DemocracyXChange (DXC), Canada’s annual democracy summit, returns to Toronto from April 16 to 18 for its seventh edition. DXC26 offers three days of dynamic programming, including a significant presence from OCAD University community members and the Cultural Policy Hub at OCAD U.
Co-produced by OCAD U, The Open Democracy Project and the Dais at TMU, this year’s summit theme, Side by Side: Building an Economy that Serves Democracy, focuses on how leaders and practitioners can rethink the economy’s role in supporting democracy, while exploring ways to work together to secure economic sovereignty, expand opportunity and deepen civic trust in Canada and beyond.
Thursday, April 16: Keynote Address
Acclaimed author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow opens the summit with his keynote address, Disenshittification Nation, exploring how Canada can turn the upheaval of American/Canadian relations over the past year into a strategic opportunity to rebuild its tech sector, strengthen digital sovereignty and position itself as a global technology leader.
Coinciding with Doctorow’s keynote, OCAD U Associate Professor Suzanne Stein and Associate Professor Dr. Emma Westecott are co-presenting two projects from the Jailbreaking Canada playshop held last November. This playshop was organized by OCAD U’s Digital Futures program and hosted Doctorow and Madeline Ashby at Super Ordinary Lab and game:play Lab. Participants explored possible futures for Canada around digital sovereignty, creative resistance, and civic resilience – drawing inspiration from Doctorow’s critique of digital locks, monopolistic tech platforms and the erosion of repair and creative rights.
On opening night, Her Excellency Geneviève Tuts, Ambassador of the European Union (EU) to Canada, will introduce Utopia Rewired: Creative Visions for Democratic Futures, an exhibition presented by DXC in partnership with OCAD U and the EU through its Delegation to Canada.
On view April 16 to 17, Utopia Rewired brings together emerging youth artists from Canada and the EU to explore how creative practice can help reimagine democratic life and the economic systems that shape our collective future.
Selected through an international open call, the artists chosen to exhibit include: Slavko Petek (Croatia), Parumveer Walia (Canada), Loretta Jeff-Combs (Tl’esqox First Nation, Canada), and the artist duo Jan Munske (Germany) and Luisa Cruz (Canada/Brazil).
Friday, April 17
The Democracy Futures Workshop explores the theme, Unbound: Canada’s Sovereignty and Democracy Futures, facilitated by Associate Professor Suzanne Stein, director of the Super Ordinary Lab, in collaboration with OCAD U CO. This interactive workshop brings participants together in small groups to identify emerging vulnerabilities across the four critical domains of sovereignty: cultural, economic, digital and territorial. Using foresight tools and collaborative design methods, participants will translate insights into bold design challenges and strategic proposals to strengthen democratic resilience in Canada.
Associate Professor, Social Innovation Design, and Social Innovation Designer with TrickleUp Design, Sarah Tranum is leading the workshop, Who Shapes Tomorrow? Economies for People, Not Power, examining what happens when economies centre care, connection and community rather than market power. Participants will explore the idea of the “love economy” and how supporting care is essential to human well-being while also strengthening economic resilience and reducing long‑term costs.
Emerging Leaders: Making the Future is a workshop series that brings together emerging leaders from all generations to examine how today’s economic pressures and political realities are reshaping democracy, and how young people are building new pathways for leadership, participation and impact. Presented by Amapceo and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the series includes members of the OCAD U community and celebrates the power of emerging leaders to turn challenges into opportunities, equipping participants with both the context and confidence to drive meaningful change.
Saturday, April 18
The Cultural Policy Hub at OCAD U is hosting two public panels examining content provenance and the strategic use of cultural assets and creative industries by global middle powers such as Canada.
Content Provenance and the Media invites experts in technology policy and the media to discuss how content provenance – the origin and authenticity of digital content – tools could help verify digital information and what that means for trust, power and democracy.
Later in the afternoon, the hub is hosting Leveraging Culture to Strengthen Canada’s Global Middle Power, a panel that considers how middle powers, including Canada, can deploy cultural assets, creative industries and narrative leadership as strategic levers in a world shaped by geopolitical fragmentation, digital disruption and intensifying soft power competition.
OCAD U President and Vice-Chancellor Ana Serrano joins Jake Hirsch-Allen and Bruce Schneier in The Case For Public AI, examining the broader economic benefits of AI technology for society and the possible positive impacts on democratic processes.
OCAD U Professor and Acting Dean, Faculty of Arts and Science, Charles Reeve is moderating the panel discussion Exiled Voices, Shared Futures: Artistic Freedom, Economic Power, and Democratic Resilience. This panel is bringing together leaders from global policy, higher education, municipal arts funding and human rights to explore what systems are needed so that artists facing repression are not only protected but also resourced to continue shaping public life. The panel will be followed by a screening and conversation with filmmaker Zahra Alhooei, who is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow-in-Residence at OCAD U.
For more information, locations of events, tickets and the summit’s full schedule, please visit the DXC26 website.