Tag Archives: CBC

March 28, 2023 · 01:55

Ways to skin a cat

Yes, it is an old expression, yet anytime I use it, the Cheshire Cat gets a little upset with me. Well thats all fine I say, he disagrees. To start this off, I need to take you back to the 21st of March when I wrote ‘The unplanned story’. The story (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/21/the-unplanned-story/) gives rise to new IP I had, but it is not about the IP. It is about the quote “The image is based on identity and interaction. You see, that need is not effort, it is engagement. Market Research (at least a few of them) have seen that engagement is the metric that really matters and Augmented reality is the core of that and that is what is missing in malls.” Yes, I saw that it was about Augmented Reality, or so I personally belief. Yet CBC (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-mall-cashes-in-on-alternative-tenants-to-fight-canada-wide-slump-1.6787534) gives us ‘Edmonton mall cashes in on alternative tenants to fight Canada-wide slump’ and that is what I love. Someone found another way and that is great. With their “The Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre is reinventing itself with unconventional vendors and local clubs” I love it, they are creating a new way of engagement. It does not matter, I am firm in my believe that my IP will be a solution. What I love is that someone found another way it is great (and it gives rise to my train of thought). Local communities are often forgotten and now we get “Radio Control Racers Edmonton took over a storefront in the building last month. President Randy Van said the first few weeks have been a massive success for both the club and the mall” this opens up so many options, it does not hurt my IP (which is a little bit on my mind), it merely gives the rise to engagement (not the ring). Engaging with your audience is the solution, it always way. As I have no idea how Eaton Mall will use the 220,000 square foot to create engagement, but it shows what was missing. Even now whilst Eaton Mall is getting back on its feet, it is still well over 20% short of what was (a seeming impression made by the videos I watched). 

In the end there are many ways to skin a cat (sorry Cheshire Cat). It merely requires us to look at that equation differently and the Bonnie Doon Shopping centre in Edmonton (where the oilers are from) has done a decently remarkable thing and that also requires recognition. They took the equation in a different direction and yay to them, they pulled it off. 

This is he kind of ingenuity I applaud, because we see too little of it anywhere. So enjoy the day and consider what the mall in your area is missing. Perhaps they need to change the greed driven formula of dollars per square foot into the future of calling in people per square foot, because people per mall is what decides the success of such one place, not the amount of empty walking space (sorry Nordstrom).

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March 26, 2023 · 05:54

What business plan?

The very first thought when I saw a Nordstrom video less than an hour ago. In light of the closure of Nordstrom someone made a 4K walkthrough of the Nordstrom shop in the Eaton Mall in Toronto, which is their flagship. The shop is about 220,000 square foot and the first thought out of my mind was ‘Are you flipping kidding me?’ And I suddenly understood why Nordstrom never made a profit. I cannot understand why the people there did not see this right off the bat. In the first the shop looks pretty amazing, but overly spacious and not in a good way. The shop has about 70,000 square foot of unused space, that is a third and mall space is expensive. So to be wasting space to the likes of 70,000 square foot. I found one source with a price (not verified) of $1,450 per square foot, implying that Nordstrom was wasting $101,500,000 EVERY YEAR on empty space. So what kind of business plan is that? And the video (at https://youtu.be/6IQMgV_7uqE) clearly shows the waste of space. You could setup the entire shop in half the space and when you reduce the cost of one shop by $51,000,000 it amounts to a large sum of money. I do not care what the vision of these people were, when you optionally have 13 stores in the same setup, you are wasting hundreds of millions a year. Now, we know that the others are smaller, but it still implies that the stores were wasting close to half a billion every year. So what gives?

When I wrote ‘The unplanned story’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/21/the-unplanned-story/) on the 21st of March, I did make mention of “there is a weakness in your business model, but I do not think it was enough”, in this malls tend to be the same and I did not give it the consideration I optionally could have. I never expected that Nordstrom wasted space to the degree they did. There is more, it seems to be some elite store and Canadians aren’t too elite based (well over 40% of the male population loves their hockey jersey). A shop like this fits Los Angeles, optionally Rodeo Drive, but even then this flagship there would become a money pit soon thereafter, especially when you waste 70,000 square foot of space. 

I keep on coming back to the thought, who were these people wasting money to this degree? You see, covid or not, I expect that covid had a massive impact, but the clear waste of space is boggling my mind. Malls are expensive and that keeps on badgering my mind. It also reminded me of a place called Meddens in Rotterdam. A fashion store with exactly the same setup in a place called ‘Lijnbaan’, there is however a difference. The people behind it were brilliant and they bought the entire block. They became an eccentric and exquisite shop, but as they owned the block, their $100K gamble became a multi million euro win and it funded expansion after expansion and after 180 years (in 2010) the 6 shops stopped. I reckon 180 years is a good run. A shop like Nordstrom that stated to CBC last month “Despite our best efforts, we do not see a realistic path to profitability for the Canadian business.” Well, when you waste that kind of space I am not entirely surprised. And it will not take long for places like Holt Renfrew, Hudson’s Bay, and Simons to gobble up the clients. Personally I hope that the staff members will find space in these places as well. They tend to be victims of a business plan, not the instigators of it. It took the parent company less than 10 years to see wisdom and with an earlier quote (I think it was CBC) that they never had a profitable year I actually wonder why it took this long. 

The more I saw of this video the more questions came to me and I have no idea what these board people were thinking (if they were thinking). I might seem happy, but I am not. I do not relish anyone’s downfall (Microsoft being the exception) and this shop was managed floor by floor by people who loved their job and their space. You can see that with EVERY display in that shop and there are many of them and we would want to give them a pass for covid, but the shop was not doing well years before that point and that partially angers me, waste tends to do that. A weird start to Sunday for me, but when I see the evidence I am not really overly surprised on the outcome, merely on some people not seeing this clearly years before me.

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March 21, 2023 · 23:45

The unplanned story

That happens to us all and there are any number of reasons. I thought I was done with the subject for now, that is until CB gave me ‘Nordstrom Canada will launch sales at its closing stores starting Tuesday’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nordstrom-canada-liquidating-stores-1.6784540) about 11 hours ago. There was no surprise. I covered this in part in ‘It as one keyword’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/03/04/it-was-one-keyword/) and that story links to a few others. I casually captured the folly of Nordstrom but I left a few things out. You see, we can all agree if you have been working from a place of loss from day one, there is a weakness in your business model, but I do not think it was enough. Covid was too unexpected and the world reeled on it, but it was already to late as I saw it and even if my IP was accepted by the right people, for Nordstrom it was already too late, it would have merely given them a little more time, time they could not hand them a better result. Their business model and their prediction model was off by too much.

You see, to see this we need to look at a picture. The picture is below. 

As you see here, we see a mall and this time around it is not the Toronto Eaton Centre, this is the Hyat Mall in Riyadh and it show the same weakness, which is the problem for malls. Yet as I see it, the problem is a lot bigger for western malls (USA, UK, EU) they have the same touch, the tough of non identity. You can scream the name all you like, but these malls are all the same. Go to a mall anywhere in the US and you could not tell where you were from walking there. It was a formula that malls were based on and between 1990-2015 that made sense, but after Covid the world changed and that is where the problems starts for these malls, all 116,000 of them. Yet there is a solution and both Gucci and Tiffany is already tapping into that, but I reckon they are missing part of it and that is where Google, Samsung and Apple come in. I wonder if these two players figure out what I saw over 6 months ago and it is a juicy one. Optionally Elon Musk could use it to give more needs to his Pi Phone but in itself it is still an android solution. The image is based on identity and interaction. You see, that need is not effort, it is engagement. Market Research (at least a few of them) have seen that engagement is the metric that really matters and Augmented reality is the core of that and that is what is missing in malls. Lets be clear, for Nordstrom it is too late, the question becomes will malls change into retail graveyard places over the next 5-10 years or are they given a new lease on life and that matters. How much real estate is in 116,000 malls? When they die the local places will light up and I personally am a firm believer in ‘Support your local hooker’ which was an expression we used in the 70’s. 

So am I right because Gucci and Tiffany are tapping into that idea? No, I believe I am right because the nature of the beast (the consumer) has changed and is still changing. They are catching on that a new prerogative is required and AR gets them there. So when they are done with ageism and other forms of consumer categorisation, they will figure out that their predictive model is wrong on a few levels and that is where we see the larger stage change. I merely wonder if some of them will wake up in time. If not, I watch it all go to hell and when it does I can point to my previous articles and tell them “Told you so” and whatever excuse they have will not hold up, because I wrote it months ago and I wrote it in several stories over a span of about a year (perhaps a little longer). So when they wake up, I wonder if it is to the board directors who are fed up with the colour rd in their books, or the conveyancer trying to measure up the place for new usage. I can’t be to the smell of coffee, because it is too late for that and it will not be to me as Amazon, Apple and Google all decided they never needed me. Fine, whatever.

So when we complete the consideration of “In approving Dacks’ liquidation request, Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz agreed, saying Nordstrom is facing a “difficult time, but this process is unfolding in a very co-operative manner.””

At least I kept it out of the hands of Microsoft, not a bad stage to consider. Yet consider two final things. The first is Nordstroms liquidation actual liquidation or euthanasia? The second is, is Nordstrom alone? How many other places are on the brink of really bad times in the next 5 years? 

Have a great day.

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March 21, 2023 · 00:50

When we just don’t know

This happens, at times we are in the dark, some more than others, but we have all been in that lane where we are utterly in the dark on what is up.

For me it started in April 2022 when I wrote ‘Comedy Capers it is not’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/04/19/comedy-capers-it-is-not/) there was no blame, there was no wrongdoings. An Iranian woman was kidnapped by people in fake police uniforms and that is where it pretty much ended. I had a few thoughts and I put it in ‘Loser investigations unlimited’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/04/25/loser-investigations-unlimited/) yet a few things kept nagging at me and I stayed quiet. It is a parallel to ‘You are not paranoid when everyone is trying to kill you’, there was something in this that had a connection, but I could not clearly see it and now, thanks to the OPP et al, I feel that I do. You see, CBC gives us ‘Woman charged with kidnapping in Elnaz Hajtamiri abduction case’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/elnaz-hajtamiri-kidnapping-charge-1.6782534) there we see “In a news release issued Friday, Ontario Provincial Police investigators said that on Thursday, 30-year-old Brampton woman Krystal P. Lawrence had been arrested and charged with kidnapping”, we see a lot more and I think we need to give people from the OPP and York Regional Police a huge applause. They got things done when most of us (me included) thought they were out of options. They did more than OK, they got something impossible done, except perhaps finding the missing woman. To be honest I am not sure if she will ever turn up. You see this all reeks of VAJA (or VEVAK if you prefer). The one part I cannot answer is why she was a target, I am not sure if the RCMP, CSIS, or OPP has a clue. Is it because she is/was connected to someone? I cannot tell. But the entire fake police touch makes it more than simple abduction. Then there was the headline ‘Elnaz Hajtamiri’s ex-boyfriend hired a private investigator to watch her before Wasaga Beach abduction’ there was always something wrong with that. It is not beyond VAJA to speak to the lack of honour in the ex-boyfriend and he (for a nice amount) was willing to help out. But the reason as to why remains a mystery to me. Robert Redford (all the presidents men) taught me ‘Follow the Money’ and that makes sense, but it is at times not enough. I personally need data to investigate what happened in the month before someone hired Loser Investigation Unlimited (see the article for more). You see, they might not talk, but their books will and that amount when you mine the funds of the ex-boyfriend will either absolve him (massively unlikely) or shows him to be complicit. That might get us more, but unlikely that it will lead to Elnaz Hajtamiri. For now we need to congratulate the police factions involved of getting this far, a place I never expected them to get, because the entire setting was skewed from day one and dressing up as fake police officers is just a little too weird for it to be normal. 

I initially had a few more ideas, but they do not matter. It seems to me that the Canadian police is sharp as a scalpel and they will cut to the heart of the matter, the CBC article of March 17th leaves me with little doubt on that matter.

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March 20, 2023 · 00:23

Two sides to anything

Yes, there are two sides to anything, there is their side and there is your side, then some say the third side is the truth, but that tends to boil over to both other sides. What matters is what we need to believe and in this day and age this is getting harder and harder.

The issue is the CBC article ‘U.S. ran secret probe into China’s operations in Canada, new book alleges’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-dragon-lord-probe-book-1.6783063) here we get to two issues. The first is not if it is true, we can merely assume that this is the case. The issue is that this is an event that started 30 years ago. So was there no aftermath, was there an investigation, and were protocols upgraded? We are given “The book says the project, code-named Operation Dragon Lord, led to an unnerving takeaway: that Beijing’s activities in Canada represented a security threat to the United States”, now we do get that Americans are good at tall tales and not just when phishing, it happens with a rod and with other equipment too, but if there was a real threat this threat wasn’t just for the USA, it would have impacted the Commonwealth via Canada and Canada as well, so where is the follow up? But then we get the most damning of all quotes. With “Canada was aware of these threats for 25 years and has allowed them to manifest” we see Scott McGregor, a former RCMP intelligence official give out the lash in no insignificant way. There is the thought that politicians are merely late to the party, but that would be wrong. Something set this off and there are a few scenarios that come to mind. If someone told me that MY country was being used to spy on the US and my name was David Vigneault, the first question in my mind is not what are they spying on, but ‘What are they spying on here?’ And that is the larger stage, from that statement we get to the implied thought that Canada has been overrun by sleeper agents and deep cover installations that have been creating a cover for decades. So how many Chinese people came to Canada since then? I do not know the answer and out of 100 perhaps 1 is the fishy one, but these people have been able to apply a cover for decades, good luck finding them now.

Then we get “The five-page memo says the American probe examined this alleged alliance of convenience between Beijing and criminal groups” merely 5 pages? The fact that there was a memo is not the setting, the mention that it was 5 pages is a concern, 5 pages over 6 agencies implies (not proves) a minor work that is little more than a homework exercise. I cannot tell how much of a danger China is, and with the wok seemingly done on it, neither can you.

The BS document by the UN on Khashoggi was at least 106 pages, as such they hid their BS in ink, China wasn’t given that courtesy with the 5 pages the semi-interested parties took. Weird eh?

Lets be clear, we spy on them, they spy on us. That has been a given fact for a very long time, as such I am not overly bothered, but the idea that a local intelligence agency is dragging its feet for decades is concerning, not merely because of China spying, but who else has been spying on us and we merely shrugged? Now we see more and more Russian actions all over the place and we see very little action against these people and now we do have a problem and that problem is likely to be seen all over the Commonwealth. I have no delusions that they are alone in this, they are likely the first one to be found dragging their feet which is not good. So what happens next? I reckon that is known when the CSIS reports to parliament this Monday, and that is the earliest when we learn what will be next.

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March 4, 2023 · 10:23

It was one keyword

Yes, that is at times the short and sweet of anything, but let that not be some alert to the easiness of any endeavour. You see, my opposition to the CBC article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nordstrom-canada-1.6766073) is not that simple. The headline ‘Nordstrom closing down in Canada, shuttering all 13 stores’ sounds nice and it is a reality, but it is another line, one giving us “It was not Canadian enough”, that is the one that is plain wrong. You see, from all information we could go with the setting that the business mission was wrong all along, especially with any business painting the books in red since 2014 is another matter, one that matters, but the larger stage is not that (for Nordstrom it might be), malls are at present done for in its current setting. You see when Covid hit, it did a lot more. The timeline 2020-2023 changed people. People were forced to sit at home and mull things over. The short gratitude setting of going shopping in the weekend suddenly got hit by the cold light of day and it did not hold up. People started to think over what on earth they were doing and that becomes a whole lot more. 

You see, it started before June 6th 2022 when I wrote (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/06/06/presentation-and-awareness-creation/) ‘Presentation and Awareness creation’. This is based in simple settings. You see, all the marketeers are in some silly exercise of direct marketing. It is direct, simple and cheap and the ROI of it is seemingly immense. But any intelligent marketing boffin will tell you that the actual gems are found in engagement. Engagement is key to get traction with the people, especially the people who woke up after covid. I saw the setting in the Eaton Centre Mall (Toronto), yet I saw this application in places like Harrods too (Harrods has way to much traction at the moment, as such they need not worry), but there are well over 115,000 malls that need to wake up. They need to create traction and that was where my IP came in. It wasn’t hard, parts already existed, but for some reason Amazon and Google (the most likely winners in that race) decided not to wake up and that is where everyone decided to snooze a little longer. But there was a stage that was fast and vastly evolving and players like Omnichannel were already aware. They knew that the race was around the creation of engagement, they merely did not take it far enough. I did and suddenly had created a stage where bookshops and jewellers were a lot more important than ever before. OK, I am a guy so I created the stage for Victoria Secrets as well, they have well over 1,000 stores in the US alone and that is merely the beginning. There was a stage of intensified engagements from Alberta to Monaco and from Monaco to Zurich. An enlarging stage and the one keyword everyone forgot about was ‘Effort’, it is not part of direct marketing as such a lot of people forgot about it, but it matters and it matters a lot. Nordstrom is merely the beginning. Unless malls do not change their approach too many of them will become ghost buildings. The people are awake and these malls are largely done for. Seek any of my articles from June 6th 2022 involving ‘Eaton Centre Mall’ and you might catch on. It was all out in the open and marketing people forgot about the essential approach involving effort. 

What I never figured out is that I am not the super intelligent type, Google and Amazon should have been thee long before I did and they were not, now that they are all about chasing revenue, I wonder who gets there first, that player will have a much larger revenue stream for a long time to come and it is not an adjusted revenue stream, it is a new one with global implications. That is my view on the matter. How the keyword ‘effort’ changes everything.

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March 3, 2023 · 01:18

The blocking question

That is what CB left me with. The article (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/alphabet-google-committee-block-summon-1.6762908) gives us “A parliamentary committee is calling four of Google’s top executives to appear before it after the company began testing ways it could block news content from searches if Parliament passes the Online News Act.” And this MP Julian, perhaps MP Julian Assange? No, my bad. It was MP Peter Julian. You see, we do not get the proper setting. And it is not on Google. We are given “Google’s actions have been irresponsible. Google’s actions amount to censorship and Google’s actions are disrespectful of Canadians.” I do not think this is true and because some politicians are trying to remain as vague as possible, issues and question remain, but the people who are pushing this are the remnants of William Randolph Hearst and they all should become as obsolete and buried as Hearst is now. 

They lost credibility and they lost integrity, but that is not how we need to proceed. You see the article gives us “All types of news content are being affected by the test, which will run for about five weeks, the company said. That includes content created by Canadian broadcasters and newspapers. An Australian law similar to C-18 took effect in March 2021 after talks with the big tech firms led to a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country. The law has largely worked, a government report said.” Well, not exactly, has it?

You see, we are given one line, but it is not one line, it is a document with many paragraphs, many facetted paragraphs. But the politicians do not want to go there, do they? 

This is the first example. It comes from Twitter. The LA Times gives us the heads up, but it is not that, when we click on it it becomes a block. An advertisement block and the LA Times is not alone. So, did we accept that FREE advertisement by the LA Times? That is the question and it is not a simple one line answer. 

The second example is Google search, I wanted something on Bundaberg (where the good rum comes from) and I looked at the news, the top part is what I saw and there is nothing wrong with reading about youthful enthusiasm in medicine, so I clicked on the article, but was I informed? No! I got an invitation to PAY for the article. Lets be clear, it might be OK for newspapers to allow this approach, but is it up to Google Search to cater to free advertisement? These two examples are the tip of a mountain a lot bigger than the ice-block that sank the Titanic, but the article as well as PM Julian are keeping us in the dark about it. There are others like the Guardian, the Dutch NOS, BBC, CBC and many others that do not use this approach, but for news outlets that cater to this approach we see a different catering and I think that Facebook and Google get to block these players. They newspapers are making claims of loss of revenue, but they advertise in this way, so is blocking all the question? I do not think so, but I am not on the board of directors of Google (even after I was able to hand them close to $20,000,000,000 in revenue). Ah well, another day, another dollar.

The block setting is not that simple and these politicians are nowhere neat ready to properly look at this. They want their cowboy story and Google is the nasty evil, but that is not true, it was never true. But then the politicians involved could never figure this out, but that is how I see it, and I accept that others have a different point of view. That is fair, I can only give you my point of view and perhaps it will stir questions, perhaps it will not.

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February 23, 2023 · 21:38

Data dangers

Data has dangers and I think more by accident then intentional CBC exposed one (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/whistle-buoy-brewing-ai-beer-robo-1.6755943) where we were given ‘This Vancouver Island brewery hopped onto ChatGPT for marketing material. Then it asked for a beer recipe’. You see, there is a massive issue, it has been around from the beginning of the event, but AI does not exist, it really does not. What marketing did to make easy money, the made a term and transformed it into something bankable. They were willing to betray Alan Turing at the drop of a hat, why not? The man was dead anyway and cash is king. 

So they turned advanced machine learning and data repositories added a few items and they call it AI. Now we have a new show. And as CBC gives us “let’s see what happens if we ask it to give us a beer recipe,” he told CBC’s Rohit Joseph. They asked for a fluffy, tropical hazy pale ale” and we see the recipe below.

Now I have two simple questions. The first is is this a registered recipe, making this IP theft, or is this a random guess from established parameters, optionally making it worse. Random assignment of elements is dangerous on a few levels and it is not on the program to do this, but it is here so here you have it and it is a dangerous step to make. But I am more taken with option one, the program had THAT data somewhere. So in a setting we acquired classified data through clandestine needs and the program allowed for this, that is a direct danger. So what happens when that program gets to assess classified data? The skip between machine learning, deeper machine learning, data assessment and AI is a skip that is a lot wider than the grand canyon. 

But there is another side, we see this with “CBC tech columnist and digital media expert Mohit Rajhans says while some people are hesitant about programs like ChatGPT, AI is already here, and it’s all around us. Health-care, finance, transportation and energy are just a few of the sectors using the technology in its programs” people are reacting to AI as it existed and it dos not, more important when ACTUAL AI is introduced, how will the people manage it then? And the added legal implications aren’t even considered at present. So what happens, when I improve the stage of a patent and make it an innovative patent? The beer example implies that this is possible and when patents are hijacked by innovative patents, what kind of a mess will we face then? It does not matter whether it is Microsoft with their ChatGPT or Google with their Bard, or was that the bard tales? There is a larger stage that is about to hit the shelves and we, the law and others are not ready for what some of the big tech are about to unleash on us. And no one is asking the real questions because there is no real documented stage of what constitutes a real AI and what rules are imposed on that. I reckon Alan Turing would be ashamed of what scientists are letting happen at this point. But that is merely my view on the matter.

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January 23, 2023 · 22:04

Drip, drip, drip, bucket

This all started a little over a week ago with ‘Delete their asses’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2023/01/14/delete-their-asses/), I quoted the BBC who gave us “Despite our efforts, every year we do register a very small number of fraudulent transactions”. Now CBC gives us (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/organized-crime-groups-behind-gta-home-sales-mortgages-without-owners-knowledge-1.6719978) With the headline ‘How organised crime has mortgaged or sold at least 30 GTA homes without owners’ knowledge’ This does not invalidate the quote “we do register a very small number of fraudulent transactions”, yet I believe that they were already aware and at least 30 is not a very small number, as I personally see it, it is the use of the word ‘very’. You see, the issue is a lot larger than they make it out to be. Organised crime is not that intelligent (unless they have Filofaxes, making them very organised crime), what does happen is that some innovative scoundrel with a law degree, or perhaps even an intelligent law student who passed his Real Property is equivalent and a few other parts and then he or she realises that there is a gap, a loophole and whatever happens in Canada, in the UK will also optionally happen in Australia and New Zealand. I stated on the 14th of January that something had to be done yesterday, Now CBC shows us that something is essential to be done and it should have been done last year. 

A larger review of housing and the need to create legal barricades, so that people can go on vacation knowing that they can go on vacation and when they get home their house will still be theirs. I still believe that a step towards mandatory actuary services could become a first step. Banks might add actuaries and add safety services and there could be a chance that when you go to the bank for a mortgage, they will insist on THEIR actuary services reducing the chance that they see their money gone on a false mortgage. I am not stating that this will be the case, but it could be the case. You see, the quote “CBC Toronto has learned that a handful of organised crime groups are behind these real-estate frauds — in which at least 30 homes in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) have either been sold or mortgaged without the real owners’ knowledge” shows these 30 events around Toronto, implying that Canada has a decent amount more of these cases. So how many happened in the UK, how many will Australia have? The people behind it would spread the setting as much as possible getting a much greater amount of profit. What is clear that 30 in Toronto is merely the tip of the iceberg and something needs to be done. 

Because in the end, it will never rain when it pours, the question is will you in the end have a roof to shield you from that?

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January 14, 2023 · 22:16

Delete their asses

There are two stories that need writing. One I cannot do until late Monday, because civil servants do not work on the weekend (weird). The other one is about fraud. The CBC alerted me to ‘It’s happened again. 2nd Toronto home listed for sale without homeowner’s knowledge’ (at https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/fraudulent-home-sale-1.6710868) and the problem is actually a lot worse than they think it is. You see, I remembered and found ‘Arrest after Luton clergyman reports his home stolen’ (at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-59167750) in November 2021. This has been going on for well over a year and when I see “We work with professional conveyancers, such as solicitors, and rely on them and the checks that they make to spot fraudulent attempts to impersonate property owners. Despite our efforts, every year we do register a very small number of fraudulent transactions.” And when I see this my blood curdles towards psychotic. When we see “rely on them”, I understand, but in the same breath I say that if at that point the conveyancer CANNOT show proper documentations and proper diligence he gets to lose his license for life. I am so sick of this casual approach to responsibilities (you will learn on Monday or Tuesday). It is time to change this level of stupidity. If these players no matter who cannot show due diligence, they lose their licence for life. These players all want ease, they want the internet and as such people lose their houses and their stuff, we need to change that game and we need to change it by a lot. The CBC gives us “the case bears a striking resemblance to an investigation the Toronto Police Service (TPS) asked for the public’s help with last week, in which another family wasn’t so lucky”. First of all, I am not blaming the Toronto Police Service. But the stage of ease of sale and ease of buying property needs to stop. In the old days there ere actuaries and perhaps we need to revisit that stage, they were truly diligent. The world is so much about reduction of sales cycle and now we see that people are getting hurt and some excuse that it is a mere few cases does not hold water. The victims lose to much, even if the damage is undone, the damage is close to permanent and something needs to be done. Perhaps it needs to be more draconian, but I feel strong about someone losing THEIR castle. So when I see “CBC News has reported on numerous allegations of fake identifications and other documents being used to rent homes and take out fraudulent mortgages, but these attempted home thefts appear to take real estate fraud to an alarming new level” I see that the system is failing and it is failing in the UK and in Canada. So we need a new stage, we need new systems of control and the stage of “this is easier” is no longer acceptable. Easy got the grifters and the scammers in, that needs to stop and the conveyancers are a first step, but merely a first. A lot more needs to be done and it needed to be started well over a year ago. 

Perhaps I am overreacting, but the idea of my place to be sold from under me when I go on vacation is a nightmare I never want to face and if that means deleting some overly non-diligent people, then so be it.

Enjoy Sunday.

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