What's a Barnacle? It's yellow, sticks and screams if you try to pry it off your car
Barnacles, bright yellow devices used to make sure parking scofflaws pay their tickets, could soon be making their way to cities across Canada.
The federal government is banning China's Huawei Technologies from involvement in Canada's 5G wireless network. Here's a primer on what led up to this decision and what you need to know about this next-generation wireless technology:
5G technology gives Canadians faster phone and internet connections and provides vast data capacity amid growth in innovations and increased demand.
The technology that supports the network has been redesigned from previous generations. 5G relies on multiple antennas to move signals around, bouncing them quickly between locations. Phone users aren't going to notice the boost in speed if they're making a call, surfing the internet or using an online app because the difference is about 100 milliseconds, but that difference is noticeable at a larger scale.
The antennas are also smaller and can be placed in more locations like buildings or street lights. Rogers Communications Inc., Bell Canada parent BCE Inc., and Telus Corp. have been expanding their 5G networks over the past few years, beginning in major cities.
In a 2020 report, GMSA Intelligence, the research arm of a group that represents mobile operators worldwide, estimated that 5G would add $150 billion to the Canadian economy through to 2040.
Put another way, it estimated 5G would spur the same level of annual economic activity as the aerospace sector. The federal government estimated that in 2019 the aerospace industry contributed over $20.3 billion to the country's gross domestic product, and supported 1600,000 jobs.
Privacy concerns are the main driver behind the ban. Conservatives have been pushing the Trudeau government to make the move to prevent Huawei from building Canada's 5G infrastructure, arguing that it would allow China to spy on Canadians. Huawei and the Chinese government have vigorously denied the accusations, saying that the company poses no security threat.
Three of Canada's partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance - the United States, Britain and Australia - have already taken decisive steps to curb the use of Huawei gear in their countries' respective 5G networks.
New Zealand rejected a bid by a telecommunications company to use 5G technology from Huawei, citing national security concerns, but said in 2020 it would not ban any provider outright.
Although some of Canada's wireless providers had originally planned to work with Huawei, they had already backed away from the partnership in anticipation of the federal government's decision. In 2020, BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. announced they would be working with Sweden's Ericsson as a supplier for their 5G networks.
Rogers in March launched a 5G standalone network in partnership with Ericsson, and the company said Thursday that hasn't changed. "Rogers is focused on continuing to roll out 5G across Canada with our partner Ericsson," media relations director Chloe Luciani-Girouard said. "Today's decision has no impact on our plans and deployments."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2022.
Barnacles, bright yellow devices used to make sure parking scofflaws pay their tickets, could soon be making their way to cities across Canada.
An Airbnb in Montreal's Verdun borough was the source of much frustration from neighbours who say there were constant parties at the location. It has been taken down from the app, but housing advocates remain upset about short-term rentals.
A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former U.S. President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.
He decided to spend Christmas somewhere that wouldn't involve snowstorm disasters. She was spending the holidays with family, travelling for the first time outside of her native country of Venezuela. 23 years later, they're still in love.
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
A Nigerian chess champion and child education advocate played chess nonstop for 60 hours in New York City's Times Square to break the Guinness World Record for the longest chess marathon.
RCMP say the fire that prompted a state of emergency in a Labrador town is now under control.
Thirteen victims of the Columbine High School shooting were remembered during a vigil Friday on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the shooting that was the worst the nation had seen at the time.
An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah killed at least nine people, six of them children, hospital authorities said Saturday, as Israel pursued its nearly seven-month offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory.
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a grade four student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.