Featured Participants

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  The Hon. Rachel Bendayan

  Member of Parliament for Outremont and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister

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  Professor Amanda Third

  Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre and Professorial Research Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Society at Western Sydney University, Australia

  Biography

  Professor Amanda Third

  Professor Amanda Third is Professorial Research Fellow in Digital Social and Cultural Research in the Institute for Culture and Society and Co-Director of the Young and Resilient Research Centre at Western Sydney University; and Research Stream Co-Lead in the Centre for Resilient and Inclusive Societies (Deakin; Western Sydney University and Victoria University). An international expert in user-centred, participatory research, her work investigates children's and young people's technology practices, focusing on marginalised groups and rights-based approaches. She has led child-centred projects to understand children's and young people's experiences of the digital age in 68 countries, working with partners across corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors. She is committed to working with communities to generate research that can be activated for effective policy and practice. From 2011-2016, Professor Third led Research Program 2: 'Connected and Creative', of the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, a cross-sector research entity that united young people with researchers, practitioners, innovators and policy-makers from over 75 partner organisations across the not-for-profit, academic, government and corporate sectors to explore the role of technology in young people's lives, and how technology can be used to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people aged 12 to 25. The research program Professor Third led investigated how to better connect vulnerable young people with their communities by enhancing and leveraging their technology practices and their creative engagements. This experience led Professor Third to work with colleagues at Western Sydney University to adapt an open innovation process – known as a Living Lab – to co-research and design, with children, young people and stakeholders across sectors, technology-based strategies to support intergenerational resilience. She has co-developed a range of innovative data and analysis techniques (e.g. distributed data gathering via a workshop-based method), as well as digital tools (e.g. 'Invisible City' emotion mapping app) to enable children, young people and their communities to generate data and, thereby, enable them to tackle the challenges they face. Professor Third is lead author of Young People in Digital Society: Control/Shift (Palgrave, 2019); Young and Online: Children's Perspectives on Life in the Digital Age (WSU/UNICEF, 2017); and Children's Rights in the Digital Age: A Download from Children around the World (Young and Well CRC/UNICEF, 2014). She is currently co-authoring a General Comment on Children's Rights in the Digital Environment for the UN Committee for the Rights of the Child. She is Expert Advisor to Global Kids Online; a founding member of the Australian-based Technology and Wellbeing Cross-Sector Roundtable; and Co-Director of the Australian Living Labs Innovation Network. She is also a member of the ASEAN Regional Think Tank on Child Online Protection (UNICEF/ITU); the international Digitally Connected Network; Google Kids and Families Expert Advisory Board, UNICEF Australia's Child Rights Task Force; the Australian Federal Government's eSafety Advisory Committee, and an Ambassador of the 2168 Children's Parliament. In 2015 she was awarded the Western Sydney University Vice Chancellor's Medal for Engagement and Sustainability.
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  Jenny Yuen

  Executive Vice President, Partnerships and Government Relations, Kids Help Phonee

  Biography

  Jenny Yuen

  Jenny Yuen serves as the Executive Vice President, Partnerships and Government Relations at Kids Help Phone, where she directs the organization’s partnerships and government relations strategies and leads a dedicated group of people to drive KHP’s bold strategic objectives. Together with the team at KHP, she’s transforming the way young people access and engage with mental health services across Canada. With deep expertise in brand integration and purpose-driven collaboration, Jenny has cultivated top-tier corporate and government partnerships for two of Canada’s leading charities: Yee Hong Community Wellness Foundation and Kids Help Phone. Her success in community engagement has shaped her leadership of KHP’s corporate and government portfolios, which she has evolved into an integrated partnership strategy. This strategy engages stakeholders at both the community and national levels to amplify their collective impact. Jenny brings a multidisciplinary approach that encompasses partnerships, philanthropy, corporate and community engagement, sponsorship, volunteer leadership development and the creation of systems to advance cross-functional and enterprise-wide programs. With leadership experience spanning both regional and national responsibilities, Jenny has honed her ability to plan centrally while implementing locally. She fosters a team-centred, results-oriented approach that creates synergies across diverse stakeholders.
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  Sarah Adams

  Child Privacy & Safety Advocate, TIME 100 Creator of Mom Uncharted and host of the Parents Uncharted Podcast

  Biography

  Sarah Adams

  Sarah Adams is the creator of Mom.Uncharted, an advocacy platform dedicated to children's digital privacy, online safety, and the long-term impact of sharenting and child influencer culture. Her work has helped bring greater public awareness to issues surrounding children's rights, consent, digital footprints, and online exploitation. Named to the TIME100 Creators list in 2025, Sarah has been featured in national and international media and appears in the Netflix documentary Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing. She is also the host of Parents Uncharted, a podcast that helps families navigate the realities of raising children in a digital world. Through content creation, public speaking, and collaboration with researchers, educators, nonprofits, and policymakers, Sarah advocates for safer, healthier online experiences for children and families.
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  Taylor Owen

  Founding Director of the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University

  Biography

  Taylor Owen

  Taylor Owen is the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications, the founding director of The Center for Media, Technology and Democracy, and an Associate Professor in the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University. He is the host of the Big Tech podcast, a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Governance Innovation, a Fellow at the Public Policy Forum, and sits on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). He was previously an Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia and the Research Director of Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia School of Journalism. His Doctorate is from the University of Oxford and he has been a Trudeau and Banting scholar, an Action Canada Fellow and received the 2016 Public Policy Forum Emerging Leader award. He is the author of Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2015) and the co-editor of The World Won’t Wait: Why Canada Needs to Rethink its Foreign Policies (University of Toronto Press, 2015) and Journalism After Snowden: The Future of the Free Press in the Surveillance State (Columbia University Press, 2016). His forthcoming book with Emily Bell will be published by Yale University Press in 2021. His work focuses on the intersection of media, technology and public policy and can be found at www.taylorowen.com and @taylor_owen.
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  Omar Sachedina

  Chief Anchor and Senior Editor, CTV National News

  Biography

  Omar Sachedina

  Omar Sachedina is Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor of CTV National News, leading Canada’s most-watched national newscast, as well as delivering features and live specials, covering significant breaking news stories across the country and around the world. Sachedina first joined CTV National News as a correspondent in Toronto in 2009, then moved to the network’s Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa in 2013 before assuming the role of National Affairs Correspondent in 2019. Prior to that, he served as a reporter and anchor with CP24, Greater Toronto’s 24-hour breaking news station. During his tenure with CTV News, Sachedina has anchored the network’s coverage of the 2025 federal election; the state funeral for former prime minister the Right Honourable Brian Mulroney; the second term inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump; the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and the accession of King Charles III; and the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, where he sat down for an in-depth interview with Prince Harry. As a Correspondent, Sachedina has travelled with the prime minster to cover international summits and conferences, and was part of CTV News’ 2015, 2019, and 2021 federal election team, reporting from the campaign trail and interviewing federal party leaders. He delivered Canadian Screen Award-winning coverage of D-Day’s 75th anniversary in Normandy, France, commemorating Canada’s involvement in the liberation of western Europe during the Second World War. For Canada’s 150th anniversary, he reported from aboard an icebreaker as it journeyed through the Northwest Passage. Sachedina has also reported on location while covering numerous international stories, including the Russia-Ukraine War; the Colombia-Venezuela border during a political power struggle for control of Venezuela; pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong; and natural disasters in Haiti and Indonesia. Sachedina’s work has been recognized with a multitude of awards. Most recently, these include winning the 2024 Canadian Screen Award and the 2023 RTDNA Canada Award for Best National Newscast, as well the 2023 RTDNA Canada Award for Best Enterprise Journalism for the documentary special “Expelled: My Roots Uganda,” in which Sachedina chronicled his mother's emotional return to her homeland, 50 years after she was expelled along with tens of thousands of others. Additionally, he has received numerous nominations for Best National News Reporter at the Canadian Screen Awards and a Daily Excellence Award nomination from the Canadian Association of Journalists for a feature exploring the roots of Mary Simon, Canada’s first Indigenous governor general. In 2024, Sachedina and CTV News launched the Sachedina ∙ CTV News ∙ Fellowship, a new program providing emerging journalists with the opportunity to produce a substantial, original story for CTV News platforms. The fellows receive ongoing mentoring and training from the team of editors and reporters at the CTV National newsroom. Born in Vancouver to parents of Indian descent from Uganda, Sachedina holds a degree in political science from McGill University, a master's in journalism from Columbia University, and is a graduate of the Poynter Institute. He speaks English, French, Gujarati, and Kutchi.