Archive for Canada
Business Bureaus top 10 Complaints 2009
Posted by: | CommentsThe Better Business Bureau has released a list of the top ten scams to be aware of. This year, the list focuses in on dubious practices of online commerce, such as asking consumers to read the fine print before you click “yes.” Complaints in 2009 run the gamut from teeth whiteners to premium text messages to government grants, but all tie back to consumers unwittingly consenting to sign up for the service or product.
1. Health Claim Scams
Bogus products that make “breakthrough” health claims on the Internet or promise cures for illnesses, such as cancer, target the most vulnerable consumers. Be wary of on-line swine flu remedies not authorized by Health Canada that are making unsubstantiated health claims that they kill or ward off the virus. Consult your health care practitioner before trying any new treatment. Don’t be influenced by “miraculous” testimonials discussed on websites and blogs. Think twice before buying a product that claims it can “do it all.”
QUICK TIP: If you have questions or complaints about counterfeit drugs and/or drugs purchased over the Internet, please call Health Canada’s toll-free line at 1 800 267 9675. If you suspect that a website is promoting a treatment or cure that is too good to be true.
2. Not So “Free” Trials
You may want to try out a new diet product, an acne cream or teeth whitener, but be careful about signing up for ‘free’ trial offers. Many websites offering a free trial for products do not disclose the billing terms and conditions or do not have such details prominently displayed on their website. Before providing any credit or debit card information, review the website fully to avoid in repeated billing. Remember that money transfers and direct debit are two of the main methods by which scam artists seek to obtain your money.
QUICK TIP: When considering trial offers, be sure to first determine whether you are enrolling in a membership, subscription or service contract that allows the company.
3. ID Theft
Often people find out that they are victims of identity theft after they are contacted by a collections’ agency for an account they never set up or because their credit has taken a hit. ID theft is when someone uses your information to obtain loans, goods, or services and does not pay the bills. Increasingly, people are being lured online into revealing personal information.
QUICK TIP: Do not fall for requests for information, or other scare tactics. Online scammers send emails that look legitimate, requesting that your “account information needs to be updated.” Another new tactic called “scareware” has a pop-up message showing that your computer is infected with a virus and that you need to visit a website to purchase and download anti-virus software that would fix the problem. These are all phishing tactics, ways to get you to reveal personal or financial information. If you receive these messages just delete them and do not click on any links. Doing so may compromise your computer’s security. If you are a victim of ID Theft call your financial institutions to request that your current cards be cancelled and that new cards be issued. You should also contact your local police and Canada’s main credit reporting agencies: TransUnion Canada at tuc.ca (1 866 525 0262) and Equifax Canada at equifax.ca (1 866 779 6440).
4. Home Repair Rip-Offs
Imagine hearing that your furnace is leaking dangerous carbon monoxide into your home. Many times homeowners are told that they need to do an immediate replacement due to a crack in their heat exchanger or because the contractor has a gas-sniffer device which shows high carbon monoxide levels. This high pressure safety situation often ends up in unnecessary and costly repairs.
QUICK TIP: Do not make a decision to repair right away. Start with the Better Business Bureau and search for a company reliability report at bbb.org. Ask the person to provide a gas permit and a license with the BC Safety Authority and call to verify it at: 1 866 566 7233.
6. Free Government Money Schemes
Do you think you are entitled to free money from the Canadian government? Be suspicious of companies offering “free” advice on obtaining government grants. Often social networking sites and online ads will point to blogs that appear to be written by everyday people who are sharing the secret of how they received thousands of dollars in grants from the government to pay off their debt. In reality, this is a mass marketing scheme that does not provide an easy way for you to get a government grant. Rather, it costs you money to participate.
7. Business Opportunities
Your friend or a family member may have invited you to attend a presentation involving an investment opportunity. You don’t know anything about the company, and are desperate to hear that it is legit. These investments appear lucrative, but often involve more hype than substance. The promoter convinces investors that they can be part owners of an exciting investment portfolio, provided that they enlist new recruits. The promoter may even offer promising commissions in cash and bullion.
QUICK TIP: In reality, this could be an illegal pyramid scheme. The new capital brought on by new investors is keeping this imaginary investment afloat. Get the facts. If you attend an information session, be sure to collect business cards and promotional materials
8. Cashback Fraud
Cashback fraud usually begins when you advertise something for sale, such as a car. A buyer agrees to pay your asking price, but sends you a cheque or banker’s draft for a larger sum. The person asks you to bank his cheque and send him a money transfer for the difference. Sure enough, his or her cheque bounces a few days after your money transfer has left your account. You’re now out of pocket and looking for a bogus buyer who’s out-of-reach.
QUICK TIP: Criminal cashback works because cheques take longer to clear than electronic bank transfers. Do not ever wire money to a stranger. Do not allow greed to be your guide – be careful of offers higher than the asking price.
9. Hidden Cell Phone Charges
If you own a cell phone and see new and unexplained charges on your bill each month, it may be due to premium text message services. People complain that they did not realize they were signing up for this service when they agreed to play an online game or to take an IQ test. In the end they receive monthly billings which do not come from their cell phone service providers, but through other third-party companies.
10. Mystery Jobs Scams
The scenario sounds too good to be true, and it is. You have been led to believe that you will be paid to mystery shop via a wire-transfer service. You receive a cheque, which you are told to deposit, keeping a small percentage of the money as your wage. You are then asked to send the back difference via a wire transfer and to complete a survey on the service you encounter. In the end, the cheque bounces and you lose all your money.
QUICK TIP: Be skeptical of mystery shopper ads in newspapers or online. In most cases these are bogus services requiring you to pay money upfront. Avoid companies that promise guaranteed jobs, and that sell directories of companies that provide mystery shoppers
Study: Toyota receives most complaints about sudden acceleration, followed by Ford
Posted by: | CommentsToyota was the target of 41% of all consumer complaints about the problem in 2008 cars, according to a Consumer Reports analysis. Ford received 28% of complaints.
Toyota registered far more complaints about sudden acceleration in its 2008 model-year vehicles than any other automaker, a new study has found.
Toyota and Lexus vehicles received 41% of all consumer complaints to a federal database about runaway acceleration, more than Chrysler, General Motors, Honda and Nissan combined, analysis by Consumer Reports found. Other than Toyota, the only automaker with double-digit rates of complaints was Ford, which was the subject of 28% of complaints.
Chrysler’s 2008 model-year vehicles received 9% of complaints and GM’s 5%; Honda had 4% of complaints and Nissan 2%, the study showed.
Toyota’s share of the U.S. market in 2007 and 2008, when 2008 model-year cars were sold, was roughly 16%.
Toyota could not immediately be reached for comment.
Toyota has been the subject of increasing scrutiny over sudden acceleration in the wake of an August accident in an an out-of-control Lexus ES outside of San Diego that took four lives, including that of an off-duty California Highway Patrolman.
That prompted Toyota to announce its largest-ever recall, of 4.26 million vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. Starting in January, the automaker will modify or replace accelerator pedals in seven Toyota and Lexus models, alter carpeting in some models and install new safety software. The recall includes vehicles from the 2005 through 2010 model years.
Toyota has repeatedly blamed interaction between the gas pedal and floor mats that could cause the pedal to become entrapped in a full-throttle position. But investigations into a number of accidents, including the San Diego county crash, have not conclusively found that the floor mat was responsible.
A Times review found that 19 people had died in sudden-acceleration accidents involving Toyota vehicles since the 2002 model year, more than all other automakers combined. In addition, The Times found that complaints of sudden acceleration increased dramatically after the automaker began replacing mechanical throttles with electronic throttle systems in the 2002 model year.
On Friday, the San Diego sheriff released a report on its three-month investigation into the Aug. 28 wreck, finding that “additional factors causing a sudden acceleration event (re: electrical, mechanical or computer generated) should not be ruled out.”
Consumer Reports limited its research to acceleration incidents that “could be a real dangerous safety issue,” excluding low-speed events or ones where the vehicle movement was arrested before the problem became more serious, according to Bartlett.
In addition, Consumer Reports excluded incidents that were reported after the San Diego crash to eliminate any spikes in complaints that could have been caused by publicity.
The remaining data, Bartlett said, indicated that Toyota was not the only automaker to receive unintended-acceleration complaints, since Ford also registered a higher number. The Ford complaints, however, were mostly limited to one model, the F-150 pickup, while Toyota complaints fell across a wide spectrum of vehicles, including ones not in the current recall.
Strict visa rulings called unfair
Posted by: | CommentsAre visitors from developing countries being denied entry into Canada due to old rules?
Guillermo Duarte had a lot to prove just to take a two-week vacation to visit his brother in Canada.
The engineer, 36, had to convince Canadian visa officers that he, his engineer wife, Luz, and their younger children Fernando, 10, and Faviola, 8, had strong enough ties to Guatemala to ensure they would leave Canada after a visit to his brother, Mauricio, in Toronto.
But after paying a non-refundable fee of $300, they were denied visitor’s visas. (Even leaving two teens at home didn’t convince the officer they wouldn’t stay in Canada.)
While the denial cost the Duartes a ruined vacation, for other prospective visitors it might mean not being able to bid farewell to a dying relative, attend a loved one’s wedding, or see a newborn grandchild
“It’s a very big problem for our community,” says Gurmeet Singh of Brampton’s Nanaksar Satsang Sabha Sikh temple. “And it’s going to get worse … if our visa officials don’t change their attitude and show some compassion.”
Visas are imposed to help “facilitate the entry of bonafide visitors to Canada for such purposes as trade, commerce, tourism, international understanding, and cultural, educational and scientific activities, while also protecting the health, safety and security of Canadian society,” says Citizenship and Immigration spokesperson Karen Shadd-Evelyn.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) says her office has 65 outstanding complaints from constituents involving relatives’ failed visa applications.
“Visa officers have the discretionary power to decide who to let in. There’s no humanitarian and compassionate consideration. Their decisions are completely arbitrary and don’t get reviewed,” Chow says. “The onus should’ve been on the Canadian officials to show that these people would not leave CanadaDuarte walked into the Canadian embassy in Guatemala City last month, hands full of documents: pay stubs, an employer letter, bank statements, the deeds on his three properties and a passport to show his lengthy travel history.
When his first try failed, his brother in Canada wrote an official invitation and asked his local councillor, MP and even a senator to intervene. The visa office later called Duarte in to apply for a minister’s special permit for an extra $185. But by then, the date was too close to the family’s booked vacation time and the airfare too expensive. “We are all disappointed,” says Mauricio Duarte, who immigrated 17 years ago. “Whenever we go back home, we stay with our families and relatives. We would like to play hosts to someone when they come here.”
Lawyer Avvy Go, director of the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, points out there’s no guarantee that visitors from visa-exempt countries would leave Canada either.
after their visits.”
Immigration reacts slowly to the global economic and political changes. Countries like China and India are becoming bigger economic powers,” says Mamann, an ex-immigration officer. “My concern is our visa officers are still using outdated standards to judge these applications, (believing) these people will come and stay in Canada.”
If nothing changes, he adds, Canada stands to lose the substantial economic benefits from delegates attending conferences, buyers going to trade shows and tourists all in a world that’s become closer and more intimate than ever before.
Next steps after Afghanistan’s run-off vote is scrapped
Posted by: | CommentsNews that Afghanistan’s planned Nov. 7 run-off presidential election has been canceled after the withdrawal of Abdullah Abdullah, main rival to incumbent President Hamid Karzai, casts a new light on a story in this week’s Maclean’s about Grant Kippen, the Canadian who heads the country’s Electoral Complaints Commission.
The story tells about how Kippen, under intense pressure and world scrutiny, patiently investigated the Aug. 20 election, which Karzai initially appeared to have won. His ECC doesn’t run elections, but acts as a referee after the balloting when the inevitable complaints about cheating arise.
It was Kippen’s work that forced the Nov. 7 run-off by documenting extensive fraudulent voting, largely by Karzai’s backers. Now, with Abdullah’s exit, Karzai appears poised to cling to power without going through any process that lends his continued rule full democratic legitimacy.
Abdullah complained that Karzai refused to takes steps that would have made the Nov. 7 run-off fair. That would have included rapidly reforming Afghanistan’s so-called Independent Election Commission, the body that was in charge of the Aug. 20 fiasco. The IEC is headed by Azizullah Ludin, a Karzai appointee criticized by Human Rights Watch for, among other things, his obvious pro-Karzai bias.
Naturally, international attention is now fixed on the immediate steps needed to make Karzai’s win minimally acceptable. Some sort of power-sharing with Abduallah might help. But a longer view is also demanded to make sure the same dangerous farce isn’t acted out next time Afghans are called to the polls.
So here’s a suggestion, one that perhaps the Canadian government could promote: the untrustworthy Independent Election Commission that administers Afghanistan’s voting should be reformed along the lines of the trustworthy Electoral Complaints Commission that investigates after the fact.
The ECC is headed by two Afghans and three internationals. The foreign commissioners, including Kippen, are appointed by the UN. The numerical dominance of outsiders inevitably causes some resentment. (In fact, one of the Afghan commissioners quit last month, late in the ECC’s investigation of the Aug. 20 voting, when it became clear Kippen and the other internationals were serious aboKippen told me his ECC has been training many Afghans in the delicate work of looking into complaints after elections. The commission employs about 300, and just 18 of them are foreigners. Thus, the ECC might prove to be a training ground for impartial Afghans who could staff a full electoral apparatus in the future. As Canada looks for a practical role in Afghanistan beyond combat, this might be one promising place to focus aid aimed at building the Afghan government’s capacity to run its own show.
Eerie Canadian flag display spurs complaint to Zellers
Posted by: | CommentsMuch to the horror of at least one shopper, a Canadian flag serves as a backdrop for a Halloween display behind the customer service counter at a Zellers store in Oshawa.
Hanging on the wall behind a bank of cabinets, the flag and its red maple leaf are almost obliterated by dangling spider webs and creepy creatures. Every few minutes a witch’s head lets loose with a hideous cackle and flashing eyeballs
“Oh boy, you can’t even wish people Merry Christmas any more,” she grumbled when told a shopper found it offensive.
A woman who identified herself as the store manager, but wouldn’t give her name, said she wasn’t aware of any objections.
“It wasn’t meant to be disrespectful,” she said of the display. “If someone complained, we’d take it down.”
She said the display and flag weren’t part of a corporate program but something her store has been doing on its own for years.
“The flag is just something this store put up and left up.”
“Are they trying to say Canada’s dying?” he said, peering at the ghosts and tombstones perched on cabinets. “I wouldn’t do that.
“They should have removed the flag first.”
While there are no laws governing how Canada’s flag can be displayed, the federal agency Canadian Heritage offers a long list of guidelines
It should be displayed “only in a manner befitting this important national symbol; it should not be subjected to indignity or displayed in a position inferior to any other flag or ensign,” their website says.
Military commission blasts feds for withholding info
Posted by: | CommentsA lawyer with the Canadian Military Complaints Commission says the truth about allegations of prisoner torture in Afghanistan will only surface if the government is forthcoming with documents.
Freya Kristjanson told Canada AM on Thursday that while the government has said it’s cooperating with the commission, it has not turned in any documents since March, 2008.
“This commission has not received a single new document (sic) despite repeated assurances that the government would be producing the documents both in the House and by their lawyers directly to the commission,” she said in an interview from Ottawa. “The government has simply failed to deliver any documents.”
“If the government cooperates with a body established by parliament within its mandate and gives the commission documents and access to witnesses then Canadians will know what happened,” she added.
The controversy being explored in the inquiry surrounds whether or not the Canadian government knew that Afghan prisoners were at risk of being tortured when the Canadian military transfered custody to the local authorities.
The content of the first report is still covered by national security. Colvin said the second report gave specific findings that “dealt with two issues, one of which concerned the risk of torture and/or actual torture of Afghan detainees.”
The reports were widely distributed to the Foreign Affairs and Defence departments as well as senior military commanders in both Ottawa and Kandahar.
His statement contradicts earlier assurances by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other high-ranking officials that they had not received any credible reports from Canadian officials about prisoner abuse.
Sexual Abuse Complaints Afghan Abuse and Exploitation Still Common
Posted by: | CommentsMore troubling than the prevalence of “illegal marriage of underage girls and the sexual abuse of young boys” is the difficulty officials have had in substantiating complaints of sexual violence. Despite an investigation by the Canadian military police into complaints military personnel had “turned a blind eye” to abuse carried out by Afghan troops and police, officials were unable to verify any of the allegations. An additional procedural investigation has been launched by the military, with results expected to be tabled soon.
According to the International Organization for Migration, the majority of trafficking victims are young boys, taken “for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labour.” Abuse and exploitation is equally prominent among young girls, as figures indicate “57 percent of Afghan marriages involved girls under the legal age of 16,” with many of those marriages being arranged. Young girls are also at times used to pay off family debts and those who refuse can become the victims of honour killings.
The trafficking and sexual exploitation of children in Afghanistan is a growing concern, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Department was told in a confidential human-rights report prepared by senior officials.
The illegal marriage of underage girls and the sexual abuse of young boys is commonplace, warned the Afghanistan Human Rights Report obtained by The Canadian Press under access-to-information laws.
“Sexual violence is commonly reported but remains difficult to verify,” said the partially censored review, written last summer.“According to the International Organization for Migration, trafficking in children is a problem in Afghanistan and the majority of the children trafficked are boys who are trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced labour,” said the report.
The NDP foreign affairs critic, Paul Dewar, said the assessment is disturbing, especially in light of the abuse allegations, which he claimed the Canadian military isn’t eager to substantiate.
“The Afghans know this is going on; they’re not stupid,” Dewar said. “It’s a case of ‘see no evil; hear no evil; speak no evil’ and therefore there’s no evil.
“There have been many claims that abuse is going on, but I suppose if you don’t acknowledge there’s actually problems, then there are no problems.”
The treatment of young girls is just as abysmal.
Figures indicated 57 per cent of Afghan marriages involved girls under the legal age of 16. Many of those unions are arranged marriages, where the girls are sometimes used to pay off family debts and those who disobey become the victims of so-called honour killings.
More than six million children are enrolled in classes, with roughly 35 per cent of them girls — a vast improvement from the days of the brutal Taliban regime, under which girls were barred from attending school.
But behind those cheery, often-quoted statistics is the reality that “half of all school-age children do not attend school, including the majority of school-age girls,” said the human rights report.
Canada has committed to expand and repair 50 schools in Kandahar as one of its benchmarks to be accomplished by the time the Forces ends their combat mission in 2011. According to the latest progress report, five of those schools are completed with another 25 in the planning or construction stage.