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OTTAWA – The federal government is opening a research centre that will study the dangers posed by artificial intelligence technology.

Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the launch of the Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute in Montreal on Tuesday. He said the centre will be important for building public trust in artificial intelligence technology.

“If you want people to adopt it, they need to have trust,” he said. “If there’s no adoption, we will squander the incredible potential of many new technologies.”

The government says AI can be misused in election interference efforts, disinformation campaigns and cybersecurity breaches.

At a meeting in Soeul in May, world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and testing of the technology. Champagne said Canada was among the first countries to launch such an institute.

The Canadian Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute will collaborate with similar organizations in other countries as part of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes, which is set to hold its first meeting in San Francisco next week.

Governments and global bodies have been working to design guardrails for AI amid expert warnings the technology, which is already changing everyday life, could pose an existential risk.

The centre will be based at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. It will receive $50 million over five years from Ottawa, part of $2.4 billion in AI-related funding announced in this year’s federal budget.

The institute will work on projects directed by the government focusing on priorities like cybersecurity and joint testing with other countries. The government will also fund research by Canadian and international experts through the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.

Elissa Strome, executive director of Pan-Canadian AI strategy at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, said global collaboration is essential because AI technology doesn’t have borders.

Canada is a longtime leader in AI research, she said. “It’s the value-add that Canada brings to the global conversation, is this expertise and this leadership that we have in AI research.”

At the meeting in San Francisco, representatives from AI institutes around the world will look at emerging topics and opportunities for collaboration, she said.

“We hope to be able to come back from that meeting with some ideas on where we want to focus, at least to start with.”

Strome said there are already concerns and issues with how AI is being deployed, including misinformation, disinformation and synthetic content like deepfakes, but also opportunities to develop new technical approaches to identify or prevent false content.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

— With files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

MONTREAL – A Quebec civil liberties group says it intends to push forward with legal action after the Supreme Court of Canada responded to its translation demand by simply removing thousands of unilingual English judgments from its website last week.

Droits collectifs Québec said the court’s decision to delete the rulings doesn’t resolve the issues it raised. “Our intention is to continue the proceedings which, in our eyes, are still relevant at this time, despite this somewhat desperate gesture made by the Supreme Court,” Étienne-Alexis Boucher, the group’s executive director, said in an interview.

The organization had gone to Federal Court alleging the high court’s registrar — the court’s administrative body — was not respecting the Official Languages Act. It was seeking a public apology, a judgment from the court, official translations of the English-only decisions within three years, and $1 million in exemplary damages to be shared with groups working to preserve the French language.

More than 6,000 decisions from before 1970, when rulings started to be systemically translated under the Official Languages Act, had been posted on the Supreme Court’s website in English only.

On Friday, the registrar announced it was removing all pre-1970 judgments from the Supreme Court website, directing people to other online databases if they wished to consult them. The court’s Chief Justice Richard Wagner said in June that the pre-1970 rulings were primarily of historical interest and the cost of translating them would be prohibitive.

The registrar said Friday that although the judgments were taken down, it would begin translating the “most historically or jurisprudentially significant” decisions from before 1970.

The Federal Court application involves decisions that were rendered between 1877 and the September 1969 entry into force of the Official Languages Act, which obliges federal institutions to publish content in English and in French. It came after the court failed to respond to a ruling from official languages commissioner Raymond Théberge declaring that decisions published on the court’s website must be available in both official languages.

Théberge agreed that the law doesn’t apply retroactively, but he said posting earlier decisions without translating them amounted to an offence under the act, and he gave the high court 18 months to correct the situation.

On Tuesday, Théberge said in a statement that he was aware of the Supreme Court’s “new approach on publishing judgments on their website” and said his office will continue to monitor developments in the matter.

François Larocque, a University of Ottawa professor who researches language rights, said that under 2023 reforms to the Official Languages Act, the commissioner has the power to propose a compliance agreement if institutions don’t follow his recommendations.

He said the removal of the unilingual decisions reflects short-term compliance.

“The spirit of the recommendation was something different … it was about making the entirety of the court’s jurisprudence available to both legal audiences in Canada: the French and English legal audience,” Larocque said.

“By removing all the decisions, essentially they’re levelling down, right? Instead of making all the decisions available in both languages, you’re just going to remove the offending ones and no one gets them on the Supreme Court website.”

Larocque said access to translated versions are important, as some of the cases are still cited regularly as jurisprudence.

He said he “vehemently” disagrees with the chief justice’s characterization that the rulings are just of historical interest. “Those decisions, even though they’re not necessarily cited every day, are still important. They are the law of the land until they are explicitly overruled by a subsequent decision,” Larocque said.

The decisions are also pedagogical tools for law professors and having them in French is important.

“I think that’s the right way to view all those decisions as being part of the fabric of our legal system,” Larocque said. “Everything the Supreme Court has ever done, I consider it to be important.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

— With files from Pierre Saint-Arnaud in Montreal.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Tributes to former British Columbia premier John Horgan are flowing after his death on Tuesday at the age of 65.

Here are some of them:

“John embodied kindness and courage. He was a fighter. He will be celebrated for his leadership and the progress he made on so many important issues. Above all, we will remember how John made us feel. His warmth. His positivity. His ability to connect with people irrespective of their politics or beliefs. John leaves behind a profound legacy that will inspire us for generations to come.”

— Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

“His many accomplishments as premier will be felt for years and generations to come. His achievements are too numerous to mention, but he was a consequential premier at a critical time in our history. He encouraged all of us to strive to be our better selves.”

— B.C. Premier David Eby

“John was not just a colleague in public service but a man of genuine warmth and integrity. … His approachable nature and willingness to engage in open dialogue were qualities that I admired greatly. He had a way of making everyone feel heard, regardless of their stance or background.”

— B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad

“I had the privilege of working with John and always admired his ability to build bridges and work with people of every political stripe. … He leaves behind an enormous legacy that he and his family can be proud of.”

— Ontario Premier Doug Ford

“He was an incredible leader and a dear friend — a pillar of our movement — who made life better for working people. John always put the needs of others first. I am heartbroken to lose him. Rest in peace my friend. “

— NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh

“Public life takes every ounce of your attention, of your heart, and of your time. There is no doubt that Horgan’s commitment to British Columbia and his dedication to public service have left an enduring legacy.”

— Former BC Liberal premier Christy Clark

“Fighting for people wasn’t something John did, it was who he was. … He genuinely loved the people of our province, and connected with people from all walks of life.”

— B.C. NDP president Aaron Sumexheltza

“John dedicated his life to serving our province. He loved British Columbia and its people dearly.”

— B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau

“John led with integrity, and his commitment to the people of this province, his compassion, and his sense of humour will be deeply missed.”

— Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim

“John Horgan spent most of his adult life devoted to public service. His was a down-to-earth and reliable voice in support of B.C.’s working people — always focused on standing up for regular folks.”

— Former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.