fundamental rights

fundamental rights


Former N.S. privacy commissioner wants office to gain resources, more powers

Nova Scotia’s recently departed privacy commissioner says she hopes the provincial government will give her successor the power and resources they need to ensure citizens can access public records.  The commissioner reviews complaints from citizens who have been denied access to documents and other records by government departments and agencies. But Tricia Ralph, whose job […]

Read More


Federal privacy watchdog heads to court over Pornhub operator’s consent practices

Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne is seeking a Federal Court order directing the operator of the Pornhub website to comply with Canadian privacy law. Dufresne’s application comes a year after he concluded Aylo, the Montreal-based firm behind Pornhub and other pornographic sites, broke the law by allowing intimate images to be shared without direct knowledge or […]

Read More


N.S. premier restores legislature scrums amid accusations of assault on press freedom

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has agreed to resume taking part in media scrums in the legislature after facing accusations he was curtailing press freedom. Two weeks ago, Houston ended the long-standing tradition of government ministers having informal exchanges with media — known as scrums — outside the legislative chamber. His government decided journalists should […]

Read More


Supreme Court of Canada moving away from social media platform X

The Supreme Court of Canada says it’s moving away from the social media platform X. In a farewell post Wednesday to its more than 45,000 subscribers, the top court said it will focus its communication efforts on other platforms. The court invited people to follow its activities on its LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts. […]

Read More


Canadian privacy commissioner to investigate X’s use of personal data to train AI

Privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne says he will investigate whether social media platform X is respecting the law on the use of Canadians’ personal information. In a letter to New Democrat MP Brian Masse, Dufresne says he will look at whether X complies with federal privacy law concerning the platform’s collection, use and disclosure of personal […]

Read More


N.S. information commissioner says government bill threatens right to access records

Nova Scotia’s freedom of information commissioner is calling on the governing party to withdraw legislation that she says weakens the public’s right to access government records and documents. Tricia Ralph, who ends her term of office this week, says measures in an omnibus bill tabled by the Progressive Conservatives threaten the rights of citizens to […]

Read More


‘Amongst the trusted’: How private police chat groups blur and breach ethical lines

In August 2021, a Toronto drug case took a dramatic turn when a prosecutor made what the judge called a “highly unusual” request, asking the court to throw out evidence by a key police witness. It came after defence lawyers had grilled Toronto Police Service Const. Ryan Kotzer over “disparaging comments about black people” in […]

Read More


Chinese firm DeepSeek’s AI chatbot restricted from some government phones

The federal government has restricted Chinese artificial intelligence company DeepSeek’s chatbot from some of its mobile devices and is recommending other agencies and departments follow suit. The Treasury Board Secretariat’s chief information officer, Dominic Rochon, sent a memo Thursday to government departments detailing the moves he said are aimed at ensuring “networks and data remain […]

Read More


Ahead of U.S. TikTok ban, Canadians flock to Chinese ‘RedNote’ app

With TikTok facing an imminent ban in the United States, many Canadian users are moving to rival Chinese social media app Xiaohongshu — also known as RedNote — pushing it to the top of download charts in Canada. The ban is being driven by security concerns about TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. Chinese national […]

Read More


‘Running in fear’: Documents depict chaos, confusion over Reclaiming Canada event

When the organizer of the We Unify Reclaiming Canada event contacted officials about booking the Victoria Conference Centre, he touted invitees from across the political spectrum, including liberal luminaries such as Amal Clooney, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, B.C.’s NDP Premier David Eby, movie stars and more. Jonathan Bower told the sales director of the city-owned […]

Read More


Supreme Court allows multibillion-dollar class action to proceed against Meta

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is allowing a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against Facebook parent Meta, stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. The justices heard arguments in November in Meta’s bid to shut down the lawsuit. On Friday, they decided that they were wrong to […]

Read More


Alberta’s privacy commissioner raises concerns over two government bills

Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner says she has big concerns – including fuzzy definitions and insufficient guardrails – in two bills now being debated in the house. The bills aim to amend existing access to information and privacy rules and are touted by Premier Danielle Smith’s government as being the strictest privacy regulations in Canada. […]

Read More