Weekly News Roundup (May 19)
By: Brittany Green
Top Stories this Week
Former PCO boss eyes border agency watchdog options for Trudeau Liberals (Privacy Canada) http://www.citynews.ca/2017/05/18/former-pco-boss-eyes-border-agency-watchdog-options-for-trudeau-liberals/
The Trudeau government has hired a former top public servant to study options for more robust oversight of Canada’s border agency — the latest sign the agency could soon have new people looking over its shoulder.
Study cites significant challenge in detecting terrorism financing in crowdfunds (Access to Information Canada) http://www.timescolonist.com/study-cites-significant-challenge-in-detecting-terrorism-financing-in-crowdfunds-1.20015659
Canada’s money-laundering watchdog is studying the use of crowdfunding platforms by suspected terrorists and says in an internal study that the reporting protocol poses a “significant challenge” in trying to identify such transactions.
Anti-spam without the heavy hand (CRTC) https://www.pressreader.com/canada/national-post-national-edition/textview
At face value, Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL) can be heralded as a good thing, because who doesn’t want less spam? However, in its current version, CASL is anti-competitive to Canadian businesses, too costly to comply with, and strikes at the heart of our federal government’s goal of keeping “Canada at the leading edge of the digital economy.”
Top International News
President moves to defend media (Freedom of Expression) https://www.pressreader.com/canada/the-globe-and-mail-bc-edition/20170518/281586650530035
Mexican leader Pena Nieto promises more resources to help journalists under threat in the country. The President’s hastily called meeting with his security cabinet and the country’s governors was meant to show a united response to the slaying of reporters from one corner of Mexico to the other so far this year. On Monday, Javier Valdez in Culiacan, Sinaloa, became the sixth journalist slain in less than three months in six different states.
Resolute U.S. racketeering lawsuit against Greenpeace moved to California (Defamation International) http://www.nationalobserver.com/2017/05/17/news/resolute-us-racketeering-lawsuit-against-greenpeace-moved-california
A racketeering lawsuit launched by multinational forestry giant Resolute Forest Products against Greenpeace should be heard in California, an American court has ruled. Amid a ramped-up public relations offensive by both sides, a district court in Augusta, Ga., found that Montreal-based Resolute had failed to show why the $300-million lawsuit should be held in the state.
School district pulls suicide book ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ (Censorship International) http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/colorado-school-district-pulls-suicide-book-thirteen-reasons-why-1.3415692
As a Colorado community mourns the loss of seven students who recently killed themselves, a school district official ordered librarians to temporarily stop circulating a book that’s the basis for Netflix’s popular new series “13 Reasons Why,” which some critics say romanticizes suicide. The order rankled some librarians who called it censorship, and it appears to be a rare instance in which the book has been removed from circulation — albeit briefly.