Civil rights lawyer quits X after Alex Jones’ return to platform

Prominent civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill is abandoning X, formerly known as Twitter, following the announcement that Elon Musk would be reinstating conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ X account after a five-year ban.

After encountering a post mentioning the life and memory of Ana Grace Márquez-Greene, a first-grader murdered in the Sandy Hook massacre, Ifill said she took it as a sign to quit the social media platform and post solely on Threads.

Businesses want to make it harder to raise California taxes. Democrats are pushing back

A tussle over tax hikes in California is intensifying. California Democrats have answered a tax-reform push by business groups with their own proposal to undercut it.

The escalating dispute over voters’ roles in approving or rejecting tax increases is a reflection of ballot initiatives’ outsize role in Sacramento and the game of cat and mouse that often plays out between opposing interests.

#MeToo Backlash In Corporate Canada Sees Women Locked Out

TORONTO — A lawyer is asked whether a male executive should leave the door open when meeting with a woman.

A consultant's longtime male client will only take a meeting with her if someone else is in the room.

A public relations executive hears from senior business leaders who say they are shying away from mentoring young women.

Equifax Is Trying To Make Money Off Its Massive Security Failure

UPDATE: Sept. 11 ― In a reversal, Equifax said in a statement Monday morning that the company wouldn’t require credit card information from victims of the company’s data breach who sign up for its free service.

“We are not requesting consumers’ credit card information when they sign up for the free credit file monitoring and identity theft protection we are offering to all U.S. consumers,” the company said in a statement on its website. “Consumers who sign up for TrustedID Premier will not be automatically enrolled or charged after the conclusion of the complimentary year of TrustedID Premier.”

'They're basically running hotels': Property management companies Airbnb's biggest winners

A small number of commercial property managers generate a majority of Airbnb's overall revenue, eating up available housing stock and driving up rent in Canada's three biggest cities, a new study from Montreal's McGill University concludes.

"Just 10 per cent of hosts account for a majority of the revenue and the nights booked on Airbnb consistently in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal," said the study's lead author, David Wachsmuth, a McGill professor of urban planning, in an interview on CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

Power Bills Rising, 'My Clients Are Panicking'

Advocates who work closely with people surviving on low incomes have testified to the British Columbia Utilities Commission that it is increasingly common for their clients to struggle to pay the rising cost of electricity, often with severe consequences.

"My clients are aware of the recent and upcoming rate increases, and they are panicking," said Stacey Tyers, the manager of counselling support services at the Terrace and District Community Services Society.

Throughout 12 years of anti-poverty work Tyers has seen clients with trouble paying their electricity bills, she said. "It is definitely getting worse though," said Tyers, who also is a Terrace city councillor. "We are now seeing a much larger number of people with BC Hydro issues."

US Farmers Allege Deception by Agrochemical Giant: The Case Against Syngenta

From Indiana to Louisiana, a movement among thousands of corn farmers in the United States is trying to hold a Swiss GMO agribusiness giant to account for willful deceit and is making steady progress in court. According to these lawsuits - which may soon become class action - Syngenta, one of the world's largest agrochemical companies, deliberately misled small farmers into thinking that the genetically modified Viptera corn it was pushing on them would be approved for export to China. When China's unpredictable import authorities held off on granting approval and then turned back a shipment that contained Syngenta's genetically modified crop, the glut of excess corn that farmers had on their hands caused prices to crash and resulted in nearly $6 billion in damages.

Uber Has A New Look, But Its Drivers Still Have The Same Complaints

Uber unveiled this week a dramatic redesign to its app and website, as the $60 billion company continues to fight complaints from its drivers.

On Tuesday, Uber traded in its signature "U" logo for ones that CEO Travis Kalanick said were inspired by the tech building blocks of bits and atoms. The ride-hailing company, which has recently expanded into services like food delivery and is eyeing a future in self-driving cars, says the new look better represents its ambition.

Elizabeth Warren Exposes How Financial Advisers Exploit Retirees

Retirees across America look to financial advisers for help in navigating options for smart retirement saving. But there's a scary fact many folks don't know when they entrust their life savings to a broker. According to a report released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) last week, many financial advisers promote inferior financial products to collect kickbacks—from pricey Caribbean vacations to gift cards and golf outings—offered by the companies that sell certain annuities. And what's worse, that practice is totally legal.

New Budget Grants Debt Collectors the Right to Bombard Student Borrowers With Robocalls

A provision in the budget deal that passed the House on Wednesday will allow debt collectors to harass student loan borrowers with unlimited automated calls and text messages, even after being asked to stop.

The new rule will add significantly to the anxiety of the nation’s already distressed borrowers, many of whom are financially disabled by an economy that does not provide adequate wages.

National student loan debt is now over $1.2 trillion, a sum greater than what the entire U.S. population owes on credit cards. In 2013 alone, the U.S. government collected $51 billion from interest charged to the nation’s youth.

Corporate Lobbyists Continue Fight Against Transparency

WASHINGTON -- As more and more corporations adopt rules governing their political activity, large trade associations engaged in Washington lobbying are pushing back.

Since 2013, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Roundtable have been engaged in an effort to discredit activist investors' attempts to force shareholder votes on political spending and disclosure policies.

Corporate and military plunder in the Philippines

For many in the Global North, certain countries only appear on our radar screens as discount winter vacation hotspots. Other times, when natural disaster strikes, these countries serve as empathy-building backdrops to raise millions for charities that, after skimming some off the top, may distribute some of the contributions for the clean-up effort.

One such country is the Philippines, which made Canadian news headlines this month because of a typhoon, and which may again generate some news coverage if Justin Trudeau decides to attend the Asia-Pacific economic summit next month. The Philippines might be mentioned in passing as one of the largest sources of Canada's live-in caregiver program and of  "temporary foreign workers," both groups painfully separated from their loved ones for years by Canada's restrictive immigration policies.

Tim Hortons confirms layoffs at headquarters, regional offices

Tim Hortons is laying off people in its headquarters and regional offices in the wake of its merger with Burger King.

The restaurant chain, renamed in the deal as Restaurant Brands International, confirmed the layoffs in late afternoon, but did not say how many jobs were affected.

“We have had to make some difficult but necessary decisions today as we reorganize our company to position ourselves for the significant growth and opportunities ahead of us," Alexandra Cygal, vice-president of corporate affairs, said in an email statement.

Is Walmart the World's Worst Corporation?

That was the question posed last week by Public Eye, a counter-event to the World Economic Forum, as it sought a worthy winner for its "lifetime achievement award." For sure, Walmart - which has already won a Public Eye award in 2005 for labor rights violations in its global supply chain - faces stiff competition in the online poll. Among the other outstanding nominees for the world's worst corporation are Goldman Sachs, Chevron, Dow Chemical and Union Carbide.

Victoria McDonald's Reversed Temp Foreign Workers 'No' with a Phone Call

The owner of three McDonald's restaurants at the centre of a Temporary Foreign Worker Program controversy earlier this year was twice denied the positive assessments, called Labour Market Opinions or LMOs, needed to bring in such workers.

After a phone call one of the decisions was reversed just over two weeks later and stamped "ASAP" by government staffers and all subsequent requests were also granted.

The information was revealed in documents obtained by The Tyee through access to information legislation.

Low wages, not poor work ethic, behind surge of foreign labour

Tired of being demonized by the media, denounced in Parliament and disciplined by Employment Minister Jason Kenney, Canada’s small business owners are starting to push back.

The reason they hire foreign temporary workers when 1.3 million Canadians are unemployed, they insist, is that they have a better work ethic than domestic job applicants. “If we’re not prepared to do these jobs and we don’t want our kids to do them either — yet we still want to go to the mall and find a clean bathroom and we still want someone to clean our hotel rooms — why are we so afraid to allow people to come to Canada to happily do these jobs?” asked Dan Kelly, head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

Gas Prices Expected To Rise In Canada This Summer

Gasoline prices in Canada are climbing to two-year highs, and could be going higher, according to industry watchers.

In Toronto, gas prices are at 137.9 cents a litre, the highest they’ve been in two years, according to TommorowsGasPriceToday.com. At the beginning of the year, gas was 10 cents a litre cheaper.

The new shock doctrine: 'Doing Business' with the World Bank

One of the problems with neoliberal economic policy is that it's tough to get countries to agree to it; especially democratic ones. It has often required quite extreme measures, such as invasion - the classic example being the US-backed coup against Chile's democratically elected president - or debt bondage and structural adjustment led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Both are effective ways of forcing countries to deregulate their markets.

Ontario's Job Market Squeezing Out Middle Earners: Report

Ontario’s job market is shifting away from full-time, permanent work and towards part-time and temporary work, and middle-wage jobs are being squeezed out in the process, says a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

According to CCPA economist Kylie Thiessen, middle-skilled jobs are disappearing and are being replaced by both high-skilled and low-skilled jobs.

“More Ontarians are earning either below $30,000 per year or above $60,000 compared to 2000, while the share of workers earning between $30,000 and $60,000 (in 2011 constant dollars) has shrunk from 31 per cent in 2000 to 26.5 per cent in 2011,” the report said.

Insurance Companies Shift Consumers to New Plans Without Their Permission

When California pharmacist Kevin Kingma received a letter last fall notifying him that his high-deductible health plan was being canceled because of the Affordable Care Act, he logged into his state’s health insurance exchange and chose another plan beginning Jan. 1.

Thanks to a subsidy, Kingma’s monthly premium went down, from about $300 to $175, and his benefits improved.

But this month, Kingma logged into his bank’s website and saw that his old insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, had deducted $587.40 from his account and had enrolled him in another of its insurance products for this year—he says without permission.