Avi Lewis urges Carney to ban unfair pricing driven by AI
Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2026 1:16 pmAvi Lewis urges Carney to ban unfair pricing driven by AI
- April 14, 2026 - RABBLE.CA
EXCERPT: "In his first Parliament Hill news conference, Avi Lewis articulately presented a New Democratic initiative to ban the unfair corporate practice of charging different prices to different people based on AI-harvested private information.
Lewis gave the example of a desperate mother of a sick child who needs to buy a thermometer. Knowing the mother’s situation – by spying on her email and social media – a company could choose to charge her a higher price than that charged to others.
Lewis said such practices are now a reality – not just for thermometers but for many of life’s essentials, including food.
It is easy to see how surveillance pricing could happen for online purchases. Even before AI took centre stage, corporations had been using the online route to spy on us all.
He called on the Carney government to protect all citizens’ rights to fairness and privacy, and noted that in Manitoba Wab Kinew’s NDP government has introduced legislation banning such snooping and differential pricing.
We need a robust counterpart to that Manitoba initiative at the federal level, Lewis argued. . . . "
[ https://rabble.ca/politics/canadian-pol ... ven-by-ai/ ]
- April 14, 2026 - RABBLE.CA
EXCERPT: "In his first Parliament Hill news conference, Avi Lewis articulately presented a New Democratic initiative to ban the unfair corporate practice of charging different prices to different people based on AI-harvested private information.
Lewis gave the example of a desperate mother of a sick child who needs to buy a thermometer. Knowing the mother’s situation – by spying on her email and social media – a company could choose to charge her a higher price than that charged to others.
Lewis said such practices are now a reality – not just for thermometers but for many of life’s essentials, including food.
It is easy to see how surveillance pricing could happen for online purchases. Even before AI took centre stage, corporations had been using the online route to spy on us all.
He called on the Carney government to protect all citizens’ rights to fairness and privacy, and noted that in Manitoba Wab Kinew’s NDP government has introduced legislation banning such snooping and differential pricing.
We need a robust counterpart to that Manitoba initiative at the federal level, Lewis argued. . . . "
[ https://rabble.ca/politics/canadian-pol ... ven-by-ai/ ]