National

National


Canada Post breaking law by gathering info from envelopes, parcels: privacy watchdog

OTTAWA — The federal privacy watchdog says Canada Post is breaking the law by gleaning information from the outsides of envelopes and packages to help build marketing lists that it rents to businesses. The office of privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne says information collected for the marketing program includes data about where individuals live and what […]

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Air Canada system briefly breached, customer info and flight ops unaffected

MONTREAL — Canada’s biggest airline says an unauthorized group briefly breached an internal system linked to the personal information and records of some employees. Air Canada says in a statement today that no customer information was accessed in the cyberattack. The Montreal-based company says flight operation systems and public-facing platforms were unaffected. It says it […]

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Newfoundland university threw open its doors to Titanic dive operator, emails show

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — A research institute at Newfoundland and Labrador’s Memorial University threw open its “proverbial doors” last year to the company that owned the doomed Titan submersible, less than a year before the vessel suffered a catastrophic implosion while diving to the Titanic shipwreck. Emails obtained by The Canadian Press show officials with […]

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Watchdog finds mismanagement, ‘disturbing’ lack of disclosure at Defence Department

The Department of National Defence broke the federal whistleblower law by not being transparent about the results of investigations into wrongdoing, the federal integrity watchdog said in a report released Tuesday. Joe Friday, the public sector integrity commissioner, shared what he called “disturbing” findings that both the Defence Department and the Canadian Armed Forces have […]

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Long secret Canadian intelligence sealed Avro Arrow’s cancellation, new paper says

OTTAWA — The Diefenbaker government’s 1959 decision to scrap the fabled Avro Arrow was significantly influenced by Canadian intelligence that pointed to a diminishing need for the costly aircraft in the evolving Cold War, says a new research paper based on previously secret information. The intelligence highlighted the Soviet Union’s shift away from manned bombers […]

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Officers warned about harassment before former Saskatchewan police chief’s exit: memo

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Officers with a beleaguered Saskatchewan police force were warned about harassing behaviour in the weeks before their police chief accused members of personal attacks and character assassination, internal documents show. Jonathan Bergen announced he was retiring as chief of the Prince Albert Police Service last May saying he was the subject […]

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RCMP technology ‘between contracts,’ unavailable at first for Saskatchewan killings

SASKATOON — A technology used by a specialized RCMP team to search for people in high-risk situations was not immediately available as Mounties responded to a stabbing rampage and the hunt for a mass killer in Saskatchewan because it was held up under the federal procurement process. Documents obtained under freedom of information laws show […]

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Government websites down in four provinces, territories; cyberattacks blamed in two

Government websites in four provinces and territories were shut down Thursday, with at least two jurisdictions blaming cyberattacks for their outages. Websites for Yukon, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Nunavut were all inaccessible. P.E.I. and Yukon said cyberattacks were behind their shutdowns. “At midnight on Sept.14, Yukon.ca experienced a cyberattack that shut down the website […]

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What’s at stake for the Assembly of First Nations in the upcoming election?

OTTAWA — The next leader of the Assembly of First Nations will be tasked with unifying hundreds of chiefs at a time when reconciliation appears to be less of a priority in Canada, said an Indigenous policy expert. Hayden King, executive director of Indigenous-led think tank Yellowhead Institute, said the assembly has grown in influence […]

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RCMP boosts contract scrutiny following review of dealings with China linked firm

OTTAWA — The RCMP says it is updating procurement practices after an internal review of dealings with a company that has ties to China found no serious security concerns, but some areas for improvement. A standing offer with Sinclair Technologies to provide the RCMP with radio-frequency filtration equipment was suspended in December after media coverage […]

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Alberta’s ‘war room’ is back with massive ad spend revealed in annual report

EDMONTON — New documents outline a massive increase in public funding for the Canadian Energy Centre’s campaign to change attitudes toward Alberta’s oil and gas. An agency founded by Alberta’s United Conservative government to fight what it calls misinformation about the province’s industry and otherwise known as the “war room,” the centre’s most recent annual […]

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Mounties eyeing change to recreational cannabis use policy for members

OTTAWA — The RCMP is looking at easing a policy that requires front-line officers and many other employees to refrain from recreational cannabis use for four weeks before duty. A change to the five-year-old policy could bolster recruitment of new officers by bringing the Mounties in line with police forces that have much less restrictive […]

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