Big banks raise prime rates after Bank of Canada's surprise supersized hike

Alicja Siekierska -

Canada's biggest banks increased their prime lending rates on Thursday following the Bank of Canada's surprise 100 basis point hike of its benchmark interest rate.

The country's Big Five banks – Royal Bank of Canada (RY.TO), TD Bank (TD.TO), Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO), Scotiabank (BNS.TO), and CIBC (CM.TO) – all announced increases to their prime rates that go into effect on Thursday. Each bank says it will raise its prime rate by 100 basis points, from 3.70 per cent to 4.70 per cent.

The prime rate is the annual interest rate that banks and financial institutions use to set interest rates for loans and lines of credit. Increases to the Bank of Canada's overnight rate will affect variable-rate mortgages, but not fixed mortgages.

Those with variable-rate mortgages or a home equity line of credit will see an increase to monthly payments as a result of the central bank's latest hike.

According to Ratehub.ca's mortgage calculator, the monthly mortgage payment for an average priced home of $711,000 (with 10 per cent down amortized over 25 years) based on a typical five-year variable rate of 2.5 per cent would be $2,955.

With the Bank of Canada's full percentage point increase, that variable mortgage rate would increase to 3.5 per cent and the monthly payment would jump by $339 a month to $3,294.

The Bank of Canada raised its benchmark rate by 100 basis points on Wednesday, a surprise move that exceeded economist expectations, as the central bank attempts to set a firehose against scorching inflation.

Related video: Bank of Canada surprises with 1% rate hike  View on Watch

The unexpected and supersized increase is the fourth consecutive hike and brings the Bank's policy interest rate to 2.5 per cent, the highest level since 2008.

What that means for the housing market

The hike is expected to put further pressure on the Canadian housing market, which continued to cool in May amid rising interest rates, according to the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA). Housing market data for June is expected to be released by CREA on Friday.

Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers said at a press conference on Wednesday that while homeowners with variable rate mortgages will see interest rates go up, it is a small segment of the population. Rogers says that 65 per cent of Canadians are homeowners, with 35 per cent having a mortgage and the "vast majority" of those are fixed-rate mortgages.

"Right now and for the last year we know that housing activity and housing prices have been unsustainably high. We've seen a spike in demand, low interest rates combined with chronically low supply and we've had very elevated prices," Rogers said.

"Our goal is to get that demand down and part of restoring the balance of supply and demand in the Canadian economy is restoring that balance in the housing market. That's what we're aiming to do."

Judge rejects $28-million class-action settlement in Catholic church sex abuse case


MONTREAL — A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected a $28-million settlement in a sex abuse lawsuit against a Catholic religious order because of the high legal fees associated with the agreement.

The agreement would have awarded the Montreal law firm Arsenault, Dufresne and Wee, which represented the plaintiffs, more than $8 million in fees.

Justice Thomas M. Davis wrote in a July 4 decision that those fees were "excessive" and not in the interest of the more than 375 sexual abuse victims who were part of the class action.

Davis says the firm did "remarkable work" and that he expects a new agreement with reasonable fees can be reached and resubmitted to the court.

The suit against the Quebec-based Catholic religious order the Clerics of St-Viateur, involved acts committed between 1935 and the present at more than 20 establishments run by the group, including boarding schools.

In July 2021, one priest from the order, Rev. Jean Pilon, was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for criminal acts of a sexual nature against a dozen victims who were minors at the time of the crimes between 1961 and 1989.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2022.

The Canadian Press

CANADA
Senate report calls for law criminalizing forced or coerced sterilization

Peter Zimonjic - The Canadian Press/

The Senate human rights committee is calling on the federal government to outlaw forced or coerced sterilization and to issue a formal apology to women who have been subjected to the practice.

Sen. Yvonne Boyer, a member of the Senate committee on human rights, introduced Bill S-250 in the Senate this June. If passed, the bill would make coercing or forcing a person to be sterilized a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in jail.

Those recommendations are among 13 in the second part of a new Senate report — The Scars that We Carry: Forced and Coerced Sterilization of Persons in Canada — released Thursday.

"Forced and coerced sterilization has a long history in Canada, including as a strategy to subjugate and eliminate First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples," the report says.

The Senate human rights committee began studying the issue back in 2019 and found that — far from being a problem of the distant past — forced and coerced sterilization was still taking place in Canada and Indigenous women were not the only people affected.

"The committee heard that other vulnerable groups have also been disproportionately subjected to these procedures, including Black and racialized women, persons with disabilities, intersex children and institutionalized persons," the report says.

While forced or coerced sterilization could fall under the category of assault in the Criminal Code, the committee said it wants it codified as a crime in law through the passage of Bill S-250, which would make it an offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

"What we've seen so far hasn't worked, because I believe there's sterilization happening today, as we speak," Sen. Yvonne Boyer, the committee member who introduced S-250, said Wednesday.

"We need to have some extra teeth and I think that passing this bill might make them stop and think a little bit more before they actually do something like that again."
The recommendations

The report says that women and girls, some as young as 14, have been "coerced through confinement, manipulation or threats" into sterilization, while "others were simply not consulted before the procedure."

The report also recommends:

Requiring that medical associations, professional governing and licensing bodies denounce forced and coerced sterilization.

Having the federal government, led by survivors, develop a compensation framework for survivors.

Ensuring data on the practice is collected nationally and mechanisms are in place to investigate and respond to complaints.

Requiring that all medical and nursing school students study Indigenous health issues.

Launching a federal education campaign about patients' rights tailored to the groups most affected by sterilization.

Increasing investments in community-based midwifery in northern and remote communities.

Increasing the number of Indigenous health care providers while providing cultural competency training for health care professionals of all backgrounds.

The report also says a parliamentary committee should continue to study the issue and monitor efforts by the federal government to address the recommendations in the report.

"Forced and coerced sterilization is unfortunately an inhumane practice rooted in racism and conscious or unconscious biases. It demonstrates, once again, the perception of a superior colonial view according to a preconceived way of life, which continues to devalue the life of Indigenous peoples," said Sen. Michèle Audette, a former member of the committee.

The office of Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller issued a statement after the report was published that did not mention the legislation proposed by Sen. Boyer. It pledged to review the report's recommendations and work to address discrimination in the health system.

"This is a serious matter that requires the collaboration of all orders of government, and health and social system professionals, to ensure health services are safe for all Indigenous women," the statement says.

A ‘revolt’ against the court may be why B.C. is prosecuting 19 arrested on Wet’suwet’en territory

This article contains a reference to residential schools that may be triggering. Support for survivors and their families is available. Call the Indian Residential School Survivors Society at 1-800-721-0066 or 1-866-925-4419 for the 24-7 crisis line.

The government of British Columbia will pursue criminal contempt charges against Indigenous land defenders and supporters arrested last November in northwest B.C. In a now-infamous RCMP raid on Wet’suwet’en territory — the third such operation in three years — heavily armed police enforced TC Energy’s court-ordered injunction issued against anyone impeding construction of their Coastal GasLink pipeline, arresting more than 30 individuals over two days.

On July 7, the province’s legal team told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Marguerite Church it would prosecute Sleydo’ Molly Wickham, Shaylynn Sampson (Gitxsan Lax Gibuu Wilp Spookxw), Teka’tsihasere Corey ‘Jayohcee’ Jocko and Hannah Hall. The decision brings the total to 19 individuals arrested during the raid that B.C. Public Prosecution Service will pursue criminal charges against in the coming months. The court invited the province to do so after arrests in 2019 and 2020. This is the first time B.C. has agreed to proceed with prosecution — and so the first time land defenders could face prison sentences for their actions.

Those arrested say they were protecting Wet’suwet’en lands and waters and upholding sovereign Indigenous Rights and Title as per a 1997 Supreme Court of Canada ruling. The province and Mounties say they were participating in unlawful protest, breaching the terms of the B.C. Supreme Court injunction order.

“I’m really disappointed with the outcome, especially because three out of the four people that are now facing criminal charges are Indigenous people with a voice, the ones that have had a really strong voice,” Wickham told The Narwhal outside the Smithers, B.C., courthouse after the hearing.

The province declined to prosecute eight others, including Jocelyn Alec, daughter of Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Woos, on whose house territory the arrests were made. Among those facing criminal charges is her fiancée, Jocko, who was with her when both were arrested.

When making its assessment, provincial lawyers had to consider two things: the likelihood of securing a conviction and whether it’s in the public interest. The decision not to pursue charges against Alec and others hinges on the fact that the RCMP didn’t do enough to inform individuals about the nature and scope of the injunction order.

“They didn’t have a copy of it with them and they did not even make an effort to really tell people what it was about,” Frances Mahon, legal counsel for a majority of the land defenders, told The Narwhal.

Sworn affidavits the Mounties filed with the court affirmed that on Nov. 18, 2021, “Inspector Ken Floyd read the injunction at the 44 kilometer [sic] marker of the Morice West” Forest Service Road and “reread the injunction a second time at the same location.” The affidavits also affirmed that on the following day, deeper on the territory and at a location where land defenders were inside a cabin and tiny house, Floyd “read the injunction to the protestors barricaded” inside the two wooden structures at 11:30 a.m. and 11:46 a.m.

According to The Narwhal’s review of audio and video recordings, Floyd simply noted the existence of an injunction order and failed to provide details of the terms. Speaking about the charges that aren’t being pursued, B.C.’s prosecutor Tyler Bauman came to the same conclusion and told the court, “The script read by the RCMP was limited to road blocking and did not include the broader language of the injunction.”

The RCMP declined to speak with The Narwhal, noting: “Our actions and those of the individuals arrested are subject to a judicial process that we must respect.” The B.C. Public Prosecution Service declined to answer questions for the same reason.

Provincial lawyers will argue that the individuals now facing criminal contempt charges had either been previously arrested, and therefore could not claim ignorance of the contents of the injunction, or were active on social media in defiance of the court order.

As for the issue of whether prosecution is in the public interest or not, Mahon called it a “nebulous concept” but suggested a driving factor is “the integrity of the court is being called into question.”

Breach of the injunction is a civil matter, which means it’s between private parties, in this case between Coastal GasLink and the individuals alleged to have impeded construction. For civil contempt, the company’s legal team can choose whether or not to pursue charges. Now that the province is intervening on grounds of criminal contempt, the company is no longer involved and it becomes a public matter.

The company’s legal counsel, Kevin O’Callaghan, declined an interview request and referred The Narwhal to TC Energy, Coastal GasLink’s parent company. TC Energy did not directly answer The Narwhal’s questions and referred to a statement published on its website.

“Since December 2018, Coastal GasLink has dealt with numerous violations of enforceable B.C. Supreme Court injunctions from individuals who have engaged in escalating disruptive and dangerous actions,” the statement said.

“We are committed to delivering this critical energy infrastructure project and any risk to the safety of our workforce or others in the vicinity of the project route is of the greatest importance. Our work is fully authorized and permitted and has the unprecedented support of local and Indigenous communities across the project route.” (On Wet’suwet’en territory, the company has signed agreements with five of six elected band councils but the nation’s Hereditary Chiefs never consented to the project.)

Criminal contempt isn’t the same as a criminal charge for, say, theft or assault. Instead, it means the province believes “the accused knew … their conduct constituted a public defiance of a court order,” according to a B.C. Civil Liberties Association report. As the report notes, that public defiance can include breaching the terms of an injunction “in front of television cameras or on social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter.”

Neil Chantler, a defence attorney who represented numerous clients arrested at protests of the Trans Mountain pipeline, said the term “criminal contempt” is confusing.

“As soon as you’re encouraging, perhaps by your actions, other people to commit contempt of court, to disobey court orders, which the court of course relies on … you’re committing criminal contempt,” he explained.

“In these cases where there are so many people involved and the court’s integrity and authority is perhaps at greatest risk of being undermined because there’s almost a mass revolt against the authority of the court, the court invites the Crown to prosecute, as opposed to leaving it to the private party to prosecute.

If convicted, the individuals could serve up to 30 days of jail time, 150 hours of community service under the supervision of a probation officer or pay $3,000 in fines, according to sentencing positions filed with the courts.

“We are prepared to fully defend against the allegations,” Mahon said.

For Wickham, the escalation of charges from civil to criminal is in line with the history of colonization.

“All of the laws that have existed since contact with Indigenous people have been absolutely horrific and used for genocide,” she said. “It actually blows me away that people uphold colonial law in the way that they do — colonial laws put our kids in residential schools. They literally forced mass sterilizations and murder of children and babies. And those are the laws that are being upheld in this country.”

Murray Rankin, B.C.’s Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, declined an interview request and the ministry referred The Narwhal to the prosecution service in response to questions.

Chantler said it’s important to remember that the province approved these projects that sit at the centre of conflicts.

“These environmental disputes, these resource extraction cases that have been before the courts so often in the last 10 years, are a failure of government, and the failure of government is a result of people voting for these governments.”

He added that he believes civil disobedience has its place, particularly when Indigenous Rights are in play.

“It does continue to raise awareness and it does shine a very bright spotlight on an issue,” he said. “People are willing to put their own liberty at risk and get arrested over these things. I think it’s a tremendous call and a real sacrifice to get arrested and potentially get a record and to potentially do time for a cause you believe in. But it’s a losing battle. I mean, at that point, all you’re doing is public relations, you’re not actually going to stop the project.”

Prior to the enactment of laws that now dictate what happens to those facing contempt charges, the Wet’suwet’en and other nations lived under complex governance systems for thousands of years.

“Our laws don’t mean anything to [Coastal GasLink], or to the courts or to, you know, most of mainstream society. It’s infuriating and frustrating,” Wickham said.

While visibly shaken, she wasn’t swayed by the decision.

“The whole criminalization process is meant to deter us from doing what’s right but I’m not going to be deterred from upholding our laws and protecting our land.”

Despite a steady stream of industry traffic and construction activity, coupled with the continual presence of police and private security, Wet’suwet’en community members and their allies continue to reconnect with the land, water and wildlife on the territory.

“Recently we had a young Indigenous person get his first kill out there,” Wickham said. “We tanned the hide with all the kids and processed all the meat and we’re going to have a ceremony for him to celebrate.”

She added Wet’suwet’en youth are helping build a balhats, or feast hall, at the confluence of Ts’elkay Kwe (Lamprey Creek) and the Wedzin Kwa (Morice River), which will provide a space for Elders and young families to connect with each other and the land.

“There’s all these beautiful moments and times and experiences, those little snippets of what it actually feels like to be who you are,” she said. “Those are the moments that keep Indigenous people’s spirits alive. I’d go to jail for that, for that one moment.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

32 Alberta law professors sign letter calling for government to make oath to Queen optional

Katarina Szulc - CBC

A group of Alberta law professors have sent an open letter to the Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro urging for a legislative amendment to the mandatory Queen's Oath students must make when called to the bar.


Prabjot Singh Wirring is suing the province and Law Society of Alberta because he says swearing a mandatory oath to the Queen would contradict his religious beliefs.

After Edmonton articling student Prabjot Singh Wirring decided to sue the province on the basis that swearing the specific oath would contradict his religious beliefs, law professors from Calgary and Edmonton decided to push for a change.

Anna Lund, an associate professor at the University of Alberta, is one of the signatories on the letter and said the goal is to make the oath optional.

"I was called to the bar in 2008 and I gave the oath and I didn't have a second thought about it," said Lund. "But other people are coming from other backgrounds that makes the oath difficult for them. I think that it's really important to us, in the legal profession, to listen to those voices, and to change.

"The argument that we've always done it this way and it worked for me, therefore, we're always going to continue doing it this way, just doesn't it doesn't carry a lot of weight."

In Alberta, provincial legislation requires lawyers swear an oath to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors."



Wirring is a devout Amritdhari Sikh, and says he made an absolute oath and submitted himself to Akal Purakh, the divine being in the Sikh faith, and cannot make a similar allegiance to another entity or sovereign.
THIS OPTION WOULD APPLY TO JEHOVAH WITNESSES AS WELL

"I'm really deeply appreciative of the professors who took the initiative in coordinating writing the letter and signing on to give their public support. I think it's reflective of the general sentiment within the legal community in Alberta," Wirring told CBC.

"For a while now the profession and the community at large is starting to recognize a lot of the systemic barriers that are excluding racialized groups, and Indigenous lawyers from joining the board. There have been some really good efforts to combat and rectify it. I think everybody's recognizing that this is really low hanging fruit. I'm not asking for the world."

Other jurisdictions such as Ontario and B.C. have made the oath optional.

The province has not yet responded to a request for comment on the letter, though last week a spokesperson for the province declined to comment on Wirring's legal challenge because the matter is before the courts.

Lund said changing the legislation would help make the legal profession more diverse.

"A real strength in Alberta is the diversity of people here. We've got a chance here to ensure that diversity is reflected in the legal profession. The legal profession will also be strengthened by diversity and it'd be unfortunate if we don't do what we can to foster that," Lund said.

The government's statements of defence are set to be filed by July 15, with the court hearing after Oct. 7.

The Dutch are aiming to make work-from-home legal. Can Canada do it too?

Aya Al-Hakim -

The Netherlands is on its way to becoming the first country in the world to make work-from-home a legal right, according to a report by Bloomberg published July 5.


Image of an employee working from home. An employment and disability lawyer says establishing work-from-home as a legal right in Canada wouldn't be an easy or quick process.

According to the report, the legislation was approved by the lower house of the bicameral parliament July 5, but would still need to go through the Dutch senate before its final adoption.

"The law forces employers to consider employee requests to work from home as long as their professions allow it," the report said.

In Canada, several companies adopted a work-from-home policy at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 -- some then moved to a hybrid model as public health restrictions eased. But establishing the right to work from home as a law, might not be an easy or quick process in this country, according to an employment and disability lawyer.

Read more:
The end of work from home? Most Canadians return to office as 1 in 10 stay home: poll

"It's certainly possible. But the challenge with doing it in Canada is that we would need to deal with that at both the federal and provincial levels," said Jenson Leung, a lawyer at the Vancouver-based law firm Samfiru Tumarkin.

"So for example, the federal government could implement some type of remote work policy for industries that are federally regulated, but the vast majority of workplaces are provincially regulated, which means that it's going to be on a province-by-province basis," he added.

Leung said the best way people can try to create change is by bringing it to the attention of politicians and policymakers.

Leung said the "big thing to keep in mind for Canada" is that currently, if an employee who has always worked from home refuses a sudden requirement to go into the office, then that could lead to "constructive dismissal."

As explained on the Government of Canada website, the phrase "constructive dismissal" describes situations where the employer has not directly fired the employee. Rather the employer has failed to follow through with the contract of employment in a major way and has changed the terms of employment thus forcing the employee to quit

Leung said the key idea here is whether or not working from home has always been a condition of their work or whether there's a human rights basis that requires them to stay at home and work.

READ MORE: 1 in 3 Canadians are willing to change jobs to keep working from home: Ipsos poll

"Some people, for example, have a compromised immune system and that's why they weren't able to work from the office. We still have COVID, so that may not change for those people at the moment," he said.

Leung explained that offering the option to work from home is going to be more on a case-by-case basis unless legislation were to come in.

Video: Transforming workspaces post-pandemic

"The main thing that I always tell both employers and employees is that it's best that they talk about it – figure out what the concerns are on both sides – and see whether or not they can make remote work possible," said Leung.

"And if an employer is trying to force an employee to go to work, then that might be a time to contact a lawyer and see whether or not they have a situation that requires them to be at home," he added.

READ MORE: Does the option to work from home make for a better work-life balance?

In Nova Scotia, Zyanya Thorne, who works in customer service remotely for a company in Calgary, Alta., said that going back to the office would not suit her.

"I'm basically out in the country here, and so in order to get any in-person jobs, I would have to commute. And my husband does do that commute, but his hours are very unpredictable," Thorne said, "and so trying to find something where we can drive together would be impossible.

"It doesn't make sense for us to have a separate vehicle. And so for me, working from home has been a huge blessing because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to have work right now," she added.

Thorne said some of her co-workers have gone back to the office and she hears the stories behind why they didn't want to go back.

"I definitely appreciate that it's not an issue for me at this time. But I definitely think everybody has a valid reason for not wanting to be in the office," she said.

Video: Increased pay, flex hours and perks: Employers have to get creative to compete for talent

Thorne also said working from home has made a positive impact on her and her husband financially.

"(We don't have) to worry about the transportation costs and the logistics of it," she said.

For all these reasons, Thorne said she would like to see Canada legalize working from home.

Read more:
1 in 3 Canadians are willing to change jobs to keep working from home: Ipsos poll

An Ipsos poll released on May 6, showed that many Canadians want to continue working from home and were even willing to change jobs to find an employer that would let them.

The survey, conducted exclusively for Global News, found one in three Canadians (32 per cent) say that they’d look for another job if their employer forced them to work exclusively at an office.Fifteen per cent were found to have already changed jobs in the past year so that they could continue to work from home. And, almost 44 per cent acknowledged that their employer has now adopted flexible working arrangements where they didn’t exist prior to the pandemic.

Not everyone in Canada currently has the choice of working from home and some are fighting to make it happen.

With announcements from public health officials in federal, Ontario and Quebec jurisdictions confirming that the provinces are entering a seventh wave of COVID-19 infection, the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) -- the third-largest federal public service union in Canada -- has made a request to the Treasury Board Secretariat that all return-to-office plans be immediately suspended until the situation improves.

"CAPE is concerned with the serious and unnecessary risk to the health and safety of our members being required to return to the workplace amidst this seventh wave. Hospitals simply cannot handle any unnecessary increases in infection rates," said the union in a press release on July 12.

Read more:
Ontario 7th COVID wave expected to peak in 2 weeks, no mask mandate at this time, says Moore

CAPE said that allowing its members to work remotely is the best approach right now to eliminate the risk of contracting COVID-19 in the workplace.

As of Thursday, a spokesperson for CAPE said the union hasn't heard back from the board regarding the request.

A workplace culture expert says employers can offer flexible work and make it part of the workplace "without needing to change a single law."

"This seems like a story about flexible work, but it's a story about culture ... we can value people without needing to change a single law or even many of our policies internally," said Sarah McVanel, chief recognition officer and founder of Greatness Magnified, a company that helps organizations retain top talent and combat burnout.

"Flexibility is not necessarily working from home or working from home part of the time. Flexibility is a much bigger conversation," she added.

Read more:
Canada shed 43K jobs in June, marking 1st employment drop since January

McVanel said she's not sure if Canada can make working from home a legal right, but she sees many companies embracing the spirit.

"Many employers have decided to (offer flexible work arrangements) post-COVID-19 for a variety of reasons," she said. "It's because they saw benefits."

Video: Young employees searching for better benefits: RBC Insurance

According to McVanel, some of these benefits include the financial perks of closing down some of their offices. They found new ways to have people work and collaborate together and have seen innovations and technological advances by having to find ways to communicate and do work.

Read more:
Unemployment in Canada has dropped, yet some firms are struggling to hire. Here’s why

"They found productivity gains. Not all employers feel that ... and not everybody feels as comfortable having a remote, hybrid and in-person work environment too, so that's part of the challenge. And I feel for employers. They're trying to find a way through this," said McVanel.

She acknowledged that there are industries and careers where working from home is not an option, such as the airline industry, but that doesn't mean flexibility doesn't exist there too.

"Employers still need to identify some other way, a cultural glue, like recognizing and valuing people for coming in," McVanel said.

1932

Court documents detail RCMP investigation into Edmonton MLA's hacking of Alberta vaccine system

Newly unsealed court documents related to the RCMP’s months-long investigation into Edmonton-South MLA Thomas Dang’s hacking of Alberta’s vaccine passport system show officers were pursuing potential criminal charges up until at least the end of March.

Edmonton-South NDP MLA Thomas Dang calls for mandatory vaccinations for MLAs during a press conference at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, on Friday, Oct. 1, 2021. The Alberta NDP Deputy House Leader and Member Services Committee member demanded that Jason Kenney immediately eject unvaccinated MLAs from the United Conservative Party caucus. Photo by Ian Kucerak

Ashley Joannou - Edmonton Journal

The documents, including applications for search warrants and production orders, were unsealed by the court on Wednesday and released that evening by the UCP caucus.

Dang publicly admitted earlier this year, in interviews and a document that has since been pulled offline , that he used Premier Jason Kenney’s birthday and vaccine information to successfully access another citizen’s health care number and vaccine details. He claims he did it to highlight flaws in the system.

The court documents show officers thought they had grounds to believe a criminal offence — unauthorized use of a computer — had been committed. A person convicted of that offence can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Instead, Dang was charged in June under the province’s Health Information Act for allegedly illegally attempting to access private information. The maximum penalty for that, if convicted, is a fine of as much as $200,000. It’s unclear when or why the decision was made to not go ahead with criminal charges.

A spokesperson for Alberta Justice declined to comment Thursday because the case is before the court.

The court documents allege that when the vaccine passport website was launched in September 2021 it was “flooded with abnormal traffic.”

Many of those requests came through what’s known as a TOR network — a system designed to provide anonymity to a user by hiding their IP address using a relay system.

The court documents offer estimates of either 1.75 million or 1.78 million attempts being made using Kenney’s birthday, calling that a “brute force attack.”

Dang was not available for an interview Thursday. He has been sitting as an independant since December when he stepped down from the NDP caucus following the RCMP search warrant being issued.

In a statement, UCP government whip Brad Rutherford called the number of attempts “shocking” and suggested the NDP has been misleading Albertans in terms of what they knew.

According to the court documents, Dang told police that after his computer hit on a health-care number, he notified the NDP chief of staff, Jeremy Nolais, and NDP director of communications Benjamin Alldritt, provided Alldritt with “the basics of the flaw” and how it could be fixed.

In an email to Alberta Health communications director Steve Buick that day, Alldritt doesn’t name Dang, saying only that “a party” reached out, explaining the issue and adding “it’s possible that this is a prank, but their tone seems genuinely concerned. Hopefully the dept can look into this ASAP.”

When asked about that email in March, Alldritt told Postmedia that he brought the information to the health minister’s office within an hour of learning it.

“I presented it to him in a way that I hoped would spur action and I felt that, given the partisan nature of our relationship, that if I came on too strong he would not take the matter seriously,” he said at the time.

Rutherford believes “It is next to impossible” NDP Leader Rachel Notley’s didn’t know about “this sophisticated hacking scandal.”

Notley has said that when Dang raised the issue of problems with the website with NDP staff, a staffer informed the health ministry, but she was never aware of personal information being accessed, nor did she or her staff receive personal information.

“(Dang) didn’t alert us that he had hacked the website. What he said was that there had been an online conversation about the vulnerability of the website and he said, ‘I’ve confirmed this is true,’ ” Notley said, noting she was not privy to the conversation.

Dang has said he wants to both rejoin the caucus and run again for his seat.

Dang is scheduled to appear in court on the Health Information Act charge on July 27.

— With files from the Canadian Press

NFL World Reacts To The Roger Goodell Salary News

Tzvi Machlin - 

Back in 2020, Roger Goodell chose to take no salary due to the uncertainty of what was to come in the COVID-19 pandemic. Fast-forward to 2022 and Goodell is being rewarded... by getting all of that money he gave up back.


© Provided by The Spun

ATLANTA, GA - JANUARY 30: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a press conference during Super Bowl LIII Week at the NFL Media Center inside the Georgia World Congress Center on January 30, 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Mike Zarrilli/Getty Images)

According to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic, Goodell wound up making $63.9 million during the 2020-21 fiscal year. It was the same amount he had made in the previous fiscal year.

The obvious conclusion was that the NFL had rewarded Goodell by giving him a bonus that was identical to what he would've made in salary. The end result was record compensation.

Some fans are ripping Goodell for being terrible and are frustrated with how easily he gets away with things like this. Others can't help but admire Roger Goodell for his ability to always get his money, no matter what he does.

Roger Goodell has been a controversial figure among NFL fans for a long time. Many can't stand how much money he makes on the backs of players who may not get as much as they deserve.

Goodell has also received plenty of criticism for his handling of various controversies through the years.

Deflategate, CTE, domestic violence, team relocations, sponsorships, partnerships and toxic workplace allegations are just a few of the wide-ranging controversies that Goodell has been at the center of.

But he's consistently pleased the one group of people that matter most - the NFL owners. And so long as he has their stamp of approval, he'll get their money too.

Israeli museum finds sketches hidden in Modigliani painting

By ILAN BEN ZION

yesterday

Amadeo Modigliani's 1908 "Nude with a Hat," is hung upside down because another painting by him, "Maud Abrantes," on the reverse side of the same canvas is oriented correctly, while on display at Haifa University's Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, June 28, 2022. Curators at the museum using x-ray technology have discovered three previously unknown sketches by the celebrated 20th century artist hiding beneath the surface of the painting. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

HAIFA, Israel (AP) — Curators at an Israeli museum have discovered three previously unknown sketches by celebrated 20th-century artist Amedeo Modigliani hiding beneath the surface of one of his paintings.

The unfinished works by Modigliani, an Italian-born artist who worked in Paris before his death in 1920, came to light after the canvas of “Nude with a Hat” at the University of Haifa’s Hecht Museum was X-rayed as part of a sweeping forensic study of his work for an upcoming exhibit in Philadelphia.

Inna Berkowits, an art historian at the Hecht Museum, said it was “quite an amazing discovery.”

“Through the X-rays, we are really able to make this inanimate object speak,” she told The Associated Press.

Modigliani is considered one of the 20th century’s great Modernist artists. His lived a short, turbulent, Bohemian life in France, where his nude paintings were controversial. His work is typified by slender, elongated necks and faces, a signature style influenced by African and Cycladic Greek art that was just starting to arrive in France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Jewish artist died aged 35, penniless.

One of his paintings, “Reclining Nude,” fetched over $170 million when it was sold at auction in 2015, making it one of the most expensive paintings ever sold. Another was sold in 2018 for $157 million at auction.

The high demand for authentic Modigliani works has generated a thriving market for fakes and forgeries.

The last time Italy staged a big Modigliani show, a 2017 exhibit at Genoa’s Palazzo Ducale, museum officials closed the show early after experts alleged that many of the works on display were fakes. A criminal trial has been underway for over a year.

In 2018, X-ray technology revealed a previously unknown Modigliani portrait beneath one of his paintings at London’s Tate Gallery.

Modigliani’s 1908 “Nude with a Hat” is already an unusual painting. Both sides of the canvas have portraits that are painted in opposite directions. Visitors entering the Hecht Museum’s galleries are met by an upside down nude portrait. A likeness of Maud Abrantes, a female friend of the artist, on the reverse side is right-side up.

In 2010, the museum’s curator noticed the eyes of a third figure peeking from beneath Abrantes’ collar. But only this year was the hidden image brought into focus.

“When we decided to do the X-ray, we were only looking to learn a little bit more about the hidden figure underneath Maud Abrantes,” Berkowits said. In addition to a hidden woman wearing a hat, they found two more portraits on the opposite side that were completely invisible to the naked eye: one of a man, and another of a woman with her hair pulled up in a bun.

The “Nude with a Hat” dates from early in Modigliani’s career, not long after he moved to Paris from Italy, when he was struggling to find buyers for his art. The painting was purchased by the museum’s founder in 1983.

The canvas is now known to contain five of his paintings, likely painted one atop the other out of necessity to save money on new canvases. X-ray photography and other noninvasive technologies have found hidden works by other artists such as Degas and Rembrandt.

Berkowits called the artwork “a sketchbook on a canvas,” showing Modigliani’s repeated tries and “never-ending search for artistic expression.” She said there is “no doubt at all” that the painting is authentic.

“He was one of the very first multicultural artists who pulled inspiration from different sources,” said Kenneth Wayne, director of the Modigliani Project, an organization that is working to compile an authenticated collection of the artist’s works. He cited Modigliani’s contemporaries Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse as other examples.

Modigliani sought “an air of the strange and beauty” and achieved that through the incorporation of those foreign styles in his art, Wayne added. Wayne and his colleagues use scientific methods and art expertise to weed out fakes.

The X-ray photography was conducted ahead of a sweeping exhibition of Modigliani’s works at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Wayne said a growing number of technical studies like that by the Barnes Foundation have increased confidence in confirming genuine Modiglianis.

The foundation museum said the exhibit opens Oct. 16 and will explore the artist’s working methods and materials based on forensic study of dozens of Modigliani’s paintings and sculptures loaned from collections around the world.

Cost-of-living crisis to hit women hardest, report says

yesterday

FILE - Workers set the stage prior to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, Sunday, May 22, 2022. The World Economic Forum reported on Wednesday, July 13, 2022, that the cost-of-living crisis, sparked in part by higher fuel and food prices, is expected to hit women the hardest. 

(Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP, File)

GENEVA (AP) — A cost-of-living crisis sparked in part by higher fuel and food prices is expected to hit women the hardest, the World Economic Forum reported Wednesday, pointing to a widening gender gap in the global labor force.

The Geneva-based think tank and event organizer, best known for hosting an annual gathering of elites in the Swiss Alpine town of Davos, says a hoped-for recovery from a ballooning gender gap hasn’t materialized as expected as the COVID-19 crisis has eased.

The forum estimates that it will now take 132 years — down from 136 — for the world to reach gender parity, which the organization defines around four main factors: salaries and economic opportunity, education, health, and political empowerment.

A breakdown by country gave top marks to Iceland, followed by several Nordic countries and New Zealand, as well as Rwanda, Nicaragua and Namibia. Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, came in 10th place in the report of 146 countries. Further down the list were the world’s biggest economies: the U.S. was at No. 27, China at No. 102 and Japan at No. 116.



Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the forum, say women have been disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis following labor market losses during the pandemic and insufficient “care infrastructure” — such as for the elderly or children.

“In face of a weak recovery, government and business must make two sets of efforts: targeted policies to support women’s return to the workforce and women’s talent development in the industries of the future,” she said. “Otherwise, we risk eroding the gains of the last decades permanently and losing out on the future economic returns of diversity.”

The report, now in its 16th year, aims to track shocks to the labor market that can impact the gender gap.