Just before midnight on July 10, 2016, Master Cpl. Daniel Boyd of the Canadian military police spotted something suspicious. He was on duty at Canadian Forces Base North Bay, about 350 kilometers north of Toronto.
In the darkness, two men in a van driving near the edge of the base made a U-turn and headed deeper into the military facility.
Boyd followed. The van stopped. Inside, the men were looking at their smartphones. Boyd walked to the driver’s window.
It turned out they were playing Pokemon Go, and their pursuit of Pikachu led them onto the air force base.
Documents obtained by CBC News show the curiosity and confusion shared by Canadian military officials after the 2016 launch of Pokemon Go, which was sending civilians onto Department of Defence property searching for “mythical digital creatures.”
Pokemon Go was a mobile app that launched in Canada on July 17, 2016, but it was launched July 7 in the United States and was downloadable globally by users who knew how to fool their phone into thinking it was in the U.S.
One page from the package of documents disclosed to CBC News following an access to information request filed in July 2016. (Brett Ruskin / CBC News)
The app encouraged users to explore their communities, viewing the world through their phone’s screen. Virtual creatures and items appeared in real-life locations.
Some locations were military bases. Within days of the app’s launch, the Canadian Armed Forces had to issue a public warning: Pokemon Go users should keep off military property.
CBC News filed an access to information request after the warning was issued. Now, nearly 3½ years later, the Department of National Defence has disclosed 471 pages of internal files on the subject.
‘Taking off like gangbusters’
Most of the emails expressed curiosity and confusion about the new game.
“Plse advise the Commissionaires that apparently Fort Frontenac is both a PokeGym and a PokeStop. I will be completely honest in that I have not idea what that is,” wrote Maj. Jeff Monaghan at CFB Kingston.
“The game’s premise seems to be going to the ‘PokeStops/Gyms’ to collect ‘Pokemon’s’ (we should almost hire a 12-year-old to help us out with this) of which we were able to find 5 of these things on the range road itself,” wrote security expert David Levenick at CFB Borden, Ont., 100 kilometers northwest of Toronto.
“There’s a game out there taking off like gangbusters, and it requires people to move to digitally cached locations to get points, etc.,” wrote Lieut. Col. Richard Raymond at CFB Petawawa, west of Ottawa.
Eight days after Pokemon Go launched, the military police in Canada issued a criminal intelligence advisory.
An advisory sent on July 15, 2016, to all military police officers, warned of people trying to get onto to DND property while playing Pokemon Go.
The notice was sent to all military police officers. It said: “It has been discovered that several locations within DND/CAF establishments are host to game landmarks (PokeStops and Gyms) and its mythical digital creatures (Pokemon).”
10 days after launch: kids on tanks
In the weeks after the app’s launch, military police across the country suddenly saw a spike in suspicious activity.
“One lady at the Worthington Tank Park was playing the game whilst the 3 children with her were climbing all over the tanks,” wrote Levenick at CFB Borden.
This tank outside the CFB Borden Military Museum, near Worthington Tank Park, was the site of a Pokestop, where players could retrieve virtual items. (Wikimedia Commons)
At CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia, documents show a report of a vehicle “acting suspiciously in the Canex [store] parking lot.” When police investigated, they found the occupants were playing the game.
When a man was stopped on CFB Borden, documents show he was playing Pokemon Go and told officers “I have to beat my kids [get more points].”
At least three military police officers (at CFB Comox in British Columbia, CFB Petawawa and CFB Kingston) were assigned an unusual task: wander around their bases, smartphones and notepads in hand, searching for virtual Pokemon infrastructure.
Handwritten notes by a military police officer stationed at CFB Comox. The corporal was ordered to search for Pokestops and Pokemon Gyms on the base.
14 days after launch: military contacts Pokemon
The documents show a wide variety of responses to the discovery of PokeStops and gyms on military bases.
At CFB Petawawa, one location where Pokemon Go players retrieved virtual items was at the Garrison Museum.
“Maybe some extra people will visit the museum!” wrote Maj. Alicia Saucier.
Officials at CFB North Bay were less enthusiastic. On July 21, 2016, they filed a complaint with Niantic, the developer of Pokemon Go.
“With the implementation of this PokeStop, there will be an increase in traffic onto the base, which could have a negative impact on 22 Wing’s Mission,” the request said.
Niantic responded that it would review the complaint and follow up.
Embracing Pokemon
Meanwhile, at CFB Halifax, officials tried to harness the game for their benefit. An email to Rear Admiral John Newton made a series of recommendations:
Remove the PokeStop from the Dockyard Gym, because “it presents a security risk.”
Add a PokeStop at the Stadacona Gym, because “this addition, with the already existing PokeStops at the museum and the admiral’s residence, would increase the museum’s attendance.”
If possible, upgrade the museum PokeStop to a Pokemon gym to increase traffic.
Rear Admiral Newton addressed the Pokemon generally in an email, writing: “Life and work are best accomplished if there is good fun, health and friendship.
“If Pokemon Go enables these values, while we protect our interests, then we all stand to marvel at this intersection of technology, gaming and health.”
What took so long?
It took more than three years for the Department of National Defence (DND) to provide the documents requested by CBC News.
According to legislation, the normal response time should be up to 60 days.
“While our goal is to provide responses to Access to Information (ATI) requests as efficiently as possible, the review process is challenged by the size and complexity of the organization, as well as the number of requests received every year,” said a statement from Jessica Lamirande, a senior communications adviser with DND.
“Recognizing that backlog files require more attention, DND recently created a new team in the Access to Information and Privacy (ATIP) Directorate as part of a Backlog Reduction Initiative. This team has been assigned the task of working solely on backlog files so that the other processing teams can concentrate on ensuring newer files do not go late,” she said.
In other words, the orders given to government staff hired to identify overdue information requests seem to be, as Pokemon says, “you gotta catch ’em all.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
