Fiona Charles

Software test consultant, teacher, writer, speaker, iconoclast. I lead workshops "beyond process", coach, renovate & rescue testing of any scale.

[Fiona Charles @FionaCCharles]

We should always ask what could possibly go wrong. Because it will—one way or another. #TechEthics #AIEthics

[@frederike.bsky.social @F_Kaltheuner]

Something is sinking in today:
Privacy is a time-shifted risk, meaning -
what is convenient and risk-free today, can have devastating consequences tomorrow.
We should design the technologies we depend on in ways that protect us - no matter the political climate.
@hrw

[The Biking Lawyer (Dave Shellnutt) @TheBikingLawyer]

Read our letter to @fordnation about his Government's recent changes to auto insurance coverage and how they cut critical benefits for victims of hit and runs, namely pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists...

https://t.co/7JeZ85d7po

[Women's Rights Network - WRN @WomensRightsNet]

“Academics asked ChatGPT to generate 34,500 CVs for men and women, often using the same starting information. The CVs generated for women presented them as less experienced and younger — ie it had learnt that was more appealing to employers — while age and seniority were viewed more positively for men.”

In a time of widespread economic hardship the added worry that technology will discriminate against women increases the burden.

Age and experience aren’t just valuable in men, they are qualities that female leaders have too.

https://t.co/W2Ve12w1lU

[@RGBAtlantica @RGBAtlantica]

Excellent illustration of why early detection and rapid response is so critical to all provincial budgets. @MarkJCarney crack down on those who cut their budgets for wildfire emergencies.

[Alina Cameron 🇨🇦 💉 🔬 @Alina_Cameron]

A message from a friend working in emergency management in Ontario:

Northwestern Ontario needs your help.

Our region is facing an unprecedented wildfire emergency. Communities across the Northwest are dealing with evacuations, hazardous smoke, extreme heat, and stretched emergency response capacity.

We're hearing one message loud and clear:

Where is Ontario Corps?

Many of the people and organizations who would normally step up to help are themselves affected by the fires, smoke, heat, and emergency social service demands. There simply isn't enough capacity left.

We need the Province to coordinate a regional response that supports all communities; First Nations, municipalities, and unincorporated areas alike. Emergencies don't stop at jurisdictional boundaries, and neither should the response.

Please help amplify this message. Tag Minister Jill Dunlop @JillDunlop1 and the Premier @fordnation and share widely.

We need help. We need coordination. We need it NOW.

Pray for Northern Ontario.

#ONPoli #NorthwesternOntario #OntarioFires #Wildfire #EmergencyManagement #OntarioCorps

*Picture attributed to Stephanie Paavola and her family as they fled their home. I hope you are safe and together. #solidarity

[Mark Mattson @waterkeepermark]

That murky plume in Toronto Harbour isn’t an accident, it’s 9 sewer outfalls plus the Don River. It already struggles to flush. A new report shows a Billy Bishop runway expansion would cut harbour flow in half. Time for a public summit on this waterfront. https://t.co/3iQSkFSP5J

[Fiona Charles @FionaCCharles]

@DorotheaBaur It is brilliant, and much of it is quotable. I’m wondering how to make use of it in a thinking skills workshop I’m delivering in September. I also feel postliterate: rediscovering & enjoying reading complex novels after what seems like a long hiatus.

[Fiona Charles @FionaCCharles]

“…the process of writing forces people to think in an orderly, linear fashion. It exposes flabby thoughts and shoddy reasoning…the time and focus it takes to form thoughts into words, sentences, and paragraphs allow the author to make new connections and discover new insights.”

[Dorothea Baur (Dr.) @DorotheaBaur]

"'It is not that the disappearance of a library led to a dark age, nor that its survival would have improved those ages,'... The fact that the library was allowed to die showed that the dark age had already arrived"
Fast forward to 2026: dark, very dark.
https://t.co/KsYIXTgHhg

[Privacy International @privacyint]

Claude Mythos/Fable is being discussed as a cybersecurity story.

But it’s also a story about privacy, surveillance and power.

https://t.co/KPlSPixyq9

[Annie @AnnieForTruth]

Excellent! Climate scientists fired by Trump start their own website to relay trusted climate information! 👏👏👏 https://t.co/dqzHdg6WJd

[Fiona Charles @FionaCCharles]

“Life has not been cheapened by MAID. Dignity, choice, and bodily autonomy have all been bolstered.”

And that is a thing to celebrate.

[André Picard @picardonhealth]

In the first 10 years of MAID, more than 100,000 Canadians have averted unnecessary suffering at end-of-life. That's cause for celebration. Assisted death has become a significant ritual, not a 'slippery slope,' by @picardonhealth https://t.co/fAL7bBUHaA via @GlobeDebate

[Brandi Morin @Songstress28]

There’s a three-year-old boy I can’t stop thinking about.

His name is Preston Fox. I met him in Neskantaga, where his grandfather hands out bottled water flown in from Thunder Bay twice a week — because the tap water there has been unsafe to drink for 31 years. Preston has bleeding sores on his skin from showering in it. He’s already walked the family graveyard more times than any child should.

This week Ottawa tabled a new Clean Water Act for First Nations. There’s real money in it. There’s also weaker language on rights, weaker protections for the rivers that feed these communities, and chiefs who found out about the changes days before it landed on the House floor.

Meanwhile, a pipeline gets billions without a second thought. Roads to mining country get fast-tracked. Water for kids like Preston takes 31 years and two governments.

I wrote about Preston, about Grassy Narrows, about Fort Chipewyan — about what this country chooses to move fast for, and what it doesn’t.
Please read it. Please share it.

Hiy hiy. 🪶

https://t.co/zrhJZJNIZ9

[Carole Cadwalladr @carolecadwalla]

Excellent speech from NYT’s publisher in front of world’s editors. The news orgs that are allowing themselves to be bought off by AI companies who have ‘stripmined’ their journalism is such a dumb, shortsighted, unforced error.

[‏ً @omgsidewalks]

We are now in a weird era where a guy gets publicly shamed for running his sprinklers on a Tuesday, while a data center the size of a Costco quietly drains a reservoir so AI can generate a picture of your cat as a medieval knight. And the data center gets a tax incentive for it.

[Sparky @SparkyMarky007]

@Garnet_2203 There are a lot of liberal MPs who need to raise their voices against this overreach by ford

[Liam Nissan™ @theliamnissan]

💯

[Carl Skau @WFPChief]

Absolutely unacceptable. This is what's left of our @WFP warehouse after a missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine—and the remaining food stocks for 130K people on the frontlines of war and hunger.

These deliberate attacks MUST end. Aid workers and humanitarian assets are #NotATarget.

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

The list of those bailing on Canada if Bill C-22 passes in its current form is going to get very long.

[🇨🇦Wayne🇨🇦 @Reil76]

Let’s clear something up about MAID in Canada.

It does not apply to children. You must be 18 or older. Mature minors do not qualify. Full stop.

It does not apply to people simply because they are poor or struggling. To be eligible, you must have a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability, be in an advanced state of irreversible decline, and be experiencing intolerable suffering that cannot be relieved in any way you find acceptable. Financial hardship alone is not a criterion.

It is not a rubber stamp. Approval requires assessments by two independent practitioners who review your medical records and confirm you have seriously considered available treatment options. When death is not reasonably foreseeable, a minimum 90-day assessment period is required.

People whose only medical condition is a mental illness are not currently eligible either, that eligibility has been postponed to March 2027 while further safeguards are studied.

You can have moral or religious objections to assisted dying. That is a legitimate position held by a lot of Canadians. But spreading misinformation about what the law actually says is not an argument. It is just fearmongering. Know wtf you are talking about before you talk about it.

[United Canada 🇨🇦 @UnitedCanucks26]

HE SAID NO TO MILLIONS. 💰🚫 The legacy of Thor Vikström. For 50 years, developers hounded this 93-year-old Quebecer with massive offers to buy his 7-acre island, ile Ronde. They wanted luxury high-rises and bridges. 🏗️
Thor's response? He donated the entire island for FREE to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. 💚
Why? Because the island is home to the rare Northern Map Turtle and ancient Shagbark Hickory trees.🌳 🐢
Quote: "Nature was more important than some stupid money in my pocket." 🇨🇦
Let's thank Thor for having protected one of Canada's "natural jewels" for our grandkids! 🙏
#Canada #Conservation