The Age of Misinformation: What It Means for Canada’s Future

In this episode, Futureproofing Canada host Jennifer Ditchburn speaks with Timothy Caulfield, one of North America’s leading voices on misinformation and the author of The Certainty Illusion: What You Don’t Know and Why It Matters. Caulfield unpacks how today’s chaotic information environment, from wellness products to fake online reviews, is shaping our beliefs, eroding trust, and influencing public policy. Drawing on decades of research, he explains why misinformation spreads so easily, how political identity fuels distorted beliefs, and what Canada can do to strengthen critical thinking, media literacy, and evidence-informed policymaking.

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Timothy Caulfield

Timothy Caulfield is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, a professor in the faculty of law and the school of public health, as well as research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta.

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Jennifer Ditchburn

Jennifer Ditchburn is the President and CEO of the Institute for Research on Public Policy. From 2016 to 2021, she was the Editor-in-Chief of the IRPP’s influential digital magazine, Policy Options. Prior to joining the IRPP, Jennifer spent two decades covering national and parliamentary affairs for The Canadian Press and for CBC Television. She is the co-editor with Graham Fox of The Harper Factor: Assessing a Prime Minister’s Policy Legacy (McGill-Queen’s).

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