Calls to fold chatbots into online harms legislation requires different framework: treating AI-mediated emotional support as a relationship

With a new national AI strategy forthcoming, the question is whether this government will use that opportunity to ask what role we want AI to play in mental health care—or whether it will settle for summoning tech executives to Ottawa and expressing disappointment.

AI Minister Evan Solomon, pictured, has called for 'trust first.' Yet, in human therapeutic relationships, a web of legal safeguards helps make providers trustworthy. We cannot simply move our human vulnerability into an unregulated space and think trust should follow, writes Sophie Nunnelley.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY SOPHIE NUNNELLEY

March 11, 2026

OTTAWA—The community of Tumbler Ridge, B.C., is living through an unimaginable grief. As we mourn with them, we are right to ask what we can learn from this tragedy.

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