Bits and Bites from Around the World > Burning train rolls through London, Ontario

 

Train goes up in flames while rolling through

London, Ont. Here’s what we know

By Jacquelyn LeBel  Global News

Posted April 22, 2024 7:51 am

 Updated April 22, 2024 12:40 pm

 2 min read

CPKC's rail cars catch fire, blazing trail to London, Ont.

A CPKC train with five railcars went up in flames as it was travelling in London,

Ont., on Sunday night.

Platoon chief Colin Shewall said the railcars were carrying used wooden railway ties, which are used in laying railway tracks, and no injuries were reported.

“My understanding is the locomotives were tested recently for any type of emissions, and they passed that,” Shewell said.

“The train crew disconnected the cars that were on fire with some possible dangerous goods that were on board other cars that were empty, but still a threat.”

Still, residents in the area were urged to stay inside with windows shut because of heavy smoke just south of Oxford Street between Richmond and Waterloo streets.

The London Fire Department said multiple 911 calls came in from residents in the west end of the city at 10:49 p.m. The train continued travelling, heading eastbound to downtown, before coming to stop at Waterloo and Pall Mall streets.

“At the height of the incident, we had about 28 firefighters and 10 apparatus on scene,” Shewell said.

Crews focused on protecting the Drewlo Holdings building from smoke and fire damage and used about 250 litres of foam to get the fire down.

By 12:30 a.m. Monday, firefighters lifted the request for residents to stay indoors with windows shut, saying there was no more smoke in the area.

Shortly after 1 a.m., fire crews began clearing the scene and CP crews moved the train cars to the railway yard that stretches between Adelaide and Quebec streets, just north of Central Avenue.

Eight firefighters and two apparatus were then dispatched to the yard to finish dousing hot spots, using a “T-Rex Aerial Truck,” the fire department said, and remained there until around 4:30 a.m.

Damage is pegged at $25,000 for any maintenance required due to heat stress on the rail cars and $10,000 to the Drewlo Holding building at Waterloo and Pall Mall streets (formerly the Siskinds building).

Shewell said the railway company was investigating the cause of the fire but that “at this point it’s deemed obviously suspicious until proven otherwise.”

A CPKC spokesperson said only that the incident “remains under investigation.” They also extended thanks to London’s first responders for their “effective response.”

Shewell also took the opportunity to praise the co-operation involved in responding to the fire, particularly from the rail crews.

“We called our partners at city hall to make sure that we were looking after any runoff into the water system, and that was looked after,” he said.

“We worked in conjunction, unified command, with CP rail as well.… The crews crew did a great job, the conductor and engineer also supplied us with pertinent information of what we were exactly dealing with. I can’t say enough about CP employees all around that helped make sure that we could bring this situation under control.”

— with files from Global News’ Ben Harrietha

Shariah Law Makes a Comeback in Ontario

Tarek Fatah

Toronto SUN 

Invisible woman under Shariah (Getty Images)

Two Muslim men — an activist turned Shariah mortgage seller and an Islamic cleric who sold his Islamic seal of approval on such mortgages — were acquitted on Friday of a dozen criminal charges by an Ontario Superior Court judge who validated aspects of Sharia law in reaching her decision. Justice Jane Ferguson described the trial as a “huge learning curve in Islamic finance.”

Shariah in Canada?

But what happened to the declaration by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, on September 11, 2005, that “there will be no Shariah law in Ontario”?

It wasn’t just Ontario. Earlier that year, on May 26, 2005, the Quebec National Assembly voted unanimously for “a motion against allowing Shariah to be used in the legal system.”

Speaking for the motion, Fatima Houda-Pepin, then a Liberal member of the legislature, said: “The application of sharia in Canada is part of a strategy to isolate the Muslim community.”

And prevent them from melding into Canadian society!

And now comes this 68-page judgement of Justice Ferguson in the case of Omar Kalair and Imam Yusuf Panchbaya who were alleged by the Crown to have unlawfully taken millions of dollars in mortgage money from Kalair’s Shariah-compliant mortgage company. The two accused were charged with theft, fraud and money laundering that involved 15 gold bars that are still missing, silver coins and a $2 million fatwa fee by the Islamic clerics.

The complex plot involves a tiny minority of Muslim homeowners in the GTA who were warned by Islamic scholars that taking a conventional mortgage from a bank was an act of sin as it involved paying interest to the loaner. The overwhelming majority of Muslims, however, know that Shariah mortgages promoted by Mullahs are akin to priests selling indulgences. By simply changing the word ‘interest’ and calling it a ‘fee’ the transaction supposedly becomes Islamic.

Justice Ferguson in her decision stated: “Even if Kalair’s understanding of the application of Shariah law was wrong in law, I find he honestly believed at all times, and had reasonable grounds to believe, that he was acting appropriately under the circumstances.”

Justice Ferguson ruled the Crown had not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Ontario Superior Court judge relied on testimony by an overseas expert named Abdel Qader Thomas who appeared via video to educate the court about Islamic financial products, and who Justice Ferguson credited for educating her about Islamic banking terminology.

In her judgement, Justice Ferguson writes: “I initially believed that an unwillingness to pay conventional interest on a loan appears “bizarre” until I learned that the payment of interest is considered a serious sin in the Islamic faith and violates a central pillar of Shariah law. This understanding was essential in my understanding of Kalair’s operating mind. Thomas’ evidence was also educative regarding industry standards against which Kalair’s conduct must be assessed.”

Justice Ferguson shared facets of Islamic culture that she picked up in what she referred to as her “steep learning curve.”

Commenting on the 15 gold bars paid to Islamic scholars instead of a cheque to the amount of $2 million, she wrote: “There is a cultural attraction to gold in Islamic communities. Gold has an ancient religious connection to Islam as one of the six staple goods mentioned in the Quran.”

However, as Australian Imam Muhammad Tawhidi, currently in Toronto, told me: “Muslim men are prohibited from wearing gold and silk.” He added, “this was a directive from Prophet Muhammad himself, not some latter-day scholar in the Arab Gulf.”

After the judgement, Omar Kalair boasted in a statement: “This [decision by Justice Ferguson] in my view, is a victory not only for myself but for the Islamic finance industry, that actions we take due to our religion [Islam] are accepted in certain courts .”

This can't be allowed to stand!

War on Christianity - The Trudeau Government Still Refusing Funding for Christian Summer Camps for Kids

Group to go to court after Bible camps denied

federal summer jobs grant

Applications are refused if the organization's activities

'work to undermine or restrict' abortion rights

Michael Tutton · The Canadian Press 

The federal government is being sued over its denial of a Canada summer jobs grant to Bible camps

in Ontario and Nova Scotia. (The Associated Press)

A legal group is taking Ottawa to court over its denial of jobs grants for Bible camps in Ontario and Nova Scotia, with the camp's operators suggesting the rejection is due to their evangelical beliefs.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said it will seek to overturn the federal refusal to fund summer counsellors for the two Bible Centered Ministries camps in Cooks Brook, 70 kilometres northeast of Halifax, and near Omemee, Ont., west of Peterborough.

John Carpay, the founder of the Calgary-based centre, said Tuesday the group will ask Federal Court to declare that the rejection unreasonably "interferes with the camps' rights to religious freedom." The application is expected to be filed this week.

The official reason given in the rejection letter from Service Canada is that the camps did not demonstrate "that measures have been implemented to provide a workplace free of harassment and discrimination." The letter said there's no possibility of appeal.

Abortion issue

However, Phil Whitehead, executive director of the camps, said in a telephone interview the camps provided comprehensive copies of discrimination and harassment policies, including its anti-bullying measures. He said he suspects Ottawa is refusing the two camps' applications for funding of about eight counsellors because it has an evangelical Christian background that includes opposition to abortion.

Last December, the federal Liberal government was pressured into dropping contentious wording in its summer jobs program that tied pro-abortion beliefs to funding eligibility.

Instead, Ottawa reworked the 2019 version of the program to require that groups show neither their core mandate nor the jobs being funded actively worked to undermine constitutional, human and reproductive rights.

Legal action

Employment and Social Development Canada declined comment on the camps' specific application and argument. It said in an email Monday that applicants in general were given the opportunity to provide added information on their projects and "needed to demonstrate that they didn't include ineligible activities."

Carpay said his group will ask the court for a declaration that the minister's decisions were unreasonable. He said the camps had received funding for close to a decade before Ottawa introduced its new policies last year. Carpay also said his group decided to take the case to court because the government's decision was considered final.

"The only way to deal with it is to go to court," he said. "The government had more than a fair chance to provide clear reasons for its denial ... there's no intelligible explanation that's come with it."

'We're here to minister to kids'

Whitehead said the camps will proceed regardless of the funding, drawing on funds raised privately by his group. He said more than 600 children aged between eight and 15 attend the two camps annually.

Bible study is included in camp activities, but the topics of reproductive rights and sexual orientation are not part of the curriculum, Whitehead said. "Summer camp is not about that," he said.

"We're here to reach kids. We're here to minister to kids. Nowhere on our website, nowhere in our material do we even address that [abortion]."

I wonder if it has less to do with abortion and more to do with LGBTQ rights? In any event, it is an obvious thrust by the far-left Liberal government of Canada to elevate LGBTQ and abortion rights over freedom of worship, specifically evangelical Christianity.

Corruption is Everywhere - But in Canadian Politics? Collingwood

Ex-Liberal MP made $1M on Ontario town deals

while sister was mayor, inquiry reveals

Dave Seglins · CBC News 

Former Liberal MP Paul Bonwick's consulting work for companies doing business in Collingwood, Ont., is under scrutiny.

He was awarded for the work while his sister, Sandra Cooper, was mayor of the resort town, northwest of Toronto.

(Metroland and Dave Seglins/CBC)

Former Ontario Liberal MP, the Hon. Paul Bonwick, earned more than $1 million in consultant's fees on a series of backroom deals involving public money while his sister was a local mayor, a judicial inquiry has revealed.

Public hearings got underway Monday in the ski and summer vacation town of Collingwood, Ont., northwest of Toronto, with inquiry lawyers making public key emails and documents from 440,000 pages of evidence they've gathered.

Town council called the probe after Ontario Provincial Police began investigating the multimillion-dollar sell-off of part of Collingwood's power utility and allegations of improper influence and kickbacks involving the proceeds.

Bonwick told CBC News Monday that he and his company, Compenso Communications, performed "a broad range of consulting services" to earn the money and flatly denies any collusion with his sister, town officials or utility insiders to gain an unfair advantage.

"Absolutely not," Boniwck said in an email, saying he never improperly obtained insider information. "No. Nothing deemed confidential or that wasn't accessible by other parties if requested," Bonwick wrote.

Public hearings got underway Monday into town deals in Collingwood, Ont., that netted

former Liberal MP Paul Bonwick about $1 million in consulting fees. (Dave Seglins/CBC)

The current mayor, Brian Saunderson, elected last fall says he pushed for this inquiry while sitting on the previous council.

"I think the public deserves to know what happened," Saunderson said at the outset of the hearings. "The things that happened here in Collingwood are really not unique. They are things that could happen in any small community."

No one has been charged. The OPP investigation continues.

The public inquiry is to hold hearings through June and deliver its findings in the fall.

Insiders paid bonuses 

Bonwick, MP for Simcoe-Grey from 1997 until 2004, is one of the key subjects of the inquiry over his roles as both a consultant — and as brother to former mayor Sandra Cooper.

Bonwick was a paid consultant for PowerStream, which in 2012 bought a 50-per-cent stake in Collingwood's power utility, Collus, despite the town receiving a much higher bid from another potential buyer.

Former MP Paul Bonwick received consulting fees for the sell-off of Collingwood's public power utility, as well as projects

to build membrane structures atop the town's rink and the Collingwood Centennial Aquatic Centre, seen in this photo.

(Dave Seglins/CBC)

The public was never told — and the then-mayor never disclosed — that her brother was involved in the multimillion-dollar sell-off.

Inquiry records released last week revealed for the first time that a number of utility insiders were paid bonuses, and that Bonwick — who worked closely with them and his sister in the mayor's office to help PowerStream clinch the deal — made $323,000 in fees.

The records also suggest PowerStream had insider information and special access to Collingwood council during the bidding.

"It paints a picture which is yet to be proven of a very flawed process that ended up in a deal that brought a subpar return for our taxpayers and will continue to haunt taxpayers for years to come," Mayor Saunderson said.

$756K in fees from construction deal

The public inquiry will also examine what Collingwood officials did with the millions in proceeds from the sale, including $12.4 million the town spent on a sole-sourced contract to build dome structures over a town pool and skating rink.

CBC News last summer revealed that Bonwick secretly made an additional $756,000 fee as a consultant for BLT Construction, helping the firm land the deal with the town in record time with little public scrutiny.

OPP investigators allege Bonwick's role was "shrouded in various layers of secrecy and is evidence of fraudulent activity — to which the Town of Collingwood is the victim," according to a 2014 search warrant.

In the court document, the OPP also accused Bonwick of working closely with the town's then-chief administrative officer Ed Houghton who police suspected of breach of trust for his role.

While the OPP investigation continues, none of those allegations has ever been tested in court and police have charged no one.

Bonwick says the public doesn't have all the facts.

"I remain hopeful that as the inquiry gets underway, and the subsequent recommendations that will be provided by Justice (Frank) Marrocco, a much more clear understanding of the events leading up to the sale of the utility will be made available to the public," Bonwick told CBC News.

Bonwick is attending the inquiry representing himself. He was denied funding for a lawyer in an ongoing dispute with the municipality. Town officials won't offer financial assistance, claiming Bonwick has failed to disclose details about his personal finances to justify support.

Bonwick's sister, ex-mayor Sandra Cooper, is being called to testify at the inquiry.

She has declined numerous opportunities to comment and has hung up on CBC News when asked over the telephone about her brother's role in town deals under her watch.

Houghton, the former town CAO, who also served as president of the utility at the time of the sell-off, has denied any wrongdoing in responses to questions from CBC News.

Collingwood has already changed its own conflict of interest policies to prohibit elected officials from making decisions on deals when a sibling is involved, something not currently prohibited by provincial legislation.

Mayor Saunderson says other small- and medium-sized municipalities across Canada can learn from the Collingwood inquiry, as local governments take on more responsibilities, and face less scrutiny in an age of shrinking media.

"We're increasingly at risk. In the last five years we have seen the closure of the Enterprise Bulletin, which was a newspaper that had been in town for 150 years. Our local TV station is less active. Our fifth estate is not there to shine a light on things."

Inquiry lead counsel Kate McGrann says hearings will continue until mid-June, with the presiding judge to deliver findings and recommendations later this year.

"We're looking to be able to explain to everyone what happened. The people of the town of Collingwood would like to understand what happened when the town sold half of its shares in the public utility." McGrann said in an interview, noting the inquiry will follow the money trail of all involved.

"The inquiry is here to do very specific things. Investigate. Report. And make recommendations."

Foreign-Funded Activist Group Helping Andrea Horwath's NDP in Ontario Election

In my rant last week I accused foreign money of being behind the NDP resurgence in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, and probably elsewhere. Here, Brian Lilley explains how democracy in Canada is being usurped by foreign liberal billionaires. Makes one wonder if Lord Christopher Monkton was telling the truth.

Brian Lilley
Toronto SUN

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath speaks with senior citizen homeowners at a campaign event in Mississauga, Ont., on Saturday, June 2, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

If Andrea Horwath wakes up as Premier of Ontario on June 8, she may have a shadowy foreign-funded group out of Vancouver to thank for her win.

Leadnow was set up in British Columbia in 2011 by a pair of young Canadians with the full support of a Tides Foundation backed group that sought to organize for left-wing causes.

In the 2015 federal election, Leadnow targeted 29 ridings held by Conservatives and took credit for dumping the Tories from 25 of them.

Now this group, which runs shadow campaigns to get their preferred candidate elected, is working the Ontario election.

Leadnow is working to make sure Doug Ford isn’t elected Premier with their #NeverFord campaign. They are even targeting Ford in his own riding of Etobicoke North to block his local win.

Ontario PC leader Doug Ford greets supporters as he arrives for a breakfast meet and greet in Ottawa on Saturday, June 2, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

“If enough of us make calls, we can boost voter turnout enough to tip the scales of local races and deny local PCs their seats,” Leadnow says on their website.

They ask people to sign up with a form on their website to get instructions on how to make calls from their own homes.

“We’ll send you everything you need to get started: instructions, a script, and FAQs.”

The script instructs volunteers to hang up on PC voters and encourage backers of “progressive” parties to get out and vote.

Leadnow is trying to call 50,000 people in Ontario by June 7th with one simple message, don’t vote for Ford or the PC Party. They currently have phonebanking events — group calling essentially — set up for Belleville, Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, Brantford and plenty of small towns.

The crazy thing is, none of this activity counts as a third-party election activity under Ontario law. Each of the 50 registered third parties can spend $101,800 during the official election campaign on advertising.

And that money must be raised in Ontario.

Leadnow is doing some advertising but is mainly using a complex and expensive phone system to reach voters. This system allows anyone, from anywhere, to log in and call voters, urging them to vote the left way.

None of those expenses are covered by the third-party changes brought in by Kathleen Wynne.

Setting up an expensive phone system not only isn’t covered by the law, it can be completely funded by money from outside of Ontario or even outside the country. In the past, Leadnow has admitted as much as 20% of their money comes from outside of Canada.

Leadnow is also the only one of 50 registered groups with an address outside of Ontario. They are also far more sophisticated in directly reaching voters than any other group.

Why is a Vancouver-based group, substantially funded and founded by American billionaires through a San Francisco based foundation working against Ontario’s PC Party?

Because this is what they do.

Leadnow is one of the many third-party groups, often funded by wealthy Americans, that have one mission. Stop conservative politicians and policies.

They have some radical ideas.

When Justin Trudeau gave Omar Khadr his $10.5 million payment, Leadnow asked people to sign up in support of Khadr.

I am not aware of Leadnow's campaign in support of Omar Khadr, but I do support Khadr anyway as he is completely innocent of injuring or killing American Marines.

Leadnow also campaigns against the oil industry and most recently the Trans Mountain pipeline.

There are connections to the Liberals and NDP. One co-founder of the group, Adam Shedletzky, was a senior policy advisor to Wynne until the election was called. Amara Possian, Leadnow’s 2015 election campaign manager, is running for the NDP against Wynne in Don Valley West.

This week the PCs sent a letter to Elections Ontario alleging collusion between the NDP and Leadnow. The party says a Toronto operative is working for both groups in contravention of the law.

Leadnow says they want to contact 12,000 voters this weekend alone and get people out to the polls.

It really will leave everyone wondering, if Horwath wins next week will she have done it on her own or with an assist from an outside, out-of-province group.

Costco Under Investigation by Ontario Forensic Team Over Drug Company Payments

Corruption is Everywhere - But in Canada??? and Costco???

Rebates not allowed in Ontario in bid to drive down overall price of generics

By Timothy Sawa, Lisa Ellenwood, Mark Kelley, CBC News 

Retail giant Costco collected $1.2 million in potentially illegal payments from the generic drug company Ranbaxy. (CBC)

Costco is under investigation by an Ontario government forensic team that specializes in "allegations of wrongdoing against government" after the retail giant received $1.2 million in potentially illegal payments from a generic drug-maker, The Fifth Estate has learned.

The revelation follows guilty pleas of professional misconduct in front of the Ontario College of Pharmacists from two pharmacy executives with the company (Costco) known for its bulk deals and rock bottom pharmacy dispensing fees.

The college accused Joseph Hanna and Lawrence Varga of demanding illegal payments from the generic drug company Ranbaxy.

Hanna and Varga said the demands could "reasonably be regarded by members of the profession as unprofessional," according to statements from them that were included in the college's decision.

Each pharmacist was fined $20,000 and ordered to pay $30,000 in costs.

At the time of the fine, in January 2018, Costco had collected $1.2 million in potentially illegal payments from the drug company and so far has been allowed to keep that money.

Tony Gagliese was a salesman with Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals. (CBC)

Tony Gagliese, a salesman with Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals at the time, blew the whistle on the company by filing a complaint with the Ontario College of Pharmacists.

"I basically said: 'I don't understand what's going on,' " Gagliese told The Fifth Estate in an exclusive television interview.

"Costco always followed the law and suddenly you're breaking the law from my understanding and no one is here to help me."

'I prefer to call it a kickback'

The allegations stem from a questionable industry-wide practice that inflates the price of generic drugs, known as pharmacy rebates.

"You call it a rebate. I prefer to call it a kickback," says Amir Attaran, a professor of medicine and law at the University of Ottawa. Pharmacy chains sometimes demand a payment from a generic drug company to stock its brand of drugs.

Most provinces allow rebates, but Ontario made them entirely illegal in 2013 in an effort to drive down the overall price of generic drugs.

'Canadians are really seriously gouged

on the price of generic drugs.'

- Amir Attaran

If pharmacy chains stopped demanding rebates, the province argued, then generic drug companies could afford to lower the price of drugs for Canadians.

Canadians pay some of the highest generic drug prices in the world, with last year's spending estimated at nearly $6 billion. A large percentage of that — likely billions of dollars — went directly to pharmacy chains in the form of rebate payments.

"Canadians are really seriously gouged on the price of generic drugs," says Attaran. "That's largely because in the price of a drug in Canada there's not just the drug. There's a portion of the price that goes to the pharmacy in the form of a rebate or a kickback."

Law upheld

Various players in the industry launched challenges to Ontario's law.

In upholding the law in 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada called rebates a "tenacious problem" and said manufacturers have been "charging exceptionally high prices for generic drugs flowing not from the actual cost of the drugs, but from the manufacturers' cost in providing financial incentives to pharmacies to induce them to purchase their products."

The Fifth Estate has learned Ontario's Forensic Investigation Team, or FIT, launched its investigation into Costco in the fall of 2017.

Costco says its lower dispensing fees saved its customers in Ontario more than $16.4 million in 2014. (David Donnelly/CBC)

That came after Gagliese turned his evidence over to the province. Then the Forensic Investigation Team called him for a meeting.

"What I was told, and I quote: 'Help us Tony to put together a ... case against Costco,' " says Gagliese.

FIT is a provincial team independent of Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care that investigates financial issues and "allegations of wrongdoing against government," according to the head of the team in a speech.

It conducts civil investigations and can pass its findings on to law enforcement for followup criminal investigations.

Practice stopped

The Fifth Estate has seen emails confirming FIT's involvement.

"The ministry has engaged the Forensic Investigation Team to conduct a second phase of investigation," wrote David Schachow, director for the Drug Programs Delivery Branch with Ontario's Ministry of Health.

When asked about FIT's involvement, the Health Ministry says it "is unable to provide further information about ongoing inspection or investigation activities."

Costco CEO Craig Jelinek and its top Canadian executive, Andrée Brien, both declined to be interviewed by The Fifth Estate.

In a statement, Brien says it didn't believe any of the payments were illegal at the time, that it stopped the practice after its own internal investigation and the payments it demanded were ultimately good for consumers because it could use the money to lower their prices.

And did that actually happen? Can you account for that money?

Secret tapes

At the heart of the Costco case is a phone call Gagliese secretly recorded between himself and Hanna, Costco's national director of drug buying. The Fifth Estate has obtained a copy of that recording.

Hanna began the conversation, recorded in February 2014, by telling Gagliese that Ranbaxy wasn't paying Costco enough money to keep his products on its shelves. He wants a higher percentage of Ranbaxy's generic drug sales in what would be considered a rebate.

"My analysis essentially shows that your support is approximately, and I might be off by a couple per cent or I might be off by a lot more if you tell me differently, around 46-ish per cent," Hanna said.

"Here's sort of what I'm going to kind of tell you, if you want to compete, it's going to have to be sort of 60 [per cent] plus," Hanna told Gagliese.

'It was obvious to me that they weren't interested in following the law.'

- Tony Gagliese

Gagliese says the request raised an alarm for him.

"They asked for a 60 per cent rebate retroactive to April [2013] and I pointed out to them it's illegal [in Ontario] what you're asking for," Gagliese told The Fifth Estate.

"It was obvious to me that they weren't interested in following the law."

Costco says Gagliese "used the recordings and the threat of proceedings as leverage to try and force Costco to purchase additional generic drugs from the company he represented."

The University of Ottawa's Amir Attaran calls Gagliese a hero. "I think he's behaved in a selfless and heroic way," he says. "He has shed light on one of the murkier sides of the pharmaceutical business. Costco has been caught with its hand in the till. Clearly."

'Marketing support'

Costco wanted Ranbaxy to pay $3.6 million in total, in exchange for $6 million in Canadian sales.

In Ontario, Costco wanted Ranbaxy to make the payments by investing in what Costco called its "advertising and customer education programs."

On the secret tapes, Hanna lays out how Ranbaxy can make the payments for its sales in the rest of Canada, where rebates are legal, versus Ontario, where they aren't.

In Ontario, instead of using the term rebate, Hanna says Ranbaxy can pay up to $1.3 million for what he calls "marketing support."

The remaining $2.3 million can be paid as a straight rebate. If Ranbaxy refused to pay, Costco's Hanna says the company could lose its business with the retail giant.

"This is what I would like to see and this is a minimum to ensure that, not ensure but a minimum to greatly reduce the likelihood of somebody eating your business," Hanna said.

No guidance, Costco says

Hanna also declined an interview request from The Fifth Estate.

In an email to The Fifth Estate, he says he had no idea the payments he was asking for would be considered an illegal rebate in Ontario and that neither the Ontario College of Pharmacists  nor the province had provided any guidance on the issue.

'Neither I, nor Costco, would ever knowingly

accept a payment that was prohibited.'

- Joseph Hanna

"I genuinely believed at the time Ranbaxy made the payments in question that they were permissible," he says. "Neither I, nor Costco, would ever knowingly accept a payment that was prohibited."

Hanna says that the secretly recorded phone call does not appear to be "complete" and that "a number of other conversations that provide context … have not been provided."

Amir Attaran, a professor of medicine and law at the University of Ottawa, says Gagliese has 'shed light on one of the murkier sides of the pharmaceutical business.' (CBC)

In one of those conversations, Hanna says he told Gagliese that he "did not believe the payment was a rebate."

Hanna also says he personally did not receive any of the funds in question.

In her email, Brien, Costco's top Canadian executive, says the company stopped the payment scheme in Ontario immediately after it did its own internal investigation and not because of any "finding of wrongdoing" on its part but because it wants "further clarification from the Ontario government."

Brien also points out that in its decision, the College of Pharmacists says the Costco executives were "operating in a legal environment that was not crystal clear" and that the payments were not "rebates on their face."

Funds not used to 'line our pockets'

"We acknowledge that the advertising payment received from Ranbaxy was considered to be a rebate by the college in the particular circumstances of the case," she says.

"However, where advertising fees are charged, we have not used these funds to 'line our pockets' while we continue to charge high fees. To the contrary, payments received for advertising are used to defray our operating costs to allow us to pass the savings on to our customers."

Costco says its lower dispensing fees saved its customers in Ontario more than $16.4 million in 2014.  

Both Costco pharmacy executives who pleaded guilty to professional misconduct continue to act in their senior roles with the company.

Consequently, they were clearly acting in company policy. The real question here is did the money genuinely go to reducing the price of the drugs, and can Costco prove it? 60% kick-back is an astonishing amount of money, and yet it's presumable that the pharmaceutical company would still be making a significant profit on the 40% left. Amazing!

Costco pharmacy executive Joseph Hanna says he 'genuinely believed' at the time Ranbaxy made the

payments that they were legal. (CBC)

Gagliese, on the other hand, has been unable to find work as a drug salesperson since going public.

Without the secretly record audio tape, he believes Costco would not be under scrutiny right now.

"I think without the tape, nothing would've happened. I think that the tape is the only reason why Costco decided to plead guilty," he says.

"You can't debate the tape. I didn't ask him, I didn't set him up, he told me how to pay him, so Costco's story is in that tape."

Is Ontario Shifting to the Right, or Just Up-Righting?

Tanya Granic Allen

We recently documented Europe's 'listing to starboard' - a clear response to far-left policies and actions of governments which were leading their countries into cultural suicide with uncontrolled Islamic migration.

Islamization is not a big problem in North America, yet, although it is rising and perhaps some people's excessive reaction to that problem is a bigger problem. 

In Ontario, the Premier, Kathleen Wynne, is a lesbian, a Liberal, and far to the left of any premier who has gone before, even the NDP 's Bob Rae, who was an absolute disaster. Liberals are supposed to be centrists and NDPs leftists. But Wynne has taken the provincial Liberal party far to the left of even the NDP, just as Justin Trudeau has taken the federal Liberals far to the left of the federal NDPs.

As pointed out in a recent post, when you steer a ship to port (left), it will list (lean) to starboard (right). It is not Islamization that has caused this list but the use of the educational system to inflict a far-left version of cultural progress, or social engineering on Ontarians.

Wynne employed, among others possibly, the Deputy Minister of Education, Benjamin Levin, to write a new curriculum with regard to gender equality and bullying. But Levin had to step down as DM after he was charged with and convicted of having child pornography. Levin is a paedophile!

His curriculum was very much about normalizing homosexuality and transgenderism from a very young age. This is bolstered by libraries across Canada embracing drag queens, in full costume, going into classrooms and reading to little children as if that is supposed to be anything close to normal. 

There is little mention of child sex abuse - safe touch/unsafe touch, who to tell and how to tell, etc., etc. in the curriculum. Nor is there any mention that gender dysphoria is a disease and there are options to deal with it. They teach that it is quite normal for a man to look down at his scrotum and decide that he is a woman. Extreme liberalism!

Wynne's other big problem is having sold 50.1% of Hydro One, a Crown Corporation until then. Hydro One is the primary electrical distribution company for Ontario. Hydro One suffers from aging infrastructure and consequently, rates jumped spectacularly after the sale. Many homes are paying several hundred dollars per month for hydro even after measures to reduce usage.

Wynne's solution to this issue, after nightmare stories came out of people being, or threatening to be cut off because they couldn't pay the extraordinary increase in their bills, was to reduce everyone's hydro bill by 25%, which will be underwritten by the government. Consequently, all taxpayers in Ontario will pay for the increased hydro rates for decades to come.

Now the story really gets bizarre:

In 2017, Hydro One agreed to acquire U.S. energy company Avista for C$6.7 billion in cash! Where did they get $6.7 bn in cash? Why didn't they invest that money into Hydro One's aging infrastructure? Where will they get the money to invest in Hydro One's infrastructure?

Christine Elliott

Ontario Conservative Party leader Patrick Brown put forward an idea to fix the Hydro One problem, and with Kathleen Wynn's approval rating down around 12%, it appeared he would get a chance to employ that solution after a provincial election in June. Then #MeToo came along (2nd story on link) and Patrick Brown suddenly and dramatically resigned just a few months before a provincial election. He went kicking and screaming, then joined the race to be his own successor, and a few days later, withdrew from that.

Caroline Mulroney

That sounds more like BC politics than Ontario. Nevertheless, the extremely rushed leadership convention occurred last week with 3 high profile and very different contenders, plus one relative unknown. The list included Christine Elliott, the wife of the late, and very popular, federal Finance Minister under Stephen Harper, Jim Flaherty; Caroline Mulroney, the daughter of long-retired Prime Minister Brian Mulroney; and Doug Ford, the brother of the late, internationally infamous, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. 

The 4th candidate was a dark horse with no political experience and no pedigree. She is, however, the head of a parental rights group called PAFE - Parents As First Educators. It was clear Tanya Granic Allen was not going to win the contest and Canada's left leaning media often completely ignored her in their 30 second sound bites they call news. But Granic Allen made a significant impression in the few opportunities she had and received a number of 1st choice selections on the leadership ballot.

The ballot was structured to choose 1st, 2nd, 3rd choices so that in the event of no-one getting enough votes on the first count, the candidate with the fewest 1st place votes would drop off and their ballots would revert to their 2nd choice. Most of Granic Allen's voters chose Doug Ford as their 2nd choice and that was enough to push him ahead of Christine Elliott in a very close race.

Doug Ford, an outsider to provincial politics except that his father was once a backbench MPP, was the most right wing of the candidates with the exception of Granic Allen. He stated that he would change school curriculum to reflect societal norms rather than extreme left-wing ideologies. He also stated that he would allow MPPs to bring forward bills challenging the right to abortion. Both of these positions are probably due to Tanya Granic Allen's presence and forceful presentations on the candidacy platforms.

Granic Allen hasn't decided if she will run for MPP in June, but if she does, I would expect her to be a powerhouse of an MPP, possibly in the cabinet, and a possible successor to Ford sometime in the future if she can survive the disdain of Canadian media.

When a ship lists to starboard because it is steering to port there are only two options: continue to steer to port and go around and around in circles, or, steer to starboard until the ship is upright again. Ontarians deserve an upright ship for a change.