Loblaw, George Weston Settle Bread Price-Fixing Class-Action Lawsuits

Loblaw Cos. Ltd. and its parent company George Weston Ltd. have settled their involvement in a pair of class-action lawsuits related to an alleged industry-wide scheme to fix the price of bread.

Lawyers involved in the case say the $500 million settlement was announced last year and executed on Jan. 31, but is still subject to court approval in Ontario and Quebec.

Loblaw and George Weston are paying a combined $404 million, with the remaining $96 million accounted for through Loblaw’s gift card program announced in 2017.

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Canadian governments fail to stop money laundering because they want the cash, says law prof

Politicians in Canada are mostly pretending they’re desperate to crack down on money laundering, according to the stark, well-constructed argument of a University of Calgary law professor, Sanaa Ahmed.

Ahmed says the real reason federal and provincial governments have not made a significant dent in the laundering of dirty money is, basically, because they like the cash in the economy.

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Cartels laundering drug sales though Canada’s trade system, RCMP assessment says

Drug cartels are using Canada’s trade system to launder the proceeds of drug trafficking, according to an internal police intelligence report obtained by the Investigative Journalism Foundation.

The 2022 assessment from the RCMP’s organized crime division says that “cartel drug trafficking” accounts for most of the money being laundered in Canada through trade, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

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Inside SBF’s Campaign for a Presidential Pardon From Trump

After the spectacular collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried opened a Google Doc and started brainstorming a plan to resuscitate his public image.

“These are all random probably bad ideas,” the FTX founder wrote.

The collection of 19 bullet points ranged from portraying himself as “extremely pro crypto, pro freedom” to sending out a poll on Twitter soliciting advice. But it was No. 3 on the disgraced mogul’s list of strategies that looked like the most improbable suggestion of them all: going on Tucker Carlson’s show and coming out as a Republican.


Sam Bankman-Fried thrown in solitary confinement after unauthorized interview with Tucker Carlson: report

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Quebec Man Accused of Killing Three Men in 2023 Truck Attack to Stand Trial in May

The trial for a Quebec man charged with killing three pedestrians with his truck will begin mid-May and is expected to last eight weeks.

The Crown prosecutor’s office says a judge confirmed today that Steeve Gagnon’s trial will begin May 15 in Rimouski, Que.

Gagnon faces 14 counts in the alleged attack in Amqui, Que., on March 13, 2023, including three counts of first-degree murder.

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Criminal Gang Receives Accolades For Inclusiveness

Former Ministry of Transportation employee facing additional charges connected to GTA criminal network: York police

Additional charges have been laid in a year-long York police investigation into a criminal network involved in home invasions, armed robberies, and drug trafficking in the Greater Toronto Area.

The investigation, dubbed “Project Skyfall,” was announced by York Regional Police in December last year. Seventeen people were arrested and faced a combined total of 83 charges.

h/t Patti Jo

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Crime Cartel activity in Canada grew to become very prevalent during Trudeau era

That look when you rat on your ex boss.

Cartel activity in Canada ‘very prevalent now,’ former Trudeau advisor says

Organized crime cartel activity is “very prevalent now” compared to at least a decade ago, says a former national security advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and listing those groups as terrorist organizations may help prevent a “national crisis.”

Jody Thomas says the government’s move to list seven transnational criminal organizations, including multiple drug cartels, as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code will give law enforcement more tools to go after cartel-affiliated criminal groups in Canada — particularly their finances — that will be “enormously helpful.”

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A New Brookings Report Ignores Facts About Race and Violence

Being poor doesn’t make someone a murderer.

For decades, criminologists have pushed the debunked theory that poverty causes crime. The contents of a recent Brookings Institution report suggest that old habits die hard.

The report’s authors sought to answer a question: Why did homicides increase in 2020 and 2021 and fall in 2023 and 2024? The pandemic-era murder spike, they argued, “was directly connected to local unemployment and school closures in low-income areas.” While parts of this claim were coherent—unemployment and school closures left young males idle and free to act violently—why would the homicide increases have been tied to low-income areas? The authors argue that it was because people who grow up in poor neighborhoods “have fewer opportunities, weaker professional networks, and earn less income than those in other areas.”

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How drug cartels are turning France into ‘the new Mexico’

Drug menu – France

Turf wars between rival trafficking gangs claimed 110 lives last year, and French families are despairing at the spiral of violence consuming their young

The murder of 15-year-old Azad Budak was filmed by a passer-by and posted on Telegram, an encrypted social media platform. Almost immediately, the video of him lying on the ground with a bullet in his chest spread through Besançon, the eastern French city where he lived. His two brothers, aged 11 and 16 at the time, saw the images, as did his neighbours, who phoned his parents to say what had happened.

“I couldn’t walk, talk or think,” said Sema Budak, his mother. “He was a baby to me.”

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