Thursday, October 07, 2021

5,000 travellers who defied hotel quarantine rules got big fines, but no sign of fines in Alberta

Seven travellers told CBC News they landed in Calgary, refused the hotel quarantine and didn't get fined


Sophia Harris · CBC News · 
The Public Health Agency of Canada has records of 5,538 fines being issued to air passengers who refused to quarantine in a hotel after arriving in Canada. The quarantine requirement ended in August. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)

Anu Khullar says she was shocked how easy it was to refuse to quarantine in a hotel after landing in Calgary on June 20, following a trip to Honduras.

She received no pushback and no fine, she said.

"There were two police officers standing there and they just smiled at me and said, 'Hi,'" said Khullar who lives in Edmonton and owns a home in Honduras. 

"Got my luggage, got my car, drove home, everything was great."

Canada's hotel quarantine requirement for international air passengers ended in August, but it's still sparking controversy. That's because while more than 5,000 air passengers who refused to quarantine in a hotel were hit with fines, others who violated the rule faced no repercussions.

"This wasn't a program that was sort of implemented fairly, necessarily, across the board," said Cara Zwibel, director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association's fundamental freedoms program.

CBC News has found no evidence that any hotel quarantine fines have been issued to air passengers who landed in Calgary, and has found evidence so far of only two fines issued to Montreal arrivals. Calgary and Montreal are two of just four cities — along with Vancouver and Toronto — where international passengers could land while the hotel quarantine rule was in effect, from Feb. 22 to Aug. 8.

The absence of fines issued in Calgary doesn't mean all Calgary arrivals obeyed the rules. Seven travellers told CBC News they landed in the city, refused to quarantine in a hotel and received no fines. 

"This was way too easy," said Khullar.

Anu Khullar on vacation in Honduras before flying back to Canada on June 20. She said she received no pushback or fine for refusing to quarantine in a hotel. (submitted by Anu Khullar)

Khullar said she felt no need to quarantine in a hotel because she was fully vaccinated and could do her full 14-day quarantine in her empty house.

Her original return flight to Canada was to land in Vancouver. But Khullar said she switched her arrival city to Calgary after reading scores of posts on social media from people who said they landed in Calgary, refused to go to a quarantine hotel and didn't get fined. 

"It was an absolute joke," said Khullar. "You might as well say, 'OK everybody, just fly back to Alberta. You don't have to worry about a single fine.'"

Who can issue fines in Calgary?

The federal government created its hotel quarantine program to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The program required international air passengers to do part of their quarantine in a designated hotel while waiting for their post-arrival COVID-19 test results. Passengers had to foot the hotel bill, which could run as high as $2,000.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has posted records of 5,538 fines issued to air passengers who refused to quarantine in a hotel. They range from $3,000 to $5,000 plus added fees.

Almost all of the fines were given to travellers who landed in Toronto (4,850) and Vancouver (685). The remaining three involved Montreal arrivals. However, PHAC clarified in a footnote that it's unknown if those three cases actually resulted in fines.

None of the fines were issued in Calgary.

According to Statistics Canada, 434,210 non-essential air passengers entered Canada from March through June, the busiest months for the hotel quarantine program. Of that total, 225,809 landed in Toronto, 94,084 in Montreal, 80,722 in Vancouver and 33,595 in Calgary. 

PHAC told CBC News its officers couldn't fine hotel quarantine violators in Alberta because the province never adopted the federal Contraventions Act. But the agency said police in Alberta could issue the fines and suggested checking with police for up-to-date statistics.

Alberta RCMP and Calgary police told CBC News they have issued no such fines. 

In May, Calgary police said that because the Contraventions Act doesn't apply in Alberta, they don't have direct authority to fine hotel quarantine violators. Instead, they could only investigate a case if they receive a complaint. 

Watch: Hotel quarantine fines handed out unevenly: 

Canada's hotel quarantine requirement ended in August, but we're just now getting a sense of how it was enforced. CBC News has learned that fines were unevenly handed out, depending on which city passengers landed in. 1:59

Any fines in Quebec?

CBC News has also heard from five travellers who said they had landed in Montreal, refused to quarantine in a hotel and have yet to receive a fine.

Synthia Vignola flew to Montreal from Colombia on March 21. Vignola said she refused to go to a quarantine hotel because she felt safer isolating at her home in Sainte-Marthe, Que.

Vignola said a federal government official at the airport told her she'd receive a fine in the mail. More than five months later, no fine has arrived, she said. 

"I'm not surprised," said Vignola. "A lot of people [broke the rules]. Nobody receives nothing."

However, following the publication of this story, CBC News confirmed that a couple who landed in Montreal on May 9 and refused to quarantine did eventually receive a fine in the mail — on Aug. 27. 

Synthia Vignola flew from Colombia to Montreal on March 21. She said she has yet to receive a fine for refusing to quarantine in a hotel. (submitted by Synthia Vignola)

PHAC said its officers couldn't directly fine quarantine offenders who landed in Montreal because, in Quebec, these types of fines can only be issued by provincial prosecutors.

The office of Quebec's director of criminal and penal prosecutions (DPCP) told CBC News it is unable to provide specific data on the number of fines it has issued to hotel quarantine violators. DPCP said people can receive a fine up to one year after committing a violation. 

'I'm not paying it'

It's a different story for air passengers who landed in Vancouver and Toronto and refused to quarantine in a hotel. 

CBC News interviewed eight travellers who were directly fined between $3,450 and $6,255 by authorities at the Vancouver or Toronto airport. They each said they plan to contest their fine in court and feel it's unfair they should have to pay when other travellers have faced no repercussions.

"I'm not paying it, because this absolutely doesn't make any sense," said Michael Allen of Windsor, Ont. The former CFL player turned organic greenhouse operator was fined $6,255 at the Toronto airport on July 8. He said he was returning from a business trip to Jamaica. 

Michael Allen, a former CFL football player turned organic gardener, returned to Canada from Jamaica on July 8 and refused to quarantine in a hotel. He says he's fighting the $6,255 fine he received at the Toronto airport. (submitted by Michael Allen)

Allen said he refused to quarantine in a hotel because he felt it was best to do his full quarantine at his empty house. 

He's now waiting to fight his fine in court. 

"Some people get fined. Some don't.… There is no consistency," said Allen, who also pointed out that travellers who entered Canada by land did not have to quarantine in a hotel.

"All these things make it unjust. It's just an unjust law."

Lawyer Zwibel said the inconsistency is one of the many reasons she believes the quarantine program was flawed and unnecessary. 

"The reality is that the law can't solve every problem, and this is one instance where I think the law was not very effective," she said. "There are other tools that probably work better, tools like public education."

When asked about claims the hotel quarantine program was unfair because some travellers didn't get fined, PHAC reiterated that authorities in Alberta and Quebec had the power to issue fines.

The agency also said the hotel quarantine requirement was implemented only for international air passengers because, at the time, air travel accounted for most leisure trips, and air travellers generally had higher COVID-19 test positivity rates than those travelling by land.

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Hack of streaming service Twitch reveals payment info of top users

2.5 million people watch live video on Twitch at any given time


Pete Evans · CBC News · 
Game enthusiasts watched one trillion minutes of content on Twitch last year. (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Live streaming video service Twitch has been hacked in a breach that has exposed the financial information of some of the people who use it.

The company is a live video service where people can share streams of the video games they are playing, usually with tips and commentary. The site has exploded in popularity in lockstep with the rise of esports where spectators watch professional gamers play. Founded in 2011, it was bought by Amazon in 2014 for almost $1 billion US.

At any given moment, more than 2.5 million people are watching videos on Twitch. Last year, they collectively watched one trillion minutes worth of video.

An anonymous poster on the 4chan messaging board released a massive trove of data the poster claimed was the source code for Twitch on Tuesday evening, a data dump that included detailed information about  payment details of its most-watched gamers and streamers.

According to gaming news site Video Games Chronicle, which first reported the breach, the user released the information to "foster more disruption and competition in the online video streaming space" because "their community is a disgusting toxic cesspool."

On Wednesday morning, Twitch confirmed that it had been hacked.

"At this time, we have no indication that login credentials have been exposed, we are continuing to investigate," the company said, adding that credit card infomation of members could not have been accessed either, since the company doesn't store that data in full.

A Twitch screen is shown on a phone. Hackers released information obtained in a hack of live streaming service Twitch that appears to show the entire network has been compromised. ( Gabby Jones/Bloomberg)

Millions of dollars

Leaked data reveals that top streamers take in tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from the service. Screenshots suggest that the top content producers on the platform make millions of dollars from it.

One Canadian who goes by the handle nl_kripp — real name Octavian Morosan — was outed as one of the top streamers. Screenshots suggest the Toronto-based gamer earned $43,077 from his Twitch stream last month.

Although he said he could not confirm that number specifically, he said it is a "fairly decent estimate" of what Twitch brings in. He noted that figure would not include other revenue sources for elite gamers, including YouTube, and sponsorships.


"In some cases [Twitch is] the biggest slice of what they earn, in some cases it isn't," he said. Top streamers sell subscriptions for between $5 and $25 a month, and some users have in excess of 30,000 subscribers, Morosan said.

"You can earn a lot of money in this domain."

Morosan said he heard of the leak when he finished his daily stream at about 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning. 

"At this stage I don't know any more than the public knows," he said. "I'm sure things will come out on how this happened … I hope at the end of the day things get back to normal."

Victims of data breaches often feel exposed when made aware of an attack, but as someone who broadcasts every detail of his life to the world, for up to 15 hours a day, seven days a week, Morosan says he doesn't feel overly exposed.

"It's not the line of work where you can expect every level of privacy," he said.

Representatives of another top streamer echoed that view.  Félix Lengyel, who goes by name xQcOW on the platform, has reportedly earned $8.4 million since 2019, including more than $750,000 last month alone. His agent, Ryan Morrison with Los Angeles based Evolve, told CBC News in an emailed statement that while he was unable to despite the specifics of his client's finances, "most people who were paying attention to the space are not surprised by any numbers leaked today."

"It shows the potential opportunity for streamers and that there really isn't a ceiling for what you can do nowadays as a content creator," Morrison said. "It's unfortunate this leak happened, but we operate under the understanding that once something is sent, entered or shared online, it will eventually be leaked. That's the internet we live with."

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CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Montreal money launderer set up offshore company while under criminal investigation

From prison, Firoz Patel says corporation was for legitimate business activities


Charles Rusnell · CBC News · 
Montrealer Firoz Patel co-founded the internet payment service AlertPay and later ran Payza. He pleaded guilty in the United States to conspiracy to launder money and operating an internet-based unlicenced money service business in July 2020. A company he set up in the United Arab Emirates is among the Pandora Papers files. (Firoz Patel/Facebook)

This story is part of a CBC News collaboration with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists examining the Pandora Papers, a leak of 11.9 million files from 14 firms that provide offshore service, including emails, bank statements, incorporation documents and shareholder registries.

As American and Canadian authorities ramped up investigations into rogue Montreal-based money transfer mogul Firoz Patel in April 2017, he boarded a flight to the United Arab Emirates.

A stamp in Patel's passport shows he entered the UAE on April 8, 2017.

Ten days later, he became the sole shareholder in Argus Ltd., a secret offshore corporation he set up with an office in a building owned by a prominent member of the Emirates' royal family.

The trail of Patel's offshore account is revealed in leaked documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) as part of the worldwide Pandora Papers investigation and shared exclusively with its Canadian partners, CBC and The Toronto Star

The Pandora Papers is the biggest journalistic collaboration in history. More than 600 journalists in 117 countries and territories worked together to search and analyze millions of records leaked from tax havens. 

Publicly available American court records show Patel, and his younger brother Ferhan, ran Payza and several other unlicensed online money transfer services that processed more than $250 million US in illicit transactions that facilitated criminal activity, including child pornography distribution, Ponzi schemes, gambling and drugs from 2004 until their indictment in 2018. 

WATCH | Pandora Papers leak reveals offshore tax havens for the rich and famous:

‘Pandora Papers’ leak reveals offshore tax havens of the rich and famous

4 days ago
2:33
A massive new leak of documents dubbed 'The Pandora Papers' is shedding light on how the rich and famous are hiding their money, and how a world of off-shore tax havens is still thriving. The documents were obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which includes the CBC. Among the Canadians named in the documents are figure skater Elvis Stojko and race-car driver Jacques Villeneuve. 2:33

The American court documents show that in April 2017, investigators in the U.S. were preparing money laundering charges against the Patel brothers  while revenue authorities in Quebec were investigating tax evasion.

Both men pleaded guilty in Washington, D.C., in July 2020, after accepting a negotiated plea deal in which they admitted conspiracy to launder money.

Firoz Patel was sentenced to a three-year term in a Connecticut prison that he is still serving, while his brother, Ferhan, was sentenced to 18 months. 

Firoz Patel faces an $18.4-million tax bill in Quebec he has yet to pay and is disputing. 

Retired FBI agent Gregory Coleman spent 25 years investigating financial crimes, a high-flying career that included his depiction in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street for his key role in the conviction of stockbroker-turned-fraudster Jordan Belfort.

"I'm sure [investigators] would like to have known during the time of their investigation about that [Argus] account and what was in it, how it was used, who set it up, why it is there and so forth," Coleman told CBC News in an interview. 

Retired FBI agent Gregory Coleman says American investigators likely will want to determine if Patel's UAE corporation is connected to his past prosecution, whether it served a separate fraud or whether it was simply a defunct shell company.  (Submitted by Gregory Coleman)

The documents leaked to the ICIJ do not reveal how Patel used Argus or whether he funnelled any money through it. 

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to respond to questions from the ICIJ about whether Patel had disclosed the existence of Argus Ltd. before his plea agreement or if it had subsequently requested financial information from UAE authorities about the offshore corporation.

Coleman said American investigators likely will want to determine if Patel's UAE corporation is connected to his past prosecution, whether it served a separate fraud or whether it was simply a defunct shell company. 

"Every investigator wants to have as much information as possible and follow as many dollars as possible," he said.

'A wakeup call'

Coleman said the U.S. has no mutual legal assistance treaty for criminal matters with the UAE. If American authorities make a request to their UAE counterparts for assistance, "it would be entirely up to the UAE as to whether they would respond." 

Coleman said the Patel case "is your stereotypical excessive money laundering case." 

But he said it shows the Panama Papers, a previous project by the ICIJ that exposed billions of dollars stashed in offshore accounts, has yet to cause governments to impose regulations on the money transfer and banking industries that facilitate tax evasion and crime all over the world.

"I think it is a wakeup call for a lot of people in the world that this industry is still being used in the same way."

WATCH | Inside the massive leak of offshore financial records:

Pandora Papers: Inside the massive leak of secret offshore financial records

3 days ago
5:46
A new leak of financial records from offshore tax havens exposes the ways many of the rich and powerful take advantage of financial wizardry or opaque corporate structures to either shield assets, wriggle out of their tax obligations, or hide wealth entirely. 5:46

Patel used a corporate service provider called SFM Corporate Services to register his shell corporation in the UAE. 

Reporting by the ICIJ revealed SFM was founded in Switzerland in 2006. It now operates in more than two dozen countries, including Canada, Bahamas, Hong Kong, United States, Netherlands, Panama and the United Kingdom.

On its website in 2010, SFM said it served clients "looking to minimize taxes, protect assets and limit liabilities." 

The company provides nominee shareholders and nominee directors. These are people paid to list themselves on public forms but who do not have actual responsibility with the corporation they represent only on paper. 

160 corporations registered at same address

SFM guarantees that its nominee shareholders "work with the highest level of integrity and confidentiality."

The ICIJ found SFM had registered 160 corporations at the same UAE address as Patel's Argus Ltd. 

Coleman said the mass registration of shell corporations is both common and legal, and companies like SFM often do little or no due diligence on clients like Patel. 

"My guess would be that you're not going to find many [offshore registry service providers] who are digging very deep to find out who it is that they are setting up accounts and corporations for," he said. 

The documents leaked to the ICIJ, however, include a background check that shows SFM learned on May 16, 2018, that Patel had been indicted in the U.S. Eight days later, SFM severed its relationship with Argus and Patel.

In an emailed statement to the ICIJ, a lawyer for SFM said it can't confirm any commercial relations because of contractual confidentiality. It stressed that all its activities are legal and insisted it performs proper due diligence before taking on any client. 

Patel says no intent to launder money

Court documents from Quebec obtained by The Toronto Star show a judge ruled in 2017 that Patel had "systematically neglected" to declare his real income. That was the same year Patel flew to the UAE to set up his offshore corporation.

"The sums at stake are so considerable that these omissions can only be part of a planned process with a sole objective, namely to try to avoid the tax obligations imposed by the law," Court of Quebec Judge Gilles Lareau wrote.

Revenue authorities in Quebec said armoured vans transported $45 million in cash for Payza between 2012 and 2018. Millions of dollars also have been transferred from Payza to the Patels' personal bank accounts in the United States and Canada. 

The equivalent of at least $14.3 trillion is held in offshore jurisdictions worldwide, according to a study last year from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (CBC)

In response to written questions from The Star, Patel from prison said Argus was set up legitimately to do business in Asia and had nothing to do with Payza. He said it was never used and had no associated bank account. 

Patel also said that the charges for which he and his brother pleaded guilty in the U.S. would not be considered money laundering in Canada.

"There needs to be intent to launder funds, and there was no intent to run a [money transfer] company without the requisite licences, therefore the foundation of the money laundering allegation is false," Patel said in an emailed statement.

Numerous warnings

But the American court documents show numerous states warned the Patels they were illegally operating without licences and a consultant they hired told them they should shut down because they were operating illegally, both facts cited by the judge at the brothers' sentencing hearing in July 2020.

During the hearing, the Patels characterized their financial enabling of criminals as mistakes, and suggested they were unwitting pawns in criminal enterprises. 

U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson outright rejected this explanation. 

"When one plays with fire, one eventually gets burned and that is where we are right now," the judge said. 

"This court does not think that either of you, frankly, had a reasonable defence concerning your knowledge or culpability with respect to the seriousness of these offences."

Brown Jackson told the Patels illegal businesses "can't operate unless they have the ability to collect money, and that was your role." 

'You helped schemers'

She wondered if they ever thought about the drug addicts created through their money laundering or the elderly who lost their life savings and would have to forego their retirement "because you helped schemers who were intent upon defrauding them."

Revenue Quebec, meanwhile, told The Star it could neither confirm or deny it was investigating Argus. But it said it has not started any legal proceedings to seize property from a company with that name. 

It has, however, filed a $2-million lien against Firoz Patel's Montreal house.

Patel has filed a lawsuit in England against cryptofirm Blockchain.com claiming the London-based company is holding $20 million US of his bitcoin, which it refuses to transfer to him.

In a statement to The Star, Patel's London lawyer, Leo Nabarro, said he "will continue to rigorously protect and pursue the recovery of our client's assets."

Blockchain.com did not respond to a query from CBC News. 

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Energy sector tries to show next generation it's more than pumpjacks

Teenagers are concerned about climate change and can be

 hesitant to pursue a career in energy

Kyle Bakx · CBC News · 
A pumpjack pulls oil out of the ground in central Alberta. The Ten Peaks student conference this month will include views on the energy industry's future from leaders in industry, environment and academia. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

There are a lot of conversations happening in Alberta these days about climate change and the future of energy. Some of them are happening around the kitchen table.

Dagmar Knutson was taken aback when her Grade 9 son came home from school and declared Alberta was the worst in the world.

"What?" she asked.

"Our oilsands, they are the worst in the world," he responded.

"I know our emissions always haven't been the greatest but do you know that they've come down?" she asked.

He hadn't heard that, nor had he heard of how the sector aims to use carbon capture to further reduce emissions.

"But our teachers say that our textbooks are at least five years out of date," he told his mom, who works as an accountant for an oilpatch equipment company in Red Deer.

Knutson is using this exchange with her son two years ago as a launch point to help the next generation learn about the future of the energy sector, from geothermal energy to utility-scale batteries to plastics recycling, as it confronts climate change.

Later this month, she's organizing the 10 Peaks Innovation Xchange, a student conference about the energy transition with more than 30 speakers including oilpatch executives, academics, renewable energy officials and environmental advocates, among others. More than 1,000 students have already signed up.

These are the types of discussions happening around the world, especially in the lead up to the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow at the end of the month. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has described the event as "the last best chance" to avert the worst environmental consequences for the planet, as world leaders will gather to discuss and negotiate how to tackle climate change.

The burning of fossil fuels is always a focal point in the climate discussion. In Alberta, climate change can be a contentious debate as many in the oilpatch feel their livelihoods are under attack.

"We get polarized and that's not what we should be teaching our kids. We should be saying, 'Hey, we have these ideas, we have these great solutions, let's go at it and let's work on it together and let's move forward together,'" said Knutson in an interview.

TransAlta's WindCharger project is the first utility-scale, lithium-ion battery storage facility in Alberta. A wave of battery storage projects are under development, both to backstop renewable energy and help deliver reliable power. (Kyle Bakx/CBC)

Alberta's oilsands reduced the carbon intensity of its oil production by 20 per cent from 2009 to 2020, according to energy research firm IHS Markit.

Still, there is a wide range in performance from one facility to another, as some projects produce 40 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel of oil, while the most polluting emit 201 kilograms of carbon dioxide per barrel of oil, according to IHS Markit.

Total emissions are also increasing as more oil is pulled from the ground each year, highlighting one of the key environmental challenges the industry faces.

"Climate change is definitely a topic that we talk a lot about, especially in school when we talk about how to reduce our own carbon footprint," said Stephanie Tan, a Grade 12 student at Notre Dame High School in Calgary.

"It's really important that we're all conscious of climate change."

Many teenagers are hesitant to go into the industry, she said, because they don't know enough about the sector or about all the different forms of energy. She is planning to attend the conference and has encouraged her classmates to join.

Alberta has found success in reducing emissions from phasing out coal power plants in favour of natural gas. So far, emissions from the province's electricity sector are estimated to have fallen nearly 50 per cent from 2015 to 2020. 

Power producer TransAlta says it has reduced its carbon emissions by 25 million tonnes since 2005, which it says represents about eight per cent of Canada's entire needed emissions reductions to reach its 2030 goal. The company expects to be off coal in Alberta by the end of this year.

Chelsea Donelon, TransAlta's senior advisor in carbon policy and technology, remembers being in high school and having few ideas about what careers exist beyond the traditional professions, such as being a doctor, lawyer or mechanic.

"I certainly did not know that the role that I have today would exist," said Donelon, one of the speakers at the conference.

One of the largest energy companies in the country is Suncor, which is a big player in the oilsands, but it's also investing in renewable energy, hydrogen and electric vehicle charging stations across the country, among other projects.

The company expects to be in the oil business for decades to come, since the world still depends heavily on fossil fuels. That could include producing lubricants for wind turbines and plastics for electronics and vehicles. How quickly society transitions to lower-emitting sources of energy is one of the uncertainties facing the oilpatch.

"We don't have it all figured out yet, but this is going to be a hard conversation about what the energy mix will look like in 2050," said Gary Bunio, who focuses on low carbon fuels and offsets at Suncor.

Hydrogen, renewables and carbon sequestration are some of the growing areas at the company, he said, and he hopes students are interested in the exciting and challenging transformation already underway throughout the industry.

"I'm not going to claim for a second that we have enough people in those areas." he said.

The record-breaking heat wave across Western Canada this summer would have been 'virtually impossible' without human influence, climate scientists say. (CBC News)
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