Why a Winnipeg woman was fined $300 for ‘harassing' a nesting goose
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CTV News
an hour ago
- CTV News
‘No safety rules': Concerns grow as AI-generated videos spread hate online
At first it appears to be a quirky video clip generated by artificial intelligence to make people laugh. In it, a hairy Bigfoot wearing a cowboy hat and a vest emblazoned with the American flag sits behind the wheel of a pickup truck. 'We are going today to the LGBT parade,' the apelike creature says with a laugh. 'You are going to love it.' Things then take a violent and disturbing turn as Bigfoot drives through a crowd of screaming people, some of them holding rainbow flags. The clip posted in June on the AmericanBigfoot TikTok page has garnered more than 360,000 views and hundreds of comments, most of them applauding the video. In recent months similar AI-generated content has flooded social media platforms, openly promoting violence and spreading hate against members of LGBTQ2S+, Jewish, Muslim and other minority groups. While the origin of most of those videos is unclear, their spread on social media is sparking outrage and concern among experts and advocates who say Canadian regulations cannot keep up with the pace of hateful AI-generated content, nor adequately address the risks it poses to public safety. Egale Canada, an LGBTQ2S+ advocacy organization, says the community is worried about the rise of transphobic and homophobic misinformation content on social media. 'These AI tools are being weaponized to dehumanize and discredit trans and gender diverse people and existing digital safety laws are failing to address the scale and speed of this new threat,' executive director Helen Kennedy said in a statement. Rapidly evolving technology has given bad actors a powerful tool to spread misinformation and hate, with transgender individuals being targeted disproportionately, Kennedy said. 'From deepfake videos to algorithm-driven amplification of hate, the harms aren't artificial– they're real." The LGBTQ2S+ community isn't the only target, said Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. Islamophobic, antisemitic and anti-South Asian content made with generative AI tools is also widely circulating on social media, he said. 'When they create the environment where there's a lot of celebration of violence towards those groups, it does make violence towards those groups happening in person or on the streets more likely,' Balgord warned in a phone interview. Canada's digital safety laws were already lagging behind and advancements in AI have made things even more complicated, he said. 'We have no safety rules at all when it comes to social media companies, we have no way of holding them accountable whatsoever.' Bills aimed at addressing harmful online content and establishing a regulatory AI framework died when Parliament was prorogued in January, said Andrea Slane, a legal studies professor at Ontario Tech University who has done extensive research on online safety. Slane said the government needs to take another look at online harms legislation and reintroduce the bill 'urgently.' 'I think Canada is in a situation where they really just need to move,' she said. Justice Minister Sean Fraser told The Canadian Press in June that the federal government will take a 'fresh' look at the Online Harms Act but it hasn't decided whether to rewrite or simply reintroduce it. Among other things, the bill aimed to hold social media platforms accountable for reducing exposure to harmful content. A spokesperson for the newly crated Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation said the government is taking the issue of AI-generated hateful content seriously, especially when it targets vulnerable minority groups. Sofia Ouslis said existing laws do provide 'important protections,' but admitted they didn't aim to address the threat of generative AI when they were designed. 'There's a real need to understand how AI tools are being used and misused — and how we can strengthen the guardrails,' she said in a statement. 'That work is ongoing.' The work involves reviewing existing frameworks, monitoring court decisions 'and listening closely to both legal and technological experts,' Ouslis said. She added that Prime Minister Mark Carney's government has also committed to making the distribution of non-consensual sexual deepfakes a criminal offence. 'In this fast-moving space, we believe it's better to get regulation right than to move too quickly and get it wrong,' she said, noting that Ottawa is looking to learn from the European Union and the United Kingdom. Slane said the European Union has been ahead of others in regulating AI and ensuring digital safety, but despite being at the 'forefront,' there is a feeling there that more needs to be done. Experts say regulating content distributed by social media giants is particularly difficult because those companies aren't Canadian. Another complicating factor is the current political climate south of the border, where U.S. tech companies are seeing reduced regulations and restrictions, making them 'more powerful and feeling less responsible, said Slane. Although generative AI has been around for a few years, there's been a 'breakthrough' in recent months making it easier to produce good quality videos using tools that are mostly available for free or at a very low price, said Peter Lewis, Canada Research Chair in trustworthy artificial intelligence. 'I've got to say it's really accessible to almost anybody with a little bit of technical knowledge and access to the right tools right now,' he said. Lewis, who is also an assistant professor at Ontario Tech University, said that large language models such as ChatGPT have implemented safeguards in an effort to filter out harmful or illegal content. But more needs to be done in the video space to create such guardrails, he said. 'You and I could watch the video and probably be horrified,' he said, adding 'it's not clear necessarily that the AI system has the ability to sort of reflect on what it has created.' Lewis said that while he isn't a legal expert, he believes existing laws can be used to combat the online glorification of hate and violence in the AmericanBigfoot videos. But he added the rapid development of generative AI and widespread availability of new tools 'does call for new technological solution' and collaboration between governments, consumers, advocates, social platforms and AI app developers to address the problem. 'If these things are being uploaded…we need really robust responsive flagging mechanisms to be able to get these things off the internet as quickly as possible,' he said. Lewis said using AI tools to detect and flag such videos helps, but it won't resolve the issue. 'Due to the nature of the way these AI systems work, they're probabilistic, so they don't catch everything.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 10, 2025. Sharif Hassan, The Canadian Press
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys cases need more attention. That's why I started tracking them
This First Person article is the experience of Alaya McIvor, a community matriarch and advocate for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, and for missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys. For more info rmation about CBC's First Person stories, please see this FAQ. You can read more First Person articles here. As someone who has been at the forefront of the missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people movement, often helping families mobilize for vigils and other events, I knew that more needed to be done to address the issue of MMIMB — missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys. So, as a family member directly impacted by both MMIWG2S+ and MMIMB, two years ago, I took it upon myself to start documenting the names of MMIMB. However, due to the emotional stress associated with this work, I would periodically put the list away. It wasn't until recently, after losing my aunt Mary, that I made a personal commitment to her to rededicate myself to researching online and through families the documentation and collection of data I had started collecting when I first began putting this list together. Aunt Mary, my mother's sister, was 77 years old and the matriarch of our family before she passed away on April 23. My commitment to her was inspired by her brother, my uncle Wayne McIvor, who was killed in my home community of Sandy Bay First Nation on Feb. 4, 1984. I never had the chance to meet him, but my family shared stories of his kindness and dedication to his family. I also wanted to create a platform for my nephews, Jordan McIvor and Christopher "Teddy" Beaulieu-McIvor — my aunt Mary's grandson and great-grandson, respectively. Jordan Dallas Shane McIvor was 19 years old when he was killed in Winnipeg in 2010. Christopher Dwight McIvor-Beaulieu was just 17 when he was killed in Winnipeg in 2018. Documenting the names of MMIMB is not a simple task; it requires a lot of work and emotional investment. And as I do so, I feel the presence of these men and boys, and I'm struck by the anger, resentment and frustration that comes with knowing that their cases have not received the attention they deserve. We have tragically lost three family members to homicide over the past 41 years, without access to social programs, resources, or healing for families of MMIMB. A growing list And we're not the only ones. Far from it. Prior to my aunt's passing, I had documented around 30 names. However, after recommitting myself to this work, the list grew rapidly: 75, 100, 120, 180 — and eventually 225 names. I was not surprised by the growing number, given my experience working on an MMIWG2S+ list. But what's alarming is that none of these men or their families have had access to services tailored to their needs, or even a list of their names documented like the one I put together. I was hesitant to post the list — all 225 names — on social media. But I knew it would allow families to come forward and add their loved ones' names. And it did. Within seconds of posting it, I had the first family come forward. Within 36 hours, 31 families had reached out. The list has now grown from 225 to 256 names. I'm certain that if my aunt Mary were still with us today, she would be overjoyed to see an actual list of Manitoba's missing and murdered Indigenous men and boys' names and other data I've gathered so far. I hope that this list will help us advocate for these critical essential services, including intervention and prevention programs for men and boys across our province. This list is a first of its kind for Manitoba, and I'm committed to continuing this work as we continue moving forward. I know this is just the beginning, and I know the list will continue to grow.
National Post
2 hours ago
- National Post
Terry Newman: Let's talk about post-sex regret, baby
Post-sex regret is not a bad thing in itself. It is a normal, and even potentially constructive, emotion. While the feeling of a regretted sexual act or entire encounter is experienced negatively, it also creates an opportunity to reflect and change our behaviours to avoid future regret. It becomes a problem when an individual, without having voiced any objection during an act or encounter, takes that feeling of post-sex regret and hurls it as an accusation toward an unsuspecting sexual partner. Article content Article content To me, this is a likely part of the dynamic in the Hockey Canada trial, which concluded late July with the acquittal of five players accused of sexual assault and had devastating effects on the lives of everyone involved. Article content Article content The trial led to the complete disruption of the lives of five junior hockey players: Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote. Four of the five players lost active contracts with the NHL when they were charged in 2024. They are all barred from playing in the league, pending a review of Justice Maria Carroccia's decision, which ruled that their accuser, E.M., was not credible or reliable and that she had given 'actual consent not vitiated by fear.' Article content This ruling was based on evidence that E.M. had not only consented, but was an active participant who made sexual requests of the players. According to the testimony of Tyler Steenbergen, one of the players who was present that night but not charged, 20-year-old E.M. laid on a sheet at one point masturbating, on her own accord, demanded sex from the 18 and 19-year-olds, and called them 'pu–ies' when they declined her offer. E.M. even agreed with another player who recounted that she took on a 'porn star' persona. The judge found that this evidence helped establish that E.M. had 'communicated her willingness to engage in sexual activity' that night. Article content Article content One consent video was recorded of E.M. smiling and saying, 'I'm OK with this.' It was taken without her knowledge and the judge found it convincing enough to say, 'It presumably depicts how she was behaving at the time. She was speaking normally, she was smiling and did not appear to be upset or in distress. She did not appear to be intoxicated.' Article content Article content A second video was recorded at 4 a.m. in which E.M. said, 'It was all consensual,' multiple times, smiling. 'Would you … You are so paranoid, holy. I enjoyed it. It was fine. It was all consensual. I am so sober that's why I can't do this right now.' Article content To me, it looks like the complications came from what happened during and after her advances. Article content One player testified that he was shocked by E.M.'s boldness and had laughed awkwardly at her ' offers.' She testified that she was offended when one of the players asked if 'she was sure she did not have any STDs,' considered this 'disrespectful' and ' rude.' E.M. was bothered by the fact that they seemed annoyed when she came back to the room to look for a lost ring. E.M. also testified that she had a boyfriend at the time and felt guilty about cheating on him.
