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 […]

The Competition Bureau has confirmed it’s investigating the possible use of AI-driven algorithmic pricing in Canadian real estate rental markets. The practice involves real estate companies using programs that track what competitors are charging for rent and leases. An American antitrust lawsuit alleges companies are using this software to collude and artificially inflate rents. That […]

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 […]

New Brunswick’s liquor and cannabis stores had to shut down their debit and credit card machines last week after detecting a cybersecurity threat, and the problem has yet to be fixed. Florence Gouton, a spokesperson for NB Liquor, said “some anomalies” were found Jan. 7 and external experts were called in to investigate, but much […]

School boards in multiple provinces have been affected by a data breach involving software used by schools across North America to store student information.   Ontario’s Toronto, Peel and Durham district school boards issued similarly worded notices about a “cyber incident” targeting PowerSchool, a third-party application that’s also used to store some school-based staff information.  The […]

A review of information provided by provinces and territories shows more than 400 criminal cases have been halted across Canada since the start of last year because they had exceeded time limits on how long trials can take before violating an accused’s Charter rights.  Here’s the breakdown of the numbers of recent cases scrapped because […]

The federal privacy watchdog has opened an investigation into cyberattacks on the Canada Revenue Agency that led to more than 30,000 privacy breaches dating back to 2020.  In a news release, the office of privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne says the federal revenue agency reported the breaches in May of this year. The commissioner’s office says […]

Another beluga whale has died at Marineland and four years into a provincial probe, Ontario’s solicitor general is saying little about the investigation’s progress. The latest beluga death is the fourth in the past year, provincial records show. Since 2019, 16 belugas and one killer whale have died at the Niagara Falls, Ont., tourist attraction, […]

A man accused of shooting a Toronto police officer in the city’s busy midtown neighbourhood was charged with attempted murder Thursday, as the force and the province’s police watchdog conducted parallel investigations. Court documents indicate a man with the same name as the suspect was out on bail at the time of Wednesday’s shooting after […]

It could be a weekend teenage runaway. An elderly loved one, lost and disoriented. Or it could be the first indication of murder. The first call to a police department to report a missing person sets in motion a series of investigative and public actions to find them, then, once found, protect their identity from […]

Some police services in Canada are using facial recognition technology to help solve crimes, while other police forces say human rights and privacy concerns are holding them back from employing the powerful digital tools. It’s this uneven application of the technology — and the loose rules governing its use — that has legal and AI […]

Canada’s privacy commissioner is teaming up with his U.K. counterpart to investigate a data breach discovered last year at 23andMe.  Philippe Dufresne’s office says the joint investigation with U.K. Information Commissioner John Edwards will aim to determine the scope of the October 2023 breach at the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company. They will also look into […]