BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
-
‘Unquestionably in violation’: Judge says US government didn’t follow court order on deportations
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimes but refused to reveal where they would end…
-
This US Snitch Line Reports Canadians Providing Gender-Affirming Care
The U.S. government is collecting data on health-care workers providing gender-affirming care in Canada. In mid-April the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a “snitch line” website where anyone could report health-care workers in Canada or the United States performing “chemical and surgical mutilations of children,” which is how the current administration describes…
-
Federal judge blocks Trump’s firing of two Democratic members of privacy oversight board
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump’s firing of two Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The ruling Wednesday from U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ends the lawsuit brought by two of the three fired board members in February. The five-member board is an independent watchdog…
-
South Dakota’s Noem says cell phone number hacked
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Monday that her personal cell phone number has been hacked and blamed it on the release of her Social Security number amid hundreds of documents that the House Jan. 6 committee released last year. The Republican governor, who is weighing a 2024 White House bid,…
-
Washington county mistakenly releases 460,000 partial SSNs
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A county in Washington inadvertently released nearly half a million partial Social Security Numbers when responding to a routine public records request in December, according to county officials. The Pierce County Auditor’s Office, which mistakenly released the sensitive data, said in a news release that the human error was quickly spotted…
-
J&J subsidiary to pay $9.75M to resolve kickback allegations
BOSTON (AP) — A subsidiary of health care company Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle allegations that it violated federal and state law by providing free products to a surgeon to induce him to use its products in procedures, prosecutors said Friday. Under the settlement with DePuy Synthes, the…
-
SUPREME COURT NOTEBOOK: Justices yet to decide any cases
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has never been so slow. For the first time, the justices have gone more than three months without resolving any cases in which they heard arguments, since their term began in early October. By this point, they always had decided at least one case, and usually a handful, according…
-
Critics pan government plaque praising Canada’s evacuation efforts in Afghanistan
OTTAWA — Global Affairs Canada plans to install a plaque commemorating Canada’s evacuation of Afghans and embassy staff when its capital Kabul fell to the Taliban, but critics argue that sends the wrong message. The plaque carried a $10,000 price tag and was approved in a July 2022 memorandum that The Canadian Press obtained through an access-to-information request. It…
-
Turkey says Swedish decision not to probe protest ‘absurd’
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Tuesday denounced as “absurd” a decision by a Swedish prosecutor not to open an investigation into a protest by Kurds in central Stockholm where an effigy of the Turkish president was hung from a lamppost. Last week’s protest outside Stockholm City Hall drew an angry backlash from Turkey, a…
-
Nova Scotia opposition wants more accountability on ‘frightening’ ER problems
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s opposition parties pushed Monday for more public accountability from the government over the province’s struggling hospital emergency departments. NDP Leader Claudia Chender called for Health Minister Michelle Thompson and provincial health authority CEO Karen Oldfield to appear before the legislature’s health committee on Thursday — a request that was later turned…
-
Government officials estimate Ontario could be short 8,500 early childhood educators
TORONTO — Ontario could be short 8,500 registered early childhood educators as the province adds tens of thousands more child-care spaces under the national $10-a-day program, the government estimates. The province is set to hold consultation sessions with people in the child-care sector starting next week. In slide decks obtained by The Canadian Press, officials say about…