Update laws in Canada to protect artists and creators against Generative AI systems!

This is a petition that will be directed to the Honourable Marc Miller, the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture here in Canada. My hope is to garner signatures from all across this country to put pressure on our government to step up and respond immediately to the messy, unethical world of Generative AI Art.

Marc Miller (as of December 1, 2025) is responsible for initiatives in Canada directly related to the arts and cultural industries (including film, music, and publishing), and the development of cultural policies, including those related to foreign investment and copyright.

We, the artists, creators, and supporters of the arts across Canada, call on our government to:

1. Put in place updated digital laws around AI generated content that requires any AI-generation creation or artwork to be clearly labeled as such (on the internet, and in real life physical spaces);
2. Put in place laws that give artists and creators the ability to opt out from having their online creative work be freely used by technology companies to train their AI models;
3. Put in place updated copyright laws to prevent technology companies from freely accessing creative content made by artists to train their AI models.

In Canada, the legal framework surrounding AI and copyright (i.e. The Copyright Act) continues to evolve, however with the emergence and rapid expansion of AI-generated content and programs, our framework in Canada is now out of date and does not protect artists and their creative work.

We call on the Honourable Marc Miller to follow the lead set by other nations across the world, most recently in Australia, to prevent tech companies from having free reign to access locally made creative content to train their artificial intelligence models.

Generative AI programs operate on the scanning of billions of copyrighted intellectual properties of artists and creators, here in Canada and worldwide, without fair compensation to the real human creators who first made them. Artists deserve the right to decide how their work is used, to track their own content, and to reap the benefits of its value.

Similarly, consumers and supporters of artistic content deserve to be informed and aware of when something is AI-generated, vs. when it's not. This will allow people to make more informed decisions around the types of art they support and engage with.

Canada must take a stronger leadership stance in protecting Canadian creatives and Canadian culture by ensuring legal protections are in place, before it’s too late. The potential progress across various sectors of our economy must NOT come at the expense of intellectual property rights. Please prioritize Canadian artists and creatives across our great country who dedicate their time, creativity, and passion to their creative work!