BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
Your Data Your Rights
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Supreme Court blocks law against schools outing transgender students to their parents in California
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for California schools to tell parents if their children identify as transgender without getting the student’s approval, granting an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group. The order blocks for now a state law that bans automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns…
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Police campaign for scam literacy during fraud prevention month
March is Fraud Prevention Month in Canada, and the Manitoba RCMP and Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) are ramping up their efforts to spread awareness to help keep people safe. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Manitobans lost approximately $31 million dollars to scammers in 2024, based on the number of scams that were reported. Considering…
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Worms in food, poor medical care, lights on 24/7: Families tell of life in Texas detention center
LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A month after ICE agents sent the young Ecuadorian mother and her 7-year-old daughter to a sprawling detention center 1,300 miles from their Minnesota home, they were finally free. But when the bus pulled up to a migrant shelter in the border city of Laredo, dropping off a half-dozen families lugging…
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Company lobbying Alberta on AI integration in digital IDs and traffic lights
From cryptocurrency markets to digital ID to AI controlled traffic lights, a little-known company is lobbying the Alberta government on a host of policies. Bryan Burns, CoinCorp Corporation’s director, registered as a lobbyist for the company in Alberta on Nov. 17. The lobbying filing shows CoinCorp plans to communicate with the government about incorporating AI…
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Premier blasts N.S. Power’s cyberattack response, weighs fine for utility
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says he is disappointed with how the privately owned provincial utility responded to a cyberattack earlier this year. The cyberattack struck Nova Scotia Power last April, disrupting some systems at the utility and prompting complaints from a number of customers about who had gained access to their personal information. Houston…
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Almost all Manitoba RCMP officers now have body cameras: Mounties
Almost all front-line RCMP officers in Manitoba — about 98 per cent — are now equipped with body cameras as part of a program launched over a year ago, the police force said Thursday. Some 175,000 videos, audio statements, documents and other pieces of evidence have been captured by the cameras, and footage related to…
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Alberta gets its way in deal with Ottawa
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has long demanded the federal government roll back climate policies, further support its highly polluting fossil fuel sector, and threatened a constitutional unity crisis if she doesn’t get her way. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mark Carney blinked. The two leaders signed a memorandum of understanding that immediately exempts Alberta from clean…
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University of Winnipeg hunts for new leader after president removed
The University of Winnipeg has begun the search for a new leader after terminating its president. The board of regents, the governing body in charge of operations at U of W, removed Todd Mondor following a meeting Monday night. Mondor began what was supposed to be a five-year term on April 1, 2022. “In the…
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LRSD reviews policies as archived data accessed in PowerSchool breach
Livingstone Range School Division says student and staff information stored on an old PowerSchool server was accessed in last winter’s cybersecurity breach. The revelation comes as Alberta’s privacy commissioner concludes school authorities across the province failed to meet required security standards. Jeff Perry, associate superintendent of business services at LRSD, confirmed that archived records covering…
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Maya, 17, got mental health records by FOI, then killed herself. Her mom wants reform
Maya Cassady was just two months away from graduating high school with honours when she obtained her mental health records through a freedom of information request. Just hours after reading the contents, which included doctors’ ponderings about a diagnosis, the 17-year-old took her own life. It was March 30, 2023. Since Maya’s death, her mother,…
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Concerns raised about AI-powered toys and creativity, development as holiday shopping peaks
As parents hunt for gifts that will wow their kids this holiday season, Canadian child development and psychology experts say they should be wary of AI-powered toys because of possible harms, ranging from privacy and security violations to interference with children’s creativity and development. “Early childhood is a time where the developing brain is a…