The ElectoFacts website, launched this week, provides factual information to debunk the most common misconceptions observed by Elections Canada officials in recent years.
"Building resilience against inaccurate information helps strengthen the overall health of democracy," Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said in a statement.
The ElectoFacts website says that it does not intend to establish Elections Canada as "the arbiter of truth" that will actively monitor the accuracy of statements and information distributed by parties and candidates.
Perhaps most significantly, Perrault's report called for legislative changes to make it illegal to spread information that disrupts an election or undermines its legitimacy.
The report said that action must be taken because the continued spread of disinformation could "jeopardize trust in the entire electoral system on which democracies rest."
Perrault said there are laws on the books to deal with disinformation that were used when misleading robocalls were made to voters in Guelph, Ont., during the 2011 federal election.
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Biden strongly opposed increasing tariffs on EVs when he first came into office because they would lead to huge price increases for consumers and backfire. And now he changed his minded, but the consequences didn't. Canada getting in between US and China in this trade war is a bad idea.
This is not 'only' about trade or dominance in a particular market such as EVs or solar panels. China aims to leverage market dominance for political influence. The Chinese government wants to export not just products but its autocratic system.
China’s economy is slowing, and the regime is coming under greater domestic pressure—witness the large-scale protests that broke out against Xi’s covid-zero policy in multiple cities and on dozens of university campuses in late 2022. Beijing is encountering growing international criticism and resistance on other fronts as well. Around the world, negative views of China have surged to highs not seen since the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre [...]
China’s rulers also have long understood what political scientists have proven empirically: Autocracies often fall in waves, as revolutionary activity in one country inspires popular uprisings in others [...]
The CCP has responded with stepped-up repression over the past decade—jailing dissidents, mobilizing security forces, censoring information, and preempting popular unrest. Yet China is now strong enough that it can do more than just hunker down in the face of foreign pressure. Xi believes that the CCP’s domestic power will be enhanced if authoritarianism is prevalent and democracies are dysfunctional—fellow despots will not punish China for rights abuses, and the Chinese people will not want to emulate the chaos of liberal systems. He thinks that preventing revolts against authoritarianism in other countries will lower the odds of such a revolt erupting in China. And he believes that silencing critics abroad will limit the challenges facing the CCP within China. Xi sees rolling back democracy overseas as part of his plan to secure his regime at home [...]
Beijing spends billions of dollars annually on an “antidemocratic toolkit” of nongovernmental organizations, media outlets, diplomats, advisors, hackers, and bribes all designed to prop up autocrats and sow discord in democracies. The CCP provides fellow autocracies with guns, money, and protection from UN censure while slapping foreign human-rights advocates with sanctions. Chinese officials offer their authoritarian brethren riot-control gear and advice on building a surveillance state; PRC trade, investment, and loans allow those dictators to avoid Western conditionality regarding anticorruption or good governance.
Beijing uses its globe-spanning media organs to tout the accomplishments of illiberal rule while highlighting democratic governments’ flaws and hypocrisies. China works with fellow authoritarian regimes, such as Vladimir Putin’s in Russia, to push autocrat-friendly norms of internet management in international institutions and standards-setting bodies.
These are some quotes, but whole article makes an interesting read.
And while there are many points I agree with, the core principle that China wants to use trade to export autocracy just doesn't mesh. Trade is the best way to prevent military conflicts since trade creates dependencies which would be cut off during any military action. I would say the opposite is happening now with the current wave of protectionism in both the US and China.
China will take opportunities to insert themselves in other countries when it suits them, but it's no different from what democratic countries do. Just look at Africa and how to this day France refuses to abandon its economic influence they hold via CFA franc currency. Or US trying to insert democratic rule in countries that have strategic value to them by any means necessary (the publication mentions US abandoned strategy), but we know it's not true. There are public details about US coup attempts in Venezuela just recently.
Hundreds of employees from the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) gathered on the picket line as they began strike action Tuesday.
"We anticipate hopefully that the employer sees our strength and that it starts an internal conversation with them to maybe rethink how they've been treating their employees," said Mark Thornberry, an event setup coordinator who has worked with the museum for 15 years.
OPSEU local president Paul Ayers says public service employees struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic and three years of wage freezes, and cannot afford to keep up with inflation.
In the AGO's most recent publicly available financial documents, which covers April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, the gallery reported a deficit of $3.8 million.
Standing at the front of the crowd Tuesday, Meagan Christou, a member of the bargaining team for OPSEU Local 535 and a worker with the AGO for seven years, led a chant of 'No Wages, No Art.'
Christou says their team is still hoping to bargain and don't want a strike to last too long, but that there needs to be movement on wages and precarious working conditions.
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The court's decision is based on the case of Andrei Bykovets, who was convicted of 14 online fraud offences, for purchases made from an Alberta liquor store.
In 2017, the Calgary Police Service investigating the alleged crime discovered that the store's online sales were managed by Moneris, a third-party payment processing company.
At trial, Bykovets argued that he was the victim of an unreasonable search and seizure, a violation of Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, because he had an expectation of privacy with respect to his IP address.
"It would be inconsistent with a functional approach to defining the subject matter of the search to effectively hold that any step taken in an investigation engages a reasonable expectation of privacy," the dissenting opinion said.
"The idea that Canadians wouldn't have an expectation of privacy in their IP addresses is a very scary proposition for us and we are glad that the court recognized the importance of going the other way on this one," Jack told CBC News.
Kerry Shima, acting officer in charge of Alert ICE, the internet child exploitation unit for Alberta, told CBC News that "in virtually every case" an IP address "kick-starts" their investigations.
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It's estimated that more than one in five adults in Canada — or 6.5 million people — don't have a family physician or nurse practitioner they can see regularly, and virtual care is helping to fill the void.
Spithoff co-authored the study in this week's BMJ Open, based on interviews with 18 individuals employed or affiliated with the Canadian virtual care industry between October 2021 and January 2022.
"All of this is happening because of a business model that sees value in collecting that data and using it in a variety of ways that have little to do with patient care and more to do in building up the assets of that company," Herder said.
Other industry insiders were concerned about how data, such as browsing information, might be shared with third parties such as Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook, for marketing purposes, Spithoff said.
The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, which funded the study, said in an email that health professionals conduct commercial activities, and therefore the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act applies.
Tara Sampalli, senior scientific director at Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub, said the province's contract with Maple means residents' data can't be used in other ways, such as by third-party providers.
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