Cohere co-founder ‘skeptical’ of AI creating sci-fi doomsday scenarios
The Canadian Press The head of Canadian artificial intelligence darling Cohere says the technology is not bound to exceed human capabilities any time soon and if it does, he’s skeptical any sci-fi like scenarios will arise. The prediction from Aidan Gomez came Tuesday at the Collision tech conference in Toronto, where the Cohere co-founder and chief executive spoke of how AI models are on track to become smarter and even more capable. However, he feels those advances have led to a “philosophical” divide among the industry, which has been rife with debate about where the technology is headed — and how fast. “I’m of the opinion that it’s going to take us a while to exceed human capabilities uniformly,” Gomez said. The more gains the technology makes, the more likely...
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4 First Nations sign deal with Ontario to build roads near Ring of Fire
The Canadian Press Four First Nations have signed a deal with Ontario for new roads, other infrastructure projects and skills training as the province lays a foundation for plans to mine the mineral-rich Ring of Fire region. The province said Animbiigoo Zaagi’igan Anishinaabek, Aroland First Nation, Ginoogaming First Nation and Long Lake #58 First Nation will see their roads that connect to the provincial highway system fortified and renewed. The roads, about 300 kilometres east of Thunder Bay, Ont., will support critical mineral and resource development, Premier Doug Ford said. “These are all-season roads that will support First Nations communities, built by First Nations workers,” Ford wrote in a statement on Tuesday. The province signed letters of confirmation with Kenogamisis Investment Corporation,and Minodahmun Development, the former owned by those four...
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Future Poilievre government would maintain support for ‘anti-scab’ law, office says
The Canadian Press A future Conservative government would continue to support a ban on the use of replacement workers at federally regulated workplaces during a strike, leader Pierre Poilievre’s office said Tuesday. The legislation, which is on its way to becoming law after passing in the Senate late on Monday, was a key element of the Liberals’ political pact with the New Democrats. It earned unanimous support in the House of Commons after Poilievre’s Conservatives decided to back it. Poilievre has been pitching his party as the one for the working class, despite leaders of organized labour taking aim at his record in Parliament. They point out that he supported back-to-work legislation the last time the Conservatives were in power and at one point advocated for employees to be allowed...
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Anonymous group renews push for justice in Kanesatake
By Marcus Bankuti Local Journalism Initiative Reporter KANESATAKE-About a year after a media campaign that turned the country’s attention to the government’s failures to act on G&R Recycling and a climate of lawlessness and fear in the community, a group of anonymous Kanehsata’kehró:non have released a new open letter to highlight the continued urgency of their cause. “The federal government and provincial government are treating the issue like a hot potato,” said Pink, a pseudonym used by a member of the group, in an interview with The Eastern Door. “I think it serves the government to say we’ll put it on the Mohawks, yet they are not willing to apply any kind of environmental laws that would protect the community, that would protect our safety. I think the situation has...
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Treaty 3 crisis has become a state of emergency: Grand Council
By Mike Stimpson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter 17/06/2024 18:45 KENORA – Last year, Grand Council Treaty #3’s fall assembly declared a mental health and substance use crisis across their territory. Now its Grand Chief and Chiefs-in-Assembly have declared a nationwide mental health and addictions state of emergency. First Nations in the Treaty #3 region have “witnessed a distressing increase in suicides and other mental health challenges over recent years, necessitating urgent and collective action,” a news release from Grand Council stated. The release said “a unified and holistic approach” that includes “crisis intervention and comprehensive community support” is needed. Grand Chief Francis Kavanaugh identified “the legacy of colonization and continued oppression, intergenerational trauma, health inequity and systemic discrimination experienced by many First Nations people and communities” as factors behind the...
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B.C.’s first park expansion in a decade protects caribou
CHETWYND, B.C. —- The first provincial park expansion in a decade will see some 200,000 hectares of protected space for Caribou and other species located in northeastern B.C. The Ministry of the Environment said in a statement on June 14th that the Klinse-za Park, located southwest of Chetwynd, is part of the province’s goal of protecting 30 per cent of B.C. lands by the year 2030. Expanding the park is part of a deal reached in 2020 between the province, the federal government, Saulteau First Nations, and West Moberly First Nations. That agreement included helping to protect and stabilize the population of Caribou. In the past century, the population of Caribou declined by 55 per cent, leaving only about 4,000 southern mountain caribou in B.C., according to the province. The...
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New nurses take custom Anishinaabe pledge
By Mike Stimpson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter FORT FRANCES – Some things about Florence Nightingale weren’t so great, so the nurses’ pledge named after the 19th-century caregiver was problematic. That, in a nutshell, is the explanation for the Seven Generations Education Institute (SGEI) replacing the Nightingale Pledge with a pledge tailored to its Indigenous nursing grads. The pledge this year’s new crop of SGEI-trained nurses took at a pinning ceremony in Fort Frances was drafted to reflect Anishinaabe culture. “The need for the custom pledge was identified by our post-secondary director, Angela Mainville,” Jana-Rae Yerxa, curriculum developer for SGEI, told NWO Newswatch. “It was unsettling that our nursing graduates were reciting the Florence Nightingale Pledge. “Although Nightingale is a celebrated figure in the nursing profession, the reality is that she...
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‘Dismantled’ human smuggling group tied to dead migrants in St. Lawrence River: RCMP
The Canadian Press A human smuggling ring recently dismantled by members of the RCMP was connected to the deaths of eight migrants who drowned in the St. Lawrence River while trying to cross illegally into the United States last year. Members of two families — four people from India and four of Romanian descent — died in March 2023 while trying to make the crossing in Akwesasne, a First Nations territory that straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state. Their bodies were pulled from the water on March 30 and 31. On June 6, Police announced they had arrested four people, including the alleged ringleader, and issued warrants for four others. They were all part of a “large-scale human smuggling ring that funnelled illegal migrants” into the United States, RCMP...
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A few midwives seek to uphold Native Hawaiian birth traditions. Would a state law jeopardize them?
The Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Ki‘inaniokalani Kahoʻohanohano longed for a deeper connection to her Native Hawaiian ancestors and culture as she prepared to give birth to her first child at home on the north shore of Maui in 2003. But generations of colonialist suppression had eroded many Hawaiian traditions, and it was hard to find information on how the islands’ Indigenous people honored pregnancy or childbirth. Nor could she find a Native Hawaiian midwife. That experience led Kahoʻohanohano — now a mother of five — to become a Native Hawaiian midwife herself, a role in which she spent years helping to deliver as many as three babies a month, receiving them in a traditional cloth made of woven bark and uttering sacred, tremorous chants as she welcomed them into...
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Move over grizzlies and wolves: Yellowstone visitors hope to catch a glimpse of rare white buffalo
The Associated Press YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Standing at the edge of a bluff overlooking the Lamar River in Yellowstone National Park, TJ Ammond stared through binoculars at hundreds of buffalo dotting the verdant valley below. Tan-colored calves frolicked near their mothers while hulking bulls wallowed in mud. As his wife and young children clustered behind him, Ammond panned the vast herd and cried out: “I see a white one!” “Or no — that’s a pronghorn,” he soon corrected. “It’s white and it’s small.” Grizzly bears and wolves are usually the star attractions for wildlife watchers in Yellowstone but this spring, a tiny and exceedingly rare white buffalo calf has stolen the show. White buffalo — also known as bison — are held sacred by many Native Americans...
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Alberta First Nation seeks more control over historical resources on lands
The Canadian Press An Alberta First Nation in the province’s oilsands region is seeking more control over the traces left by ancestors on their traditional lands. “We’d like to manage our historical resources,” said Shaun Janvier of the Chipewyan Prairie First Nation, which considers a vast tract of land in northern Alberta its territory. “The archeology is directly linked to the native people in the area. It belongs to us.” Chipewyan Prairie is one of the first bands in Alberta to begin developing a cultural resources policy in an attempt to have more say in how artifacts and the places they come from are found, studied, preserved and displayed. It’s a move that’s long overdue, said Kisha Supernant, director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology at the University...
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New signs warning of great white sharks in the works for some East Coast beaches
The Canadian Press There’s growing evidence that the number of great white sharks is on the rise along Canada’s East Coast, where plans are in the works to post warning signs for beachgoers for the first time. Fred Whoriskey, director of the Ocean Tracking Network at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says the population of these apex predators appears to be growing because of successful conservation measures and a rapidly growing food supply, mainly grey seals. “We’re probably seeing more animals here, though we don’t know how many,” he said in an interview. “No one has a handle on the northwest Atlantic white shark population …. (But) I’ve spoken to a lot of lobstermen who are seeing things that they have not seen for 40, 50 years on the water. That...
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World’s first weekly insulin injection coming to Canada in 2 weeks, manufacturer says
The Canadian Press 17/06/2024 04:00 Many people with diabetes in Canada will soon be able to take insulin once a week instead of daily, drug manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced on Monday. Insulin icodec, which will be sold under the brand name Awiqli, is the first once-a-week basal insulin injection in the world and it will be available across the country starting June 30, the company told The Canadian Press ahead of the announcement. Canada is the first country to get the product, which was approved by Health Canada in March for the treatment of adults with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. “I think it’s a very big deal,” said Dr. Harpreet Bajaj, head of the clinical practice guidelines steering committee at Diabetes Canada. “(It’s) huge for reducing the burden...
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B.C. establishes largest provincial park in a decade to protect threatened caribou
The Canadian Press A major provincial park expansion will create a protection zone of almost 2,000 square kilometres for caribou and other species in northeastern British Columbia. The Ministry of Environment says in a statement that the addition to the Klinse-za Park will make it the largest provincial park established in the province in a decade. The park addition is the result of a partnership in 2020 between the province and the Saulteau and West Moberly First Nations, where they agreed to help stabilize and protect the threatened southern mountain caribou. Klinse-za Park is located just west of Chetwynd, B.C., almost 1,100 kilometres north of Vancouver. The province says the number of caribou in B.C. fell by more than 55 per cent in the last century, mostly due to human-caused...
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G7 leaders pledge action to counter foreign interference in new statement
The Canadian Press Leaders of the G7 countries say they are more concerned than ever about foreign interference and plan to create a “collective response framework” to counter foreign threats to democracies. That pledge is part of a 43-page communique released Friday by the leaders of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and Japan. It said government ministers have been asked to get the framework together by the end of the year, and that it will include publicly exposing “foreign operations of information manipulation.” The communique also called on tech companies to step up their efforts to prevent and counter foreign interference and information manipulation, particularly through the abuse of artificial intelligence. The focus on foreign interference and its threats to democracy comes at a time...
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Nova Scotia judge rejects constitutional arguments for Indigenous cannabis shops
The Canadian Press A Nova Scotia judge has rejected arguments from four defendants claiming they have treaty and aboriginal rights to sell cannabis at dispensaries on Indigenous land north of Halifax. In a ruling released Thursday, provincial court Judge Ronda Van der Hoek said she agreed with the Crown’s argument that two expert reports provided by the defendants failed to support their claims. As a result, the defendants no longer have the option of arguing for exemptions from the law under the Constitution. “I grant the (Crown’s) application to summarily dismiss the constitutional issues, based on the information before me at this time,” the decision says, adding that the application for constitutional arguments was “manifestly frivolous.” In Nova Scotia, sales of cannabis must be conducted from Nova Scotia Liquor Commission...
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Driver facing charges after Six Nations Police pursuit
SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND RIVER- Six Nations Police have arrested and charged a local woman after a vehicle apprehension pursuit hit local roadways Monday, June 10, 2024. Six Nations Police said at about 1:00 AM, officers saw a vehicle that had fled from police earlier in the evening on Second Line Road. The vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed, driving erratically and failed to stop at a posted stop sign. Police initiated a vehicle apprehension pursuit that included activating Deflation Devices (TDD) to disable the vehicle. After deployment of the TDD, officers located the vehicle in a driveway at a residence a short distance away. The vehicle was unoccupied. Officers requested the assistance of the K9 Unit. The K9 unit attended the scene and was successfully...
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Ohsweken man facing multiple charges including Dangerous Driving
SIX NATIONS OF THE GRAND RIVER -An Ohsweken man is facing multiple charges including Dangerous Driving after Six Nations Police spotted a vehicle with a smashed windshield being driven at high rates of speed on Chiefswood Road Thursday (June 13th). Police were patrolling on Chiefswood Road when at about 1:50 PM, officers spotted a vehicle with a smashed windshield fail to come to a complete stop at a posted stop sign and then fail to signal their turn. Police were following the vehicle at a safe distance when it began travelling at a high rate of speed , including through a school zone, when police ssid the driver made an unsafe lane change. As a result of the investigation, police arrested and charged Ryan Bouchard, 39, of Ohsweken with the...
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Report finds Colorado was built on $1.7 trillion of land expropriated from tribal nations
The Associated Press 14/06/2024 A report published this week by a Native American-led nonprofit examines in detail the dispossession of $1.7 trillion worth of Indigenous homelands in Colorado by the state and the U.S. and the more than $546 million the state has reaped in mineral extraction from them. The report, shared first with The Associated Press, identifies 10 tribal nations that have “aboriginal title, congressional title, and treaty title to lands within Colorado” and details the ways the land was legally and illegally taken. It determined that many of the transactions were in direct violation of treaty rights or in some cases lacked title for a legal transfer. “Once we were removed, they just simply started divvying up the land, creating parcels and selling it to non-Natives and other...
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Pope Francis meets with Trudeau, warns leaders to approach AI responsibly
The Canadian Press 14/06/2024 11:44 Pope Francis met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday at the G7 summit, where the pontiff warned leaders about the dangers of artificial intelligence and counselled them to centre humanity in its development. Francis became the first pope to address G7 leaders, offering an ethical take on an issue that is increasingly on the agenda of international summits, government policy and corporate boards alike. Leaders of outreach countries, who arrived at the summit on Friday, also attended the address. Among those leaders were Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Argentine President Javier Milei and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. That marked the first time the Canadian and Indian leaders have been in the same room since Trudeau accused Modi’s government of being involved in the...
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