A new Quebec law came into effect Sunday aimed at protecting consumers against products intentionally designed with shorter lifespans while ensuring they have the information needed to repair and maintain goods they buy. Quebec’s so-called “right-to-repair” law, part of the province’s amendments to its consumer protection law, will require retailers and manufacturers to disclose whether […]

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, October 4th.   It’s another big week on the privacy and access front. Nova Scotia has introduced new legislation that its commissioner warns may actually weaken transparency. We’ll follow that with access stories from across Canada, many powered by the Local Journalism Initiative.  On the privacy side, […]

Long considered the Bermuda Triangle of the internet, Elmvale Community Arena is on its way to becoming a high-powered hub for all things wired. In fact, by around this time next week, it should be ready to go, just in time for the Elmvale Fall Fair, allowing participants, visitors and vendors the ability to post […]

Calvin Kendall left provincial traffic court Thursday with a “$0 fine” and a written warning. “I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid,” the 69-year-old said in a waiting room at 373 Broadway hours earlier while sorting through a USB stick of photo evidence and other items as he prepared to fight a $272 speed-camera […]

Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative government pushed through its remaining pieces of legislation on Friday, wrapping up an eight-day sitting that opposition parties say was purposefully kept short to stifle dissent.  The sitting was dominated by a controversial bill, introduced on the first day, that prohibits protesters from blocking access to logging roads on Crown land, […]

A national spy watchdog has found “a lack of rigour” in the way the Canada Revenue Agency selects charities for audits over terrorism concerns, saying the process introduces risks of bias and discrimination. In a newly released report, the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency says the Review and Analysis Division of the CRA’s charities […]

The lawyer for a man accused of accessing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s banking data says he is still awaiting some information from the Crown in the case. Ron Guertin, counsel for former Royal Bank of Canada employee Ibrahim El-Hakim, told an Ontario court Wednesday the matter is “rather involved” and he expects disclosure of more […]

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Confusion surrounds the state of internet connectivity in Afghanistan, after some networks were apparently restored on Wednesday following an outage that began Monday. The Associated Press earlier reported what claimed to be a Taliban statement denying reports that the blackout was a deliberate move and saying old fiber optic cables are worn […]

The Local Governance Commission in New Brunswick is recommending the provincial government implement mandatory training for municipal leaders and senior staff.  In its first report since being created in the spring of last year, it said this recommendation addressed many of the challenges facing local governments since reform.  “These recommendations are grounded in the experiences […]

SLAMABAD (AP) — The United Nations mission in Afghanistan urged the Taliban on Tuesday to restore internet and telecommunications access across the country, saying the blackout imposed by the government in Kabul has left the nation almost entirely cut off from the outside world. The outage, reported Monday, was the first nationwide shutdown since the […]

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A firearms industry trade and lobbying organization secretly built a database containing the personal information of millions of gun owners and used the data to reach gun rights supporters with political ads dating back to the 2000 elections, according to a new lawsuit. The suit against the National Shooting Sports Foundation, […]

After weeks of scraping by to feed her six children in Gaza, the 38-year-old woman thought she’d found a lifeline. At a shelter, a friend told her about a man who could help with food, aid, maybe even a job. The woman — separated from her husband, and forced to shutter the business that once […]