Sask. government attempting to finish stalled housing project in North Central
WATCH: The province is approaching Ottawa to find a way forward for the stalled Orange Buffalo lodge housing project in North Central. Wayne Mantyka reports.
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Globe and Mail
10 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Chinese hackers and user lapses turn smartphones into a 'mobile security crisis'
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cybersecurity investigators noticed a highly unusual software crash — it was affecting a small number of smartphones belonging to people who worked in government, politics, tech and journalism. The crashes, which began late last year and carried into 2025, were the tipoff to a sophisticated cyberattack that may have allowed hackers to infiltrate a phone without a single click from the user. The attackers left no clues about their identities, but investigators at the cybersecurity firm iVerify noticed that the victims all had something in common: They worked in fields of interest to China's government and had been targeted by Chinese hackers in the past. Foreign hackers have increasingly identified smartphones, other mobile devices and the apps they use as a weak link in U.S. cyberdefenses. Groups linked to China's military and intelligence service have targeted the smartphones of prominent Americans and burrowed deep into telecommunication networks, according to national security and tech experts. It shows how vulnerable mobile devices and apps are and the risk that security failures could expose sensitive information or leave American interests open to cyberattack, those experts say. 'The world is in a mobile security crisis right now,' said Rocky Cole, a former cybersecurity expert at the National Security Agency and Google and now chief operations officer at iVerify. 'No one is watching the phones.' US zeroes in on China as a threat, and Beijing levels its own accusations U.S. authorities warned in December of a sprawling Chinese hacking campaign designed to gain access to the texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. 'They were able to listen in on phone calls in real time and able to read text messages,' said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. He is a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the senior Democrat on the Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, created to study the geopolitical threat from China. Chinese hackers also sought access to phones used by Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance during the 2024 campaign. The Chinese government has denied allegations of cyberespionage, and accused the U.S. of mounting its own cyberoperations. It says America cites national security as an excuse to issue sanctions against Chinese organizations and keep Chinese technology companies from the global market. 'The U.S. has long been using all kinds of despicable methods to steal other countries' secrets,' Lin Jian, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said at a recent press conference in response to questions about a CIA push to recruit Chinese informants. U.S. intelligence officials have said China poses a significant, persistent threat to U.S. economic and political interests, and it has harnessed the tools of digital conflict: online propaganda and disinformation, artificial intelligence and cyber surveillance and espionage designed to deliver a significant advantage in any military conflict. Mobile networks are a top concern. The U.S. and many of its closest allies have banned Chinese telecom companies from their networks. Other countries, including Germany, are phasing out Chinese involvement because of security concerns. But Chinese tech firms remain a big part of the systems in many nations, giving state-controlled companies a global footprint they could exploit for cyberattacks, experts say. Chinese telecom firms still maintain some routing and cloud storage systems in the U.S. — a growing concern to lawmakers. 'The American people deserve to know if Beijing is quietly using state-owned firms to infiltrate our critical infrastructure,' U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich. and chairman of the China committee, which in April issued subpoenas to Chinese telecom companies seeking information about their U.S. operations. Mobile devices have become an intel treasure trove Mobile devices can buy stocks, launch drones and run power plants. Their proliferation has often outpaced their security. The phones of top government officials are especially valuable, containing sensitive government information, passwords and an insider's glimpse into policy discussions and decision-making. The White House said last week that someone impersonating Susie Wiles, Trump's chief of staff, reached out to governors, senators and business leaders with texts and phone calls. It's unclear how the person obtained Wiles' connections, but they apparently gained access to the contacts in her personal cellphone, The Wall Street Journal reported. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles' number, the newspaper reported. While most smartphones and tablets come with robust security, apps and connected devices often lack these protections or the regular software updates needed to stay ahead of new threats. That makes every fitness tracker, baby monitor or smart appliance another potential foothold for hackers looking to penetrate networks, retrieve information or infect systems with malware. Federal officials launched a program this year creating a 'cyber trust mark' for connected devices that meet federal security standards. But consumers and officials shouldn't lower their guard, said Snehal Antani, former chief technology officer for the Pentagon's Joint Special Operations Command. 'They're finding backdoors in Barbie dolls,' said Antani, now CEO of a cybersecurity firm, referring to concerns from researchers who successfully hacked the microphone of a digitally connected version of the toy. Risks emerge when smartphone users don't take precautions It doesn't matter how secure a mobile device is if the user doesn't follow basic security precautions, especially if their device contains classified or sensitive information, experts say. Mike Waltz, who departed as Trump's national security adviser, inadvertently added The Atlantic's editor-in-chief to a Signal chat used to discuss military plans with other top officials. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had an internet connection that bypassed the Pentagon's security protocols set up in his office so he could use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer, the AP has reported. Hegseth has rejected assertions that he shared classified information on Signal, a popular encrypted messaging app not approved for the use of communicating classified information. China and other nations will try to take advantage of such lapses, and national security officials must take steps to prevent them from recurring, said Michael Williams, a national security expert at Syracuse University. 'They all have access to a variety of secure communications platforms,' Williams said. "We just can't share things willy-nilly.'
CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
Toronto housing among least affordable on this global index. Here's what experts say needs to change
A new global index suggests Toronto is among the world's worst cities when it comes to housing affordability — as experts blame decades of policy missteps, development delays, and overwhelming population demand for the problem. The 2025 Global Cities Index from Oxford Economics finds that as a result of Toronto's expensive real estate market, residents 'spend more of their income on housing than residents of nearly every other city in the world.' While the federal government recently promised to eliminate the GST on first-time home purchases under $1 million, critics argue that restrictive housing policies, costly development charges and sluggish approvals have created a market that's out of reach for most buyers. The average price of a home in the Toronto area did decline four per cent year-over-year in May but still stood at more than $1.1 million, according to the latest data from the Toronto Region Real Estate Board. 'Over the past 20 years Toronto's population has grown by 35 per cent but affordable housing hasn't kept up. The result? Life is getting too expensive for families,' Mayor Olivia Chow said during a press conference on Friday. 'Young people are giving up on the dream of home ownership.' The City of Toronto has a program where it will defer development fees for some projects so long as at least 20 per cent of its units are affordable. However, demand for the program has far exceeded the city's ability to fund it and as a result Chow says that there are projects totalling 300,000 new units from about 70 different developers that are 'shovel ready' and just 'sitting there in the pipeline' waiting for funding from other levels of government. In Toronto alone, development fees can add more than $100,000 to the cost of a new home and in some areas in the GTA development fees can easily double that, says Frank Clayton, Senior Research Fellow at Toronto Metropolitan University. Prime Minister Mark Carney has previously promised to help municipalities reduce those fees by 50 per cent through additional payments that could be distributed by the provinces though he has not provided a timeline for those investments. 'If a municipality takes $200,000 up front, developers got to increase their prices such that $200,000 is reflected ultimately in the price of the house,' Clayton said. 'Builders won't build, unless they can cover their costs.' Toronto housing A real estate sign is displayed on the front lawn of a house in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, May 11, 2017. Clayton identifies three key culprits behind Toronto's crisis: high fees, restrictive planning rules, and relentless demand — the latter driven in part by immigration. Last year alone, nearly 300,000 newcomers arrived in the region, fuelling further housing pressure. 'You need sites. You need sites that are zoned, and you need sites that are serviced,' Clayton said. 'The planning system is very unresponsive to changes in demand.' 'We have to act now' New home sales in the GTA hit a seventh consecutive month of record all-time lows in April, owing in part to a significant reduction in housing starts. Dave Wilkes, president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), says time is running out to fix the system. 'We are seeing real market consequences. 80,000 people leave the GTA,' Wilkes said. 'The longer we wait, the longer that it's going to take to balance supply and demand.' Wilkes is calling for urgent action on housing taxes — especially the harmonized sales tax (HST) formula, which hasn't been revised since 1991. 'Making that change on HST today is the most immediate thing we could do,' Wilkes said. 'It would bring costs down by a dramatic 13 per cent for the first million dollars of a purchase.' He also warned that the federal government's plan to remove GST only for homes under $1 million misses the mark in high-cost cities like Toronto, where the average sale price sits well above that. 'Under a million is just not a product type that is available in the GTA,' he emphasized. Row of houses in Toronto Children ride bikes by a row of houses in Toronto on Tuesday July 12, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston What is the market is lacking? Jason Mercer, Chief Information Officer for the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, says affordability has technically improved — but warns that too little new construction could reverse that trend. 'Two years ago, a lot of households simply wouldn't have qualified,' Mercer said. 'Today, I would argue that a lot of those households could qualify, because prices have edged lower and interest rates have come down.' Still, Mercer says demand will eventually rebound, and if the city can't match it with supply, prices will climb again. 'We haven't done a good job keeping up with housing supply to meet that population growth,' he said. 'From a public policy perspective, we want to look at ways that we see sort of a sustained pipeline of new housing coming online.' A turning point with urgency Clayton says the roots of the crisis stretch back to the early-2000s when Ontario shifted its land-use focus towards environmental protection, including the establishment of the Greenbelt. He argues the policy limited where housing could be built, and gave too much power to growth management plans that discouraged the types of homes most people want — townhouses and detached units. 'We have to have a competitive supply of land,' Clayton said. 'Because if there's competition, then prices don't go up very much.' Despite efforts from all levels of government to address the issue — including a recent Ontario bill aimed at speeding up construction — most experts agree that housing affordability won't be meaningfully restored unless there's a broad and urgent shift in policy, from zoning and fees to taxes and timelines. 'The time for discussion has concluded. We really need the time for action,' Wilkes said.
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
'Buy Canadian': Here are 6 of the best homegrown condiment brands
The 'Buy Canadian' movement is stronger than ever. Seven in ten seek homegrown products when they shop (68 per cent, up five points from February), and more than half look at labels to avoid items made in the United States, according to a Narrative Research poll. Article content Proving that shopping local is no sacrifice, from innovative ways to slash sugar and sodium to time-honoured traditions, these six Canadian condiment companies make meals more delicious. Article content Article content Article content One of them is a dramatic example of how the 'Buy Canadian' movement can change the trajectory of a small business overnight. Most have experienced a boost in sales and are finding grocery buyers more receptive because of the rise of patriotic consumerism. All are available Canada-wide at retailers or via their websites. Article content Article content A dab of mustard, a dash of hot sauce or a drizzle of chili oil can make the difference between a ho-hum meal and a phenomenal one. These producers reflect the diversity of Canada's communities, whether expressing their heritage through flavour or creating something wholly new from homegrown ingredients. Article content 'I'm loving how Canadians are recognizing all of the things that are available in our home,' says Asha Wheeldon, founder and CEO of Vancouver's KULA Foods. 'We have so many brands. We have so much richness of ingredients grown in Alberta, in B.C., and across Canada that we have access to.' Article content Article content Article content Article content From whisky to bean-to-bar chocolate to cheese, many food and drink businesses have seen an uptick in sales since the 'Buy Canadian' movement started gaining momentum in February. What Shenul Williams's condiment business, Aki's Fine Foods, experienced was more than a mere boost — it was a tsunami. Article content In March, Williams talked to her family about possibly having to close her Pickering, Ont.-based company. 'I was just venting,' Williams recalls. '(I said), 'We can't take another whip like we took through COVID, and these tariffs are going to kill us. We can't survive.' Article content 'She's my hero. She's been there for me, thick and thin,' Williams says of Welch. Article content 'My mom has been operating via word of mouth for 38 years, and until I made that post, that's the only real social media presence this company has had,' says Welch, laughing. 'That's how you know her sauces are good because she's been in business for this long.'
