We’re on the radio! Spies and corporate intel-sharing
Hear our new show & podcast today. Plus: UN pauses Toronto deportation. DULF update soon. Tumbler Ridge chatbot logs emerge.
De Audio
Our new De Facto Radio show & podcast
We’re now broadcasting weekly: Every Saturday from 11-11:30 a.m. on CFRO 100.5 Vancouver and livestreamed at Vancouver Co-op Radio!
De Facto Radio takes listeners behind the scenes of our team’s investigations, and highlights other top reporters and stories from across the country.
Last weekend, Emma and David hosted our first episode! We spoke to two BC reporters who uncovered how Canada’s spy agency is sharing sensitive intelligence with companies — and why that’s raising alarm among civil liberties experts.
The Narwhal and Investigative Journalism Foundation co-published the investigation by Matt Simmons and Zak Vescera last fall, and last week it was shortlisted for a Jack Webster Award.
"This is going to have a chilling effect on protest movements,” Zak told De Facto Radio.
“I don't think most people engaged in any kind of domestic protest are thinking they're going to be tangling with Canada's spy agency ... if they have an information-sharing relationship with the company you're protesting."
Matt Simmons
You can listen to their interview, and our whole first episode, anytime on major podcast platforms or at De Facto Radio’s webpage:
Today’s episode:
Emma, David, and Dustin talk about the labour movement’s reaction to Bill C-39. That legislation, if passed, would grant ministerial power to end strikes in federally regulated industries.
Tune in live today (or any other Saturday) from 11-11:30 a.m. PT — on CFRO 100.5FM in Metro Vancouver, via livestream, or on our radio/podcast page.
Our first in-person gathering
(The first of many — stay tuned for one in Vancouver)
Thank you to everyone who dropped by to meet and chat with us at De Facto’s backyard celebration in Victoria, and to all our subscribers who sent supportive replies to our invitation. We were so delighted to meet supporters — including some new ones who came as guests and left as subscribers.
By the numbers:
- 4 months celebrated since our launch
- 30ish people who dropped by
- 2.5 hours of insightful conversation and tasty snacks
- 6 fresh loaves of David's sourdough bread
- 5 delicious dips for the bread
- 1 beautiful backyard garden
- $720 fundraised
Thank you, and a huge welcome to our newest Defactors (recurring donors)!
Coming soon: DULF trial outcome
We’ll have more of our coverage of the Drug User Liberation Front trial, with a decision now set to be released on Tuesday, well ahead of the expected timeline.
Ex Facto
News we’re reading about immigration, policing, court cases, investigative reporting, and other topics we cover.
Toronto carpenter’s deportation halted at UN’s request
The UN Human Rights Committee wants time to consider a petition about his case, which is also undergoing a federal appeal.
The longtime resident fled neo-Nazi targeting in the Czech Republic and gained permanent residency in 1999, but lost status over 2023 trips for family care and funerals.
“He thought permanent residence status was permanent,” his lawyer told TorontoToday's Cherise Seucharan, saying that Canada hasn’t effectively advised former refugees about 2012 rule changes that can cost them their status.
Rallies protested federal immigration reforms last weekend
Ralliers in 11 cities from Toronto to Owen Sound criticized Bill C-12 and called for promised pathways to permanent residency, no more deportations (which have escalated recently), and an end to employer-specific contracts for migrant workers.
De Facto reported in May on these contracts and other ways migrant workers in BC are exploited — and on why many groups say the Bill C-12 reforms will exacerbate that exploitation.
De Facto Journalism Co-op
ChatGPT bot advised Tumbler Ridge shooter on violent queries, new investigation reports
Jesse Van Rootselaar was initially banned after talking to the chatbot about mass shootings. As our Dustin Godfrey has covered, lawsuits by victims’ families — and now the province of BC — allege OpenAI failed to flag that behaviour to police, which the company considered and which some employees have said they recommended.
Dustin Godfrey
The shooter used a second account to evade the ban and to discuss violent fantasies extensively. In Mother Jones, Mark Follman reports that logs he reviewed from that second round show her getting past safeguards by simply reframing the prompts as nominally fictional or hypothetical — tactics the chatbot had at one point advised her to use to avoid a ban.
The bot also detailed the effects of specific weapons in a campus shooting, and sources told Follman that some tactics discussed with the bot resemble those seen in the unreleased security footage from Tumbler Ridge.
Vancouver police must pay $25K for discriminating against Black woman at traffic stop
The BC Human Rights Tribunal ruled that an officer treated Safiya Elshazly differently than the other passengers and white driver. Cst. Cheng asked her for ID and, when she didn’t have any but offered other ways to prove her identity, didn’t look her up in his database.
Instead, he took her out of the vehicle and arrested her for obstruction, accusing her of being “one drunk lady.” She does not drink for religious reasons, and video showed she was not belligerent. [CityNews Vancouver]
Fuel truck backing up kills woman sleeping on Nanaimo street
The victim’s sister, who was close with her, passed the scene on her way to work. “You know they’re all people, right?” she said, speaking with CHEK about her sister and others living outside and facing addiction. “They all have people who love them.”
No criminal charges for Calgary sheriff who generated AI nude images of coworkers
Alberta’s watchdog determined it wasn’t illegal at the time; Parliament passed a law a month after the investigation began. Alberta Public Safety told the Edmonton Journal’s Jonny Wakefield the sheriff is off active duty while an internal investigation unfolds.
More news:
- Citing BC snap election, RCMP watchdog delays report into CIRG — the special unit accused of extensive misconduct in Wet'suwet'en and Fairy Creek responses. [CBC]
- Alberta government gave $70M to recovery startup and won't say why. [Drug Data Decoded]
- Sask. Mountie shot into neighbour's home while off duty, but will face no punishment. [CBC]
In Facto
Corrections from last edition
Last newsletter’s voyeur item misstated the total number of victims (it was 650+, not 400+) and the timing of when the suspect made videos while he was on bail. He filmed hundreds while out on bail from his 2019 arrest, rather than his 2024 arrest. Police would not confirm to CBC whether, or how many, videos were made while on bail after that 2024 arrest.
Happening next week
- Tuesday, Sept. 29: DULF trial decision expected at Vancouver’s downtown courthouse at 9 a.m. PT.
- Wednesday, Sept. 30 (National Truth and Reconciliation Day): Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal will release the result of its Missing and Disappeared Indigenous Children and Unmarked Burials in Canada session, at a 9:30 a.m. ET (6:30 a.m. PT) live conference. [PPT]
- Thursday, Oct. 1: Health Canada’s new regulations for prescribing controlled substances take effect. [College of Pharmacists of BC]
