Life in Canada

Misleading Advertising and Labeling another example of Canadian Veneer

Recently I have had on several occasions made purchases from my local superstores and found that the frozen product and chilled products have up to 35% water built into the weight I used simple everyday techniques to establish the water content..like weighing the product before and after de-frost carefully removing the water content and weighing it. The figures center around the water content of chicken bacon and the highest water content..FISH. Have you noticed large amounts of water after defrost..if so email me together we can do something to stop this scam. We are purchasing very expensive water and throwing it away. Of course at a price per pound or kilogram the Government do not care its tax on the supplier and selling monopolies profits..nice thank you.!

The misleading advertising and labeling provisions enforced by the Competition Bureau prohibit making any deceptive representations for the purpose of promoting a product or a business interest, and encourage the provision of sufficient information to allow consumers to make informed choices. We really need this agency, its the only way we currently have of protecting ourselves from corporate greed. Our news - media are in my opinion impotent

The false or misleading representations and deceptive marketing practices provisions of the Competition Act contain a general prohibition against all materially false or misleading representations. They also prohibit making performance representations which are not based on adequate and proper tests, misleading warranties and guarantees, false or misleading ordinary selling price representations, untrue, misleading or unauthorized use of tests and testimonials, bait and switch selling, double ticketing and the sale of a product above its advertised price. Further, the promotional contest provisions prohibit contests that do not disclose required information.

The Consumer Packaging and Labeling Act, Textile Labeling Act and Precious Metals Marking Act all contain prohibitions regarding false or misleading representations. They also require certain labeling or marking information aimed at assisting consumers in making informed purchasing decisions.

False or misleading representations

The Competition Act provides criminal and civil regimes to address false or misleading representations. Under both regimes, the Act prohibits the making, or the permitting of the making, of a representation to the public, in any form whatever, that is false or misleading in a material respect.

For more information

Visit our False or Misleading Representations and Deceptive Marketing Practices sites.

Michael Jackson's estate has made more than $1bn (£677m) since his death a year ago, according to estimates by trade paper Billboard.

The magazine says Jackson's album sales have generated about $383m (£259m), while revenue from the film This Is It has hit nearly $400m (£271m).

Profits from publishing rights, licensing and touring are also included in the total.

A new recording contract is estimated to have made $31m (£21m) so far.

The Sony Music Entertainment deal will see 10 albums of the late singer's music released over the next seven years, including one of previously unreleased material.

The estate is guaranteed between $200m (£135m) and $250m (£169.5m) for the deal but Billboard believes approximately $31m (£21m) of this will have been paid in the last 12 months.
Publishing profits

Despite the This Is It tour never getting off the ground, revenue from tickets retained by fans as souvenirs and not refunded brought in about $6.5m (£4.4m), with merchandise raking in $5m (£3.4m), although concert promoter AEG has a cut of these profits.

Jackson's music publishing company, Mijac, currently has a value of around $150m (£102m), according to Billboard.

The magazine said Mijac could have generated as much as $50m (£33.9m) in the last year.

Jackson's estate also owns half of music publishing company, Sony/ATV.

Barry Massarsky of Massarsky Consulting estimated that Jackson's share of Sony/ATV's revenue is $80m (£54.3m) a year.

Other profits have come from DVD sales and rentals, downloads, royalties and ringtones.

Jackson died on 25 June last year at the age of 50.

OTTAWA - Dozens of workers at Canada's tax agency have been caught snooping on their ex-spouses, mothers-in-law, creditors and others by reading confidential tax files.

Internal reports at the Canada Revenue Agency show that rogue employees are improperly reviewing the private financial affairs of taxpayers without their knowledge.

And some are using agency computers to give favoured treatment to colleagues, friends, family — and themselves.

In one egregious breach last October, a woman accessed 37,500 emails and 776 documents containing confidential financial information about ordinary Canadians. She downloaded the files onto 17 compact discs for her personal use, inexplicably helped by agency technicians.

Documents outlining the forbidden invasions into private tax data were obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

In one case, a worker secretly operated a business on the side with her spouse, and between 2004 and 2009 "accessed the accounts of two creditors and the spouse of one of those creditors."

Another worker was found to have inspected his spouse's tax information 69 times without permission.

A woman in one unidentified office poked into the agency's data looking for confidential information on colleagues, friends and family — apparently to give them a break on their taxes.

"The employee made unauthorized access to the tax information of three colleagues and to the tax information of a colleague's daughter, spouse and mother," says one report.

"She accessed her own tax information and the tax information (of) 13 relatives.... She provided preferential treatment to colleagues, relatives and acquaintances."

Agency gumshoes then stumbled on a secret cell of snoopers in the same location.

"The investigation also determined that 13 other employees of the same office made unauthorized accesses to taxpayer information. Of the 13 employees, 10 provided preferential treatment to taxpayers, five accessed their own tax information, four received preferential treatment ..."

Another worker peeked at secret agency information about two companies she operated on the side — while those firms were undergoing tax audits.

"In addition, the employee made extensive unauthorized accesses to the taxpayer information of friends and family members and hundreds of other individuals."

Yet another investigation found an employee peering into the electronic tax files of two of her spouse's business partners, though the motive is not specified.

The documents show that ex-spouses are sometimes targeted, for reasons not made clear in the heavily censored material from September and October last year. Family members were also a favoured target.

Some workers who were caught claimed they were simply helping relatives file their income-tax forms.

But one worker admitted using the CRA computer system and confidential tax information to issue himself a false charitable donation receipt for $3,000, thus reducing his income-tax payable.

Agency records for 2008-2009 show there were 29 cases in which workers were caught accessing taxpayer records without authorization, about the annual average for the last five years. And there were a dozen instances in 2008-2009 in which tax records were improperly disclosed to third parties.

All information about disciplinary measures taken against staff who broke the rules is censored in the released documents. But in several cases, the agency appeared to be lenient with long-term employees.

"The employee admitted that she accessed the taxpayer information belonging to a former employer, her relatives including her mother, her father, her sister and her brother, as well as the information belonging to her former spouse," says one report.

In deciding on discipline, "management took into consideration the employee's years of service, her good employment record and her co-operation with the investigation."

A spokesman for the agency said the number of breaches is relatively small, given that there are more than 40,000 employees.

"While the number of unauthorized access incidents is not large, the agency consistently continues to review its activities to enhance ... prevention, detection and deterrence," Noel Carisse said in an email response to questions.

Carisse said taxpayers are not always informed when workers improperly access files because the breach may be judged too minor. But taxpayers whose information is improperly disclosed to third parties are almost always alerted by telephone or mail.

"The (CRA) assessment will almost always lead to the conclusion that injury to the taxpayer is likely, or has already occurred," he said, referring to disclosures.

Carisse did not provide information on the numbers of employees suspended, fired or criminally charged for such breaches, but said the agency has a "strict and enforced Code of Ethics and Conduct."

"While any unauthorized access is unacceptable, the agency believes that the current numbers indicate that the agency is doing a good job protecting taxpayer information."

He declined to provide any further information on the worker who downloaded 37,500 emails and 776 documents, saying only that the investigation continues.

There have been previous reports of isolated security breaches by insiders at the tax agency.

CTV News reported last year, for example, that a tax agency worker was found to be leaking confidential information to a violent gang in British Columbia. The worker was suspended months after the agency was first alerted to the problem through a police wiretap.

Canada stun gun death 'not justified'

Canadian police officers were not justified in using a taser gun on a Polish immigrant who later died, an inquiry has found.

Robert Dziekanski, who did not speak English, died after being stunned five times with a Taser gun at Vancouver airport in 2007.

The district attorney general has said that a special prosecutor would look into possible criminal charges against the four officers involved.

The case sparked outrage across Canada.

Mr Dziekanski, 40, was a first-time traveller who had been emigrating to Canada, where his mother lived.

He disappeared for 10 hours at Vancouver airport, and grew distressed when he was told by an official that his mother was not there. Airport workers called police after he threw a computer and a chair.

'Shameful'
Thomas Braidwood, the head of the inquiry commission, said that police had not been justified in using the Taser, and that Mr Dziekanski had not posed a threat to the officers, as had been claimed.

He said that the five jolts and the ensuing struggle with police had "contributed substantially to Mr Dziekanski's death".

The inquiry was set up after a video, filmed by a bystander, was released to the media.

Mr Braidwood said the video "shocked and repulsed people around the world".

Before his death, Mr Dziekanski reportedly asked the policemen: "Have you lost your minds?"

The commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, William Elliott, apologised to Mr Dziekanski's mother, Zofia Cisowski.

"I would like to express sincere regrets and apologise unconditionally for the role of the RCMP in this tragic death.

"Our policies and training were inadequate. The actions of our officers were inappropriate," he said at a news conference.

One of the officers involved is already suspended due to an investigation into a separate incident, while the other three remain in their positions but are not involved in "front-line policing", he said.

A single dose of radiation during surgery is just as effective as a prolonged course of radiotherapy for breast cancer, a study suggests.

Doctors have tested the technique, which involves a single shot of radiotherapy to a tumor site, in more than 2,000 patients.

It could save the UK £15m a year, the researchers said. Cancer Research UK said The Lancet study could have a "huge impact" for patients.

The researchers also said using the one-stop procedure would be more convenient for patients and cut waiting lists.

Treatment to surgically remove cancerous breast tissue is the starting point of treatment for thousands of women in Britain each year. This is often followed up with weeks of radiotherapy to the whole breast to kill any remaining cancer cells. But with the new technique, doctors use a mobile radiotherapy machine that can be inserted into the breast to target the exact site of the cancer.

Led by a UK team, but carried out in nine countries, the four-year trial in women over 45 showed similar rates of disease recurrence regardless of the treatment used. There were six cases of the disease returning in those who had the new single-dose technique and five cases in those undergoing a prolonged course of radiotherapy. As a bonus the single dose during surgery avoids potential damage to organs such as the heart, lung, and oesophagus, which can occur during radiation to the whole breast, the researchers said.

The frequency of any complications and major toxic effects was similar in the two groups.

University College London Hospitals (UCLH) oncologist Prof Jeffrey Tobias, who enrolled the first patient on the trial at the former Middlesex Hospital in London with oncologist Jayant Vaidya, said: "I think the reason why it works so well is because of the precision of the treatment. It eradicates the very highest risk area - the part of the breast from which the tumour was removed."

Meanwhile, Mr Vaidya, who is also a UCLH oncologist, said the new treatment "could mean that many more women could conserve their breasts".

Josephine Ford, 80, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2008 and was successfully treated with this form of treatment three months later.

She said this approach "simplified everything and made the process less traumatic".
She said that it made her life "so much easier" since she "didn't have to come back to the radiotherapy department on a daily basis for five or six weeks".
'Exciting prospect'

While optimistic about the results, the researchers stressed the findings were only applicable to women with a similar type of breast cancer as those in the trial.

But they added: "Treatment of patients with breast cancer accounts for about a third of the workload of radiotherapy departments in some parts of the world and contributes substantially to the unacceptable waiting lists seen in many oncology departments worldwide.

"In countries such as the UK where the waiting list for postoperative radiotherapy could rapidly diminish with use of targeted intraoperative radiotherapy, we estimate savings of around £15m a year."

Kate Law, director of clinical research at Cancer Research UK, said: "Radiotherapy is already a very effective treatment, so improving that even further is an exciting prospect. "Further follow-up of these women will be needed to confirm whether this strategy not only makes the most of the therapy's power but also minimises any long-term side effects."