NEWS

1. Video contest — spread the word to high school students

Last week, I announced the Greenwashing Hydrogen Education Challenge for high school students:

Open to high school students in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador, entrants must create a 5-minute video explaining how ‘green hydrogen’ is a problematic approach to climate change, how profiteer billionaires are mining public subsidies to increase their already obscene wealth, and why Atlantic Canada is once again being targeted for exploitation. 

We are offering cash prizes for the best videos, but as we can’t tap US$125 million in federal money to toss around for propaganda, our prizes aren’t quite as substantial as EverWind’s.

The top three videos will win a prize:

    First place: $750
    Second place: $250
    Third place: $100

You can read more about the contest here.

What we need now is for people — parents, teachers, community members — to spread the word to high school students. Please use whatever networks you have (social media, newsletters, etc.) to let the young people in your life know about this opportunity to pick up some cash.

After we announced the contest, several readers on their own initiative dropped us some money for the cash prizes. That’s much appreciated! If you’d like to contribute, you can do that here. Thanks!

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2. Climate change: it’s the damn cars

Yesterday, Larry Hughes provided the Examiner with a detailed analysis of Nova Scotia’s greenhouse gas emissions as reported in the National Inventory Report.

Nova Scotia has a 2030 target of lowering GHG emissions by 53% below 2005 levels, to 10.72 megatonnes. Hughes explains that the province did a pretty good job of reducing emissions in the 2005-2020 period, but mostly because of some big economic factors that had nothing to do with government action — the 2008 financial collapse, the closure of the Bowater paper mill and the Dartmouth refinery, and the pandemic shut downs.

But, notes Hughes, “between 2020 and 2022, the province didn’t make any headway towards its 2030 emissions target… In other words, in 2022, as in 2020, the province still needed to reduce its emissions by a further four megatonnes. Consequently, the rate at which emissions need to decline each year must increase if the target is to be met.”

How does the province intend to meet the 2030 goal? Well, Premier Tim Houston’s letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (in which Houston failed to convince Trudeau to not implement the carbon tax in this province) includes this chart illustrating expected (by Houston, I guess) emission reductions:

Hughes re-jigs the above chart to show what it means for reduction by sector between 2022 and 2030. I should note that in the following chart he combines “marine and air transport” with “vehicles,” as a general source of “transport”:

Comments Hughes:

If the 2030 percentages are applied to the province’s 2030 target of 10.7 megatonnes and compared with the 2022 emissions, we see that emissions from industry, waste, and agriculture are expected to rise by about 0.2 megatonnes. Emissions from transportation increase by more than 0.6 megatonnes. These sectors increase provincial emissions by almost 0.9 megatonnes.

About a third of this increase is to be offset by a reduction in emissions from the building sector.

If the province meets its 2030 emissions target, it will be because of Nova Scotia Power. By 2030, Nova Scotia Power is expected to have phased out its use of coal entirely. The phaseout, coupled with wind meeting almost 50% of the province’s electrical demand and an increasing volume of electricity from Muskrat Falls, is projected to reduce NSP’s emissions to about one megatonne.

If Nova Scotia is to meet its 2030 emissions target, Nova Scotia Power must reduce its 2022 emissions by at least 4.6 megatonnes. As has been shown elsewhere, NSP is making considerable effort to meet its 2030 obligations. However, pushback against poorly-sited wind turbines, possible changes in weather patterns caused by global heating affecting wind availability and precipitation, competition for Newfoundland and Labrador’s electricity, and supply chain issues could all affect its plans.

The province needs to implement emissions reduction measures in other sectors, particularly transportation, if we are to, as the premier put it in his letter to the prime minister, “all do our part.”

Let’s be clear about this: besides some relatively minor emission reductions expected by the widespread adoption of heat pumps (a worthy project!), reaching the 2030 emission reduction goal rests nearly entirely on changing Nova Scotia Power’s operations. If anything at all goes wrong with the electrical generation plans, the goal won’t be met.

And let’s talk about transportation. As I pointed out when it was released, the so-called “Clean Energy Plan” does absolutely nothing to attempt to change the “modal split” — the ways we travel. Each form of transportation — driving a car, taking the bus, walking, or cycling — is considered a different “mode,” and the Clean Energy Plan envisions exactly the same percentage of each mode in 2030 as there is now.

The Clean Energy Plan did not devote even one extra nickel to transit. It’s simply incomprehensible, literally unthinkable, that more of us will take the bus.

The result is, as Hughes points out, an increase in GHG emissions from transportation, and that includes whatever hand-waving there is about electric vehicles. And to be clear, this is coming mostly from cars, and not the “marine and air transport” part of transport.

The province has sold us this bill of goods that we can address climate change without making any substantial changes in the way we lead our lives. More individual commuting in more single-occupancy cars forever more.

Click or tap here to read “Nova Scotia’s past and future greenhouse gas emissions.”

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3. Nurse recruitment

Reports Jennifer Henderson:

“Keep up being the badass nurses Nova Scotia needs.”

That was the message delivered by Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU), to an annual meeting of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union (NSNU) in Truro on Monday.

That union represents close to 8,000 registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and nurse practitioners in the province. Thousands of others are represented by the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU).

Silas praised the advocacy of the nursing unions and the listening skills of Health Minister Michelle Thompson – a registered nurse with 32 years experience – for negotiating a contract Silas claimed is the envy of many across the country. 

Over five years, registered nurses will see salary increases of 15% to 21%, nurse practitioners 21%, and licensed practical nurses will see increases of 12% to 17%. The new pay scale makes nurses in Nova Scotia the fifth highest paid in the country.

The raises are just one avenue to address chronic staffing problems. Nova Scotia Health (NSH) has 1,000 nursing vacancies in its hospitals and home care divisions. That means nurses on the front lines are always short-handed.

Click or tap here to read “Nova Scotia nurses hear about initiatives to address chronic shortages during union AGM.”

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4. Fire detection

“Three cameras have been installed at locations in Hammonds Plains, Musquodoboit Harbour, and Lower Sackville as part of an AI fire detection pilot project launched by HRM,” reports Suzanne Rent: 

This is the first time such technology has been used by a municipal fire department in Canada.

In a press release on Monday, the city announced it has launched a pilot project called FireScout to detect wildfires across the municipality. The cameras will operate 24-7 and have 360-degree views of their areas.

“AI software monitors the imagery for signs of smoke. When smoke is detected, an alert is sent to Halifax Regional Fire & Emergency for assessment and action,” the press release said. 

According to a demo on FireScout technology found here, the system works “by sending image data to the cloud in real time.”

The cloud???? In real time???? Wow!! What fantastic technology, I write, as I send these words to the cloud in real time.

Sigh. Yes, machine learning is a real thing, and very useful in many applications. But labelling everything ‘AI’ confuses the public, as there’s nothing “intelligent” about any of this, unless of course the ‘AI’ is just a thousand guys in India. Calling things “artificial intelligence” is part of an ever-widening marketing push to sell stuff with the whiz-bang spin that the machines are smart! They aren’t. They have no discernment, no ability to assess, no wisdom. They’re just, well, machines.

Maybe this fire detection system will work, we’ll see. It’d be cool if it does. But when the company selling it promotes it with bullshit-y statements like “sending image data to the cloud in real time,” I have my doubts.

I note the municipality didn’t say how much it’s spending on the software, or if this thing went out to bid, or if the fire chief’s brother-in-law is a FireScout exec. (I don’t know that fire chief even has a brother-in-law; that’s just a speculative illustrative example of potential problems when things don’t go out to bid).

Click or tap here to read “Halifax launches AI fire detection program; councillor wants ban on open fires.”

Rent also reports on Halifax Fire News’ reaction to Coun. Kathryn Morse’s proposal to ban burning completely between March 15 and Oct. 15. (Halifax Fire News is the un-affiliated Twitter account that tracks the fire department):

My own two cents is that a full ban would accomplish very little and may actually be counterproductive. There is a reference to the Tantallon wildfires, but it is important to note that burning was fully banned the day those fires broke out. In fact, burning is banned anytime the wildfire risk escalates. 

Moving ahead with a full ban simply means you’re extending the current system to banning burning at times when there is effectively no risk. The current bans, when in place, are determined by a scientific system of measurement which is highly reliable in terms of assessing fire risk. When there is risk, burning is banned. When there isn’t, it isn’t. 

Not only would a full ban accomplish little, it could contribute to resources being tied up investigating “illegal burns” on say, days when it is pouring raining and there is zero risk. Enforcement of the many, many burn rules is already a challenge and I think this would get worse if the fire department has to try to explain to the public why they can’t burn when, say, its raining or there is snow on the ground or the fire weather index is zero. 

I get that given what happened last year people may like the sentimental aspect of a full burn ban, but I think this would be a counterproductive move. HRM should pursue policies that *actually* reduce wildfire risk, not those that simply make people feel like they’re doing something but accomplish nothing.

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5. A New Brunswick company is using ‘AI’ to wrongly convict people

“Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors from Colorado to New York have turned to a little-known artificial intelligence tool in recent years to help investigate, charge and convict suspects accused of murder and other serious crimes,” reports Tim Stelloh for NBC News:

But as the software, called Cybercheck, has spread, defense lawyers have questioned its accuracy and reliability. Its methodology is opaque, they’ve said, and it hasn’t been independently vetted. 

The company behind the software has said the technology relies on machine learning to scour vast swaths of the web and gather “open source intelligence” — social media profiles, email addresses and other publicly available information — to help identify potential suspects’ physical locations and other details in homicides and human trafficking crimes, cold cases and manhunts.

The tool’s creator, Adam Mosher, has said that Cybercheck’s accuracy tops 90% and that it performs automated research that would take humans hundreds of hours to complete. By last year, the software had been used in nearly 8,000 cases spanning 40 states and nearly 300 agencies, according to a court decision that cited prosecutors in a New York case that relied on the tool.   

In the New York case, a judge barred authorities from introducing Cybercheck evidence last year after having found that prosecutors hadn’t shown that it was reliable or well-accepted, the decision shows. In another ruling last year, an Ohio judge blocked a Cybercheck analysis when Mosher refused to disclose the software’s methodology.

“We’re being asked to trust a company to present evidence that could eventually put people in prison,” said William Budington, a senior staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group. “That goes against the right to due process.”

Why am I writing about an AI program being used in American courts? Partly because calling bullshit on AI now seems to be part of my beat, but also because Cybercheck is the creation of a Fredericton-based company called Global Intelligence Inc.

On the calling bullshit front, consider this:

According to the defendant’s April 10 filing in the Akron homicide prosecution, Cybercheck doesn’t preserve the data it uses to create or locate cyber profiles.

Mosher didn’t respond to a request for comment on the apparent practice. In a transcript of July proceedings in the case provided by Malarcik, Stano, the prosecutor, questioned Mosher about what data Cybercheck stores. 

Mosher said the software doesn’t index or collect data because it’s a data processor, not a data collector. He cited the large sizes of the files, as well as “other considerations around governance and compliance,” according to the transcript.

No court would ever accept evidence from a witness who said, ‘Well, I can’t show you the evidence because I didn’t keep it and even if I did there are super-secret reasons why I can’t show it to you.” But slap an AI label on it, and all is good, apparently. Whiz-bang!

There’s been no peer review of Cybercheck, no independent analysis of its processes, and it’s never been tested in court. Mosher claims his software is 90% accurate, but even if that unverified claim is true… er, 90%? What of the 10% of accused for which it is inaccurate?

As for the local angle, Mosher was the “security director” for the Halifax firm Bulletproof Solutions before starting Global Intelligence. He was lured to Fredericton in 2017 by $115,000 in tax subsidies from Opportunities New Brunswick, that province’s business subsidy agency.

And since then, Global Intelligence has received $380,629 in public money from the federal government — grants of $88,668 (2019) and $106,615 (2020) from the National Research Council and $85,346 (2018), $50,000 (2018) and $50,000 (2024) from ACOA — to develop and market its software.

Once again: shouldn’t the spending of public money on private industry have an ethical filter?

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Government

City

Halifax Regional Council (Tuesday, 10am, City Hall and online) — agenda

Province

Community Services (Tuesday, 10am, One Government Place and online) — Provincial EmergencyResponse System; with representatives from the Emergency Management Office, Fire Service Association of Nova Scotia, and the RCMP

Human Resources (Tuesday, 1pm, One Government Place and online) — Canada – Nova Scotia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement – 2021 to 2026; with representatives from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development; Child Care Now NS; Mount St Vincent University; Association of Childhood Educators; Early Learning and Child Care Engagement Table.

Also: Agency, Board and Commission Appointments

On campus

Dalhousie

The Peter E. Dresel Memorial Lecture (Tuesday, 9:30am, Tupper Building, and online) — Edward T. Morgan will present “Regulation of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes in Disease States and Implications for Pharmacotherapy and Drug-Drug interactions”

NSCAD

SAME AS IT EVER WAS: 2024 NSCAD Graduation Exhibition (Tuesday, 11am, Anna Leonowens Gallery) — until May 14

In the harbour

Halifax
05:00: Atlantic Sun, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Liverpool, England
05:30: Pacific Trader, container ship, sails from Fairview Cove for Kingston, Jamaica
15:30: Sea Challenger, platform, arrives at outer harbour from  Ponta Delgada, Portugal to pick up pilot, continues on to Sheet Harbour
16:30: Atlantic Sun sails for New York

Cape Breton
15:00: Tahoe Spirit, oil tanker, sails from EverWind for sea
16:00: Dubai Spirit, oil tanker, arrives at EverWind from Arzew, Algeria

Footnotes

• EverWind, the supposed ‘green’ energy firm, sure does do a heavy business in the oil tanker traffic.

• We seem to be having a somewhat normal (albeit warmer) spring, with lots of rain in the forecast. Less chance of fire, hopefully.

• One of the surest ways to get me to ignore you is to bombard me with dozens and dozens of emails over days at a time, I’m saying to no one in particular except for those three guys in particular.

• Yesterday evening I managed to cut the tip of my right index finger. In terms of severity, it’s more than a paper cut but a long way from needing a stitch. No big deal. I put a bandaid on it overnight just to stop the bleeding, but that made it hard to type this morning, so I ripped the bandaid off. Some of my keystrokes — the ‘I’s and commas seem particularly egregious — reopen the wound, and the result is that despite repeated treatment with a washcloth, my keyboard is covered with blood. In terms of a life travails, this is about as minor as it comes, but I think it’s a good metaphor for my minor-travail-y life as a reporter.