Latest news with #monitoring
LBCI
5 hours ago
- Politics
- LBCI
US envoy Tom Barrack urges Lebanon to back disarmament talk with action, sources tell LBCI
According to information obtained by LBCI, U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has pressed Lebanese officials to translate their stated intent to limit weapons possession into tangible steps. The Lebanese side reportedly offered no new proposals on the matter, prompting Barrack to stress that such measures are essential for reactivating the ceasefire monitoring committee's work.
CBC
12 hours ago
- CBC
How app upgrades are helping Toronto police do more bail compliance checks
Social Sharing There's an app for that — even to help monitor people on bail in Ontario. And it's getting some upgrades, courtesy of a $2.4-million provincial grant, finalized last year. Back in 2019, Toronto police created a bail compliance dashboard, a mobile and desktop app, to give officers one spot to review bail conditions, surety information and the address of those out on bail for firearms-related charges before checking in on them. Earlier this year, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) took over management of the app to expand it across the province. With three years of provincial funding, which began in 2023 and wraps next March, Toronto police have improved their systems so the dashboard receives court information faster and on more individuals, allowing officers to do more compliance checks. They can also now start monitoring people on the app facing other serious charges, like carjackings, home invasions and human trafficking. The work, done in partnership with Durham Regional Police, is called Project Aware. "We've expanded year over year," said Craig Lawrie, project lead from the Toronto police's information management unit. "We're getting court data faster, it's more accurate, and we're making sure that we're reducing administrative burdens where we can, so frontline officers have more time for bail compliance." Number of checks up 200% Last year, Toronto police completed 200 per cent more bail compliance checks compared to when the dashboard was first created six years ago. During Project Aware, officers were able to complete 2,718 more checks in 2024 than they did in 2023. "In the past, officers would have to use very manual-type methods like spreadsheets or mug shots on a wall," said Det. Sgt. Andrew Steinwall, who works with the bail enforcement unit. "This takes us into modern times." Steinwall says officers review the app before completing a compliance check, which usually starts with going to the home of a person out on bail for a serious offence to make sure they're following their conditions. What happens after depends on what they find. There are now more than 1,200 people facing charges from TPS with their information in the dashboard. The majority (714) are for firearms offences, alongside roughly 500 individuals being monitored for the other serious charges the service has added. More enforcement better than bail reform: lawyer Alison Craig, a Toronto-based criminal defence lawyer, thinks this a good investment. "I've long said the solution is more compliance checks and enforcement, rather than change in the bail laws and bail reform," she said. "I hope if the system is proven effective, it will assist perhaps in more people getting bail, because our jails are overcrowded." Most of Ontario's jails were over capacity in 2023, according to a Canadian Press investigation from last year. And people held in custody waiting for a court date or trial made up 80 per cent of that population in 2022-23, the most recent year for which data is available from Statistics Canada. "One of the grounds that has to be considered in bail is the public perception," said Craig. "If the public is aware that bail compliance is being taken seriously and money is being invested in that, then perhaps it will assist in fewer people being detained pending trial, because more people can be safely released on bail knowing that there will be compliance checks." Funding for the OPP's province-wide expansion of the app and these upgrades stem from $112 million in spending the Ontario government earmarked for strengthening bail enforcement in April 2023. 16 Ontario police services using app There are now 16 police services in Ontario using the Provincial Bail Compliance Dashboard, with another service set to start this week, according to the OPP. All of the police services in the Great Toronto Area are on it, and an OPP spokesperson confirmed it's working with the remaining police services in the province to get their data on it, as well. All together, the app is monitoring more than 2,730 people on bail, compared to about 1,650 nearly two years ago, Lawrie told CBC Toronto. "We've been able to get a better sense of the broader picture of who's on bail, and for what, through this project," he said. CBC Toronto obtained a copy of TPS's funding application and other related records for this provincial bail enforcement grant through a freedom-of-information request. The application included baseline numbers and targets for various stats aimed at reducing the rate of bail violations and recidivism, and improving the tracking of "high-risk" individuals on bail. Toronto police wrote in the application that in 2023, 2.9 per cent of those they monitored for bail compliance had re-offended. But they said they didn't know how many people under community supervision had been found in violation of their bail conditions overall nor how many of them had been re-admitted to custody while on bail. In their application, they said they didn't have the "technology and/or processes" to track those statistics. But Lawrie says that's also changing. "We've developed processes," he said. "We're hopeful, as it mentioned in the grant, by the end that we are able to have a better sense of that number, and then we can scale that to other agencies, as well." Another goal listed was to increase the total number of people monitored by the dashboard to 2,900 by the end of March 2026. At the moment, they're just under 200 people shy of that target. But Lawrie says their focus is quality over quantity. "We need to make sure that we have the capabilities to ensure that what we have in front of the officers doing the checks is always up-to-date and accurate," he said. "Until that can be assured, then we can't expand."
National Post
5 days ago
- Business
- National Post
ITRS Recognized in 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms for the First Time
Article content LONDON — ITRS, a pioneer in real-time monitoring and observability for mission-critical industries, today announced its inclusion in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Observability Platforms. Article content ITRS's transformation into a unified observability platform, purpose-built for demanding and regulated IT environments, is the outcome of sustained investment in product innovation. By consolidating Geneos (application performance), Opsview (infrastructure monitoring), and Uptrends (digital experience monitoring) into a single, powerful platform, ITRS Analytics, the company delivers observability at the speed of the markets. Article content 'Our ambition is to redefine observability for industries where downtime isn't an option,' Article content said Ryan Terpstra, CEO at ITRS. Article content 'ITRS Analytics empowers organizations to move beyond IT monitoring to holistic observability, ensuring the systems that power the modern digital economy are always on.' Article content Built for Real-Time Resilience Article content ITRS Analytics offers the ability to ingest and enrich telemetry beyond infrastructure data – including sustainability metrics, business KPIs, and financial transaction telemetry – making it uniquely suited to financial services and other high-stakes use cases. Article content 'The launch of ITRS Analytics marks a transformational shift forward allowing us to deliver innovation at pace for the largest and most complex enterprises in the world,' Article content added Ryan Terpstra. Article content 'It is the foundation on which we are now bringing together agentic AI, automation, and predictive capabilities all designed to help our clients achieve their IT resilience and business objectives.' Article content Gartner Disclaimer Article content Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Observability Platforms, by Gregg Siegfried, Matt Crossley, Padraig Byrne, Andre Bridges, Martin Caren, July 2025. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved. About ITRS ITRS provides real-time monitoring, analytics, and observability solutions that help financial institutions and enterprises ensure operational resilience, performance, and compliance. Trusted by leading banks, exchanges, and payment providers, ITRS enables teams to detect, diagnose, and resolve issues before they impact customers or markets. Learn more at Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
CTV News
6 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
Alberta won't increase oil sands monitoring funds to keep pace with industry expansion, inflation
An oilsands facility is seen from a helicopter near Fort McMurray, Alta., Tuesday, July 10, 2012. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS) Indigenous representatives of an oilsands monitoring program say Alberta won't increase funding to keep pace with oilsands expansion and inflation — and the shortfall risks compromising monitoring work, according to a letter obtained by Canada's National Observer. The joint oilsands monitoring group, composed of industry, provincial, federal and Indigenous representatives, was created in 2013 to monitor the environmental impacts of oilsands development in Alberta. The budget for 2025 is $54.5 million, paid for by industry, but the monitoring program received requests for roughly $76 million worth of monitoring work plans, leaving roughly $21.5 million of work requests unfunded. On March 20, Indigenous representatives on the oversight committee wrote a letter to the provincial and federal co-chairs warning that the budget is not keeping up with inflation or monitoring demands created by oilsands expansion, and this will negatively impact the quality of work. The funding formula that requires industry to pay up to $50 million annually for the program was developed in 2013 collaboratively by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and the Alberta government. Accounting for inflation, what cost $50 million in 2013 should now cost about $66.5 million, the letter signatories write; 'Thus, the overall purchasing power of oilsands monitoring has shrunk roughly 25 per cent, while the oil sands industry has nearly doubled in size.' The signatories added that this runs contrary to the polluter-pays principle. This principle in Canadian law says companies or people that pollute are responsible to pay the costs they impose on society to protect the public from the cost of pollution, for example, oil spill cleanup and lasting impacts. In 2018, royalty revenues were $3.2 billion. In 2023, that number reached a staggering $16.9 billion, according to the letter. The Indigenous representatives pushed to prioritize fully funding community-based monitoring programs and core monitoring programs which meant cuts to other important programs. 'Arbitrary cuts to monitoring programs, such as the proposed major reductions in wetlands and biodiversity, put the effectiveness of the monitoring at risk,' according to the letter. 'For severely compromised programs, we would rather that no monitoring occur instead of poor monitoring. Poor monitoring does not provide any value to the communities, nor to the public, but instead provides a veneer of having addressed concerns in these areas.' Ryan Fournier, press secretary for Alberta Minister Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schulz, said it is 'misleading' to describe it as programming cuts because the request for $73 million in funding encompassed '53 different work plans, including requests that are duplicative, overlapping or even potentially conflicting.' Fournier did not provide specific examples of duplicative or conflicting work plans. There is a $3 million discrepancy between the amount of requested funding Alberta provided and the figure cited in the letter. When asked to respond to the fact that both inflation and oilsands expansion are outpacing the available funding, Fournier said the oil sands monitoring program 'is the biggest program of its kind in the world,' and said its budget 'has risen over $5 million since 2022, and has the funding needed to continue delivering for Albertans.' According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) spokesperson Hannah Boonstra, the funding was increased by $4.5 million this year 'to utilize surplus funds accumulated from underspending in previous years.' The historic underspending is due to a range of factors, including COVID-19 and associated slowdowns on work plan approval, hiring and contracting delays, overestimating costs, consolidating work, approval delays and more, according to the annual reports. ECCC and Alberta Environment and Protected Areas co-chair the oil sands monitoring program but the federal government was in caretaker mode for the 2025 election and did not sign off on the final annual monitoring plan to avoid delays, Boonstra's statement noted. 'Since the Government of Alberta is financially accountable for the program, the province approves the financial elements of the monitoring plan,' Boonstra said. Last year, nearly $540,000 went to Cold Lake First Nation for community-based monitoring to examine how the oilsands industry is impacting a variety of factors, including water quality, berry abundance, fisheries health, muskrats and pitcher plants, to name a few. Interest in community-based monitoring like this is growing, the letter noted, and 'as new communities are onboarded, this forces us to choose between existing Western science initiatives and the needs of Indigenous communities.' This interest will likely keep growing while funding remains stagnant and 'we cannot offer a path forward for those programs and encourage communities to submit proposals, but then largely ignore the requests,' the letter reads. By Natasha Bulowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer
Globe and Mail
6 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
BlackSky Wins Multimillion-Dollar Contract with New International Defense Customer for Gen-3 and Gen-2 Assured Services
BlackSky Technology Inc. (NYSE: BKSY) won a competitive, multimillion dollar contract with a new international customer that combines immediate Gen-3 and Gen-2 subscription-based imagery and analytics services and follow-on ground segment modernization services. 'This contract illustrates how BlackSky's reliable fully integrated real-time, commercial space-based intelligence services can be used as an important tool for modern defense and intelligence organizations engaged across the full spectrum of grey-zone conflicts worldwide,' said Brian O'Toole, BlackSky CEO. 'BlackSky's end-to-end automated architecture uniquely gives our most demanding customers the ability to task and receive high-cadence imagery and AI-enabled analytics starting on day one.' As part of the agreement, the customer will receive immediate, subscription-based access to Assured services, which guarantees tasking capacity for persistent monitoring over a customer's areas of interest. BlackSky will also upgrade the customer's existing ground station and mission operations center with direct-downlink and uplink communications capabilities for faster, locally controlled intelligence. 'Our international allied customers continue to lead as early adopters, constantly developing novel applications for AI-enabled change-based monitoring,' said O'Toole. 'For this contract, BlackSky will also be optimizing the ground segment, making the customer's overall sovereign architecture forward-compatible with the high processing volumes associated with low-latency, high-cadence space-based monitoring.' The customer will use BlackSky's automated Spectra ® AI-enabled tasking and analytics platform to order and fuse data from Gen-3 and Gen-2 satellites, enabling the detection, identification and classification of objects of interest, such as vehicles, aircraft and vessels, with no humans in the loop. Gen-3 capabilities build upon the proven architecture of Gen-2, allowing for continued innovation and rapid deployment of new technologies. BlackSky has proprietary in-house satellite design and agile manufacturing, constellation operations and end-to-end advanced software development capabilities. This vertically integrated approach gives the company the ability to quickly develop, produce and deploy reliable space-based intelligence solutions at disruptive speed, scale and economics. About BlackSky BlackSky is a real-time, space-based intelligence company that delivers on-demand, high frequency imagery, analytics, and high-frequency monitoring of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events in the world. BlackSky owns and operates one of the industry's most advanced, purpose-built commercial, real-time intelligence systems that combines the power of the BlackSky Spectra® tasking and analytics software platform and our proprietary low earth orbit satellite constellation. With BlackSky, customers can see, understand and anticipate changes for a decisive strategic advantage at the tactical edge, and act not just fast, but first. BlackSky is trusted by some of the most demanding U.S. and international government agencies, commercial businesses, and organizations around the world. BlackSky is headquartered in Herndon, VA, and is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange as BKSY. To learn more, visit and follow us on X. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to BlackSky, including statements related to expected payments under BlackSky's contracts with customers and BlackSky's ability to develop, produce and deploy reliable space-based intelligence solutions. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words 'believe,' 'project,' 'expect,' 'anticipate,' 'estimate,' 'intend,' 'strategy,' 'future,' 'opportunity,' 'plan,' 'may,' 'should,' 'will,' 'would,' 'will be,' 'will continue,' 'will likely result,' and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections, and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this document. If any of these risks materialize or underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect our expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause their assessments to change. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Additional risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in BlackSky's disclosure materials filed from time to time with the SEC which are available at the SEC's website at or on BlackSky's Investor Relations website at
