Eideard

A Canadian bankruptcy court ruled a Nova Scotia ex-student with bank loans worth $50,000 doesn’t have to pay it back as the bank wasn’t wise in issuing them.

What!?

Alfredo Abdo, now 23, took out the first loan worth $20,000 from the Royal Bank of Canada in Halifax in his second year studying engineering at Dalhousie University in 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Despite having a grade point average of 4.06 and a scholarship, Abdo lost much of the loan through bad online investments, the court heard.

The bank then offered him a second loan of $30,000, which he took. After switching to commerce from engineering, Abdo told the court he began experiencing stress-related dizzy spells and he dropped out of school and couldn’t find work.

He filed for bankruptcy a year ago and now lives with his mother, the report said.

Bankruptcy registrar Richard Cregan ruled against the bank’s claims for at least a partial repayment.

Another good reason – I guess – for keeping my Canadian options open. Like if I ever want a loan I intend to default on.

Justice Louis Brandeis

Just when you thought Halifax couldn’t embarrass itself any more, news breaks that the municipality asks job applicants if they have had sex with animals.

Now, I don’t imagine that practising bestiality is a necessary qualification for a job with Halifax Regional Municipality. So I’m guessing that this lie detector question is intended to weed applicants out…

Other questions on the test also show that Halifax is going to the dogs. In a direct assault on common decency and personal privacy, Halifax also probes applicants about drug use and suicidal thoughts, which they’re more likely to have after going through the ordeal of a polygraph…

The real issue here is what I would call the right to privacy, if only such a right existed in Canada. Prospective municipal employees were asked not only about their own drug use; they were also expected to divulge any history of domestic abuse, incest and substance abuse counselling.

This not only probes deeply into personal lives; it also at tempts to unearth personal medical histories, which I thought were supposed to be private in this country…

Anyway, Canada has consistently failed to fully protect the privacy of its citizens. And neither the Canadian nor the U.S. constitution explicitly recognizes a right to privacy.

Still, it was a judge, the late Louis Brandeis of the U.S. Supreme Court, who came closest to describing the truth of the matter. In a 1929 decision, Brandeis referred to “the right to be left alone.”

Now, there’s a rule that would appear in a proper crank’s Bill of Rights!