monster

Thursday October 11, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday October 11, 2018

Privacy advocates have plenty of questions about how data from buying marijuana online will be handled

When Canadians go to buy their first grams of legal cannabis next week, many of them will do so through the internet, creating huge quantities of data as a side effect of their purchases.

But with only one week until legalization, privacy advocates say they still have plenty of questions about how that data will be handled.

And the answers could have serious ramifications: The United States still considers cannabis to be an illegal substance and concerns have been raised that Canadians could be blocked from travelling to the U.S. if customs officials find out that they have purchased the drug, or been involved in legalized production.

“It’s going to be an issue, and it’s going to present problems and challenges in terms of how that data is used, how it’s protected,” said Matt Murphy, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent who is now vice-president of compliance for Khiron Life Sciences, a Toronto-based cannabis company.

“I’m not aware of much guidance relative to how that data is protected, how it’s used, how it’s stored. These are all interesting questions that I think we’re going to have to deal with — probably sooner rather than later.”

Murphy downplayed the concerns about the U.S. going to great lengths to figure out who bought a gram of cannabis — he said they’re more worried about terrorists and illegal migrants — but he said that potential privacy breaches could affect people’s employment, or simply cause public embarrassment. 

But then there’s the credit card companies. (Continued: Financial Post) 

 

Monday August 27, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Monday August 27, 2018

Jagmeet Singh, Missing in Action

Jagmeet Singh to announce run for Parliament (story from 3 weeks ago)

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh will announce Wednesday he’s running for the Burnaby South seat in the House of Commons, CTV News has confirmed.

Singh won the federal NDP leadership last fall but isn’t a member of Parliament. Reports indicated he would run to replace New Democrat MP Kennedy Stewart, who has resigned his seat to run in Vancouver’s mayoral race.

Singh has an event in Burnaby, B.C. Tomorrow.

“I know he’s looking at it very closely,” Stewart said in an interview with CTVNews.ca

“I did approach Jagmeet suggesting that it might be good for him to run in Burnaby South. What’s been very positive is when I mention it to people in Burnaby, is how excited they got,” he said.

Stewart said Singh understands the city and knows the NDP supporters there.

Singh sat in the Ontario Legislature before his federal leadership run, representing the Toronto area riding of Bramalea-Gore-Malton. He held the seat from 2011 to 2017 and served as deputy leader of the Ontario NDP.

Stewart said he’s not concerned that Singh isn’t from the riding and noted former NDP leader Tommy Douglas, who had been premier of Saskatchewan, served in the riding after leaving Saskatchewan politics. (CTV News) 

 

Thursday June 7, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 7, 2018

Ontario’s choices are bad. But one is less bad than the others

To say Ontario’s election has been strange doesn’t capture the half of it. Just four months before the vote, the leading party had to dump its leader in a sexual misconduct scandal. The Liberals are so unpopular they’ve already conceded defeat. The next government will be formed by one of two parties that haven’t won an election since the past century. Ontario could be the first province to send millions of voters to the polls, all holding their noses.

June 3, 1999

The choice is between the Progressive Conservatives and the New Democrats. Both are running on platforms that don’t add up. Neither will be able to keep its promises. Each appeals to specific voter groups with fixed beliefs that pit one part of the province against the other. The question isn’t which is the best of a bad lot? It’s which will do the least damage to the province, hurt fewer people, and have the least harmful impact over the long term?

Of the two, the PCs have the biggest leadership problem. It’s unlikely any premier has ever been less qualified than Doug Ford. He appears to barely understand how government operates, has only the shallowest grasp of major issues, gives every indication of being badly out of his depth and shows no interest in learning. His approach to campaigning is to shout slogans and talk over challengers. He’s a poor debater, a bad speaker and has trouble explaining himself.

October 28, 2014

His “platform” is a collection of odd offerings with no apparent linkage. He’ll cut taxes, return “buck-a-beer,” be kinder to small business and put slots back at the racetrack. Perhaps his oddest promise is a pledge to cut gasoline taxes by 10 cents a litre, which, by past experience, might last a few weeks before the oil companies make up the gap and prices return to previous levels. He promised a costed platform, but didn’t provide it. His pledge to find $6 billion in “efficiencies” without firing anyone is unconvincing at best. If he actually tries to follow through on his promises, the swollen debt will get worse, not better.

October 10, 2007

The NDP’s Andrea Horwath is more experienced, more polished and more coherent. But that may not be an advantage. As her party erased the PC lead, it became clear that beneath her pleasant exterior lies a hard-edged ideologue devoted to left-wing dogma and with a distinct distrust of the private sector. Her daycare plan stresses that “public child-care dollars should go to not-for-profit and public providers,” because public funds “shouldn’t pad the profits of private companies.”

January 23, 2006

Why in heaven not? Free enterprise built Canada into a prosperous place. We trust private companies to produce and supply the food we eat. Is food not as important as daycare? Are farmers to be distrusted? Horwath’s rigid creed sees any attempt to make a living outside government auspices as suspicious. Her plan to control rents would eliminate the one means landlords have of keeping up with cost increases. By adding to the long list of limits that already restrict landlords, the NDP would ensure the slow deterioration of rental stock as landlords decline to spend money on maintenance they are unable to recoup. Availability would dry up as developers refuse to build structures certain to lose money. Those who have apartments would be able to stay indefinitely, provided they don’t mind peeling walls and smelly halls, but new arrivals would be out of luck. Too bad for you, young people. (Continued: National Post) 

 

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Wednesday March 21, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 21, 2018

‘Utterly horrifying’: ex-Facebook insider says covert data harvesting was routine

Hundreds of millions of Facebook users are likely to have had their private information harvested by companies that exploited the same terms as the firm that collected data and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica, according to a new whistleblower.

September 17, 2015

Sandy Parakilas, the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012, told the Guardian he warned senior executives at the company that its lax approach to data protection risked a major breach.

Where’s Zuck? Facebook CEO silent as data harvesting scandal unfolds

“My concerns were that all of the data that left Facebook servers to developers could not be monitored by Facebook, so we had no idea what developers were doing with the data,” he said.

Parakilas said Facebook had terms of service and settings that “people didn’t read or understand” and the company did not use its enforcement mechanisms, including audits of external developers, to ensure data was not being misused.

Parakilas, whose job was to investigate data breaches by developers similar to the one later suspected of Global Science Research, which harvested tens of millions of Facebook profiles and provided the data to Cambridge Analytica, said the slew of recent disclosures had left him disappointed with his superiors for not heeding his warnings.

“It has been painful watching,” he said, “because I know that they could have prevented it.” (Source: The Guardian) 

 

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Thursday March 1, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 1, 2018

Canada budget holds fire amid NAFTA clouds, focuses on women

Canada’s Liberal government tackled long-term growth challenges on Tuesday in a budget aimed at boosting women in the workforce and diversifying trade, while keeping its fiscal powder dry in case of an economic shock like the demise of NAFTA.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s third budget outlined slight deficit improvements without much in the way of new spending, refusing to blink in the face of U.S. corporate tax cuts and trade uncertainty that strike fear into Canadian companies. 

“We will be vigilant in making sure Canada remains the best place to invest, create jobs and do business – and we will do this in a responsible and careful way, letting evidence, and not emotion, guide our decisions,” Morneau said in a prepared budget speech. 

The budget blueprint, which is bound to be implemented given the Liberal’s parliamentary majority, maintained a C$3 billion ($2.4 billion) fiscal cushion each year to guard against any unexpected event that could hurt the government books. 

Even with the cushion, the projected deficit in 2018-2019 declined to C$18.1 billion from C$18.6 billion forecast in October, a restrained target unlikely to have any impact on financial markets or the Bank of Canada’s rate tightening path.

The loss of NAFTA would sideswipe Canada, which sends 75 percent of exports to the United States, and the decision not to slash corporate tax rates in response to the U.S. move puts Canadian companies at a disadvantage.

The unspoken bet is that Canadian exports will benefit from a roaring U.S. economy, even if business investment is lured away by the U.S. tax cuts. Canadian growth is already leading G7 rivals, spurring three rate hikes by the Bank of Canada since July, and the unemployment rate is near a 40-year low.

The budget did not address concerns that voters could come under pressure as rising rates increase the burden of record household debt, which the central bank has flagged as a risk.

Opposition Conservative leader Andrew Scheer blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals for maintaining budget deficits far into the future and adding to the national debt.(Source: Reuters)