VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government has released 12 priorities for anti-racism research in its first update since the Anti-Racism Data Act came into effect last June. The province says the focus will be in areas such as racial diversity within the public service, interactions with the justice system and how health care and education […]

EDMONTON _ The governments of Alberta, British Columbia and Quebec are joining the federal privacy commissioner in investigating the company behind the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, ChatGPT. Alberta’s privacy authority says the joint investigation would see if OpenAI, which is the parent company of ChatGPT, obtained valid consent from Canadians to collect, use and disclose their personal information via its chatbot. ChatGPT, which […]

VANCOUVER — Everyone who enters a British Columbia casino will soon be required to present government-issued identification, in what the BC Lottery Corporation says is an initiative to support people who have registered for self-exclusion. The corporation says the measure will be rolled out this summer, with more details to be announced in coming weeks, […]

This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Authors: Simran Purewal, Research Associate, Health Sciences, Simon Fraser University; Kaylee Byers, Regional Deputy Director, BC Node of the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative; Senior Scientist, Pacific […]

VICTORIA — British Columbia’s privacy commissioner is recommending the province amend its information protection laws after his investigation found several Canadian Tire stores contravened privacy laws by using facial recognition technology without properly notifying customers. B.C. should tighten its Security Services Act and the Personal Information Protection Act to better regulate the sale of technologies […]

VANCOUVER — The University of British Columbia is encouraging students to uninstall the TikTok app from their mobile phones, citing concerns about data sharing with the social media platform’s Chinese parent company. Instead, the school recommends students use a web browser to access TikTok content. The school says in a statement issued last week that […]

Susan MacRae wants to talk about what happened to her, but she can’t. As a young girl, MacRae signed a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits her from discussing sexual abuse she suffered, even with family members or therapists. In 2018, a judge upheld that NDA even though the other party — her father — was dead. […]

Shannon McPhail said she felt like the “world’s biggest schmuck” after reading an email from a senior official at Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The official told her it was “impossible to confirm” how many living salmon eggs were in the path of the Coastal GasLink pipeline at a major river crossing. With wild salmon populations […]

Victoria Police are warning dozens of people that their names and other personal information contained in an officer’s lost notebook are now being “circulated among the criminal element.” Victoria Police Chief Const. Del Manak said Thursday the officer’s notebook was lost for five days in December, but his office only learned of the loss and […]

Canada is under increasing pressure to declare a moratorium on seabed mining just as federal leaders are set to host an international marine conservation summit. More than 700 international scientists and a multitude of environmental organizations are calling on Canada to ban the search for deep-sea minerals in its own waters and show global leadership […]

A second port on Canada’s West Coast is proposing a ban on cruise ships dumping contaminated and acidic wastewater while docked to protect the marine environment. The Port of Prince Rupert on B.C.’s north coast is taking public feedback until Feb. 5 on changes slated for 2023, including forbidding the open-loop scrubber systems that cruise […]

As the year’s climate-related gains and catastrophes wrap, Canada’s National Observer is reviewing the top five stories to make waves in B.C.’s coastal and island communities in 2022. First Nations, forests and fish-related news surfaced as some top issues from CNO’s Island Insider beat, and are likely to dominate headlines in the new year as […]