Where is the Gender Lens in Canada’s Cybersecurity Policy?

Gender-based violence (GBV) has slowly been integrated into Canadian security policy. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which is responsible for intelligence collection and analysis within Canada, has expanded its definitions of violent extremism in response to increased ideologically-motivated violent extremism influenced by misogynistic, anti-queer and anti-trans ideologies cultivated online.

The absence of gender in Canada’s National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS) is curious, given other updates to Canadian security policies that include a gender lens. It is doubly curious given that a 2022 review of the 2018 NCSS recommended the inclusion of gendered analysis in any new strategy. Why has Canada, despite being a proponent of gender integration in cybersecurity at the global level, and making strides in gender mainstreaming in other parts of security, failed to integrate gender into its NCSS?

The case encourages discussion of why gender has been absent from Canada’s NCSS, and considers the consequences of failing to take technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) seriously. Ultimately, it is a call to expand our understanding of cybersecurity to more fully address a broad range of security issues.