One in two Canadians believes artificial intelligence (AI) may outsmart humans, according to a new poll.
The Leger poll released on Thursday shows 52% agree AI may become so powerful that it outsmarts humans, and 60% say the prospect of having AI in their life is scary.
Most (75%) said the technology lacks the emotion or empathy to make good decisions, many (72%) said AI is susceptible to hacking or fraud, and half (50%) thought it was susceptible to structural bias and discrimination.
While the majority thought having AI in their life was scary, many also felt comfortable using AI tools for daily tasks.
Half (52%) trusted AI to answer questions about a product or service, a third (34%) trusted AI to control their content feeds on social media, and a seventh (14%) trusted AI to replace their children’s school teachers.
The largest share of respondents could not decide whether AI tools were good or bad for society (39%), a similar share decided AI tools were good for society (36%), and the smallest share decided AI tools were bad for society (25%).
Last Friday, the Public Order Emergency Commission released its findings into the Liberal government’s use of the Emergencies Act, which was used to quash Freedom Convoy protests earlier last year. The commission found the use of the act to be justified — a decision which came as a great surprise to many. Canadian Constitution Foundation litigation director Christine Van Geyn joined True North’s Andrew Lawton to discuss the outcome of the proceedings, what follows next, and why government isn’t quite off the hook yet.
Alberta Mental Health and Addiction Minister Nicholas Milliken has revealed members of the new Recovery Expert Advisory Panel who will advise the province on its recovery-oriented systems of care. The panel includes a prominent physician who advised former US Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Milliken made the announcement at the Alberta Recovery Conference on Wednesday, just one day after Premier Danielle Smith said budget 2023 contained plans to invest $275 million in funding for the ministry of mental health and addiction, up from $87 million in 2019.
The minister said all 16 members want to be a part of Alberta’s focus on making sure that every person in the province has the opportunity to pursue recovery.
“We are making waves with regards to recovery oriented systems of care for the people of this province and for everyone’s struggling addiction,” Miliken said. “They are here to help us.”
The government said the panel is made up of experts from diverse fields who will provide ongoing advice on research and innovation policy and standards developments as well as evaluation and outcomes reporting. The Recovery Expert Advisory Panel will provide ongoing advice for a period of one year, with the possibility of extension.
The panel will be chaired by Dr. Keith Humphreys, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. Humphreys also served as the drug policy adviser to US presidents George Bush and Barack Obama. Dr. Nathaniel Day, the medical lead of the Alberta Health Services Rural Opioid Dependency Program and a member of the minister’s Opioid Emergency Response Commission, will serve as vice chair.
Humphreys said he looks forward to supporting Alberta in its recovery-focused approach to treating addiction and mental health challenges
“The Alberta model is not only making a difference in the lives and health outcomes of the people in this province – it’s helping to bring recovery to the forefront of health policy discussions in Canada and beyond,” he said in a statement.
Other notable members include Charles Weaselhead, chancellor at the University of Lethbridge and former chief of the Blood Tribe and grand chief of Treaty 7, Dr. John Kelly, professor of psychiatry in addiction medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Dr. Anna Lembke, professor and chief of Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Stanford University.
The minister said politicians and decision makers “for too long” pushed discussions about supporting recovery-oriented systems of care and improving recovery capital to the side.
“These goals have often been painted as too difficult, too demanding or completely unrealistic,” he said.
“So we have sought to change that over the past four years, to give people who are living with mental health challenges and the illness of addiction hope that recovery is possible for them.”
Speaking at the conference on Monday, Smith said Alberta is “indisputably” Canada’s leader in a recovery oriented system of care following the four years of the United Conservative Party government’s efforts to address homelessness and addictions epidemic.
“Since being elected in 2019, our government has sought to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to pursue recovery,” she said.
“There are some of us that tell us that we have unreasonable expectations, predicting that recovery is not an achievable or even a realistic goal. But what they fail to understand is this: when we see recovery as possible, we’re providing hope and optimism to people who are often living without any hope. We’re saying that you can recover and there is a better life for you that you deserve and that we will be there for you.”
As the Trudeau government’s Online News Act, Bill C-18, inches closer to becoming law, Google is blocking some users from viewing news content in what the tech giant says is a test run of a potential response to the act. Bill C-18 would require companies like Meta and Google to compensate legacy media companies for publishing content on their platforms.
Alberta Mental Health and Addiction Minister Nicholas Milliken has revealed members of the new Recovery Expert Advisory Panel who will advise the province on its recovery-oriented systems of care.
And nearly half of young Canadians say socialism is the ideal economic system for Canada, according to a new report by the Fraser Institute.
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A recent poll has found that a sizable chunk of British Columbians want to see Covid-19 vaccine passports return despite the fact that more and more people are moving on from the pandemic.
An online survey conducted by Research Co. from Feb. 10 – 12 found that nearly one in four residents (23%) wanted proof of vaccination certificates to become mandatory again to access certain services.
Like the rest of Canada, British Columbia lifted its vaccine requirements last year. As of April 2022 vaccine passports were no longer required to access restaurants, theatres and indoor events.
Views around the threat Covid-19 poses have also changed over the years, according to Research Co. president Mario Conseco.
In 2021, 81% of people in the province said the virus was a “real threat.” Today, that number stands at 69%.
“It is clear that COVID-19 remains a concern, but at a lower level than two years ago,” writes Conseco.
When it comes to reinstating mask mandates, 21% would like to see the requirement make a return. At the same time, there’s a dwindling number of people who want to have capacity restrictions for churches and other indoor events.
In 2021 81% supported the province in gathering restrictions, today only 17% have voiced support for the idea.
“While skepticism towards governments and the media has risen, the appetite to return to the regulations of the past is not as high,” said Conseco.
“For (62%) of British Columbians, we are in a different moment and there is no need for additional public health measures related to COVID-19.”
“This leaves (18%) of residents who feel we should have stricter public health measures in place to stop the spread of the virus, and (9%) who consider the pandemic a hoax that never should have altered our lives.”
Support for the media has also fallen. In 2021, 63% of residents had a favourable impression of TV news coverage. Today that support sits at 52%.
We know that China ran a sophisticated operation in the 2019 and 2021 Canadian elections to influence the results. In the most recent election, the Chinese Communist Party specifically wanted the Liberals to return to power, and Canadian intelligence officials knew. In spite of this, the Liberals have downplayed the extent of the interference, with Justin Trudeau saying today we should be more concerned about the Conservatives undermining democracy. Conservative member of parliament Michael Cooper joins The Andrew Lawton Show live to discuss.
Also, a Milton man has been charged with second-degree murder after shooting someone who was trying to rob his house at gunpoint. Criminal lawyer Sam Goldstein joins the show to discuss the case.
The Ottawa Public Library (OPL) has moved classic children’s books that regularly receive “racism” complaints into an “adult collection,” according to an annual report.
On Thursday, the Ottawa Public Library Board will receive the Intellectual Freedom Annual Report: 2022 Challenges which summarizes the library’s handling of issues related to democratic rights.
In the discussion section of the report, the OPL writes that “racist language and images were the most frequent concerns, accounting for 11 of the 25 requests” submitted to the library.
The Dr. Seuss book If I Ran the Zoo and the French-language Hergé book Tintin en Congo regularly led to complaints from the public.
“Of the nine adult book challenges, four were for Dr. Seuss and Hergé (Tintin bandes dessinées, known as ‘BD’) titles that were previously in the children’s collection and were moved to the adult collection in the last five years, including two challenges for Tintin en Congo,” the OPL explained.
“There is sustained interest and concern regarding the works of these classic children’s authors. The Dr. Seuss title (If I Ran the Zoo) is no longer in print.”
In 2021, Dr. Seuss Enterprises made the controversial decision to no longer publish six books from the famous author’s collection over allegedly racist and hurtful portrayals.
Other complaints fielded by the OPL last year included concerns about library content which offended some based on claims of “cultural appropriation, ableism, anti-Islamism, LGBTQIA2S content inappropriate for children, and political propaganda that promotes hate.”
“16 requests were for removal of the items in question; one was for the item to be moved to another area of the collection and for a content warning to be added,” explained the library.
According to a list of requests for reconsideration, the OPL withdrew two books from its selection while it retained the rest despite existing complaints.
The book Hitler’s Table Talk, which is a collection of monologues by Adolf Hitler, was cited for having a “racist publisher” and the OPL withdrew the item from its shelf “due to low usage” and the fact that it remained available online as an e-book.
In the juvenile early reader’s section, the book Drôle de papa by Bruno St-Aubin was gutted from the library’s catalog “due to age of the material and insignificant research and cultural value” after it fielded a complaint about “cultural appropriation.”
One of the key principles behind the OPL’s “intellectual freedom” policy is special attention to equity concerns.
“The responsibility to uphold intellectual freedom comes with a complementary responsibility to ensure perspectives that have been traditionally marginalized or excluded are equitably presented in the Library’s collections, and that material with stereotypical depictions, particularly of Indigenous people, are considered thoughtfully within the lens of our collective commitment to truth and reconciliation,” writes the OPL.
The CBC doubled the number of employees that earn six-figure salaries in recent years, according to a new report.
The report by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) shows that between 2015 and 2022, the CBC added 511 employees to the list of staff that earn an annual salary of $100,000 or more.
“Taxpayers don’t need all these CBC employees making six-figures,” said CTF’s federal director Franco Terrazzano. “What value are taxpayers getting from all these extra CBC staffers with big salaries?”
More than 200 employees were added to the list during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a yearly growth of roughly 13.5%.
The CTF contrasted CBC’s “good times” with what appears to be a difficult financial period for the journalism industry, recently witnessed in January when Postmedia announced layoffs for 11% of its editorial staff, and in the last couple years when Bell Media laid off hundreds of broadcast employees.
It’s not the first time the CTF has criticized CBC’s finances.
Last November, Terrazzano criticized the CBC’s decision to pay-out $51 million in bonuses and pay raises during the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021.
“If the CBC has enough money lying around to hand out millions in bonuses and raises during a pandemic, then taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fork over more money,” he said at the time.
According to the CTF’s Wednesday report, taxpayer funding to the CBC has increased by $203 million per year since 2014.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to close an irregular border crossing within thirty days.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Poilievre called on Trudeau to close the Roxham Road border crossing between Quebec and New York state – a crossing which has gained media attention this month as reports grow about how migrants are using the crossing to illegally enter Canada.
“The prime minister has had six years to find a solution,” said Poilievre. “It is his job to close the border, and we’re calling on him to do it at the Roxham Road passage within thirty days.”
Pierre Poilievre calls on the federal government to close Roxham Road within the next 30 days. pic.twitter.com/pK3eanzY4l
Quebec Premier Francois Legault last week called on Trudeau to publicly announce that migrants are no longer welcome. The premier called on Trudeau after media reports broke that New York City was bussing migrants near to the border crossing, purportedly to enable the migrants to cross into Canada.
Premier Legault reached out to American officials last week, attempting to find a solution to a legal loophole that encourages people to cross at places like Roxham Road.
Justin Trudeau on Roxham Road illegal migrants: "We have to be really present to make sure that we're supporting people as they come through while discouraging them from doing that at the same time." pic.twitter.com/sXUOdn3SGD
A University of Toronto (U of T) Indigenous knowledge workshop on time management taught students how to resist a “colonial productivity culture”, according to a university blog post.
The workshop was part of the university’s “Sweetgrass Series”, a set of three events that “use Indigenous Knowledge as a framework for Academic Success.”
In a Life at U of T blog post, a student named Annie described her experience at the workshop, saying the latter was “so wonderful and informative.”
“The colonial concept of time emphasizes outcomes and productivity, and this can lead to a lot of guilt when spending time on activities that don’t lead to a ‘productive’ outcome,” wrote the student.
She said that the workshop suggested that students use “colonial tools of time management” such as calendars and schedules “to create time for personal wellbeing,” and that “this can actually be an act of resistance against colonial productivity culture.”
As part of the time management workshop, students were shown the “productivity matrix”, which sorts to-do tasks into four separate categories. They also learned about the connections that the Indigenous medicine wheel has to the “productivity matrix”.
Above: U of T student Annie’s “productivity matrix” from the Sweetgrass Series.
Below: A presentation slide showing connections between the “productivity matrix” and the Indigenous medicine wheel. Screenshots from studentlife.utoronto.ca
The U of T student says the workshop “totally shifted my perspectives on time, productivity, and personal value.”
“If you want to look at how you can decolonize your student experience and gain a greater understanding on how Indigenous knowledge can be applied to all aspects of life, this is absolutely for you!”
The “Sweetgrass Series” workshops are led by U of T Indigenous Learning Strategist Carol Ducharme, and are designed to enhance students’ learning “through the Indigenous sweetgrass framework of three braids.”
The series ran from Feb. 7 to Feb. 21 and offered three workshops, titled Mind – Managing Time, Body – Reading with Intention, and Spirit – Being S.M.A.R.T. with Goals.
Ducharme did not return True North’s request for comment in time for publication.
