Ontario is investigating an alleged breach of 200,000 home care patients’ personal health data, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Friday. Ontario Health atHome, the provincial agency co-ordinating home and community care, said late Friday afternoon that one of its vendors informed the agency that it had experienced a cybersecurity attack and a breach of its […]

More than 300 civil society organizations are calling on the Liberal government to withdraw its new border bill, saying the legislation threatens liberties, refugee and migrant rights and the privacy of all Canadians. Representatives of four major coalitions held a news conference today to ramp up pressure on Ottawa to scrap the proposed Strong Borders […]

Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s government broke its legal, record-keeping obligations amid its now-reversed decision to open up parts of the protected Greenbelt lands for housing, the province’s information and privacy commissioner has found.  Political staff were using code words to thwart document requests and left a surprisingly small paper trail for such a consequential policy, […]

A 35-year-old Toronto man is facing charges after allegedly approaching children at a park, making physical contact and asking them for their names and other personal information before committing an indecent act.  City police say they were called shortly after noon on Friday to Earlscourt Park in the St. Clair Avenue and Caledonia Road area, […]

LISTOWEL – At its April 29 meeting, North Perth Council requested a report from staff to help council members to understand the new strong mayor powers, in order to avoid exploiting them.  As of May 1, strong mayor powers have been expanded to an additional 170 Ontario municipalities, including North Perth. Bestowed by the Ontario […]

Ontario is increasing funding for its autism program to $779 million this year, the government announced in this week’s budget, but advocates say it’s not yet clear exactly where that money will go. Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s budget, tabled Thursday, contains two lines on the Ontario Autism Program, including touting the new funding. Children, Community […]

Canada’s largest school board says it has received a ransom demand over student data that was stolen last December, even though the company behind the affected software paid ransom in hopes of securing that information.  The Toronto District School Board said in a letter to parents and caregivers on Wednesday that it recently learned the […]

The number of property tax accounts in arrears has risen sharply in St. Catharines since 2022, according to documents obtained by The Pointer through a Freedom of Information request. The disturbing increase aligns with the controversial hikes in municipal tax rates introduced by the current City Council. Residents of Niagara’s largest city were shocked in […]

The Ontario government is considering shortening the length of teachers’ college in order to address a worsening shortage of educators, documents obtained by The Canadian Press suggest. A freedom-of-information request on teacher supply and demand came back with research and jurisdictional scans the Ministry of Education conducted last year on the supply issue and the […]

An Ontario man is facing charges in an alleged theft and leak of Texas Republican Party data in 2021. The U.S. Department of Justice says the 37-old-man from Oshawa was arrested last week and is facing charges under Canadian law. It says the accused gained unauthorized access to a third-party hosting company’s computer system to […]

Premier Doug Ford said Thursday that he plans to visit some areas affected by prolonged power outages since a powerful ice storm hit central and northern Ontario over the weekend.  Hydro One said that of the approximately 175,000 customers without power as of late Thursday afternoon, nearly 45,000 lost power in the previous 24 hours […]

St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe used municipal assets and senior staff to coordinate his attendance in a staged campaign event for Doug Ford during last month’s provincial election campaign. The apparent violation of rules that govern Siscoe’s conduct was revealed in documents obtained by The Pointer through a Freedom of Information investigation. The documents show […]