The event is organized by the G7 and G20 Research Groups, working with the International Relations Program, the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, the Canadian International Council, the NATO Association of Canada, and the Istituto Affari Internazionali from Rome within the framework of Horizon Europe’s ENSURED project.

Date: Friday, September 18, 2026
Time: 2:30 PM – 4:30 PM (EST)
Location: Event Pavillion on the 4th floor of the Lawson Centre, 25 Devonshire Place
Contact: Jennifer Chylinski | 647-875-3313 | jennifer@thecic.org

As Canada is a leader in multilateral digital governance through the G7, and Prime Minister Mark Carney is moving toward closer integration with Europe and beyond, this is a good moment to learn about the challenges and opportunities arising from rapid technological transformation, as explored by the Istituto Affari Internazionali within the framework of Horizon Europe’s ENSURED project.

This three-year ENSURED research project has explored how global governance can adapt to a world in transition, and how the European Union and its members can contribute to defending and strengthening the multilateral system to make it more effective and democratic, and capable of adapting to a complex and ever-changing world.

IAI has led the work stream on digitalization, with a focus on recent developments in global digital governance, as well as the challenges and opportunities arising from rapid technological transformation.

Join us for an afternoon with the IAI’s Ettore Greco, Federica Marconi and Matteo Bursi, and Canada’s John Kirton, Jake Hirsch-Allen and Steven Wang, to discuss the role of international forums, including the G7 and G20, in shaping global approaches to digital governance and artificial intelligence, and to explore opportunities for strengthening cooperation between the European Union and Canada.

About the Speakers

Ettore Greco is head of IAI’s Geoeconomics and Global Governance program. He was also director of the IAI from 2008 to 2017. He was a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in 2006–2007 and has taught at the universities of Parma and Bologna. From 2000 to 2006, he worked as a correspondent for the Economist Intelligence Unit. From 1993 to 2000, he directed the IAI’s program on Central and Eastern Europe. He was also deputy director from 1997 to 2008. From 2000 to 2006, he was editor of The International Spectator. He is the author of several publications on the EU’s institutions and foreign policy, transatlantic relations and the Balkans. He has been a freelance journalist since 1988.

Federica Marconi is a Research Fellow in Digital Governance in IAI’s Geoeconomics and Global Governance Programme. She holds a law degree from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, a master’s in administrative law from LUISS Guido Carli University and a PhD (European Label) focusing on the role of the state in the economy in light of shifting geopolitical dynamics, with a particular focus on foreign direct investment (FDI) screening mechanisms in Europe and the United States.

She has been a visiting researcher at the University of Konstanz, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and Fordham University in New York. Her research focuses on national and international efforts to govern the digital domain, with particular attention to the geopolitical and geoeconomic implications of technological innovation. She also studies the evolution of economic security in the digital age. During Italy’s 2024 G7 presidency, she served as co-coordinator of the Think 7’s Task Force on Science and Digitalisation for a Better Future.

Matteo Bursi is a research fellow for international political economy in IAI’s Geoeconomics and Global Governance program. Previously, he was a research fellow at the Department of Economics of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and, in this role, carried out teaching activities in legal-economic subjects.

He obtained a PhD (cum laude) in “Labour, Development and Innovation” at the Marco Biagi Foundation; he was a visiting PhD student at University College Dublin and a Schuman Trainee at the Economic Governance and EMU Scrutiny Unit of the European Parliament.

His research focuses on the economic governance framework of the European Union, the evolution of monetary policy, American politics, cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies.

John Kirton is director and founder of the Global Governance Program, which includes the G7 Research Group, the G20 Research Group, the BRICS Research Group and the Global Health Diplomacy Program, based at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, where he is a professor emeritus of political science, having taught global summit governance and Canadian foreign policy.

He is a fellow of Trinity College and a senior fellow of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History at the University of Toronto. He has led a team of analysts at every G7 summit since 1988 and every G20 summit since the first at Washington in 2008.

He is the author of many books and articles on the G7 and G20, including G20 Governance for a Globalized World, and co-author of Reconfiguring the Global Governance of Climate Change (with Ella Kokotsis and Brittaney Warren) and Global Governance of Climate Change: G7, G20 and UN Leadership (with Ella Kokotsis).

Jake Hirsch-Allen leads partnerships and advocacy at The Dais, a public policy and leadership think tank at Toronto Metropolitan University, where his work spans AI and the innovation economy, renewing democracy, and the relationship between children and technology.

A lawyer and entrepreneur, he builds public-private partnerships across government, academia and industry to advance AI governance, strengthen democracy and reduce inequality. He previously built public-private partnerships in workforce development and higher education for LinkedIn across North America.

He co-founded Lighthouse Labs, one of Canada’s leading software bootcamps, as well as Hacking Health, and he has served as a director on boards including Ontario Tech Talent and the Canadian Club. He holds law degrees from McGill University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Toronto.

Steven Wang is a lawyer, educator and public interest leader whose work focuses on artificial intelligence, democratic institutions, China and the world, and the future of work.

He teaches at Harvard Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, where his courses and writing examine China’s engagement with the international legal order, the institutional and social consequences of artificial intelligence, technological competition, and the role of middle powers.

He also serves as Chief Executive Officer of Venture for Canada, a national charitable organization that prepares young people and small and medium-sized businesses for an economy being reshaped by technological change. In that role, he works on responsible AI adoption, economic mobility and workforce development.

Before entering legal practice, he founded a social enterprise in China that was supported by the Gates Foundation, and was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. A Rhodes Scholar, Wang holds degrees from the University of Toronto, the University of Oxford and Harvard Law School. He is a David Rockefeller Fellow at the Trilateral Commission.

About the Moderator

Joy Fitzgibbon is an associate professor at Trinity College, where she also serves as director of the International Relations Program. She is a political scientist whose research explores solutions to governance dilemmas in pandemic control and international security.

Her current research considers security requirements in pandemic prevention and management, exploring the contestation between human rights and military/intelligence interests. She is co-author of Networks of Knowledge and, more recently, articles including “WHO, Surveillance and COVID-19” and a review of “The COVID-19 Intelligence Failure, Why Warning Was Not Enough.”

She has lectured as faculty in the International Paediatric Emergency Medicine Elective at the University of Toronto, in the Canadian Disaster and Humanitarian Response Training Program, and was a member of the Expert Working Group on Re-imagining Canadian National Security Strategy for the 21st Century — Working Group 7 After COVID: Global Pandemics and Biosecurity Strategy with the Centre for International Governance Innovation at the University of Waterloo.

In addition to her faculty position at Trinity College, she is also a fellow there, a Senior Fellow at the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, and a member of the Institute for Health Emergencies and Pandemics at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.