New numbers show Alberta lowest in Canada on per capita spending on inmates

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary always has and always will defend itself against foreign attacks, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday after one of his closest aides provoked controversy by suggesting that Hungary wouldn’t have fought against a Russian invasion as Ukraine has done.

Speaking to state radio, Orbán sought to downplay the remarks by his political director, Balázs Orbán, which stirred outrage among many in Hungary and led to calls for his resignation.

Speaking on a podcast on Wednesday, Balázs Orbán, who is not related to the prime minister, said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had made an “irresponsible” decision by opting to militarily defend his country after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. Hungary, he said, has learned that “precious Hungarian lives” must be treated with caution rather than “offering them up” for defense.

Prime Minister Orbán called the comment “an ambiguous statement, which in this context is a mistake.”

He emphasized that Hungary has “always defended itself, it will defend itself today and will continue to defend itself in the future by all possible means.”

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hungary, a NATO member, has taken an adversarial position toward its neighbor, and sought to block, delay or water down European Union efforts to provide financial and military support to Kyiv and to pass sanctions on Moscow over its war.

Such efforts have led to accusations from many European leaders that Hungary is acting to divide the EU and advance Russian interests.

Balázs Orbán’s statements angered many in Hungary who saw them as a suggestion that Hungarian fighters in an anti-Soviet uprising in 1956 had made a mistake by resisting Soviet occupation.

The uprising was eventually crushed by the Red Army, killing as many as 3,000 civilians and destroying much of the capital Budapest.

“Every country has the right to decide its own destiny for itself,” Balázs Orbán said. “But based on ’56, we wouldn’t have done what President Zelenskyy did two and a half years ago, because that was irresponsible.”

Hungary’s Cold War-era uprising looms large in the country’s consciousness as a symbol of its heroic struggle for independence and self determination. Some Hungarians view their government’s close ties to Russia today as a betrayal of the 1956 revolution’s efforts to force Soviet soldiers out of the country.

In response to the criticism, Balázs Orbán said in a post on social media Thursday that Hungary’s government sees “no point” to the war in Ukraine, and that “hundreds of thousands of people have died … for nothing.”

But on Friday, Prime Minister Orbán sought to diffuse the tensions by saying Hungary owes a debt of gratitude to the ”heroes” and “freedom fighters” who took up arms against Soviet oppression in 1956.

“If a person talks about such delicate issues, then it must be formulated very precisely, leaving no doubt about our position,” he said.

On Thursday, Hungary’s most prominent opposition figure, Péter Magyar, called for Balázs Orbán’s resignation by Oct. 23, the 68th anniversary of the revolution.

“Such a man cannot hold public office alongside the Hungarian Prime Minister,” Magyar wrote.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

TORONTO – One year after Canada launched a voluntary code of conduct on artificial intelligence, tech organizations that signed on say they don’t regret the decision but wouldn’t mind some more company.

Cohere, the Toronto AI firm that was the buzziest name among the signatories, sees it as “imperative for everyone to kind of be involved” with the code, “if for no other reason than just to make sure that (it) has the impact that you want to have in the industry.”

“Of course, we want more people,” said the company’s director of legal Kosta Starostin.

“It’s disappointing when our fellow Canadian companies maybe don’t sign up, but they, of course, have their own reasons and that’s completely up to them.”

The code was launched by the federal government last September as a means to put some guardrails around the use of AI and to act as a precursor to eventual legislation. It included promises to bake risk mitigation measures into AI tools, use adversarial testing to uncover vulnerabilities in such systems and keep track of any harms the technology causes.

About a dozen Canadian tech firms including BlackBerry and OpenText signed on by launch day. Eight more joined in December, followed by another eight in May.

While many in the group now totalling 30 say they were content spending the last year collaborating with household names and tech heavyweights on an issue of growing importance, they also believe the more, the merrier.

Starostin refused to comment on any of the specificreasonscompanies have cited for avoiding the code, but some of the resisters have been the tech community’s most prominent names.

Tobi Lütke, founder and chief executive of Ottawa-based e-commerce giant Shopify Inc., has said he won’t support the code because he feels the country doesn’t need any more “referees” and instead needs to encourage people to build companies in Canada.

Mark Doble had qualms with the code, too.

“I was fairly skeptical at first and then, when I got into the details of it, it seems substantively nothing really meaningful or additive to what already exists,” said the chief executive of Alexi, a Toronto company building AI-based tools for the legal sector.

He feels Canada’s current employment, human rights, privacy and competition laws cover off most problems that could arise from AI and said the technology shouldn’t require the country to “re-evaluate, re-establish or add to those regulations.”

As a result, he labelled the code as both “performative” and “overreach.”

Yet Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne, said the government sees the code as “an important first step towards ensuring that companies are respecting the importance of responsible development.”

“Significant players in the AI ecosystem continue to express their interest in signing the code and we’ll be ready to announce another round of signatories soon,” she wrote in an email on Sept. 11.

“We encourage all companies in the Canadian ecosystem developing and deploying AI systems to join their peers who have already committed to operating in a safe and responsible manner.”

Diane Gutiw, vice-president of analytics, AI and machine learning at CGI Inc., said she would also welcome more sign-ups to “make sure we’re all working in the same framework.”

The Montreal-based tech consulting business viewed signing the code as a no-brainer because CGI had long been using its own set of principles designed to ensure its use of AI was transparent, protective of data, secure and reliable.

When Gutiw reviewed the tenets of the code, she found a lot of overlap with CGI’s own principles, so she said the company was “quite comfortable signing.”

Over at Cohere, some of the motivation in supporting the code came from the “fuzzy landscape” around AI, which was “moving very quickly,” before the code.

OpenAI had released AI chatbot ChatGPT to the world, sparking a race to innovate in the sector and a flurry of investment as brands began experimenting with it.

At the same time, AI luminaries like Geoffrey Hinton were warning advances in the technology could exacerbate biases and discrimination, cause unemployment or even spell the end of humanity.

“It wasn’t clear to us or to anybody else what the priorities were going to be for different governments,” Cohere’s Starostin said.

Once the government put a code together, he felt it “crystalized” the way forward for the country and gave companies a framework to rely on while they wait for the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act to finish winding its way through the House of Commons and come into force, likely next year.

Also offering guidance to companies wasthe European Union’s AI pact, which asks businesses to agree to identify AI systems likely to be categorized as high-risk and ensure their ethical and responsible development.

With more than 100 signatories including Google, Microsoft, Adobe and Cisco, the EU pact has far more members than Canada’s code, but some companies including CGI, Cohere, IBM, Kyndryl, Lenovo, Mastercard and Salesforce have signed both.

Salesforce said both codes have sparked a “virtuous race to the top” because the agreements have given companies a clearer idea of what they can do to be safe and ethical with their AI.

Salesforce, for example, had always used adversarial testing — when companies simulate attacks on their systems to uncover vulnerabilities — but signing the code encouraged it to ramp up such efforts, said Paula Goldman, the company’s chief ethical and humane use officer.

“Once you’ve made a commitment like this and you’re part of the community, it ends up being a wonderful opportunity to keep accelerating the progress,” she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:BB, TSX:SHOP, TSX:GIB, TSX:OTEX)

OTTAWA – Current and former officials of Canada’s spy agency are slated to appear today at a federal inquiry into foreign interference.

Witnesses include Vanessa Lloyd, the interim Canadian Security Intelligence Service director, as well as David Vigneault, who stepped down from the role earlier this year.

Leaks of CSIS information about alleged foreign interference led to pressure on the Liberal government to set up the commission of inquiry.

The inquiry’s latest hearings are looking at the ability of federal agencies to identify and counter foreign meddling.

The commission is examining the practices of various institutions as well as the experiences of diaspora communities.

A final report is due by the end of the year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

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