Access to Information

Topic: Access to Information


North Korean defectors urge the UN to hold the country’s leader accountable for rights abuses

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Eunju Kim, who escaped starvation in North Korea in 1999, was sent back from China and fled a second time, told the United Nations on Tuesday that the country’s leader must be held accountable for gross human rights violations. Gyuri Kang, whose family faced persecution for her grandmother’s religious beliefs, fled […]

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Despite data that show they’re safe, residents of Oakville neighbourhood torn between facts and feeling

Late last year, Mario Zelaya never expected his TikTok post would stir such emotion across an upscale east-end Oakville neighbourhood. Nor did he anticipate being targeted by the town’s mayor. It has been seven months since that initial post, when Zelaya detailed what he believes to be a serious public health threat linked to decades […]

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Eco-friendly transportation a condition of planned Ottawa Senators arena: agreement

Public transit, cycling and walking will be the “primary and preferred modes” of getting fans to and from the Ottawa Senators’ planned downtown arena, says a newly disclosed agreement on the project. Under the agreement, a group led by the NHL team would be responsible for designing, building and paying for a publicly accessible cycling […]

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The future of history: Trump could leave less documentation behind than any previous US president

WASHINGTON (AP) — For generations, official American documents have been meticulously preserved and protected, from the era of quills and parchment to boxes of paper to the cloud, safeguarding snapshots of the government and the nation for posterity. Now, the Trump administration is scrubbing thousands of government websites of history, legal records and data it […]

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Ontario boosts autism budget to $779M, advocates question where money is going

Ontario is increasing funding for its autism program to $779 million this year, the government announced in this week’s budget, but advocates say it’s not yet clear exactly where that money will go. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s budget, tabled Thursday, contains two lines on the Ontario Autism Program, including touting the new funding. Children, Community […]

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Wife of Quesnel mayor claims defamation in lawsuit against city councillor

The wife of Quesnel Mayor Ron Paull is suing a member of city council for defamation over the councillor’s reaction to a book that disputes the history of Canada’s residential schools. In a May 13-filed BC Supreme Court notice of civil claim, Pat Morton accuses Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenberg of conduct that was “not only defamatory, […]

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Court rules in favor of The New York Times over texts between the EU chief and a pharma boss

BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European court ruled on Wednesday that the European Commission failed to provide a credible explanation for refusing The New York Times access to text messages sent between its President Ursula von der Leyen and a pharmaceutical boss during the COVID-19 pandemic. The case highlights questions about transparency at the commission, […]

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Alberta’s personal information protection law ruled partly unconstitutional

Parts of Alberta’s personal information protection legislation have been ruled unconstitutional. But a judge is upholding an order to stop an American facial recognition company from collecting images of Albertans. The company, Clearview AI, scrapes the internet for images of people and adds them to a database, which it markets to law enforcement agencies as […]

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‘Beacon of freedom’ dims as US initiatives that promote democracy abroad wither under Trump

CHICAGO (AP) — Growing up in the former Soviet Union, Pedro Spivakovsky-Gonzalez’s father and grandparents would listen to Voice of America with their ears pressed to the radio, trying to catch words through the government’s radio jamming. The U.S.-funded news service was instrumental in helping them understand what was happening on the other side of […]

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Authorities arrest over 100 people on Tennessee roads in support of Trump’s deportation plan

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — More than 100 people have been taken into custody by federal immigration officials in a joint operation with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, leaving many in Nashville’s immigrant community uncertain and worried. “None of us have ever seen anything like this,” Lisa Sherman Luna, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee […]

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Ottawa looks to off-load costly, seldom-used mobile hospitals bought for the pandemic

The federal government expects to spend about $7 million this fiscal year to store and maintain four custom-made, portable hospitals that cost taxpayers more than $200 million to buy — facilities meant to bolster overwhelmed hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic that were barely used. Early on in the pandemic, as the federal government moved at […]

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Mayor Lovatt Urges Province to Support Growing Towns Like Stouffville in 2025 Budget

● Mayor Lovatt has submitted a formal pre-budget request to Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy laying out Town priorities in need of greater Provincial support. ● He warned of a growing infrastructure gap, exacerbated by rising costs and a lack of sustainable funding for small but fast-growing towns like Stouffville. ● Lovatt noted the potential […]

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