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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.

Global travel, sky-high dining and office massages: Your tax dollars at work

Metro Vancouver is defending controversial expenses on staff massages, a new high-rise cafeteria with mountain and ocean views, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on global travel for politicians.

The new expenses come as Metro Vancouver reels from an angry public backlash to a 15-per-cent pay raise and retroactive severance package that Metro politicians voted for themselves last month. That decision is now under review.

Now comes word Metro Vancouver has spent $1.5 million on a 29th-floor cafeteria with stunning skyline views and opened a staff massage clinic on the same floor.

Read more at Vancouver Sun

Canada spending twice as much on wining and dining in the U.S. under Trudeau: documents

OTTAWA — As worries about the Trump administration loom over the Canada-United States relationship, the Trudeau government is spending more than double what the Harper government was on wining and dining south of the border.

An analysis of information obtained with access-to-information requests, supplemented with data provided by Global Affairs Canada officials, shows the Liberal government has substantially shifted its diplomatic focus to the U.S. It also shows an increase in spending at Canadian missions to multilateral institutions such as the United Nations.

Read more at National Post

Ottawa’s secret report on money-laundering points finger at Canada’s banks

An internal report by Ottawa’s money-laundering watchdog paints a picture of Canada’s banks that’s far less flattering than the one presented in a sanitized report it issued for Parliament and the public.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, known as Fintrac, released its 2016-2017 annual report through Parliament last November. In it, the organization praises the banking sector for fighting human trafficking in the sex trade.

Read more at CBC News

Trudeau government’s Davos trip cost taxpayers nearly $700,000: documents

The Trudeau government’s trip to this year’s exclusive gathering of global elites in Davos cost taxpayers almost $700,000, with tens of thousands of dollars for pricey accommodations in the swanky Swiss resort, newly released documents show.

The total cost of the three-day trip in January to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland was $678,000, most of that for hotels, office and room rentals and transportation, according to figures recently tabled in Parliament.

Read more at The Globe and Mail

Ex-Mississauga MP charged by RCMP in $1.1M international investment fraud

Former Mississauga-Streetsville MP Wajid Ali Khan has been charged by the RCMP in a $1.1 million international investment fraud.

Khan, 71, was charged along with Nadeem Imtiaz Ahmed, 48, both of Mississauga, and both accused of borrowing more than $1.1 million from “personal contacts” in Canada, according to an RCMP news release announcing the charges. The lenders were told the money would be used to buy investment properties for them in Pakistan.

Read more at Toronto Star

Carson found guilty of influence peddling

OTTAWA — Canada’s highest court has upheld an influence peddling conviction against a one-time senior aide to former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Bruce Carson’s case will now be sent back to the trial judge for sentencing after an 8-1 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that rejects his interpretation of the influence-peddling law.

He could face up to five years in prison.

Read more at Orangeville.com

Trudeau Liberals used government funds to pay $100,000 to Facebook data whistleblower Christopher Wylie

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals used government funds to pay $100,000 to the firm of Facebook data whistleblower Christopher Wylie, a party official said on Wednesday.

“In early 2016, Mr. Wylie’s company Eunoia Technologies ran a pilot project for the Liberal Caucus Research Bureau,” said Melissa Cotton, director of the party’s research bureau in a statement sent to media outlets. “The total fees for services was $100,000 and was done in accordance with the House of Commons procurement rules.”

Read more at National Observer

Former top Canadian security officials warn Ottawa to sever links with China’s Huawei

Three former directors of Canada’s key national security agencies are urging the federal government to heed the warnings of U.S. intelligence services and cut Canadian ties with Huawei, the giant Chinese smartphone and telecom equipment maker.

Ward Elcock, John Adams and Richard Fadden are weighing in on the matter after the heads of the CIA, FBI, National Security Agency and the Defence Intelligence Agency recently told the U.S. Senate intelligence committee that Huawei poses a cybersecurity threat to American customers. U.S. spymasters say Huawei’s smartphones and networking equipment could be used to conduct undetected espionage, especially the next, advanced generation of 5G technology.

Read more at The Globe and Mail

Embedding Canadian values in cybersecurity policy

It feels like not a week goes by without a news report about a major corporation being hacked. Target, JP Morgan, Home Depot, Sony, Hilton Hotels, Equifax and Uber are some of the most well-known companies that have made headlines for having their critical systems penetrated, allowing valuable customer data to end up in the hands of criminals. The magnitude of the threat and the scale of the potential damage in this field are rarely overstated.

Read more at Policy Options

Ottawa to pursue settlements with residential school survivors that suffered student-on-student abuse

OTTAWA— The federal government will offer new payouts to about 240 residential school survivors who were unfairly compensated for alleged student-on-student abuse, the Star has learned.

Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett was set to announce the move Tuesday, which will see the government pursue negotiated settlements with former students who “may not have received fair compensation” for abuse perpetrated by other students at the notorious church-run schools for Indigenous children.

Read more at Toronto Star