Bringing about a higher level of transparency and accountability in provincial and federal governments to help protect taxpayers from abuse
Ten current or former TTC employees are facing criminal charges in connection with what’s being called a multi-million dollar insurance scheme.
The charges were annonced Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation by Toronto police and the TTC that started back in 2014.
The transit agency says 150 employees have either been fired, retired or resigned in order to avoid being dismissed since the investigation began.
Read more at citynews.ca
Scientists in the United Kingdom are preparing to conduct the world’s first clinical trial looking into the potential therapeutic effects that MDMA, the active ingredient in Ecstasy, could have on people grappling with alcohol addiction.
Researchers at Imperial College London have announced that they were granted ethical approval to conduct a small MDMA trial on people with alcohol addiction in the city of Bristol, The Guardian reported last week. For the trial, 20 patients — all of whom are heavy drinkers whose previous treatments for alcoholism have failed — will undergo psychotherapy sessions while under the influence of 99.99 percent pure MDMA.
Read more at huffingtonpost.ca
Police say a Toronto doctor has been charged after an alleged sexual assault on a patient.
They say the complainant alleges she was sexually assaulted by the doctor during treatment.
Investigators say Dr. Stephen Strigler, 57, was arrested on Monday and charged with sexual assault.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact investigators.
Strigler is scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 4.
read more at thestar.com
An Ontario court has ruled that a provincial mental health facility ran therapeutic programs for years that amounted to torture for the patients involved.
Justice Paul Perell’s ruling came in the midst of a lengthy lawsuit filed by past and present residents of the Oak Ridge division of the Penetang Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont., that alleges patients were gravely mistreated.
Perell says three programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.
(original article appeared 8 June 2017)
Read more at huffingtonpost.com
Two groups of doctors and the Ontario Medical Association are headed to court Monday to argue that OHIP payments to top-billing physicians are “personal information” and should not be public.
The information and privacy commissioner last year ordered the public disclosure of the top billers’ identities, along with amounts each receives in payments from the taxpayer-funded insurance plan. The information is business-related, not personal, and should be public because of the importance of transparency of government expenditures, the ruling said.
read more at thestar.com
Jeremy (Jay) Peers has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to fraud, misrepresentations, and dealing and advising in securities without registration under the Alberta Securities Act.
Alberta provincial court Judge Fred Day called Peers “a con man,” as he delivered his sentence in an Alberta courtroom.
Peers, the grandson of early Edmonton mayor and coal baron Harry Marshall Erskine Evans, was the key player behind one of the biggest, most complex securities frauds in recent Alberta history.
read more at canadianfraudnews.com
TORONTO — Ontario is on the hook for more than $100 million and counting to compensate teachers and education workers for violating their rights.
Deals have so far been struck to pay the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
A judge ruled last year that the government “substantially interfered with meaningful collective bargaining” in 2012 legislation that imposed contracts on teachers and education workers.
read more at metronews.ca
There’s one big “root cause” of terrorism that doesn’t get as much attention as it should in Canada. That’s money.
As we embark on another round of conversations about tackling extremism and terrorism in the West – tragically spurred by a series of attacks on the occasion of Ramadan – we have to look at all the options on the table.
Some cynics and liberal naysayers will tell you there’s nothing much that can be done. We just have to learn to live with the occasional terror attack as the new normal. That’s nonsense.
read more at torontosun.com
An Ontario court has ruled that a provincial mental health facility ran therapeutic programs for years that amounted to torture for the patients involved.
Justice Paul Perell’s ruling came in the midst of a lengthy lawsuit filed by past and present residents of the Oak Ridge division of the Penetang Psychiatric Hospital in Penetanguishene, Ont., that alleges patients were gravely mistreated.
Perell says three programs at the hospital that involved the forced administration of drugs, physical restraint and sleep deprivation, amounted to both physical and mental torture.
Read more at 680news.com
One of the leading experts on whistleblower protection law in the United States says that Canada’s “backwards” regulations may be allowing “corruption to flourish” and is causing the government to miss out on “billions of dollars in compensation.”
Stephen Kohn is a Washington, D.C.-based attorney and author of nearly a dozen books on whistle-blowing, including the upcoming “The New Whistleblower’s Handbook.”
Kohn says there is a dearth of protections for workers who put their jobs and reputations on the line to reveal misconduct.
As it stands, Ontario is the only province with a paid whistleblower program. In successful cases, it offers individuals between five and 15 per cent of sanctions, or up to $5 million, for information that led to a prosecution.
Read more at finance.yahoo.com