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After losing $7K in a scam, this newcomer to Canada has words of caution and a positive spin – CBC.ca
A London, Ont., woman who handed over thousands of dollars to scammers hopes her story is a cautionary tale that will prevent other newcomers to Canada from being defrauded.
Saifora Ibrahim Paktiss settled in southwestern Ontario with her family in mid-December after she was forced to leave Afghanistan. She’s choosing to focus on the positive reaction of those who rallied to help her family after the scam rather than on the fraudsters who ended up with her $7,000.
“I couldn’t believe that something like this happened in a country like Canada, where we have heard about all the positive and good things,” Paktiss told CBC News.
“The community showed me love and affection, and they really gave me a hope for a better life. I mentioned this to my kids, that we really have to work hard and we have to be good citizens for this country who really supported us in our hard times.”
I have given my money to nobody.” – Saifora Ibrahim Paktiss
Paktiss, her husband, three kids and sister-in-law came to Canada after the Taliban took over Afghanistan. They were brought here by the Canadian government because they worked for Canadian non-governmental organizations and feared for their safety, and were staying in a south London hotel while finding a permanent place to live and figuring out their financial situation.
“Three or four days after opening an account in the bank, a call came and it said that something had been caught on the border, there was a problem, they were calling from the border agency and they had something in my name,” Paktiss said.
Saifora Ibrahim Paktiss says she wants resettlement agencies to educate newcomers about different scams. 1:09
“They said there are 10 to 15 bank accounts in your name, that there are many other illegal transactions made under your name. I told them, ‘I’m not a culprit.’ I was afraid because I really did not want to have a criminal record. I will need to live in Canada, I will need to work, to make a career, so I did not want to start with a bad name. Honestly, I was not even aware about all these scams before.”
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said extorting money from people is a common scam, and although newcomers aren’t specifically targeted — scammers use auto-diallers that places thousands of calls at a time and wait for someone to pick up — they are more likely to be susceptible, because they’re not familiar with government policies or the types of scams.
Money unrecoverable
“They manipulate the caller ID and it does make it very believable,” said Sue Labine, who oversees the call centre that takes reports about fraudsters.
The fraudsters kept Paktiss on the phone, got her banking information, and had her go to the bank to withdraw money before asking her to go a convenience store to put money into a bitcoin machine. After that, the money becomes unrecoverable, Labine said.
Paktiss was then asked to go to a store to buy gift cards to make sure her credit cards worked. When the scammers asked her to start confirming her sister-in-law’s banking information, she refused.
“When I went home, I told my husband that the border agency had called me and he said it was a scam, that I have given my money to nobody.”
So far in 2022, there have been 14,200 reports of fraud to the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre. More than 3,100 people have fallen victim to scams, totalling about $18 million in lost money, Labine said.
A helping hand
Paktiss spoke to the Cross Cultural Learners Centre as well as the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which were helping the family with resettlement. They reported the fraud to the police and tried to get the money back from the convenience store bitcoin machine and the bank, but there was nothing they could do. The family was out more than $7,000.
When he heard about Paktiss being taken by scammers, Rob Stainton said he knew he had to do something.
Stainton started a GoFundMe for the family, which raised enough money so they could repay a loan for first and last months’ rent.
“He came to the house and noticed that we were sleeping on the floor, on the carpet, and he was so kind,” Paktiss said. “That was a big lesson for me and my family. We saw the love, the care and attention from the Canadian people here.”
People in Stainton’s circle contributed kitchen items and furniture to get the family set up.
“Rob hired a truck and collected all the donations and brought them to our house,” Paktiss said. “I was quite discouraged because I didn’t have anything to start my life with, but this was a very open arms welcome. They supported us with their love and affection, and they really gave me hope for a better life.”
Now, Paktiss is advocating for the Cross Cultural Learners Centre and other settlement agencies to include information about common scams in their information to newcomers, so others don’t get caught up in the same web.
“There should be practical information and videos as part of your orientation package because I have heard of two or three other newcomers in Toronto and those areas who were also scammed,” she said. “I think newcomers are easy targets because they may not even be aware of such scams.
“People need to know that the government is not contacting or doing anything via phone or via email, or by WhatsApp or text messages. They only do postal mail. I really want to convey this message to all the newcomers and others.”
Starting a new life
Now in Canada for four months, Paktiss and her family are settling in. Her kids — ages 12, 10 and 5 — are going to school and thriving. Their English is so good, they don’t need extra English-as-a-second-language classes. Her husband has a job, and she has been looking for one, too, though lack of Canadian experience is thwarting her efforts.
Her new life is different than the 10-hour days she spent working in the Canadian Embassy in Kabul, but Paktiss is hopeful. She’s applied for more than 100 jobs, as well as a PhD program at Western University — she has two master’s degrees — and a diploma program at Fanshawe College.
“We are living in a good community, my kids are very happy with their studies and with their teachers,” she said. “I do not have any regrets coming to Canada.”
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We're still stockpiling reusable bags. Big grocers have adopted solutions, but experts have concerns – CBC News
Canada’s plastic bag ban has had an unintended consequence: a proliferation of reusable bags piling up in basements, closets and, eventually, landfills.
“They’re everywhere,” said environmental researcher Tony Walker. “We’re drowning in them, and we shouldn’t be.”
To combat the problem, several of Canada’s big grocers have introduced solutions. Last week, Walmart launched a free national recycling pilot program for the retailer’s reusable blue bags. Competitors Sobeys and chains owned by Loblaw Companies Ltd. use recyclable paper bags for grocery delivery.
But some environmental experts argue that paper bags are also problematic and that the best solutions are those that help customers actually reuse their reusable bags.
“We just can’t keep giving [them] out,” said Walker, a professor at Dalhousie University’s School for Resource and Environmental Studies in Halifax. “We’re only meant to have a few of them, and we’re meant to use them until they fall apart.”
In late 2022, the federal government rolled out a ban on the manufacture, import and sale of several single-use plastics, including checkout bags. The regulations are being contested in court, but in the meantime, they remain in effect.
The regulations have made single-use shopping bags scarce in Canada, but they’ve also led to the proliferation of reusable bags, especially for grocery delivery.
“It just creates more waste, which is what we’re trying to avoid in the first place,” Walmart customer Udi Sela said in a CBC News interview in late 2022.
At the time, Sela, who lives in Maple, Ont., estimated his family had acquired about 300 reusable Walmart bags via grocery delivery.
“We can’t return them, we can’t do much with them.”
Now, a little more than a year later, Walmart has launched a pilot project to address the problem.
It allows customers to pack up their unwanted reusable Walmart blue bags and ship them — at no charge — to a facility where they’ll get a second life.
How it works
According to Walmart, bags in good condition will be laundered and donated to charity, primarily Food Banks Canada. Damaged bags will get recycled into other materials. Reusable bags typically can’t go in blue bins because they’re costly and difficult to recycle.
Customers must sign up for Walmart’s program, and enrolment is limited.
Jennifer Barbazza, Walmart’s senior manager of sustainability, said the retailer will fine-tune the details as the program progresses.
“[We] know that some customers have more reusable bags than maybe they need,” she said. “One of the things that we’re really excited to learn about from the pilot is customer acceptance and customer feedback.”
Reusable bags are living rent free in closets and car trunks across the country. Most major retailers made the switch away from single-use plastic bags about a year ago, but it’s taking time for some customers to catch on. They’re forgetting to bring their bags with them, and buying more every week.
Udi Sela has already signed up.
“I definitely think it’s a step in the right direction,” he said in an interview on Friday. “It’s something that needed to be done a while ago. God knows we’ve got a ton of bags kind of piled up.”
He said he’s concerned that some customers may find mailing the bags a hurdle. However, it’s not deterring Sela, who soon plans to ship hundreds.
Passing the buck?
Not everyone is keen on Walmart’s project. Emily Alfred, a waste campaigner with Toronto Environmental Alliance, said donating the bags to the food bank is just passing on the problem.
“We need to remove waste from the system entirely, and just sending these somewhere else for someone else to deal with is not really a solution,” she said.
Alfred said a better option is a program Walmart piloted in Guelph, Ont., in 2022. For a fee, customers could check out reusable bags from an in-store kiosk and later return them to be cleaned and reused.
“That’s a real circular reuse system,” she said.
Walmart’s Barbazza said the retailer is continuing to explore different reusable bag programs, including ones placed in stores.
She also said she’s confident Canada’s food banks will make good use of the bags.
“There’s definitely a need for sturdy items to distribute materials to the food bank clients.”
The paper problem
Among Canada’s major grocers, only Walmart offers a reusable bag program for all customers.
Loblaw recently switched from reusable to recyclable paper bags for grocery delivery. Sobeys did not respond to requests for comment, but according to its website, the grocer also uses paper bags and “reusable options” for home delivery.
Several environmental experts say paper bags aren’t a good solution, because their production leaves a sizable carbon footprint.
“Paper bags are a problem,” Alfred said. “It takes a lot of energy to recycle paper, takes a lot of trees and energy to make new paper.”
Loblaw said it continues to explore a variety of more sustainable solutions. “It’s a challenge we’re committed to addressing,” spokesperson Dave Bauer said in an email.
Both Walker and Alfred applaud Metro for its grocery delivery program, because the grocer, which operates in Ontario and Quebec, reuses delivery materials.
Metro said customers can get their goods delivered in a cardboard box or reusable bags, which can be returned and used for another delivery. Or customers can opt for a plastic bin and remove their groceries from it upon arrival.
Metro does not offer similar programs for in-store shoppers.
Alfred said the federal government should introduce regulations that mandate retailers adopt effective reusable bag programs for all customers.
“It’s up to our governments and people to demand that these companies do better,” she said.
But Walker suggested that the regulations would be hard to enforce and that incentives could be a better tactic.
For example, if retailers increased the price of reusable bags, shoppers might be less likely to forget them when they head to the store, he said.
“When the cost is a disincentive to do an activity, people change their behaviour.”
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CTV National News: Honda’s big move in Canada CTV News
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Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she thinks unhappy premiers will come around on measures in the federal budget that touch on provincial legislation, even as they push back.
At an event in Toronto on Sunday, Freeland — who presented the federal budget on Tuesday — said the national government needs to push ahead on such issues as housing and she was “extremely optimistic” premiers would choose to co-operate.
“Housing is a national challenge, and the federal government needs to be leading the charge,” she said.
“My own experience has been when there are big issues that really matter to Canadians, after all the sound and the fury, people are prepared to roll up their sleeves and find a win-win outcome for Canadians.”
Several premiers have pushed back against the federal government in recent months and again after the budget was released on the grounds that some measures touch on provincial jurisdiction.
This week’s federal budget has premiers lashing out at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over a planned increase to capital gains taxes as well as what they say is overstepping on infrastructure and pharmacare.
In a letter released Friday by the Council of the Federation, which represents the leaders of all 13 provinces and territories, the premiers said Ottawa should have consulted them more ahead of the budget.
Individual premiers have shared more pointed critiques.
“It’s a never-ending spending platform that we’ve seen now for the last 10 years,” New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs said on CBC’s Power & Politics on Friday.
“My initial thoughts about the federal budget are that they are overtaxing, overspending, overborrowing and over interfering in provincial affairs,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said earlier this week.
Alberta has clashed with the government repeatedly over housing. Smith introduced legislation earlier this month that would require provincial oversight of deals made between municipalities and the federal government, including for future agreements around federal housing funds.
At Issue this week: The Liberals work to sell their multibillion-dollar spending plan and capital gains tax hike. Pierre Poilievre tells Radio-Canada what he thinks of the federal budget. And another province pushes back on the carbon tax.
Freeland said on Sunday that, as an example, the federal child-care program negotiated through a series of deals with provinces and territories showed that co-operation was possible.
Capital gains tax changes criticized
The federal government has also faced some opposition on what was perhaps the most prominent measure revealed on budget day: changes to Canada’s capital gains tax rules. The government has proposed raising the inclusion rate to 67 per cent on capital gains above $250,000 for individuals.
“The 21st-century winner-takes-all-economy is making those at the very top richer, while too many middle-class Canadians are struggling,” Freeland said Sunday, adding the government was asking wealthy Canadians to pay their “fair share.”
“We do need to ensure that we have some revenue coming in. This is a very limited way of ensuring that that occurs,” Treasury Board President Anita Anand said in an interview on Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday.
Treasury Board President Anita Anand joins CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton to talk about the federal budget and its focus on young Canadians — as well as the criticism it’s receiving.
Critics have raised concerns that the changes could result in reduced investment or capital flight.
“The big concern right now … is this going to have a detrimental impact to the progress we’re trying to make in making Canada a hub for innovation,” said Kirk Simpson, CEO of the tech company goConfirm, in a separate interview on Rosemary Barton Live.
“With productivity the way that it is, we want more capital, not less, flowing into business innovation,” Simpson told CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton.
Freeland said Sunday that the changes will affect very few Canadian individuals — the government estimates 0.13 per cent — and the revenue will go to pay for investments in areas like housing.
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