading scholarly journal on transdisciplinary art, anchors a robust publishing partnership with MIT Press; our partnership with ASU infuses educational innovation with digital art and media for lifelong learning; our creative programs span thought-provoking events, exhibits, residencies and fellowships, scholarship and social enterprise ventures.
I believe the inspiration for the name is Leonardo da Vinci.
Mitacs is a nonprofit national research organization that, in partnerships with Canadian academia, private industry and government, operates research and training programs in fields related to industrial and social innovation.[1][2]
History
Mitacs was founded by Canadian mathematicians in 1999. The organization, whose name originally stood for “Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems”, worked in the field of mathematical sciences and associated disciplines but has since expanded. In 2004, the Mitacs Accelerate program was launched[3] and has since supported over 10,000 internships nationally.[4][5][6]
…
So, they’ve gone from a mathematics network to industrial and social innovation.
The type 2 diabetes management project featuring QiiQ and Dave brown yielded a ‘narrative’ surprise, from the QiiQ Health About page,
Pioneering the narrative-led approach to metabolic health and diabetes reversal. We believe health shouldn’t be a subtraction game, but a journey of discovery.
Redefining care through storytelling
At QiiQ Health, we understand that behavioral change is hard. Traditional approaches often rely on willpower and deprivation, which rarely lead to lasting results.
That’s why we created the Quest Loop. By combining engaging storytelling with an emotionally resonant experience, we help you observe your health journey from a new perspective—one where you are the protagonist overcoming challenges, guided by experts and data.
CEO & Co-Founder
DAVE BROWN
Trained as an engineer, I spent my early career believing that logic and code could solve anything. But I’ve come to realize that the “Era of the Engineer” is closing. We are entering a new phase: The Era of the Artist.
My mission has always been to solve problems that cause human suffering. For years, I looked to technology for the fix. But in our ailing healthcare system, I’ve seen tech-driven solutions fall short because they lack a critical ingredient: humanity. True transformation won’t happen from within the system—it must come from the outside, led by patients themselves. Real change requires more than just better math; it requires novel, empathetic thinking. It is time for the engineers to step back and let the artists step forward.
Now, with AI beginning to change the world at lightspeed, we must carefully consider what we are ready to tolerate as people. And if we haven’t reached it already, we will soon confront a moment of truth – are we going to stay in charge of our destiny?
More on this later…
…
The Era of the Artist? Interesting approach; I hope it’s successful and adopted.
The last one I’ve explored is Audiokinetic and it doesn’t present any real surprises, from its Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
Audiokinetic Inc. is a Canadian software company based in Montreal, Quebec[3] that develops audio software for the video game industry. Its main product is Wwise audio authoring software. On January 8, 2019, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that they had acquired the company.[4]
…
More usually it’s a US company that does the acquiring, this time it was the Japanese multinational conglomerate, Sony.
[$60 CAD standard tickets available until 12 am PT June 25, 2926]
This is a monthly room to swap notes, demo work, and argue productively about the future.
Thirty months in a row.
That still sounds kind of fake to me, but here we are.
We started this thing in a room full of people trying to figure out what the hell was going on with AI. Artists, coders, founders, teachers, researchers, skeptics, people who were excited, people who were worried, people who were both.
Mostly both.
…
That is still the point.
You can be amazed by these tools and still be mad about how they were trained.
You can build with AI and still care about artists, water, power, kids, consent, Indigenous data sovereignty, public memory, and who gets paid.
This month also has a featured conversation with Rick Glumac, B.C.’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence and New Technologies, on what he has seen over the past year as B.C. research, companies, creative tools, and public institutions all try to figure out what responsible AI actually looks like outside the white paper.
The point is a live local conversation about what B.C. is good at, what we are still missing, and how the people actually building with these tools can help shape the next layer of the ecosystem.
Builders in the lobby. Community in the dome. Weird demos. Robots if they behave. Robots if they don’t. People showing the stuff they are actually making, not pitching some imaginary future with a deck they made in the Uber.
The demo pit is back. Bring the half-working thing. Bring the prototype. Bring the workflow. Bring the local model. Bring the strange little tool you made because waiting for permission got boring.
The City That Keeps Showing Up
Also, yes, this is happening right in the middle of World Cup madness.
Canada plays Switzerland at noon at BC Place. By evening, the city will be full of jerseys, cops, tourists, barricades, branding, noise, money, and everyone trying to figure out who Vancouver belongs to this week.
….
The Story So Far
January [2026] was Alexandra Samuel and Viv, Maya Bruck keeping vibe coders honest, Erica Lapadat-Janzen naming the soft violence hiding inside so-called ethics discourse.
February [2026] was MAC night, where we let the consciousness people take the wheel and asked what love, embodiment, synthetic empathy, and “real” even mean when language gets cheap.
March was Both Hands Full. AI is extractive, biased, thirsty, dangerous, powerful, useful, weird, and making a lot of us more creative than ever. All true. Then Lawrence brought robots, because of course he did.
April [2026] was ethics with teeth. Care, fairness, scams, governance, street-level wisdom, and what happens when we stop pretending productivity is the only thing worth measuring.
May [2026] was the AI commons. Internet Archive Canada. Rachel Horst’s anti-slop machine. Gabriel George opening the room. Public memory. Creative systems with fingerprints. The reminder that the commons does not build itself.
Anthony Joseph & Jonny Williams
Squamish Nation
Opening Ceremony: Grounding The Room
Anthony Joseph and Jonny Williams bring the opening grounding for Meetup #30, centering local relationship and respect for where we gather before the room accelerates into demos, policy, and future-talk.
…
Honourable Rick Glumac
Minister of State for AI & New Technologies
Featured Talk: From Research To The Marketplace
From Research To The Marketplace: What I have witnessed over the past year as B.C.’s Minister of State for AI and New Technologies.
Rick Glumac, B.C.’s Minister of State for AI and New Technologies, brings a tech-sector and computer engineering background to government. He has worked across animation, video games, mobile apps, and public technology policy, and will speak about B.C. research moving toward market-ready companies, responsible AI, and how to grow the ecosystem without losing the plot.
…
Anthonia Ogundele
Ethos Lab / Blackathon
Community AI Charters, Youth Power, And The Blackathon
Anthonia Ogundele is the founder of Ethos Lab, a STEAM innovation hub serving youth in K-12 education. Her work sits at the overlap of educational technology, equity, community values, and young people becoming creators and decision-makers, not just users of tools designed somewhere else.
Kris Krüg hosts Meetup #30 as a checkpoint for what this community has learned, what it is building, and what deserves protection as the machines get louder.
Creative Production, AI Animation, And The New Studio Layer
Mayumi Rollings is a Tiny Ghost Studios founder and Chief Executive Officer, bringing operational finance, people-first leadership, and creative studio infrastructure into the AI animation and production conversation.
…
Aliza Schwartzman & Noa Titievsky
Slapd Treats
Food, Hospitality, And Community Care
Aliza Schwartzman and Noa Titievsky of Slapd Treats bring hospitality to the room. Food is not decoration here; it is part of how a community gets people talking, fed, and actually looked after.
Jackson Wu, aka Shyang, has been part of this community since the early meetups, opening rooms with a mic and the most analog instrument in the building: the human voice. Piano at five, a love of jazz and blues, a drum kit he couldn’t afford, so he taught his mouth to be one instead. By day he coaches people through the fear of speaking; by night he makes a room full of AI builders remember what live, unscripted, human-generated audio actually sounds like. No model. No prompt. No latency.
Come late. Leave early. Nobody keeps score.
No aggressive pitching.
No AI worship service.
No doom panel cosplay.
No gatekeeping.
Just real people trying to keep their ethics, creativity, humour, and agency intact while the machines get louder.
If you’re building, come.
If you’re skeptical, come.
If you’re confused, perfect.
If you’ve got a robot, absolutely bring the robot.
Kris Krüg & the Vancouver AI Community
The Flow
Doors at 6:00.
Program starts at 7:00.
Everybody out by 10:00.
Come late. Leave early. Nobody keeps score.
…
Community Partners
Big thanks to the folks helping keep the lights on, the doors open, and the community infrastructure real:
Creative Mornings Vancouver: 14 years building Vancouver’s creative community since before “community building” was a LinkedIn buzzword, and they let us cross-pollinate networks because they get that rising tides lift all boats.
H.R. MacMillan Space Centre: Our venue partner who hosts us every month and does not kick us out when conversations run past 10 PM. They’re Vancouver’s gateway to innovation and space education, making science accessible to everyone from kids to cosmos-obsessed adults.
Ethos Lab: Vancouver’s Black + Indigenous youth-led studio on Main St where teens ship real products. Running AI Studios and Friday Night AI Experimentation Labs for BIPOC youth, plus the Blackathon honouring Hogan’s Alley.
…
BC’s Minister of State for AI & New Technologies, Rick Glumac, was once a software developer, from his Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
…
Glumac worked much of his career in the field of computer graphics as a software developer, visual effects artist, and computer graphics supervisor.[8] He worked on the first computer-animated TV show ReBoot, and later worked for companies such as DreamWorks and Electronic Arts on well-known Hollywood films such as Shrek 2, Madagascar, and Over the Hedge.[8] Following this he developed apps for the iPhone.[7]
…
I can’t recall the last time I saw a minister tasked with a technology portfolio who had any kind of relevant experience.
One more post about the 2026 Canada-Wide Science Fair (my last one was a June 1, 2026 piece highlighting the top prizes) as this work from two high school students fascinates me.
The video shows the announcement of the students’ award and their interview on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) Calgary Eyeopener news show, Note: This segment runs about 7 mins.,
For those who might like to read about the project, a June 2, 2026 article by Kelsea Arnett for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news online website describes the device (wearable tail) intended to assist people with balance problems,
Allen Guo-Lu and Luotong Shi aren’t your typical Grade 12 students.
While most are either busily preparing for final exams or revelling in the fact that their high school careers are almost over, Guo-Lu and Shi have spent their senior year developing wearable technology to help people battling Parkinson’s disease avoid serious falls.
“It’s our last year in Grade 12, so we were like, ‘Why don’t we try to kind of give back to the community?'” Shi told CBC Radio’s Calgary Eyeopener.
“This was one of the ways that we thought of doing it.”
The technology — a wearable battery-powered tail equipped with built-in sensors — can detect when the wearer may be unstable and act as a counterweight to help them regain their balance, Shi said.
“It essentially works kind of like the idea of a spine where there is several pieces that you can attach and the tubes act as tendons,” Shi said.
In April, [2026] the Western Canada High School students won the University of Calgary Chancellor and Senate Award at the Calgary Youth Science Fair. The project was also a finalist at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Edmonton last week.
There are at least 120,000 people living with Parkinson’s in Canada, and that number is expected to exceed 150,000 by 2034, according to Ko Currie with Parkinson Canada.
…
Tremors and gait features like slowness, difficulty with balance or rigidity are some of the more recognizable symptoms of the disease, Currie said, adding falls are a significant concern.
“It’s one of the most disabling features of Parkinson’s, because they can lead to really serious injuries and sometimes even hospitalizations,” said Currie, who is the organization’s director of research programs and partnerships.
…
Why a tail?
Guo-Lu said the project was inspired by his volunteer work in seniors’ homes and witnessing Parkinson’s patients struggling with balance.
He said the tail design comes from witnessing how cats and other mammals use their tails to balance and correct themselves.
Guo-Lu said in testing the belt with several patients, they were able to see how the tail responded to various individual gaits and stages of progression of the disease.
“Learning about those factors and testing really helped us get a good design for the tail,” Guo-Lu said.
He added they can also change the weight of the tail depending on how much support a patient needs and what is most comfortable for them, although the ideal range was between 400 and 1,200 grams.
Users can also tailor the tail’s sensitivity to their body with an app the pair built.
Project’s benefits go beyond Parkinson’s
But the benefits of the tail extend beyond just patients with Parkinson’s, Shi said.
“This tail, because it addresses balance specifically, it honestly should benefit all people who have asymmetric gait,” she said.
…
Guo plans to study neuroscience at the University of Calgary and Shi plans to study electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo.
[$60 CAD standard tickets available until 12 am PT May 28, 2926]
Building the AI Commons is about the tools, archives, models, stories, standards, and institutions that still belong to everybody.
It is about keeping knowledge open without letting culture get strip-mined. It is about creative AI that has taste, consent, and fingerprints. It is about public memory. It is about refusing a future where five companies own the interface to reality.
…
THE LINEUP
Andrea Mills, Internet Archive Canada Preserving the Open Internet
Andrea is the Executive Director of Internet Archive Canada, 20 years in and still quietly doing some of the most important infrastructure work in the country. While everyone else is locking knowledge behind paywalls, Andrea and the team are archiving the open internet, digitizing collections, and building public AI infrastructure with datasets that actually belong to the public.
Earlier this year, Brewster Kahle and Andrea announced the BC Data Center is live and ready for scale — building data mining hubs for public AI, climate models, and large language models for small languages. This is what open source looks like at the institutional level.
Dr. Rachel Horst, UBC Master of Educational Technology Building an Anti-Slop Fiction Machine: What AI Reveals About Creative Processing
Dr. Horst on her AI Fiction Machine: an 8-agent system she built for Hyperstition’s AI fiction contest, which generates fully automated short fiction at about $30 a story.
The system slows AI down, forces it to review its own work, and embraces what LLMs do uniquely well instead of imitating human writing.
She will walk through the architecture, the creative philosophy behind it, and what it taught her about authorship, voice, and where the human actually lives in an automated pipeline.
Rachel Horst is a futures-focused educator and researcher, working at the intersection of creative AI, writing, and hyperstition, the idea that fictions can become reality through collective belief. She was selected as a finalist in Hyperstition’s AI fiction contest, where she built an 8-agent system that writes short stories end-to-end. Her work treats AI as a creative amplifier rather than a shortcut, and asks what new authorship looks like when the craft moves from the sentence to the system.
Kris Krüg, BC + AI Ecosystem Association Canadian Center for Ethical and Creative AI
Ethics and creativity are not two separate conversations. They are both culture. The programmers and geeks build the tools. The artists and cultural workers figure out what to do with them and what they mean.
That has always been the deal, and it is the deal again now. In this talk, Kris Krüg makes the case for a federally funded Canadian Center for Ethical and Creative AI: a public home for the artists, technologists, ethicists, and communities doing the actual cultural work of this moment.
Not a lab. Not a panel. An institution with a mandate, a budget, and a long memory. Canada has the talent, the values, and the opening. What we are missing is the building.
Kris Krüg is a Vancouver-based creative technologist and community builder working at the intersection of AI, ethics, and the creative industries.
He leads the BC + AI Ecosystem Association, a nonprofit AI community of around three hundred members across the province, and runs the AI Ethical Futures Lab, a working group on responsible AI deployment.
He teaches AI to PR and communications professionals, creative practitioners, and ethics teams, and partners with organizations across film, media, and the public sector on how to use these tools without losing what matters.
THE FLOW
Doors at 6:00. Program starts at 7:00. Everybody out by 10:00. Come late. Leave early. Nobody keeps score.
…
You can purchase your tickets from the May 27, 2026 event page. Enjoy!
From a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) news online with files from Troy Charles, Shaurya Kshatri, and Rosanna Tiranti, this May 23, 2026 news item provides coverage of the event, Note: A link has been removed,
Hundreds of people marched through Vancouver on Saturday [May 23, 2026] to protest two planned AI data centres in the city, raising concerns about the amount of water and energy such facilities can use as the region faces tighter water restrictions.
The demonstration began at Waterfront Station, where protesters gathered before marching toward Granville Island as they chanted against artificial intelligence and carried signs opposing the construction of new data centres in Vancouver.
Torin LaRocque, who organized the protest, said he wants the city and federal government to stop the projects.
“We should just not have any data centres in Canada, period,” he said. “Instead of focusing on these giant corporations, our government should be focusing on its citizens,” LaRocque said.
…
Regardless of what you think of LaRocque’s position “We should just not have any data centres in Canada, period …”, he has a point, “Instead of focusing on these giant corporations, our government should be focusing on its citizens …”.
The CBC news online May 23, 2026 news item gives a brief description of the two Telus (telecommunications company) AI data centres planned for Vancouver and then proceeds to the crux of the matter where the protestors are concerned,
…
The first Vancouver project, located at the former Hootsuite headquarters in Mount Pleasant, will come online later this year. A second facility at 150 West Georgia Street is planned for 2029.
The project has the backing of the B.C. government, which rolled out its own AI data centre power policy in January [2026].
The City of Vancouver is also throwing its support behind the proposal, with Mayor Ken Sim calling the data centres “world-class facilities.”
But protesters say the public has not been given enough information about the environmental impacts and raised concerns over rising electricity demand and massive water consumption linked to AI data centres.
“Why should we be using so much water for these AI data centres rather than using that water to help our people,” [emphasis mine] said LaRocque.
The protest comes as Metro Vancouver remains under Stage 2 water restrictions, which bans lawn watering, and prepares for the likely move to Stage 3 restrictions sometime in June [2026]..[emphases mine]
Linda Parkinson, director of water services at Metro Vancouver, said there is no regional policy specifically for data centres.
She said a facility of that size would be treated like any other large water user.
“Both the city and Metro would have concerns and questions about a large water user coming in,” Parkinson said.
She said the key question would be whether the facility recycles water and avoids drawing heavily from the region’s water system.
…
Telus has claimed that at least one of these AI data centres is ‘green ‘ according to the CBC news online May 23, 2026 news item, Note: A link has been removed,
…
According to the company [Telus], the facilities will run on 98 per cent clean hydro power and recycle enough waste energy to heat 150,000 homes. It says the projects will also use 90 per cent less water than a traditional data centre, and that it is working on plans to incorporate recycled water from B.C. Place stadium.
…
Concerns about data centre power and water use have become a flashpoint in communities across North America as tech companies seek to expand their operations to keep up with AI’s growing power need.
One 2023 study estimated that generating between 10 and 50 medium-sized responses with AI chatbot ChatGPT used half a litre of water, while a separate study by the International Energy Agency, estimated data centres used 140 billion litres of water globally just for cooling in 2023.
The title of Isaac Phan Nay’s May 25 2026 article “Got Questions About AI Data Centres in Vancouver? Here Are Answers” for The Tyee is a little misleading. He also provides some detailed information I haven’t seen elsewhere, e.g., what the various levels of government are doing with regard to AI data centres, Note: Links have been removed,
…
On May 11 [2026], federal Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation Minister Evan Solomon joined Telus CEO Darren Entwistle to announce the expansion of AI data centres in downtown Vancouver and Kamloops.
The company plans to expand its existing data centre in Kamloops and open two new AI data centres in Vancouver: one at 150 W. Georgia St., near BC Place stadium in downtown Vancouver, and another at 111 E. 5th Ave. in the city’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood — formerly the headquarters of technology company Hootsuite. The telecom company is calling the cluster an “AI factory.”
…
The boom also comes while BC Hydro expects the province will need up to an additional 9,700 gigawatt hours of additional electricity each year by 2035 — nearly double the current output of the Site C dam.
…
The Tyee reached out to Telus, the City of Vancouver, BC Hydro, the federal government and project proponents for more information about how the three new government-backed data centres will affect residents in Vancouver and Kamloops.
The developer of the new projects, Westbank, did not respond to The Tyee’s requests for comment.
Why is the government helping to build AI data centres?
The Telus data centres are the first announced for consideration through the federal government’s new program to invest in AI infrastructure.
Artificial Intelligence Minister [Evan] Solomon’s office said in an email that the federal government is entering discussions with Telus because the company’s projects may help advance Canada’s need for AI infrastructure to be built in Canada.
…
Despite announcing Telus’s data centre expansion, the federal government has not yet agreed on any terms or amounts to fund, finance or invest in the project. Instead, it is entering discussions with Telus and the proponents of about 160 other projects before considering support for any centres.
Solomon’s office added it’s assessing projects based on whether they can strengthen Canadian sovereignty, provide enough AI compute capability, support Canadian companies and researchers, create economic and ecosystem benefits, include Indigenous participation, demonstrate a credible energy plan, move forward on a realistic timeline and provide value for Canada.
“This is not just about who can build the biggest data centre,” Solomon’s office said. “Any potential federal support would need to be tied to clear public value.”
Ottawa [i.e., the federal government] is spending big on building out AI infrastructure. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada previously told The Tyee the department has committed $925.6 million to support large-scale, sovereign AI infrastructure, which includes data centres.
…
Phan Nay’s May 25 2026 article “Got Questions About AI Data Centres in Vancouver? Here Are Answers” is a good read for anyone interested in how various interests are affecting the placement of AI data centres in Vancouver and elsewhere in British Columbia and Canada.
Meanwhile, Telus responds to the protest, from a May 25, 2026 article by Daniel Chai for the Daily Hive, which also makes mention of a future protest being planned, Note: Links have been removed,
A massive protest march against the proposed cluster of AI data centres in Vancouver over the weekend has prompted a response from Telus, one of the companies behind the project.
The Canadian telecommunications giant contacted Daily Hive just hours after the demonstration throughout the streets of Vancouver drew hundreds of people.
The group behind the protest march, No AI Data Centres in Vancouver, is also planning a second march during the last weekend of June.
Telus announced earlier in May that it was moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia.
This includes new AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver that could become fully operational before the end of this decade.
“We view our investment in Canada’s sovereign AI backbone as a critical national asset – for Canadians, by Canadians – estimated to inject $9 billion into the Canadian economy and safeguarding our nation’s most sensitive data,” a Telus representative told Daily Hive.
“We have applied our core sustainability principles to our AI Factories, because we believe Canada should lead the AI revolution without compromising on its climate leadership. Designed to be the world’s most sustainable sovereign AI data centres, our Vancouver facilities will set a new global standard for sustainable AI infrastructure.”
Torin LaRocque, an initiator of No AI Data Centres in Vancouver, previously shared that one of the top negative issues surrounding the proposed facilities is their impact on the environment.
“Telus states that the new AI Data Centres use 90 per cent less energy than the average centre,” said the Vancouver resident. “However, they also state that they will have more than 60,000 GPUs on the conservative side.
“[If] each GPU will process an AI prompt a day, that is still over 1,400 litres of water being used a day. Vancouver is already under Stage 2 water restrictions. Why should we let these data centres use the water that Vancouver’s population needs?”
Telus responded by saying that its AI Data Centres will be powered by 98 per cent renewable energy from BC Hydro using a closed-loop liquid cooling system.
The telecommunications company added that it will be 80 per cent more energy-efficient than a traditional data centre and consumes 90 per cent less water, equal to an estimated 300 million litres saved each year.
“Rather than expelling waste heat into the atmosphere, our facilities are engineered to capture it and feed it directly into Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility in Mount Pleasant and Creative Energy’s downtown district energy system, heating the equivalent of 150,000 homes in Metro Vancouver, effectively using every electron twice, to produce environmentally responsible Sovereign AI infrastructure,” explained Telus.
The No AI Data Centres in Vancouver protest march drew an estimated 750 people on Saturday, May 23 [2026] , in Downtown Vancouver. [emphasis mine]
…
According to BC Hydro, the utility and the Province are taking a “managed and phased approach to serving these large new loads to protect affordability and reliability for residential customers.”
No AI Data Centres in Vancouver is planning to hold a second protest march on Saturday, June 27, [2026] at 1 p.m.
The demonstration will begin at Waterfront Station, head to 150 W. Georgia St. — which is a proposed site for an AI Data Centre — and continue across the Cambie Bridge before concluding at Vancouver City Hall.
Reusing waste heat generated by the GPUs and consuming 90% less water both sound good. Of course, Telus hasn’t offered any information about how much water will be consumed in the first place even if they are using 90% less. As researchers find ways to make more energy efficient hardware, AI use proliferates (e.g. one AI agent today and tomorrow you could be like Vancouver’s mayor Ken Sim who uses 11 AI agents).
It’s nice to know that the waste heat generated by the GPUs could be used for heating homes but “effectively using every electron twice,” doesn’t make a great deal of sense to me. Aren’t all electrons used more than once? If someone out there cares to explain, please do leave a comment.
There are other issues such as noise and housing although the energy and water issues are predominating the discussion at the moment.
As for the second protest planned for June 27, 2026, that’s during the 2026 FIFA World Cup period where much of downtown Vancouver is considered part of a zone where transit and movement is somewhat restricted. That could lead to some interesting places.
Featured in my May 8, 2026 posting, the 2026 Web Summit has provided an unexpected bonanza of fodder for local gossip about technology (AI data centres), local real estate problems, a glimpse into federal/provincial/municipal politics, and the Mayor.
AI data centres in Vancouver
One more AI data centre is being planned for Vancouver but first a little history. There was an AI data centre announcement in January 2026, from my February 6, 2026 posting, Note: My February 6 posting was a deepish dive into energy and water vis-à-vis data centres, which included some local nnews,
… as data centres become more important in their real estate markets as this January 31, 2026 article by Kenneth Chan for the Daily Hive could be said to hint at, Note: Links have been removed,
One of downtown Vancouver’s largest office development projects, first planned during the pre-pandemic office market boom, will not proceed as originally approved [emphasis mine], given the prevailing weak office market conditions.
Westbank’s major downtown Vancouver office tower project at steam plant site pivots to hotel, residential, and data centre uses
…
Westbank, a real estate developer, also features in the latest announcement about two more AI data centres (a second one at another Westbank property in Vancouver and a third in Kamloops at an unnamed property), from a May 11, 2026 article by Kenneth Chan for the Daily Hive, Note 1: NVDIA “is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California” according to its Wikipedia entry; Note 2: A link has been removed from the following excerpt,.
Telus to build massive AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver
Canadian telecommunications giant Telus is moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia, following overwhelming demand for its first AI supercomputing facility in Quebec.
The Vancouver-based company announced today that it is working with the Government of Canada and local developer Westbank on a proposed cluster of AI-focused data centres designed to keep Canadian AI computing power and sensitive data within the country. The project forms part of the federal government’s Enabling Large-Scale Sovereign AI Data Centres initiative, aimed at strengthening Canada’s domestic AI infrastructure.
Telus notes the three-site B.C. network will eventually scale to more than 60,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) and 150 megawatts of computing capacity by 2032. The facilities are planned for Kamloops, which is expected to launch later this year, and two locations in Vancouver, which will be fully operational before the end of this decade.
The infrastructure will be powered by advanced computing systems from NVIDIA [emphasis mine], including the company’s latest AI hardware and networking technologies. Telus emphasized that Canadian businesses, post-secondary institutions, governments, and other organizations will be able to train and deploy AI models domestically instead of relying on foreign cloud infrastructure.
The announcement comes less than a year after Telus opened its first Sovereign AI Factory in Rimouski, Quebec. According to the company, the facility is already fully booked by customers and has been recognized on the TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers.
The company’s Sovereign AI Factory platform is designed to support the full AI development process — from training large-scale models to deploying AI applications — entirely within Canadian-owned and operated infrastructure.
“We are incredibly proud to be working with the Government of Canada to help build Canada’s sovereign AI infrastructure [emphasis mine],” said Darren Entwistle, the outgoing president and CEO of Telus, in a statement. Entwistle will retire at the end of June 2026.
…
Both facilities in Vancouver are being pursued as a direct partnership with Westbank.
The first new Vancouver AI data centre facility will be achieved at the 1977-built, six-storey M3 office building at 111 East 5th Ave. — home to a portion of Hootsuite’s headquarters office for more than a decade. It will see an initial launch in late 2026, with a gradual expansion through 2028 to reach its ultimate on-site size of 77,000 sq. ft. data centre — achieved from the full conversion of the building’s office levels and two underground parking levels, plus the creation of a ground-level restaurant to better serve the area’s office workers.
As part of Westbank’s cluster of buildings in this Mount Pleasant area that form the developer’s Main Alley tech campus of mixed-use office and residential buildings, M3 was originally slated for an eventual renovation for its continued and expanded office uses, including the vertical construction of three additional office floors above the 1970s-built structure. But this pre-pandemic plan is no longer being pursued, with the building’s long-term use pivoting to the Telus AI utility strategy.
…
“People toss around the word innovation lightly, but this is a story of true Canadian innovation,” said Ian Gillespie, founder and CEO, Westbank.
…
Canada’s sovereign AI infrastructure, eh? Well, the first AI data centre in Vancouver (announced in January 2026) is expected to come online in 2029 at 150 West Georgia St., formerly 720 Beatty St.
Pushback (and some context)
A May 12, 2026 article by Amir Ali in the Daily Hive provides some context both pro and con (resistance to the Vancouver AI data centres is in the following excerpt), Note: Links have been removed,
….
Telus suggests the project could generate $9 billion in economic activity in the province [emphasis mine], and create over 1,000 construction jobs, with hundreds more in long-term tech and operation roles.
…
In 2024, the Harvard Business Review compiled some data on the environmental costs of AI [emphasis mine].
“The training process for a single AI model, such as a large language model, can consume thousands of megawatt hours of electricity and emit hundreds of tons of carbon [emphasis mine],” the report said.
“All these environmental impacts are expected to escalate considerably, with the global AI energy demand projected to exponentially increase to at least 10 times the current level and exceed the annual electricity consumption of a small country like Belgium by 2026.[emphasis mine]”
The review concluded that AI’s environmental impacts have to resonate with the priorities and interests of local regions.
EarthJustice, a reputable non-profit public interest environmental law organization, also shared some insights on data centres late last month.
“Unchecked electricity demand from data centers threatens to increase health and climate-harming pollution, deplete water supplies [emphasis mine], and undermine our transition to clean energy,” it said.
EarthJustice says that nearby communities suffer from an increase in local air and water pollution, electronic waste, and noise pollution. It also said that data centres require around one to five million gallons of water per day.
“Although less water-intensive technologies are available, most data centers still rely on inefficient evaporative cooling.”
“Data center companies often negotiate secretive, special contracts for discounted power rates with utilities that shift costs onto regular household utility bills,” EarthJustice suggests, and we’ve reached out to BC Hydro for more information relating to local rates.
According to Telus, the Vancouver AI data centres, which work differently from traditional data centres, would be powered by 98 per cent renewable energy. [emphasis mine]
“A closed-loop liquid cooling system will reduce cooling energy consumption by 80 per cent [emphasis mine] compared to traditional data centres.”
“Importantly, in the age of AI, these data centres address Canada’s growing need for security and a Sovereign AI Solution – by providing 100% Canadian controlled infrastructure, data protection, domestic oversight and zero foreign dependency,” Telus said in its media release.
Westbank told Daily Hive that the M3 data centre’s site in Mount Pleasant currently hosts an existing data centre.
“There is no change in use, this is a case of adaptive reuse to support upgraded infrastructure. The urban locations of both data centres allow for the connection to district energy, which is what allows the projects to achieve low carbon outcomes,” Westbank added.
…
Ali’s May 12, 2026 article does a good job of noting the advantages and disadvantages; he also presents some reaction/pushback from politicians and from the community, Note: Links have been removed,
…
Many have weighed in on the development, including new federal NDP Leader Avi Lewis, who said we should be building affordable homes, a network of public grocery stores, electric buses and an east-west clean energy grid.
“Not massive corporate AI data centres unleashed without any democratic debate,” Lewis said in a post on X.
…
Lewis wasn’t the only political leader weighing in.
At the provincial level, Emily Lowan, the leader of the B.C. Greens said while data sovereignty is important, handouts for big AI isn’t the way to get there.
Others responded with shock at the proposed Mount Pleasant location.
…
Some brought up water restrictions, making points about how much water will be needed for these centres. Vancouver City Councillor Peter Meiszner responded to that concern.
Peter Meiszner @PeterMeiszner
Water consumption will be 90% lower than traditional data centres, with plans to incorporate recycled water from BC Place. (source @TELUS)
3,308 Views
Lowan responded to the environmental claims in a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized.
“TELUS’s claim that their centres will be powered by 98% clean energy is dubious at best. We’re already importing American coal-powered electricity to deal with our energy crisis. This energy crisis is caused by drought conditions, which will only be made worse by the extensive water usage of data centres,” she said.
Lowan said, “We need a moratorium on AI data centres.”
“Our government should not be celebrating a handout to TELUS to build AI data centres in the heart of Vancouver. Billionaires are hoarding our wealth, and now, our government is letting them hoard even more of our resources.”
Daily Hive Urbanized heard from Councillor Sean Orr about the development, too.
He said, “If we were to ask the people of Vancouver how we should use our infrastructure, our energy, and our space, would they pick data centres or would they pick something else?”
Orr wondered what the impact would be on the Vancouver electrical grid, and whether the corporations and private companies would be paying for additional infrastructure or whether that cost would fall on residents.
“Currently, my understanding is that data centers have a short shelf life before being out of date with newer chips, and the chips themselves don’t last five years. We are building something that will require billions in assets but may become outdated three years after its built,” Orr said.
“Say what you will about pipelines, but they don’t become irrelevant after three years. Is it sovereign infrastructure to keep building something that is extremely expensive, and becomes outdated a year or two after construction completes?”
“Is it sovereign infrastructure to build something that may become a stranded asset very soon? I believe a bunch of data center construction projects are being paused for these very concerns right now,” Orr said.
…
On the Vancouver subreddit, most of the opposition seems to be in regard to the chosen locations.
“It seems absolutely nutso to use this sort of transit accessible downtown real estate for something that would mostly house computers and generate relatively few jobs,” a Redditor said, adding, “Next to BC Place, that should be a hotel or office tower. You could put a data centre anywhere else in Metro Vancouver. Baffling.”
Someone else asked, “Doesn’t Vancouver already have water problems?”
What BC Hydro is saying
According to BC Hydro, the utility and the Province are taking a “managed and phased approach to serving these large new loads to protect affordability and reliability for residential customers.”
When it comes to high-demand projects like data centres, BC Hydro says there’s a structured and “competitive” process with capped power allocations, rather than unlimited first-come access.
…
[Comments]
AliasCapricious 2 days ago
People complain we have an economy overly reliant on real estate, then turn around and complains about frontier economic infrastructure. The job part isn’t the main thing, but rather Canadian tech companies have the infrastructure needed to be not dependent on US data infra. It keeps our start ups here and thus grow our high-margin tech sector.
The location is somewhat dubious, but these are the sort of thing we need in the next decades. If we are short on water and power we should be doubling down on renewables (wind/solar/hydro) and water infrastructure, since both will be required anyways. Energy demand is what drive further investments in those sectors.
Tin Man 2 days ago
A few years back, the news outlets warned (prepared?) the citizens of the Divided States of America, that there would be “rolling blackouts” due to the high energy demands of local AI data centers.
Is this what B.C. has to look forward to?
Refrigerators, ovens, heating, air conditioners and all the other devices that families depend on will be powered down so that the wealthy owners of these data centers can continue reaping massive wealth?
Jim Bob 2 days ago
No.
We are already looking at water shortages this year. BC Hydro is also under strain. Allowing these data centers to be built here in Vancouver is only going to cause skyrocketing bills for everyone living here.
They should be building these in remote areas, where they don’t need additional cooling and they can build out their own power. Alberta should have plenty of suitable locations. Why not go there?
…
cccccc 2 days ago
Residents are split on this? I’ve yet to see someone supporting it. Bad idea, bad locations, bad use of tax payer money.
….
Steven Zur 2 days ago
In the news this month – Westbank lawsuits and court documents indicating close to insolvent, Westbank towner nearly complete on Joyce Street goes into receivership, and then out of the blue the Federal government is support Telus’s building datacenters on two Westbank properties. Nothing more than a government handout to a poorly managed property development company.
…
Owen 3 days ago
I’d rather see entertainment uses at both locations
…
Sovereign data centres in Canada and a real estate developer in trouble
How can a data centre be made sovereign? That is a tricky question; something I’ve already hinted at. Kyle Bakx’s May 14, 2026 article for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) news online website details more of the issues,
Canada wants to build data centres that are not just physically located here, but controlled here — a distinction experts say could determine whether the country can reduce its dependence on U.S. tech giants and keep Canadian data subject to Canadian rules.
But as Ottawa reviews more than 160 data-centre proposals to support the growing demands of artificial intelligence, the promise of “sovereign” infrastructure is already running into a harder question: how much control Canada can really have over data centres [emphasis mine] that may still rely on foreign hardware, foreign customers and digital networks that do not always respect national borders.
“This is probably going to be one of the single biggest tech issues that we are going to deal with as a country,” said Ritesh Kotak, a Toronto-based lawyer and technology advisor.
Many countries, including Canada, are heavily dependent on U.S. firms for digital and cloud services [emphasis mine] — the remote computing and data storage offered by technology giants such as Amazon and Microsoft.
Before moving onto the Westbank issues, you might be interested in this 8 mins. interview (aired May 19, 2026) with Chris Madan, Telus (former) Vice-President of Digital Sales & Service; (current) Vice–President Digital Product and Head of AI Factories..Here’s how the segment is described on the CBC Radio’s Early Edition with Stephen Quinn webspace.
Chris Madan, the Telus head of AI factories, responds to concerns over health and environmental impacts surrounding the three-site AI data centre cluster set for construction in B.C.
Madan is a salesman determined to minimize any concerns and promote the company’s interests. Consequently, the value is in hearing how he deflects all the criticisms. (I don’t have a lot of patience with puffery but it can be useful.)
For a contrasting view, there’s Simon Enoch, Andrew Longhurst, and Rachel Pettigrew’s May 18, 2026 article “Vancouver Is Getting AI Data Centres. That’s Not Good” for The Tyee. While I am more sympathetic to their approach, it is unrelentingly negative and fails to mention any possible benefits.
Noise as a problem with data centres was news to me and is mentioned both in the CBC interview and in The Tyee article.
Now, onto the real estate developer.
Westbank towers in receivership
Both Vancouver properties being rezoned to allow the data centres are being developed by Westbank, which is currently experiencing money difficulties, from a May 12, 2026 posting on cityhallwatch.wordpress.org, Note: Links have been removed,
Westbank tower in receivership (5055-5083 Joyce St)
Westbank’s rental tower at 5055-5083 Joyce Street is now under receivership. KSV Advisory Inc. is the receiver and a number of documents and court filings are available on their website. OPTrust was owed approximately $109,211,965. Secured and unsecured creditors have claims of $292,993,043. We’ll include additional links and details as this story unfolds. Included below are several photos of the rental tower at 5083 Joyce Street and the surrounding context.
…
This May 11, 2026 article by Liezel Once for CMP magazine dives deeper into the developer’s money woes, Note: A link has been removed,
Westbank’s Joyce tower placed in receivership
Court oversight, $274 million in debt, and a former executive’s sworn claims paint a troubling portrait of a once-iconic developer
A 35-storey rental tower in east Vancouver associated with one of Canada’s most prominent development firms has been placed under court-supervised receivership, adding fresh urgency to a deepening cycle of real estate insolvencies.
The B.C. Supreme Court granted a receivership order on April 27, 2026, over two corporate entities — 5055 Joyce Holdings Inc. and 5055 Joyce Property Inc. — tied to a near-complete mixed-use rental development at 5083 Joyce Street in Vancouver, known informally as “Joyce 2.”
The application was brought by OPTrust [Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Government of Ontario pension fund] Joyce Financing Corp., which is owed approximately $109.2 million on a loan that matured without repayment on December 31, 2025.
The project, developed by Vancouver-based Westbank Holdings Ltd. — a firm founded in 1992 by CEO Ian Gillespie that built some of the city’s most architecturally ambitious buildings over three decades, including the Shangri-La hotels in Vancouver and Toronto — consists of 360 residential rental units, roughly 4,500 square feet of retail space, and 87 underground parking stalls.
Leases have already been executed with commercial and residential tenants, and certain units are occupied.
Court filings show OPTrust’s loan originated in May 2021, initially advanced at $40 million and later increased to $85 million.
The financing carried an interest rate that escalated to 11% after September 2024 and was secured by mortgages, personal property security, share pledges, and guarantees from related parties, including Westbank Holdings Ltd. and founder Ian Gillespie personally.
OPTrust issued a demand for repayment on January 13, 2026.
OPTrust, officially the OPSEU Pension Trust, is one of Canada’s largest defined-benefit pension funds, managing over $27.2 billion in net assets as of year-end 2025 and administering retirement benefits for 118,000 members, primarily Ontario public service employees.
…
The receivership is not the only legal matter Westbank is managing.
In a sworn affidavit filed April 29 [2026] in B.C. Supreme Court as part of a continuing breach-of-contract action, former employee Rhiannon Mabberley alleged that Westbank is in a “financially precarious position” and has laid off nearly half of its workforce, and that multiple real estate holdings have been liquidated to cover accumulated debts.
None of these claims have been proven in court [emphasis mine]. Westbank declined to confirm the layoff allegation.
“We cannot comment on matters before the courts, but we would note that none of these claims have been proven,” Westbank spokesperson Ariele Peterson told media.
Mabberley is suing Westbank for $1.2 million she alleges is owed under an employment agreement. Westbank has countered in court that the payment was conditional on project profits that were not achieved.
Her lawyers sought pretrial garnishing orders against Westbank’s corporate bank accounts; an affidavit states that a $1.2 million order ultimately yielded just $32,025.37, which Mabberley says she believes suggests the company has moved funds to protect assets from creditors.
….
For anyone unfamiliar with Vancouver and its relationship to real estate developer’s, it’s an important, some might say vital, one, which may explain why Justin McElroy, the CBC’s local municipal affairs reporter wrote this February 24, 2026 article (CBC news online) about Westbank’s legal fracas with one of its former VPs, Note: Links have been removed,
A lawsuit by a former vice-president of a prominent Vancouver development company appears to be revealing more details of many of its biggest projects taking a turn for the worse.
In December [2025?], Rhiannon Mabberley filed a civil claim against Westbank Project Corp., suing for a breach of contract when she left her role as vice-president of development in the first half of 2025.
Mabberley argued Westbank owed her $1.2 million, based on a previous employment agreement, in her claim.
In its response, Westbank says those payments were “dependent on the profits received by Westbank” on projects she was a part of, and those profits were not met.
The response by Westbank does not go into details as to why those profits were not met.
But an affidavit filed by Mabberley, which was first reported by Bloomberg News, reveals what she says is a text message to her from Westbank founder Ian Gillespie — and provides an intimate and stark commentary on the state of his company.
The allegations laid out in the affidavit and wider statement of claim have not been proven in court.
…
The alleged text was sent by Gillespie to Mabberley in September, four months after Mabberley left Westbank and three months before she took legal action.
In it, Gillespie references several high-profile development projects in Vancouver that are or formerly were under Westbank’s responsibility, and says that they are not profitable, including:
The Sen̓áḵw complex [emphasis mine] at the foot of the Burrard Bridge, which was originally a 50/50 partnership with the Squamish Nation before Westbank sold its share to Ontario Pension Trust [emphasis mine]. Gillespie texts that “the last minute negotiations resulted in me having to accept a 30% haircut from the original price … which itself was 50% less than we had agreed to last year.”
The recently opened Alberni and Butterfly buildings in downtown Vancouver. Gillespie texts that “Alberni still has many unsold units and … Butterfly is well over budget and closings are slow and uncertain.”
The massive Oakridge Park complex, which began in 2019 and has yet to open. Gillespie texts that “Oakridge is way behind schedule.”
The text ends with Gillespie saying he would offer Mabberley $200,000 “and then we can both go our separate ways,” adding that “it’s unfortunate but it’s the reality of the industry these days.”
In a statement, Westbank would not comment on the veracity of the text messages, saying it has not been proven in court.
…
The politics: Westbank, the federal/provincial/municipal governments, and AI data centres
Purely speculation on my part but I wonder if there’s hope that the AI data centres will help Westbank with its current financial woes. Westbank isn’t the only real estate developer experiencing problems as this May 19, 2026 posting on City Hall Watch makes clear,
City Council Preview May 19-20, 2026: Electronic billboards, Developer bailouts (CAC deferrals), 3 Broadway Plan rezonings, Italian Day grant and more
…
Staff are asking Council to again extend CAC payment [Community Amenity Contributions (CACs) are in-kind or cash contributions provided by property developers when Vancouver City Council grants development rights through rezoning.] deadline for 4 downtown tower sites (1450 West Georgia St $8,900,000, 1157 Burrard St $10,600,000, 1640-1650 Alberni St $32,700,000 & 1668-1684 Alberni St $37,041,000). This is the third time the request to extend the timeline for CAC payments has gone to Council, with the last extension set to lapse on May 31, 2026. The new target is suggested as May 31, 2028, which is well into the next term of a future Council. Should Council be allowing agreed-upon CAC payments slide again? Is this another developer bailout? [emphasis mine]
…
Vancouver’s city hall is not the only government lending assistance to developers. Way back in time there was this September 7, 2022 posting on Bob Mackin’s The Breaker pointing to a cozy relationship between Westbank’s Ian Gillespie and the federal Liberal government then lead by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Note: Links have been removed,
Ian Gillespie, the Westbank Corporation CEO, accepted a token 50 cent payment from members of the Squamish Nation during a ceremony under the Burrard Bridge on Sept. 6 [2022], where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke ground to begin the four-phase, 11-tower Senakw condo project. [emphases mine]
Squamish Nation members agreed to a 50-50 partnership in 2019 with Westbank to build 6,000 units on 4.7 hectares of Kitsilano Indian Reserve 6 regained through court settlements. Since then, Westbank’s share was reduced to 30% and OP Trust [emphasis mine], the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Government of Ontario pension fund, now holds 20%.
By 2029, up to 10,000 people could be living in the rental towers on either side of the bridge. A consultant’s estimate from 2019 suggested the deal could generate as much as $12.7 billion in cashflow for the band and developer [emphasis mine].
Trudeau was accompanied by four cabinet ministers, Patty Hajdu (Indigenous services), Ahmed Hussen (housing), Marc Miller (Crown-Indigenous relations) and Jonathan Wilkinson (natural resources). Before the start of their three-day cabinet retreat in Vancouver, Trudeau announced a $1.4 billion loan through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to finance half the units, touting it as the largest loan in the Crown corporation’s history [emphasis mine]. CMHC spokesman Leonard Catling said the Rental Construction Financing Initiative is providing $668 million for phase one and $745 million for phase two. The loan is on a 10-year term, fixed interest rate and 50-year amortization.
“While we cannot comment on the interest rate for any specific RCF loan, our interest rate generally is lower than alternative financing available in the market,” Catling said.
Gillespie, a Liberal Party supporter and proprietor of Trudeau’s preferred luxury hotel [emphasis mine], the Fairmont Pacific Rim, sat beside NDP Vancouver-Point Grey MLA David Eby [emphasis mine]. Though the construction site is in the Vancouver-False Creek provincial riding, Eby is the frontrunner to replace John Horgan as Premier this fall [Eby is now Premier of BC]. The Squamish Nation is a partner in the MST Development company with the Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations in the Jericho lands project in Eby’s riding. Some of that land is proposed for an Olympic Village, if the NDP government backs the Canadian Olympic Committee bid for the 2030 Games and the International Olympic Committee chooses Vancouver next May.
Seated nearby were directors of the Squamish Nation’s economic development company, Nch’kay, including Mike Magee, former Mayor Gregor Robertson’s chief of staff [emphasis mine], and NDP insider Joy MacPhail.
…
To sum up, Gillespie/Westbank gets a huge loan at low cost from the federal liberal government and runs into financial trouble a few years later. A former partner agency, OP Trust, forces one of Westbank’s housing projects (not the 11-tower Senakw condo project) into receivership. Meanwhile, Vancouver city hall rezones a couple of Westbank projects so the projects can now house AI data centres. Rather timely, given that there’s a federal Liberal government push for ‘sovereign data centres’ in Canada.
It’s almost like a fairy tale where magical characters pop in and out of the story and wondrous coincidences occur. The Justin Trudeau character transforms into Mark Carney who now leads the federal Liberal government. Gregor Robertson (former Vancouver mayor) transforms into a federal Liberal Minister of Housing [emphasis mine] and Infrastructure and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada [emphasis mine]. And of course, there’s the previously mentioned transformation of development projects into housing for data centres at a time when a shortage of housing for people has become a national issue.
The magic doesn’t stop. My May 8, 2026 posting about the 2026 summit notes the presence of Robertson, Eby (current BC Premier), and Ken Sim, current Vancouver mayor at the 2026 Web Summit along with Canada’s federal Liberal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon in what has been touted a great opportunity for local business and startups. Not surprisingly, AI became a major topic of conversation (more about Sim and AI coming in the next subsection).
I have expressed some doubt about the claims made by boosters and politicians about business opportunities and innovation being good for the local economy. It seems I’m not the only one. Dan Burgar, CEO of Frontier Collective.wrote this “Opinion: Vancouver is hosting the future, but we’re not keeping any of it” in a May 19, 2026 posting on the Daily Hive, Note: A link has been removed,
Last week, the second annual Web Summit conference in Vancouver brought over 20,000 people from around the world to the city. They came for our talent, our companies, and our setting. They’ll leave with deals signed, partnerships formed, and ideas that will turn into businesses somewhere else.
That last part is the problem we keep refusing to talk about.
Vancouver is great at hosting innovation. We’re terrible at keeping it.
Slack was built here. It was scaled in San Francisco. Hootsuite, AbCellera, General Fusion, and Clio: every one of them globally significant, and every one of them has had to look outside this city, this province, and often this country for the capital, the customers, and the conditions to grow. The pattern is so consistent it’s stopped being a pattern and started being the model.
…
Burger’s point is well taken (although he doesn’t mention D-Wave Systems). He goes on to suggest this,
…
The Mayor of Vancouver’s office, the Government of British Columbia, and the Government of Canada all have a role to play, and none of them should wait for the others.
Vancouver should treat innovation infrastructure the same way it treats public transit infrastructure: as a non-negotiable public good that catalyzes everything around it.
…
Mayor Sim took another approach at the 2026 Web Summit.
Sim and his AI minions (all 11 of them)
Sim’s missteps at the 2026 Web Summit are in keeping with his current policy of achieving an unbreakable streak (I exaggerate … a little bit) of own goals (even I’m affected by the sports fever of living in a 2026 World Cup city).
For anyone who might like to see a listing for the five months of this year, there’s the Ken SIm webpage on Global News. which as of May 22, 2026 includes these gems, “Report finds Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim misused influence, harassed councillor Sean Orr,” “Vancouver recovery advocate returning honour to city over mayor, council’s actions,” “Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim says comments about councillor Sean Orr [accusing Orr of openly selling drugs on Christmas Day 2026] came from an unverified photo,” “Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim files defamation lawsuit against 2 men,” and more.
I have never really recovered from reading Matt O’Grady’s October 4, 2023 article for Vancouver Magazine “A Year In, How’s Mayor Ken Sim Actually Doing?” It provides an unexpected view of our current mayor,
I’m sitting on a couch in the mayor’s third-floor offices, and Ken Sim is walking over to his turntable to put on another record. “How about the Police? I love this album.”
With the opening strains of “Every Breath You Take” crackling to life, Sim is explaining his approach to conflict resolution, and how he takes inspiration from the classic management tome Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.
“The way they approach things is, instead of having an adversarial relationship in every decision we look at, imagine you’re two judges on the same side of the table, trying to opine on a very difficult case and get to the best answer,” he says. “We’re just looking for the best answer.”
Suddenly, the office door swings open and Sim’s chief of staff, Trevor Ford, pokes his head in (for the third time in the past 10 minutes). “We have to go. Now.”
“Okay, okay,” says Sim, turning back to address me. “Do you mind if I change while we’re talking?” And so the door closes again—and, without further ado, the Mayor of Vancouver drops trou and goes in search of a pair of shorts, continuing with a story about how some of his west-side friends are vocally against the massive Jericho Lands development promising to reshape their 4th and Alma neighbourhood.
“And I’m like, ‘Let me be very clear: I 100-percent support it, this is why—and we’ll have to agree to disagree,’” he says, trading his baby-blue polo for a fitted charcoal grey T-shirt. Meanwhile, as Sim does his wardrobe change, I’m doing everything I can to keep my eyes on my keyboard—and hoping the mayor finds his missing shorts.
It’s fair to assume that previous mayors weren’t in the habit of getting naked in front of journalists. At least, I can’t quite picture Kennedy Stewart doing so, or Larry or Gordon Campbell either.
But it also fits a pattern that’s developing with Ken Sim as a leader entirely comfortable in his own skin. He’s in a hurry to accomplish big things—no matter who’s watching and what they might say (or write). And he eagerly embraces the idea of bringing Vancouver’s “swagger” back—outlined in his inaugural State of the City address, and underlined when he shotgunned a beer [later reporting indicated a vodka cream soda was shotguneed] at July’s [2023] Khatsahlano Street Party.
…
Flying free to the wind, eh?
Moving onto Sim’s latest gaffe in what appears to be an ill advised attempt at impressing an audience of tech innovators, this happened (you can find the story in the headlines),
For anyone who’d like to hear the story, there’s an 11 mins. interview (aired May 14, 2026) with Justin McElroy, CBC’s municipal affairs reporter for BC..Here’s how the segment is described on the CBC Radio’s Early Edition with Stephen Quinn webspace
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim is clarifying his comments about having 11 different AI agents doing work for him — but it’s just one of many stories about artificial intelligence that have come this week in Vancouver.
Sim is up for re-election on October 17, 2026. There are seven candidates currently vying to be mayor (Wikipedia entry for 2026 Vancouver municipal election). It should be interesting.
Final thoughts
AI data centres are, generally speaking, not popular. The exception being the folks making money from them or, at least in Vancouver, hoping that their businesses (e.g., Westbank) can be saved by them. There’s been a lot of concern over electricity and water use.
The University of Waterloo’s claim that AI’s climate impact is much smaller than many feared is based on some data from 2016 and earlier. This April 16, 2026 International Energy Agency (IEA) press release about a new report notes this about AI energy use,
…
According to the report – Key Questions on Energy and AI – power consumption per AI task is declining rapidly, with efficiency improving at a rate unprecedented in energy history. However, more people are using AI, and energy-intensive uses – such as AI agents – are on the rise [emphasis mine]. As a result, electricity consumption from data centres is set to double by 2030, and power use from those focused on AI is poised to triple.
…
Sim and his 11 AI agents (personal use only) not withstanding, it would be interesting to know how much AI is being deployed in city departments, including the police, and plans for AI deployment. (Just an idle thought)
While I have been critical of Simon Enoch, Andrew Longhurst, and Rachel Pettigrew’s May 18, 2026 article “Vancouver Is Getting AI Data Centres. That’s Not Good” for The Tyee, they make some useful points about noise (an issue when these centres are in urban areas) and environmental standards.
I expect unfettered enthusiasm and boosterism from the technology community at something like the Web Summit; it’s disconcerting when found in the city’s mayor. But much more disquieting was this, “Far-Right Speakers Given a Perch at Vancouver’s Web Summit,” May 18, 2026 article by Jen St. Denis for The Tyee. (I’ve added a link and an excerpt from the article at the end of my May 8, 2026 posting about the summit.) There were a lot of politicians at the 2026 summit, maybe next time they’ll check with the organizers about who’s being invited to speak.
AI data centres aren’t just a technology story, they’re also an energy story, a water story, a political story, and, in some cases, a neighbourhood story.
ETA May 22, 2026 at 1530 hours: Massive protest march against Vancouver AI data centres tomorrow (May 23, 2026)
I don’t usually write about issues that are this dynamic but Daniel Chai’s May 22, 2026 article for the Daily Hive features news of a protest. Interestingly, there were no protests when the first AI data centre was announced in January 2026. It seems the Web Summit stimulated an opposition movement, Note: Links have been removed,
A huge demonstration against the proposed cluster of AI data centres in Vancouver will take place on Saturday, May 23, and traffic may be impacted throughout downtown.
A group behind the Instagram page @no.ai.vancouver was formed shortly after news broke that Telus was moving ahead with plans to build a major sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure network in British Columbia.
This includes new AI data centres at two Westbank properties in Vancouver that could become fully operational before the end of this decade.
“No.ai.vancouver is trying to spread awareness about the impact of AI data centres on the environment, help in halting the construction of these AI data centres, and looking out for the people who call this place home,” said Torin LaRocque, an 18-year-old student living in Vancouver who founded the group.
“I was inspired to create this movement after seeing all the devastation these centres are causing to people living nearby.”
For LaRocque, one of the top negative issues surrounding the proposed facilities is their impact on the environment.
“Telus states that the new AI Data Centres use 90 per cent less energy than the average centre,” said the Vancouver resident. “However, they also state that they will have more than 60,000 GPUs on the conservative side.
“[If] each GPU will process an AI prompt a day, that is still over 1400 litres of water being used a day. Vancouver is already under stage two water restrictions. Why should we let these data centres use the water that Vancouver’s population needs?”
The demonstration on Saturday, May 23, begins with poster-making at Victory Square at 11 a.m., with some supplies provided.
Participants in the protest against the AI Data Centres will meet at Waterfront Station at 1 p.m., with plans to march down Granville Street starting at 1:30 p.m.
The march, which LaRocque said could draw a large procession, will continue over the bridge until it reaches Granville Island.
Officers from the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) will be on site during the demonstration.
…
LaRocque, who describes himself as an initiator of the group, shared that the positive response from the community has been honestly shocking.
“I am confident that if enough people show up and demand change, either by protesting or signing the petition, we can bring this to the city with more than just one person backing it up. The more signatures and protesters we have, the more the City will be unable to ignore.”
The group has also shared a link to a petition calling for a stop to the Vancouver AI Data Centre, which has garnered over 1,400 signatures as of press time.
Daily Hive reached out to the City for comment on the protest, with a representative responding, “The City of Vancouver recognizes and upholds the right to free speech and peaceful protest.” [almost like an AI agent wrote the reply]
…
Should you be interested in going to the protest, Victory Square’s address is: 200 W Hastings St.
Taking It Back: Reclaiming What Was Stolen With Nalo Hopkinson
Join us for an intimate evening with Jamaican-born author Nalo Hopkinson, recipient of the Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic for her novel Blackheart Man. Hopkinson thinks a lot about how rising ocean levels impact her region. She will present two climate fiction stories, ranging from science-based to the disquieting monologue narrated by a guide leading a tour of a recently submerged island.
Presented in partnership with UBC [University of British Columbia] Global History of Anticolonial Thought.
Doors at 6:30pm Reading at 7:00pm Q&A at 8:00pm
…
About the Author Nalo Hopkinson, born in Jamaica, moved to Canada in 1977. She was the 1997 recipient of the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest for Brown Girl in the Ring. She has published seven novels, numerous short stories, and comics scripts in DC’s “Sandman” universe. She has received the Ontario Arts Council Foundation Award, the John W. Campbell and Locus Awards, the World Fantasy Award, Canada’s Aurora Award, the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Award. In 2020, Science Fiction Writers of America made her its 37th Damon Knight Memorial “Grand Master,” a lifetime achievement award in recognition of her writing, teaching, and mentorship. She is a professor in the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. Her most recent publications are Blackheart Man (novel, Simon & Schuster, 2024), and short story collection Jamaica Ginger and Other Concoctions (Tachyon Publications, 2024).
About the Moderator Ayesha Hameed is an artist and writer. She has two books forthcoming in Autumn 2026: Black Atlantis (Strange Attractor/MIT Press) and Radio Brown Atlantis (CARA, NY). She’s Professor of Artistic Research at University of the Arts Helsinki and teaches on the MFA at Goldsmiths University of London.
For some reason, they won’t let me reproduce the RSVP button. So, you will have to visit the event and RSVP page and click there.
Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) and the Security, Sovereignty, and Prosperity: Industry Perspectives on Canada’s New Defence Industrial Strategy event
Here are the details for an upcoming online panel discussion from a May 13, 2026 Canadian Science Policy Centre (CSPC) notice (received via email),
May 20 [2026]: Security, Sovereignty, and Prosperity: Industry Perspectives on Canada’s New Defence Industrial Strategy
Join us for a panel on how Canada’s participation in the Square Kilometre Array Observatory can s [sic; a leftover from a previous notice?]
Join us on May 20, 2026, from 12:00–1:30 PM EST for a panel discussion on Canada’s recently released Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), which marks a significant shift at the intersection of national security and industrial policy. Central to the strategy is the “Joint Innovation” model, calling for sustained collaboration between the federal government and the private sector to build sovereign capabilities. This high-level panel will bring together leaders from Canada’s mining, advanced manufacturing, and technology sectors to explore how the DIS aligns with industry-specific challenges—from critical mineral supply chains to dual-use technologies such as AI and quantum—and to discuss its potential to drive industrial growth, the barriers to effective collaboration, and its long-term impact on Canada’s innovation ecosystem and global competitiveness.
Panellists will explore how the strategy’s goals align with the unique challenges of their respective industries, from critical mineral supply chains to dual-use technology development in AI and Quantum. The discussion will focus on how the DIS can serve as a catalyst for industrial growth, the hurdles to achieving seamless “Joint Innovation,” and the long-term impact of this strategy on Canada’s broader innovation ecosystem and global competitiveness.
Charlotte Duval-Lantoine – Moderator
Vice-President, Ottawa Operations & Fellow, Canadian Global Affairs Institute
Jayson Myers
Chief Executive Officer of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada
Photinie Koutsavlis
Vice President, Economic Affairs and Climate Change, Mining Association of Canada
Daniel Perry
Director of Federal Affairs at the Council of Canadian Innovators
Mike Mueller
President and CEO, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada
This seems like a pretty hectic spring where science events are concerned; I expect things will slow down as summer arrives.
Trevor Paglen, the current LG Guggenheim Art and Technology Initiative Award Recipient, is giving a performance-lecture according to a May 8, 2026 Guggenheim Museum announcement (received via email and available online here),
Trevor Paglen: The Lizard People are Here!
Monday, May 18, 2026 6:30–8 pm EDT Guggenheim New York
This performance-lecture invites audiences to consider whether we are entering a new era of invisible architectures and algorithmic systems shaping perception, knowledge, and power. In the program, 2026 LG Guggenheim Award recipient, artist, and author Trevor Paglen traces a dense network of ideas spanning philosophy, belief, deception, and speculation.
Bringing together psyops, artificial intelligence, magic, mind control, UFOs, the secret of the Ark of the Covenant, and the figure of a new demiurge, Paglen examines historical precedents for the manipulation of human perception and cognition at a moment when artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly pervasive.
Across his practice, Paglen has repeatedly revealed the infrastructures through which information systems—governmental, corporate, and algorithmic—operate beyond the threshold of human perception while profoundly reshaping how reality is understood. Drawing on figures and practices from diverse domains, ranging from the Central Intelligence Agency to stage magicians and contemporary technologists, the talk uncovers recurring strategies of influence and control. In doing so, it raises timely questions about why supposedly rational minds remain vulnerable to structures of influence that bypass conscious reasoning and instead engage our most instinctive psychological responses.
The program will be followed by a conversation between Paglen and Noam Segal, LG Electronics Associate Curator, reflecting on how rapid developments in artificial intelligence—from large language models to agentic and robotic systems—are reshaping everyday life, modes of thought, and artistic practice.
For those who don’t know, LG Electronics is a South Korean multinational electronics company. and for anyone needing a little more information about Trevor Paglen, there’s this from his Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
Trevor Paglen (born 1974) is an American artist, geographer, and author whose work covers mass surveillance and data collection.[1][2]
In 2016, Paglen won the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize[3] and he has also won The Cultural Award from the German Society for Photography.[4] In 2017, he was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. On March 17, 2026, Paglen was awarded the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award (a collaboration between LG and Guggenheim New York).[5][6]
…
Work
Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian in 2015, said that Paglen, whose “ongoing grand project [is] the murky world of global state surveillance and the ethics of drone warfare”, “is one of the most conceptually adventurous political artists working today, and has collaborated with scientists and human rights activists on his always ambitious multimedia projects.”[2] His visual work such as his “Limit Telephotography”[9] and “The Other Night Sky” series have received widespread attention for both his technical innovations and for his conceptual project that involves simultaneously making and negating documentary-style truth-claims.[10] Paglen’s work relies on contemporary technology in two meaningful ways. Firstly, the views he photographs would be impossible to shoot without media tech, that includes the cameras, the microscopes, and even helicopters.[11] But interestingly enough, the shots would not be possible if not for the existence of the subject. The contrasts between secrecy and revelation, evidence and abstraction distinguish Paglen’s work. With that the artist presents not so much “evidence” as admonitions to awareness.[12][13]
…
On balance, I found the Guggenheim’s description of Paglen’s work a little more accessible than the one in his Wikipedia entry. There’s also Paglen’s own website; from his bio page,
Trevor Paglen is an artist whose work spans image-making, sculpture, investigative journalism, writing, engineering, and numerous other disciplines.
…
Another accessible description but more clicking (you’ll see when you get to his homepage).
The Daily Hive (May 7, 2026 article by Amir Ali) is trumpeting the appearance of Vancouver’s current (Ken Sim) and a previous (Gregor Robertson) mayors at the second Web Summit Vancouver meeting (formerly known as Collisions when held previously in Toronto) here in the city, Note: Links have been removed,
The biggest tech event of the year kicks off next week [May 11 – 14, 2026], and the current and a former Vancouver mayor will be helping to kick off the festivities.
Web Summit 2026 begins this coming Monday [May 11, 2026], and Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and former mayor Gregor Robertson, who’s the current Canadian housing minister [and Minister responsible for Pacific Economic Development Canada], will be sharing a stage to kick off the festivities.
It’s probably the biggest event of the year that isn’t named FIFA World Cup, and it takes place between May 11 and May 14 [2026].
Last year, Web Summit came to Vancouver for the first time, and it brought over 100 of the world’s top leaders in tech to the city.
The 2025 event saw over 15,000 people attend, and this year’s event could draw over 20,000, along with over 1,500 startups, 700 investors, 350 speakers, and delegates from over 120 countries, according to Innovate BC.. [emphases mine]
Opening remarks take place on Monday, May 11, [2026] at 6 pm, and along with Sim and Robertson will be Web Summit CEO and Founder Paddy Cosgrave, and B.C.’s minister of finance, Brenda Bailey.
Other notable speakers who’ll be speaking at the event include Evan Solomon [emphasis mine], Canada’s Minister of AI and Digital Innovation. B.C. Premier David Eby [emphasis mine] will also be speaking on a panel about growing the province’s tech sector.
Beloved physician Gabor Maté [emphasis mine] is also going to be in attendance as a speaker.
Some of the biggest brands and organizations that will be represented include Sony Imageworks, Walt Disney Animation Studios, CNN Business, Forbes, the Harvard Business Review, Aston Martin, and Microsoft.
Last year’s Vancouver event marked the first time a North American city hosted Web Summit.
…
While Web Summit is a massive tech event, it won’t draw in as many people as the huge Alcoholics Anonymous Convention that took place last year.
I have a couple of questions First, how much money did we make from last year’s event? I have some data from my May 23, 2025 posting about the estimated financial benefits from the then upcoming (May 27 – 30, 2025) event,
…
Destination Vancouver estimates Web Summit Vancouver will produce substantial local economic spinoffs, with nearly $57 million in direct spending and over $93 million in overall economic impact for British Columbia in its first year [emphasis mine].
…
Surely by now, they have a rough estimate, if not final numbers. Also, were there extra costs incurred. If so, what were they? Given that our current mayor, Ken Sim, is an accountant, it’s puzzling that he only ever talks about projected benefits (e.g. Web Summit; it’s too early to tell about the upcoming FIFA World Cup matches). If you are curious about how how the Web Summit Vancouver sausage was made, there’s my May 23, 2025 posting, which provides a little information if not all of the story.
Summary Why attend Web Summit Vancouver 2026 in British Columbia? Web Summit Vancouver 2026 showcases B.C. as a global tech hub.
Web Summit Vancouver returns May 11–14, 2026, connecting global investors and innovators with British Columbia’s fast-growing tech ecosystem
15,000+ attendees from 117 countries in 2025 showcased B.C.’s strength in innovation, investment and global partnerships
British Columbia offers global scale and market access, with 12,000+ tech companies, top talent and strong links to North American and Asia-Pacific markets
Web Summit Vancouver returns May 11–14, 2026, bringing global investors and innovators to British Columbia to connect with investment-ready companies and explore partnership and market entry opportunities in one of North America’s fastest-growing tech ecosystems.
The B.C. Pavilion at the Vancouver Convention Centre will once again serve as a central hub on the show floor, with half day programming blocks dedicated to priority sectors. This structure supports curated connections between global attendees and B.C.’s investment-ready companies and partners across clean tech, AI and quantum, life sciences, creative tech, agritech and marine tech.
As one of the world’s largest and most influential technology gatherings, Web Summit offers international companies, investors and industry leaders direct access to B.C.’s innovation ecosystem and high-growth sectors to explore partnerships, investment pathways and emerging technologies shaping the future economy.
Web Summit Vancouver 2026 Builds on Strong Global Engagement In 2025
The inaugural Web Summit Vancouver in 2025 attracted over 15,000 attendees from 117 countries, generating international visibility for B.C.’s technology sector and innovation ecosystem.
B.C. companies connected with global investors, media and partners through targeted meetings, pitch sessions and on-site programming, supporting new business relationships and export opportunities. These structured engagements helped generate tangible deal flow and accelerate international partnerships.
The event also demonstrated how global gatherings can accelerate market access by bringing decision-makers directly into the province’s ecosystem.
Investment Programming alongside Web Summit Vancouver 2026
With strong momentum from 2025, Web Summit Vancouver 2026 and a coordinated program of host-led events is expected to further expand Vancouver’s global reach and impact.
Beyond the main conference, host-led programming will connect international delegates with investment-ready companies and targeted business opportunities across British Columbia. Delegates can access structured opportunities, including investor showcases, pre-matched B2B meetings, pitch sessions and sector-specific networking events designed to support deal flow, market entry and the establishment of international companies in British Columbia.
As a central hub, the return of the B.C. Pavilion will provide a dedicated space to explore the province’s innovation ecosystem, support meetings, informal networking and direct engagement with companies and partners actively seeking investment and collaboration.
For international attendees, the event offers a direct pathway to:
Meet investment-ready B.C. companies through curated and pre-qualified engagements
Participate in pre-matched meetings with investors and buyers
Gain insight into emerging global technology trends
Connect with a collaborative and fast-growing innovation ecosystem
British Columbia Tech Ecosystem Offers Global Scale and Investment Potential
British Columbia is home to one of North America’s fastest-growing technology ecosystems, with more than 12,000 companies employing over 180,000 people across the sector. This depth of talent and industry makes B.C. a strong pipeline of investment-ready companies for global partners.
For international investors and companies, B.C. offers a combination of talent, infrastructure and global connectivity that supports long-term growth.
Key advantages include:
A highly skilled and diverse workforce, supported by nearly 15,000 tech-related graduates each year
Strong research and commercialization capacity, with globally recognized universities and innovation hubs
Competitive business costs and a stable operating environment
Strategic access to North American, Asian and European markets through integrated trade and transportation networks
Vancouver’s tech ecosystem ranks among the top in Canada and is recognized globally for its talent concentration and cost competitiveness, making it an attractive destination for scaling companies.
Global companies including Amazon, Microsoft, SAP and Salesforce have established a strong presence in the province , alongside a growing number of high-value startups and scaleups.
…
The focus is clearly business. So, my second question is ‘What is Gabor Maté doing at the ‘techie’ 2026 Web Summit?’ For anyone unfamiliar with Maté, here’s more from his Wikipedia entry, Note: Links have been removed,
Gabor Maté CM (/ˈɡɑːbɔːr ˈmɑːteɪ/ GAH-bor MAH-tay;[1] born January 1944) is a Canadian physician and author. He has worked in family practices and specializes in childhood development and trauma,[2] including long-term effects on physical and mental health, such as autoimmune diseases, cancer, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD),[3] and addiction. [emphases mine]
Maté’s approach to addiction emphasizes the role of trauma i [emphasis mine] n the development of substance use disorders, aiming to address underlying emotional pain as part of recovery.[4] He has written five books exploring topics such as ADHD, stress, developmental psychology, and addiction. Some commentators have raised concerns about the scope and evidentiary basis of his claims.[5][6][7]
..
Interesting choice, non?
Now for some details, the pricing for the cheapest four-day ticket ‘General attendee’ is $830 CAD (including tax), the same price as last year’s as per my May 23, 2025 posting. A ‘Chairperson’ ticked will cost you $40,000 CAD (including tax). It makes the $1990 CAD (Including tax) price for the ‘Executive’ ticket almost look reasonable. As you might expect, the prices reflect the degree of access you will receive to special events and speakers
Here’s a sampling of the speakers at this year’s event and Maté is not the only unusual choice,
Michelle Grady, President,Sony Imageworks
Gary Marcus, AI Expert, Scientist & Author
Naomi Klein, Activist and writer
Matt Lyteson, CIO, IBM
Stephen Walt, Professor, International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Rick Glumac, Minister for AI and New Technologies of British Columbia, Government of BC
Apl.de.ap, Rapper, Black Eyed Peas
etc.
I’m particularly taken with Apl.de.ap whose profile page revealed this,
Grammy winner Apl.de.Ap is transforming the Philippines via the world’s largest reforestation project. Planting 380M+ trees, he’s blending agroforestry with carbon credits to fight climate change and empower rural communities. Music was just the start.
ETA May 22, 2026: I’ve commented on some unexpected choices for speakers; it seems it was even odder than I knew. In “Far-Right Speakers Given a Perch at Vancouver’s Web Summit,” Jen St. Denis reveals some disquieting news in her May 18, 2026 article for The Tyee, Note: Links have been removed,
…
Gil Durán, a journalist who has documented and warned about Yarvin’s [Curtis Yarvin, a commentator who has argued for U.S. democracy to be replaced with a corporate surveillance state] appeal to tech elites in the United States, told The Tyee he was invited to debate Yarvin at the conference — but declined. Durán said organizers then asked him to appear in a different format, but the participation of Yarvin “left a bad taste and I lost interest.”
“I’m in the middle of finishing a book about tech fascism, and Yarvin turned down multiple interview requests. Why would I fly to British Columbia to frolic with him in a circus?” said Durán.
“I was then told that Yarvin’s appearance wouldn’t be advertised. That sealed my decision to stay away. If you’re too ashamed to publicize your guest, why invite him?”
…
Regarding far-right speakers being invited to speak at the conference, Farrell [Katherine Farrell, vice-president of communications for the conference] told The Tyee the conference organizers believe “in having the courage to hear from everyone impacting the future of tech — those building technology, those deploying it, and those influencing how it is used. The tech world cannot and should not hide from examining every corner of the tech debate.”
Durán said extreme ideas like fascism, eugenics and racism are being “cleverly marketed through ‘debate’ and ‘just asking questions’ journalism,” and he questioned whether Yarvin was truly challenged on his authoritarian ideas at the conference.
…
This is not a good look for the Summit, for the politicians, or for the attendees.
