Author Archives: Aaron Brindle

Providing emergency funding local news organizations in Canada

COVID-19 has upended the news industry, hitting local news particularly hard with job losses, furloughs, cutbacks and even closure. To provide some help, last month the Google News Initiative launched the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund. Today we’re announcing that more than 5,300 small and medium local newsrooms around the world will receive funding ranging from $5,000 - $30,000. Applications covering a number of publications under one organization will be capped at $85,000. As we await a final funding tally, we expect to spend tens of millions of dollars through the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund.

In just two weeks we received more than 12,000 applications from 140 eligible countries, with 90 percent of those applications from newsrooms of less than 26 journalists. We reviewed each application against a set of criteria: publications operating locally, serving a specific geographic community and using the money to continue doing so. More than 300 Googlers joined forces to check the submissions and across the world we held dozens of webinars and office hours to answer questions and guide people through the process.

About 50 percent of the applications didn’t meet the publicly established criteria. Reasons varied from not producing core news (i.e., lifestyle or sports news) to employing less than 2 journalists. The goal was to be as inclusive as possible while sticking to the eligibility rules. We still have a small percentage of projects to review but below our teams have provided a snapshot of some of the recipients and how they plan to spend the funding.


Canada:
As we read their stories, we were struck by the number of news organizations in the U.S. and Canada keeping their communities informed with fewer than 10 full-time employees. As small businesses, many applicants are trying to figure out how to keep the lights on, literally and figuratively. They’re passionate about providing high-quality journalism, and it’s an honor to support them during such a critical point:



  • The Discourse Cowichan serves a rural region on Vancouver Island, B.C., including Cowichan Tribes, the largest First Nation in the region. It will increase reporting capacity to cover the impact of COVID on vulnerable communities. This week also marks the launch of Indiegraf, a network of journalist-entrepreneurs and independently-owned digital publishers sharing resources to serve their local communities sustainably. Google News Initiative provided seed funding to the network and several of its members received support through JERF. "Entrepreneurship and innovation are urgently needed to fill gaps in local news that have widened as a result of COVID-19,” said Erin Millar, co-founder and CEO of Indiegraf and The Discourse. “I'm grateful to Google for recognizing the essential role that small, digital publishers and startups play in serving local communities."

  • CEO Jeff Elgie, who oversees Ontario-based Village Media, says: “Google has been an incredibly important partner in the development of our business. From their business productivity tools to platforms that run everything from our analytics to our ads, we simply couldn’t do it without them. To see them launch the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund in these difficult times further proves to me their sincere interest in supporting the industry.”

Europe, the Middle East, and Africa: Mark Peters, Director, EMEA Partnerships
We received applications from 88 countries, and so far we’ve offered funding to more than 1550 publishers, each demonstrating the diversity and strength of local communities and the journalists that continue to serve them through the crisis.


  • Mediacités’ (France) fact-checking tool “Veracités” has seen a huge increase in questions from local readers but can currently only answer 10 percent of them. The fund will allow them to invest in the tool and answer more peoples’ questions.
  • Eco di Bergamo (Italy) Data journalism techniques have helped local communities understand what’s happening in the Bergamo area which suffered heavy losses during the crisis. Funding will be used to increase investment in new means of production (video, audio, photo, data) to give readers a deeper more analytical knowledge of what’s happening in their territory.
  • Bihoreanul (Romania) intends to provide information necessary to fight the spread of COVID-19, and talk about the consequences of the pandemic to its readers.
  • Rochdale online (UK) will keep their journalists working during the crisis. They’ll focus on helping the community understand the latest advice on COVID-19 and promote the work of local businesses, charities and volunteers.
  • Baraka FM (Kenya) will focus on on-air campaigns to encourage listeners to prevent the spread of COVID-19. They’ll buy personal protective equipment to keep reporters safe when conducting interviews and give emergency stipends to reporters who’ve traveled to cover special reports.

Asia Pacific: Rohan Tiwary, Head of Media, News & Entertainment Partnerships,APAC
Asia Pacific has dealt with COVID-19 for longer than any other region—since January, in some places—so we know how urgently this support is needed. When we looked at the more than 2,000 applications, we considered Asia Pacific’s enormous diversity—not just across ethnicities, religions and languages, but also in terms of the news landscape. We’re supporting more than 800 news organizations in 30 countries and territories, a few examples below.


  • The Murray Pioneer (Australia) will set up two online meeting rooms so they can communicate with remote journalists, local governments and interest groups. Their advertising department will also maintain virtual contact with clients and coordinate campaigns more effectively.
  • Saitama Shimbun (Japan), a 75-year old newspaper covering the Saitama prefecture, plans to detail the impact of the pandemic to preserve a record for future generations.
  • Suara Surabaya (Indonesia) goes beyond being a news portal, allowing readers to submit complaints like a public service hotline and working with stakeholders to find solutions. They will use funding to bridge cash flow impacted by COVID-19.
  • Minnambalam (India), a Tamil language publication from Chennai, will be able to keep their newsroom going, the funding giving them the confidence and financial support needed to carry on with their work.
  • East Mojo (India), a digital-only news organization, plans to allow journalists to go to remote parts of Northern India to shed light on the impact of COVID-19 once the country’s lockdown is lifted.

Latin America: Camilo Gomez - Online Partnerships Group Lead, LATAM
The process behind reviewing each of the 2,000+ applications in the region was an opportunity to connect with the amazing journalism and stories that support local communities.


  • Agencia Amazonia (Brazil) will support Project #CoberturaCovid19Amazônia, which investigates the socio-cultural impact of the coronavirus on traditional populations in the Amazon region, giving priority to stories about indigenous, quilombolas and riverside dwellers.
  • El Colombiano (Colombia) will maintain the quality and resources that characterize the journalism of Medellin newspaper (the second most important city in the country).
  • La Discusion (Chile) will help finance an integrated radio-digital platform, developing informative, interpretive and opinion content across a variety of subjects like health, minorities, education, and sports etc that have been affected by COVID-19.
  • El Imparcial (México) will drive their strategic business plan, which includes improving multimedia content, newsroom training and growing their community.


Today’s news builds on a number of other efforts we’ve recently made in light of the pandemic. The GNI will announce more in the coming weeks and of course continue working to help the industry towards a more sustainable future in an ever increasingly digital world.






Helping 50,000 Canadian small businesses get online by 2021

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, storefronts across the country have been forced to close their doors. In Canada, where small businesses employ 90% of the private sector workforce, many have been laid off as businesses close. According to the OECD, these closures are likely to hit small and medium-sized businesses hardest.

A digital presence brings businesses enormous opportunities for growth, innovation and jobs. However, digital skills and tools can still seem out of reach to many.

To help Canadian small businesses with their economic recovery, today Google Canada is committing one million dollars to expand Digital Main Street’s ShopHERE program nationally with a new pledge to help get 50,000 Canadian small businesses online this year. The program will begin rolling out in select municipalities next month.

Not long ago, small businesses could only afford to source and sell locally. Today, the open web allows any size company or individual creator in Canada to become a global business. According to research from Public First, Google’s search and advertising products helped generate economic activity of $23 billion in Canada last year, a total impact equivalent to approximately 1.1 percent of this country’s entire GDP.

ShopHERE, which started in the City of Toronto, helps independent businesses and artists build a digital presence and minimize the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Google’s one million dollar investment will enable Digital Main Street to expand the program to municipalities across the country, offering more businesses the opportunity to build their online store. Because the opportunities afforded by the digital economy are still limited if people don’t have the right skills, Google’s investment will also help more small businesses receive the digital skills training needed to participate in the digital economy.

Businesses will be able to sign up for the program on the ShopHERE powered by Google website. This program is run in partnership with municipalities; more information on how to bring this to your municipality can also be found on the website.

As a part of the national expansion, ShopHERE powered by Google will also train and onboard Canadian university and college students to build the online stores for the participating small businesses. After completing their placements, these students will walk away with a new set of digital skills and connections with a number of businesses, providing a foot in the door for future opportunities.

Since Google began its business in Canada nearly twenty years ago, we’ve been focused on helping Canadian businesses of all sizes to unlock the prosperity of the internet. We remain optimistic and more determined than ever that technology is the toolkit for a world of opportunities. Together, we’ll continue to help our communities and small businesses to navigate the challenges ahead.

About ShopHERE powered by Google
The ShopHERE program offers businesses and artists the opportunity to build a digital presence and minimize the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. ShopHERE is supported by a number of community and corporate partners, including Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas, Shopify, Google, Mastercard, Microsoft, Magnet and The Schulich School of Business - York University.


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

4 things to know about the new Nest Aware



We’re all spending more time at home these days, and for many of us, that means investing time in our personal spaces and trying to check in on loved ones as much as possible. For Google Nest users, that’s getting a little easier: starting this week, the new Nest Aware is rolling out in Canada. The subscription service is a helpful, affordable companion to all of your Google Nest devices whether you’re home or away.



And even though many of us are home far more often right now, we have several features that make life at home a little easier. Here’s what to expect from the new Nest Aware:


  1. More affordable, simplified pricing. Instead of paying per camera, all of your devices per home—including your cameras, speakers and displays—are covered for one low price, even when you add a new device. For just $8 a month (or $80 for an annual subscription), the new Nest Aware comes with 30 days of event video history. Or, for those who want 24/7 video history, you can choose Nest Aware Plus for 60 days of event video history and 10 days of 24/7 video history for $16 per month (or $160 for an annual subscription).


  2. Get alerts that matter. With the new Nest Aware, now your devices will start recording event clips when they detect motion or sound and give you the clips you need to see. When something happens that needs your attention—like a package being delivered—we’ll send you an alert. If you prefer 24/7 continuous recording, for example, on your outdoor camera during the night, that’s also still available with Nest Aware Plus.


  3. Take care of loved ones. If your elderly parent or relative has a Nest Hub Max, not only can they stay in touch with loved ones through Duo video calling, but you can also look out for them with the new Nest Aware. All they have to do is invite you as a home member and enable their speaker or display, and you’ll get notifications if something needs your attention.


  4. Easily upgrade from old to new. If you already have an existing Nest Aware subscription, you can upgrade to the new version through the Google Store. Keep in mind that upgrading to the new Nest Aware requires that you migrate to a Google account if you haven’t already. You also have the option to keep your current subscription if you choose.





In addition to rolling out the new Nest Aware, over the next few days, package detection will roll out globally where Nest Hello is sold. And to make it even easier to bring more help into your home we’ve updated pricing for some of our products: starting today, Nest Hub is available for $99.99 and Nest Cam Indoor is now $179.99. We hope the new Nest Aware helps you save a little more, care for your loved ones, and know that all is well in the place you call home.

Meet Canada’s Group of Seven

Discover the Algonquin school, the most important art movement you’ve never heard of!

It’s a century on from a defining moment in Canada’s artistic history. The founding of the Group of Seven in 1920 saw the Canadian landscape, and Canadian painting, celebrated on its own unique merits like never before.

Taking inspiration from Post Impressionist European art - maybe particularly Vincent Van Gogh - the group invented a uniquely Canadian voice, singing Canada in color for the world to hear.

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection boasts a significant collection of the Group’s work. Six of the members are even buried here! The executive director Ian Dejardin explains their importance: “In May 1920, seven artists in Toronto came together as a group to exhibit a bright, colourful modern style of painting.”

“The Group of Seven set out to represent their vast country in a new, vibrant visual language, ultimately derived from Post-Impressionism but uniquely Canadian.”

“Though initially reviled, their ultimate success was such that they have dominated the development of art in Canada ever since, and many Canadians see their country through the Group’s eyes to this day.”

Emily Carr - the pioneering artist whose eye for light as a vehicle for form was the first proper instance of Post-Impressionist influence in Canadian painting - and the landscape painter Tom Thomson were important precedents for the Group of Seven, but are not usually included in the list of core members.

Thomson, it’s safe to assume, would have been a member but for the fact that he died during a canoeing trip (under circumstances which remain disputed) before the forming of the group. Curiously, there are 10 painters in all who are considered Group of Seven members. Scroll on to meet them all…


Franklin Carmichael

Carmichael worked as an illustrator, which may go some way to explaining the geometric layers, the immediacy of visual communication, in his paintings.

He worked mainly in watercolors, but also painted his beloved Ontario landscape in luscious oils, such as this autumnal view.

Carmichael was the group’s youngest founding member and a bit of an outsider (look at this cubist/futurist experiment, for example!), but became a defining voice in Canadian art throughout his career.


A.J.Casson

Keeping the youthful vibe alive in the group was the even younger A.J. Casson, who joined later at Carmichael’s request - the eighth member of the seven.

Casson’s work celebrates the landscapes and the forests of Ontario, but also the manual touch of human labor. His paintings work at an intersection between Post Impressionist brushstrokes and more structural geometry, which he reads into the natural and human world.


Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald

LeMoine FitzGerald wanted to “make the picture a living thing”. He credits time spent on his maternal Grandmother’s farm with influencing his work. He remembers that “roaming through the woods and over the fields and the vivid impressions of those holidays inspired many drawings and paintings of a later date”.

There’s something of the mid-career Van Gogh in the ruggedness of this harvester’s face, the gold of the corn. And perhaps the echoes of Millet’s The Sower (1850) are obvious, a painting which had a profound influence on North American culture (Walt Whitman was a big fan!). LeMoine FitzGerald was less interested in making the Group’s work uniquely Canadian and nationalist, so wouldn’t have wanted to move away from their European influences quite as much as the other members.


Lawren S. Harris

Clouds and snow and mountainous shapes were the order of the day for Harris, whose work strayed as far as being abstract in form, and as north as Canada’s arctic landscapes in setting.

This island, set into the middle of a northern lake as an independent body, is partially framed and obscured by the dividing lines of the foreground branches. Similarly, Harris saw the various framing devices and rubrics of the art world as obscuring a work’s purity. He attempted to cut his paintings free of time and place by refusing to sign or date them, wanting the pictures to exist and be judged purely on their own fundamental merit.


Edwin Holgate

Holgate is singular amongst the group for being primarily known as a portrait painter. He was vastly influential in the Montreal scene, and painted everyone from cellists within closely-observed interiors to female nudes en plein air.

His close observation of human expression, and his eye for the universal within the domestic, set him apart from the other members of the group.


A.Y. Jackson

Bridging Montreal and Toronto, Jackson was instrumental in binding together the artists from these two major cities and therefore consolidating Canadian painting as a national movement. He taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts in the 1940s and took up residence at the McMichael Gallery later.

Jackson managed to travel to Europe and back on a cattle-boat! This trip influenced his Neo-Impressionist style, to which he brought a verve which was all his own.


Frank Johnston

A founding member, Johnston only exhibited with the Group of Seven in their first show at the then-named Art Gallery of Toronto.

His earlier landscapes are interpretive and layered, recalling the geometric trees and dividing lines of Paul Nash. Johnston later focused on realistically showing the effects of light on water and snow.


Arthur Lismer

Ever heard of ‘dazzle camouflage’? It was a form of weird and sort-of wonderful paint-job applied to the hulls of military warships in World War I in order to make it difficult for the enemy to judge the ship’s distance when targeting. Strangely, the technique operates by making the ships more visible, but unsurely placed. Arthur Lismer is perhaps best known for his paintings of these ‘razzle dazzle’ boats.

His fascination with sight, distance, light, and their strange intercommingling also influenced his paintings of the Canadian landscape, in which shape and space become mutable and changeable.


J.E.H MacDonald

Born in Durham in North East England, MacDonald moved to Ontario with his family in 1887, at the age of 14, and began training as a painter that very year.

Like many of the Group of Seven, MacDonald worked as a commercial designer and artist, but was also heavily influenced by Post Impressionist styles and mood. These combined to form his rich, massy treatment of shape and color - owing a lot to Van Gogh - which was originally dismissed as “incoherent” by contemporary critics.


Frederick Varley

Like Lismer and MacDonald, Varley was a native of the North of England. He moved from Sheffield to Canada in 1912 at Lismer’s suggestion (Lismer was also Sheffield-born).

Varley spent time as an official war painter, which initially imbued his paintings and his palette with a bleak feel. After the First World War, he seemed to relish the return to color in his works, which became more lush, deep, and rich.

Posted by Adam Heardman, Editorial Coordinator


Helping local restaurants to connect with customers during times of uncertainty

Tina Leckie is the owner of Fiorentina, a restaurant in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood specializing in farm to table cuisine that has been dishing up meals with local ingredients for the past eight years. As many dine-in restaurants and bars close their doors to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, restaurant owners like Tina are looking for new ways to serve customers and keep the lights on.


Over the last two months, the restaurant industry has dramatically changed and Canadians are searching online to understand their new dining options. While people are still searching for "local restaurants near me," the focus has shifted to alternative mealtime solutions. For example, Canadian searches for "takeout" increased +180% in April compared to January 2020 and we saw “delivery” search interest increase 130% from March to April, compared to the 30 days prior.


To help restaurants during this time, Google has launched new tools to make it easier for restaurants to share how they are operating. Canadian restaurants can now update their free Google My Business business listing to communicate adjusted hours or updated delivery options, such as curbside pickup, no-contact delivery or takeout. These attributes appear on a restaurant’s business profile on Google Search and Maps and are visible when customers are looking for dining options that meet their needs. Businesses can even create a COVID-19 post on their business profile to share any new safety precautions they’ve implemented to keep customers safe.




Toronto’s Fiorentina has updated their Google My Business listing to let customers know they are now offering curbside pickup and no-contact delivery. Businesses can also create a COVID-19 post on their profile to share any new safety precautions they’ve implemented.


For Tina, digital tools have made all the difference in keeping Fiorentina open. “Updating our business profile was easy to do on Google, and this helped us share our new website, and let customers know we’re offering curbside pick-up and delivery, despite being temporarily closed for dine-in,” said Tina. “Now anyone searching for restaurants in the neighbourhood can see that we’re still open and offering adjusted services. Our customers and community have been extremely appreciative of these updates, and continue to support us while we stay open for business.”


“Small businesses have and always will be critical to the Canadian economy, and as consumers shift purchasing behaviour to online, it’s imperative that businesses are also online and can be found,” says John Kiru, Executive Director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas. “Google My Business helps restaurants not only be found online, but also connect with customers and let them know important updates like revised store hours, alternative service options, and new safety measures implemented during COVID-19.”


Since launching Google My Business, we’ve helped more than 150 million local businesses globally connect with people who are looking for them online. The pandemic presents unique challenges to the restaurant industry and while the path forward is not yet clear, we’re committed to supporting our local communities. Business owners can learn more on our Small Business Hub or join a free, virtual workshop.


Posted by Stephanie Wong, Partner Lead, Food, Beverage & Restaurants at Google

Google Meet premium video meetings—free for everyone


Technology that connects us while we're apart helps keep us safe and productive. Over the past few months, we’ve seen the power of video meetings bring us together—whether we’re working with teammates, talking to healthcare professionals, sharing with loved ones, or learning from home.

Today, we’re making Google Meet, our premium video conferencing product, free for everyone, with availability rolling out over the coming weeks. We’ve invested years in making Meet a secure and reliable video conferencing solution that’s trusted by schools, governments and enterprises around the world, and in recent months we’ve accelerated the release of top-requested features to make it even more helpful. Starting in early May, anyone with an email address can sign up for Meet and enjoy many of the same features available to our business and education users, such as simple scheduling and screen sharing, real-time captions, and layouts that adapt to your preference, including an expanded tiled view.

It’s important that everyone who uses Meet has a secure and reliable experience from the start, so beginning next week, we’ll be gradually expanding its availability to more and more people over the following weeks. This means you might not be able to create meetings at meet.google.com right away, but you can sign up to be notified when it’s available.

MeetInGmail-Telehealth-1779x1095.jpg
Meet operates on a secure foundation, keeping users safe, data secure, and information private—including between patients and caregivers.

Video meetings built on a secure foundation
Meet is designed, built and operated to be secure at scale. Since January, we’ve seen Meet’s peak daily usage grow by 30x. As of this month, Meet is hosting 3 billion minutes of video meetings and adding roughly 3 million new users every day. And as of last week, Meet’s daily meeting participants surpassed 100 million. With this growth comes great responsibility. Privacy and security are paramount, no matter if it’s a doctor sharing confidential health information with a patient, a financial advisor hosting a client meeting, or people virtually connecting with each other for graduations, holidays and happy hours.

Our approach to security is simple: make products safe by default. We designed Meet to operate on a secure foundation, providing the protections needed to keep our users safe, their data secure, and their information private. Here are just a few of our default-on safety measures:

  • We provide a strong set of host controls such as the ability to admit or deny entry to a meeting, and mute or remove participants, if needed.
  • We do not allow anonymous users (i.e., without a Google Account) to join meetings created by individual accounts.
  • Meet meeting codes are complex by default and therefore resilient to brute-force “guessing.”
  • Meet video meetings are encrypted in transit, and all recordings stored in Google Drive are encrypted in transit and at rest.
  • We don’t require plugins to use Meet on the web. It works entirely in Chrome and other modern browsers, so it’s less vulnerable to security threats.
  • On mobile, we have dedicated Google Meet apps in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
  • Meet users can enroll their account in Google’s Advanced Protection Program—our strongest protections available against phishing and account hijacking.
  • Google Cloud undergoes regular rigorous security and privacy audits for all its services. Our global compliance certifications can help support regulatory requirements such as GDPR and HIPAA, as well as COPPA and FERPA for education.
  • Your Meet data is not used for advertising, and we don't sell your data to third parties.

We operate a highly secure and resilient private network that encircles the globe and connects our data centers to each other—ensuring that your data stays safe. Trust is built on transparency and we publish the locations of all our data centers. You can learn more about how Meet keeps your video meetings safe in this post.

Free Google Meet accounts for individuals
You can use Meet to schedule, join or start secure video meetings with anyone—for a virtual yoga class, weekly book club, neighborhood meeting, or happy hour with friends. Until now, Meet has only been available as part of G Suite, our collaboration and productivity solution for businesses, organizations and schools. Going forward, Meet will be available to anyone for free on the web at meet.google.com and via mobile apps for iOS or Android. And if you use Google Calendar, you’ll be able to easily start or join from there, too.


Use your existing Google Account to start a secure meeting in Google Meet

If you have an existing Google Account (for example, if you’re a @gmail.com user), sign in at meet.google.com to get started. If you don’t have a free Google Account, it only takes a minute to create one using your work or personal email address of choice (we require this step as a security measure, and you’ll only need to do this once).

Meetings are limited to 60 minutes for the free product, though we won’t enforce this time limit until after Sept. 30. Creating a trusted meeting space is important, and being mindful when sharing meeting links in public forums can help create a safe experience for all attendees. For more tips on how to use Meet securely and effectively, visit our Help Center.

Google Meet for groups and teams
Groups within an organization can also use Meet to create video meetings that help coworkers connect one-on-one, collaborate as a team, and more. For organizations that aren’t already G Suite customers, today we’re announcing G Suite Essentials. G Suite Essentials is perfect for teams that need access to Meet’s more advanced features, such as dial-in phone numbers, larger meetings, and meeting recording. G Suite Essentials also includes Google Drive for easy and secure access to all of a team’s content, and Docs, Sheets and Slides for content creation and real-time collaboration.

Through Sept. 30, we’re providing G Suite Essentials and all of these advanced features free of charge. If you’re interested in G Suite Essentials, complete this form to get in touch with our sales team.

Google Meet for businesses and organizations
Whether it’s hospitals supporting patients via telehealth, banks working with loan applicants, retailers assisting customers remotely, or manufacturers interacting safely with warehouse technicians, businesses across every industry are using Meet to stay connected. If you’re one of the 6 million companies and organizations that use G Suite to power remote productivity, you already have access to Meet. Admins simply need to enable Meet by following instructions outlined on our Help Center. In the spirit of being helpful during this time, we’re providing three ways for new and current enterprise customers to access Meet through Sept. 30:

  • Free access to Meet’s advanced features for all G Suite customers, such as the ability to live stream for up to 100,000 viewers within your domain.
  • Free additional Meet licenses for existing G Suite customers without any amendments to their current contract.
  • Free G Suite Essentials for enterprise customers. Enterprises can get in touch with our sales team to learn more.


Google Meet includes live captions powered by Google’s speech recognition technology

Google Meet in schools and higher-ed institutions
Many schools and colleges today use Meet to power secure virtual classes, PTA meetings, parent-teacher conferences, tutoring, and even school socials. Meet is included in G Suite for Education, which serves more than 120 million students and teachers globally. If your school already uses G Suite for Education, your administrator can enable Meet at no additional cost. If your school doesn’t use G Suite for Education, you can sign up here. To access resources for distance learning, visit Teach from Home.

Our hope is that by making Meet and G Suite more readily available for all, it will be easier to securely stay connected and productive—now and in the future.

Post Content Posted by Javier Soltero, Vice President & GM, G Suite

Answering Canada’s questions about COVID-19 on YouTube

Editor’s note: This guest post is authored by Dr. Howard Njoo, Deputy Chief Public Health Officer of Canada

The COVID-19 situation in Canada is changing rapidly and we are learning more about the virus every day. As Canada’s Deputy Chief Public Health Officer, a large part of my job of late has involved speaking directly to Canadians to help them get the information they need about COVID-19. We’re working hard to share with you important updates on everything from our country’s caseload number, to explaining social distancing, to providing general health advice and guidance to Canadians.

It’s important that the Public Health Agency of Canada and the entire Government of Canada share factual and authoritative information with all Canadians in a timely manner. To do so, we need to reach Canadians of all ages and on various platforms.

That’s why I ‘virtually’ sat down with four Canadian YouTube creators, each one very different from the next, for a new video series on Healthy Canadians, Public Health Agency of Canada’s and Health Canada’s YouTube channel.

In my interviews with Simply Nailogical, Peter McKinnon, jayaddict (video coming soon!) & The Sorry Girls, I answered questions about COVID-19 and helped shed light on issues that mattered to their audiences, whether that’s debunking conspiracy theories, sharing tips on how to make helpful DIY masks or how to actually put social distancing in practice.


We are making progress but we can’t back down from the measures we’ve put in place so far. We want to help Canadians understand and prepare for what is coming by arming them with the authoritative information and answers they need during this unprecedented time.

Check out the interviews here. Remember to #plankthecurve and stay safe, Canada.

For additional information on COVID-19 in Canada, please visit the Government of Canada’s webpage, available here.

This National Film Day, celebrate Canadian film and talent on YouTube

Editor’s note: Today’s post is guest co-authored by Jack Blum, Executive Director of REEL CANADA and Sharon Corder, Artistic Director of REEL CANADA 

This National Canadian Film Day, we’re celebrating the rich history of Canadian cinematic culture with an interactive broadcast livestream on YouTube.

On April 22, from 6-10 PM ET, visit our YouTube channel to hear from and engage with popular Canadian filmmakers and industry professionals. We’ll be joined by talented performers like Sandra Oh, Jay Baruchel, Megan Follows, Colm Feore and Don McKellar, Oscar-nominated directors like Atom Egoyan, Deepa Mehta, and Philippe Falardeau, and even a celebrated American who has appeared in more than one fine Canadian movie, Ethan Hawke.

As our industry faces a historically unprecedented shutdown, it’s more important than ever to celebrate great Canadian stories, and the hundreds of thousands of talented artists and craftspeople who make them. Our stories keep us company. They reflect our shared values, our magnificent diversity, and our precious freedoms.

Tune in to a curated ‘Stay Home and Watch ?? #WithMe’ playlist on YouTube Canada’s channel featuring homegrown classics, including cult favourite Strange Brew, dark crime comedy Bon Cop/Bad Cop and more. Encore+ is also serving up some iconic films in both English and French.

Film is an incredibly powerful medium that has the power to capture the soul of our nation -- we’re so happy we can bring Canadians together on YouTube to watch the very best of Canadian cinema.

Whether you’re planning to join one of our national virtual watch parties, organize your own, or just watch a movie at home, you can learn more about how to celebrate #CanFilmDay on our website.

This National Canadian Film Day, let our stories keep you company.

A Global Journalism Emergency Relief Fund for local news

Local news is a vital resource for keeping people and communities connected in the best of times. Today, it plays an even greater function in reporting on local lockdowns or shelter at home orders, school and park closures, and data about how COVID-19 is affecting daily life.

But that role is being challenged as never before as the news industry deals with everything from job cuts, furloughs and cutbacks as a result of the economic downturn prompted by COVID-19. The Google News Initiative wants to help by launching a Journalism Emergency Relief Fund to deliver urgent aid to thousands of small, medium and local news publishers globally. The funding is open to news organizations producing original news for local communities during this time of crisis, and will range from the low thousands of dollars for small hyper-local newsrooms to low tens of thousands for larger newsrooms, with variations per region.

Starting today, publishers everywhere can apply for funds via a simple application form. We’ve made the process as streamlined as possible to ensure we get help to eligible publishers all over the world quickly. Applications will close on Wednesday April 29, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. And in the coming weeks we’ll announce who has received funding and how publishers are spending the money.


Additionally, we recognize that covering the coronavirus pandemic can take its toll on reporters on the front line. That’s why Google.org is giving $1 million collectively to the International Center for Journalists, which plans to provide immediate resources to support reporters globally, and the Columbia Journalism School's Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma which is helping journalists exposed to traumatic events experienced during the crisis.

Today’s news builds on other efforts we’ve made to support the industry and connect people to quality information at this time of need. We believe it is important to do what we can to alleviate the financial pressures on newsrooms, and will continue to look at other ways to help with more to announce soon.

Posted by Richard Gingras, VP of News, Google

#PrayWithMe: Connect online with your faith community

This week, millions of Canadians will celebrate Passover and Easter. And in the coming weeks, many more will observe Ramadan. This year, these important religious holidays will feel very different, as faith organizations all over the world look for new ways to celebrate safely in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 within their communities.

During these difficult times, it’s important for us to continue to connect with each other and feel part of our wider communities, even from home.

While some faith organizations have used digital tools to connect with their congregations for many years, this year’s broadly mandated orders to stay home will make it essential for communities, families and individuals to find new ways of coming together, online.

The shift has already begun. Since the start of March, the combined subscribers of all Vatican News channels has more than doubled.

To assist faith organizations everywhere who are new to online services, YouTube has brought together helpful information to get started with live streaming. Please visit our Playlist and Help Centre for best practices, or check out instructions for hosting a live stream event either from a mobile device or desktop.

For those who are marking Passover this week, synagogues are offering many ways to share and celebrate online. Beth Torah Congregation, based in Toronto, is live streaming seders and festival services throughout the week, as is Shaarey Dezek Synagogue in Winnipeg and the City of David Messianic Synagogue, also in Toronto.

For those celebrating Good Friday and Easter, churches are hosting live streams for their local congregations, including The Archdiocese of Toronto from St. Michael’s Cathedral Basilica, St. George’s Anglican Church in St. Catharine’s, St. Mary’s Church in Brampton, St. Mary & St. Joseph Coptic Orthodox Church in Richmond Hill, Saint-Joseph Centre in Saint-Césaire, Quebec and more. The Vatican will live stream all of its Holy Week services from St. Peter’s Basilica, including Easter Sunday mass at 11AM CET.

Renowned opera singer Andrea Bocelli will perform live at 7PM CET on Sunday, April 12 from Milan’s historic Duomo Cathedral, available exclusively on YouTube. The concert entitled, “Music For Hope,” will represent a message of love, healing and hope to Italy and the world. The Duomo, currently closed, will open its doors exceptionally for Andrea Bocelli who will be accompanied only by the cathedral organist, Emanuele Vianelli, playing one of world’s largest pipe organs.

Wishing faith communities across Canada safe and healthy holidays.

Posted by the YouTube Canada Team