editor, Author at Monitor Telegram

Trump ends ‘Dreamers’ program, leaving fate of 800,000 uncertain

September 5, 2017

Donald Trump thrust the fate of nearly 800,000 young, undocumented migrants into uncertainty on Tuesday by terminating the Obama-era program that protects the so-called Dreamers from deportation.

In response, Barack Obama said the decision was “self-defeating” and contrary to “basic decency”.

A “shadow has been cast over some of our best and brightest young people once again”, the former president said.

The 2012 policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) will be phased out by 5 March 2018, leaving Congress with six months to enact new protections for Dreamers through legislation. On Tuesday night, Trump suggested that if Congress failed to “legalize Daca” he would “revisit” the program.

Canadian schools stock up on naloxone kits in wake of growing opioid crisis

September 5, 2017

As students across Canada head back to school, universities are stocking up on naloxone kits in the wake of the opioid crisis.

Opioid-related deaths claimed the lives of nearly 2,500 people in Canada in 2016, and hundreds more this year. The crisis is growing so rapidly that Health Canada recently put out a warning about the drug for students during orientation week.

Government added privacy protections to MyDemocracy.ca contract only after privacy commissioner began investigation: documents

September 5, 2017

When the Liberal government launched its MyDemocracy.ca website last December, the online survey — part of an ultimately fruitless public consultation process on electoral reform — was ridiculed. It also raised concerns about privacy.

Why, observers wondered, did a survey asking people’s opinion about our “democratic values” — though not which voting system we should have — need to know a respondent’s postal code? Their occupation? Their household income?

Calgary con artist facing nearly 400 new fraud charges may have bail revoked

September 5, 2017

The Alberta Crown wants bail revoked for a scam artist with a long record of convictions who now faces a staggering 399 new fraud-related charges involving five people in the Strathmore area, east of Calgary.

Jane Elizabeth Moore appeared in court in Strathmore via closed-circuit television on Tuesday morning. She made no other comments other than to acknowledge to the court that she was Jane Elizabeth Moore.

Grits gave $4.9M to OxyContin maker

September 2, 2017

Faced today with the staggering impact of the opioid addictions crisis, Ontario’s Liberal government is urging the federal government to take legal action against a company that allegedly played a role in triggering the epidemic.

But a decade ago, knowledge of lawsuits, criminal charges against executives and the increasing abuse of OxyContin wasn’t enough to dissuade the province from awarding that same company a $4.9-million taxpayer-funded grant.

According to documents obtained by the Toronto Sun in a lengthy battle at Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commission, the Liberal government doled out the money in 2007 to the manufacturer of OxyContin — Purdue Pharma. The documents reveal it did so even though it was well aware of legal issues piling up against the company because of the addictive pills which some experts say are at the root of the country’s wave of opioid addiction.

Convicted of being subject to approximate $2.9 million in false tax claims

September 1, 2017

Chander Mohan Sharma has been found guilty of one count of defrauding the Canada Revenue Agency for an amount of more than $5000.

According to the “Toronto Sun”, this is for approximately $ 2.9 million in false claims that the individual has been found liable.

During the trial of Sharma, it has been said that the irregularities were as a result of depriving the government of Canada of approximately $600,000.

MacEwan University defrauded of $11.8M in online phishing scam

August 31, 2017

An Edmonton university says it was the victim of an email “phishing attack” that resulted in the transfer of $11.8 million to a bank account staff believed belonged to a vendor.

MacEwan University said “inadequate” controls on banking information played a role in the fraud, which was discovered Aug. 23.

The fraud involved three transactions of varying amounts, the university said. Several opportunities to identify the fraud were missed.

Most of the money — more than $11.4 million — has been traced to accounts in Canada and Hong Kong, the university said in a news release Thursday.

‘Remember, we only shoot Black people,’ Georgia cop says — on video — during traffic stop

August 31, 2017

ATLANTA—A white Cobb County police lieutenant has been moved to administrative duty for telling a white woman during a traffic stop, “Remember, we only shoot Black people.”

The Cobb branch of the NAACP said Thursday the officer’s statements, captured on police video footage, were disturbing, but the branch president said she wanted to know more about the incident.

Channel 2 Action News reported that its request for body camera footage of the traffic stop prompted an internal investigation of Lt. Greg Abbott, who has been on the Cobb force for 28 years.

Canadian Tax Man Bites Shark

August 31, 2017

Pretty close to the truth.

The Fraser Institute, that conservative think tank in BC, has come out with another horrific report about Canadian tax levels. They estimate that an average family with $83,000 in income last year paid around $35,000 in overall taxes while only paying $31,000 for housing, food and clothing. Yikes!

Worse, taxes have grown more rapidly than any other single expenditure, some 2006% since 1961.

Saving graces

The only saving graces for Canadians is that their income has risen more over that same period of time and that the cost of healthcare is included in that total.

Here is a chart from the Frasier Institute report that shows the breakdown of the various taxes a Canadian family of four would pay. Healthcare is a minor part yet it is the major expenditure for most provincial governments.

Americans paying through the nose for healthcare

The poor Americans have it bad on healthcare. Forbes Magazine reports that for a family of four in the United States the cost of healthcare alone was a whopping $25,826 in 2016. And that is in real dollars.

Let us know your stories

Our vocal concern relating to unreported fraud and abuses within the Canadian social and healthcare systems is bearing some fruit. Individuals within and without the system are coming forward to tell us stories which are curling our hair. We will be reporting these down the line.

I want to encourage people who have stories and details of abuses to contact us with them. Anonymity guaranteed if desired.

Email me at bob@monitortelegram.com.

Small business owners angry about proposed Liberal tax changes

August 30, 2017

OTTAWA – Liberal backbenchers have been getting an earful this summer from small business owners outraged by the Trudeau government’s proposals to end what it calls “unfair tax advantages.”

And now they’re preparing to unleash the concerns of their constituents – and pressure Finance Minister Bill Morneau to adjust his plans accordingly – during the government’s summer caucus retreat next week in Kelowna, B.C.