Huge pro-India fake news network includes Canadian sites, links to Canadian think tanks

2019/11/25 Leave a comment

Of interest:

A huge international network of fake local news sites that push a pro-Indian government position internationally has a deep Canadian connection, CBC News has learned.

According to the EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based non-profit group whose goal is identifying disinformation targeting the European Union, the network includes at least 265 sites in more than 65 countries.

At least 12 of those sites pose as Canadian news outlets and use names that either mimic current media publications or old media outlets that have folded, such as The Toronto Evening Telegram. CBC has also found evidence of a further 16 sites designed to look like local Canadian news websites, all registered by the Srivastava Group.

Some of the sites have either been taken down in the last week, since some of the EU DisinfoLab’s findings have been reported, or never had content uploaded to them in the first place.

All of the sites are tied to the Srivastava Group, an Indian corporation run by Ankit Srivastava, a self-described entrepreneur based in New Delhi. CBC was able to determine using website data analysis tool DomainTools. Some of the websites were registered to a bungalow in Edmonton.

The network of sites publishes content that is critical of Pakistan.

News sites with Canadian names but little activity

The purported Canadian news sites run by the network have names like the Toronto Mail, the Quebec Telegraph and the Times of New Brunswick. Many borrow the names of defunct Canadian newspapers. In all cases, the “about” section claims that the websites are local Canadian media outlets.

Most of the Canadian websites in the network have generated very little activity on social media, garnering almost no likes and shares, according to social media analytics tool BuzzSumo. Unlike many fake news networks, the sites don’t seem to make money through advertising since they don’t carry ads.

Alexandre Alaphilippe, executive director of the EU DisinfoLab, notes that parts of this network have been active since 2010. “It’s a network that has been operating for a very long time on these questions, promoting India or denigrating Pakistan,” he said. “It’s not only fake media sites. They have think-tanks, NGOs and so on. It’s very organized. It shows that this is something that is planned.”

Controversial visit to Kashmir

The Srivastava Group was also linked to a controversial visit by right-wing members of European Parliament to Kashmir in late October, which included a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The visit to Kashmir took place even though access to the region is extremely restricted by the Indian government, and journalists and NGOs are barred. In August, the Indian government revoked part of the constitution granting the Jammu and Kashmir state special status, instituted a curfew and cut internet and phone connections. The area has been under lockdown for more than 100 days.

According to Julian Schofield, an associate professor at Concordia University in Montreal whose studies focus on South Asia, the visit might be a way for India to promote its handling of the situation in Kashmir and make it look better when compared to its main rival, Pakistan.

“Bringing the Europeans over is saying, ‘Look, we’re a functioning democracy, just like you, we have the same issues as you, and essentially, we’re liberal. We’re multi-ethnic, multi-identity, just like you, not like Pakistan. Come visit Kashmir, we’re doing our best,'” he said.

According to Indian media, that visit was financed and organized by two NGOs with connections to Srivastava: the International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies (IINS) and Women’s Economic and Social Think-Tank (WESTT).

IINS was founded by Srivastava and shares a physical New Delhi address with the Srivastava group. WESTT’s website was registered by M. Srivastava. The director of WESTT, Madi Sharma, is also described as the EU correspondent for the New Delhi Times — an obscure newspaper whose editor-in-chief is Ankit Srivastava.

Its website has 1.2 million followers on Facebook, but almost no interactions with its content, which is extremely unusual given that followers tend to interact with content, and suggests the followers may be fake. Sharma was reported by Indian media to have extended the invitation to the MPs to visit India, and accompanied those MPs during their time in Kashmir.

Several Indian journalists from fact-checking outlets contacted by CBC/Radio-Canada said they had never heard of the New Delhi Times before the controversy over the Kashmir visit erupted.

Schofield said that India’s rivalry with Pakistan is at the centre of its foreign policy and the visit was part of its propaganda effort. “It is viable as a technique against Pakistan. If Pakistan wasn’t there, India would dominate the sub-continent.”

Srivastava has also republished columns from Toronto Sun columnist Tarek Fatah, who describes the two as friends, and also has links to former Liberal MP Mario Silva; the IP address used to register the website of a think-tank that was chaired by Silva is the same as that of the Srivastava group, and the site is hosted on a server administered by Srivastava.

CBC News reached out to Srivastava at multiple phone numbers, and in all cases, the person who answered the phone referred inquiries to an email address. Srivastava did not respond to multiple email inquiries.

Over the past week, Twitter has suspended several accounts linked to the network, including the accounts for EP Today, a purported news magazine centred on the European Parliament, and 4news Agency, a newswire service which served to boost the network’s content. Both these sites were used to push pro-India news items.

Since EU DisinfoLab’s report, all of the articles were also removed from EP Today. All that remains on the site is an apology by the owners for publishing articles from the Russian outlet RT.

Think tank website hosted by Srivastava

One of the Canadians linked to Ankit Srivastava is former Liberal MP Mario Silva.

Silva chaired a group called IFFRAS, the International Forum for Rights and Security, which describes itself as a “non-profit international think-tank” with headquarters in Toronto, Brussels, Geneva and Washington. Silva was the Liberal member of Parliament for the downtown Toronto riding of Davenport from 2004 to 2011, and is currently a distinguished visiting professor at Toronto’s Ryerson University and a board member at Toronto Hydro.

Using DomainTools, CBC found that the website shares the same IP address as the Srivastava Group and EP Today, and that website for the think tank is hosted on Srivastava’s server. The email address used to register the server is a Hotmail address for Srivastava.

Silva has given interviews to Times of Geneva, the New Delhi Times and 4News Agency, some of which were critical of Pakistan.

A YouTube video shows Silva sitting next to Fatah as Fatah gives a talk on Balochistan in Geneva in March of 2014.

A number listed on the IFFRAS.org website is not in service, and another number used by Silva previously in his registration of the site was also not in service.

When contacted by email, Silva said he does not “condone, participate in or support any organization that promotes inaccurate or misleading information and would never be part of any group that acts in such a manner.”

Silva said that IFFRAS, the think-tank, has been inactive for a number of years, and his involvement “was limited solely to advocacy for human rights in a broad sense, fully consistent with my long-standing commitment to the promotion of human rights and equality for all persons across the world.”

Silva further added he was unaware of any connections between Srivastava and the websites and newspapers that CBC had inquired about, and that he “emphatically” does not have “any connection with any group or organization you have referenced.”

Toronto writer’s columns reprinted on site

In an interview with CBC News, Fatah said that he was aware his columns were being republished in the New Delhi Times and said Srivastava paid him a small fee for it, though he declined to specify how much.

“Mr. Fatah is a freelance opinion columnist. Freelancers can generally resell their work after its publication in the Sun to non-competing markets, subject to the terms of their agreements with us,” said Phyllise Gelfand, the vice-president of communications for Postmedia, in an email.

Fatah was also listed as the executive director of an NGO called Baluchistan (sic) House, described as a think-tank focusing on the Balochistan province of Pakistan. The region has seen ongoing insurgencies against the Pakistani government by Baloch groups seeking independence.

The now-defunct Baluchistan House website was registered by Ankit Srivastava, as were other sites seemingly built for Fatah, such as whatthefatah.com and whatthefatah.net, which never published any content.

According to Fatah, the What the Fatah project is a proposed video series featuring him that he’s working on with Srivastava, while the Baluchistan House website registration may have come from an exiled Baloch leader living in London.

“I was merely involved and it never really took off, the Baluchistan House forum,” he said.

Fatah’s Baluchistan House organized a panel in 2017 in Geneva, where he appeared alongside Polish MEP Ryszard Czarnecki  to discuss Balochistan’s economic situation. Czarnecki, a conservative politician critical of Pakistan and supportive of India, was amongst the MEPs who visited Kashmir in October.

Fatah said he was not involved with the visit and did not help facilitate it. He also said that while he had met Czarnecki a few times in UN meetings, he didn’t speak or meet with Czarnecki outside of that.

Fatah said he was not aware that Srivastava was running a network of fake news sites.

“Why would he do that?” said Fatah, adding it must be “some ridiculous Indian bureaucrat’s idea of propaganda.”

Concordia’s Schofield said the network’s promotion of Baloch interests clearly marks it as serving the Indian government’s interests. He says that India has been supporting Balochistan independence as a way to put pressure on Pakistan.

“This is definitely political. It’s basically an open secret that the Indians have been helping the Baloch,” he said. “If [Ankit Srivastava] is doing this type of thing, that’s what you’d call a siren alert,” that he’s in line with the government’s policies.

Fatah said he wasn’t worried about his columns being used to promote pro-India views.

“Oh, I am unashamedly pro-India. If somebody uses my writing to be pro-India, hallelujah. India is the only place that will save this universe. You can quote me on that,” he said.

Source: Huge pro-India fake news network includes Canadian sites, links to Canadian think tanks

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A ‘friend of China’ no more: Why a longtime Canadian ally has become one of Beijing’s fierce critics

2019/11/25 Leave a comment

Good profile and account of her realization that she needed to speak out regarding the need for a reset of Canada-China relations, with Canada needing to take a harder line:

It was 1979 and Beijing was in the midst of its first democracy movement. Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, then a civil servant in the Ontario government opening up after decades of isolation from the outside world.

The Xidan democracy wall, part of a peaceful public outburst against the Communist Party of China, was in full swing and McCuaig-Johnston had been following the story in Canadian media.

“I had never even thought of China. It was not on my radar at all, but this sounded really interesting,” she said. “So, my husband and I went over to China.”

At the time, only group tours were allowed, so she made the trip with the University of Toronto Alumni Association and even managed a trip to see the democracy wall in Beijing, which hosted messages of hope and reform from the mainland Chinese people. From there, McCuaig-Johnston travelled the country and decided to do a master’s degree in international relations focused on China.

For the next 40 years, including working as a civil servant, she collaborated to advance the relationship between Canada and China. Part of her work meant helping China develop its science and technology programs during its reform period.

Eventually, McCuaig-Johnston would become the vice-president of the Canada-China friendship association and consider herself a “friend of China,” a common expression used for those who support partnerships and engagement with Beijing.

But everything changed last December.

That’s when Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei, was arrested. She had been passing through Vancouver’s airport when she was detained on a warrant request from the United States. The arrest sparked a firestorm that has torched relations between China and Canada.

McCuaig-Johnston said she’d already had concerns about the direction Beijing was taking on human rights, particularly regarding internment camps for Muslims in the Xinjiang province, as well as the country’s increasing aggression in the South China Sea.

But what galvanized those concerns was the detention without charges of two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who remain in Chinese custody months later. Another two Canadians were sentenced to death for drug convictions, which have not been carried out. Shortly after, Beijing levelled sanctions against Canadian pork and beef.

After decades spent facilitating China’s enhanced ties to Canada, McCuaig-Johnston returned to her hotel room in Shanghai the same week Kovrig and Spavor were arrested to find her locked luggage had been unlocked and rummaged through.

She said she believes it was Chinese authorities because nothing was taken. Then a local business acquaintance told her he had heard authorities had a list of 100 Canadians they could detain and interrogate at any time. McCuaig-Johnston had reached her limit.

“When I came home, I decided to speak out,” she said.

Since then, McCuaig-Johnston has written five editorials in national newspapers critical of China, given 30 interviews and recently published Dragon at the Door through the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. The paper calls for Canada to conduct a reset of relations with Beijing, insisting Ottawa to take a harder line.

“Up until January, I had never done an interview in my life,” she said. “But I feel it’s important that friends of China — former friends of China — speak out about this.”

Her paper suggests pulling out of China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, using so-called Magnitsky legislation to punish Hong Kong officials who abuse human rights, or sending pandas now living at the Calgary Zoo back to China early. Canada must also pivot to an Indo-Pacific economic strategy, she argued.

Foreign affairs critic Erin O’Toole agreed with measures laid out in the paper, but suggested the Liberal government seems unwilling to take such strong action.

“We are rolling over, we are acquiescing, at a time when Chinese aggression is on the rise,” O’Toole said. “We should be working with like-minded allies to send a real signal that such conduct is not condoned.

If keeping quiet and friendly were going to work with China, Spavor and Kovrig “would have been released months ago,” he said.

On Friday, China’s new ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, urged Canada to not pass legislation similar to the United States’ sanctioning China and Hong Kong officials who abuse human rights. The bill is in support of students in the special administrative region who have been protesting for months. About 300,000 Canadians live in Hong Kong.

Cong said it could cause “very bad damage” if Canada were to use similar legislation.

The Liberal government had issued no response to those comments by press time Friday.

Observers have noted that many advisers around the Liberal government have ties and interests in China, including new ambassador to Beijing, Dominic Barton, and McCuaig-Johnston was once among the ranks of such business people, academics and bureaucrats.

But though “friends of China” may express outrage at China behind closed doors, many have told her they will not do so in public for fear of losing their privileges in the country.

In January, more than 140 academics and diplomats around the world signed a letter demanding China release Kovrig and Spavor. But just six Canadian academics signed while another six former Canadian ambassadors to China also signed.

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FUREY: The rise of the organized Muslim vote in Canada

2019/11/25 Leave a comment

In many ways, the Muslim community is following the pattern by many ethnic groups.

Muslim Canadians were particularly mobilized in the 2015 election given their perception, not without merit, that the previous Conservative government was hostile to some Muslim groups and was using them for virtue signalling to their base (e.g., niqab ban at citizenship ceremonies, “barbaric practices tippling”) and their voting turnout, along with many recent immigrants, increased significantly compared to previous elections.

And all groups can claim to play a significant role (e.g., Italian Canadians, Corriere Canadese 23 September, Indigenous peoples, Assembly of First Nations sets sights on influencing election, among others):

A number of puzzled columnists and policy experts are currently trying to figure out why it was that Canada under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has broken with its tradition of voting down United Nations resolutions that denounce Israel and – as happened last week – joining the pile-on to condemn the only Jewish state in the world.

So far the working conclusion they’ve arrived at is that it was done because Trudeau covets a two-year seat at the Security Council and this is one way to win over votes at the notoriously anti-Israel body. That’s no doubt part of it.

There could be something else at play though: Maybe this is just what Canadian voters want. Or at least what one highly motivated and increasingly influential segment of the electorate wants.

In the months leading up to the election, a group called The Canadian Muslim-Vote (TCMV) was unapologetic in predicting the power the organized Muslim vote could yield over the 2019 federal election results.

“The Canadian Muslim community has the numbers to decide the winners and losers this election, which directly impacts the composition of the government we will have,” TCMV executive director Ali Manek wrote in a press release that went out on October 17 – just days before the election. “Muslim voters have turned out to the Advance Polls over Muslim Vote Weekend and we will be there on election day because we understand that we speak the loudest when we vote.”

TCMV also released the results of an online survey, finding that the top three issues selected by Muslim voters were immigration (64%), foreign policy (60%) and healthcare funding (58%).

The poll did not further break down what particular foreign affairs issue animated Muslims in Canada. However, the controversial Canadian Muslim Voting Guide – authored by Wilfrid Laurier University professor Jasmine Zine with support from a federal grant – had sections on foreign policy that pushed Muslim voters to judge the issue solely through the lens of boycotting Israel while supporting Muslim majority countries in North Africa, South Asia and the Middle East.

What do you think the answer would have been if TCMV had polled to ask which way Canada should vote on UN resolutions concerning Israel?

Now it would be entirely unfair to say that all Muslims in Canada are de facto anti-Israel. For example, the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee regularly has Muslim allies helping to organize and boost their events. And there were Muslim activists and candidates happy to campaign alongside the Conservative Party of Canada, which is proud of its pro-Israel stance.

But let’s not kid ourselves either. Whether it’s the recurring news stories of imams preaching anti-Semitism or events like the recent anti-Israel violence that erupted on York University campus last week, there’s a running theme going on that’s pretty easy to figure out.

While the Muslim community has always been targeted as a special interest voting bloc – what my colleague Tarek Fatah laments as the ghettoization of politics – this was in the past an ad hoc operation. It was a community affair that happened riding-by-riding and was more about political strategists organizing them than Muslim groups organizing themselves.

That’s clearly changing – whether through Manek’s national project or smaller scale efforts, like attempts to register an Islamic Party of Ontario with Elections Ontario. (The latter seems to have fallen apart, although when I spoke with Jawed Anwar, its leader, earlier this year he said he was quite serious and committed.)

In fact, the TCMV even went so far as to produce a list of 73 closely fought ridings where they predicted that Canada’s estimated 765,000 registered Muslim voters could decide the winner. They wrote that mosques in 17 of those ridings had already participated in get-out-the-vote initiatives and bragged that “in the recently concluded Alberta provincial election mosques used Friday sermons to encourage Muslims to vote.”

My colleague Farzana Hassan predicted these possibilities back in September, before TCMV released their targeted ridings list. “It will be interesting to see how the election unfolds from a Muslim perspective,” she wrote. “With support for Trudeau and Scheer neck and neck, the Muslim vote may determine how the result goes in swing ridings.”

There is no serious exit polling conducted in Canada, so for all we know the Muslim vote did determine the outcome in multiple ridings and Manek’s project was a success.

Over a decade ago I watched as Muslim women were literally bused in to a Liberal nomination meeting and then instructed on how to vote by the neighbourhood imam. Operations like TCMV – a self-described non-partisan operation – are basically an attempt to do this on a national scale. (As an aside, it should be noted that Ali Manek has previously sought Liberal nominations on both the provincial and federal level.)

Demography is destiny, as the saying goes. Yet people are sheepish about discussing this issue. It’s considered politically incorrect to even acknowledge that the Muslim population – and therefore the Muslim vote – is increasing in Canada faster than other groups. No wonder. The whole thing that spurred the human rights tribunal battles involving Mark Steyn over a decade ago was an essay that appeared in Maclean’s breaking down the population numbers game and what it means for the future.

You can talk about this or you can ignore it. You can see it as a positive, negative or neutral phenomenon. But whatever your take, there’s no denying that the Muslim vote in Canada is growing and so is its influence.

Source: FUREY: The rise of the organized Muslim vote in Canada

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Nazi Symbols and Racist Memes: Combating School Intolerance Many educators feel ill-equipped for the urgent and difficult task of identifying students exposed to extremist material online.

2019/11/25 Leave a comment

On ongoing challenge without easy solutions:

An 18-year-old senior at Battle Ground High School in Washington State was immersed in a fighting video game with a couple of online friends in March when news broke about a violent shooter targeting New Zealand mosques.

The three friends, including one in Virginia and another in Britain, often frequented the chat platform Discord while playing Melty Blood, their favorite game. Sometimes they dabbled in extremist material — like videos claiming that Jews control America — that white supremacists have propagated via Discord in recent years, the senior explained.

Intrigued by the attack, they quickly found the gunman’s lengthy manifesto and an Instagram account that appeared to be his, so the senior dashed off a message in the jargon of white supremacists. “WAR IS ON THE HORIZON WE SHALL NOT LOSE WE SHALL SURVIVE,” he wrote, according to a screenshot.

Much to their astonishment, an answer popped up within 15 minutes: “This is my final message, this is my farewell.” Soon afterward, the account went dark.

Filed under Antisemitism, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

Toronto immigrants face ‘thick glass ceiling’ when it comes to executive jobs, study finds

2019/11/23 Leave a comment

Would be interesting to see whether the numbers are different for those with Canadian under-graduate degrees, which the article suggests given that those with UK or US undergraduates were excluded:

Immigrants may have made progress reaching the first rung on their career ladder in Canada, but they are getting nowhere near the C-suites, a new report says.

Among the leading Greater Toronto Area employers across the public, private and non-profit sectors, only 6 per cent of executives — those at the level of vice-president or above — are immigrants, according to the study, “Building a Corporate Ladder for All,” to be released Thursday by the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.

While the public and non-profit sectors are faring slightly better with 6.6 per cent of their executives being immigrants, just 5 per cent of corporate executives overall in the GTA are newcomers, says the study, which did not survey executives directly, but examined third-party public sources, such as LinkedIn, to determine immigrant representation.

Being a visible minority immigrant woman is a triple whammy as they only make up one in 100 corporate executives in the region, the report found, though women overall accounted for 36 per cent of the executive positions.

“Immigrants often have to begin their Canadian careers at more junior, even entry levels. This mid- or late-career ‘restart’ makes it unlikely that they will be able to climb up to the top of the career ladder. Taking a lower level position has the potential to affect an immigrant’s entire career in Canada,” says the report, referring to the limited upward mobility faced by newcomers as the “sticky floor” phenomenon.

“Employer reluctance to hire immigrant talent for management-level positions in particular, plays a significant role in limiting advancement … Cultural differences in management and leadership styles can play a role in this. There are certain cultural expectations in Canada around how a leader should behave.”

Report author and researcher Yilmaz Ergun Dinc analyzed the profiles of 659 executives from 69 employers through sampling from the 2019 GTA Top Employers listing by Mediacorp Canada. Only those with headquarters and executive positions in Canada were counted. Data was culled through company websites, annual reports, investor reports, LinkedIn and Bloomberg profiles, as well as other publicly available sources.

Although the findings are not definitive, the report offers a snapshot of immigrant representation in executive roles in the region.

“Immigrant” executives are defined as those who obtained their bachelor’s degree abroad, given only 2.1 per cent of Canadians studied overseas, making this a good indicator of an individual being an immigrant.

Those executives with an undergraduate degree from the United States and the United Kingdom were excluded because professionals from the two countries don’t tend to face the same barriers as others from non-English speaking countries.

The unemployment gap between newcomers and their Canadian peers has been shrinking over the past two decades. However, in the GTA, where newcomers make up 50 per cent of the population, almost half of immigrant men and two-thirds of immigrant women with a university degree were in jobs that required lower levels of education in 2016, compared to one-third of their male and female Canadian-born counterparts.

“As immigrants age, and hypothetically reach more advanced stages in their careers, their incomes should align more closely with people born here,” says the report. “Yet, the salary income gap seems to be growing with age.”

In the GTA, economic immigrants between the ages of 35 to 44 on average earn about 25 per cent less than people born in Canada. However, by the time they are between the ages of 45 to 54, they earn almost 40 per cent less than their Canadian-born counterparts.

Dinc says community efforts have traditionally focused on helping immigrants get their feet in the door in the job market through job and language training, and not enough attention is paid to supporting them in career advancement. It doesn’t help that the economy is shifting toward precarious work and that some organizations lack inclusive promotion processes.

“As more and more jobs are becoming temporary and contract-based and therefore without advancement opportunities, organizations are not investing in grooming these workers for leadership,” he notes, adding that many immigrants do not have senior executive mentors who can act as their champions when it comes to promotion.

To break the “thick glass ceiling” for immigrant professionals, the report recommends that employers establish leadership development and mentoring programs, inclusion training for managers and inclusive professional development strategies.

“We need to be applying our minds to the systematic barriers, especially for women and racialized people, that limit immigrants’ advancement once they do find work, and collaboratively implement the recommendations identified,” the study concludes.

“If our goal is to set Canada apart as a desirable destination for the world’s best and brightest in their fields, we need immigrant leaders that will help Canadian businesses, non-profits and public institutions to innovate, grow and prosper.”

Source: Toronto immigrants face ‘thick glass ceiling’ when it comes to executive jobs, study finds

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Who determines what’s hate? A Canadian firm uses technology to decide

2019/11/23 Leave a comment

Interesting, both in terms of the approach as well as some of the challenges and potential pitfalls:

To curb hate speech — and ultimately, the violence it can spur — Timothy Quinn and his team have spent years compiling the most vile words found on the internet.

His Toronto firm, Hatebase, relies on software that digs through the web several times an hour to spot potentially hateful words, which are then flagged to NGOs interested in countering hate and to social media companies.

Hatebase’s ever-growing, multilingual hate speech lexicon of more than 3,600 terms has attracted big-name partners around the world. But the practice has led to concerns about censorship, and whether computers are equipped to navigate complicated streams of text and decipher what is hateful.

“It’s a horrible job for a human being to do,” Quinn said. “You need some degree of automation to handle the worst of the worst.”

Launched in 2013 as a partner of the Sentinel Project — a genocide-prevention group — Hatebase was initially meant as a way to track early signs of mass atrocities. It would analyze potentially dangerous online chatter in conflict zones in hopes of preventing violence.

Early signs of violence

Online messages may have served as precursors to more recent, high-profile killings, too. Suspects in the Toronto van attack, the El Paso Walmart shooting and the massacre at the mosque in New Zealand, among others, are said to have spread spiteful content online in the lead-up to their rampage.

Although Hatebase’s automated social media monitoring engine, known as Hatebrain, is not designed to single out users, Quinn said a noticeable spike in online hate speech can sometimes precede targeted violence.

“We’re not looking for the one active shooter,” Quinn said in an interview. “We’re looking for raw trends around language being used to discriminate against groups of people online.”

The firm’s database includes terms in 97 languages, spotted online more than a million times from users in at least 184 countries. In Canada, gay people and women represent the most-targeted groups, according to a country-specific page not yet made public, but seen by a CBC News reporter.

How it’s used

Hatebase licenses its software to tech companies, including the Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok and other social media firms. Quinn said his company works with well-known Silicon Valley firms but declined to name them, citing non-disclosure agreements.

Hatebase only provides the data. It’s up to clients to decide how to use it, for instance by blocking users who use hateful words, deleting their messages or flagging content to human moderators.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) told CBC it’s concerned about the way the data is used, and whether it can form the basis for excluding some points of view from online discussion.

CCLA’s Cara Zwibel is concerned the definition of hate speech may be too restrictive.

Words “that most people in ordinary conversation would think is hate speech, is not hate speech under the law,” she said.

Hatebase applies a broad definition to hate speech: “any term which broadly categorizes a specific group of people based on malignant, qualitative and/or subjective attributes — particularly if those attributes pertain to ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexuality, disability or class.”

More than words

Zwibel stressed the context around questionable content — not just the words themselves — must be analyzed before determining whether it should be taken down.

“I am worried about using machines to do this kind of work,” she said.

Humans grade the entries into Hatebase’s lexicon — from “mildly offensive” (such as “bimbo”) to “extremely offensive” (like the N-word). Quinn said Hatebase also uses several factors to analyze the way words are being used in a sentence, such as by searching for “pilot fish.”

A reference to the small aquatic creatures that live alongside sharks, pilot fish are words or symbols often attached to targeted slurs. Quinn said pilot fish could include the word “asshole” or the cartoon-turned-hate symbol, Pepe the Frog.

Hatebase also provides free services to non-profit groups. Its website lists the UN’s human rights agency and the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League as partners. The company also says more than 275 universities and colleges, including Harvard and Oxford, use Hatebase data for research.

In Ottawa, the United for All Coalition — a local group recently formed to counter hate and violence — is considering working with Hatebase to identify neighbourhoods where residents may be vulnerable to radicalization.

“It’s not about targeting or fingering people who are engaging in hate or dangerous speech, it’s about knowing where it’s happening,” said Julie McKercher, an Ottawa Police co-ordinator for the MERIT program, which is part of the Coalition.

She said geolocation data obtained by Hatebase could point authorities and community groups in the right direction.

‘You’re always playing catch-up’

Another challenge emerges when trying to track hate speech: subtle changes to words made to circumvent digital filters. Tony McAleer, a former skinhead recruiter living in B.C., compares it to the arcade game Whac-A-Mole.

“The groups themselves will change the language they’re using, so you’re always playing catch-up,” he said.

Hatebase, for instance, lists the word “ghey” as “an intentional misspelling of ‘gay’ meant to avoid censorship and mock homosexual behaviour.” A recent search of public tweets found the spelling used frequently.

McAleer, who recently published his memoir, The Cure for Hate, said hateful words shouldn’t just be suppressed without proposing an alternative message.

“When you censor something, it becomes more popular than it ever was.”

Timothy Quinn at Hatebase said the company’s mandate “is in no way to limit free speech.” He agrees counter-messaging and understanding the root of hate is a better strategy.

“We’re really in the business of making data available, so organizations can understand the scale of the problem.”

Source: Who determines what’s hate? A Canadian firm uses technology to decide

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B.C. redesigns funding program that targets racism and hate

2019/11/23 Leave a comment

Small change, so likely minimal impact:

The B.C. government is redesigning the programs it uses to fight racism and intolerance, unveiling a new structure on Wednesday.

Premier John Horgan said the former Organizing Against Racism and Hate funding program has been redesigned into the new Resilience B.C. Anti-Racism Network.

The government will spend $540,000 annually offering grants and funding to communities and groups committed to cultural diversity and multiculturalism. The funding will also be used to respond to and prevent incidents of racism and hate.

The province will identify a central service provider for the program in the coming months, and estimates up to 40 local service providers will be linked into the network and funding.

“Resilience B.C. will be the beginning of increasing capacity in comms so they can do the work they need to do with the blessing and resources we can give them from the province,” said Horgan.

“Resilience B.C. Nice tag line, but it has got to be about people, it has got to be about communities.”

NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon, who served as parliamentary secretary on multiculturalism until a recent move to forestry, said the program will build upon a recent multiculturalism report he issued, as well as the restoration of the B.C. Human Rights Commission.

Source: B.C. redesigns funding program that targets racism and hate

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Anti-racism council unsure if it will continue its work under UCP government

2019/11/23 Leave a comment

More a rhetorical than a real question. Unlikely:

A government-led council dedicated to combat racism in Alberta appears to be in limbo, with its members saying they haven’t received any concrete direction on the future of their mandate from the new United Conservative government.

The Anti-Racism Advisory Council was put together under the NDP government in February, shortly before April’s provincial election that ended with a change in government. Spearheaded by then-education minister David Eggen, the council was the first of its kind in Alberta, and advised the government on the development of anti-racism and anti-discrimination programs.

The council has since been shifted to Multiculturalism and Status of Women Minister Leela Aheer, her ministry has confirmed. But since the change of government, the 24-member council hasn’t been active and hasn’t received any direction from Aheer on their mandate.

Heather Campbell and Lucenia Ortiz, the co-chairs of the advisory council, said they were introduced briefly to Aheer in a phone conversation May 24.

“We have not heard from minister Aheer or from any of her staff since then,” the co-chairs said in an email. They added they worry about the future of the council, as the new fiscal plan for the ministry makes no mention of funding allocated specifically to the council.

“It would be difficult for the council to hold meetings when there are no resources to cover travel and accommodation for many out-of-town members,” the co-chairs said. The council was intended to do the bulk of its work with the government in Edmonton, they added.

Aheer’s spokesperson Danielle Murray said in a statement that continuing to support diversity and inclusion is a priority of the government. Murray, however, did not answer questions about whether funding has been specifically allocated for the council to continue its work.

The Anti-Racism Advisory Council is part of a larger initiative that began under the previous government to take more bold action on addressing racism in the province, following the Quebec mosque shooting that killed six people and injured 19 in early 2017. Following the announcement of the council, the province received more than 300 applicants for its 24 seats.

The initiative also included the Anti-Racism Community Grant, meant to fund community programs specifically catered to addressing racism and discrimination at a local level. But that grant has since been consolidated under a broader Community Initiatives Program grant, Murray said.

“This broader grant stream will target grassroots multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion projects to build greater cultural awareness so that all Albertans feel their culture is valued,” Murray said.

The Alberta Human Rights Commission’s Human Rights Education and Multiculturalism Fund, valued at $1 million per year, has also been dissolved. Tasked with funding anti-racism and anti-discrimination programs in Alberta, the grant has existed in some form or another since 1988, according to Cam Stewart, the commission’s communications manager.

Jasvir Deol, NDP MLA for Edmonton-Meadows, said it’s concerning the Anti-Racism Advisory Council has not yet received any direction from the United Conservative government. He said racial minorities have historically lacked representation in Alberta, and the council promoted the diversity of the province and tried to include their voices at the table.

“(They’re) running away from their responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive province,” Deol said. He added he believes a platform is needed to reflect the diversity of Alberta, and address the real challenges that racial and religious minorities face both at their places of worship and in their daily lives.

Source: Anti-racism council unsure if it will continue its work under UCP government

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Is It Time To Revive Canada’s Federal Immigrant Investor Program? – Immigration – Canada

2019/11/23 Leave a comment

Short answer: no it is not. And Singer conveniently omits the major reason for the program’s termination: no real benefits to Canada (see the IRCC evaluation Evaluation of the Federal Business Immigration Programhttps://www.canada.ca › ircc › ircc › english › pdf › pub › e2-2013_fbip):

As the US hikes investment limits for the EB-5, Canada should consider reviving the suspended Canada Immigrant Investor Program.

As the US implements a massive 80 percent hike in minimum investments for the EB-5 program, it is an appropriate time to question the rationale behind Canada’s decision to completely ignore investment immigration. 

The Canada Immigrant Investor Program was one of the most sought-after investment immigration programs in the world when it was terminated in June 2014. 

Reasons for its termination included:

  • High demand from wealthy investors.

  • Spiraling real estate prices due to the influx of foreign funds into the sector. 

  • Lack of real benefits to the Canadian economy, and 

  • Disquiet over sale of permanent residence status and, indirectly, Canadian citizenship.

Source: Is It Time To Revive Canada’s Federal Immigrant Investor Program? – Immigration – Canada

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Researchers urge boycott of migration conference slated for China

2019/11/21 Leave a comment

The Star on our petition:

As Canada struggles to thaw its frosty relationship with China, academics and researchers are boycotting the world’s largest conference on migration, settlement and diversity to be held in Beijing.

The group has launched an online petition urging that the 2020 International Metropolis migration conference be relocated to a country other than China, due to its poor human rights record: the repression of the Muslim Uighur and Tibetan minorities, threats to Hong Kong’s legal and judicial independence, and the detention of foreign nationals, including Canadian businessman Michael Spavor and former diplomat Michael Kovrig.

Canada currently has a travel advisory for China urging people to exercise a high degree of caution due to “the risk of arbitrary enforcement of local laws” as well as one for Hong Kong because of the ongoing massive anti-government protests. So far, more than 150 academic researchers and other migration experts have signed the petition.

“If Canadian academics and policy-makers, as well as those from other countries, do not participate, it sends a signal that the regime cannot credibly claim to promote academic freedom or have inclusive policies around multiculturalism, immigration or diversity,” said Dalhousie University sociology professor Howard Ramos, who learned that Beijing would be the venue for next year’s conference in an email in late summer.

“Countries that host events on immigration and refugees should be ones that respect academic freedom and the rights of minorities,” he said. “Canada is a leading immigration country and Canadian experts are among the top in the field. A conference on immigration and refugees without them misses cutting-edge policy and scholarship.”

The conference is organized by the International Metropolis Network, made up of experts from around the world in migration and settlement policies as a platform where state officials, non-government organizations and researchers share ideas and discuss best policies to manage migration and integration.

A world leader in global migration, Canada was instrumental in the establishment of the international network of experts, with one of the organization’s three secretariats located at Carleton University. The event attracts as many as 1,000 participants and presenters a year and has been held around the world, including in Nagoya, Japan in 2016, the only time it was held in Asia.

Jan Rath, co-chair of the Metropolis International Steering Committee, said Metropolis has always been an “apolitical” body that believes in engagement and dialogue over isolation, and stands by the selection of the Beijing-based think tank, the Centre for China and Globalization, as the host of the 2020 conference.

Rath said they were aware of the “tense” relationship between Canada and China, adding that Beijing was picked after Berlin and Istanbul withdrew their bids.

“Canada is a free country and people are free to raise their concerns, but we want to make our points clear that we are not endorsing Chinese policies,” said Rath, a sociology professor at the University of Amsterdam. “The steering committee is co-hosting the conference with the think tank, which has no direct involvement of the Chinese government.”

However, Andrew Griffith, a former director-general with the Canadian immigration department, said the Centre for China and Globalization is effectively part of the Chinese government and he fears the conference will be used to legitimize Beijing’s policies and practices.

“It is highly likely that Chinese authorities will not permit a free and open exchange of ideas on relevant Chinese policy or practice. Foreign speakers will be discouraged from raising issues that might ‘offend’ the government,” said Griffith, who is among the initiators of the petition.

He said “minders” will be present to “monitor and intervene in the event of any real or perceived criticism.”

Source: Researchers urge boycott of migration conference slated for China

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