"Shopping While Black"
Nova Scotia in state of denial over racial profiling
Sobey's appeals human rights inquiry over discrimination of black customer - Falsely Accused Repeat Shoplifter
Nova Scotia's first black lieutenant-governor says the province is in a state of denial when it comes to racial profiling, saying she has often been the victim of "shopping while black" since she left her viceregal post four years ago.

Mayann Francis said Thursday she decided to speak out this week after Nova Scotia-based grocery chain Sobeys Inc. announced it will appeal a human rights inquiry decision that found one of its Halifax stores discriminated against a black customer.

Francis, who served as CEO of the rights commission until she was appointed lieutenant-governor in 2006, says hearing about the case motivated her to attend a protest outside a Sobeys store and talk publicly about her experiences.

You do not even get past the threshold before someone is rushing up to you ... And when you say, 'I'm just browsing,' they're there every time you turn," she said. "It's just over-the-top. Some might say they're just being polite. No, they're not. They're stalking you. It becomes very uncomfortable."

Dolly Williams, a board member with the Congress of Black Women of Canada, said Francis's disturbing story is all too familiar to her.

"If you're in your old duds, they will come to you and say, 'Are you sure this is the store you want to be in?' Especially high-class stores. They have no respect for black women ... because Nova Scotia is still rampant with racism."

Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil also weighed in on the issue Thursday, saying it's intolerable that any citizen should face discrimination in 2016.

In the Sobeys case, a Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission inquiry determined last fall that staff at a store in Tantallon discriminated against Andrella David in May 2009 after falsely accusing her of being a repeat shoplifter.

On March 22, the Hudson's Bay Company agreed to educate its staff about racial profiling as part of a settlement in the case of a now-deceased Nova Scotia grandmother allegedly accused of shoplifting a rug from a Zellers outlet in 2008. princegeorgecitizen.com

Hudson's Bay Corp. agrees to educate N.S. staff on profiling
8 Year Old Case Still Makes an Impact
The Hudson's Bay Company has agreed to educate its staff on racial profiling as part of a settlement in the case of a now-deceased Nova Scotia grandmother allegedly accused of shoplifting a rug.

African Canadian Kathleen Viner filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission alleging that two employees discriminated against her at a now-closed Zellers store in Greenwood, N.S., in 2008.

Viner, then a 77-year-old grandmother of 13, was stopped by a security guard "and made to feel she had stolen a rug," according to an affidavit from her daughters, Shelley and Donna. Viner provided proof she had bought the rug, but the incident left her shaken, her daughters said.

"She repeatedly cried about this incident. She lost sleep and had a loss of appetite," the daughters said in their affidavit. "It also bothered her greatly that the security guard yelled at her during the course of her being stopped and questioned."

Viner died in 2011. Her daughters urged the commission's board of inquiry to hear the case anyway, and in 2012 it agreed. On Tuesday, though, the commission and HBC - which owned the store - issued a joint statement saying they had settled the complaint.

Hudson's Bay said it has agreed to educate its Nova Scotia-based loss prevention officers about consumer racial profiling and train them appropriately. The company did not admit to any wrongdoing, but said it expects its staff to treat customers "in a dignified, fair and understanding manner."

The commission said the complaint drew attention to the problem of consumer racial profiling, and it is working with retailers to address the issue through an education campaign. canadiansecuritymag.com

Canada's Culture Allows It to Beat the U.S. at Fraud Prevention
When measured inside Canada, the fraud rate on debit cards is far below the global average for mature EMV (Chip Card) issuing countries. This is mostly due to efforts by Interac to educate and migrate (to EMV terminals) as well as offer fraud mitigation services and tools.

It is creating a culture of security and reliability that is unparalleled in the Americas and perhaps globally. This is no small feat for a developed country, and their record low debit fraud losses are the evidence for this achievement.

In the USA, we share an International Fraud Awareness Week with the rest of the globe. But in Canada there is a whole month devoted to getting the word out, and 125 private sector firms that are members in the forum distribute a wealth of knowledge and best practices to consumers and businesses. paymentssource.com

NASCAR's Derek White & 60 Others Charged In Canadian $530M Tobacco Smuggling Bust
Moving Crops from North Carolina to First Nations reservations
Canadian authorities seized illegal drugs and cash and arrested and charged some 60 people Wednesday - including professional race car driver Derek White - in a crackdown on an alleged tobacco smuggling ring that moved crops from North Carolina to First Nations reservations and avoided CA$530 million ($411 million) in taxes.

Arrests were made in and around Montreal and Quebec City in connection with an operation that moved 150 truckloads of undeclared tobacco across the border totaling over 4 million pounds, trafficked illegal drugs and laundered money. The ring had ties to motorcycle gangs and organized crime in Europe and on reservations, police said.

"The tobacco was bought at $3 U.S. a pound, and it was brought up to Canada and sold at $10 a pound," he said. "The reality of all this is this tax evasion also gives part to illegal profits, black money that's being put back into the streets to buy narcotics."

Police said 116,000 pounds of tobacco, 1,800 pounds of cocaine, 46 pounds of meth and millions of dollars in cash were seized during the arrests, along with smaller amounts of marijuana and fentanyl. Allard said two suspects on First Nations territory, including White, turned themselves in at the request of tribal peacekeepers. A third happened to be out of the country, he said. law360.com

Major Joint Canada-U.S. Anti-Drug and Contraband Tobacco Operation Underway
Nearly 700 police officers were mobilized for this operation
Quebec's Provincial Police Crime against the state investigations Service through its Contraband Investigations Division, in collaboration with its Canadian and American partners, executed several search warrants and made several arrests this morning as part of project MYGALE.

Nearly 60 individuals belonging to a highly-structured criminal organization that is linked to outlaw motorcycle gang (OMG) and to First Nations organized crime were arrested. In addition to these arrests, nearly 70 searches were carried out in residences and businesses located mainly in greater Montreal and the Laurentides, Lanaudière, and Montérégie regions, as well as on the Kahnawake and Six Nations Ontario reserves.

The investigation suggests that individuals bought tobacco in the United States and imported it illegally into Canada via the border crossing stations of Lacolle, Lansdowne, and Fort Erie, in order to sell it on the Kahnawake territory in Quebec and Six Nations in Ontario.

According to documents, the criminal organization imported at least 158 shipments into Canada between August 2014 and March 2016, for a total of 2,085,600 kg of tobacco (or 2294 tons). This quantity represents a fraud of more than 530 M$ to both levels of government. prnewswire.com

Bogus tainted food tip at Saskatchewan supermarket leads to charges
Man arrested after claiming food products were contaminated with dirty needle.  canadiangrocer.com

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