Laws

Laws


Brazil rolls out law boosting online protection of minors

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian law that seeks to shield minors from addictive, violent and pornographic online content took effect this week, with experts calling it a milestone in the protection of children and adolescents. The issue gained traction in August, after influencer Felipe Bressanim, known as Felca, published a video denouncing the […]

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FTC seeks info from 20 universities with Division I sports into whether agents are following law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is asking 20 universities with Division I sports programs whether agents working with their athletes are following a federal law tied to sports-agent conduct. The FTC’s inquiry, announced Monday, began with sending letters to schools seeking responses by March 23 tied to compliance with the Sports Agent Responsibility […]

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Major procedural changes set in motion for Crowsnest Pass council

Crowsnest Pass municipal council has opened the door to major procedural changes, voting to draft amendments to its meeting bylaw that could affect how the public speaks to council, how meetings are scheduled and how councillors receive correspondence. The discussion took place during the Nov. 25 regular council meeting, where Coun. Doreen Johnson asked council […]

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B.C. tables new law on closed meetings between First Nations and municipalities

The president of the group representing local governments in British Columbia says she welcomes proposed changes that would make it easier for First Nations and municipalities to meet behind closed doors. Cori Ramsay, president of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities, said her group and First Nations requested the changes, saying they give nations “the […]

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Alberta’s personal information protection law ruled partly unconstitutional

Parts of Alberta’s personal information protection legislation have been ruled unconstitutional. But a judge is upholding an order to stop an American facial recognition company from collecting images of Albertans. The company, Clearview AI, scrapes the internet for images of people and adds them to a database, which it markets to law enforcement agencies as […]

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Town keeping up on municipal law emerging trends

The mayor, one councillor and the town chief administrative officer will be attending an annual emerging trends in municipal law seminar. Mayor Brad Schlossberger, Coun. Kandice Meister, Abe Tinney, the town’s chief administrative officer, will attend the one-day seminar presented by Brownlee LLP Barristers and Solicitors, on Feb. 6 in Calgary. The law firm describes […]

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Want to Make Sex Work Safer? Decriminalize It, Study Says

When sex workers are able to form relationships with co-workers, they can boost their odds of accessing support services and decrease their odds of facing workplace sexual or physical violence, according to a new study. The Lower Mainland study, peer-reviewed and published in PLOS One, looked at social cohesion and the ways sex workers support […]

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Australia is banning social media for people under 16. Could this work elsewhere – or even there?

It is an ambitious social experiment of our moment in history — one that experts say could accomplish something that parents, schools and other governments have attempted with varying degrees of success: keeping kids off social media until they turn 16. Australia’s new law, approved by its Parliament last week, is an attempt to swim […]

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Alberta privacy commissioner raises concerns over government bills

Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner says she has significant concerns about two bills tabled by the government earlier this month. The bills amend existing access to information and privacy rules, and were touted by ministers as being the strictest privacy regulations in Canada. But Diane McLeod, Alberta’s independent privacy and information commissioner, says the government […]

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EU lawmakers grill candidates who will drive policy for the next 5 years

BRUSSELS (AP) — Nominees for some of the European Union’s top jobs faced parliamentary hearings on Monday, as lawmakers start to vet would-be commissioners to oversee Europe-wide policies ranging from agriculture to trade for the next five years. Four of the 26 new members of the EU’s increasingly powerful executive branch, the European Commission, were […]

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As Georgia presses on with ‘Russia-style’ laws, its citizens describe a country on the brink

Eka Gigauri is used to harsh words from officials about the anti-corruption work she does in Georgia. But seeing her face on posters, accusing her of being an agent of foreign influence, a traitor and a spy, rattled her. Gigauri, who leads one of Georgia’s main anti-corruption campaign groups, says she and many others have […]

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Access to abortion pill expanding beyond Alberta’s major cities, data shows

The abortion pill is slowly changing the reproductive health landscape in Alberta, new data suggests. When Mifegymiso came on the market in Canada in 2017, advocates and medical professionals hoped the medication would expand reproductive health care in rural and remote communities. In the years that followed, however, severe access issues in Alberta persisted and […]

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