Ottawa wants to block kids from social media. How would age verification work?

OTTAWA - In June, the federal government introduced Bill C-34, which would force social media platforms to block access for kids under 16.

The exact ways in which social media platforms would verify age haven’t yet been worked out. Culture Minister Marc Miller said there will be "a back and forth with platforms as to what protects people’s privacy and what is adequate and sufficient in the circumstances."

But we can look to experiences in other countries to get an idea of the options. They range from facial age estimation technology to verification through existing accounts to government-issued digital ID.

Canada is one of a number of countries around the world moving toward social media age restrictions.

Meetings accomplish something that an email never could while respecting people’s time, building relationships

There are few workplace experiences that unite employees quite like complaining about meetings. Ask almost anyone what frustrates them at work, and somewhere on the list will be the meeting that could have been an email. We’ve all been there. Thirty minutes scheduled for a simple update somehow turns into an hour. Half the attendees don’t need to be there. Someone shares their screen for ten minutes trying to find the right document. The meeting ends with everyone wondering what was actually decided.

It’s no surprise that organizations are looking for ways to reduce meeting fatigue. Every hour spent in a meeting is an hour that isn’t spent serving customers, solving problems, writing reports, or completing projects. As calendars become increasingly crowded, employees often find themselves working longer days simply to catch up on the work they couldn’t accomplish because they were in meetings.

The obvious solution seems simple: hold fewer meetings. In many cases, that’s exactly the right answer. Routine updates, policy reminders, project status reports, and information that doesn’t require discussion can often be shared through email and chat platforms. Not every piece of information deserves everyone’s calendar.

But eliminating meetings altogether would create a different problem, especially as more organizations embrace hybrid and remote work.

Human cost of AI bubble outweighs tech’s potential

Despite the title of his new book, Cory Doctorow isn’t against artificial intelligence (AI). At least, not exactly — although, admittedly, the “Before It’s Too Late” of the book’s subtitle sounds ominous.

A self-described AI critic, Doctorow is against the scammy story tech companies are selling investors and bosses: that AI can replace workers, cut costs and keep tech companies growing forever.

Doctorow introduces the idea of “centaurs” and “reverse centaurs” to expose power relationships between people and AI. In automation theory, a centaur is a person who is helped by a machine. A reverse centaur is a person who is forced to help a machine. The difference, Doctorow argues, is whether the person gets to choose when, where and how to use the tool.

He wants readers to stop being dazzled by AI and start asking who uses it, from it and gets used by it.

Don’t delete organ concert tickets when scrubbing digital life

We all have digital footprints of varying sizes and, in the future, grandma’s proverbial china set will be replaced by terabyte hard drives and social media accounts.

France’s top court blocks under-15 social media ban, citing constitutional freedoms

PARIS (AP) — A top court in France on Friday struck down a law banning children under 15 from using social media, saying it infringes on fundamental freedoms.

The Constitutional Council ruled that provisions in the ban “disproportionately infringe freedom of expression and communication" and haven't provided legal guarantees to ensure those rights, according to a press release summarizing the decision.

France last month became the first country in the European Union to pass a blanket ban on the platforms amid rising worldwide concerns about the harmful effects of digital content on kids.

Both chambers of the Parliament had voted in favor of the measure, which also banned the use of mobile phones in high schools.

City Lego seller continues to build up its business

Brick by brick, a Winnipeg Lego seller is building its third expansion — in less than two years.

Flock announces changes amid backlash over its license plate reader network

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Flock Safety, the surveillance technology company increasingly under scrutiny from lawmakers from both parties, civil liberties advocates and citizens across the U.S., announced Thursday that it is making changes to its platform intended to quell privacy concerns and address documented abuses of its system by some members of law enforcement.

The company operates a vast nationwide network of automated cameras that record the license plate numbers and other characteristics of all passing vehicles every day. Thousands of law enforcement agencies in 49 states can search and share Flock's data across jurisdictions to aid their investigations.

Police have credited the technology as an important crime-fighting innovation that has helped locate missing people and track suspects in violent crimes. But some critics say its pervasiveness amounts to unconstitutional warrantless mass surveillance. Dozens of cities and agencies have nixed their relationships with Flock amid concerns that the data can be accessed for immigration enforcement or used in unauthorized tracking, after a flurry of examples surfaced of law enforcement officers misusing the technology for personal searches.

CEO says changes will drive accountability

Ridesharing platform lets people connect with local drivers with trucks, cargo vans

Want to transport something big but you don’t have a buddy with a truck? Log on to Truckbud.

Winnipeg entrepreneur Praise Odutayo launched the ridesharing platform in November. People who need to move large items can connect with vetted local drivers who have trucks or cargo vans for same-day delivery. Requesting a driver takes about 60 seconds, and users get real-time updates from pickup to drop-off.

Odutayo says he built Truckbud to solve a simple but common challenge: many people don’t own a truck or van, yet regularly need to move items that won’t fit in a car.

“Truckbud is making large-item transportation more accessible, affordable and convenient, while creating flexible earning opportunities within the community,” said Odutayo, 24.

Spotty service, U.S. roaming charges leave Somerset woman calling for answers

A southwestern Manitoba woman is voicing her concerns about cell service in the area after she was billed more than $100 in U.S. roaming charges despite never leaving her community.

Teresa Acheson received a notification on her phone Monday at about 7:30 a.m. saying she had entered the United States and would be charged $13 per day for unlimited calls and text messages.

The only problem is that she was not in the U.S. She was lying in bed at her home near Somerset, some 50 kilometres away from the U.S. border.

“People have said to watch if you’re driving close to the border because you’ll get dinged, but I was sitting at home,” she said Wednesday.

ICE’s plan to give officers electric shock gloves draws outrage and fears of misuse

Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks faced criticism Wednesday from Democratic elected officials and civil rights advocates, who called it unnecessary and cruel.

ICE plans to spend between $10 million and $20 million to outfit officers and agents with “conductive distraction and de-escalation devices,” according to a notice published Monday and revealed first by The Associated Press.

The devices known as the G.L.O.V.E., which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter, are normal patrol gloves until an officer presses a button to activate its electrical mode. They must be applied directly to someone’s skin to produce a voltage that causes pain, which is intended to gain compliance from people who are resisting. Unlike Tasers, they do not leave burn or contact marks.

New York AG says she is ‘outraged' by plan

Insolvencies jumped 11.5% annually in June, Canada’s bankruptcy monitor shows

OTTAWA - Insolvencies in Canada are floating around levels not seen since the global financial crisis more than 15 years ago, new data shows.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcies released updated figures on Monday showing 13,254 insolvencies were filed in June, up 5.7 per cent compared with May and 11.5 per cent from a year ago.

Consumers — who make up the bulk of insolvency filings — led the annual increase, though business filings were also on the rise year-over-year.

"While the data has been quite volatile over the past year, even on a seasonally-adjusted basis, insolvencies have been stabilizing at levels not seen since the Global Financial Crisis in 2009," said Charles St-Arnaud, chief economist at Servus Credit Union, in a note to clients this week.

A Winnipeg home with a mountain view? You won’t find a real one, but AI-generated visual suggests otherwise

Manitoba’s mountain range peeked out behind a Scotia Street home.

At least, it did in a photo attached to a real estate listing for 232 Scotia St. in Winnipeg’s (flat) Seven Oaks neighbourhood.

Another picture — now removed — showed a cartoon cityscape viewable from the bungalow’s front porch.

Both photos had tags in their bottom left corners: “AI-generated content.”

Ultrarare Nintendo Mario game cartridges discovered in Wisconsin

A few years ago, a pop culture store owner in Wisconsin mentioned to Jason Ganos, a well-known Nintendo game collector, that he had a box of Super Mario cartridges that had been sitting in storage for years. It stopped Ganos in his tracks.

Alberta seeks proposals for gambling addiction services as part of iGaming launch

EDMONTON - Alberta's government is seeking proposals for new services and supports for gambling addiction as part of the recent launch of its regulated online gaming market.

The province, in a request for expressions of interest published on Monday, says it's looking to fund services that will be in addition to what's available through Recovery Alberta, such as a 21-day bed-based treatment program, and existing hotlines.

The Mental Health and Addiction Ministry said in a statement the new programs will be paid for through revenue the government is set to bring in from Alberta's regulated iGaming system, which officially launched last month.

"Nobody should have to struggle with addiction alone, including gambling-related addiction," the ministry said.

Manitoba-made technology earns faith of investors across Canada

Blue light flashed as a robotic arm welded the metal in front of it.

Unlike other robots of its kind, this one uses artificial intelligence. It’s supposed to see and adjust its movements if a part it’s working on doesn’t match the standard piece.

It’s Manitoba-made technology that investors across Canada are betting on. TetraGen Robotics, the technology’s creator, announced it had raised $1.8 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round.

It announced the funding Monday afternoon. Jim Richardson, from the family behind Richardson International, is among the investors listed online.

AI fears voiced during public consultation in Brandon

Security against cybercriminals, safeguards against being tracked or monitored and limiting the role of artificial intelligence in people’s lives were some of the concerns raised during a public consultation in Brandon Monday.

From Uniqlo to Zara, clothing brands try to win over Gen Z with a needle and thread

NEW YORK (AP) — Encouraging customers to mend worn clothes instead of buying new ones might seem like a self-defeating sales strategy. But in-store repairs and sewing workshops are becoming essential retail services for clothing brands as they try to appeal to young consumers who want to save money and the planet.

While luxury fashion houses and select specialty retailers like Patagonia have offered product repairs for decades, the concept has caught on. Jeans giant Levi Strauss & Co., casual wear chain Uniqlo and budget retailer Primark are some of the apparel companies hoping to win over Generation Z shoppers with a needle and thread.

Levi's created a handstitching course for high school students after determining that many Gen Zers lacked the sewing skills to match their interest in thrift store shopping and sustainability. Employees spend 90 minutes instructing teenagers on four tasks: sewing on a button, hemming, patching a hole and fixing a tear.

The Wear Longer program, which the San Francisco-based company is expanding across the U.S., builds on the repair and customization services Levi's offers at hundreds of stores worldwide.

Does Wealthsimple want to add sports, politics to its new prediction markets product?

TORONTO - Wealthsimple’s newest product has given armchair economists and Canadians convinced they can predict Mother Nature a chance to put their skills to the test, but some say the business is likely after an even bigger audience.

The Toronto-based financial services company started offering prediction markets last month. The product lets customers make wagers of $1 or less on the outcome of economic, financial or climate matters like what will happen at the Bank of Canada's next interest rate announcement or how many major Atlantic hurricanes there will be this year.

But the first few weeks have some thinking Wealthsimple might have even bigger ambitions.

When Charles Martineau, an associate professor of finance at the University of Toronto, and Marius Zoican, the Canada Research Chair in financial technology, each logged onto Wealthsimple's Predict app, they found it displaying stakes in who will become the next James Bond, what the score will be at future football games and who will win the 2028 U.S. presidential election.

Watching while we work

For many employees, the idea that their employer might be tracking how long they spend at their keyboard, how often they move their mouse, or whether they are actively working throughout the day feels unsettling. For many employers, however, workplace surveillance is increasingly viewed as another management tool, particularly as hybrid and remote work become more common. The recent news that TD plans to monitor certain employees’ activity during the workday has reignited a conversation that has been quietly growing for several years: where is the line between legitimate oversight and excessive monitoring?

The reality is that workplace surveillance is nothing new. Employers have long monitored attendance, reviewed security camera footage, tracked company vehicles using GPS, audited expense reports, and reviewed internet usage on company-owned devices. What has changed is the sophistication of the technology. Today’s software can record login times, monitor application usage, track keystrokes, capture screenshots, analyze email activity, and even generate reports ranking employees based on their perceived productivity.

This naturally raises an important question. Does increased surveillance actually make people work harder?

The answer is not nearly as straightforward as many organizations hope.

Rise of computer program Lean has changed the field of mathematics — and how we assess the truth

There are two age-old laments about mathematics which persist to this day. The first is that either ourselves or someone we know will express that they are not a math person — an admission that we are not good at math, or that somehow we are not hardwired for it. But we don’t tend to admit the same for reading, writing, child rearing, cooking or other skills that we deem inherent to the human experience.

The second lament is one that asks why we even learn math. “We’ll never use this in the real world,” goes the saying, particularly within the context of pre-calculus mathematics or calculus itself.

Both of these laments are regrettable, and most certainly need to be corrected by the public education system. Because, as author Kevin Hartnett argues in his latest work, The Proof in the Code: How a Truth Machine is Transforming Math and AI, mathematics is not only the language of the universe, but also a pathway to learning how to reason and seek truth.

Mathematics, ergo, is the language, both the physical and the metaphysical.

Dairy farmers warn against concessions as U.S. tariff deadline looms

OTTAWA - Canadian dairy farmers are warning against any concessions involving their sector as trade talks intensify with the United States ahead of President Donald Trump's tariff deadline.

A new round of 50 per cent American tariffs on a range of Canadian goods is set to take effect on Aug. 19. Unlike most of Trump’s other tariffs, these would have no exemptions for goods that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico agreement on trade.

The supply management system that protects Canadian dairy has been cited by the U.S. as a key irritant in trade negotiations and Trump has complained repeatedly about the level of U.S. dairy farmers' access to Canada's market.

Dairy Farmers of Canada says it's urging the federal government not to offer any more concessions on dairy or supply management in talks with the United States.