Access and Privacy Online

Access and Privacy Online


How Canada’s Labour Traffickers Trap Workers

[Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and The Tyee.] Choori Mohamed came to Canada with a dream of finding a job, getting permanent residency and eventually helping his wife and two children emigrate from his home in India. Instead, he said, he went into debt paying $10,000 to secure […]

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Search Alberta oil and gas company municipal tax arrears

The IJF has identified nearly 600 Alberta companies responsible for millions of dollars of municipal tax arrears and unpaid leases to landowners. Unpaid oil and gas property taxes have created an increasingly large burden for local governments in Alberta. Rural municipalities reported companies owed $81 million in cumulative tax arrears in 2018. As of the […]

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France dumps Zoom and Teams as Europe seeks digital autonomy from the US

LONDON (AP) — In France, civil servants will ditch Zoom and Teams for a homegrown video conference system. Soldiers in Austria are using open source office software to write reports after the military dropped Microsoft Office. Bureaucrats in a German state have also turned to free software for their administrative work. Around Europe, governments and […]

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Paris prosecutors raid X offices as part of investigation into child abuse images and deepfakes

PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors raided the offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a preliminary investigation into allegations including spreading child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. They have also summoned billionaire owner Elon Musk for questioning. X and Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI also face intensifying scrutiny from Britain’s data […]

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Calgary schools approve use of heavily vetted AI tools for learning

Though many AI tools have been approved for use in Calgary’s schools, robots won’t be teaching the city’s students. Both the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) and Calgary Catholic School District (CCSD), have approved the use of AI tools for teachers, citing the technology’s ability to rapidly personalize texts and create engaging lessons. In a […]

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Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS raises conflict of interest concerns

WASHINGTON (AP) — Legal experts say President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax information raises a plethora of legal and ethical questions, including the propriety of the leader of the executive branch pursuing scorched-earth litigation against the very government he is in charge of. The lawsuit, filed […]

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Police say New Brunswick seniors home has more than a dozen victims of sex offences

Police in southern New Brunswick are investigating allegations that at least 12 residents of a seniors complex in Saint John were victims of what investigators have described as sexual offences. The Saint John Police Force confirmed Friday that no arrests have been made. But Staff Sgt. Shawna Fowler said in a statement that police have […]

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A.A. Wright Public School Champions Inclusion Through Student-Led Braille Club

When most Grade 5 students spend their lunch hour playing games or chatting with friends, Legacie Shipman-Rogers is doing something extraordinary: teaching her peers to read and write Braille. At A.A. Wright Public School in Wallaceburg, the weekly Braille Club has become far more than an extracurricular activity. It’s a vibrant celebration of inclusion, led […]

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20260131 Access and Privacy Online

Your Access and Privacy Online News Summary for Saturday, January 31st. This week, artificial intelligence is colliding with privacy, democracy, and public trust — from Google’s move to fold personal data directly into AI-powered search, to renewed federal plans for an online harms bill that could reshape how Canadians — especially children — experience the […]

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DHS ramps up surveillance in immigration raids, sweeping in citizens

Luis Martinez was on his way to work on a frigid Minneapolis morning when federal agents suddenly boxed him in, forcing the SUV he was driving to a dead stop in the middle of the street. Masked agents rapped on the window, demanding Martinez produce his ID. Then one held his cellphone inches from Martinez’s […]

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‘I Can’t Tell You’: Attorneys, Relatives Struggle To Find Hospitalized ICE Detainees

Lydia Romero strained to hear her husband’s feeble voice through the phone. A week earlier, immigration agents had grabbed Julio César Peña from his front yard in Glendale, California. Now, he was in a hospital after suffering a ministroke. He was shackled to the bed by his hand and foot, he told Romero, and agents […]

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Liberia’s largest gold miner repeatedly spilled dangerous chemicals, records show

JIKANDOR, Liberia (AP) — For generations, families in Jikandor village fished and drank from the river that runs through Liberia ’s dense rain forest. Now toxic pollution is making them leave. They blame the largest gold miner in Liberia, Bea Mountain Mining Corporation. When dead fish float to the surface, they said, they know to […]

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