CSI Blog & Newsroom

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“Thousands of Canadian residents are facing massive tax bills because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s December tax reform, CBC News has learned,” wrote Elizabeth Thompson for CBC News on April 30, 2018.

Thompson continued, “Canadian residents with U.S. or dual citizenship who own Canadian corporations are being slapped by an American measure meant to get big U.S. multinationals to stop parking billions of dollars in offshore subsidiaries — a one-time retroactive tax being levied on all of their companies’ retained earnings going back to 1986.

Tax lawyers and accountants say they are struggling to find strategies to soften the blow of what one of them calls a “nightmare” situation for their clients.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Nathan Fertig

“The average price of a Canadian home sold last month was just over $491,000, a 10 per cent drop in the past year,” wrote Pete Evans for CBC News on April 13, 2018.

Evans continued, “The Canadian Real Estate Association said Friday that the number of homes sold also plunged, by almost a quarter from the same month a year ago, which was the best March for home sales on record.

The real estate group blamed recent mortgage rule changes for wreaking havoc on the market, creating feverish demand for starter homes, but making it much harder to move up.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Ilya Yakover

“More than half of your body is not human, say scientists.

Human cells make up only 43% of the body’s total cell count. The rest are microscopic colonists,” wrote James Gallagher, Presenter, The Second Genome, BBC Radio 4 for BBC News on April 10, 2018.

Gallagher continued, “Understanding this hidden half of ourselves – our microbiome – is rapidly transforming understanding of diseases from allergy to Parkinson’s.

The field is even asking questions of what it means to be “human” and is leading to new innovative treatments as a result.

“They are essential to your health,” says Prof Ruth Ley, the director of the department of microbiome science at the Max Planck Institute, “your body isn’t just you”.

No matter how well you wash, nearly every nook and cranny of your body is covered in microscopic creatures.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Tim Gouw

“The lawyer for a Nanaimo, B.C., couple who won a groundbreaking award for damages because of malicious prosecution by the Canada Revenue Agency says the minister of national revenue owes his clients an apology,” wrote Jason Proctor for CBC News on March 7, 2018.

Proctor continued, “Steven Kelliher also said that, while Tony and Helen Samaroo have been acquitted of tax evasion in criminal court and awarded $1.7 million for mistreatment in civil court, the CRA still appears bent on pursuing them in tax court. 

“What does it take? What does it take to tell these people they made a mistake and move on? This is all about them being right and a bit of vengeance thrown in,” he said to CBC News.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Rawpixel.com

“A B.C. Supreme Court judge has slammed the Canada Revenue Agency for suppressing and misstating evidence in its zeal to prosecute a Vancouver Island couple for tax evasion,” wrote Jason Proctor for CBC News on March 5, 2018.

Proctor continued, “In a blistering 70-page ruling, Justice Robert Punnett ordered the CRA to pay Tony and Helen Samaroo nearly $1.7 million in damages for malicious prosecution of a deeply flawed case that ruined their reputations.

“A government agency maliciously used the criminal justice system to pursue the plaintiffs, and its wrongful conduct continued into the criminal trial itself. The CRA was seeking substantial terms of imprisonment and significant penalties. The manner in which the prosecution was initiated and carried out was egregious. It must be denounced,” Punnett wrote.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Suvan Chowdhury

“Having a nervous personality could boost your chances of being bitten by a dog,” wrote Kennedy Schmidt for CBC News on February 10, 2018.

Schmidt continued, “Results from a recent survey compiled by the University of Liverpool show that those who scored as being more “emotionally stable” on a personality test were less likely to be bitten by a dog.

The research could have consequences for anyone who has ever cowered in the presence of a dog, even if they may not be able to control their emotional responses enough to avoid being bitten. 

Experts say that although a dog’s reason for becoming excited or upset may be hard to pinpoint, the actions that follow will most likely depend on how a person responds to the animal.”

Read the full article here. 

Photographer: Wilfred Iven

“Investors’ collective high over Canada’s burgeoning marijuana industry has evaporated, to be replaced by a comedown,” wrote Jen Skerritt for Bloomberg News published on The Globe and Mail on February 2, 2018.

Skerritt continued, “Marijuana stocks tumbled Friday amid a wave of “panic-selling” and concern that companies that had seen ballooning share prices recently are now overvalued. The BI Canada Cannabis Index plunged as much as 19 per cent, its biggest intraday drop on record, while the nation’s largest producers including Canopy Growth Corp. and Aurora Cannabis Inc. tumbled more than 40 per cent from their January highs.”

Photographer: Benjamin Child

“Call centre employees working for Rogers Communications say the telecom company is pressuring them to try to make a sale on every call — even to elderly people who don’t understand or need certain products or services,” wrote Erica Johnson for CBC News on January 14, 2018.

Johnson continued, “In emails and interviews with Go Public, dozens of Rogers workers say they’re under “extreme pressure” to hit sales targets or risk termination.

Their claims come on the heels of Bell Canada workers revealing similar pressures to upsell customers, often at the expense of ethics.

“You’re supposed to look at a customer’s account and sell them cable, home phone, home security, a credit card — whatever is missing,” says an employee who currently works at Rogers’ major call centre in Ottawa and has asked CBC to conceal his identity to avoid retribution in his workplace

He says even when people are off sick, their sales targets aren’t adjusted unless they go on short-term disability, “so you’re at home, trying to get better, but stressing about how you’re going to keep your job.”

He admits when he is “desperate” to earn sales points, he signs up seniors for internet service, and then tells them a technician is going to come to their house “to install a modem for their TV” — modems are required for internet, not TV.”

Photographer: Michal Jarmoluk

“Canadians are feeling increasingly worried about their personal debt, with an increasing number close to being unable to pay the bills every month as higher interest rates start to make an impact, a new Ipsos survey suggests,” wrote Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani for CBC News on January 16, 2018.

Naidu-Ghelani continued, “More than a third of the over 2,000 respondents to an online survey done for the MNP Debt Index said they have no money left at the end of the month after paying bills and are unable to cover their payments.

In the online survey, conducted by Ipsos in December for insolvency trustee MNP Ltd., nearly half of the Canadians surveyed — 48 per cent — said they are now $200 or less away from not being able to meet their monthly financial obligations.

The 48 per cent figure is eight points higher than the same survey in September.

Because it was an online poll, the MNP survey applied various quotas and weighting factors to the results, to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects the overall population according to census information. But because it was compiled online, it is not randomized — and as such does not have a margin of error that can be expressed like it can be in randomized telephone or in-person polls.”

Photographer: Volkan Olmez

“”It was like being wrapped in flaming barbed wire.”

That’s how Erin Bell, a 48-year-old nutritionist from Peterborough, Ont., describes having shingles,” wrote Andre Picard for The Globe and Mail on January 1, 2018.

Picard continued, “She got shingles at age 42 and the itchy, unsightly blisters that stretched across her torso faded away relatively quickly, but the nerve pain lasted for more than four months.

Joan Robicheau, a 61-year-old Montreal teacher, agrees.