Canadian Press

Source: Canadian Press


Manitoba’s promised plastic health cards pushed to January: premier

The Manitoba government’s plan to replace paper health cards with more durable and modern plastic ones is running a bit behind schedule. Premier Wab Kinew has said on a few occasions, including in a social media video last month, that people would be able to start applying for the new cards in December. He now […]

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Pointer investigation finds disturbing contamination at former St. Catharines GM site slated for homes: as much as 1,100 times above healthy limits

The former General Motors site on Ontario Street in St. Catharines slated for homes contained toxic chemicals at alarming levels, detected just two years before a developer purchased the former heavy-industrial property.  Despite efforts to find out what the condition of the site is, residents concerned about the potential presence of hazardous industrial waste where […]

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Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus

WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful government panel on Monday failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of a nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase U.S. Steel, leaving the decision to President Joe Biden, who opposes the deal. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, […]

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The internet is rife with fake reviews. Will AI make it worse?

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put merchants, service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say. Phony reviews have long plagued many popular consumer websites, such as Amazon and Yelp. They are typically traded […]

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RCMP informant’s decades of spying on social reformers are chronicled in new book

As a Communist Party member in Calgary in the early 1940s, Frank Hadesbeck performed clerical work at the party office, printed leaflets and sold books. But he also had tasks his party comrades could know nothing about: snooping on mail, copying phone numbers from scratch pads and rummaging through waste baskets. Hadesbeck, known to his […]

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Entrepreneur hopes to create a safe space in Inuvik

Inuvik resident Danita Frost-Arey says she wants to address the stigma of substance use by creating a safe space for residents through her business, Frost Studio Solutions. The newly launched company offers workshops and the likes of healing circles to promote harm reduction, as well as “system navigation and advocacy” for individuals. Prior to becoming […]

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Ex-employees kept network access in three gov’t departments: auditor

A report from Alberta’s Auditor General flags loose network controls in three Government of Alberta departments as potential risks for unauthorized access to government data and Albertans’ personal information. In its audit of the province’s consolidated financial statements, the auditor general made recommendations to the Ministries of Technology and Innovation, Children and Family Services (CFS), […]

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Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded […]

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Takeaways from The Associated Press’ reporting on prison labor in Alabama

DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — No state has a longer, more profit-driven history of contracting prisoners out to private companies than Alabama. With a sprawling labor system that dates back more than 150 years — including the brutal convict leasing era that replaced slavery — it has constructed a template for the commercialization of mass incarceration. […]

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Alabama profits off prisoners who work at McDonald’s but deems them too dangerous for parole

DADEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A storm was looming when the inmate serving 20 years for armed robbery was assigned to transport fellow prisoners to their jobs at private manufacturers supplying goods to companies like Home Depot and Wayfair. It didn’t matter that Jake Jones once had escaped or that he had failed two drug and […]

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Ontario proposes requiring health staffing agencies to disclose their rates

Ontario is proposing to increase transparency and accountability around health staffing agencies, as hospitals and long-term care homes spend about $1 billion a year to fill shifts with temporary workers at rates far higher than full-time staff are paid. It’s a positive — if small — step toward regulating or lowering the fees of agencies […]

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AgKnow funding turned down

A request for funding from AgKnow – the Alberta Farm Mental Health Network – was unanimously denied by the Municipal District of Willow Creek’s Agricultural Service Board (ASB). Meeting Nov. 27, the ASB turned down the request arguing it still didn’t understand AgKnow, despite previously asking them for supporting information on how it fits into […]

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