Digital sovereignty

Welcome back to the Law Bites podcast, returning after a brief hiatus in late summer and early fall.

That opening clip was Saskatchewan Premier Doug Moe announcing the creation of one of Canada's largest AI data centres, which typifies how right now much of the digital and political attention is on data and digital sovereignty.

That manifests in heated debates over building data centres, the political challenges of dealing with the US and pivoting in some form to Europe, and in the creation of new Canadian privacy, digital and AI regulation.

Last week, I was pleased to deliver the dinner keynote speech at the NREN Assembly.

The NREN Assembly is an annual gathering hosted by Canary that brings together staff and leadership from Canary alongside all 13 provincial and territorial partners of Canada's National Research and Education Network.

If you're a researcher at a Canadian academic institution or just someone who has logged into EDU Rome, you've used their infrastructure.

Now, with their kind permission, this week's episode features that keynote in full, which was titled Digital Sovereignty, Control, Choice, and Connection.

Thanks so much for the introduction and for the invitation.

Our first development takes us to Addis Ababa and the African Union headquarters, where the AU Innovation Festival took place on September 29th and 13th.

The 2026 festival was built around the theme Vibrant Youth Ecosystems for AI and Digital Sovereignty.

The African Union described the event as a platform for youth-led innovation, policy engagement and entrepreneurship, partnerships and African-centered digital development.

And if you ask why is that relevant to street art, because It shows a wider shift in how African institutions are thinking about young people and creativity.

We also discuss whether publishers can reduce tracking without surrendering revenue, why behavioral advertising may create fraud and intermediation costs that exceed its value.

how purpose limitation could constrain platform expansion, and why European digital sovereignty may begin with procurement choices, competition policy, and enforcement against dominant firms.

Johnny Ryan, Director of Enforce at the Irish Council of Civil Liberties.

So let's get to it.

Now, the Yankees, if you look overall at their numbers, actually hit and played better against lefties than against righties.

But you have to look at individual matchups.

They hit 213 against the Red Sox lefties this year.

The Red Sox used the left-hander for 67% of the plate appearances against the Yankees this year.

Peyton Tolley, Jake Bennett, Aroldis Chapman, Eric Miller, on and on it goes.

So you just can't look at overall numbers.

Look at individual matchups.

So you're going to see a parade of lefties.

And you do need to RSVP, although I bet you could just walk in too.

If you are attending the Green Party Conference in Brighton, I will be there on October the 3rd to give a talk with the Open Rights Group called Digital Sovereignty in the Post-American Internet.

And then I'm going back to the U.S. I'll be in Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana on October the 6th and at the Hudson Library in Hudson, Ohio on October the 7th.

And then I'm getting a very early flight to Calgary.