BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
20260115 Access and Privacy Online
This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for January 15th, our first of 2026.
After the holiday break, there’s a lot to catch up on. Across Canada and internationally, we’re seeing familiar themes re-emerge: data breaches with unresolved accountability, governments struggling to balance security, privacy, and transparency, and growing pressure to define how artificial intelligence is governed, or not governed, in practice.
We’ll start in Nova Scotia, where the fallout from a major data breach is colliding with electricity rate hikes and renewed debate over access-to-information law. Then we’ll move through Canadian privacy and access stories shaped by FOI requests, before turning to international developments involving Big Tech, AI misuse, and whistleblower protections.
A quick reminder: Bill C-4 is moving to second reading in the Senate. It’s not too late to contact committee members or your Member of Parliament. We hope many of our listeners would agree, political parties shouldn’t be allowed to have the lowest privacy standards in the country.
Be sure to follow the links in the show notes to let them know.
Also available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, ListenNotes, Podchaser, Boomplay.
Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Send comments to: FIPAOnline @ fipa.bc.ca
You can support these efforts by subscribing or donating.
Full Show Links
FIPA Bill C-4
- UPDATED Call to Action
- FIPA Bill C-4 Part 4 Dashboard
- Bill C-4 Part 4 line-by-line and brief
Nova Scotia Special Report
- Nova Scotia Power wants to hike residential rates, premier says utility out of touch
- Infrastructure Under Attack: Cybersecurity Today
CDN Privacy Segment
- N.S. premier using false information as reason against updating privacy legislation
- Suspect in Desjardins data leak involving 9.7 million members arrested in Spain
- Amid merger, Grand Erie Public Health managed one of Ontario’s biggest measles outbreaks. Here’s how.
- More bad news following Oxford County cyber attack
- Woodstock Ingersoll Echo – https://www.granthaven.com/post/more-bad-news-following-oxford-county-cyber-attack-1
- In Rural Manitoba, Violence Often Happens Far From Help, This New Guide Aims to Change That
- Increasing AI use in Canadian courtrooms carries risk of errors, penalties: lawyers
- How Canadian agencies are embracing AI tools to defend national security
- Carney has sketched the broad strokes of an AI policy, but details remain vague
CDN Access Segment
- Province steps in as Gibbons council approves interim budget and borrowing plan amid financial crisis
- Irresponsible’: Disruption of crucial cancer scanner in Saskatchewan angers family
- Carlow Mayo Public Library gets new grant
- The Bancroft Times – https://www.bancroftthisweek.com/carlow-mayo-public-library-gets-new-grant/
- Beyond Italy: Brant Catholic school board travel expenses over the last three years
- Ontario looks to expand practical component of teacher education: minister
- Toronto—Quebec City high-speed rail could see dozens of daily trains: documents
- Village of Kaslo presents revised bylaw governing council meeting conduct
- Valley Voice – https://valleyvoice.ca/
- Province’s new tourism strategy light on new details about NOTL
- The Lake Report – https://lakereport.ca/
- County to Investigate Picton Terminals
- The Picton Gazette – https://www.pictongazette.ca/post/county-to-investigate-picton-terminals
- Climate change is multiplying the risks for Canada’s food safety agency
- Canada’s National Observer – https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/06/news/cfia-climate-change-risks-increasing
- Communication regulator considers changes to extend reach of national alerting system
- Caledon residents furious after FOI documents uncover gaps in Town record-keeping around opposition to mega-blasting quarry proposal
- Internal government records flag gaps in federal dam oversight
- Canada’s National Observer – https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/30/news/federal-hydro-dam-oversight-failures
International Big tech and Whistleblowers
- Musk’s AI chatbot faces global backlash over sexualized images of women and children
- At CES, auto and tech companies transform cars into proactive companions
- Big Tech’s fast-expanding plans for data centers are running into stiff community opposition
- Instacart ends a program where users could see different prices for the same item at the same store
- Japan’s nuclear watchdog halts plant’s reactor safety screening over falsified data
- Israel says it will halt operations of several humanitarian organizations in Gaza starting in 2026
- UK government acknowledges it is investigating cyber incident after media reports
- Italy antitrust agency fines Apple $116 million over privacy feature; Apple announces appeal
- Bolivia lifts restrictions on satellite companies like Starlink to upgrade its internet connectivity
US Hurricane
- Judge blocks Trump effort to strip security clearance from attorney who represented whistleblowers
- US removal of panels honoring Black soldiers at WWII cemetery in the Netherlands draws backlash
- At least 16 files have disappeared from the DOJ webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein
- After judge’s ruling, HHS authorized to resume sharing some Medicaid data with deportation officers
- Tina Peters asks Colorado appeals court to recognize Trump’s pardon, release her from prison
- DOJ sues Illinois’ governor over laws protecting immigrants at courthouses and hospitals
This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for January 15th, our first of 2026.
After the holiday break, there’s a lot to catch up on. Across Canada and internationally, we’re seeing familiar themes re-emerge: data breaches with unresolved accountability, governments struggling to balance security, privacy, and transparency, and growing pressure to define how artificial intelligence is governed, or not governed, in practice.
We’ll start in Nova Scotia, where the fallout from a major data breach is colliding with electricity rate hikes and renewed debate over access-to-information law. Then we’ll move through Canadian privacy and access stories shaped by FOI requests, before turning to international developments involving Big Tech, AI misuse, and whistleblower protections.
A quick reminder: Bill C-4 is moving to second reading in the Senate. It’s not too late to contact committee members or your Member of Parliament. We hope many of our listeners would agree, political parties shouldn’t be allowed to have the lowest privacy standards in the country.
Be sure to follow the links in the show notes to let them know.
Also available through: PodBean, Apple iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, PlayerFM, ListenNotes, Podchaser, Boomplay.
Writing: Shaun Fisk | Production: Patrick Farnsworth | Music: Breakmaster Cylinder
Send comments to: FIPAOnline @ fipa.bc.ca
You can support these efforts by subscribing or donating.
Full Show Links
FIPA Bill C-4
- UPDATED Call to Action
- FIPA Bill C-4 Part 4 Dashboard
- Bill C-4 Part 4 line-by-line and brief
Nova Scotia Special Report
- Nova Scotia Power wants to hike residential rates, premier says utility out of touch
- Infrastructure Under Attack: Cybersecurity Today
CDN Privacy Segment
- N.S. premier using false information as reason against updating privacy legislation
- Suspect in Desjardins data leak involving 9.7 million members arrested in Spain
- Amid merger, Grand Erie Public Health managed one of Ontario’s biggest measles outbreaks. Here’s how.
- More bad news following Oxford County cyber attack
- Woodstock Ingersoll Echo – https://www.granthaven.com/post/more-bad-news-following-oxford-county-cyber-attack-1
- In Rural Manitoba, Violence Often Happens Far From Help, This New Guide Aims to Change That
- Increasing AI use in Canadian courtrooms carries risk of errors, penalties: lawyers
- How Canadian agencies are embracing AI tools to defend national security
- Carney has sketched the broad strokes of an AI policy, but details remain vague
CDN Access Segment
- Province steps in as Gibbons council approves interim budget and borrowing plan amid financial crisis
- Irresponsible’: Disruption of crucial cancer scanner in Saskatchewan angers family
- Carlow Mayo Public Library gets new grant
- The Bancroft Times – https://www.bancroftthisweek.com/carlow-mayo-public-library-gets-new-grant/
- Beyond Italy: Brant Catholic school board travel expenses over the last three years
- Ontario looks to expand practical component of teacher education: minister
- Toronto—Quebec City high-speed rail could see dozens of daily trains: documents
- Village of Kaslo presents revised bylaw governing council meeting conduct
- Valley Voice – https://valleyvoice.ca/
- Province’s new tourism strategy light on new details about NOTL
- The Lake Report – https://lakereport.ca/
- County to Investigate Picton Terminals
- The Picton Gazette – https://www.pictongazette.ca/post/county-to-investigate-picton-terminals
- Climate change is multiplying the risks for Canada’s food safety agency
- Canada’s National Observer – https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/06/news/cfia-climate-change-risks-increasing
- Communication regulator considers changes to extend reach of national alerting system
- Caledon residents furious after FOI documents uncover gaps in Town record-keeping around opposition to mega-blasting quarry proposal
- Internal government records flag gaps in federal dam oversight
- Canada’s National Observer – https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/30/news/federal-hydro-dam-oversight-failures
International Big tech and Whistleblowers
- Musk’s AI chatbot faces global backlash over sexualized images of women and children
- At CES, auto and tech companies transform cars into proactive companions
- Big Tech’s fast-expanding plans for data centers are running into stiff community opposition
- Instacart ends a program where users could see different prices for the same item at the same store
- Japan’s nuclear watchdog halts plant’s reactor safety screening over falsified data
- Israel says it will halt operations of several humanitarian organizations in Gaza starting in 2026
- UK government acknowledges it is investigating cyber incident after media reports
- Italy antitrust agency fines Apple $116 million over privacy feature; Apple announces appeal
- Bolivia lifts restrictions on satellite companies like Starlink to upgrade its internet connectivity
US Hurricane
- Judge blocks Trump effort to strip security clearance from attorney who represented whistleblowers
- US removal of panels honoring Black soldiers at WWII cemetery in the Netherlands draws backlash
- At least 16 files have disappeared from the DOJ webpage for documents related to Jeffrey Epstein
- After judge’s ruling, HHS authorized to resume sharing some Medicaid data with deportation officers
- Tina Peters asks Colorado appeals court to recognize Trump’s pardon, release her from prison
- DOJ sues Illinois’ governor over laws protecting immigrants at courthouses and hospitals