Titan disaster: federal Fisheries Department was part of previous OceanGate mission
The department confirmed Thursday that in the summer of 2021, a staff member boarded a vessel 'associated with OceanGate' to participate as an observer during a mission off Newfoundland.
'The purpose was to learn more about OceanGate,' the department said in an email sent to The Canadian Press.
'Upon conclusion of the mission, it was determined that (OceanGate's) priorities did not align with the department's scientific objectives, and a further relationship was not pursued.'
No other details were provided about the trip.
As well, the department did not respond to an email asking whether any federal employees raised safety concerns about OceanGate's expeditions to view the wreck of the Titanic.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Coast Guard released a report that concluded the tragedy on June 18, 2023, could have been prevented had OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush heeded safety warnings and calls for independent inspections and certification of the submersible.
Rush was among those killed when Titan split apart as it descended near the Titanic, about four kilometres below the surface of the North Atlantic.
Safety procedures at OceanGate, a private company based in Washington state, were 'critically flawed' and there were 'glaring disparities' between safety protocols and actual practices, the coast guard's report said.
The 300-page report also revealed that in May 2021, Canada's Fisheries Department had written a 'letter of support' to Rush, saying the department wanted to collaborate with his company to assess its submersibles for scientific research.
Only portions of the letter were included in the coast guard report.
The Fisheries Department sent a copy of the letter to The Canadian Press on Wednesday, along with a statement that suggested its initial discussions with OceanGate were routine.
'Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) routinely expresses interest in scientific collaboration with a wide variety of potential partners,' a spokesman said Wednesday in an email.
'In early 2021, DFO had a series of exploratory discussions with OceanGate. The (May 2021) letter was sent to summarize the discussions that took place and the potential for the department to work with the company, beginning in 2021, to determine the applicability of its marine research systems.'
The letter, dated May 19, 2021, makes it clear that department officials were keen to work with Rush and his team.
'DFO Maritimes Region is pleased with the discussions with OceanGate, the offer to participate in 2021, and the unique opportunity being offered to Canadian scientists and conservation efforts.'
The letter also mentions possible funding from Ottawa.
The department spokesman also confirmed in the Wednesday email there were discussions about having a staff member board the submersible on an expedition to the Titanic, almost 700 kilometres south of Newfoundland. But he said that never happened.
The department did not explain why the relationship with OceanGate was eventually terminated or mention its collaboration on another vessel until pressed for details the next day.
Besides DFO's letter of support in 2021, the U.S. Coast Guard's investigation found no evidence of any actual collaboration or funding.
The submersible's implosion also killed French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
In June, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said the independent agency had completed its investigation report, which at the time was being reviewed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 8, 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
'No safety rules': Concerns grow as AI-generated videos spread hate online
Published Aug 10, 2025 • 5 minute read A person uses a cellphone in Ottawa on Monday, July 18, 2022. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press At first it appears to be a quirky video clip generated by artificial intelligence to make people laugh. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 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 LGBTQ+, Jewish, Muslim and other minority groups. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 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 LGBTQ+ 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. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'From deepfake videos to algorithm-driven amplification of hate, the harms aren't artificial_ they're real.' The LGBTQ+ 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. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. '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. RECOMMENDED VIDEO 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. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 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. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. '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. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 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. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. '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.' Columnists Columnists Sports Sunshine Girls Canada
Winnipeg Free Press
2 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Do some homework to get on similar sexual page
Opinion DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My live-in girlfriend bought me a book on different ways to have sex. What's wrong with the usual moves? I love sex any old way — or even just in my favourite way all the time! She says she wants more 'novelty.' After a few minutes, I just want to get on with the main event. For her birthday gift to me two weeks ago, she gave me the book filled with new ways to 'make love.' She gets a laugh out of reading the instructions out loud, before we troop upstairs to bed together, like I'm her sex student. That doesn't work with me — it just turns me off. I'm so sick of this situation. I did feel 'passionate' about my girlfriend before she became the self-appointed sex instructor. How can I change this? — Losing Gas, St. James Dear Losing Gas: Hit the online book stores for your own sexual instruction books. When they arrive, check them out first, and encourage your girlfriend to pick from the situations that look interesting to you. In fairness, she should agree to some, but it's highly likely she'll reject your suggestions, because she still wants to be the sex professor. Best situation possible? You'll share a few experiments that actually interest you both, laugh about the others and be happy again. Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: My wife is away at the lake with the kids for the summer, and I'm at home working from a table beside our big old swimming pool. But I've got a problem brewing now. On a very hot day recently, my new neighbour and her teenage son — new to Canada — rang the doorbell and asked me if they might take a quick dip in my pool, as their air-conditioning unit was broken. The mom said it was sweltering in their house. I felt very awkward, but politely said OK — how Canadian of me! Of course, I went out to the pool with them — and surprise! She was an amazing swimmer — a real athlete. She did a bunch of laps, and had races with her son. That was just the first day. My wife was mad when I told her I've been letting the mom and kid use our pool, as it's been so hot. She says there's 'no need for that nonsense.' Hey, there was no 'need' for her to go away for two whole months and leave me alone to work either! But she's a teacher, and says she deserves the break from the city. My question? Is it fair to tell this neighbour she can't come and swim with her kid anymore? My wife is insisting, but I'm not using the pool except before bed time, and these neighbours are no trouble. — Innocent Situation, Windsor Park Dear Innocent Situation: How would you feel if you were at the lake with your kids and an athletic man and his son were coming over to use the pool in your yard, and just your wife was at home? This neighbour may be quite innocent, but she has a fair amount of nerve, and is taking advantage of the situation while your wife and kids are away. As a woman, she has to know your wife probably may not be happy the situation. You want to keep your marriage on track? The athletic neighbour will have to start taking her son to a local public swimming pool or nearby beach. The present situation is not going to fly for long with your mate, and it could mean serious trouble for you. Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@ or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6. Maureen ScurfieldAdvice columnist Maureen Scurfield writes the Miss Lonelyhearts advice column. Read full biography Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Toronto Star
8 hours ago
- Toronto Star
CGTN: ‘Dongji Rescue': Humanity forged in blood and fire
BEIJING, Aug. 10, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The film 'Dongji Rescue,' based on the 1942 sinking of the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru after it was torpedoed by American forces, is the moving story of Chinese fishermen from nearby Dongji Island courageously rescuing the over 1800 British POWs aboard the liner despite Japanese soldiers' firing. It's not just a poignant look back at a forgotten chapter of history. 'Dongji Rescue' embodies the principle that remembering history is not about perpetuating hatred, but about learning from it to safeguard peace.
