Official Google Canada Blog

Black on the Prairies: Carol LaFayette-Boyd’s Story

Monday, February 7, 2022

Editor's note:

LaFayette-Boyd, a Master’s Canada Athletics competitor, atop the podium at a track and field meet.

Black History Month is an opportunity for all of us to learn about the wide range of Black experiences, and the vital role our community has played throughout Saskatchewan’s shared history for over 100 years. As many of my relatives - especially the younger generation - do not look like me, I want them to be proud of our African heritage and all the contributions of people of African descent.
In my growing up days we were referred to as various forms of the N-word and ‘Coloured’. I didn’t know us as Black until the Black is Beautiful and Black Power movements came in in the late 1960s.
My dad’s parents came to Regina from Iowa in 1906. My dad, Karl, was born in Regina in 1907. They homesteaded out near Rosetown – west of Saskatoon in 1911. My mom’s grandparents came to Canada in 1910 from Oklahoma. That year, over 200 people arrived from Oklahoma to Maidstone and Amber Valley, where my great grandparents went. I was born on a farm. There were five born before me and the only one born in a hospital was our second brother who was born in June and it was easy to get there. There was no running water or electricity, but growing up on the farm leaves me with nothing but good memories of fun and harmony. Although, now I cannot go for more than 24 hours without running water.

What it was like being the only Black family and lessons learned Being the sixth-born child in my family, it seems that I was protected from name calling as my siblings had taken care of that already. They were always the fastest at track meets held with other communities and it was heard “run N-word run.” My parents taught me the saying that “sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you”. I really took that to heart. They told me that the N-word meant the person felt bad about themselves, so put others down. I looked it up in the dictionary and saw it meant “Stupid person” (but think now I was looking at a different word) – I knew I wasn’t a stupid person so those calling me that felt that way about themselves. As a result, I never felt inferior to others; although I know at times I was treated as inferior to others. In my work in particular, I saw discrimination towards minorities and women and did my best to stand up against it.

Life in SchoolAfter my mom passed away, we moved to Regina where my Dad had found work after leaving the farm. In 1956, I was starting grade 9 and I found out many years later that my teacher had instructed the kids to be nice to me. She had not told them that I was Black. I was the only Black student in the six high schools in the city until grade 12 that I know of. There had been other people of African ancestry in Regina, but had left to live in either Calgary or Winnipeg where there was better opportunity for employment.
One thing that most of us of African descent learned early on in life was that you had to give 200% in whatever you were trying to accomplish whether in school, work, sports, etc. in order to be accepted before others who might only give 50% effort and then the acceptance may not have come anyway. That is not unfamiliar to what many women have faced in competition for work. So a Black woman is facing double barriers. Because of affirmative action rules, hopefully that is changing.
As a person of African descent, I have always seen myself as a member of the human race and while living in Canada, that was my identity. However, when I lived in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was always aware that I was Black. That did change until after Barack Obama was voted in as President. That moment made it feel like “now we are all members of the human race”.
I think it is important to know and understand history so we will build on what is good and not repeat what isn’t.

David Archer: Reflections from an Anti-Racist Psychotherapist

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Editor's note: This Black History Month, we’re highlighting Black perspectives, and sharing stories from Black Googlers, partners, and culture shapers from across Canada.

David Archer is an anti-racist psychotherapist, EMDRIA certified EMDR consultant, clinical social worker, couples and family therapist, and mindfulness meditator from Montreal, Canada (Tiohtià:ke). He is an expert clinician who works in private practice with diverse clinical populations. Mr. Archer provides individual and group consultations to other therapists, and presents internationally for conferences, companies, and community organizations. He specializes in efficient psychotherapeutic interventions that are designed to maintain long-lasting changes. He previously authored the highly acclaimed book, audiobook, and eBook called Anti-Racist Psychotherapy: Confronting Systemic Racism and Healing Racial Trauma as well as the follow-up book for personal care called Black Meditation: Ten Practices for Self-Care, Mindfulness, and Self-Determination.

Twenty years ago, I was a software engineer. I was fascinated with the ability to transmute lines of code into complex software. Programmers are interested in finding solutions to the endless barrage of error messages that obstruct our everyday apps and platforms. Currently, I am an anti-racist psychotherapist. In this field we also search for logic; within every client’s mind lies a solution that explains the errors they encounter in their lives. The clinician’s job is to elicit solutions. By deciphering the logic of the psyche, we move people to acknowledge their innate gifts and confront the suffering caused by the challenges of living in an imperfect social structure.

My clinical experiences led me to the following understanding: anti-Black racism is like a trauma response. Much like the trauma survivor who avoids the source of their injury, the racist operates on the basis of a survival response: a fight, flight, or freeze reaction unconsciously activated to deal with a perceived threat to their insecure power structure.

Within the social structure, racism can never be resolved by attending simple workshops, changing profile pictures on social media, or by corporations providing a superficial interest toward people with darker skin complexions. These kinds of performances only placate political interests rather than eradicating social problems. We require systemic interventions to address our overburdened and defunded health care system. There is an urgent need to transform our society into one that views mental health as a human right; and our leaders must understand the importance of anti-racism to encourage an unremitting conviction towards systemic and substantive change.

When you hear people say that African-Canadians descended from enslaved people, there is an error in this logic. It refers to the trauma but not to who they were before the traumatization of European colonization. The ancestral Black mother of the human species, “mitochondrial Eve,” lived approximately 200,000 years ago on the African continent. Therefore, the Maafa, the centuries long atrocities of chattel slavery, cannot be seen as the beginning of our story. This is because humanity spent more millennia being melanated in the motherland.

Thousands of years ago white people descended from the continent of Africa. This provokes an error in the white consciousness so the construct of race is necessary to divide our shared humanity. The only reason why they created a concept of race was to make a group of humans less human. Race was meant to dehumanize groups of people in order to justify genocide, cultural imperialism, and racial capitalism. Stealing the land from Indigenous people, robbing Africans from their own continent, and dissociating from our common origins are ways of reinforcing the deep multigenerational trauma that pervades our society.

There is a higher chance of being traumatized depending on your social identity. Women face gendered violence at a higher rate and people of colour experience colourism differently from one another. Regardless of our labels, all people can heal. My main approach is called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy. But anti-racist psychotherapy is not limited to EMDR; there are a range of approaches that are neuro-affective in nature, or even community based, that still utilize therapeutic memory reconsolidation. When we try something different, changes can happen.

When people begin to reprocess their racial trauma, the goal is not to force them to stop identifying with their race, but to cultivate radical self-acceptance, revolutionary self-love, and a courageous commitment to improving their community. I have helped people to recover even with the odds stacked against them. In recent years, we have improved mental health awareness and have identified improved forms of trauma treatment. In the next few years we must develop the technology to decolonize our psychotherapy, to target higher order problems in our society, and help our families to break the generational cycles that have plagued them.

I am old enough to remember not having social media and never hearing of an anti-racist psychotherapist. Imagine what the next 20 years will hold? My job is to help people to make changes in their lives. Once a programmer, always a programmer, debugging through error messages is a life’s work for me. But we need to upgrade our technology. There is a collective responsibility to heal from the trauma of our nations, societies, and families. Healing starts from a simple acknowledgment and sometimes the path can reveal itself. As our technology continues to stimulate our minds, let us have the courage to elevate our hearts as well.

About David Archer:
His philosophies are informed by mindfulness, intersectional feminism, and critical race theory. He provides mental health services practice using EMDR, Brainspotting, EFT, and other mind-body strategies which utilize memory reconsolidation and working memory taxation methods. Areas of interest relate to working with individuals who have suffered from PTSD, racial trauma, minority stress, addictions, relational conflict, and eating disorders. Mr. Archer is an ally of LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and oppressed people of color around the world.
He is also the recent author of a book called Anti-Racist Psychotherapy: Confronting Systemic Racism and Healing Racial Trauma (available here) and Black Meditation: Ten Practices for Self-Care, Mindfulness, and Self-Determination (available here).

Maps 101: How Google Maps reviews work

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

With millions of reviews posted every day from people around the world, we have around-the-clock support to keep the information on Google relevant and accurate. Much of our work to prevent inappropriate content is done behind the scenes, so we wanted to shed some light on what happens after you hit “post” on a review.

How we create and enforce our policies
We’ve created strict content policies to make sure reviews are based on real-world experiences and to keep irrelevant and offensive comments off of Google Business Profiles.
As the world evolves, so do our policies and protections. This helps us guard places and businesses from violative and off-topic content when there’s potential for them to be targeted for abuse. For instance, when governments and businesses started requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccine before entering certain places, we put extra protections in place to remove Google reviews that criticize a business for its health and safety policies or for complying with a vaccine mandate.
Once a policy is written, it’s turned into training material — both for our operators and machine learning algorithms — to help our teams catch policy-violating content and ultimately keep Google reviews helpful and authentic.

Moderating reviews with the help of machine learning
As soon as someone posts a review, we send it to our moderation system to make sure the review doesn’t violate any of our policies. You can think of our moderation system as a security guard that stops unauthorized people from getting into a building — but instead, our team is stopping bad content from being posted on Google.

Given the volume of reviews we regularly receive, we’ve found that we need both the nuanced understanding that humans offer and the scale that machines provide to help us moderate contributed content. They have different strengths so we continue to invest tremendously in both.

Machines are our first line of defense because they’re good at identifying patterns. These patterns often immediately help our machines determine if the content is legitimate, and the vast majority of fake and fraudulent content is removed before anyone actually sees it.

Our machines look at reviews from multiple angles, such as:

The content of the review: Does it contain offensive or off-topic content?
The account that left the review: Does the Google account have any history of suspicious behavior?
The place itself: Has there been uncharacteristic activity — such as an abundance of reviews over a short period of time? Has it recently gotten attention in the news or on social media that would motivate people to leave fraudulent reviews?

Training a machine on the difference between acceptable and policy-violating content is a delicate balance. For example, sometimes the word “gay” is used as a derogatory term, and that’s not something we tolerate in Google reviews. But if we teach our machine learning models that it’s only used in hate speech, we might erroneously remove reviews that promote a gay business owner or an LGBTQ+ safe space. Our human operators regularly run quality tests and complete additional training to remove bias from the machine learning models. By thoroughly training our models on all the ways certain words or phrases are used, we improve our ability to catch policy-violating content and reduce the chance of inadvertently blocking legitimate reviews from going live.

If our systems detect no policy violations, then the review can post within a matter of seconds. But our job doesn’t stop once a review goes live. Our systems continue to analyze the contributed content and watch for questionable patterns. These patterns can be anything from a group of people leaving reviews on the same cluster of Business Profiles to a business or place receiving an unusually high number of 1 or 5-star reviews over a short period of time.

Keeping reviews authentic and reliable
Like any platform that welcomes contributions from users, we also have to stay vigilant in our efforts to prevent fraud and abuse from appearing on Maps. Part of that is making it easy for people using Google Maps to flag any policy-violating reviews. If you think you see a policy-violating review on Google, we encourage you to report it to our team. Businesses can report reviews on their profiles here, and consumers can report them here.

Our team of human operators works around the clock to review flagged content. When we find reviews that violate our policies, we remove them from Google and, in some cases, suspend the user account or even pursue litigation.

In addition to reviewing flagged content, our team proactively works to identify potential abuse risks, which reduces the likelihood of successful abuse attacks. For instance, when there’s an upcoming event with a significant following — such as an election — we implement elevated protections to the places associated with the event and other nearby businesses that people might look for on Maps. We continue to monitor these places and businesses until the risk of abuse has subsided to support our mission of only publishing authentic and reliable reviews. Our investment in analyzing and understanding how contributed content can be abused has been critical in keeping us one step ahead of bad actors.

With more than 1 billion people turning to Google Maps every month to navigate and explore, we want to make sure the information they see — especially reviews — is reliable for everyone. Our work is never done; we’re constantly improving our system and working hard to keep abuse, including fake reviews, off of the map.

Posted by Ian Leader Product Lead, User Generated Content

Roger Mooking on Black History Month in Canada

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Editor's note: This Black History Month, we’re highlighting Black perspectives, and sharing stories from Black Googlers, partners, and culture shapers from across Canada.

Roger Mooking is host of Man Fire Food and Wall of Chefs judge on Food Network Canada

Black History Month has meant many things to me over the years, and my relationship to it changes almost annually. In my formative years growing up in Edmonton, Alberta, Black History Month was a welcome anomaly from my day- to- day reality and something I embraced like a Kardashian to a selfie. Since then, I’ve felt all the emotions for this month, ranging from pride to disdain smeared with a trailer load of aloofness. It’s complicated. It is necessary and important to recognize our heroes and educate every generation. The other side of this algebraic equation has me perpetually asking “who has granted us this opportunity,” given there is an undeniable power-play in this dynamic. There is no “white history month” because well…that history will never be relegated at all and certainly not designated to 28 (9 with a leap year) days of the 365 day calendar.

Mooking is best known as the host of grilling and barbecue show Man Fire Food on Food Network Canada and Cooking Channel. The popular travelling food series showcases a dynamic range of live fire cooking, including whole hog barbecue, lobster boils, Hawaiian emu’s, seafood roasts and more!

BHM always serves as a great reminder when companies and media outlets who don't reach out the other 11 months of the year call during Black History Month for a contribution from people who got that melanin poppin’. Recently, I’ve observed many more Black faces in front of the camera, and this welcome representation is not something I grew up seeing and it is certainly valuable for the most impressionable formative age Black minds. Unfortunately, although significant, it often feels like performance art as I don’t see the same commitment to that type of representation behind the scenes, in the boardrooms and in the executive levels of these same outlets. This reminder strengthens my resolve to continue doing what I do to level the playing field, which is constantly shifting. Me and my team occupy boardrooms, television sets, creative spaces, studios, and work in a variety of teams in front of, and behind the camera. We are always having to manage the creative commerce minefield with a balance of firm resolve, challenging discourse, and good old fun having.

Over the years, Mooking has garnered many accolades including the prestigious “Premiers Award” for excellence in the field of Creative Arts and Design, a Gourmand World Cookbook Award, a Socan Classics Award and countless “Best Of” mentions.

It is wholly common, so much so, that it has become our expectation, that I am asked to participate in a campaign “for my perspective,” only to have my perspective being perceived as too niche or not mass market enough. This is when my curry chicken becomes a burger. The confusion is mind numbing because as I walk the streets of this beautiful country, I hear a vast array of languages being spoken, I find authentic restaurants representing every corner of the globe, and see increasing numbers of babies being born of diverse parents. It is very clear, and the statistics support the fact, that the “mass market” and “my perspective” is not what it was when I first arrived in Canada at 5 years old. I’ve observed this shift across the country in major, secondary, and rural communities. Yet, I am still mostly still facing the same discussions in these business environments that I was having 2 decades ago. Although the disconnect is incredibly frustrating, my commitment strengthens with every encounter, as they are numerous and often. Hopefully they will not be as numerous or as often for my kids' kids generation. Maybe by then, dynamics and representation in favour of marginalized communities will shift enough for there to be need for a “white history month” and my daughters will be asking Bill Gates great grandkids how they feel about it.

Supporting communities across Canada in 2021

Thursday, January 27, 2022

In 2021, our Canadian sites donated over $750,000 in Community Grants to 30 organizations across the country that are helping make their community a better place.

Learn more about the organizations we supported last year:

Afghan Women's Organization Refugee and Immigrant Services

Toronto, ON

Afghan Women’s Organization Refugee and Immigrant services (AWO) offers settlement services to newcomers and refugees in the Greater Toronto Area, with a special focus on women, their families, refugees and people who have experienced war and persecution.

BGC Ottawa

Ottawa, ON

The Boys & Girls Club of Canada provides safe, supportive places where children and youth can experience new opportunities, overcome barriers, build positive relationships, and develop confidence and skills for life.

Black Boys Code Canada

National

Black Boys Code supports underserved black communities by providing basic digital literacy training and an educational pathway to a career in technology.

Classroom Champions

National

Classroom Champions brings together athletes and teachers to facilitate curriculum and mentorship programs for kids that are social emotional learning (SEL) focused, founded by Olympic Gold Medalist, Steve Mesler, and Ph.D. educator, Dr. Leigh Parise.

Daily Bread

Toronto, ON

Daily Bread is a food bank that works with different agencies to offer a range of food programs, in their mission to fight poverty and end hunger in Toronto.

École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS)

Montreal, QC The École de technologie supérieure (ETS) - part of the Université du Québec network - specializes in training future engineers and researchers to meet the needs of the industrial environment.

Food4Kids

Waterloo, ON Food4Kids works to provide packaged healthy bags of food for kids aged 1-14 that experience chronic hunger.

Fora

Toronto, ON Fora (previously G(irls)20) works to place young women at the centre of the decision-making process through education and training, building networks and access to unparalleled opportunities. They offer three signature programs - Global Summit, Girls on Boards and Next Level - that focus on leadership development.

Hackergal

Toronto, ON

Hackergal offers programs that teach girls how to code and learn to apply their coding skills on different levels. Canadian girls in grades 6-9 are invited to test their skills and participate in Hackergal’s Hackathon competitions.

hErVolution

Toronto, ON

hErVolution creates opportunities for the next generation of women in STEM by connecting them with leaders in the industry for career support.

Indige-Spheres

Thunder Bay, ON

Indige-Spheres supports the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples by empowering Indigenous youth via initiatives including arts and crafts, awareness campaigns and other activities designed to foster community relations.

Indspire

Six Nations of the Grand River, ON

Indspire invests in the education and long-term development of First Nations, Inuit and Métis people in Canada with a vision to enrich Canada through Indigenous education and inspiring achievement.

Kids Code Jeunesse

Montreal, QC

Kids Code Jeunesse encourages the next generation to code, create and communicate, with a goal to help educate Canadian children on digital skills, like block-based coding and computational thinking.

Kind Republic (IMDOINGIT)

Toronto, ON

Kind Republic (IMDOINGIT) supports underserved black communities to achieve growth by creating safe spaces and opportunities for black youth.

KW Counseling Services

Kitchener, ON

KW Counselling Services is a multi-service agency offering several types of support for community members, including individual, couples and family counselling.

Lifelong Leadership Institute

Toronto, ON

The Lifelong Leadership Institute supports Canadian youth of Jamaican, Caribbean and Black heritage in developing leadership competence and achieving personal success.

Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization

Ottawa, ON

The Ottawa Community Immigrant Services Organization (OCISO) helps new immigrants settle into Canada by providing multi-faceted programs and services through various partnerships, aimed at creating a healthy and inclusive space for newcomers.

OSMO Foundation

Montreal, QC

The OSMO Foundation supports the development and international growth of Montreal’s startup ecosystem by encouraging collaboration as well as knowledge transfer and know-how between different community actors.

Parents Engaged in Education

Scarborough, ON

Parents Engaged in Education offers training and events to encourage parental involvement in their children’s educational journey while giving parent council members the resources to better partner with school administrators.

Pathways/Carizon

Kitchener, ON

Carizon focuses on supporting families by strengthening their mental health and wellbeing by offering services in more than 70 locations that specialize in areas like children’s mental health, youth development and family counselling among others.

SHAD

Waterloo, ON

SHAD is a month-long STEAM and entrepreneurship focused program empowering grades 10 and 11 students across Canada. It is held in the summer across 19 Canadian university campuses.

TechSpark

Toronto, ON

TechSpark is Canada’s first tech and design school that offers culturally relevant and responsive education to children of colour, girls, women and teachers. Their services include specially designed curriculums and workshops for both teachers and students.

Technovation

Montreal, QC

Technovation offers programs that empower young women, aged 8–18 , to become tech entrepreneurs and leaders. The company was created in Silicon Valley in 2009 and established a presence in Montreal in 2014.

The Healing of the Seven Generations

Kitchener, ON

The Healing of the Seven Generations provides support for Indigenous people by helping them address the intergenerational effects of Canada’s residential school system by developing self-help approaches, therapeutic healing programs and community training sessions.

The Neighbourhood Organization

Toronto, ON

The Neighborhood Organization (TNO) is a multicultural social services organization that offers a range of community-based services to residents of Thorncliffe Park and surrounding communities.

Tree of Young Leaders/Hestia Academy

Montreal, QC

Hestia Academy is an online academy that enables young people to take control of their education in an online environment that fosters community engagement.

United Way of Greater Toronto

Toronto, ON

United Way of Greater Toronto provides support and safety for underserved communities facing significant barriers to bettering their circumstances in the GTA by prioritizing collaborations with local residents and partners to support BIPOC, 2SLGBTQ+ communities and people living with disabilities.

UpstartED

Montreal, QC

UpStartED provides youth aged 12-18 with equitable access to educational experiences by supporting them in making positive impacts on their communities via social innovation through programs that enable them to tackle complex, real-world challenges.

WeMatter

National

We Matter provides safe spaces for Indigenous youth to connect, learn and implement youth led initiatives that help amplify Indigenous voices.

Alongside businesses, local organizations and nonprofits, we look forward to continuing to help our communities into 2022 and beyond.

Posted by Canada's Leadership Team

Applications are now open for the second Google Cloud Accelerator Canada Cohort

Tuesday, January 25, 2022

We’re inviting Canadian cloud-native technology startups to apply for the second Google Cloud Accelerator Canada cohort. The intensive 10-week virtual bootcamp helps startups prepare for the next phase of growth and development in their journey.
Throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen just how important the role of cloud technology is in almost every sector. From healthcare to education, retail to manufacturing, cloud technology keeps us connected, and helps us maintain continuity in our schools, work and businesses.

We know the need for cloud-based solutions will continue to grow, that’s why we launched the first Google Cloud Accelerator Canada last year, entirely dedicated to supporting cloud-native technology startups. The accelerator was the first of it’s kind at Google, designed to bring the best of our programs, products, people and technology to startups doing interesting work in cloud.

“We are thrilled to be at the start of our second journey in meeting and building meaningful relationships with this new Google Canada Accelerator Cloud cohort,” said James Lambe, Managing Director of Google Cloud Canada.

Last year, twelve startups were selected for our inaugural cohort, representing a range of industries including healthcare, hospitality and real estate. We worked with founders and their teams to help solve some of the top challenges facing their startup and provided 1:1 mentorship from an array of Google Cloud experts. We also offered support in AI/ML, design/UX, Android, web, product strategy, sales, marketing, and more.

Today, we’re excited to announce that applications are now open for the second Google Cloud Accelerator Canada. The 10-week virtual accelerator will offer cloud mentorship and technical project support, as well as deep dives and workshops on product design, customer acquisition and leadership development for cloud startup founders and leaders.

The Accelerator is best suited for funded, revenue generating startups who have a minimum of five employees and are well-positioned for their next phase of growth. In order to ensure Google can provide meaningful value, startups should aim to leverage either Cloud or AI/ML technologies in their product, service, or operations, or show an interest in leveraging these technologies in the future.

Applications are now open until March 1, 2022 and the accelerator will kick off this April. Interested startups leveraging cloud to drive growth and innovation are encouraged to apply here.

Posted by Ashley Francisco Head of Startup Developer Ecosystem, Google Canada

Speaking our language: The importance of a Mandarin Pixel 6 ad with Simu Liu

Friday, January 21, 2022

Language is one of the most universal experiences we share— but, sometimes it becomes a frustrating barrier. With the help of technology, people should be able to overcome language barriers and connect with the world around them in new and meaningful ways. That was what we set out to do in our latest Google Pixel 6 ad campaign with a little help from our friend and Canadian Pixel Ambassador Simu Liu. Beginning January 24th, you’ll see a brand new 30-second ad spot centred around the Pixel 6 - and it will be delivered entirely in Mandarin. Simu, who speaks fluent Mandarin, used his talents to show off what’s possible with one of the phone’s most helpful features, Live Translate.
“In my conversations with the Google team, they really encouraged me to spearhead the creative thinking and direction in how we would introduce the Pixel 6 to Canadians,” says Liu. “I was able to involve my parents in the commercial to highlight the Live Translate function, which allows you to translate between over 46 different languages. I think it’s a great tool for immigrant families to communicate with people.”
The new video, which Simu recently shared on Instagram, demonstrates the capabilities and powerful potential of Interpreter Mode in Live Translate. Simu’s unparalleled charm and personality shine through as he tries to live up to his parents’ expectations, and soon everyone is using Live Translate to get their message across. Mandarin is the third-most spoken language Canadians use in their homes, right behind English and French. By producing an ad spoken almost entirely in Mandarin, we hope Canadians will try to unlock communication simply using their phones.
“Simu has been an engaged partner throughout this process. In continuing this relationship, we wanted him to inject his personality and heritage into the project in an authentic way, “ says Andrew Rapsey, Head of Product Marketing and Brand Partnerships with Google Canada. “We want to continue to demonstrate how Pixel features like Live Translate can help connect Canadians in ways they never thought were possible. Why not double down on that commitment with a national commercial shot entirely in Mandarin?”
Interpreter Mode on Pixel 6 provides smart, simple translation of in-person conversations directly on the device. By simply prompting Google Assistant and asking it to “Be My Interpreter”, the Pixel 6 will take turns translating what is said based on the languages that are selected. This is just one of the many Live Translate features included on Pixel, which features best-in-class speed and accuracy thanks to the strides we continue to make in machine learning and the Google Tensor chip.
Live Translate also automatically detects if a message in your chat apps is different from your system language, and offers the option to automatically translate, all right on the device. Live Caption Translate takes speech to text and uses our dedicated translation model to convert that text into select languages. Users can also use Google Lens to detect and translate text on signs or menus. Whether you’re having a full conversation with a relative in their native language, or interpreting the menu at a new restaurant, Live Translate on Pixel 6 makes the process seamless.
The new Mandarin ad campaign starring Simu will go live on January 24th. Canadians can expect to see the ads on select English-language broadcast and digital outlets, and will air alongside our recently-announced French-language ad with Canadian Tennis Star Leylah Fernandez. The Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are now available on the Google Store.

Canadian Tennis Star Leylah Fernandez joins #TeamPixel

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

U.S. Open finalist will be the face of Pixel 6 for French-speaking Canada

Google Canada is thrilled to announce that Canadian Tennis player and Grand Slam finalist Leylah Fernandez has been named the latest Canadian ambassador for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro.
Fernandez, currently the top-ranked Canadian in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), rose to international recognition after appearing in the final of the 2021 U.S. Open. This led her to being our top-trending Canadian athlete in the country last year. Now the Montreal native will be featured in a new national English and French-speaking ad campaign, which she unveiled on her Instagram account today. The ad features Fernandez utilizing the capabilities of the Pixel’s Live Translate feature, a perfect fit for the WTA pro, who is already fluent in English, French and Spanish. In addition to the ad campaign, Leylah will also be sharing her journey with her Pixel 6 on her social media channels.
“I travel a lot throughout the season, so I need a phone that’s going to help me manage my busy schedule and have fun at the same time.” says Fernandez. “After using the Pixel 6 Pro for a couple months, I’m thrilled about how easily it fits into my lifestyle and I can’t wait to show other Canadians what it can do.”
After making her professional debut in 2019, Fernandez had her breakout year in 2021, with her first tour win at the Monterrey Open and her aforementioned appearance in the U.S. Open. Just weeks ago, she was named the Canadian Press’ Female Athlete of the Year. Days away from competing in this year’s Australian Open, Fernandez will be able to document her season with the Pixel 6 Pro, taking advantage of our most ‘Google’ phone yet, both inside and out.
“After her incredible year on the women’s tennis circuit, and how she won the hearts of the Canadians with her grit and grace, it was an easy decision to partner Leylah as a spokesperson for the Pixel 6,” says Laura Pearce, Head of Marketing, Google Canada. "The Pixel provides all the helpfulness of Google for consumers to see, experience and do more - and that's exactly what we expect Leylah to do as she takes the tennis world by storm.”
The Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro feature Google’s first System on a Chip (SoC), Google Tensor, which unlocks the full potential of the phone’s camera system, Android user interface and AI that Google is known for. Google Tensor allows the Pixel 6 to adapt to each individual user to provide a bespoke experience that, at its heart, performs fast and reliably in everyday use. Featuring a best-in-class camera with new experiences like low-light video and Magic Eraser, Pixel 6 allows users to share special moments exactly how they remember them. Inclusive features like Live Translate combine Pixel’s speech recognition with Google’s translation capabilities to help users to communicate in languages other than their own across a number of applications1.
Leylah Fernandez’ English Pixel 6 ad spot is now live online with the French version of the ad spot going live when the Australian Open gets underway on January 17. The Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro are now available on the Google Store.

Posted by Google Canada

Our third GNI Startups Boot Camp will support 16 Canadian news entrepreneurs

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Editor's Note: This blogpost is cross posted from the Lion Publisher's website.These aspiring journalism publishers will serve communities from Nova Scotia to Vancouver

From upper left: Shauna Rae, Jordan Maxwell, Ashleigh-Rae Thomas, Flavian DeLima, Yona Harvey, Camila Castaneda, Charles Mandel, Ayesha Ghaffar, Seyedmostafa Raziei, Sandra Hannebohm, Cara Fox and Kelly-Anne Riess
For the past two years, our GNI Startups Boot Camp has helped nearly 50 founders launch independent new businesses across the U.S. and Canada. But as we supported those aspiring entrepreneurs to validate and execute their ideas, we kept coming back to one question: the Canadian news landscape has some of its own unique challenges and opportunities. Why not create a program specifically to serve this burgeoning ecosystem?

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce, in partnership with the Google News Initiative, the inaugural cohort for our GNI Startups Boot Camp Canada.

These 16 startups will embark on an intensive eight-week program that includes the training and coaching that will help them launch sustainably and meet their communities’ information needs.

“We’re looking forward to working with this passionate, diverse and all-Canadian cohort of emerging news entrepreneurs, and supporting them on their path to launching an independent news business,” said Andrew Wicken, Head of News Partnerships at Google Canada. “The curriculum has been adapted specifically to address the realities of operating in Canada and supports our mission of helping to build a thriving, diverse and innovative Canadian news ecosystem. We’ve seen how this program can accelerate their progress, build connections and community, and set them on a path to sustainability.”

The cohort members were selected by an independent panel of judges based on their compelling ideas, potential to make a strong impact and commitment to making their publications financially sustainable. They’ll be guided by the following team of exceptional industry experts:

Boot Camp Co-Producer (and 2020 Boot Camp graduate!) Eva Voinigescu is a freelance journalist and audio producer based in Toronto. She currently produces the Energy vs Climate podcast.
Boot Camp Coach Natasha Grzincic (Gur-zin-sitch) is the deputy editor at VICE Canada and the force behind Tipping Point, VICE’s series on environmental justice. She’s also a co-founder of Canadian Journalists of Colour, “a networking and resource-sharing group for racialized journalists that’s now over 1,300 strong.”
Boot Camp Coach Hannah Sung is a journalist and co-founder of Media Girlfriends, a podcast production company focused on inclusivity in media. She also writes the newsletter At The End Of the Day.
Boot Camp Director Phillip Smith is a veteran consultant and coach. His passion is helping newsrooms to make more money, helping news startups grow their audience, and helping journalists succeed as entrepreneurs. The boot camp curriculum was developed during his time as a John S. Knight fellow at Stanford University.

“As someone born in Toronto General Hospital, who spent childhood summers with family in Quebec and Nova Scotia, as well as having spent a decade working in a startup newsroom in Vancouver, the opportunity to make the Boot Camp available to fellow Canadians is a real honour,” Smith said. “The individuals in this cohort are determined and their initiatives are very exciting — I can’t wait to get started.”

About the 2021 cohort:

10 publications will focus on a local or regional audience; 6 will focus on a demographic or identity-based audience
14 publications will explicitly serve an underrepresented or marginalized audience that doesn’t often see itself reflected in the media
56% of participants identify as a person of colour or as coming from an underrepresented or marginalized background
The publications will serve audiences in 7 Canadian provinces/territories
14 publications will be run by solopreneurs; 2 will operate as teams of two
10 publications haven’t launched yet; 6 are in the process of testing their idea or have very recently launched

Meet the 16 teams in the cohort:

*There are three additional startups not listed below that are remaining in stealth mode for now.
Clearing a New Path Serving: Dorchester, Ontario Description: Amplifying the underrepresented voices of women entrepreneurs in rural Canada Founder: Shauna Rae

From a Coloured Lens Serving: Vancouver, British Columbia Description: A podcast designed by and for BIPOC people, allowing them to share how mainstream issues impact their communities Founder: Ayesha Ghaffar

Latitodo Serving: Vancouver, British Columbia Description: A publication focused on the Latinx diaspora, specifically young adults who are interested in connecting with their heritage whilst adapting to life in Canada. Founder: Camila Castaneda

Island Edition Serving: Prince Edward Island Description: An independent journalism platform to report in-depth on the issues affecting Prince Edward Island, and to share the stories and experiences of the people living in Canada’s smallest province.

Mabuhay Canada Serving: Belleville, Ontario Description: Mabuhay Canada is a one-stop website featuring news, local and international Filipino newsmakers, services, shopping, travel and immigration needs for Filipinos living in Canada Founder: Yona Harvey

Mostafa Serving: Vancouver, British Columbia Description: Online new media focused on bringing newcomer and immigrant points of view to a greater audience Founder: Seyedmostafa Raziei

North Star Press Serving: Toronto, Ontario Description: A magazine/online paper for Black leftists, named North Star Press after Frederick Douglass’ anti slavery newspaper Founder: Ashleigh-Rae Thomas

Parles-on

Serving: Montreal, Quebec Description: A bilingual podcast about current events in Canada and beyond Founder: Cara Fox

South Shore Lines Serving: Nova Scotia’s South Shore Description: A rural, alternative digital magazine focused on news, arts, culture, and more for Nova Scotia’s South Shore Founder: Charles Mandel

Spinning Forward Serving: Toronto, Ontario Description: Collectively and collaboratively, we want to build and grow a more inclusive and strong online BIPOC creator community in Toronto on their own terms Founder: Flavian DeLima

The Flatlander Serving: Regina, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg, Manitoba Description: An email newsletter about important issues that impact Manitoba and Saskatchewan Founder: Kelly-Anne Riess

To Be Announced Serving: Toronto, Ontario Description: To be announced Founder: Jordan Maxwell

Twice as Good Media (2G) Serving: Halifax, Nova Scotia Description: A hub for compelling narratives and black talent in media Founder: Sandra Hannebohm

The GNI and LION would like to thank our panel of judges who were instrumental in selecting the cohort. They are: Gina Uppal from the On Canada Project, Colleen Kimmett from the Google News Initiative, Adam Chen from Talk Media, Jordan MacInnis from Journalists for Human Rights, Nkem Kalu from The Northpine Foundation, Julie Sobowale from the Canadian Association of Black Journalists, Sadiya Ansari from Canadian Journalists of Colour and Samanta Krishnapillai from the On Canada Project.

20 years of Google in Canada

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Twenty years later, the world has changed, online and off. The Harry Potter crew are no longer children and we’ve moved from Nickelback to The Weeknd. The hit musical Come from Away is returning to the stage to remind us that human connection and kindness still define us as Canadians. And wow, can we ever take a high quality photo with our new cell phones (especially with the Pixel, naturally).
Google Canada has changed, too. This month marks the 20th anniversary of Google’s arrival in Canada. And if you don’t remember the pomp and circumstance around the event, it’s because there wasn’t any.
Google Canada began with a single hire in a small workspace in Toronto in 2001 and a few short years later, Google opened its Montréal office. In 2005, Google set up shop in Canada’s technology hub, Waterloo, Ontario, and over the years we have become a part of the Waterloo region technology community, contributing volunteer hours to STEM education programs and hiring engineers to build Google products that Canadians and people around the world use every day. And now, Google Canada is home to more than 2,500 employees.
We’ve had our share of adventures - bringing maps to the north, helping Canadian businesses tap into the digital economy, opening Cloud regions in Montréal and Toronto to serve Canadian businesses, introducing the world to Canadian creators on YouTube and building new offices in Waterloo, Toronto and Montréal. For the past twenty years, we’ve been fortunate enough to help Canadians search, grow and connect to the world around them using Google products and services.
Creating opportunity for all Canadians During our time here, Google Canada has been investing in the communities where we live and work, through Google.org Community Grants, Google for Startups Accelerator programs, and investments in digital skills training. Over the last 20 years, Google has invested $25 million in Canadian non profits, looking to expand economic opportunity and to help Canadians learn new skills, through commitments to organizations like NPower Canada and ComIT.
And we have a long history of working closely with community partners and organizations across Canada to make STEM programs accessible to all students. In 2021, we reached more than 200,000 Canadian learners through STEM outreach and we trained approximately 4,000 educators in CS First. Our STEM and CS First outreach is orchestrated by Google Canada in conjunction with The Cobblestone Collective and supplemented by our Google Canada volunteers to support their local communities.
A home for Canadian engineering excellence
Canada has been synonymous with top notch computer science and engineering for more than 50 years. And most recently, AI research and advancement. It’s for this reason that in 2013 Google welcomed Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneer in the field of deep learning, to the Google Toronto office. And in 2016, Google Research started a Canadian centre of AI excellence by bringing Google Brain to Montréal. Google Brain is a deep learning artificial intelligence research team dedicated to artificial intelligence and every day, these world-leading teams tackle some of the biggest technological challenges of our time.
Google Canada engineers have conceived of, developed, and implemented innovative products that many Canadians might take for granted:

In 2011, Google Canada engineers played a key role in the development of the first Gmail app for iOS, bringing a Gmail app to the world for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.
The Cloud Healthcare API, developed by the Cloud Healthcare & Life Sciences team in Waterloo since 2017, allows healthcare customers to organize and analyze their healthcare data in a scalable, compliant and privacy sensitive way. In 2020, the Cloud Healthcare API became widely available to healthcare organizations around the world.
Our Safe Browsing team in Montréal protects over 4 billion devices worldwide each year, delivering millions of warnings a month about phishing scams and other online threats.

Providing platforms for Canadian success stories: For over 20 years, Google has helped Canadian businesses of all sizes use our digital tools to grow and reach customers across the globe. Before COVID-19, making the transition to digital was aspirational for most business owners. When the pandemic upended all of our lives, it became essential. To better understand how Google products helped Canadian workers and businesses in 2020, Google commissioned independent consultancy Public First to take a look and they found that Google’s search and advertising tools helped provide an estimated $26 billion in economic activity for over 600,000 businesses in Canada. And in 2020 alone, the total economic impact of Google products and services in Canada is equivalent to 1.3% of total GDP, or the equivalent of supporting 235,000 jobs.
And YouTube has facilitated the rise of the Canadian creator economy, helping content creators build sustainable businesses on the platform. A report by Oxford Economics estimates that in 2020, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed approximately $923 million to Canada’s GDP. In that same period YouTube supported the equivalent of 34,100 full-time employment jobs across Canada. Access to YouTube’s open platform continues to create a real and positive impact on the wider Canadian economy, and we can’t wait to watch the next generation of Canadian creators grow, create and connect on the platform.
This month, Google Canada is officially 20 years old and more than 2,500 Googlers strong. We’re working, living, and growing in communities across this country. We’re delivering innovations that are helping people through the toughest times of their lives. And we’re doing all of that as we stay committed to the same goal we were founded on: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
It only seems fitting that to celebrate the past 20 years, we take a look back at the most interesting searches over these two decades, to reflect back what Canadians have been curious about. And it turns out, what we’re most curious about is us. At its heart, Google is a place for people to ask questions – about ourselves, current events, and the world we are striving to create. So, after 20 years of Googling, we just wanted to say to all Canadians: thanks for asking.
Here’s to everything that comes next.
Posted by Google Canada

Our $600,000 commitment to reskill Indigenous job seekers for new careers in technology

Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Research shows

That’s why today, Google Canada announced a $600,000 commitment to provide free digital skills training to Indigenous job seekers across Canada. The support includes a $500,000 Google.org grant towards ComIT’s Recoding Futures IT training program, an additional $100,000 in funding to support Indspire with their education and job training programs and an allocation of Google Career Certificate scholarships for Indigenous job seekers.

ComIT’s Recoding Futures program was created last year with the support of Google.org to provide IT training to Indigenous learners across Canada. In the first year of the Recoding Futures program, we saw overwhelming interest, with over 800 applicants, double than what was expected. Our additional support of the program moving forwards will allow ComIT to expand the program and accommodate as many applicants as possible. The program runs virtually and covers topics like Design Thinking, HTML, CSS, Javascript .NET, Python, React and Node.

Google Canada’s $100,000 commitment to Indspire will support their existing job training programs, and we will also provide an allocation of dedicated Google Career Certificate scholarships for Indigenous job seekers. The scholarships can be used towards Google Career Certificate courses, which are delivered through NPower Canada and equips learners with theoretical and practical knowledge to be successful in an entry-level technology job.

Applications are now open for ComIT’s Recoding Futures program. Interested applicants can visit ComIT.org to register.

For more information on Google Career Certificates visit g.co/certificates-canada. To find out more on scholarships available, visit Indspire’s website.

Today’s support is in addition to Google Canada’s $2 million commitment to reskill job seekers for new careers in technology in under six months, announced earlier this year. We look forward to working alongside ComIT and Indspire to help bridge the longstanding digital divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, increase free access to digital skills education and support economic growth within Indigenous communities.

Posted by Sabrina Geremia, VP and Country Manager, Google Canada

You Can’t Stop The Beat - Apple Music now available on Nest Devices in Canada

Thursday, December 9, 2021

Apple Music subscribers can search and play songs, albums and playlists just by using their voice. Not sure what you want to listen to? You can also use your Google Assistant to play music by genre, mood or activity.
To set up Apple Music on your device, first link your Apple Music account in the Google Home app. After it is set up, you can easily queue up your favorite playlist, artist, or any of the award-winning Apple Music Radio stations live streaming today’s hits, classics, and country to play over your connected device.
Users also have the ability to set Apple Music as your default music streaming service in the Google Home App for a seamless integration and playback experience.
With Apple Music now available on Nest devices such as Nest Mini, Nest Audio, Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max, Apple Music subscribers now have more choices when it comes to where they can utilize their Apple Music service.
Australia, Canada, India, S. Korea and Mexico are the latest regions to offer Apple Music on compatible devices. Last year, Apple Music began rolling out on Nest and other Assistant-enabled smart speakers and displays in the US, UK, France, Germany and Japan.

A look back at Canada’s #YearInSearch: 2021

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

In 2021, Canadians searched for how to recover, and ways to come back stronger.We searched for “COVID vaccine near me”, “vaccine passport” and “What percentage of Canada is vaccinated?”. We looked inward and tried to better understand Canada's history when we searched for Residential schools, and asked “Why were they created?”. We were engaged voters, searching for “Federal Election” and “How to register to vote in Canada”. And from local to global, Canadians searched for ongoing current events to find information and answers. Canada's 2021 Year in Search:

Top Searches in Sports

With the return of live sporting events in 2021, it's no surprise that top searches were for NBA and NHL. We found ways to re-connect through games, as we searched and celebrated Canadian athletes like Leylah Fernandez, Andre De Grasse, Penny Oleksiak, and so many other local heroes.

Top Searches in Entertainment

Like last year, people continued to search for ways to stay connected and entertained at home. The South Korean success, Squid Game, was the most searched TV show, while also appearing on several other lists this year. Canadians also came out in full force to search and support Simu Liu as this year's superhero in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

This December also marks 20 years of Google in Canada . We took a look back at the top searches over 20 years, and found that the most searched topic in Canada is, well, Canada. While on the surface this is pretty funny, there is something very special about a country in search of itself. We searched “What it means to be Canadian,” “How to immigrate to Canada,” and “What native land am I on?” Canadians continue to question, research and understand how we can be the best version of ourselves. Looking back, we at Google are so proud to be a small part of the lives of Canadians - businesses that come to the platform to grow their business, new Canadians that use Translate for day-to-day interactions, or parents trying to understand what their kids mean when they keep saying “YOLO”.

As Canadians continue to find ways to heal, to connect, and to build back stronger, search on.

Explore more of the 2021 Canadian trending lists here .

Posted by Hibaq Ali and Alexandra Klein, Google Canada

Google, MLSE and the NBA extend partnership through to 2026

Monday, December 6, 2021

With that in mind, we’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) and the NBA to make Google Pixel the official smartphone of the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the NBA for the next five seasons.
This partnership will leverage the strengths of MLSE’s full ecosystem of sports brands, including the Raptors, Maple Leafs, Toronto FC and Argos, reaching millions of fans across Canada.
The beginnings of this partnership date back to October 2017, when we collaborated with the Raptors for the launch of Google Home. As part of this deal, Google Nest will remain the official smart home technology partner of both MLSE and the NBA through to the 2025-2026 season, and Chromebook will become the official laptop of the Raptors, Leafs, TFC and Argos.

Why is this important? The answer is simple. Having an open ecosystem of accessible and friendly smartphones, home computing, powered by Google software and connected objects helps Canadians reach their goals while staying connected.
We think human progress, big and small, can only happen when technology speaks to everybody, for everybody, in the most inclusive, open, friendly and human way. This aligns with MLSE’s commitment to establish partnerships with organizations and co-create purpose-driven programs.
This partnership will further showcase the innovation and helpfulness that Google hardware and products bring through a series of advertisements, entertaining content and fresh activations featuring exciting sports talent from our own backyard.
This is bold and changemaking, just like our culture and our communities. Together, we’re better - and we can’t wait to share more in the coming months.

Official Canada Blog

Black on the Prairies: Carol LaFayette-Boyd’s Story

David Archer: Reflections from an Anti-Racist Psychotherapist

Maps 101: How Google Maps reviews work

Roger Mooking on Black History Month in Canada

Supporting communities across Canada in 2021

Applications are now open for the second Google Cloud Accelerator Canada Cohort

Speaking our language: The importance of a Mandarin Pixel 6 ad with Simu Liu

Canadian Tennis Star Leylah Fernandez joins #TeamPixel

Our third GNI Startups Boot Camp will support 16 Canadian news entrepreneurs

20 years of Google in Canada

Our $600,000 commitment to reskill Indigenous job seekers for new careers in technology

You Can’t Stop The Beat - Apple Music now available on Nest Devices in Canada

A look back at Canada’s #YearInSearch: 2021

Google, MLSE and the NBA extend partnership through to 2026

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