Here's where Canadians are living abroad: report
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
It should have reassured the public that she was all right, but the release by the Royal Family of a photo featuring the Princess of Wales and her children has done the opposite this week.
The Mother's Day photo became the subject of intense public speculation after several media outlets that published the image on Sunday retracted it later in the day over concerns about digital manipulation.
After all, the retractions came following weeks of gossip on social media about Catherine's whereabouts and well-being after a two-week hospitalization in January for abdominal surgery. She hadn't been seen publicly since Christmas Day.
While the changes to the photo appear relatively innocuous — an inconsistency in the alignment of Princess Charlotte's left sleeve, around Catherine's jacket zipper and Prince Louis' jumper — experts say members of the public are right to feel uneasy about the episode.
"It's kind of evoking all of the digital paranoia that comes across in these strange times when anything can be photoshopped," Jeffrey Dvorkin, an expert in media ethics at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday.
In a post on social media, Catherine later explained that "like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing."
"I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused," the post said.
While Dvorkin believes she did the right thing by admitting she altered the photo, he said the whole chapter leaves the public feeling more suspicious, at a time when trust in digital media is already low.
"The downside of her being so candid is that the public now says, 'OK, if this isn't true, what else are they not telling us? What else is not true that they're trying to pass off as the truth'?"
Image of Princess of Wales retracted because of potential manipulation
The Princess of Wales is certainly not the first person to tweak or air brush a family photo. Commercial photographers, celebrities and regular social media users have been altering photos for decades to make them more aesthetically pleasing.
"I think anybody who's posted a profile picture using a filter regularly engages in some sort of manipulation of representation of self," Brett Caraway, an expert in social media reaction and online conspiracies at the University of Toronto, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Monday.
But the rub here is that Kate is a public figure operating within an institution that appears to be heavily invested in controlling narratives about its members.
"I think that's what people are pausing on is: why was there an edit done? Was it just to make the portrait a little bit more aesthetically pleasing? Or was it to potentially change a narrative that has been circulating about her health?" Caraway said. "And that's a legitimate question."
Just about anyone can use photo-editing tools and generative AI to create altered, misleading or even completely fabricated images and use them to influence others — and anyone who consumes online media is an easy target for misinformation and disinformation.
"The world that we're in today is incredibly mediated," Caraway said. "Our understanding of reality is mediated by the screen constantly. Everything that we know about the world around us, unless it's in our immediate vicinity, comes through the internet. And so making sure that there's a fidelity between the representation and the underlying reality is incredibly important."
Institutions and leaders — including the Royal Family and its members — owe it to the public to be transparent about the images they use to promote themselves, Dvorkin said, or else risk damaging the trust of the public.
"It causes us all to be cynical and skeptical … from the idea that there's no one out there that we can trust. That's the worst aspect of what's going on," Dvorkin said. "It raises doubts in the minds of the public."
As for the journalists and media organizations that cover the Royal Family, Richard Berthelsen, royal commentator for CTV News, said Buckingham Palace will need to work to keep their trust as well.
"What the palace puts out has to have a degree of credibility for the media to be able to accept other things that they say, so that's going to be an issue going forward," Berthelsen told CTV News Channel on Monday.
"They're going to have to be more careful. They're going to have to work more closely on that front. They may have to invite the media, in some cases, to do a photograph."
A recent report sheds light on Canadians living abroad--estimated at around four million people in 2016—and the public policies that impact them.
The 2024 federal budget announced on April 16 included plans to introduce “halal mortgages” as a way to increase access to home ownership.
Polish President Andrzej Duda says while no decision has been made around whether Poland will host nuclear weapons as part of an expansion of the NATO alliance’s nuclear sharing program, his country is willing and prepared to do so.
One person was killed in a six-vehicle crash on Highway 400 in Innisfil Friday evening.
Ontario is now home to an invasive and toxic worm species that can grow up to three feet long and can be dangerous to small animals and pets.
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer said Saturday that the onetime movie mogul has been hospitalized for a battery of tests after his return to New York City following an appeals court ruling nullifying his 2020 rape conviction.
It's one thing to say you like Taylor Swift and her music, but don't blame CNN's AJ Willingham's when she says she just 'doesn't get' the global phenomenon.
A number of LGBQT+2s groups in Central Alberta are pushing back against a request from the Red Deer South UCP constituency to reinstate MLA Jennifer Johnson into the UCP caucus.
Mookie Betts went 3 for 5, including a triple and an RBI single, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-2 on Saturday.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”