Rory White

Canada’s National Observer has discovered a network of deceptive, AI-generated websites promoting Albertan separatism. The 23 websites are designed to influence the answers that AI chatbots give to voters in Alberta, targeting farmers, young people, veterans, mothers and oil industry workers. Two of the websites claim that the vote will take place on October 26 – one week after the actual referendum on October 19.

Oakville, Ont., is the latest Canadian municipality to enact a one-year moratorium on data centres as developers and AI companies race to build digital infrastructure across the country. The moratorium, known as an interim control bylaw, passed unanimously during a special council meeting on Tuesday afternoon after being proposed just one day earlier. “These projects are complex, they’re energy-intensive,” said Coun. Tom Adams, while introducing the original motion.

Gabriela Lopes remembers the crowds at Montreal's climate march in September 2019. “It was electrifying,” she told Canada’s National Observer. She had turned up with her friends expecting “just a chill thing,” but found the crowds packed “building-to-building on these huge boulevards.” The climate protest was the largest of its kind in Quebec history, attracting an estimated 500,000 marchers — many of them school children.