Hill Times Op Ed: Ban surveillance pricing now

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Ban Surveillance Pricing Now

By Jenny Kwan, MP

Canadians are continuing to be gouged at the checkout—and most don't even realize how. The tech billionaires are conspiring with the grocery barons to pull the wool over the eyes of working Canadians and seniors living on fixed incomes. While families struggle with grocery bills and rent, retailers are quietly deploying a new tool: surveillance pricing. Your phone, your browsing history, your postal code, your past purchases—all of it gets fed into algorithms that calculate not the cost of a product, but what you specifically might be willing to pay for it. Honestly, it’s sick, twisted and totally unacceptable to Canadians when they find out about it.

Two people buying the same box of crackers might be paying two different prices. The only difference? What the computer thinks it can get away with charging each of them. This isn't some far-off dystopian scenario. It's happening right now. And it should make all of us angry.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents thousands of grocery and retail employees across the country, has already sounded the alarm bell. Their members are seeing these systems roll out in real time—pricing infrastructure designed to maximize extraction from customers, with no transparency and no accountability. These companies think they can do whatever they want if the government is willing to look the other way.

Think about what this does to the basic premise of shopping. You can't comparison shop if the price changes depending on who's looking. You can't make informed decisions if the numbers on the shelf are shifting to your data profile sitting in the cloud. The fundamental trust that holds markets together starts to erode.

It will be working families, seniors on fixed incomes, people in rural or underserved communities—anyone the algorithm identifies as having fewer options will be exploited. That's not a market - it’s price gouging, plain and simple. If Canadians knew this was on the menu, they could rightly reject it.

Manitoba's NDP government, under Premier Wab Kinew, has already moved to ban these practices—the first province in Canada to do so. Regulators in the U.S. and Europe are examining similar measures. The Competition Bureau here should be paying close attention.

The NDP believes Ottawa needs to act before this becomes the new normal. That's why our new leader, Avi Lewis, has called on the federal government to prohibit surveillance pricing, both online and in brick-and-mortar stores. If the government doesn’t act quickly, it will be too late to do anything about it.

This isn't about being anti-technology. It's about setting a clear boundary: personal data should not be weaponized to squeeze more money out of people who are already stretched thin.

Canadians deserve to know that the price on the tag is the price everyone pays. Not a number reverse-engineered to their data and credit history, sitting somewhere in the cloud. The government has to set some guardrails on technological innovation to protect consumers. Left to their own devices and logic, corporate giants will always come up short when there is profit to be made.

The affordability crisis demands action wherever we can find it. Stopping surveillance pricing in its tracks before it takes root needs to be a government priority.

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City News: Demonstrators hold rally for Hong Kong residents facing PR processing backlog

The rally is organized by the Hong Kong Pathway Alliance. Similar events are also taking place in Calgary and Toronto.

The pathway allows eligible Hong Kong residents in Canada, including people who studied or worked here, to apply for PR.

People here say they have waited for years and still do not know when their applications will be finished.

“Right now I’m stuck in limbo. It’s been a year and a half. I haven’t heard back from the IRCC regarding my application, and we’re continuously arguing with, we’re continuously hoping that IRCC sees our cases,” said Vikrambir Singh, another demonstrator.

“There’s not just me, there’s 40,000 plus applications that are stuck in limbo, and we don’t know when they’re going to get processed.”

They also point to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) processing time tool, which now suggests new applicants could wait more than 10 years for their PR.

The Immigration Minister recently told Parliament that there have been more than 46,000 applications under the Hong Kong PR pathways, and just over 13,000 had arrived.

“And the minister’s solution is, “don’t apply under the lifeboat scheme”. What is she even talking about? That scheme was specifically designed for Hong Kongers, said MP Jenny Kwan, representing Vancouver East for the NDP.

“So, it is absolutely outrageous that she would renege on the government’s promise in suggesting that the Hong Kongers should apply under a different stream. It is absolutely unacceptable.”

The federal government introduced special measures for Hong Kong residents in 2020, after China imposed the national security law in Hong Kong.

*Click image or link to read or watch the TV news story - https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/06/07/demonstrators-rally-hong-kong-pr-processing-backlog/

Toronto Star: Carney government testing use of AI in prisons to create profile reports of offenders

OTTAWA—The Canadian government is considering the use of artificial intelligence to save time creating influential assessment profile reports of offenders as they go to federal prisons, and is running a small-scale trial to test it, the Star has learned.

Carney government releases AI road map that aims to make Canada a leader
Federal Politics
Carney government releases AI road map that aims to make Canada a leader
Mentioned in lengthy documents tabled in Parliament last month and confirmed by Correctional Service Canada (CSC), the test run comes as the Carney government tries to ramp up AI adoption, including with billions in a national strategy released this week.

But the prison trial, which CSC says has not yet been used in real cases, is raising concerns from AI experts, criminal defence lawyers and the federal NDP’s public safety critic, who argue a widespread adoption could lead to crucial errors, exacerbate racial biases and put offenders and victims at risk.

Criminal profile reports, as they are called, are detailed “foundational documents” prepared by CSC staff during a prisoner’s intake process that identify risks and play a role in major decisions like access to programs and likelihood of parole.

Drawing from scores of official documents, they include details about an offender’s criminal history, the circumstances of their crimes, patterns of violence or behavioural, mental health and addiction issues, family and social background, trauma history, education and employment records, and even victim impact statements.

“This is what defines your offence cycle,” criminal defence lawyer Nora Demnati said of those reports. “It will have an impact on everything else that comes.”

That’s why the Carney government should slow down and consult widely, including with the CSC union, its lawyers and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada before going further, said NDP MP Jenny Kwan, the party’s public safety critic. Neither the Union of Safety and Justice Employees or the Office of the Privacy Commissioner have been consulted yet, they told the Star.

Kwan warned of a multitude of legal concerns that go both ways and can have a “cascading impact”: Violating the rights of inmates if mistakes are added to reports, on one hand, or hurting victims and prison staff if crucial information is missed by the AI summaries, on the other.

“When you have those kinds of risks associated with correctional policing matters, you can imagine what the huge ramifications might be,” Kwan told the Star. “You could potentially compromise people’s legal rights.”

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/carney-government-testing-use-of-ai-in-prisons-to-create-profile-reports-of-offenders/article_ce33a6c9-794a-423c-884f-ace1e91872e2.html#tncms-source=login

Canadian Press: Activists call on feds to put pressure on Israel over treatment of Gaza aid flotilla

Canadian activists detained by Israel last month while taking part in an aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza say Canada isn’t doing enough to call out treatment by Israeli officials that Ottawa has called appalling.

While Israel has rejected claims of abuse, flotilla participant Ehab Lotayef said Wednesday Israeli officials beat him on the chest and ribs, put him in uncomfortable positions for long periods and slashed his hand when he tried to help a fellow detainee.

“We felt that we were let down by Canada before anybody else, to be honest, because the Canadian government knew all that was happening,” Lotayef told a news conference on Parliament Hill.

“When we needed them was when we were being tortured — and the whole world knew that that was happening.”

Activist flotillas have tried repeatedly to reach the Gaza Strip to draw attention to tight restrictions on humanitarian supplies for Palestinians. Israel has intercepted these boats, often in international waters.

Lotayef was one of 12 Canadians among 420 flotilla activists detained by Israeli authorities last month. Their detention gained international notoriety when Israel’s Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting the detained activists.

*Click image or link to read the news story - https://cheknews.ca/activists-call-on-feds-to-put-pressure-on-israel-over-treatment-of-gaza-aid-flotilla-1328346/