Canada's competition watchdog is looking into a complaint about the data-harvesting practices of the main federal political parties.

In its complaint to the commissioner of competition, the Centre for Digital Rights flagged what it calls the large-scale misuse of big data and targeted digital advertising of the Liberal, Conservative and New Democratic parties.

Three days after the election, a blown-up photo of Catherine McKenna on the front window of her campaign office was defaced with a vulgar four-letter slur painted in deep red letters.

The Ottawa Centre MP, who served as environment minister for the last four years, was speechless in her reaction to seeing “c--t” written over her face, but wasn’t surprised.

By Emma McIntosh

Carbon emissions from the energy sector would rise by 60 per cent if lawmakers implemented every policy on the Canadian oil lobby’s election wishlist, a study released Monday found.

The extraordinarily powerful and well-financed Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) is the country’s biggest oil-lobby group, representing major producers, many of which are foreign-owned.

By Fatima Syed & Emma McIntosh

Canada’s largest oil and gas lobby group wanted to know more about its supporters.

Their music tastes, the cars they liked, their age, their race, how far they’d go in supporting the energy industry. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) blasted the survey out to its email list in July 2018, but didn’t include terms and conditions and has since declined to say how it planned to use the detailed personal data.