An Open Letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney

To the Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada,

Congratulations on your election as leader of the Liberal party and your assumption of the Office of Prime Minister.

Your credentials demonstrate that you understand the threat of both extractive public institutions and extractive economic policies to successful societies.

With that in mind, I ask that your government do more to help authors protect the work of our lives.

My first novel, Chaos Calling: Book I of The Xenthian Cycle, is a fantasy action story set in Toronto. I wrote what spoke to me as a resident of this city, as a fan of Marvel movies where Toronto masquerades as other global locations, and as a person who believes that Canada, for all its challenges, has something to say about how to build a successful collaborative society in the 21st century.

In March, I read through Alex Reisner’s reporting for The Atlantic. Chaos Calling is among the millions of books that Meta and other unethical tech companies pirated and mined to train their AI and Generative AI engines.

I won’t attempt to describe to you the feeling of violation this news has brought. Hundreds of other Canadian authors and academics, whether they are traditionally published or independents like me, are affected.

This is one instance where being in such fine company is a small consolation. We did not consent to this practice, and we were not compensated.

Who’s responsible for this theft? How did it happen?

The theft required two participants. The first is LibGen, a decentralized site that pirates author works across genres, including those by indie authors. The second are tech companies like Meta who actively decided to steal the data to make their products. They did not notify or compensate the people whose labour and creativity made that training possible.

I trust you’re familiar with the ideas of the Nobel-Prize winning book Why Nations Fail. Self-publishing and the rise of indie authors are two inclusive economic and cultural forces in Canada and around the world. They reflect Canada’s open commitment to allowing its citizens the right to self-determination and our protection of our inclusive institutions. That includes the law, intellectual property, and other long-standing policies.

Chaos Calling is the first in a five-part series that I began in 2014, publishing the first instalment in 2022. Optimistically, it will likely take me another 10 years to complete. I accepted that risk because:

• I knew economic success isn’t guaranteed.
• I believed in the strength of my creative vision. I invested my own money to create a book comparable in quality to what publishing houses produce. I hired experienced professionals and paid them a fair market rate for their work. Don’t take my word on the quality; see the Kirkus review.
• I knew how to launch and market products, even when building a readership is a long, slow process.

What I didn’t and never will accept is the right of tech companies to steal authors’ work without consent. They have no right to use our creativity, insight, and craft to develop generative tools to benefit their profit margins.

If that’s not the definition of an extractive economic practice, I don’t know what is.

How Mark Carney’s government can protect Canadian creatives

I implore you and your cabinet to consider what can be done. I want you to protect the next generation of creatives telling Canada’s story. There’s a legal and policy response to the intellectual property threat, certainly, the shape of which I leave to you. I implore you to do more to fund and support Canadians in the arts. We’re gambling our time and energy to affirm and reflect what it means to be Canadian here and now. That work benefits us all.

I share your concerns about the threats to Canada’s freedoms within and outside our borders. I’m sure there is much to occupy your time. I want us to remain the country I grew up believing in. Digital theft of our artistic creations is also a direct challenge to our sovereignty.

I wish you and your colleagues the best in the upcoming election.

Yours Sincerely,

Elizabeth Monier-Williams

(writing fiction as E. M. Williams)