What Springfield, Ohio, can teach Canadians about digital mis- and disinformation; Toronto Star, October 5, 2024

Bessma Momani and Shelly Ghai Bajaj , Toronto Star; What Springfield, Ohio, can teach Canadians about digital mis- and disinformation

"Digital disinformation can be dangerous and too often, racialized ethnocultural communities bear the brunt of it.

Disinformation during election time certainly gets media attention, but it is the everyday disinformation that we need to pay attention to. We need to wake up to see how this near constant flow — the ‘slow drip of polarizing and illiberal narratives’ — erodes Canadian values and social cohesion...

In fact, foreign interference in Canada’s democratic and electoral processes, including the use of disinformation, is expected to play an even larger role in future election cycles.

Thankfully there is growing awareness to this problem; one poll estimates that 84 per cent of Canadians are concerned about disinformation and potential impact on democracy. Canadians are also aware of the potential weaponization of emergent technologies and capabilities with 80 per cent of Canadians indicating concern about the abuse of AI and the spread of AI-generated disinformation in the lead-up to the 2025 federal election.

But, while this growing awareness and attention is positive, we need to pay attention to disinformation in everyday contexts, to help build societal resilience and prevent social polarization."

Tech companies battle content creators over use of copyrighted material to train AI models; The Canadian Press via CBC, June 30, 2024

 Anja Karadeglija , The Canadian Press via CBC; Tech companies battle content creators over use of copyrighted material to train AI models

"Canadian creators and publishers want the government to do something about the unauthorized and usually unreported use of their content to train generative artificial intelligence systems.

But AI companies maintain that using the material to train their systems doesn't violate copyright, and say limiting its use would stymie the development of AI in Canada.

The two sides are making their cases in recently published submissions to a consultation on copyright and AI being undertaken by the federal government as it considers how Canada's copyright laws should address the emergence of generative AI systems like OpenAI's ChatGPT."

THE GREAT PRETENDERS; Toronto Life, February 14, 2024

SARAH TRELEAVEN, Toronto Life; THE GREAT PRETENDERS

"The “pretendian” phenomenon in Canada can be traced back to at least the 1930s, when Archibald Stansfeld Belaney donned leathers, renamed himself Grey Owl and began telling people his mother was Apache. He used his new identity to amass fame and fortune as an Indigenous author and conservationist. But the term itself didn’t gain traction in Canada until late 2016, when Indigenous journalists started pointing out the inconsistencies in bestselling author Joseph Boyden’s proclaimed Indigenous roots. Today, it’s used to broadly describe fakers who claim to be Indigenous but aren’t. (Some Inuit also use the term “pretenduit” as a way to address the specific co-opting of their heritage and culture.)

The list of high-profile Canadians busted for faking Indigenous identities has grown alarmingly long in recent years and includes academics, judges, professors and cultural icons. In October 2021, a CBC investigation revealed that Carrie Bourassa, a University of Saskatchewan professor, had falsely claimed to be Métis, Anishinaabe and Tlingit. In 2022, media raised questions about former judge Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s purported Cree ancestry; she has maintained her ­Indigeneity but later lost her Order of Canada, among other awards. Last year, Memorial University removed Vianne Timmons from her role as the school’s president after a CBC report challenged her claims of Mi’kmaw heritage. And in one of the most explosive revelations to date, The Fifth Estate reported last October that 82-year-old singer and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie had lied about being a Cree survivor of the Sixties Scoop.

The problem is especially prevalent in Canadian academia, where the allure of money and status runs high. Universities have been under pressure to increase Indigenous student admissions—as of 2021, only 13 per cent of Indigenous people of working age had a university degree—and hire more Indigenous faculty. In their rush to boost their numbers, many institutions have overlooked the potential for scammers. Jean Teillet is a recently retired Métis lawyer in Vancouver who has worked on Indigenous-identity fraud cases. In the wake of the Bourassa scandal, the University of Saskatchewan hired Teillet to write a report on Indigenous-identity fraud, complete with recommendations on how to spot it. While some institutions are now introducing mechanisms to confirm membership in a recognized nation, including the presentation of official status documents, Teillet found that, for many applicants, claiming Indigeneity is as easy as ticking off a box. Universities are largely ignorant about the complexities of Indigenous identity, and they’re either too gullible or willfully blind to dubious claims."

Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’; The Guardian, March 15, 2024

Leyland Cecco, The Guardian; Canada moves to protect coral reef that scientists say ‘shouldn’t exist’

"For generations, members of the Kitasoo Xai’xais and Heiltsuk First Nations, two communities off the Central Coast region of British Columbia, had noticed large groups of rockfish congregating in a fjord system.

In 2021, researchers and the First Nations, in collaboration with the Canadian government, deployed a remote-controlled submersible to probe the depths of the Finlayson Channel, about 300 miles north-west of Vancouver.

On the last of nearly 20 dives, the team made a startling discovery – one that has only recently been made public...

The discovery marks the latest in a string of instances in which Indigenous knowledge has directed researchers to areas of scientific or historic importance. More than a decade ago, Inuk oral historian Louie Kamookak compared Inuit stories with explorers’ logbooks and journals to help locate Sir John Franklin’s lost ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror. In 2014, divers located the wreck of the Erebus in a spot Kamookak suggested they search, and using his directions found the Terror two years later."

'Empty shelves with absolutely no books': Students, parents question school board's library weeding process; CBC, September 13, 2023

Nicole Brockbank, Angelina King , CBC; 'Empty shelves with absolutely no books': Students, parents question school board's library weeding process

"Weeding books by publication date raises concerns...

Libraries not Landfills, a group of parents, retired teachers and community members says it supports standard weeding, but shares Takata's concerns about both fiction and nonfiction books being removed based solely on their publication date.

The group is also concerned about how subjective criteria like inclusivity will be interpreted from school to school in the later stages of the equity-based weeding process."

Law Society of Ontario cancels upcoming bar exams after content allegedly leaked to some candidates; Toronto Star, March 5, 2022

Joshua Chong, Toronto Star; Law Society of Ontario cancels upcoming bar exams after content allegedly leaked to some candidates

"The Law Society of Ontario (LSO) has cancelled upcoming bar exams slated to begin Tuesday after examination content was allegedly “improperly accessed” by some candidates.

More than 1,000 candidates were set to write the online examinations, which were scheduled from March 8 to 11 and March 22 to 25, the LSO said in a statement issued Saturday. 

“This decision has been made as a result of information the Law Society has received which strongly indicates that examination content has been improperly accessed by some candidates, compromising the integrity of the upcoming examination period,” the LSO said.

The breach also affects candidates who had already written the exam." 

"The Longest Time"; Phoenix Chamber Choir, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 24, 2020

YouTube, Phoenix Chamber Choir, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; "The Longest Time"

"Wishing everyone the best of health from Vancouver, Canada! Stay home, stay safe, and keep singing!"

China thinks it can arbitrarily detain anyone. It is time for change: The lack of global outcry over the detention of two Canadians virtually guarantees the next such case; The Guardian, January 3, 2019

Michael Caster, The Guardian;

China thinks it can arbitrarily detain anyone. It is time for change

The lack of global outcry over the detention of two Canadians virtually guarantees the next such case

"Despite this – and although China has detained hundreds of Chinese human rights defenders and numerous foreign nationals under this and similar provisions, not to mention the arbitrary imprisonment or disappearance of some one million Uyghurs and Kazakhs across Xinjiang – it has generated shockingly limited international blowback.

In each case where China has not been held accountable, it virtually guarantees the next.

Any country that systematically denies the rights of its own citizens, and flaunts international norms, should worry us all because such abuses, as we are increasingly seeing, don’t stop at the colour of one’s passport."

Research ethics: are we minimizing harm or maximizing bureaucracy?; University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires, October 8, 2018

Karen Robson and Reana Maier, University Affairs/Affaires Universitaires; Research ethics: are we minimizing harm or maximizing bureaucracy?

"Researchers working with human subjects in North America and beyond are very familiar with ethics protocols required by institutions of higher education, protocols rightly put in place to minimize harm to research participants.

In Canada, individual higher education institutions have ethical jurisdiction over the research conducted within their walls and by their employees, although these operations are guided by the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS). First published in 1998 by the three main federal research funding agencies, the TCPS requires that all university research involving human subjects be approved by a research ethics board (REB) and outlines the principles to be upheld in assessing the ethical merits of an application, though no standardized process of application or evaluation is given. It is understandable that universities, following the TCPS, want to put steps in place to minimize the harm researchers may cause to potential participants.

In recent years, however, the Canadian ethics process seems to have become more of an exercise in bureaucracy than a reasonable examination of the harm posed by research, and we fear this process will prevent actual research from occurring...

We are obviously not arguing against the existence of ethics protocols or REBs, but we believe that ethics sprawl is discouraging researchers rather than protecting participants. The fetishization of rules and bureaucratic process in ethics review and a blanket worst-case scenario approach is a drain on researchers’ time and resources in return for – what? Do we have any evidence that this level of procedural minutiae is providing improved protection of research participants or preventing unethical research? We might want to consider taking a page from our colleagues south of the border: the National Science Foundation has, as of 2017, abolished the need for institutional research board ethical approval on all projects deemed “low risk.”"

'One of the boys': lost narwhal finds new home with band of beluga whales; The Guardian, September 13, 2018

Greg Mercer, The Guardian; 'One of the boys': lost narwhal finds new home with band of beluga whales

[Kip Currier: Check out the fascinating video clip in this article too. Another example of how drones are being utilized for scientific research, such as wildlife monitoring and conservation, and yielding intriguing information and insights.]

"Whale researchers in Quebec’s St Lawrence River are celebrating a remarkable discovery: a juvenile narwhal far from its arctic home, that appears to have been adopted by a band of beluga whales.

The narwhal, more than 1,000km outside its typical range, was filmed by a drone swimming and playing with dozens of belugas that were treating it as one of their own."

Risotto, robotics and virtual reality: how Canada created the world's best libraries; The Guardian, June 15, 2018

Linda Besner, The Guardian; Risotto, robotics and virtual reality: how Canada created the world's best libraries

"“Access to information and pathways to learning were the great equalisers of the 20th century,” says Vickery Bowles, Toronto’s head librarian. “In the 21st century, we’re increasingly dependent on access to online services, and understanding of and comfort with that technology.”

 Bowles sees a vital role of the public library in strengthening civic discourse and enabling political participation. Right now, the library is offering workshops on how to run for office or get involved in an election campaign (disclosure: I will be a paid panellist on a planned event in the library’s On Civil Society series). “We’re seeing more and more challenges to our democratic values and principles,” she says."

Here’s how Canada can be a global leader in ethical AI; The Conversation, February 22, 2018

Fenwick McKelvey, Abhishek Gupta, The Conversation;    Here’s how Canada can be a global leader in ethical AI

"Putting Canada in the lead

Canada has a clear choice. Either it embraces the potential of being a leader in responsible AI, or it risks legitimating a race to the bottom where ethics, equity and justice are absent.

Better guidance for researchers on how the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedomsrelates to AI research and development is a good first step. From there, Canada can create a just, equitable and stable foundation for a research agenda that situates the new technology within longstanding social institutions.

Canada also needs a more coordinated, inclusive national effort that prioritizes otherwise marginalized voices. These consultations will be key to positioning Canada as a beacon in this field.

Without these measures, Canada could lag behind. Europe is already drafting important new approaches to data protection. New York City launched a task force this fall to become a global leader on governing automated decision making. We hope this leads to active consultation with city agencies, academics across the sciences and the humanities as well as community groups, from Data for Black Lives to Picture the Homeless, and consideration of algorithmic impact assessments.

These initiatives should provide a helpful context as Canada develops its own governance strategy and works out how to include Indigenous knowledge within that.

If Canada develops a strong national strategy approach to AI governance that works across sectors and disciplines, it can lead at the global level.

Speaker's Corner: Privacy needs better protection; Law Times, May 15, 2017

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Law Times; 

Speaker's Corner: Privacy needs better protection

"There are also concerns that our current model of informed consent needs updating. The majority of Canadians admit to not reading privacy policies for mobile apps, and a recent privacy sweep — in which 25 privacy enforcement authorities participated — found that privacy communications of Internet-connected devices are generally poor and fail to inform users about exactly what personal information is being collected and how it will be used. It is difficult to reconcile these facts with the goal of meaningful consent.

This is especially important as more devices collect more information about our lives. From smart meters that track our energy consumption to fridges that track what we eat, Cisco Systems estimates there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020. As a consumer, I want convenience and will trade some of my privacy. As a citizen and as a lawyer, I want laws that substantively protect my privacy. 

In general terms, we should mandate privacy by design. Governments and third parties ought to anonymize our personal information, and our government should follow Australia’s example and make it an offence to re-identify published government data sets. We should also look beyond the law to protect our data. 

Take Estonia. On the one hand, it has embraced big data through maintaining a national register with a single unique identifier for all citizens and residents. Customer service is improved and information is exchanged more easily. On the other hand, the same system ensures that citizens can correct or remove data easily and can see which officials have viewed their data. 

In summary, we need to embrace new laws and new technology. We need not sacrifice our privacy."

Justin Trudeau’s Family Vacation on Aga Khan’s Island Leads to Ethics Inquiry; New York Times, 1/16/17

Ian Austen, New York Times; 

Justin Trudeau’s Family Vacation on Aga Khan’s Island Leads to Ethics Inquiry

"Canada’s federal conflict-of-interest and ethics office confirmed on Monday that it is investigating the propriety of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family’s spending part of the Christmas holidays as guests of the Aga Khan, the billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, on a private island in the Bahamas."

Trudeau to be questioned by ethics watchdog over reports of cash for access; Guardian, 12/15/16

Ashifa Kassam, Guardian; Trudeau to be questioned by ethics watchdog over reports of cash for access:

"Justin Trudeau will be questioned by Canada’s ethics watchdog over reports of political fundraisers that allegedly offered privileged access to the prime minister and his cabinet ministers for a price.

The development marks the first time in a decade that the ethics commissioner has questioned a sitting prime minister and is a turning point for Trudeau who swept to a majority government last year on broad promises to run a transparent administration that would abide by the highest standards of ethics."

Canadian Lawyer Uncovers a Doping Scheme, and Russian Anger; New York Times, 7/22/16

Dan Levin, New York Times; Canadian Lawyer Uncovers a Doping Scheme, and Russian Anger:

"Mr. McLaren, 70, seems well equipped for the challenge. A respected lawyer from London, Ontario, he has spent much of the last 15 years focused on ethics in sport as an arbitrator in five Olympic Games and through his involvement in many sports inquiries and disputes. These include a watershed doping investigation of Major League Baseball, which resulted in what became known as the Mitchell report, and one last year for the antidoping agency that found systemic use of performance-enhancing drugs by Russian athletes in the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

“That’s why they chose me,” he said in an interview this week. “It takes a lot of experience to know how to conduct these types of investigations, to know what to look for.”

Despite his international reputation, Mr. McLaren is far more used to being surrounded by his students, known as “McLarenites,” at the law school of Western University in London, where he teaches courses on business, sport and banking law.

In interviews, Mr. McLaren’s colleagues described him as a dogged and ethical lawyer skilled at leveraging decades of legal experience and jurisprudence in the sometimes messy realm of athletics, whether it is resolving doping disputes as a member of the International Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland, deciding cases involving cyclists and kayakers for the Sport Dispute Resolution Center of Canada or investigating accusations on behalf of the antidoping agency."

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is hero in new Marvel comic; Guardian, 6/28/16

Ashifa Kassam, Guardian; Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is hero in new Marvel comic:

"Trudeau will appear on the variant cover of Marvel’s Civil War II: Choosing Sides #5, slated for release at the end of August. The cover is an alternative to the main cover in circulation.

The prime minister’s foray into Marvel Universe came after Canadian artist and writer Chip Zdarsky was approached by Marvel to write a story featuring Canadian superhero squad Alpha Flight. He immediately knew he wanted Trudeau to be part of the story.

“He seems to be the popular culture association with Canada right now, right behind [Toronto rapper] Drake – and I probably couldn’t get Drake in the comic,” Zdarsky told the Canadian Press. While it wouldn’t endorse the comic, Trudeau’s office said it was fine with the idea.

The storyline centers on Alpha Flight, who now work for Captain Marvel’s worldwide defence program. When faced with a moral quandary, the team decides to seek out Trudeau, their old boss, for advice.

“I liked the idea of him actually engaging them in an ethical debate,” said Zdarsky. “I didn’t want this to just be like a walk-on ... rescued by superheroes and he thanks them and that’s the end of the story.”

The story required Zdarsky to put himself in Trudeau’s shoes, envisioning how the politician would respond to certain situations."

Rebecca Marino quits tennis following cyberbullying incidents; (Toronto) Star, 2/20/13

Daniel Girard, (Toronto) Star; Rebecca Marino quits tennis following cyberbullying incidents: "Marino, who took a seven-month break from the game beginning in February 2012, said that while she believes “social media is actually a really important part of our society and there can be a lot of good that comes out of it,” it proved too “distracting” to her. She talked of receiving tweets that she should “go die,” “go burn in hell” and had cost bettors lots of money. “That’s just scratching the surface,” she said of the online assaults, but added she still believes she’s a person with “a thick skin.” On Monday, Marino deleted both her Twitter and Facebook accounts. While admitting that “in a way I wish I hadn’t joined social media,” she said she has no regrets about being part of it and may even return one day. Marino said neither social media nor depression, which she said still prevents her from getting out of bed some days, is the main reason she quit. “The reason I’m stepping back is just because I don’t think that I’m willing to sacrifice my happiness and other parts of my life to tennis,” she said."

Radio Ban Elicits Protests; New York Times, 1/16/11

Ian Austin, New York Times; Radio Ban Elicits Protests:

"Over the last quarter-century, “Money for Nothing” by Dire Straits has moved from the Top 40 to the playlists of classic rock stations all over the world. But last week, a broadcast industry standards council ruled that the song was unfit for Canada’s airwaves.

The issue focused on the use of an antigay slur. At least three radio stations, including CIRK-FM in Edmonton, Alberta, defied the ban with marathon broadcasts of the song, indirectly underlining the lack of power held by the industry’s self-regulatory body."