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Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse

Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse.

Russia Hits Back After Canada Sets New Magnitsky-Related Sanctions

Moscow has vowed to hit back at Canada after Ottawa announced financial sanctions and other restrictions on 30 Russians in connection with a whistleblowing Russian lawyer whose 2009 death and the crimes he uncovered have been a persistent thorn in the Kremlin’s side.

The Canadian list, released on November 3 by the Foreign Ministry, largely mirrors a similar list compiled by the United States after it passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which punished individuals alleged to be connected to Sergei Magnitsky’s death and a massive tax fraud scheme he helped uncover.

Read more at RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty

Drug firms warn Ottawa against ‘crippling’ price cuts

Canada’s brand-name pharmaceutical companies are pushing back against a plan to overhaul Canada’s drug-pricing regulator, saying they are keen to forge a compromise that would reduce prices, but not to a degree that could be “crippling” for the industry.

The president of Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), which represents more than 45 companies, is planning to warn in a speech on Tuesday that her industry could struggle to invest in high-risk innovation, hire top talent and run local clinical trials if companies are forced to slash their prices too deeply, too quickly.

Read more at The Globe and Mail

In Canada, the concept of ‘tax fairness’ is meaningless: Neil Macdonald

If I had Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s money, I’d buy a first-class ticket to Paris, then find the nearest Porsche dealership, acquire a loaded Carrera, drive straight to that villa in Provence he owns through a shell company, and send a note back to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian public tendering my resignation and wishing everyone the very best in the years to come. Canadians would never hear from me again.

Read more at CBC News

Liberals To Warn About Health Hazards Of Legalized Pot With $36.4M Campaign

OTTAWA — The federal Liberal government on Tuesday rolled out the latest phase of its legalized-pot plans: a five-year, $36.4-million campaign to help teach Canadians — especially the younger ones — about the health and safety risks associated with using marijuana.

The money is coming out of a $526-million envelope for marijuana legalization announced in last week’s fall economic update, Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Toronto MP Bill Blair, the government’s point man on legalizing pot, told a news conference outside the House of Commons.

Read more at Huffington Post

New Jersey becomes latest state to sue Purdue Pharma over OxyContin

New Jersey filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the company that manufactures OxyContin, claiming a “direct link” between the state’s opioid crisis and the firm’s deceptive marketing practices.

State Attorney General Christopher Porrino says the five-count lawsuit against Connecticut-based Purdue Pharma and two of its entities seeks undisclosed monetary damages for fraud and false claims.

Read more at CBC News

Central Texas County sues nation’s biggest drug makers, accuses them of fraud

CENTRAL TEXAS — McLennan County announced Tuesday it had filed a lawsuit against two dozen of the country’s largest opioid manufacturers and distributors, including Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson.

In the federal complaint obtained by Channel 6, McLennan County Commissioners allege the opioid industry used a marketing scheme to deceive doctors and used front groups to promote opioids as a means of treating chronic pain, while downplaying the risks.

Read more at 13 News Now

Kolga: Canada has passed the Sergei Magnitsky law against human rights abusers. Now let’s use it

In late October, Parliament passed an innovative and historic piece of human rights legislation known as “The Sergei Magnitsky Law.” Once implemented, it will allow the government to place targeted sanctions against global human rights abusers, by freezing their Canadian assets and banning their entry into this country.

Vladimir Putin’s regime has predictably expressed its disproportionate outrage, which should not discourage the prime minister or his government from fully implementing the sanctions that this law enables. The legislation only targets individuals who engage and profit from the abuse of human rights. Those who observe and respect them have no reason to fear Canada’s Magnitsky Law.

Read more at The Ottawa Citizen

‘Tax me if you can’ is not a national prosperity strategy

There have been many column inches dedicated to the current proposals for the federal tax code pertaining to small businesses. The governing Liberals have expended vast political capital in the name of fairness for the “middle class.” Doctors, lawyers, farmers, technology entrepreneurs, chambers of commerce and the opposition Conservatives have pushed back, essentially alleging that the government is engaging in demagoguery.

Read more at CBC News

Federal government quietly compensates daughter of brainwashing experiments victim

Alison Steel was only 4½ years old when her mother’s life changed forever.

In 1957, Jean Steel was admitted to Montreal’s Allan Memorial Institute. The once happy and energetic 33-year-old was diagnosed with manic depression and delusional thinking.

In the months that followed, Steel became the victim of CIA-funded brainwashing experiments conducted by Dr. Ewen Cameron. She was kept in a chemically induced sleep for weeks and subjected to rounds of electroshocks, experimental drugs and tape-recorded messages played non-stop.

Read more at CBC News

Big Pharma Execs bribed doctors to prescribe more opioids amid national crisis, Feds say

The CEO of drug giant Insys Therapeutics bribed doctors to prescribe more opioids to patients who didn’t even need them, according to federal authorities who arrested the executive after a raid on Thursday—a major offensive in the battle against America’s opioid epidemic.

John Kapoor, the billionaire founder and CEO, led “a nationwide conspiracy to profit by using bribes and fraud to cause the illegal distribution of a fentanyl spray intended for cancer patients experiencing breakthrough pain,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Read more at Newsweek