Grade by Grade
E. Canada, 1982 to the Present · Canada, 1982 to the Present

Science and Technology Since 1982: Computers to AI

E1.2 E3.1 A1.5 A1.6About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can identify major developments in science and technology since 1982, including Canadian contributions.
  • I can assess the significance of a development for different groups of Canadians.
  • I can explain both the benefits and the costs of new technologies.
  • I can make an evidence-based judgement about which development has been most significant.

Words to know

Internet
The worldwide network of computer networks. The World Wide Web (1991) is one service that runs on it.
smartphone
A mobile phone that works like a small computer, with internet access and apps.
artificial intelligence (AI)
Computer systems that perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as recognizing images or generating text.
biotechnology
Using living things or their parts to make products, such as vaccines or genetically modified crops.
genetically modified (GM)
Describes an organism whose genes have been changed in a laboratory, for example canola that resists a herbicide.
digital divide
The gap between people who have good access to digital technology and the internet and people who do not.

Ask someone who was a teenager in 1982

In 1982, a Canadian teenager could not text, search the internet, stream music or carry a phone in a pocket. Long-distance calls were expensive, music came on records and cassettes, and research meant the library's card catalogue. Today you may carry more computing power in your pocket than existed in an entire 1982 university.

Technology changed Canadian life more quickly in this period than in almost any other. In this lesson you will look at the biggest developments, at Canada's own contributions, and at a historian's question: was each change good, bad, or both, and for whom?

Computers, the internet and the phone in your pocket

  • Personal computers spread into Canadian homes, schools and offices during the 1980s and 1990s.
  • The World Wide Web (1991) made the internet easy to use. By the 2000s most Canadian households were online.
  • Research In Motion (RIM), founded in Waterloo, Ontario, in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin, launched its first BlackBerry device in 1999. In the 2000s BlackBerry phones were used by business people and politicians around the world. After touchscreen smartphones such as the iPhone (2007) arrived, BlackBerry lost most of its market and stopped designing its own phones in 2016. It is a Canadian story of innovation and disruption.
  • Nortel, once one of Canada's largest companies, built telecommunications equipment for the internet age; its value collapsed after the tech bubble burst in 2000–2001, and it went bankrupt in 2009 (Lesson 11).
  • Shopify, founded in Ottawa in 2004, grew into a major global e-commerce company, part of the shift to online shopping.
  • Digital music and streaming changed the music industry, making it easier for artists to reach the world but harder for many to earn a living from sales.

Space: Canada beyond Earth

  • 1984: Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space.
  • 1992: Roberta Bondar, a neurologist, became the first Canadian woman in space.
  • 1995: RADARSAT-1, a Canadian Earth-observation satellite, was launched; it helped monitor ice, crops and disasters.
  • 2001: Canadarm2, a Canadian robotic arm, was installed on the International Space Station (ISS).
  • 2013: Chris Hadfield became the first Canadian to command the ISS and shared space with millions through social media.
  • April 1–10, 2026: Jeremy Hansen flew on NASA's Artemis II mission, becoming the first Canadian to travel around the Moon.
Science and technology milestones with Canadian connections1984Marc Garneau:first Canadianin space1995RADARSAT-1satellitelaunched1999FirstBlackBerrydevice fromWaterloo's RIM2001Canadarm2installed onthe ISS2013Chris Hadfieldcommands theISS2019Canadaapproves itsEbola vaccine2024GeoffreyHinton wins aNobel Prize2026Jeremy Hansenflies aroundthe Moon
Dates are evenly spaced, not to scale. Canada has contributed especially in space robotics, telecommunications, vaccines and artificial intelligence.

Health and biotechnology

  • HIV/AIDS emerged in the 1980s. In Canada, thousands of people were infected with HIV or hepatitis C through contaminated blood in the 1980s. The Krever Inquiry (1997) investigated, and in 1998 a new agency, Canadian Blood Services (and Héma-Québec in Quebec), took over the blood system.
  • Scientists at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg developed an Ebola vaccine, approved in Canada and elsewhere in 2019, after it was used in West Africa.
  • Canadian research on lipid nanoparticles, including work by Pieter Cullis at the University of British Columbia, helped make the mRNA vaccines used during the COVID-19 pandemic possible.
  • Genetically modified crops, such as herbicide-tolerant canola (first grown in Canada in the 1990s), raised yields but also raised debates about safety, labelling and corporate control of seeds.
  • Stem cell research, cloning (Dolly the sheep, Scotland, 1996) and genetic testing raised new ethical questions.

Energy and the environment

  • Oil sands technology: new methods such as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), developed and tested in Alberta in the 1980s and 1990s, made it possible to extract bitumen deep underground. Oil sands production grew enormously, boosting Alberta's economy and raising environmental concerns about greenhouse gases, water use and land.
  • Hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") opened new natural gas and oil supplies in the 2000s, with debates about water and earthquakes.
  • Alternative energy: wind and solar power grew. Ontario finished phasing out coal-fired electricity in 2014.
  • Hybrid and electric vehicles became common in the 2010s and 2020s; Ontario began building battery and electric-vehicle plants.

Artificial intelligence: a Canadian story

Today's AI is built on deep learning, a method of training large networks of artificial "neurons." Canadian researchers played a leading role:

  • Geoffrey Hinton (University of Toronto) shared the 2018 Turing Award (often called the Nobel Prize of computing) with Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal) and Yann LeCun, and shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics.
  • In 2017, Canada launched one of the world's first national AI strategies, supporting institutes in Toronto, Montreal and Edmonton.
  • Since late 2022, generative AI tools that write text and make images have spread rapidly. Both Hinton and Bengio have warned publicly about the risks of powerful AI, from misinformation to loss of human control, and have called for safety rules.

AI shows a pattern seen throughout this lesson: a technology can bring large benefits and serious risks at the same time.

Weighing the smartphone and the internetBenefitsinstant communicationinformation and learningonline shopping and jobsconnecting remote communitiesCosts and risksprivacy and data collectionmisinformationonline hate and bullyinge-waste and energy use
Historians assess technology by weighing benefits against costs, and by asking who gains and who loses. The scale is drawn level on purpose: you decide which way it tips, using evidence.
Worked example

Let's judge significance with evidence (A1.6)

Which was more significant for Canadians: the smartphone or mRNA vaccines? Make a judgement using criteria.

  1. Choose criteria: How many people were affected? How deeply did it change their lives? How long-lasting is the change? Were the effects different for different groups?
  2. Smartphone: used by the great majority of Canadians; changed communication, work, shopping, news and relationships; effects are ongoing. Costs include privacy, misinformation and impacts on attention and well-being. Some rural, remote and northern communities still have weaker access (the digital divide).
  3. mRNA vaccines: tens of millions of doses given in Canada during COVID-19; they helped reduce severe illness and allowed restrictions to end. The effect was deep but concentrated in a crisis period; the technology may be used for other diseases in the future.
  4. Synthesize: The smartphone affected more parts of daily life over a longer period; the vaccines had a more life-or-death effect over a shorter period.
  5. Conclude: A reasonable judgement: the smartphone was more significant for everyday life, while mRNA vaccines were more significant for health in an emergency. Say which criterion you weigh most heavily.

There is no single correct answer. A strong answer uses clear criteria, evidence for both sides, consideration of different groups, and a clearly stated conclusion.

Hands-on activity

Technology time capsule

You need: an adult who was a teenager before 2000, and any old technology in your home (an old phone, a CD, a DVD, a video game cartridge, a printed map or phone book).

  1. Ask the adult how they did these things when they were your age: listen to music, contact a friend, find directions, do research for school, buy something from far away.
  2. Make a two-column chart: Then and Now.
  3. For one row, write what was gained and what was lost with the change.
  4. Bonus: hold an old object and a modern one side by side and describe how their design shows what people valued.

Look for: specific details from the interview, at least one gain and one loss, and the word significance used correctly.

Just for fun

Why did the smartphone need glasses?

It lost all its contacts.

Your turn

1

What Canadian company created the BlackBerry, and where was it based?

2

Who was the first Canadian in space, and when?

3

Who was the first Canadian woman in space?

4

What did Jeremy Hansen do in April 2026?

5

Name two Canadian researchers who were leaders in deep learning.

6

Name one benefit and one cost of oil sands technology such as SAGD.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is Canadarm2?

2

In what year did Ontario finish phasing out coal-fired electricity?

3

Where is Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory?

4

What is the "digital divide"?

5

Which Ottawa company became a major e-commerce business?

More practice: on your own

1

Explain why BlackBerry is an example of both innovation and disruption.

2

What was the significance of the Krever Inquiry?

3

Why have Hinton and Bengio warned about AI?

4

Why might the significance of the internet be different for someone in a remote northern community than for someone in Toronto?

5

Give one argument for and one against genetically modified crops.

Challenge

1

Which development since 1982 has been most significant for Canadians: the internet, mRNA vaccines, oil sands technology or artificial intelligence? Defend your choice with criteria.

2

Explain how one technology in this lesson had unintended consequences.

3

Predict (A1.6): how might AI change Canadian society by 2040? Give one possible benefit, one possible risk and one piece of evidence from today that supports your prediction.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which Canadian became the first to travel around the Moon in 2026?

2.

The BlackBerry was developed by a company based in...

3.

Which technology made it possible to extract deep oil sands bitumen?

4.

Geoffrey Hinton is known for his work on...

5.

What does "digital divide" mean?

6.

The Krever Inquiry (1997) investigated...

For parents and teachers

Big idea: E1.2 asks students to identify major developments in science and technology since 1982 and assess their significance. This lesson uses the worked example to practise A1.6 (synthesizing findings to make a judgement) and A1.5 (historical significance).

Common difficulties:

  • Listing inventions without assessing them. Push for "so what?" and "for whom?"
  • Assuming every new technology is purely good (or purely bad). Use the balance-scale diagram.
  • Attributing everything to Canada. The web was invented in Europe and the iPhone in the U.S.; this lesson highlights Canadian contributions without overstating them.

How to help: The "time capsule" interview is fun for both generations. Ask your teen to explain to you what generative AI is and one risk experts have raised.