Ronald J. Deibert's Massey Lectures on technology, Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society, are among the five books shortlisted for the 2021 Donner Prize.

The $50,000 award, founded in 1998, recognizes the best public policy book by a Canadian.

Deibert is a technology and security expert. He is the founder and director of Citizen Lab, a research centre based at the University of Toronto, which studies technology, surveillance and censorship.

In Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society, Deibert argues that the internet, especially social media, has an increasingly toxic influence in every aspect of life. Drawing from his work as the director of Citizen Lab, which has made headlines for its cyber espionage research, Deibert explores the personal, social, political, economic and ecological implications of social media.

The Massey Lectures are broadcast on Ideas on CBC Radio every year, and the lectures are published as a book by House of Anansi Press. You can learn more about or listen to Deibert's Massey Lectures here.

The other four finalists cover topics such as policing, the opioid crisis, climate change and governance.

Criminologist Maurice Cusson is nominated for Sécurité, liberté et criminalité about issues in contemporary policing.

Simon Fraser University professor Mark Jaccard is nominated for Citizen's Guide to Climate Success: Overcoming Myths that Hinder Progress.

Ottawa addiction doctor Brodie Ramin earned a nod for The Age of Fentanyl: Ending the Opioid Epidemic.

University of Toronto philosophy professor Joseph Heath is nominated for The Machinery of Government: Public Administration and the Liberal State.

"After this past year, more Canadians than ever are paying very close attention to policy, and its implementation. Through the lens of the pandemic, people are assessing governments on their ability to serve and protect them efficiently and equitably," Gregory Belton, the chair of the Donner Canadian Foundation, said in a press statement.

"The books on this year's shortlist address key public concerns about how governments should go about: striking the balance between personal liberty and physical security, protecting civil society from the misuse of digital technologies, raising the administrative efficiency of liberal democracies, limiting climate change and managing the epidemic of drug addiction."

The winner will be announced on May 19, 2021.

The remaining shortlisted titles will receive $7,500 each.

Deibert announced on Twitter that he will be donating his prize money to make a scholarship for a BIPOC female student who takes his course at the University of Toronto. The scholarship winner will also earn an internship at Citizen Lab.

The jury is chaired by former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge. Also on the jury is Indigenous studies professor Dr. Mark S. Dockstator, economics professor Jean-Marie Dufour, corporate director Brenda Eaton, academic and politician Peter Nicholson, and health and public sector expert Glenda Yeates.

Other past winners include Donald J. Savoie for What Is Government Good At?, Doug Saunders for Arrival City and David E. Smith for The People's House of Commons.