National

National


‘Systemic difficulties’ hampered review of Canada’s cyberspy service: watchdog

OTTAWA — A culture within Canada’s cyberspy service of “resisting and impeding” independent review has frustrated efforts to ensure it is obeying the law, say newly released documents from the federal intelligence watchdog. The unusually candid National Security and Intelligence Review Agency records from 2021 are the latest evidence of the watchdog’s irritation at trying […]

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Privacy commissioner appeals Federal Court decision in Facebook case

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada is appealing a recent decision by the Federal Court, which sided with Facebook in a case tied to the Cambridge Analytica affair. A judge in April dismissed the federal privacy watchdog’s bid for a declaration that the social media giant, now known as Meta, broke the law […]

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Agency struggled to get pharma companies to engage in drug price reform: memo

OTTAWA — Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos was warned that pharmaceutical companies had steadfastly refused to engage on drug-price reforms before he urged an independent federal agency to pause those reforms in favour of more consultation, a 2021 memo shows. The NDP, which obtained the memo through access-to-information law and shared it with The Canadian Press, […]

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Metaverse to contribute at least $45.3B to Canada’s annual GDP by 2035 says Meta

TORONTO — When Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg changed his company’s name to Meta less than two years ago, he placed a multi-billion-dollar bet on a virtual but interactive realm where he believed people would work and play for generations to come. Zuckerberg’s ultimate vision is still far from reality. The Quest headsets the company […]

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Firefighters question Alberta cuts to aerial attack teams as province battles blazes

EDMONTON — Former members of an elite Alberta wildfire-fighting crew say government budget cuts have left the province battling its current blazes short-handed. “We could have been difference-makers,” said Jordan Erlandson, a former member of Alberta’s Rapattack team. Those firefighters were trained to rappel from helicopters to get at wildfires while they still only covered […]

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Political parties need strong privacy rules, independent oversight, commissioner says

OTTAWA — The federal privacy commissioner says it would be a mistake to give political parties the ability to govern the way they manage Canadians’ personal information. Changes proposed in the latest Liberal budget would let parties collect, use, retain and dispose of data in accordance with their own policies. Philippe Dufresne told a Senate […]

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Canadians targeted ‘more aggressively’ by fraud calls than Americans, study suggests

TORONTO — A new study suggests there’s been an uptick in phone scams in Canada, such as those involving federal agency impersonation or air duct cleaning. A report released Tuesday by Seattle-based Hiya, which aims to protect phone users from spam through its voice security platform, found 6.3 per cent of unwanted calls received by […]

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Families minister says Tory premiers touting child care should ask Poilievre for plan

OTTAWA — Provincial conservative premiers touting $10-a-day child-care deals with Ottawa is a welcome move, even if some of the leaders now campaigning on the deals were among the last to sign them, federal Liberal Families Minister Karina Gould said. Now she says they need to push federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to explain if […]

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TikTokers making six figure incomes via app worried about potential ban

VANCOUVER — Ssonia Ong had no idea that a 25-second video she posted miming to music the story of her college love, her wedding, then her four children would go viral on TikTok. Three years later, with 9.2 million followers, Ong isn’t sure what she would do without it. She is one of several Canadian […]

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Post pandemic work in the public sector: A new way forward or a return to the past?

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: Eric Champagne, Professeur agrege, Ecole d’etudes politique, Directeur, Centre d’etudes en gouvernance / Associate professor, School of Political Studies, Director, Centre on Governance, L’Universite d’Ottawa/University […]

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Old Montreal fire: Inspectors cited building owner multiple times before deadly blaze

MONTREAL — Inspectors from the Montreal fire department reported multiple fire code violations during visits to an Old Montreal heritage building in the years leading up to a fire last March that killed seven people. Documents released by the City of Montreal under access to information laws show that inspectors cited the building’s owner, Emile-Haim […]

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Canada, U.S. to share more data in fight against cross border gun smuggling, opioids

OTTAWA — Canada and the United States have agreed to share more information about the smuggling of guns and drugs across their shared border. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said Ottawa has signed four new or updated agreements with Washington that allow the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency to exchange more data with partners […]

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