This Is Why Journalism Is Vital To Healthy Democracies

At a time when traditional journalism is weathering both economic and political storms, we should all take a moment to reflect on the vital role it plays in healthy democracies. The following story, about a joint investigation by The Toronto Star and The National Observer of FINTRAC, (Canada’s money laundering and terrorist financing enforcement agency), is illustrative of this truth.

As I previously wrote, FINTRAC chose to keep secret the identity of a bank that it penalized for failing to report a suspicious transaction and committing hundreds of other violations in its dealings with a controversial client. Thanks to journalism's dogged determination (which is not cheap, by the way), the mystery is over.

It took 10 months of media scrutiny and public outrage before Canadians learned Manulife Bank of Canada was the mysterious financial institution behind a $1.2-million fine for money-laundering violations.

The decision to confer anonymity upon this giant financial institution was puzzling, given that the same day in April, a handful of much smaller companies — facing far less severe fines — were publicly named by FINTRAC. This is all part of a pattern:

Over the past eight years, FINTRAC has named 40 companies for violating the law while keeping secret another 55.

Left unanswered is the reason for this double-standard, especially disturbing given the scope of Manulife's malfeasance:

-Manulife’s fine, which was reduced twice from an initial $1.8 million, was for five different types of violations of anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism financing law, involving a failure to report transfers totalling at least $12.2 million.

-The bank failed to report one suspicious transaction to FINTRAC — labelled a “very serious” violation that experts say undermines Canada’s system to detect financial crimes and trace dirty money.

-Manulife also failed to report 1,174 outgoing international electronic transfers of $10,000 or more, 45 deposits of $10,000 or more in cash and four incoming international electronic transfers of $10,000 or more.

-The bank was also fined for failing to “develop and apply compliance policies and procedures.”

Curiously, for much less serious violations, FINTRAC showed no such penchant for secrecy. Those named and shamed included one whose misdeeds seem relatively minor:

Mahdi Al-Saady, CEO of Altaif Inc., an Ottawa-based money exchange and transfer company, was hit with a $42,600 FINTRAC fine — and publicly named — in 2014.

The violations for which Altaif was fined included failing to report the sending and receipt of money transfers of more than $10,000 — two of the same violations the unnamed bank was found to have committed.

The fact that Altaif was named is, of course, not the issue. The real question is why all who run afoul of FINTRAC are not treated the same, with the rules rigidly applied.

I have my own suspicions, but I leave it to informed readers to draw their own conclusions.

Just Another Day's Work At The Star

Yesterday I wrote a post expressing real pleasure that The Toronto Star is enjoying such a wide readership and profitability, given the important work that it does on a number of levels.

Although evidence of that work is found in pretty much every edition of the paper, today's seems particularly noteworthy for its potential impact.

First, as a result of an investigation by the paper into the harmful effects, including strokes, convulsions, depression and suicide on children being treated with drugs for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, today we learn the following:

Health Canada has detailed records of probes into ADHD drug safety, including fatalities, that it is keeping secret from the public.

Every six months to a year, drug companies submit summaries of side effects suspected to have been caused by their drugs worldwide, information Health Canada says it evaluates.

These summaries, called periodic safety update reports, are not available to the public.

Because these reports contain “proprietary information,”, the public is denied potentially life-saving information. It would seem that government does not want to deny any opportunity for big-pharma profits, even if it leads to disability or death.

Expect more to come from The Star's efforts on this file.

Next, again as a result of publicity generated by The Star, an Iranian woman facing deportation to her home country is being allowed to present new evidence of the peril she faces if sent back. This new chance comes to Fatemeh Derakhshandeh Tosarvandan despite the new law passed by the Harper regime prohibiting failed asylum claimants from obtaining a risk assessment within a year after their claim is rejected.

This seems appropriate, since in severing ties with Iran, the Canadian government cited its abuse of human rights.

And finally, there is the ongoing saga at Toronto City hall, where The Star, persona non grata to the Ford administration, reports how that administration interfered with the process for citizen appointments to 120 city boards and agencies [which] included an attempt to stop staff from targeting “diverse” candidates in recruitment ads.

All in all, not a bad day's work at Canada's largest-circulation newspaper.

Toronto District School Board Blinks

As I suspected, after yesterday's Star story about the Toronto District School Board's outrageous demand for $3.6 million to release work order information related to the costs incurred in their exclusive contract with Jimmy Hazel's maintenance and construction skilled trades council, the board is singing a different tune today:

The Toronto District School Board is revising its $3.6 million estimate to provide data for a Star investigation.

How much the fee will drop is unclear, but a top official said the board is committed to finding a way to release the information.

“I am confident we will find a solution,” board education director Chris Spence said Thursday.

Let us hope that Spence, a man who is never short on bromides and platitudes, is not engaging in politically expedient posturing here.

Given The Star's journalistic tenacity, I'm sure we'll soon find out.

The Glacial Pace Of Change At The TDSB

Regarded by some as a master of platitudes, Toronto District School Board Director Chris Spence says that things are getting better.

As outlined in The Star's investigative series, the board, in the thrall of Jimmy Hazel's Maintenance and Construction Skilled Trades Council, which forms the backbone of the TDSB’s facilities division, has for years been grossly overpaying for simple repair jobs. This was well-known to administrators and board officials for many years, and in 2006 a review was conducted by consultants Blackstone Partners, who then submitted a report to officials in January of 2007.

Despite the passage of almost six years, we are told today by Mr. Spence that some progress has been made, and the report is “working its way through the committee structure” at the board.

In what passes for clarity, lucidity and justification (cynics might call it base political posturing), the former football player drew a sports analogy:

“To use a football analogy, we are trying to move the yardstick. There is no quick fix,” said Spence, who became director two years after the review. “But I am not running, I am not hiding from the problem.”

“Blackstone took us so far. Some of the work we are doing now will take us farther,” Spence said in the interview.

To continue with Mr. Spence's sports metaphor, given the lack of specifics about this putative progress, combined with the aggregate revelations of the Star's series, some might conclude that it is time for this team to be kicked out of the league.

The Star Continues Its Investigation

Unless the Toronto District School Board is staffed by a raft of incompetents, it has to have known what is going on.

As I wrote in my blog post yesterday, an investigation by The Toronto Star has revealed theft on a massive scale in the form of grossly inflated charges to the board for even the simplest of routine maintenance tasks by employees under the exclusive contract enjoyed by the Maintenance & Construction Skilled Trades Council headed by Jimmy Hazel.

In Part 2 of that investigation, the newspaper reports a number of interesting aspects to this scandal, the most interesting to me being the reaction of top board officials Director Chris Spence and school superintendents and deputy operations director Penny Mustin, both of whom refused to offer any comment on this massive waste of tax dollars.

The school board is also refusing to release a copy of its internal tracking database that contains details of the annual 1.8 million hours of work the board’s electricians, carpenters, plumbers and other trades claim they perform.

Based upon my 30-year career as a teacher, having been witnesses to much cowardly political behaviour on the part of administrators, my guess is that database will never be made public, the feeble citing of 'privacy concerns' being the likely justification.

My own experience in education taught me that the last thing administrators want to do, afflicted as they are with an unquenchable thirst for advancement, is to rock the boat. It is far easier, (and certainly more politically expedient unless the truth is revealed by a crusading newspaper) to conceal or simply accept things crying out for redress. That way it doesn't get messy, and one's career-path usually continues unimpeded. (Oh, the tales I could tell.)

And so I shall end as I began. The TDSB had to have known what was going on. Wait for the next installment of this sad saga, as those in power all establish their poses of 'plausible deniability.'

I would it were otherwise.

Another Award For The Star

Despite my general disaffection with the mainstream media, I continue to be heartened by one of the few bright spots on the journalistic landscape, The Toronto Star.

Awarded a Citation of Merit on Tuesday evening at Rideau Hall for the work done by investigative reporter Kevin Donovan that uncovered the Ornge air ambulance scandal, president of the Michener Awards Foundation Russell Mills had this to say:

“Stories revealed a stunning lack of government oversight at a critical public service, in which senior managers benefited over those people the air ambulance service was supposed to be helping."

“The Star highlighted how millions of dollars were used to create everything from private companies to a charity, and to purchase new helicopters that were improperly outfitted.”

As a result of the series, whistle-blowers came forward to expose the shocking depths of the scandal.

Unlike most newspapers today, The Star continues to uphold the finest traditions of journalism that have traditionally played such an important part in protecting and promoting democracy.

Another Post Praising The Star

Most days, there is no dearth of topics upon which I could comment, but because I don't spend the entire day at the computer, I try to be selective. And although I have written many posts that involve praise for the Toronto Star, here goes another one.

Unlike any other paper I can think of, The Star's investigations get results, the latest arising from an investigative series they began last September on the Ontario College of Teachers, the body that regulates teachers in this province. That series uncovered the fact that teachers found guilty of some very serious offences were often still in the classroom, had not had their teaching certificates pulled, and their identities were being protected from public knowledge.

As a result of the legwork done by the newspaper, a review was conducted under retired justice Patrick LeSage. It was released yesterday,with the following results:

Both the provincial Education Ministry and the college have vowed to move quickly on the recommendations. Education Minister Laurel Broten is expected to introduce legislation that will, among other fixes, ensure teachers guilty of sexual misconduct lose their licences.

You can read the entire story here.

Although I am retired from the profession, I cringe every time I hear of misconduct by teachers, as it casts all educators in a very unfavorable light.

And so I rest a little easier, knowing The Star is on the job.

Are Workers Paying For The Globe and Mail's Sins?

UPDATE/CORRECTION: While I strive to be as accurate as possible in this blog, the second paragraph of this post contained an inaccuracy, which I have since rectified.

I have to say that my heart rejoiced yesterday when I saw the news that Torstar, the parent company of The Toronto Star, has increased its quarterly earnings over the year by about 100%, an unequivocal confirmation that quality, in-depth journalism for the social good can still very much be a profitable enterprise in the 21st century.

I also have to admit to an almost equal delight in the news I received from my son that the Globe and Mail, by contrast, is not faring so well. The Earnings Per Share (EPS) profit that the Globe and Mail contributes to Bell Canada, its parent company, is off by 0.23.

I interpret this profit reduction as an indictment of the direction in which John Stackhouse has taken the paper since assuming the mantle of editor-in-chief. It is a direction that has seen such betrayals as unequivocal editorial endorsements of the Harper regime, an inhouse apologist for all things Harper named John Ibbitson, and the continued employment of unoriginal thinkers like Neil Reynolds and Margaret Wente who, one suspects, would have great difficulty recognizing an original thought, should one occur to them, an admittedly unlikely event.

The one group for whom I feel sympathy at the Globe is the rank and file, who are now being asked to take unpaid leaves this summer in an attempt to temporarily reduce costs.

Oh, and I almost forgot. In either a very desperate grasping at straws for financial salvation or a very public display of delusions of grandeur, The Globe announced today that it is instituting a paywall. If you read the article, I strongly encourage you to also peruse some of the readers' comments that follow, comments of such withering contempt that one might infer that this 'Hail Mary pass' from the Globe is too desperate by anyone's standards.

Police Who Lie Under Oath - Part 2

Part 2 of The Star series on the problem of police lying under oath is available on its website. Today's coverage examines the lack consequences for such behaviour, many departments seeming to prefer a see-no-evil, hear-no-evil kind of approach. And as per his function, the always pugnacious Mark Pugash, Toronto Police spokesman, accuses the Star of not knowing what they are writing about.

Police Who Lie Under Oath

The following suspects have walked free after officers lied in court: an accused pimp of a teenage girl, possessors of child pornography, a major ecstasy manufacturer operating out of a Scarborough house, members of an international data-theft and fake-credit-card ring, marijuana growers, and drug dealers carrying loaded handguns.

Judges have discarded as evidence at least $40 million worth of cocaine, meth, ecstasy and weed in recent years.

The above is just a brief excerpt from the start of another investigative series from The Star, the only Canadian newspaper, to my knowledge, that is upholding the best traditions of journalism in pursuing stories that really should matter to an informed populace, stories that have led to some very significance changes and reforms both locally and provincially over the years.

In reading the account in today's issue about police who lie in court about the circumstance leading to the arrest of criminals, I admit to feeling just the smallest amount of ambivalence, inasmuch as the lies were used to justify the arrests of some very bad people. On the other hand, I am very mindful of how easy it is for the police, in whom society have invested a great deal of authority, to abuse that authority. Countless videos by citizens, and the terrible violations of our Charter rights that took place during the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto, are ample testaments to that abuse.

I look forward to The Star's next installment tomorrow.