The National Research Council had concerns about their IT security before the hack attack happened, and some of those concerns delayed their move to join Shared Services Canada. What the article doesn’t mention is that NRC also has a lot of legacy computer systems that wouldn’t integrate easily, and that was part of the concern with amalgamation. That said, amalgamation creates its own security risks because everything is in one place, so a well-placed hack there would have far broader implications than the current “federated” model, where individual systems can be isolated. Meanwhile, the Privacy Commissioner’s officer has confirmed that the attack breached a system that contained personal information, and they’re still assessing the damage.
With the salaries of First Nations chiefs and band councils being made public, we can expert an onslaught of stories like this one – that a BC chief of an 80-person band – only half of whom live on the reserve – made nearly $1 million last year. They say $800,000 was a bonus for an $8.2 million land deal, but the minister nevertheless finds it troubling, as there are a number of other bands where salaries are well into the six-figure range for small populations.
A group that hires temporary foreign workers on behalf of other companies is suing its former client, McDonald’s, for making defamatory statements about them, and for not properly paying their fees for successful recruitments.
Sources are telling CBC that there will be a signing ceremony for the Canada-EU trade deal on September 25th here in Ottawa, where the full text of the agreement will be made public.
The Department of National Defence was warned a year ago that the aging electrical systems aboard our supply ships were on their last legs and would be prone to catastrophic failure, since they could no longer be adequately maintained as parts were no longer available. The devastating fire aboard HMCS Protecteur hasn’t yet had its cause identified, but this could be a clue.
Senators are still deciding on the final figures for an eight-week video experiment in the Upper Chamber, to test the viability of permanently installing cameras in the chamber at a cost of over $2 million. Because of the time needed for permanent installation and to build a control room for said cameras, the work likely won’t take place until next summer. Meanwhile, Senate Liberals have now added their “designated travellers” to their travel disclosures.
IT staff from the House of Commons said that the emails in question from the Dean Del Mastro trial should have been backed up and available from their servers – if investigators got a warrant, which they didn’t. Given that the accusations that the emails were falsified were at the heart of the trial’s evidence, this could be a big deal either way the trial concludes, and a bit of a black eye for the investigators who didn’t decide to pursue the warrant.
The Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that says that evidence obtained by police in “Mr. Big” sting operations – not a Sex and the City reference but rather one where they pretend to be part of a larger criminal organization recruiting someone in order to get them to spill their secrets – needs to be of a higher legal bar in order to be admissible in court.
Marc Emery is planning “political revenge” against the Conservatives once he returns to Canada. He is already planning a 30-city tour, which will apparently advocate for the Liberals seeing as they are now advocating marijuana legalisation.
The previews of party fundraising numbers are in, and it looks like the Liberals may have slipped a little and the NDP made some gains. Glen McGregor also does some interesting data analysis using the 100 most common Chinese surnames on donor lists to find that the Conservatives are making the biggest gains in the Chinese-Canadian community.
The Canadian Press takes their Baloney Meter™ to Steven Blaney’s assertion that there is a right to bear arms in Canada, and rates it “full of baloney,” and provides all of the legal precedents to back that up.
Energy economist Andrew Leach notes the case for a moratorium on future oil sands development probably won’t accomplish the goals that people think it will.
In a bit of a strange story, an employee at the Ottawa Heart Institute was fired for making a Facebook post about Mike Duffy’s stay at the facility during treatment, and in particular about his “pompous and arrogant” manner with staff. It was public knowledge – from Duffy himself – that he was at the hospital, and no medical details were disclosed in the post, and yet he was fired for violating a patient’s privacy.
And undaunted by his nomination defeat, Rob Anders has decided he’s going to contest the nomination in a rural riding with “more trucks” and that it feels like the Alberta of the 80s – because if Anders screams anything it’s “cowboy” or “farmer.” He also paints a caricature of Calgary as some liberal oasis where people just pretend to be Conservatives. No, seriously.