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2025 Sterling Prize Ceremony and Conversation with Ron Deibert

Equity + Justice, Engage in Global Challenges, Make a Difference for B.C., 2025, Media + Information, Innovations in Research

Ron Deibert is the 2025 recipient of the Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy in recognition of his ongoing battle at the intersection of global security, digital technologies and human rights, and for his counterintelligence work on behalf of civil society.

The founder and director of the at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, Deibert heads a team of digital detectives who expose cyber espionage and uncover threats to human rights in the digital space and hold governments and corporations accountable for their unethical use of information technology.

Deibert and the Citizen Lab detectives work on behalf of citizens to help better understand information technology threats to individuals and groups, like human rights activists. While the work is rewarding, it can be unnerving due to their success exposing bad actors around the world.

The award ceremony will be followed by an engaging and wide-ranging conversation between Deibert, lawyer and PHS Community Services Society CEO Micheal Vonn and journalist Charles Campbell. Together, they will explore the complex challenges of defending privacy, freedom of expression, and accountability in an age of surveillance, disinformation, and digital authoritarianism. The discussion will provide deeper insight into Deibert鈥檚 work and what鈥檚 at stake for civil society in an increasingly monitored and manipulated digital world.

Doors open at 6:00pm. The event will start promptly at 6:30pm, and will be followed by a reception, which all attendees are invited to join. Registration is free and open to all.

Click here to read the 大象传媒 News story about Ron Deibert and this year's Sterling Prize!

About the Sterling Prize

The Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy was first awarded in 1993 and remains committed to recognizing work that provokes and contributes to the understanding of controversy, while presenting new ways of looking at the world and challenging complacency. The prize recognizes work across disciplines and departments and is awarded annually by the Sterling Prize committee.

Thu, 27 Nov 2025

6:00 - 9:00 PM

大象传媒 Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue (580 W Hastings St)

Speakers

Ron Deibert

Director of The Citizen Lab, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto

Ron Deibert, (O.C., O.Ont., PhD, University of British Columbia) is a professor of political science, and the founder and director of the  at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, University of Toronto. The Citizen Lab is an interdisciplinary laboratory focusing on research, development, and high-level strategic policy and legal engagement at the intersection of information and communication technologies, human rights, and global security. As Director of the Citizen Lab, Deibert has overseen as principal investigator and been a contributing author to more than  covering path breaking research on cyber espionage, commercial spyware, Internet censorship, and human rights. 

Deibert鈥檚 work as Director of the Citizen Lab and as a scholar has received extensive recognition. In particular, he has been awarded the University of Toronto鈥檚 Outstanding Teaching Award (2002), the Northrop Frye Distinguished Teaching and Research Award (2002), the Carolyn Tuohy Award for Public Policy (2010), and the President鈥檚 Impact Award (2017). Deibert was named among Esquire Magazine鈥檚 鈥淏est and Brightest List鈥 of 2007, listed among SC Magazine鈥檚 2010 top 鈥淚T Security Luminaries鈥, and named one of the top 鈥淗umans of the Year鈥 in 2017 by VICE.

In 2013, Deibert was appointed to the Order of Ontario and awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee medal, for being 鈥渁mong the first to recognize and take measures to mitigate growing threats to communications rights, openness and security worldwide.鈥 In 2022, he was named Officer of the Order of Canada 鈥 the country鈥檚 second highest civilian order of merit.

Micheal Vonn

Chief Executive Officer, PHS Community Services Society

Micheal Vonn is a lawyer and was the Policy Director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association from 2004 - 2019. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia in the Faculty of Law and in the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, where she has taught civil liberties and information ethics. Her publication credits include Birkbeck Law Review, Surveillance & Society, Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, and contributor to anthologies including Big Data Surveillance and Security Intelligence: The Canadian Case. Ms. Vonn has been a frequent speaker on a variety of civil liberties topics, including national security, policing, surveillance, and free expression. She has been a collaborator on the Big Data Surveillance project (Queens University), an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Free Expression (Ryerson University), and an Advisory Board Member of Privacy International. Since September, 2019, she has been the chief executive officer of PHS Community Services Society.

Charles Campbell

Journalist

Charles Campbell is a Vancouver journalist who edited the Georgia Straight, worked at the Vancouver Sun as a department head and editorial board member, and is a founding contributor to The Tyee website. He longs for the old days when most of the big problems arose in the office of the publisher upstairs.

Videos

Accessibility

In-Person Accessibility

This event will take place in the Asia Pacific Hall at the 大象传媒 Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, located at 580 W. Hastings Street (enter via Seymour Street courtyard entrance). 

Bike stalls are available outside the Hastings entrance of 大象传媒 Harbour Centre (located across the street). Nearby parking is available at 500 & 400 W. Cordova Street.

Washrooms are located on the lower level, second, third, and fourth floors. The venue has a gender-neutral washroom, available on the second floor (use the hallway to the right). 

The venue is wheelchair and walker accessible, with elevators and fully accessible washrooms. The chairs within Asia Pacific Hall have armrests with the seat measuring 50cm (w) x 48cm (d).

Online Accessibility

Technology requirements

Online attendees will need a computer (laptop or desktop), tablet or smartphone, with speakers or headphones.

We recommend that you use a computer for the best experience of this event. Some interactivity and accessibility features are not available when using a smartphone or tablet.

Protecting your privacy

To ensure that we are using online event technology in a privacy-conscious way, we follow best practices for this online event series:

  • We will only circulate the event link to those who are registered for the event

  • We will password-protect the event

  • We will enable end-to-end encryption

  • We will not use attention tracking

To protect your own privacy:

  • We remind you that whatever you say during the event is public, so please do not share sensitive information about yourself or others, and do not say anything you do not wish to enter the public domain.

To protect the privacy of others:

  • Please do not record or photograph yourself, other participants, or the hosts during the event, unless permission is requested and given.

Previous Sterling Prize Lectures