France sends in special forces to combat rioters

Roland Oliphant

The Telegraph

Sun, July 2, 2023

A French firefighter works to extinguish a burning car during the fifth day of protests - Reuters

France dispatched its elite GIGN commandos to reinforce beleaguered police as the country endured a fifth night of violence over the killing of Nahel Merzouk.

Some 45,000 police officers and Gendarmes were mobilised on Saturday evening after hundreds of people gathered to bury the 17-year-old police shooting victim in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Arrests during a fifth night of rioting had risen to 719, the interior ministry said on Sunday morning. Hours earlier the ministry had given a provisional figure of 486 arrests, saying violence seemed to be lessening compared with the previous night when about 1300 people were taken into custody.

Rioting first broke out over the death of Merzouk on Tuesday.

“A calmer night thanks to the resolute action of the security forces,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin tweeted earlier on Sunday.

Mr Darmanin said 200 riot police had been mobilised in the port city of Marseille, where TV showed footage of police using tear gas as night fell.

Rioters rammed a car into the home of the mayor of a town south of Paris, injuring his wife and one of his children, according to the mayor on Sunday.

Police in front of the damaged home of the Mayor of l'Hay-les-Roses, Vincent Jeanbrun - Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun wrote on Twitter that protesters “rammed a car” into his home before “setting a fire” while his family slept. “Last night a milestone was reached in horror and disgrace,” wrote the mayor of the town of L’Hay-les-Roses.

“My wife and one of my children were injured,” Mr Jeanbrun said. “It was an attempted murder of unspeakable cowardice.”

Several schools, police stations, town halls and stores have been targeted by fires or vandalism in recent days but a personal attack on a mayor’s home is unusual.

French riot police officers during the fifth day of protests

Police try to bring riots in Marseille under control as unrest continues following the shooting of Nahel Merzouk - Sener Yilmaz Aslan/SIPA/Shutterstock

At midnight, the authorities in Lyon and Marseille were reporting fewer incidents than Friday night, with 77 people arrested as of around 1.30 am local time in the two cities.

“Since the beginning of the evening, all potentially violent groups in the city centre have been systematically dispersed by the police and gendarmes, if necessary with the use of tear gas,” the Bouches-du-Rhône Police Prefecture said, addressing the violence in Marseille.

“The situation is under control.”

In Paris and its nearby regions, where around 7,000 officers were out in force, 194 people had been arrested as of 3am local time on Sunday.

Thirty-seven arrests were made in Paris for people caught “carrying a weapon” following 375 searches and a heavy police presence was seen along the Champs-Élysées.

Police officers take position at the Champs-Élysées in Paris - Reuters

Meanwhile, Grégory Doucet, the mayor of Lyon, where dozens of police officers were injured on Friday night – including several by gunfire – called for urgent reinforcements, saying police in the city were “overwhelmed”.

Lyon, he said following a crisis meeting, “has been in the grip of riots of unprecedented intensity, damage and violence”.

The GIGN – France’s top hostage rescue unit, similar to the SAS – arrived in Marseille on Saturday evening, according to police in Bouches-du-Rhône, following a night of fierce clashes between police and protesters.

“The results of the night can be summed up in one word: apocalyptic,” Rudy Manna, of the Bouches-du-Rhône police union, said of Friday night.

“We had scenes of guerrillas in the centre of Marseille, the northern districts were also affected by looting, burning of vehicles and trash cans.”

Mr Darmanin, the French interior minister, said “a lot of resources” were sent to the two embattled cities, which have been home to some of the worst clashes since the unrest broke out on Tuesday.

As well as the elite counter-terror unit, armoured vehicles and helicopters were sent to shore up security in Marseille.

French police on Saturday said their officers were being “ambushed” by rioters.

More than 200 policemen have been injured and over 700 businesses ransacked or burnt down since the police shooting of Merzouk sparked nationwide unrest.

Police made 1,311 arrests overnight from Friday to Saturday – the most so far – but claimed the violence had been “lower in intensity” and with fewer cars and buildings set ablaze compared with previous nights.
Mourners gather for Merzouk’s funeral

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Nanterres for Merzouk’s funeral on Saturday afternoon.

The funeral passed off peacefully, although correspondents described a tense atmosphere and mourners described anger at what they said was endemic police racism.

Merzouk, who was of Algerian and Moroccan descent, was driving a yellow Mercedes through Nanterres at around 8am on Tuesday when he was shot. There were two other people in the vehicle at the time.

Police initially claimed the officer opened fire because the vehicle was driving towards them as if to hit them.

But a social media video of the incident, which news agencies have confirmed, shows an officer pointing a gun through the stationary car window before opening fire as it drove away.

Prosecutors investigating the case said on Friday that two motorcycle officers involved told investigators that they tried to stop the car when they spotted it driving in a bus lane at about 8am on Tuesday.

The driver ignored an initial request to stop and drove away through a red light, according to their account. They gave chase, pulled the car over, and pointed guns at the driver to “deter him from driving away again”.

Protesters say his killing is typical of a heavy-handed and racist approach to policing in France’s deprived racially mixed neighborhoods.


The riots are France’s worst since the 2018 Yellow Vest protests brought the country to a standstill.

French television reported that at least four officers were wounded by shotgun fire in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, on Friday night.

The main public library in Marseilles, France’s second-largest city, was burnt down on Thursday. Overnight looting on Friday continued into Saturday morning, sparking appeals from shopkeepers for Mr Macron to “do something”.

The city’s mayor asked residents not to put out rubbish or other bulk items because of the risk they would be set on fire by rioters.

CRS 8, an elite riot squad, was deployed to Lyon after the city’s mayor issued a public appeal for reinforcements.

The unit, formed in 2021 as a rapid response force to tackle urban violence, consists of around 60 specialist officers trained to deploy from their base outside Paris within 15 minutes of the order being given.

It has previously been involved in a controversial operation to evict undocumented migrants from the French Indian Ocean island of Mayotte.

The protests even spread to Reunion, on the Indian Ocean - Richard Bouhet/AFP via Getty Images

Twelve people were arrested overnight Friday to Saturday in Lyon, where rioters have fired massed barrages of fireworks rockets and hurled tiles from rooftops at police.

Explosions were heard on the streets overnight on Saturday and looters hit businesses ranging from motorcycle dealers to luxury boutiques.

St Etienne, 40 miles south-east of Lyon, announced a curfew for unaccompanied minors from 7pm to 6pm.

With no sign of the riots easing, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, cancelled a trip to Germany on Saturday.

Mr Macron spoke on the phone on Saturday with Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German president, and briefed him on the situation, said a German spokesman.

Montreal glass workers reach agreement with Owens-Illinois, ending weeks long strike


CBC
Mon, July 3, 2023 

The Owens-Illinois plant, where workers are currently on strike, is seen Thursday, May 11, 2023 in Montreal. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The strike that halted work at a glass factory in Pointe-Saint-Charles since May 11 has ended.

The factory workers, represented by the United Steelworkers union (USW), have reached a new collective agreement with their employer, Owens-Illinois, a glass manufacturing company headquartered in the U.S.

Owens-Illinois spokesperson Jim Woods said work would resume at the plant this week.

"We are pleased to reach a mutually agreeable resolution that continues to provide our employees with competitive wages and benefits, while also positioning our plant for future growth and success," Woods said in a statement.

USW released a statement on Monday celebrating the agreement, which gives workers at least a 14 per cent pay increase over three years, up to 20 per cent for those who work specialized jobs, and increased pension support and benefits.

"In Pointe-Saint-Charles, we fought for better, we got better, and we're ready to fight again for better," said Éric Dumas, the president of USW local 206G.

The workers ratified the agreement on Sunday, with 64 per cent of them voting to accept the offer and end the strike. The workers had maintained that they needed higher pay to counter inflation.

The average salary at the factory is around $28 per hour, according to the union.

The Owens-Illinois plant, more than a century old, is the last major factory in Pointe-Saint-Charles and one of the last of its kind in Canada.

A poster with a slogan that, translated, says 'we recycle glass, but without a good salary, it might as well be thrown in the sea,' hangs in front of the O-I glass factory in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Que.

A poster with a slogan that, translated, says 'we recycle glass, but without a good salary, it might as well be thrown in the sea,' hangs in front of the O-I glass factory in Pointe-Saint-Charles, Que. in June 2023. The strike ended on July 2. (Matthew Lapierre/CBC)

The factory is a massive structure composed of concrete, steel and smokestacks. Inside, amid the heat of the glass foundry, workers produce brown beer bottles and other glass containers.

Owens-Illinois recently invested $70 million in the plant, aided by $21 million from the Quebec government, to purchase new equipment for the factory. The investment came in the wake of changes to Quebec's glass recycling regulations, which help the plant produce glass at a lower cost.

Mexico: Mayor marries alligator-like reptile who he calls 'princess girl'

Sky News
Sun, July 2, 2023 

A mayor in Mexico has married a female alligator-like animal in a traditional ceremony which is believed to bring good fortune to his people.

Victor Hugo Sosa wed the caiman reptile called Alicia Adriana as he re-enacted an ancestral ritual.

Local lore, or tradition, calls the creature the "princess girl" and the mayor said the pair "loved each other".

Onlookers clapped and danced in San Pedro Huamelula, a town of indigenous Chontal people in Oaxaca state, southern Mexico, as they entered into holy matrimony.

Mr Sosa said during the ritual: "I accept responsibility because we love each other. That is what is important.

"You can't have a marriage without love... I yield to marriage with the princess girl."

He was pictured kissing the animal on the head.

Marriage between a man and a female caiman has taken place there for 230 years to commemorate the peace between the Chontal and Huave indigenous groups.

The mayor, representing the Chontal king, marries the reptile, symbolising a Huave princess girl, in a union of the two communities.

Caimans live in marshes and are endemic in Mexico and central America.

Before the ceremony, the animal is carried from house to house so locals can hold her and dance.

The reptile wears a green skirt, a colourful hand-embroidered tunic and a headdress of ribbons and sequins.

Her snout is bound shut so there aren't any pre-marital mishaps.

She is later dressed in a white bride's costume and taken to the local town hall for the wedding.

After the event, the mayor danced with his bride to the sounds of traditional music.

"We are happy because we celebrate the union of two cultures. People are content," Mr Sosa told the AFP news agency.

Canadian wildfires have burned a South 

Carolina-sized area of forest

Brian K. Sullivan, Bloomberg News

Jun 29, 2023

Canada’s forest fires have consumed an area about as large as South Carolina and larger than 10 other U.S. states.

Across Canada, 3,030 fires have charred 8 million hectares (30,888 square miles), according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. South Carolina has a land area of 30,061 square miles, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. 

The charred area is larger than Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.

Smoke from the fires has darkened city skies across the U.S. and Canada for weeks and the plume has crossed the ocean to Europe. The eastern U.S. is covered with air quality alerts from Iowa to Maine, including New York City, where air quality is poor enough that people who suffer from respiratory ailments should stay indoors. 

Canada’s largest city, Toronto, has also experienced some of the worst air quality in the world this week.

Volkswagen Group Canada increasing its focus on EV infrastructure: CEO

Daniel Johnson, BNN Bloomberg

Jun 29, 2023

Volkswagen Group Canada’s top executive said the automotive company is continuing to focus on electric vehicles by building out infrastructure and getting involved in supply chains.

Pierre Boutin, the chief executive officer of Volkswagen Group Canada, said at the Collision tech conference in Toronto on Thursday that consumer buy-in will be critical for the company to achieve its sustainability goals.

Human mobility is currently at a “crossroads,” he said, adding that the company recently surpassed one million EVs sold around the world.

“The acceptance of technology by consumers is critical in any transformation we want to do. And the first one that I see is obviously being more cost efficient so that we can provide a lower cost EVs to the masses,” he said.

Part of gaining acceptance among consumers, according to Boutin, is increasing the range of EVs. He said that “not so long ago” the company began selling the e-Golf, which featured a 200-kilometre range, followed by the ID.4 with a 400-kilometre range. Next year, the company will launch the ID.7 with a 700-kilometre range.

Another critical measure to drive consumer interest, Boutin said, is to build out EV charging networks. He said an example of this can be seen in Electrify Canada, a partnership founded in 2018 between Volkswagen Group Canada and Electrify America working to increase the availability of EV chargers across the country.

“The second (aspect) that is really also critical is to provide fast-speed chargers to the population in general, and this is where we come into play also in transforming our country because we're also investing extensively in fast chargers. Our goal is to get 45,000 fast chargers globally in China, Europe and North America,” Boutin said.

Part of the automotive company’s efforts to build out EV infrastructure involves increasing its presence in the supply chain, according to Boutin, as the company gets involved in the mining of critical minerals.

“We need more critical minerals. We want to understand the overall supply chain. So we're sitting down with a lot of people in the mining industries, we're starting to invest in mines also,” he said.

“It’s not our core business as such, but (we’re getting involved) because we need it so rapidly.”

Within Canada, Boutin said the company is aiming to source one million electric vehicle batteries at its upcoming plant in St. Thomas, Ont.

In March, Volkswagen announced plans to create a new electric vehicle battery plant in St. Thomas. The plant will be the first overseas cell manufacturing facility for PowerCo, the Volkswagen Group’s battery company.

Mitsui High-tec investing $100 million to

expand EV parts plant in Ontario

The Canadian Press

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says Mitsui High-tec is investing more than $100 million to expand manufacturing operations in southwestern Ontario that produce a component needed for electric vehicles.

Ford says the investment into the plant in Branftord, Ont., will be used to manufacture motor cores, a piece used to make the motor that powers electric vehicles.

He says the company will open a new facility and create more than 100 jobs.

The province says Mitsui is the only company in Canada that creates motor core parts for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Ford says the province is investing $3.1 million for the expansion.

The investment is the latest in the province's push to become a leader in electric vehicle manufacturing. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2023.

• Northvolt is near deal with Canada on $7-billion battery plant

Mathieu Dion, Bloomberg News

Jun 29, 2023

An anode oven at the Northvolt Ett AB plant in Skelleftea, Sweden, on Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022. Sweden's Northvolt is leading an effort to forge a regional champion that can beat rivals from Asia. , Bloomberg

Swedish manufacturer Northvolt AB is close to a deal to build an electric-vehicle battery plant near Montreal, a project that’s expected to be worth about $7 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Canadian and Quebec governments are preparing to give financial aid to Northvolt that may be worth billions, following a similar agreement with Volkswagen AG to build an EV battery plant in Ontario, the people said. An announcement is likely to be made in the coming weeks, though negotiators are still working on final details, they said, speaking on condition they not be identified because the matter is private.

A deal with Northvolt would underscore Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s ambitions for Canada to capture a sizable piece of the North American electric-vehicle supply chain, at a huge cost to the public purse. Trudeau’s government, and the government of Ontario, have pledged more than $14 billion to Volkswagen for its proposed factory in St. Thomas, Ontario.

They’re also in talks with Stellantis NV on a EV battery plant in the city of Windsor, Ontario, across the border from Detroit.

The amount of government money at stake is large because Canadian officials are trying to match the incentives companies would receive under the Inflation Reduction Act if they built their manufacturing facilities in the U.S. The U.S. law, signed by President Joe Biden last year, offers ongoing subsidies for the production of electric vehicle batteries, not simply the cost of constructing new plants.

The Northvolt project — to be built in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, about 25 kilometers east of Montreal — is to include a cathode factory, a battery cell assembly line and a recycling facility, the people said. If it is built to plan, it would be one of the largest private-sector investments ever in Quebec, Canada’s second most-populous province.

By choosing Quebec, Northvolt, which says its goal is to build the “world’s greenest battery,” will benefit from the province’s low-cost and clean hydroelectric power.

“Northvolt is currently doing a site study in North America, analyzing multiple possible locations in the U.S. and Canada. This process is still ongoing, and no final investment decision has been made,” Northvolt spokesperson Anders Thor said by email.

Stockholm-based Northvolt, founded by former Tesla Inc. executives in 2016, has a primary manufacturing site in Skelleftea, Sweden, and two other factories in the works in Europe. The company has partnerships with Volvo Group, BMW and Volkswagen and says it has more than US$55 billion in contracts.

Quebec has put a lot of effort into creating a hub for electric vehicle battery manufacturing. General Motors Co. and Posco Future M Co. have secured half of the financing for a proposed $600 million cathode plant in the city of Becancour from the provincial and federal governments. Ford Motor Co. and Germany’s BASF SE have also expressed interest in investing in the region.

Alberta ends 2022-23 with petro-powered $11.6B surplus

The Canadian Press

The Alberta government says it ended the 2022-23 budget year with a petro-powered $11.6 billion surplus, up from its third-quarter estimate of $10.4 billion.

It's a positive report, Finance Minister Nate Horner said in a statement Thursday. 

"We promised to keep our economy moving forward and Alberta is reaping the benefits," he said. 

"Albertans can rest easy knowing that Alberta’s prosperity today means more stability tomorrow as we continue to pay down debt and save for the future."

The province said its strong financial situation allowed it to pay down $13.3 billion in debt.

It also saw the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund grow by $2.5 billion to $21.2 billion.

Revenues came in at $76.1 billion, which is $13.5 billion more than expected, due to non-renewable resource and tax revenues.

The government spent $64.5 billion, which was $2.4 billion more than budgeted, on higher-than-expected health-care costs and affordability measures to help Albertans deal with inflation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on June 29, 2023.

Google DeepMind calls for 'responsible' approach to AI amid 'eureka moment'

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

The chief business officer at Google's artificial intelligence research lab says the world is having a "eureka moment" around artificial intelligence, but we have to be responsible with the technology.

The explosion of interest around AI has come from recent advances in the technology that have allowed people to use it with conversational language, rather than the programmers who predominantly dabbled with it before, said Colin Murdoch of Google's DeepMind.

"It's kind of all of a sudden been much more accessible because my mum and dad can do this," he said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"Anyone can do it."

The surge in people and companies experimenting with AI was triggered by last year's release of ChatGPT, a generative AI chatbot capable of humanlike conversations and tasks that was developed by San Francisco-based OpenAI.

The release kick-started an AI race with other top tech names including Google and its rival product Bard, putting an additional spotlight on DeepMind, which is headquartered in the U.K., but has space in Montreal and Toronto.

Now, everyone from health care companies to oil and gas firms and tech businesses are touting their use of or plans for AI.

But Murdoch said that ubiquity must be met with a careful approach and thoughtful consideration about all of the risks that AI carries.

"The way we think about this is being bold and responsible because it is a balance," he said.

"What we want to make sure of is that we are doing this in a way that enables society to benefit from the incredible potential for this technology, but also the exceptional promise also does need exceptional care, which is why we have to act responsibly and why we have to pioneer responsibly."

But what does responsible AI look like?

At Google, for starters, it's meant being open to criticism at every step of the AI development process.

The company relies on internal and external review committees from the day an idea is generated to when it is unleashed for public use, Murdoch said.

"We're making sure that we have the right oversight of our work, so, for example, we have ethicists sitting alongside policy experts sitting alongside machine learning experts," he said.

"They're pressure testing the work from beginning to end to identify how we maximize the benefit of the work and also address any potential changes we need to make."

Sometimes they prod staff to talk to even more external experts about ramifications, like when they were building AlphaFold and 30 people ranging from biology experts to biosecurity professionals and farmers were consulted.

AlphaFold can predict 3D models of protein structures. Murdoch reckons the technology has mapped all 200 million proteins known to science, saving one billion years of research time in the process because it can determine the structure of a protein in minutes and sometimes even seconds rather than years.

It has been used by researchers at the University of Toronto to identify a drug target for liver cancer.

Aside from ensuring products involve external reviews, Murdoch said responsible AI also takes bias into account. Many say bias crops up in AI because of a lack of diversity and opinions in the building and training phase.

"Making sure that people building, deploying and AI practitioners somehow reflects broader society is very important," he said.

Education and community involvement can help address the bias issue along with the industry being more transparent, so smaller, less resourced startups can learn from heavyweights like Google.

Murdoch’s remarks came on a visit from the U.K. to Toronto, where he spoke at the four-day Collision tech conference Wednesday about how he feels AI is changing the world.

Later in the day, AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton, who left Google so he could more freely discuss the dangers of AI in May, took the same stage to discuss the giant leaps the technology has made over the last year, which even he didn't predict would come so soon.

Hinton has been deeply concerned about the implications of AI for months and on Wednesday, outlined six harms the technology poses, including bias and discrimination, joblessness, echo chambers, fake news, robots in warfare and existential risk.

While he said the technology could greatly aid in how humanity approaches climate change and medicine, he also cautioned that it might spark changes to careers and even safety.

For example, he suggested the child of Nick Thompson, the Atlantic chief executive interviewing Hinton on stage, pursue plumbing rather than media because of how capable AI has become at completing tasks integral to non-trade-based jobs.

On an existential level, Hinton said he is worried about defence departments building robots for warfare that would necessitate an international convention to stop.

"I think it's important that people understand that this is not just science fiction, it's not just fear mongering," he said.

"It is a real risk that we need to think about, and we need to figure out in advance how to deal with it."

As for Murdoch, he said the world shouldn't focus on one singular risk posed by AI but should instead take a "holistic" approach and remember that we are still at the early stages of this technology's use and integration.

"We're still kind of on the first rung and each rung we step up, we're going to be more powerful and capable."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2023.

Searching for Canadian news? Google ready to remove links over Online News Act

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press

News stories published by Canadian media outlets will soon disappear from Google search results, the digital giant warned Thursday as it revealed its planned response to the Liberals' online news law.

The California-based company also said it would end existing deals with local news publishers over the newly passed legislation, which will force global tech players to compensate Canadian outlets for content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Google did not say exactly when the changes will happen, but it will be before the Online News Act, formerly known as Bill C-18, comes into force by the end of this year.

The company said the block, which will also involve links on Google News and Google Discover, will apply only to Canadian publishers. Canadian users will still be able to find news produced by international outlets such as the BBC, the New York Times and Fox News.

The company said it will also end Google News Showcase in Canada, a product it uses to license news from over 150 local publishers. Those existing deals will stay in place until the change happens later this year.

"Once the law takes effect, we wouldn't anticipate continuing the agreements," said Kent Walker, president of global affairs for Google and its parent company Alphabet, in an interview Thursday.

"We won't have a news product to be able to feature, (and) the agreements are premised on the ability to showcase Canadian news."

Walker said he told Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez of the decision n a letter sent early Thursday morning.

Rodriguez said Thursday that Google made an "irresponsible" decision.

Walker said Google has begun briefing federal, provincial and regional authorities "just to make sure they're aware of all the Google tools at their disposal to get the word out as they need to for crisis response, (and) forecasting other circumstances."

He said Google will continue to create resources for government agencies to use in those situations.

"We want to stress this change won't affect the SOS alerts we use to surface safety information during crisis situations, like the fires (in Canada) or floods or earthquakes," Walker said.

Meta announced last week it will also be removing news in Canada from its Facebook and Instagram platforms before the law is in force.

It is already running a test to block news for up to five per cent of its Canadian users.

Meta is also ending existing deals with local publishers. That includes a contract for a fellowship program that supports the hiring of a limited number of emerging journalists at The Canadian Press.

"Big tech would rather spend money to change their platforms to block Canadians from accessing good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organizations," Rodriguez said.

The Online News Act requires both companies to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on their sites if it helps them generate money.

The act aims to create new government oversight for digital giants who dominate the online advertising market.

The Liberal government views Meta and Google's dominance on the internet, and their decision to remove news, as a threat to Canadian democracy at a time when the news industry continues to face cuts due to declining ad revenue.

Since 2008, nearly 500 newsrooms have closed across the country, Rodriguez said.

Walker said the law is unworkable because it puts a price on links, resulting in an uncapped financial liability "that no business could accept."

"I think we need clear financial expectations, and we need a clear and realistic path toward exemption that takes into account our commercial agreements and the other support we provide for news in Canada," Walker said.

While the bill was being debated in Parliament, Google called for lawmakers to consider alternative ways to support news, such as creating a fund for journalists.

Google had also been seeking assurances about how much the changes could cost the company, and how the bargaining process will unfold. Those details are likely to become clear after the bill's regulatory process is complete.

News Media Canada, which advocates for the domestic news industry, urged all stakeholders to "act in good faith" and engage in the regulatory process.

"We believe there is a viable path forward," said Paul Deegan, the group's president and CEO, in a statement.  

Earlier this week, Rodriguez told The Canadian Press he is hopeful the government will come to a positive resolution with both Meta and Google to prevent them from blocking access to news through their platforms.

Rodriguez also said the government will continue to support newsrooms, though he did not say exactly how that will be done.

"The effort to find a solution feels genuine, but unfortunately we don't have the assurances we need to create financial certainty or product certainty, but we do hope that changes," Walker said.

"We hope the government can work through the details. It's their bill, they know it best, so we'll have to wait and see how the regulatory process unfolds, what the government comes forward with, and see if there's a satisfactory outcome."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2023.

Meta ends contract for journalism fellowship

program as Bill C-18 fallout continues

The Canadian Press

Digital giant Meta is terminating the contract for a fellowship program that supports the hiring of a limited number of emerging journalists at newswire service The Canadian Press

The move comes amid fallout from the federal government's Online News Act, formerly known as Bill C-18, which became law last week.

The law requires tech companies such as Facebook parent Meta and Google to negotiate deals compensating media outlets for news content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Meta has threatened to block access to Canadian news on their sites in retaliation.

Canadian Press president Malcolm Kirk says Meta told the newswire agency that the Online News Act has a negative affect on Meta’s position in Canada to operate some products.

The Liberal government's Online News Act is intended to help preserve Canadian journalism at a time when newsrooms are struggling to compete for online advertising dollars.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2023.

What can Canada learn from Australia's bid to make big tech pay for news?

Holly McKenzie-Sutter, BNN Bloomberg

Jun 30, 2023

Canadian lawmakers are locked in a dispute with internet technology companies over a law that would compel them to pay news publishers for content, years after a similar regulatory saga played out in Australia.

On Thursday, Google followed Meta in announcing plans to block news for Canadian users now that the Online News Act has become law. It is expected to take effect later this year.

Google spokesperson Zaitoon Murji told BNNBloomberg.ca in an email that the company made the “extremely difficult decision” to remove Canadian news links from its search, Google News and Google Discover platforms, calling its issues with the legislation “unworkable” and unlikely to be resolved through regulations.

“We’re disappointed it has come to this,” Murji said. “None of our suggestions for changes to C-18 were accepted.”

After Google’s move on Thursday, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez sent a written statement calling the companies’ moves “deeply irresponsible and out of touch … especially when they make billions of dollars off of Canadian users” with advertising.

Australia’s regulatory experiment – the first of its kind in the world – also got off to a rocky start, but it has since seen tech companies, news publishers and the government reach a middle ground.

Canada can learn some lessons from Australia’s story, but experts who spoke with BNNBloomberg.ca cautioned that different economic, political and geographic realities could lead to a different outcome.

WHAT HAPPENED IN AUSTRALIA?

In both Australia and Canada, governments introduced legislation aimed at forcing online technology companies like Google and Facebook parent Meta into agreements to pay news producers for content shared on their platforms.

Tech companies opposed the laws in both cases.

Rob Nicholls, associate professor of regulation and governance at the University of New South Wales, explained in an email that in Australia, both Meta and Google threatened to leave the country if the law came into effect.

Google “did not change its local policies dramatically,” he said, but it does now follow a different product schedule from the U.S.

Facebook cut off access to news temporarily in 2021 in response to the legislation. Nicholls noted that it also blocked access to other pages such as health departments and charities, prompting threats from the Australian health department to pull advertising – an idea floated on Twitter by Canadian legislator Anthony Housefather in response to Meta’s latest moves here.

After a week, both Facebook and Google entered in to negotiations with news businesses in Australia and since then, the law has never had to be enforced.

The Australian government has since declared its News Media Bargaining Code “a success to date” in a December 2022 review of its first year in effect, pointing to more than 30 commercial agreements between tech companies and news producers.

Nicholls said there has been an estimated A$150 million in annual revenue from the law – though that fell short of what those in the media businesses wanted. There have also been concerns raised that smaller outlets have been shut out from receiving funds.

WHAT’S CHANGED: GEOGRAPHY, FINANCES AND THE PASSAGE OF TIME

Nicholls said geography – the proximity between Canada and other markets – is one major difference from the Australian context.

“Australia is a long way from other Meta and Google operations – there is no land border to the South,” he said.

Gavin Adamson, an associate professor in digital journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, also said Canada’s closeness to the U.S. “adds a complication,” because tech companies “wouldn't want to be in the position to start negotiations to pay news agencies in a country with a vastly bigger media network.”

Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said another factor that has changed from the Australian context is the financial situation tech companies now find themselves in. Meta has been focused on cutting costs in its “year of efficiency,” and it may be “less willing to cut big cheques that don't give the company much value.” Google has also made job cuts this year in the face of similar tech industry headwinds.

There is also a slight difference between the two laws. In Australia, the government has more of a say in who the law would apply to, and in Canada the CRTC makes the final call, which has the companies concerned about the process, Geist added.

Regulations are the last option to find middle ground, Geist said, but Meta and Google have both said they don’t believe regulatory tweaks will be enough to halt their plans.

Google said it hasn’t received assurance from the government that its primary concerns – forced payment for links and “uncapped financial liability” – will be resolved.

GOVERNMENTS VS BIG TECH

Beyond the issue of supporting news producers, the situation also highlights the difficulty governments face when it comes to reigning in powerful big tech companies.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez invoked that dynamic in a statement to BNNBloomberg.ca on Thursday.

“The Online News Act levels the playing field by putting the power of big tech in check,” he said in an emailed statement.”

“Big tech would rather spend money to change their platforms to block Canadians from accessing good quality and local news instead of paying their fair share to news organizations.”

The companies and the Canadian government both have a lot on the line when it comes to the law, Geist said.

For Meta, it’s an opportunity to send a signal to other governments about regulations they will tolerate, and that’s one reason Geist does not think Meta will back down from its threats.

“They would really lose pretty much all credibility with other countries at this stage if they walked away,” he said.

Meta’s decision was predictable, Geist argued, as the company had long threatened to remove links in light of the pending law. But “the Google response was always more uncertain,” he wrote in a Thursday blog post, because “it values news in a way that Meta does not.”

“Meta pointed to data demonstrating that news contributed little to user news feeds and that was highly substitutable. By contrast, Google search results are its bread and butter and removing Canadian news results makes its flagship product undeniably worse,” Geist wrote.

“That surely presented an unwelcome choice either way: agree to flawed legislation that creates a dangerous precedent on paying for links or knowingly decrease the value of its own service.”

The federal Liberal government has “backed itself into a corner” with its positioning on the law, he noted in Monday’s interview, because they went ahead with their plan despite having other options to help the news sector. If tech giants pull news, news publishers would take a significant financial hit, he added.

“Both their policy measures and the government's own credibility on this is at stake,” he said by phone.

Adamson pointed to mounting “bad PR” when it comes to the tech companies’ corporate citizenship, and said companies “have to see the benefits of a strong democracy and with that included a healthy media ecosystem.”

“That includes a bit of a financial hit, but it also boosts your financial outlook from a social governance perspective,” he told BNNBloomberg.ca in an email. “If I was the government, I would just keep underlining that point.”

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Rodriguez told the media this week that the government will offer unspecified support for news producers should Meta and Google block local news. The government on Thursday said it was working with Google to get clarity on its next steps.

Google spokesperson Murji said the company is “concerned” about how the law could reduce access to news in Canada, and it plans to participate in the regulatory process.

“We hope that the Government will be able to outline a viable path forward,” Murji said.

Nicholls said the threats by both Meta and Google are “credible,” and both companies could feasibly follow through.

Adamson said he expects a “political stand-off” between the companies and the government for the next little while.

“I would still be surprised to see Alphabet and Meta back out of Canada altogether with respect to news content on their platforms but it's hard to know,” he said.

Geist, meanwhile, said he disagrees with those who sees Meta’s repeated threats to pull news as a bluff.

“Part of their goal may now well be to make it clear it was not a bluff,” Geist said.

If news is pulled from online platforms in Canada, he said advocates may stop pushing the Australian model for making tech pay for news, and Canada could become a cautionary tale for what can go wrong.

“We may end up with others saying ‘Don't be like Canada,’ where you find major social networks cutting off news within the country.”

Pokemon Go maker Niantic closes studio, cancels games

Cecilia D'Anastasio, Bloomberg News 

Jun 29, 202

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A player displays a Mewtwo character on their smartphone while playing Nintendo Co.'s Pokemon Go augmented-reality game, developed by Niantic Inc., during the Pokemon Go Stadium event, organised by Pokemon Co., in Yokohama, Japan, on Monday, Aug. 14, 2017. About 60 million people still play the Pokemon Go mobile game each month, according to data from mobile app research firm Apptopia, and one in five of those players opens the game on a daily basis. , Bloomberg

Pokemon Go maker Niantic Inc. is closing its Los Angeles game studio and canceling NBA and Marvel titles in a restructuring aimed at stabilizing the company’s finances.

Niantic will cut 230 jobs, or about 25 per cent of its staff, a spokesperson said Thursday.

“We have allowed our expenses to grow faster than revenue,” Chief Executive Officer John Hanke wrote in an email to employees. “New projects in games and platform have not delivered revenues commensurate with those investments.”

The closely held San Francisco-based metaverse darling will halt work on the upcoming Marvel World of Heroes and shut down its NBA All-World game. Released in January, NBA All-World received just 354,000 downloads in its first week, according to data compiled by Data.ai. By comparison, Niantic’s Nintendo collaboration Pikmin Bloom and latest game Peridot received about 1 million downloads in their first week.

The restructuring will bring expenses and revenue “back in line while preserving our core assets,” Hanke said.

The company remains committed to supporting Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, Peridot, Ingress and the upcoming Monster Hunter Now game, the spokesperson said.

Last year, Niantic canceled four projects and cut 8 per cent of its staff. In May, Bloomberg reported that the company had been struggling to produce a hit amid metaverse skepticism.

--With assistance from Jason Schreier.