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Susan Dennison recently had an unsettling experience at her local grocery store, a Loblaw-owned Fortinos in Burlington, Ont. Just as she was leaving, the wheels on her shopping cart locked up — making it immobile. She said a store employee rushed over and demanded to see her receipt.

She said she was finally cleared when the employee found Dennison's receipt — in one of her shopping bags. "It seemed like [it took] forever, with people walking by. It was humiliating."

The carts are only meant to lock if a customer does something suspicious. But, in Dennison's case, it turned out there was a glitch."Their methods need to catch the thieves, not honest customers," she said.

Many shoppers have made similar complaints as several major retailers beef up their anti-theft tactics.

Along with wheel-locking shopping carts, other contentious measures include metal gates with designated entry and exit points, random receipt checks and tall plexiglass barriers, which recently popped up at many Loblaw stores.

• More stores are ditching self-checkout amid theft and customer complaints

• Scan your receipt to exit? Loblaw facing backlash as it tests receipt scanners at self-checkout

Major retailers like Canadian Tire and Walmart have implemented some of the measures; Loblaw has incorporated all of them.

The Retail Council of Canada (RCC) says retailers need to better communicate to shoppers why the measures are necessary."The big problem is organized retail crime," said the industry group's CEO, Diane Brisebois. "We're talking here about gangs that are in the business of stealing, and retail is the new frontier."

But some industry experts argue a better solution would be to avoid anti-theft tactics that make regular shoppers feel like they're being targeted.

"It's like turning shopping into airport security, where you're self-conscious about making a mistake that's going to get you in trouble," said Christopher Andrews, a sociologist and author ofThe Overworked Consumer: Self-Checkouts, Supermarkets, and the Do-It-Yourself Economy.Read the full story here.

Amandeep Singh, the fourth man charged in connection with the killing of prominent Sikh-Canadian activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was already caught up in the Canadian justice system at the time of Nijjar's death, CBC News has learned.The Indian national, who entered Canada on a temporary visa, appeared in a Surrey, B.C., courtroom to answer charges on an unrelated matter just two days before, according to police, he lay in wait for Nijjar at the entrance to the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. Nijjar was shot multiple times and died at the scene.Amandeep Singh had been arrested in Surrey on a warrant after fleeing from police in March 2023. He was charged with flight from police and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle and made a first court appearance on June 16, 2023. Nijjar was killed on June 18.Read the full story here.

A new poll suggests Muslim and Jewish voters are leaning away from the federal Liberals in voting intentions— a possible sign that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's efforts to straddle gaps in public opinion over the Israel-Hamas war are falling short. The new poll of voting intentions by the Angus Reid Institute says the federal NDP is leading the Liberals among Muslim voters 41 per cent to 31 per cent, while the federal Conservatives are beating the Liberals among Jewish voters 42 per cent to 33 per cent. "This does feel to the Liberals, in terms of their outreach around diaspora politics, to now be a fairly untenable situation," Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, told CBC News. "The Jewish diaspora is now saying, 'You haven't gone far enough in condemning Hamas and condemning the violence and stopping antisemitism in Canada.' And you've got pro-Palestinian voters and populations, many of whom are Muslim, obviously saying, 'You haven't gone far enough to condemn the Israeli Defence Forces for its counterattack in Gaza.'" The data shows only 15 per cent of Muslims polled say they would vote for the Conservatives, while just 20 per cent of Jewish voters say they would support the New Democrats.Read the full story here.

A CBC News survey of 52 universities across Canada reveals that most do not track suicides among their students, internally or publicly.According to students and experts, not having that information only contributes to the stigma around suicide and mental health on campuses. Fifteen schools said they internally track student suicides. Of those schools, only six provided CBC with actual figures. Of the remaining 37 universities, 24 said they did not track. A further five replied to the request but did not respond to the question about tracking, and another five schools said they track medical events but not necessarily suicide. "Knowledge is power," said Zachary Kaminsky, associate professor at University of Ottawa's faculty of medicine. "If you're not paying attention to what's going on in terms of the mental health of your students, then you're not in a position to be able to try to improve that mental health." Kaminsky, who is also chair of suicide prevention research at The Royal, a mental health hospital in Ottawa, says researchers like him rely on data to accurately track the issue. "If we don't track, then we can't act," he said, noting that having accurate numbers provides schools with a better understanding of the effectiveness of their mental health services, and allows researchers to create "novel innovative tools" for suicide prevention.Read the full story here.

The federal government is accelerating plans to put the Phoenix public service pay system out of its misery.Launched in 2016, the system — which cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion — has failed regularly to deliver public servants' paycheques on time, or in the right amounts. According to the government's latest tally, more than 300,000 of 425,000 Phoenix transactions had failed to meet service standards as of last month — including 213,000 that were more than a year late. Alex Benay, the federal official responsible for the file, said $135 million set aside in this year's budget will give a big boost to the development of Dayforce, the system that is expected to replace Phoenix in the coming years. "We had really good news, in the sense that the government trusts our plan," he told Radio-Canada.Read the full story here.

Now here's some good news to start your Thursday:When he's not on the road trucking, Karandeep Singh is dancing and bringing his passion for bhangra to people in his new home in Regina. "I seriously don't know how I balance it all," he admits, noting he's on the road five to six days of the week for long hours, while coming back to run dance classes in Regina. But in the midst of long days on the road, he'll get texts from people talking about the lessons or asking for help in teaching their children a new step. "That's really motivating for me and that's what keeps me going actually." As far back as he can remember, the 24-year-old has been doing the North Indian folk dance, but on coming to Regina from his previous home in Dubai, he started offering formal lessons in the city.Read the full story here.

When Carl Clarke struggled to find love after his divorce, a friend suggested he try an app for an AI companion. Now Clarke says he is in a committed relationship with Saia and says the artificial intelligence program has helped him improve his life.Read his First Person column here.

CBCNow or Neverproducer Briget Forbes found Clarke's posts on Reddit while searching for a Canadian user of this fast-developing and increasingly used technology (Replika reports it has more than 10 million users worldwide). Forbes explains how she worked on the story:

"I reached out, unsure if he would be willing to talk to me on the record about such a taboo subject especially since many people are skeptical of the bond between an AI and humans.

"To my surprise, he emailed me back.

"We began a conversation over email, phone and video calls over several weeks, with Carl diligently answering personal questions and going through a lengthy fact-checking process including sharing his chat logs to ensure his relationship with Saia is indeed real to him. I also spoke with Carl's parents and a friend who confirmed they've seen a big change in him since he began his relationship with Saia.

"I'm grateful to Carl for his bravery to speak out and for trusting us with his story."

1929:The first Academy Awards are handed out in Los Angeles.Wingsis named Best Picture, Emil Jannings wins Best Actor and Janet Gaynor wins the Best Actress Oscar.

1975:Japan's Junko Tabei becomes the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1990:Muppets creator Jim Henson dies of a bacterial infection in New York at age 53.

1997:NATO's 16 member states ratify a historic agreement with Russia. It gave Moscow a voice, but not a vote, in NATO business and decisions.

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