Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia
Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, and Innovation, Canadian Chamber of Commerce
Charles Finlay
Founding Executive Director, Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst, Toronto Metropolitan University
Every year, cybercriminals expand their reach and increase their global impact. Hundreds of billions of dollars vanish through ransom and theft of intellectual property. Power grids and hospitals are attacked, companies are targeted, and even elections are manipulated, putting democracy at risk.
In this conversation, Charles Finlay, Founding Executive Director of the Rogers Cybersecure Catalyst at Toronto Metropolitan University and a member of the Canadian Chamber’s Cyber Security Council, and Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia, Senior Director of Digital Economy, Technology, and Innovation at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, discuss how a two-pronged approach can ensure that Canada’s cyber defences stay competitive in a geopolitically changing landscape.
Ulrike Bahr-Gedalia: How can law enforcement agencies keep up with cybercriminals who operate without borders?
Charles Finlay: Law enforcement agencies must continue to match the cybercriminals’ agility. As arrest powers are usually limited to specific jurisdictions, agencies must advance their efforts to coordinate seamlessly across borders and share information even quicker. Their work is incredibly challenging — they have to leverage multinational enforcement platforms and legal processes to identify victims, take down sites, follow crypto payments, seize hardware and arrest suspects, all in real time.
Building a meaningful deterrent to global cybercrime takes radical multilateralism and implicit trust between dozens of agencies operating across the globe. And it takes prosecutors and judges who understand how serious cybercrime can be.
Done properly, it can work. Canadian law enforcement agencies have participated successfully in major international operations with other agencies. The 2024 LockBit takedown involved the cooperation of at least 10 nations.
Bahr-Gedalia: But international cooperation is getting more difficult, correct?
Finlay: Unfortunately, yes. The structures and relationships that make global law enforcement possible are breaking down as the U.S. withdraws from all kinds of international collaborations, such as UNESCO, Paris Climate Agreement, WHO, and others.
The Guardian reported in June 2025 that a survey found that voters outside the U.S. are angry at those policies, and their political leaders will increasingly give them what they want, refusing to work with the U.S. and halting the sharing of information with U.S. agencies. This is a major issue. The U.S. government had been a key leader, with the reach and resources to coordinate international efforts. Our bridges are crumbling just when we need them the most.
Bahr-Gedalia: So, what should Canada do in these circumstances?
Finlay: We need a two-pronged approach.
First, we need to invest with renewed purpose in Canada’s cybersecurity capacities across both the public and private sectors. We need to upskill our cyber professionals so that they can meet new threats enabled by artificial intelligence and quantum computing. We need to help our small- and medium-sized businesses learn basic cyber hygiene so they can survive attacks. And we need to build out the cyber capabilities of our federal and provincial law enforcement agencies, which will need more resources as cybercrime surges. Everyone — governments, the private sector, the academic sector — needs to work together on this.
Second, we need to work even more closely with democratic nations that share our values. We must push strongly for joint enforcement and rapid information sharing. We need to help rebuild an international cybercrime deterrent in a more dangerous world.
To learn more about the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s initiatives on cybersecurity, please visit: Cyber Security Council – Canadian Chamber of Commerce
