Meet Derek Donovan, The Star’s columnist exploring how public policy affects you

I’m The Star’s deputy opinion editor. I have several roles, including contributing to editorials, writing my own columns and editing the hundreds of guest commentaries and letters to the editor that we publish every year.

I especially like working with contributors from outside The Star because they bring unique, informed takes on subjects many of us know little about. I’ve been at The Star since 1995, and I was previously the paper’s longtime public editor, conveying readers’ concerns to the newsroom and directing our social media accounts.

Lately, I’m focusing a lot on technology — especially how artificial intelligence and the rise of surveillance devices such as doorbell cameras — intersects with governing and policing. I consider myself an urbanist, and I like to introduce our audience to progress that has made other cities better to live in, and think about how we might adopt that progress here.

I also believe we need to look critically at animal welfare and food sustainability, and how we can improve them going forward. As an on-again, off-again vegetarian and vegan, I’ve long struggled with the ethics of how humans treat all the other creatures on Earth, despite the evolutionary realities. I like challenging others — and myself — to think about what we want versus what we need, and what’s best for our collective future.

My years at The Star have been ever-changing work, and I’ve (almost always) enjoyed the endless conversations with readers. People who follow the news from outlets that do their best to tell the whole, unvarnished truth are the backbone of a civil society. The bad guys trying to fool us all with phony pictures and twisted facts have been racking up some wins lately. My conversations with our readers give me some hope we’ll find our way back to reality.