During the period covering the offences, the accused filed false GST returns claiming a combined refund of $20,628,805. Of that amount, the CRA paid $275,960 in refunds and allocated an additional $81,399 as a credit to other amounts owing to the agency, meaning the family and their companies were paidRead More

Editor’s Note: I’ve added new items to the timeline below, but my real update can be found in this new article, for which I’ve written a new introduction. Rather than repeat myself, I thought I’d let the old intro stand because it still serves a purpose: it explains why IRead More

There have been some developments—none that could be considered good—in the Bridging Finance story. As you will recall, the local angle on this tale of a Toronto-based private debt lender in receivership is that Membertou Corporate borrowed $6.8 million from Bridging to invest in Albert Barbusci’s Sydney harbor container terminalRead More

My snapshot of the current cruise industry (see part one here) would be sadly wanting if I failed to note that Princess Cruise Lines, fined a record $40 million in 2017 for what the US Department of Justice called “environmental crimes,” has failed to mend its wicked ways. The 2017Read More

Courthouse Dreams We discovered during budget talks on Tuesday that CBRM is considering the possibility  of turning the former Cape Breton County courthouse in Wentworth Park into the new central library. I am trying not to get my hopes up too high as I write this because there are aRead More

I’m easing back into work after a glorious long weekend by updating a couple of stories I’ve followed previously, which is why I’m talking about One Ocean Expeditions (OOE), the polar cruise operator founded by Westmount native Andrew Prossin. OOE, with debts of $29.6 million and assets worth just northRead More

David Morgan of the Port Hastings-based companies Celtic Air and AxAir Aviation, is suing Halifax-based Gateway Facilities and Sydney businessman Christopher Neville, owner of Ava K Holdings, over what I would call a train wreck of a business deal were that not so obviously the wrong metaphor for a fightRead More

I get email notifications of “recent decisions” by Nova Scotia courts that I don’t always open but yesterday I did and got sucked into reading the March 18 decision in the case of Matthews v. Ocean Nutrition Canada Limited, which led me to the original decision in the case, handedRead More

As you will see in a moment, I’ve indulged myself this week not just by focusing on a court case that was decided in 2020 (and which arguably has no real Cape Breton connection unless your Cape Breton includes Mulgrave) but by following up all sorts of weird odds andRead More

Nova Scotia’s Public Accounts committee met this morning to discuss this:     Witnesses included: Ava Czapalay – Deputy Minister, Labour Skills & Immigration (LSI) William A. (Bill) Smith — Ombudsman Nancy Hoddinott — Senior Executive Director, Skills & Learning Branch, LSI Jason MacLean — President, Nova Scotia Government &Read More