AI minister meets with group pressing for online safety, after advocate said he initially 'declined' meeting
OTTAWA — Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon was among the ministers that parents and children rallying for federal government action to better protect kids online were set to meet Monday, after concerns were expressed that the minister did not have the time.
The group of around 20 children and parents came to Parliament Hill as part of an initiative led by Children First Canada, a national charity calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to present new legislation aimed at online safety.
Sara Austin, founder and CEO of the charity, called online safety one of the “leading challenges” children in the country face, saying they came to Parliament Hill to declare that “time is up,” adding that compared to jurisdictions like Australia and the United Kingdom, which have online safety laws in place, “Canada has nothing on the books.”
After meeting Monday with staff in Carney’s office where they brought “children, youth and parents” to share that message, Austin says they were set to meet with Canadian Heritage Minister Marc Miller, who is tasked with shepherding through a new online harms bill. They were also set to meet Opposition Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and appeared in the House of Commons as recognized guests.
After speaking to the media, Austin expressed disappointment that the same could not be said for meeting with Solomon, whom she said had “declined to meet.”
“That’s disappointing,” she told National Post. “He’s about to launch an AI strategy that, of course, is going to affect the business community, but it will certainly affect the education and the safety of our children.”
Austin pointed to the recent shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., where OpenAI later confirmed that the shooter had interacted with ChatGPT months earlier, exchanges which warranted a suspension of their account, but did not result in the company giving a warning to police — a move that its CEO recently apologized for in a public letter.
She underscored how the government’s forthcoming AI strategy needed to consider the rights of children, as it was a technology that was shaping their classroom learning and future work.
“I could go on and on about the examples of how AI is endangering children’s safety and well-being,” she said.
“(Solomon) needs to hear from children. He needs to hear from parents, and so he can meet with industry leaders, but he needs to be hearing from kids and parents, and we hope that he’ll reconsider and meet with our delegation either today (or) on a future date.”
Jason Sokolowski was one of the parents in the delegation and whose daughter, Penelope was “groomed” and “extorted” by an online extremist group into self-harm. She died by suicide in 2025.
He called it “upsetting” that parents and victims would not have a meeting with Solomon on “something that should be a priority for him.”
Reached for comment on Monday, a spokeswoman for Solomon initially pointed to a previous statement it had shared with another media outlet about how its office had “tried to find a time that worked” for both the minister and the group to meet “ and it did not work.”
Less than an hour later, Solomon’s office provided an update to say that a meeting had been arranged.
“Our office had been working to find a time that worked for both Children First Canada and Minister Solomon. We were able to confirm 5 p.m. today,” wrote Peter Wall, the minister’s director of communications.
“The minister believes it is important to hear from youth organizations, families and advocates directly, including through the roundtable our team already held on these issues. We will continue this engagement, in coordination with our colleagues at (Canadian) Heritage.”
Wall added that Children First Canada was among stakeholders present at a roundtable with young organizations which it hosted earlier this month and that the minister would speak with young people at an upcoming Gen Z artificial intelligence forum.
“We take these issues seriously and will continue engaging with youth organizations, families, advocates and experts as this work moves forward,” he wrote.
Carol Todd, whose daughter Amanda died in 2012 after being sextorted online, a case which put an international spotlight on the issue of predators sexually extorting minors online, told reporters she came to Parliament Hill with “frustration,” given the lack of legislation to protect children online.
“I’ve heard different things about maybe June, maybe the fall, but we can’t wait any longer because kids are dying.”
Sokolowski said he is hoping for a “first step” in the form of some recognition that “this is a damaging product to children.”
“Just like we’ve done throughout history and our grandparents, whenever a damaging product shows up, whether it’s cars, tobacco, alcohol, we go, ‘we need to put an age restriction on this.'”
Miller, the Canadian Heritage minister, has said the Liberals were exploring the idea of instituting an age restriction for minors when it comes to social media, an idea that the party’s grassroots endorsed at its recently convention in Montreal.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced over the weekend that his provincial NDP government would move to put such a ban in place, including when it came to generative AI. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has said his government is also weighing the idea, along with Ontario’s education minister.
National Post
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