[. . . . ] On Thursday, the RCMP charged a senior Immigration Canada manager and four others in an alleged scheme in which Arab immigrants paid up to $25,000 to have their claims fast-tracked and approved. [. . . . ]
"They are afraid of the guys that bring in the strippers because they are not nice guys," added the high-level official, who played a role in Mr. Volpe's decision to cancel the stripper exemption on Dec. 15.
[. . . . ] "A guy walks into your office and says, 'Look, you know I'd like you to facilitate this and if you don't, you are going to start having problems with your car' or whatever. Are you going to call the cops? What are you going to do? The cops are going to come and say, 'Do you have any witnesses?' and they'll say, 'Well, if he does anything, let us know and we'll come back.' " [. . . . ]
Most of the foreign exotic dancers are young women from Romania who work mainly at strip clubs in Toronto, where there appears to be a greater shortage of nude dancers. Of 661 temporary work visas granted to strippers last year, more than 80% -- 552 -- were Romanian.
In 2000, the RCMP, Toronto police and immigration authorities raided more than a dozen clubs in Toronto where the owners were charged with running brothels. Most of the women were from Eastern Europe and many of their entrance visas were fraudulently obtained.
"Most of the contracts submitted by dancers and agents are bogus; they claim to pay the girls, but no money has changed hands. The girls are paid by patrons to the bars and prostitution is being done in small VIP rooms," Immigration enforcement officer Dorothy Christie wrote in one memo obtained under the Access to Information Act. [. . . . ]
CRTC announces new policy -- ""This applies to RAI but it also applies to Asian television - to Chinese television, to Portuguese television," said Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, an Italian-Canadian. "
OTTAWA (CP) - Acknowledging the multicultural face of modern Canada, the federal broadcast regulator says it's bringing its regulations up to date by opening the door to more foreign-language television.
And that could allow popular Italian state broadcaster RAI to try once again to obtain permission to broadcast its programming by satellite into Canada. New policies announced Thursday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will make it easier for broadcasters from other countries to offer their programming to digital subscribers in Canada in languages other than French and English.
"For third-language Canadian communities which have grown - census after census has shown this - we were somehow applying a (policy) that was resulting in them not getting the additional diversity," commission chairman Charles Dalfen said in an interview. [. . . . ]
WASHINGTON (AP) - Microsoft Corp. disclosed plans Thursday to offer frustrated users of its Windows software new tools within 30 days to remove spyware programs secretly running on computers. But it might cost extra in coming months.
In a shift from past practice, the world's largest software manufacturer said it may charge consumers for future versions of the new protective technology, which Microsoft acquired by buying a small New York software firm. Terms of the sale of Giant Company Software Inc. weren't disclosed.
Spyware is a category of irritating programs that secretly monitor the online activities of Internet users and can cause sluggish computer performance or popup ads. [. . . . ]
First they produce software subject to hackers and spyware creators; then they offer fixes for which you must pay.
Liberals need a happy Quebec -- Ottawa will keep Bombardier flying
This country has rarely seemed smaller than this week. In the few minutes it took to grasp the discordant facts that Paul Tellier is out at Bombardier and that taxpayers are again being positioned to bankroll the company, the distance between Ottawa and Quebec shrank from short to nothing.
More telling still, that sudden movement occurred silently. Not a whimper of protest came from an Opposition that in the past raised the alarm whenever the federal government tilted too precariously toward favoured industries or toward a province that consumes a disproportionate share of the nation's attention and, many believe, its money.
The reasons are as old as Confederation and as new as the June election. Quebec's problems are Canada's problems, and when an iconic company headquartered in Montreal is in trouble, no political party with power on its mind is willing to stand aloof while market forces do their dirty work. [. . . . ]
Canada's new air war -- Liberals risking reprise of Mulroney-era regional furor over aerospace deal
The federal government is poised to award a billion-dollar contract to either Bombardier Inc. or a British Columbia-based consortium in a hotly contested program to provide military pilots with training for the next 20 years.
The decision could give Paul Martin's government a major political headache. A massive controversy erupted in 1986 when Brian Mulroney awarded Canadair of Montreal a CF-18 maintenance contract even though Bristol Aerospace of Winnipeg had a lower bid.
Kelowna Flightcraft of Kelowna, B.C., is going head-to-head against Bombardier of Montreal for a contract to build a pilot training centre at Portage La Prairie, Man., and provide ground training there on helicopters and multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft for Canadian Forces pilots. The contract, expected to be worth slightly over $1-billion, is seen as a key program in the military's privatization efforts. [. . . . ]
Two of Tellier's recruits leave Bombardier -- Fallout from the shakeup continues with stock price target cuts
MONTREAL - Two top recruits of Paul Tellier, who was Bombardier Inc.'s chief executive, have left the transportation giant in the wake of his abrupt dismissal this week.
William Fox, Bombardier's senior vice-president of public affairs, and Moya Greene, senior vice-president of operational effectiveness, stepped down, the company said.
Mr. Fox, a former journalist and press secretary to former prime minister Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, followed Mr. Tellier from Canadian National Railway Co. in early 2003. [. . . . ]
Bain Capital acquires Verizon's directory operations in Canada
On Nov. 9, 2004, affiliates of Bain Capital, a Boston-based global private investment firm, purchased Verizon Communications Inc.'s directory operations in Canada for $1.985-billion. The directory operations, SuperPages Canada, is Canada's second-largest directories publisher and is the official Telus directory publisher in Western Canada. Online directory operations were also included in the transaction. [. . . . ]
Note that Verizon (ID verificatiion) and Symantec (anti-virus, etc) are merging -- or one bought out the other, I seem to recall.
Agency opted not to use DNA test on feed -- Test would have detected contamination of feed by banned animal material, expert says
[. . . . ] In an interview Thursday, Tolusso said the CFIA was aware of the DNA tests, but decided not to use them.
"We knew that these tests were out there and we also knew that they, too, had their limitations," said Tolusso.
One of those limitations, said Tolusso, is that certain types of cattle protein are permitted in cattle feed -- such as blood and milk.
As a result, said Tolusso, determining that cattle DNA was in feed would not have proven the ban had been violated.[. . . . ]
"Undeclared animal materials can mean many things -- rodent contamination, birds," she said. "It's highly unlikely that someone was dropping a cow's brain into a load of canola."
