The digital divide has reached emergency status, experts say

Author Brennan Doherty
Unequal access to the internet is a huge issue for many communities across the country โ€“ and the COVID-19 pandemic is only making it worse.

Why It Matters

The COVID-19 pandemic is requiring many essential services, from healthcare to education, to shift online. When communities donโ€™t have equal internet access, they are effectively cut off. Digital inequity is a long-standing issue, but experts say itโ€™s now an emergency.

var TRINITY_TTS_WP_CONFIG = {"cleanText":"The digital divide has reached emergency status, experts say. A year ago, Canada\u2019s digital divide lingered well below the radar of many charitable organizations and funders. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought it into sharp relief. Communities with little to no reliable internet or broadband access are effectively cut off from many of Canada\u2019s workarounds to physical gatherings: essential services, online learning, and telehealth systems. Much of this digital divide is between rural and remote communities and affluent urban neighbourhoods. Sometimes, conventional internet services are unaffordable for low-income residents. And in other cases, especially with Indigenous communities, there simply is no internet access to be had at any price. The effects

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