Access and Privacy Online

Access and Privacy Online


Alberta used lists of America’s most banned books and a controversial database to identify ‘inappropriate’ material in schools

Internal emails throw light on the sources used by Government of Alberta staff to search for “inappropriate” materials in school libraries, including an index of America’s most banned books and a website linked to the rise in attempts to ban books in the U.S. Alberta’s Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides announced in May the […]

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UK arrests four people over cyber attacks on Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods

LONDON (AP) — Four people alleged to be part of an organized crime ring were arrested Thursday for damaging cyber attacks that hit British retailers Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods, the National Crime Agency said. The unnamed suspects were identified as British males aged 17 and 19, a 20-year-old British woman and a 19-year-old […]

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North Carolina governor vetoes another set of bills, including one on guns in private schools

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Josh Stein cleared his desk Wednesday of the deluge of bills passed to him from the North Carolina General Assembly last month, three of which he vetoed. Stein topped off his veto total at 14 for this year’s legislative session. One of the vetoes prolongs the extensive battle between […]

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A ‘click-to-cancel’ rule, intended to make canceling subscriptions easier, is blocked

A “click-to-cancel” rule, which would have required businesses to make it easy for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions and memberships, has been blocked by a federal appeals court just days before it was set to go into effect. The Federal Trade Commission’s proposed changes, adopted in October, required businesses to obtain a customer’s consent before […]

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Salmon group says aquaculture companies stashing garbage along Newfoundland coast

An eastern Canadian conservation group is calling for a moratorium on aquaculture expansion in Newfoundland and Labrador, alleging fish-farming companies are stashing plastic garbage along the province’s remote southern coastline. In a report summary released Tuesday, the Atlantic Salmon Federation said satellite images suggest aquaculture companies appear to have left broken cages, rope and other […]

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NDP government spent $94,000 promoting school nutrition program expansion

The Kinew government spent more money promoting its universal school meal program this year than it did feeding students in some small divisions. At the start of the 2024-25 school year, the province spent $94,617.50 on advertisements related to the expansion of breakfast, lunch and snack offerings in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings. The campaign — details […]

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Oil giant broke deal to deactivate thousands of pipelines and faced no penalty, documents reveal

This investigation is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Investigative Journalism Foundation. One of Canada’s largest oil and gas companies violated a deal it struck with B.C.’s energy regulator to address thousands of inactive pipelines in the province — and faced no financial penalties for doing so.  Internal government documents obtained by The Narwhal […]

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20250705 Access and Privacy Online

This is your Access and Privacy News Summary for Saturday, July 5th.   While there are national holidays in Canada and south of the border this past week, there’s still lots to consider in the news. We’ll start with a few Canadian stories intersecting privacy including an Ontario data breach, the Government of the Northwest Territories making […]

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Former University of Winnipeg regent who quit in protest cited governance concerns

Twelve days after a University of Winnipeg board member resigned in protest over governance concerns at the cash-strapped campus, his ex-colleagues approved a balanced budget that rests on continued austerity measures. The board of regents — a group of appointees who are alumni, administrators and public representatives, among others, and in charge of policy making […]

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Daily contact, a Ford phone call: docs reveal Ontario government’s close relationship with Enbridge

In early October 2023, a senior bureaucrat in the Ontario Energy Ministry emailed an Enbridge official with a “sort of urgent” request.  Newly released internal documents show that Premier Doug Ford had called the natural gas giant that month to discuss delays in obtaining a natural gas connection for a facility whose name is redacted […]

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Why did this Ontario school board go from highest to zero student exclusions?

A student elopes from school. A meltdown grows violent. Toileting has become completely out of control. These are the type of incidents that could cause a kid to be excluded from school while a safety plan is put into place, Kate Dudley-Logue told The Spectator. As operations vice-president of the Ontario Autism Coalition (OAC), Dudley-Logue […]

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Quebec language watchdog now says it’s OK to use ‘go’ to support sports teams

Quebec’s language watchdog has changed its tune on whether it’s acceptable to use the word “go” to cheer on sports teams. In a new guideline posted in its online dictionary, the Office québécois de la langue française says that while “allez” is the preferred term, it’s now “partially legitimized” to use the English word to […]

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