WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are accusing big tax preparation firms including Intuit and H&R Block of undermining the federal government’s upcoming electronic free file tax return system and are demanding lobbying, hiring and revenue data to determine what’s going on. The lawmakers accuse the companies of lobbying against the new program, hiring former government […]

LONDON (AP) — Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe must comply with one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people see online. The European Union’s groundbreaking new digital rules took effect Friday for the biggest platforms. The Digital Services Act is part of a suite of tech-focused […]

OTTAWA — Canada’s corporate-ethics watchdog is investigating if Walmart, Hugo Boss and Diesel have forced labour in their supply chains. Sheri Meyerhoffer, the Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, issued three reports today saying none of the companies have done enough to demonstrate the products they sell in Canada are free of slave labour. The Canadian subsidiaries […]

New Brunswick’s education minister has announced small changes to the school gender policy that’s created a storm of controversy. Bill Hogan told reporters outside a rural school in Keswick Ridge on Wednesday that his Progressive Conservative government was making tweaks to Policy 713, which addresses gender identity, less than two weeks before school starts. Those […]

NIAGARA FALLS, Ont. — At Marineland, the Ontario theme park subject to a long running animal welfare investigation, 14 whales and one dolphin have died since 2019, The Canadian Press has learned. Details about the deaths at the tourist attraction in Niagara Falls, Ont., are contained in a list created by the Ministry of the […]

OTTAWA — The federal privacy watchdog and some of his global counterparts are urging the largest social media companies to prevent bulk extraction of personal details from their websites. In a joint statement, privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne and data protection authorities from Australia, Britain and other countries say the practice, known as data scraping, poses […]

OTTAWA — Canada has been pondering a new way to settle First Nation land claims, newly released internal documents show. In briefing materials prepared for the deputy minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, the federal government also acknowledged issues with the current specific claims process. Specific claims deal with past wrongs against First […]

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s newly all-male Supreme Court reversed course on abortion Wednesday, upholding a law banning most such procedures except in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The continued erosion of legal abortion access across the U.S. South comes after Republican state lawmakers replaced the lone woman on the court, Justice Kaye Hearn, […]

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Top administrators at New Mexico State University wanted to find just the right wording to announce that they were pulling the plug on the men’s basketball season following reports of alleged hazing involving team members. It was a busy afternoon in February — Super Bowl Sunday, in fact — as university […]

MARION, Kan. (AP) — The initial online search of a state website that led a central Kansas police chief to raid a local weekly newspaper was legal, a spokesperson for the agency that maintains the site said Monday, as newly released video showed the publisher’s 98-year-old mother protesting a search of their home. The raids […]

Huntsville resident Steve Kubay has developed a taste for drones in recent months. He usually takes his drone to appropriate locations to take photos or record videos of the Muskoka landscape. Despite the pleasant experience, Kubay says drone operation requires responsibility and knowledge on the matter. “A drone, it’s an aircraft in Canada, and I […]

The federal government has delayed implementing energy-efficiency regulations for major home appliances in order to align with new stringent standards announced by the U.S. Department of Energy. A briefing note obtained by Canada’s National Observer through a federal access-to-information request reveals how Natural Resources Canada is adapting to the U.S.’s new plan to increase energy-efficiency […]