BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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Customers react negatively to N.S. utility asking customers to conserve energy
A request from Nova Scotia’s power utility to conserve energy is being met with less than favourable reactions online. Nova Scotia Power posted on social media several times over the weekend, asking customers to conserve energy as extremely cold temperatures hit the province. In response, comments and reactions to the request did not hold back. …
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Portage la Prairie school touts effectiveness of anonymous tipline
School leaders in Portage la Prairie are recommending the wider use of anonymous tiplines to monitor safety issues and other pressing concerns among students in Manitoba. A recent government-mandated review of safety protocols in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 schools has renewed one rural division’s support for its online reporting system. For the better part of the last…
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Chinese asylum seeker who exposed rights abuses fights to stay in the US
WASHINGTON (AP) — Guan Heng, who exposed human rights abuses in his native China, has been in U.S. custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August. He says he dares not even think about what would happen to him if he were sent back. “I would be prosecuted, I would be…
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Springwater mayor calls Cabral’s boundary map questions ‘a personal attack’
Springwater Deputy Mayor George Cabral has a handful of questions he’d like answered regarding the City of Barrie’s boundary expansion proposal. In an effort to provide clarity and transparency to Springwater residents, Cabral put forth a notice of motion at Wednesday’s council meeting that would have the township’s information technology (IT) staff perform an exhaustive…
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Trump administration asks Supreme Court to let him fire member of Federal Trade Commission
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to let the president fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, the latest in a string of emergency appeals over the president’s removal power. President Donald Trump moved to fire Rebecca Slaughter in the spring, but lower courts ordered her reinstated because…
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Ontario doctor fined for breaking privacy rules to offer circumcision services
Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner has ordered a Windsor doctor and his private clinic to pay thousands of dollars in fines for privacy breaches in a case she calls a “cautionary tale” for other health startups. Commissioner Patricia Kosseim wrote in a recent decision that a doctor with privileges at Windsor Regional Hospital used his…
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Integrity commissioner’s office struggling to keep up with complaints, disclosures
The office of the public sector integrity commissioner says it’s being overwhelmed by its workload and that eliminating the backlog of files would require more analysts and lawyers. The office investigates whistle-blowing complaints from public servants who believe they have evidence of wrongdoing in the public service as well as complaints from public servants that…
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Ottawa vows to help Afghans hit by deadly earthquake as groups call out aid rest
Ottawa says it’s ready to help Afghans in the wake of Sunday’s deadly earthquake — even as one organization warns that the federal Liberals have made it harder to reach those living under Taliban rule. “Canada stands ready to support the Afghan people, with our humanitarian partners,” Canada’s Secretary of State for International Development Randeep…
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House committee releases some Justice Department files in Epstein case, but most already public
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, responding to mounting pressure in Congress to force more disclosure in the case. Still, the files mostly contain information that was…
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Disney to pay $10 million fine after FTC says it allowed data collection on kids
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. will pay a $10 million fine to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit alleging it allowed personal data to be collected on kids under 13, violating federal law. The FTC said Tuesday Disney violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, which requires kid-oriented apps and websites…
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What to know about Guatemalan migrant children and efforts to send them home
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over Labor Day weekend, the Trump administration attempted to remove Guatemalan children who had come to the U.S. alone and were living in shelters or with foster care families in the U.S. Advocates who represent migrant children in court filed lawsuits across the country seeking to stop the government from removing the…