OTTAWA – As an Amber Alert sounded for a missing boy in Ontario on Monday, some mobile users questioned the effectiveness of the country’s new wireless emergency alert system, while others complained about receiving the messages in the first place.
The authentic alert, issued by police who were searching for an eight-year-old boy north of Thunder Bay, Ont., came one week after tests of the Alert Ready system failed to reach large numbers of mobile service subscribers and as service providers and emergency officials tried to unravel what went wrong during the nation-wide preview.
Pelmorex, the company which operates the system, said it could be a year before it is tested again on a wide scale, although it noted the system was functional – even if messages might not reach all intended devices.
READ MORE: Amber Alert cancelled after 8-year-old boy in Gorham Township found safe
It also warned that public expectations that all compatible devices connected to a wireless network should receive alerts may be too high.
The system, which was supposed to be fully operational nationwide under regulator orders by April 6, was put to the test across most of the country last week.
The first test, last Monday in Quebec, didn’t sound at all due to a coding error, which the system operator said was fixed within a couple of hours.
Later that day, some test alerts were heard and felt on mobile devices in Ontario, but many wireless subscribers didn’t receive any signals.
On Wednesday, testing conducted in Atlantic Canada appeared to go as hoped while there was sporadic success across western provinces as well as in Yukon and Northwest Territories.
READ MORE: Cellphones, tablets to sound off across Canada for emergency alert testing
A spokesman for Bell said a “network configuration issue” prevented its customers in Ontario from receiving the test message last Monday. But by Wednesday it had fixed the problem, resulting in positive tests elsewhere in the country, said Marc Choma.
Still, Bell urged subscribers to make sure they had a compatible phone and that their devices were updated with the most recent operating systems.
Rogers said it was also providing its customers with a checklist to make sure their devices are compatible and that they have the necessary software upgrades.
Pelmorex said while expectations for the test results may have been high, those involved in conducting the live tests learned valuable lessons.
“If everyone thought their phone was going to go off, maybe there was an expectation there that wasn’t met,” said Paul Temple, the company’s senior vice president of regulatory and strategic affairs.
“But in terms of the technical aspects (of the tests), I think it was exactly what we needed to do.”
The company, which also owns The Weather Network, said it confirmed all of the alert test messages it distributed were successfully transmitted to wireless, or so-called “last mile” service providers.
READ MORE: Canadians to receive mobile emergency alert test this week: Here’s what to know
The CRTC ordered wireless providers to implement the system to distribute warnings of imminent safety threats, including severe weather, such as tornadoes and floods, as well as terrorist threats and Amber Alerts. There are no opting-out provisions, although wireless subscribers can avoid hearing startling audio messages by turning their devices off or to vibrate.
But some mobile users complained – on social media, and even to the police – that Monday’s Amber Alert messages were an intrusion on their lives.
“First ‘legitimate #AlertReady notification is an Amber Alert for an area 1,000 kilometres away,” Al Payne wrote on Twitter.
WATCH: Starting April 6, most LTE mobile devices in Canada now can receive wireless public alerts in the event of an emergency.
“That probably doesn’t need to be sent to all phones in the province. If the messages aren’t relevant they’ll soon be ignored altogether.”
Police in Kingston, Ont., said they had received several complaints about the alert, and urged mobile users to direct their disapproval elsewhere.
“If you have concerns or complaints, contact your service provider.”
In most provinces and territories, Pelmorex provides a platform that emergency officials use to create alert messages. Pelmorex then delivers the alerts to TV, radio, cable, satellite and wireless providers.
But the company said it had no way of knowing whether the service providers actually distribute the messages, except for what it sees or hears being broadcast.
READ MORE: Mobile emergency alerts launch in Canada on April 6
Everything is automated and is supposed to take just a few seconds once the alert messages are written and delivered. And when working properly, alerts are supposed to be localized, not necessarily province- or territory-wide.
Testing is conducted frequently on internal platforms, but it’s only during the live tests when officials can determine that the system is performing as it should.
The CRTC requires that live-to-public testing be conducted annually, although there’s nothing preventing such tests sooner.
But mobile service providers will need time to gather the information they require to properly make changes before the next set of tests, said Temple.
“There are so many different manufacturers, models within manufacturers, software, upgrades that may or may not have been loaded and user settings,” he said.
“Collectively, the carriers are going to have to sit down and analyze and better understand why one phone might receive (an alert) and one phone might not. At a minimum, we’ve got to give the carriers time to sort through how the various cellphones behaved on the tests that just took place.”
The alert issued Monday by Ontario Provincial Police was later cancelled after the boy missing in the Thunder Bay region was found safe.
The Canadian Press
GORHAM TOWNSHIP, Ont. -- A child who was the subject of an Amber Alert in northern Ontario was found 30 kilometres from where he went missing on Monday as police continued to search for his mother.
Ontario Provincial Police said the eight-year-old boy, first reported missing from Gorham Township at 9 a.m. Monday, was located roughly three hours later at a Tim Hortons in Thunder Bay, Ont.
Sgt. Shelley Garr said the Amber Alert was issued because the child was believed to be in danger at the time. She offered no word on the boy's condition but said he has been taken into protective custody.
Garr said the child went missing in the company of his mother, who police are still trying to locate.
She said it was not known whether the woman is on foot or still driving the vehicle listed in the original alert.
"She's still out there and we're actively looking for her, " Garr said, adding there is no reason to believe the woman poses a risk to the public.
An Amber Alert issued by the Ontario Provincial Police has now been cancelled after the child was found safe.
An Emergency Alert was issued via push notification to mobile phones in both English and French on behalf of the OPP. The alert was issued at around 11:50 a.m. Monday morning and stayed in effect for about an hour.
Remember last week when safety officials promised to "test" the national emergency alert system on every mobile phone in Ontario at the same time?
Most of us were ready for a jarring beep or lengthy vibration at 1:55 p.m. last Monday, just like we were warned to be. And yet, most of us didn't receive anything at all, ever. Not from AlertReady.
It was kind of a let down, to be honest.
Did you get the test emergency text alert in #Ontario? #AlertReady — blogTO (@blogTO) May 7, 2018
In the absence of a test alert on May 7, some Ontarians were left to wonder if the system even worked.
Then they wondered about other things, moved on with their lives, and maybe even forgot about Monday's half-failed alert test altogether.
That changed this morning when, around 11:35 a.m., a chilling "air raid siren" rang out through offices, homes and public spaces all over the province.
So in a meeting and 20 phones go off simultaneously with the new alert system. Scared the hell out of us but got our attention for the #AmberAlert.
But worth noting that only personal phones got the alert. OPS work phones didn't. — Kristin Taylor (@kristinlisa) May 14, 2018
The emergency warning was to notify everyone in Ontario of an Amber Alert for 8-year-old Gabriel McCallum, who was last seen in Gorham Township (near Thunder Bay).
WOW THAT #AMBERALERT. It should NOT make that noise! My involuntary impulse was just to make it stop, so there is no way I read/retained it before closing it. I did take a screencap though in case anyone else also closed it without thinking. pic.twitter.com/1eQ0USao77 — Audra Marie Williams (@audrawilliams) May 14, 2018
It wasn't the type of tone we're used to hearing from our smartphones, especially every phone in the room at once, which made it kind of scary (though I guess that's the point.)
CAN CONFIRM THE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM NOW WORKS ON CELL PHONES *clutches chest* — dai in revolt 🇨🇦🇨🇴 (@daibyday) May 14, 2018
People who were speaking on the phone at the time had their conversations interrupted, briefly, by the alert, while others jumped up and looked around like "WTF?"
They need to change the notification sounds for the #emergencyalert . An amber alert, as important as it is, should not have the same alarm as an incoming nuke. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. — 🌙💖 @ ANIME NORTH (@sailormoron) May 14, 2018
The phrase "Amber Alert" was trending on Twitter locally within minutes as Ontarians expressed shock and, in some cases, frustration.
Onatrio has decided to fold Amber Alerts for the *entire province* into its push notification Emergency Alert system.
I've received two Amber Alerts today for Thunder Bay, which is 15 hours away from Toronto by car.
Congrats, you have trained me to ignore Emergency Alerts. — Molly Sauter (@OddLetters) May 14, 2018
A second alert for the same case come through around noon, this time in French.
Again, people were startled. Did I mention that this alert sounds exactly like the Cold War-Era nuclear missile warnings we've been seeing in movies our entire lives?
I wish this amber alert didn’t make me almost crash more then once as it’s quite loud and scary for your phone to keep going off. I think one amber alert on my phone is just fine. need to fix the system so that it doesn’t keep alerting people excessively — xox.scarlett.love (@xoxscarlettlov1) May 14, 2018
And that it's super loud?
Just got an amber alert at full volume and nearly shit my pants. Unreal! I hate this. I'm all for locating missing children but the air raid siren just made half the office spill their coffee. pic.twitter.com/1x3DY5QjBG — which side are ya on (@hoverbeaver) May 14, 2018
Well, I think it's safe to say that the alert system works, even if some people aren't happy about the way it works.
Ontario police using the new alert ready system every 10 minutes for the same amber alert? I appreciate missing children are an important concern, but overuse of alert ready system will lead to user ignoring disaster scale warnings. #emergencyalert #usesparingly @OntarioPolice — roelvertegaal (@roelvertegaal) May 14, 2018
Police say that anyone who sees Gabriel MCCallum or Lynda McCallum, the person believed to have taken him, should call 9-1-1.
Update: The Amber Alert issued in Thunder Bay, ON was cancelled around 12:45 p.m. Monday. Police say the child has been located.
