Alberta

Alberta


Smith’s adviser speaks about staffer at separatist meeting, Alberta voter list breach

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s chief of staff says a caucus staffer who attended a meeting about what was later found to be a massive data breach thought it was just about a new voter tool. Rob Anderson says in a social media post there’s no way the United Conservative Party caucus staffer could have known […]

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Alberta UCP staff attended meeting about voter database before app was shut down

Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party caucus says staff attended a separatist group’s virtual meeting about its website two weeks before the site became the focus of investigations into a massive breach of personal data. Caucus spokesperson Shanna Schulhauser said Tuesday that staff regularly attend meetings of political interest and were told the database was above […]

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Mark Carney calls alleged privacy breach in Alberta deeply concerning

An Edmonton city councillor says he and his team are helping a woman facing intimate partner violence relocate with her children after her address was leaked in an alleged privacy breach by a separatist group. Councillor Aaron Paquette, who represents the Dene ward in Edmonton’s northeast, says he is also hearing from others whose safety […]

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Alberta premier says law changes to be assessed after probes into voter list breach

Premier Danielle Smith says her government will look at new legislation depending on what comes out of investigations into claims a separatist group breached the personal information of nearly three million Albertans. Smith made the comment Friday as the provincial privacy watchdog called for broader reforms and election officials said legislative changes last year stopped […]

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Alberta voter info database shut down amidst probes of alleged data breach

A database belonging to an Alberta separatist group was shut down Thursday as elections officials and Mounties probe an alleged voter-list privacy breach affecting up to three million Albertans. “The RCMP has initiated an investigation and is working with other law enforcement partners in the province to determine if any offences have been committed,” Alberta’s […]

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Dozens of Alberta school divisions banned books to comply with provincial order

Dozens of Alberta school divisions have pulled more than 170 books from library shelves this year to comply with a provincial order, including poetry collections, award-winning graphic novels, a sex education comic book and the film and graphic novel adaptations of George Orwell’s 1984. Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides directed schools to remove library […]

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National libraries group urges Alberta to ditch ‘political interference’ in libraries

An organization representing large public libraries across Canada warns Alberta’s proposed bill affecting libraries threatens “unprecedented” government overreach into organizations meant to be shielded from political control. The Canadian Urban Libraries Council is urging United Conservative Premier Danielle Smith’s government to ditch its proposed changes to Alberta’s law governing libraries in a bill currently before […]

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Stats cited by Danielle Smith’s office to kill story on EMS overtime contradicted by government’s own data

Last summer, an IJF investigation revealed that the amount of overtime worked by paramedics in Edmonton had increased by 81 per cent since 2021. The story was republished by several media outlets across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative. A day later, staff from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office and the Ministry of Hospital and […]

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Alberta’s access restrictions threaten privacy, democratic role of libraries: critics

Critics of Alberta’s proposed rule changes to public libraries say the true danger lies in giving the province power to dictate access and potentially snoop on which books people are checking out. James Turk, director of the Centre for Free Expression at Toronto Metropolitan University, says the government’s stated reason for the bill – to […]

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Town adjusts bylaw to adhere to province

The Town of Strathmore is implementing clerical changes to better align with current provincial legislation. During the April 1 council meeting, all three readings of the new Designated Officer Bylaw were passed unanimously.  “On June 11 of last year, the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) was replaced with the Access to Information Act and administration […]

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Alberta premier and education minister had private meeting with groups behind push to ‘conservatize’ Alberta school boards and ban LGBTQ books

Alberta’s premier and education minister held a private meeting in February to discuss school funding and education policy.  Documents released through an access to information request show that attendees included a number of right-wing think tanks and groups involved in a campaign to “conservatize” Alberta school boards, as well as private and religious school associations. […]

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Alberta introduces bill to reduce child access to sex images in public libraries

The Alberta government introduced legislation Thursday to ensure children won’t be able to access sexually graphic images in books at public libraries. Municipal Affairs Minister Dan Williams stressed at a news conference that the government isn’t banning books. He held up a page of a graphic novel with a sexually explicit example of the images […]

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