Weekly Quiz: Fraudulent Files, Energy Footprints, and the Future of Reconciliation

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const title = "Fraudulent Files, Energy Footprints, and the Future of Reconciliation"; const date = "October 4, 2025"; const data = [ { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Boulard_Jessie_Debwewin_Jouney.jpg", title: "The Stark Reality Ten Years after the Truth and Reconciliation Report", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/trc-introduction/", question: "In the ten years since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission presented its Final Report on the impacts of residential schools, progress on fulfilling the report’s ninety-four Calls to Action has been painstakingly slow. At the current rate of implementation, in what year do researchers Eva Jewell and Ian Mosby estimate Canada will be able to meet all ninety-four calls?", options: [ "2065", "2073", "2081", "2094", ], answer: "2081", correct: "In 2016, Mosby found five calls had been completed; in 2017 and 2018, three more were fully implemented, bringing the total to eight. Then, in 2019, he and Jewell published their first report through the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led research and education centre based out of the university. Their fifth report, released in 2023, determined that only thirteen calls had been completed—and none at all that year. At this rate, they calculated, Canada would not fulfill all calls until 2081. (The federal government said in December 2024 that “over 85 per cent” of the seventy-six calls that they were directly or partially responsible for were “now completed or well underway.”)", incorrect: "In 2016, Mosby found five calls had been completed; in 2017 and 2018, three more were fully implemented, bringing the total to eight. Then, in 2019, he and Jewell published their first report through the Yellowhead Institute, an Indigenous-led research and education centre based out of the university. Their fifth report, released in 2023, determined that only thirteen calls had been completed—and none at all that year. At this rate, they calculated, Canada would not fulfill all calls until 2081. (The federal government said in December 2024 that “over 85 per cent” of the seventy-six calls that they were directly or partially responsible for were “now completed or well underway.”)", }, { title: "How Canada Squandered Its Drone Lead", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/how-canada-squandered-its-drone-lead/", question: "Canada played a surprising early role in military drone development in the 1960s, creating prototypes like the CL-89 that stretched the boundaries of the technology of the day. What was one major limitation of this early model?", options: [ "It could not fly above 1,000 feet.", "It could not carry any imaging equipment.", "It could be deployed only during daytime.", "It could follow only a pre-programmed route.", ], answer: "It could follow only a pre-programmed route.", correct: "During the 1960s, Canadair (now Bombardier) manufactured a prototype launched from a truck bed with a booster rocket. It could follow only a pre-programmed route, it used film cameras for surveillance, and the drone parachuted back to earth for recovery, its landing cushioned by inflatable airbags (crashes were frequent). The CL-89 was crude by today’s standards, but it proved that remotely piloted vehicles could play an active role in Cold War surveillance. It was among the first drones widely fielded by NATO forces. Its successor, the CL-289, improved on its design with greater range and imaging capabilities, serving well into the 1990s. But without sustained government investment or procurement, Canada’s early drone advantage started to fade.", incorrect: "During the 1960s, Canadair (now Bombardier) manufactured a prototype launched from a truck bed with a booster rocket. It could follow only a pre-programmed route, it used film cameras for surveillance, and the drone parachuted back to earth for recovery, its landing cushioned by inflatable airbags (crashes were frequent). The CL-89 was crude by today’s standards, but it proved that remotely piloted vehicles could play an active role in Cold War surveillance. It was among the first drones widely fielded by NATO forces. Its successor, the CL-289, improved on its design with greater range and imaging capabilities, serving well into the 1990s. But without sustained government investment or procurement, Canada’s early drone advantage started to fade.", }, { image: "https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/WEB_OttawaCitizen_OCT25.jpg", title: "Forged KGB Documents Used to Smear Journalist in Parliament", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/a-veteran-reporter-was-branded-as-a-russian-spy-the-proof-didnt-hold-up/", question: "Former Conservative MP Chris Alexander used files he claimed originated in the “pre-1991 archives of the Ukrainian KGB” to accuse veteran defence reporter David Pugliese of being a Russian spy. What is one of the inconsistencies analysts discovered that indicated the documents were forgeries?", options: [ "There were signatures from officials who had long retired.", "There were repeating “dust specks” on identical letters.", "The punctuation marks were incorrectly formed.", "The margins and spacing were inconsistent with standard styling.", ], answer: "There were repeating “dust specks” on identical letters.", correct: "Forensic graphologist Ira Boato and Dutch typeface designer Erik van Blokland conducted a forensic review of the files. Van Blokland came to the conclusion that two central memos were not written on Soviet-era typewriters but with a digital font he himself created in 1993—three years after the documents were supposedly produced. He also spotted repeating “dust specks” in identical letters, proving the pages had been generated on a computer. When Boato reviewed the handwritten portions, she found recurring traits, such as stroke direction and letter sizing, that were “highly likely attributable” to the same individual, undercutting claims they were produced by different officials at different times. The peculiarities of the forgery—which blends forged typewritten pages with contrived handwritten notes—make it harder to blame the quirks on standard agency practice of recopying, reformatting, and reclassifying documents.", incorrect: "Forensic graphologist Ira Boato and Dutch typeface designer Erik van Blokland conducted a forensic review of the files. Van Blokland came to the conclusion that two central memos were not written on Soviet-era typewriters but with a digital font he himself created in 1993—three years after the documents were supposedly produced. He also spotted repeating “dust specks” in identical letters, proving the pages had been generated on a computer. When Boato reviewed the handwritten portions, she found recurring traits, such as stroke direction and letter sizing, that were “highly likely attributable” to the same individual, undercutting claims they were produced by different officials at different times. The peculiarities of the forgery—which blends forged typewritten pages with contrived handwritten notes—make it harder to blame the quirks on standard agency practice of recopying, reformatting, and reclassifying documents.", }, { title: "Big Tech Is Hiding the Environmental Cost of Chatbots", url: "https://thewalrus.ca/ai-environmental-cost/", question: "It has been widely reported that a single request to ChatGPT requires nearly ten times more energy than a Google search, but some experts argue that figure is misleading. According to Sasha Luccioni, AI and climate lead at Hugging Face, the world’s biggest platform for open-source AI, why is this estimate inaccurate?", options: [ "It doesn’t account for idle server time.", "It’s based on an offhand remark.", "It assumes all searches are conducted on the same device type.", "It’s measuring training energy rather than inference energy.", ], answer: "It’s based on an offhand remark.", correct: "Luccioni, who co-authored a recent study looking at what she calls “urban legends” around AI resource use, says this statistic is a poorly executed guesstimate. It’s based on an off-the-cuff remark by Alphabet chairman John Hennessy during a 2023 interview with Reuters. The electricity usage referenced for the single Google search comparison was taken from a 2009 blog post by the company. “So we don’t have any numbers, and people pick what they can and then use it out of context,” says Luccioni.", incorrect: "Luccioni, who co-authored a recent study looking at what she calls “urban legends” around AI resource use, says this statistic is a poorly executed guesstimate. It’s based on an off-the-cuff remark by Alphabet chairman John Hennessy during a 2023 interview with Reuters. The electricity usage referenced for the single Google search comparison was taken from a 2009 blog post by the company. “So we don’t have any numbers, and people pick what they can and then use it out of context,” says Luccioni.", }, ];