Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
This is depressing news.
Taking antidepressant medication increases the risk of death by 33 percent, according to a new study published Thursday.
Researchers at McMaster University in Canada found that the meds can prevent major organs from functioning properly by blocking the absorption of serotonin – a vital chemical that is used by the heart, kidneys, lungs and liver from the body’s bloodstream.
Read more at New York Post
The number of Canadians hospitalized because of opioid poisoning is growing dramatically, according to new numbers published by the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
But even with new data, tracking the breadth of the crisis in Canada continues to run up against problems.
Between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017, an average of 16 Canadians were hospitalized each day because of opioids, a jump from an average of 13 people every day two years ago.
And more than half of all cases were considered accidental, says CIHI.
Read more at CBC News
Much has been written regarding the proposals released by the Department of Finance on July 18, 2017 to limit income splitting and holding passive investments inside a private corporation.[1] A third measure, namely, placing limits on the conversion of income to capital gains is aimed at preventing an individual selling shares of a corporation to a non-arm’s length person followed by a sale by the non-arm’s length person to a connected corporation. The foregoing transaction would result in the individual realizing a capital gain based on the fair market value of the transferred share followed by the tax-free extraction of corporate surplus of the transferred corporation. This is considered an inappropriate conversion of what would otherwise be a payment of dividend income into a capital gain. The difference in tax rates is about 14%.
Read more at Taxed International
Some cancer doctors use Twitter to promote drugs manufactured by companies that pay them, but they almost never disclose their conflicts of interest on the social media platform, a new study shows.
“This is a big problem,” said senior author Dr. Vinay Prasad, a professor at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. “Doctors are directly telling patients about their views on drugs, and financial conflict plays a role. But they’re not telling patients they have a conflict.”
Prasad and his colleagues analyzed the tweets and income of blood cancer specialists who posted regularly on Twitter and received at least $1,000 US from drug manufacturers in 2014.
Read more at CBC News
He dressed like a lawyer, talked like a lawyer and worked as a lawyer, but in reality, 34-year-old Inayat Kassam was a smooth-talking fraudster with a law degree that wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on.
The Aurora, Ont., man purchased his phoney law degree online five years ago from the University of Renfrew. The school has no officially recognized accreditation and its website features a fake address in Tampa, Fla., and stock images of supposed faculty members.
He previously purchased a bachelor of arts from Ashwood University, another fake school that claims to be based in Florida.
Read more at CBC News
A Marketplace investigation of the world’s largest diploma mill has discovered many Canadians could be putting their health and well-being in the hands of nurses, engineers, counsellors and other professionals with phoney credentials.
Fake diplomas are a billion-dollar industry, according to experts, and Marketplace obtained business records of its biggest player, a Pakistan-based IT firm called Axact. The team spent months combing through thousands of degree transactions, cross referencing personal information with customers’ social media profiles.
The investigation revealed more than 800 Canadians could have purchased a fake degree.
Read more at CBC News
Credit monitoring company Equifax says it was hit between mid-May and July by a high-tech heist of sensitive personal information from about 143 million Americans, including an unspecified number of Canadians.
Here are five things you need to know:
1) What is Equifax: The Atlanta-based company is one of three major U.S. credit bureaus that collects personal information such as social insurance numbers that are used by lenders to decide whether to approve financing for homes, cars and credit cards.
Read more at CBC News
A London woman has been charged with defrauding Veterans Affairs Canada of more than $26,000 following an eight month investigation by the RCMP.
Terrill Anne Brooke, 61, is charged with fraud over $5,000 after allegedly accepting veteran survivor benefits after the recipient had died, according to a release Thursday from the RCMP.
Read more at CBC News
Washington (CNN)When Insys Therapeutics got approval to sell an ultra-powerful opioid for cancer patients with acute pain in 2012, it soon discovered a problem: finding enough cancer patients to use the drug.
To boost sales, the company allegedly took patients who didn’t have cancer and made it look like they did.
The drug maker used a combination of tactics, such as falsifying medical records, misleading insurance companies and providing kickbacks to doctors in league with the company, according to a federal indictment and ongoing congressional investigation by Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri.
Read more at CNN Politics
A set of proposed tax code changes in Canada could potentially have a negative impact on small businesses north of the border. And even though U.S. businesses might not see any immediate impact due to these changes, the impact on partners, clients and others in Canada could eventually make a difference to U.S. businesses as well.
The legislation, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is meant to help the middle class and inject more fairness into the country’s tax structure by closing loopholes used by wealthy business owners. But a growing number of small business owners, even those who could be considered middle class, are voicing their disapproval of the changes.
Read more at Small Business Trends