Nutty Stuff Archives - Page 6 of 8

OPINION | Canadians need to grow a consumer backbone: Neil Macdonald

May 3, 2017

So, United Airlines, after three weeks of groveling and apologizing for that terrifying police-state video on one of its flights a few weeks ago, is doing the sensible thing.

Instead of calling in police goons to brutalize seated passengers and drag them off overbooked flights, United will from now on offer up to $10,000 US to passengers who volunteer to take a later flight. A United spokeswoman quickly returned my call to confirm that.

But then, that’s the way the American market works.

Any U.S. company facing a blast-wave of consumer anger, and, in United’s case, watching its stock price wither, does what it has to do, knowing that customers can easily choose the competition.

Flight crews in the United States acknowledge that a thousand times a day upon landing: “Thanks for choosing us, we know you have a choice, and we appreciate your business,” or something to that effect.

Ever hear that on Air Canada? I haven’t.

Taking a stand for patients rights’ and health-care choice

April 30, 2017

“The most advanced justice system in the world is a failure if it does not provide accessible justice to the people it is meant to serve.”

That was Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin speaking last year. Now, a landmark Charter health-care case in British Columbia is showing just how empty the promise of access to justice can be if the government is determined to block it.

The plaintiffs’ case is straightforward: if the government fails to provide patients with timely medical treatment, then it cannot stop them from taking control of their own health and arranging for private treatment to alleviate their suffering.

The Supreme Court of Canada held that such restrictions violated the patients’ rights more than a decade ago. Since then, provinces have continued to unconstitutionally restrict patient choice even as the problem of wait lists has worsened.

The many obstacles to health-care improvements: Opinion

April 26, 2017

A series of daunting factors have led to the public’s passive acceptance of paying high costs for a narrow range of services of mediocre quality.

The need for change in health care has been obvious for years. Many studies have been conducted and recommendations made on what’s needed to meet optimally the needs of the population in the current and coming decades. But change itself has been very scarce.

One reason is that none of our 14 provincial/territorial/federal health care delivery “systems’ has a single governance; the place where the “buck stops” with respect to what each does and does not accomplish and how well or poorly. It is only by default that Canadians hold their governments accountable for how well their hospitals, physicians, pharmacists, and other providers meet their changing needs for health care services. On the other hand that there are 14 “systems” could be an advantage as it was when Saskatchewan’s pioneering introduction of Medicare was copied by other jurisdictions.

A Canadian lost in the wilderness of American health care

April 18, 2017

When I moved from Toronto to Los Angeles in my 40s, health-care coverage was not a huge concern. I arrived in the summer of 2001, after giving up a law partnership in a big Canadian firm to study screenwriting (please, stop laughing).

I was in the United States on a student visa and I figured I could always head back up north if anything really bad happened, health-wise. But being a die-hard Canuck, I was still anxious. What if I had an emergency of such catastrophic nature that there wouldn’t be time to airlift me home to Toronto?

I signed up for what’s known as “Hit by a Bus” emergency coverage from Blue Cross, for $450 (U.S.) a month. And got on with my screenwriting program.

Six months later, I awoke with abdominal pains so intense I could barely stand, let alone arrange an airlift home. I had a friend rush me to the nearest hospital – Cedars Sinai in Beverly Hills, where all the movie stars go to have their babies. I was not concerned that the place looked more like a four-star hotel than a hospital.

Patients resort to paying consultants to help navigate Canada’s Byzantine health-care system

April 17, 2017

Andrée Colella had been in and out of hospital for months with bladder and bone infections when her husband, Tom, broke down and asked for help from an unconventional source: a private health-care advocate.

For $90 an hour, Jana Bartley, a former obstetrics nurse and legal nurse consultant, took charge of the family’s case.

You can’t pay taxes with gift cards, warn fraud investigators

March 22, 2017

Fraud investigators are warning the public about scammers who pose as government officials and ask for tax payments with retail gift cards.

It starts with a telephone call, text, email or letter from someone claiming to be from the RCMP or Canada Revenue Agency. They may ask for personal information or demand that back taxes be paid with gift cards or prepaid credit cards, police said.

“These calls can be confusing and overwhelming, so fraudsters tend to succeed with those who aren’t thinking clearly, don’t understand the tax process, or are the most vulnerable,” Edmonton police Det. Linda Herczeg said in a news release Wednesday.

Phone numbers or email addresses may look legitimate, but the contact information ends up redirecting people back to the scammers, police noted.

Website falsely promises: ‘Get your passport online fast and easy within 30 seconds’

February 22, 2017

Eric Glavin paid nearly $200 for an online passport service he said misrepresents what it can do and was of no value. (Stephanie Matteis)

Central Ontario’s Better Business Bureau has received 21 complaints about the company, which is not accredited by the bureau.

The complaints and reviews are similar to Glavin’s: people found the service, thinking they were paying for passport applications or renewals, but did not receive the service they believed they purchased.

Glavin said he received a package of forms to fill out from PassportOnline.ca. (Stephanie Matteis)

Mislabelled products, hidden ingredients: Food fraud not a ‘victimless crime,’ experts says

February 9, 2017

After international scandals involving horse meat and mislabelled fish, there’s a push in Canada and around the world to combat food fraud.

Today, technology is being developed to try to help consumers detect the truth about what they’re really eating.

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution at Dalhousie University, says complaints about food fraud are spiking in Canada, with more incidences of “whistleblowers” reporting mislabelled products and other food-related deception to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Source: Mislabelled products, hidden ingredients: Food fraud not a ‘victimless crime,’ experts says | CTV News

CRA Scam Bilks Canadians Of $6.2Million

January 25, 2017

(MILTON, ON) – In October, 2016, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced a significant decrease in the amount of losses attributed to the CRA Scam, following a large number of arrests conducted by Indian Authorities at a number of call centres in India.

In the months following those arrests, the RCMP has continued to see that the number of reports related to the CRA scam remain at a fraction of what was reported prior to these arrests. Though the reports have diminished, it is clear that this scam has not ended.

Source: CRA Scam Bilks Canadians Of $6.2Million – The Square

Canada Revenue Agency monitoring Facebook, Twitter posts of some Canadians

January 20, 2017

The Canada Revenue Agency is scrutinizing the Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and other social media posts of Canadians it suspects could be cheating on their taxes.That’s just one example of the agency’s increasing focus on what it can learn by collecting and analyzing many kinds of data — both its own internally generated information and what it calls “publicly available information.”

“The CRA does practice risk-based compliance, so for taxpayers identified as high risk, any relevant, publicly available information relating to the specific risk-based factors for the taxpayer may be consulted as part of our fact-gathering processes,” said spokesperson David Walters.

Source: Canada Revenue Agency monitoring Facebook, Twitter posts of some Canadians – Politics – CBC News