ANALYSIS: Harper’s ‘reorganized’ Wheat Board ‘oppressive’ no more 6 things the wheat board needs to survive LISTEN: Karen Pauls on the impact on Churchill, MB Business outlook turns gloomy

Canadian firms have grown pessimistic about their sales prospects for the upcoming year, a Bank of Canada survey says. 1:36 PM ET

Surveys say Canada’s business climate improving Bank of Canada survey finds corporate optimism Look overseas, Scotiabank advises small businesses

The small businesses most likely to survive the period of global economic uncertainty are those that look to export markets over just catering to Canada’s economy, according to a new report. 5:11 PM ET

CBC’s Small Business special report OPINION: Chinese expansion not for faint of heart R&D funding needs streamlining, federal panel says 4:53 PM ET Canada adds 61,000 jobs in September 10:21 PM ET video Trade deficit creeps higher to $622M 5:12 PM ET ANALYSIS | Digital locks don’t always work as intended 12:44 PM ET Ikea buying business launches in Maritimes 6:48 AM ET Northern development focus of conference 7:19 PM ET COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

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Human resources Satisfied staff crucial to small business success Tips for finding, retaining great employees

Mindful Leadership Meditation gives business leaders and edge Mindfulness has roots in Buddhism, a 2,500-year-old science of the mind

VENTURE CAPITALISM Good small businesses face funding challenges Even when an entrepreneur has a winning idea, finding the cash can be tricky HANDS-ON

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YOUNG BLOOD 5 young entrepreneurs share their success stories How to carve your niche if you’re under 30 TECHNOLOGY

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Canadians want government to boost small business support

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EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

SMALL BUSINESS Family run business? You may be entitled to thousands of dollars in EI premium refunds

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SMALL BUSINESS How much is your small business worth? The art of business valuation is definitely not an exact science

PUBLIC PERCEPTION Canadians want government to better support small business Public has high respect for entrepreneurs

SMALL BUSINESS Chinese expansion not for faint of heart Expanding to China reduces costs but has its pitfalls

SMALL BUSINESS EI for the self-employed Should you opt in or stay out? Experts say ‘do the math’

WORKPLACE Bring-your-own-device plans have pitfalls ‘BYOD’ allows flexibility in workplace computing but poses security risks

E-COUPONS Deep discounts may hurt small businesses Are online deals really worth the hassle for entrepreneurs?

INTERNATIONAL Expanding abroad can be risky It’s hard enough to dominate your local market; harder still to go global

Outfitters Hunting, fishing guides bemoan lack of government support Often self-employed, outdoor entrepreneurs face unique challenges

MARKETING 8 guerilla marketing tips for small business Ways to create buzz without breaking the bank

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SMALL BUSINESS Are you PHSP-ing? Small business embraces the ‘other’ health plan

SMALL BUSINESS Family run business? You may be entitled to thousands of dollars in EI premium refunds

SMALL BUSINESS EI for the self-employed Should you opt in or stay out? Experts say ‘do the math’

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STRATEGY Solid plan is road map to success for any small business Creating and updating a plan is crucial to keep a venture on track Show next slide

The G20 leaders of rich and developing nations issued a communiqué Saturday saying they will make sure the IMF has all the resources it needs to help stabilize the world economy.

“We committed that the IMF must have adequate resources to fulfill its systemic responsibilities,” they said.

They said they would discuss the question of IMF funding at a summit of G20 leaders to be held in Cannes, France, in early November.

Canada wants IMF to focus on poorer countries

Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the IMF has a role to play, working with the European Commission and the European Central Bank, to help resolve the sovereign debt crisis in Greece. But Flaherty said the global lending organization should not have an increased role “to use the resources of the world to bail out banks in a relatively rich part of the world.”

“Our position is that the IMF probably needs more resources, but those resources would be needed to help out poorer countries in the world, not the European countries,” Flaherty told CBC News on Saturday.

G20 agenda

Susan Ormiston reports from Paris:

“The ministers today committed to making sure that European banks were capitalized enough to withstand any problems with sovereign debt.

“They also talked a bit about increasing the IMF funding. This is something Canada is not in favour of, certainly not for eurozone debt issues. That’s going to be tabled again at the G20 meeting in Cannes.”

“There’s already a contribution by the IMF to the facility that’s being created to recap the banks in Europe, so our focus was on that. We focus on those countries that are in need, not on European countries that are relatively well off,” he said.

G20 officials who spoke anonymously said the United States and Australia also objected to an expanded IMF role in limiting the crisis.

As the debt troubles in the eurozone threaten to spin out of control — with potentially global consequences — France and some other countries have pushed for the IMF to help Europe keep the crisis from spreading to large economies such as Italy and Spain.

Until now, the IMF has funded about a third of the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, but helping the eurozone to stem contagion would require a broader use of resources, such as buying bonds on the open market, that go far beyond the fund’s traditional role of providing rescue loans to cash-strapped countries.

A precondition to any expansion of the IMF’s role is for the eurozone to take more radical action on stemming the crisis at a summit on Oct. 23.

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MAP Europe feels the financial pinch Europe feels the financial pinch

At that meeting in Brussels, the currency union’s leaders are expected to sign off on a scheme to maximize the impact of their $608-billion bailout fund, a plan to recapitalize banks across the continent to ensure they can withstand worsening market turmoil and a second bailout for Greece.

The IMF, the world’s lender of last resort for cash-strapped countries, has funded about a third of the cost of the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Concerns are now growing that larger economies, like Italy and Spain, could falter, likely sinking numerous European banks, dragging the eurozone into recession and sending shock waves through the world economy.

As a result, finding a way to help Greece dig out of its debts and prevent the crisis from spreading topped the G20 agenda in Paris this weekend.

Canada has ‘huge vested interest’

In an interview with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge, broadcast on Friday, Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney said European leaders need to take action or suffer a “severely impaired” financial system, adding that the crisis will likely have an effect on Canada.

“We’re so interconnected in this globalized world,” Carney said. “We have a huge vested interest in what happens in Europe.”

Flaherty was also pressuring his European colleagues to move faster on measures to shore up the cash reserves of the biggest European banks.

“Quite frankly, at the end of the day, there’s no choice. Doing nothing is not an alternative that will work,” Flaherty said Friday.

With files from The Associated Press Accessibility Links

Drabinsky had requested release pending a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on whether to grant him leave to appeal his 2009 fraud convictions.

On Sept. 13, the Ontario high court denied Drabinsky’s appeal of his convictions, and of those of his business partner, Myron Gottlieb.

However, their sentences were reduced by two years, meaning that Drabinsky would serve five years, and Gottlieb, four.

Justice J.A. Doherty based his decision on the grounds that release would interrupt Drabinsky’s serving of his sentence.

“Where an accused is convicted of a serious crime and sentenced to a significant jail term, public confidence in the effective operation of the justice system must suffer if years go by before the accused serves that sentence,” he said.

On Sept. 13, Livent co-founder Myron Gottlieb had his sentence reduced to four years. Chris Young/Canadian Press

Drabinsky and Gottlieb, who produced such 1990′s theatre hits as Phantom of the Opera, Showboat and Ragtime through their company, Livent Inc., were convicted in March 2009 on two counts of defrauding investors by manipulating financial statements.

They were also each convicted on one count of forgery, but those charges were subsequently stayed.

Livent went out of business in 1998.

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In an emailed statement, Brookfield Properties said Friday that it had deferred cleaning the park for a short period while it negotiates with protesters.

“At the request of a number of local political leaders, Brookfield Properties has deferred the cleaning of Zuccotti Park for a short period of time while an attempt is made to reach a resolution regarding the manner in which Zuccotti Park is being used by the protesters,” the company said.

But New York organizers said in a statement that the postponement “has emboldened the movement and sent a clear message that the power of the people has prevailed against Wall Street.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the planned cleanup was postponed after the park’s owners received threatening calls from the city’s elected public officials.

Speaking on his weekly radio commentary on New York’s WOR Radio, Bloomberg said he didn’t know who made the threats, CNN reported.

“Late last night, we received notice from the owners of Zuccotti Park — Brookfield Properties — that they are postponing their scheduled cleaning of the park, and for the time being withdrawing their request from earlier in the week for police assistance during their cleaning operation,” NYC Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said in a statement issued before Bloomberg’s comments.

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MAP The Occupy Wall Street movement swells Protesters take aim at ‘corporate greed’

The company believes it can make arrangements with the protesters to “ensure the park remains clean, safe, available for public use,” Holloway’s statement said.

Hundreds of protesters had vowed not to leave the small park in Lower Manhattan at the 7 a.m. ET Friday deadline.

Arrests in Denver

Dozens of police in riot gear have herded Wall Street protesters away from the Colorado state Capitol grounds, arresting about two dozen and dismantling their encampment.

Most retreated without resisting. Some chanted “Peaceful!” or “Shameful!” as police moved in early Friday.

The protesters have been camped at the Capitol for about three weeks in support of the national Occupy Wall Street movement.

Officers dragged some from the camp and led others by the arm. Police carried stragglers to small groundskeeper tractors and drove them away.

Authorities began taking down dozens of tents at about 3:30 a.m.

At about 6:30 a.m., officers advanced on a line of protesters who had locked arms around the remaining tents. Officers held their batons horizontally and nudged or pushed the protesters to break up the human chain.

—The Associated Press

The protesters had said the plan to clean the park was an excuse to shut them down. In a bid to address the rationale for clearing the park, the protesters worked feverishly overnight Thursday to clean the park themselves.

“It shows when people work together, you really can make a difference and make justice happen,” jubilant protester Nick Glottal, 23, said following the deputy mayor’s announcement.

CBC’s David Common reported from New York City that the postponement helped the city and Brookfield avert the spectacle of police moving against the protesters.

“That’s why we’ve seen this postponement,” Common said. “It is just that. At some point, these protesters will again be asked to leave. But, at this point, that day is not today.”

Some arrests were reported when several hundred protesters left the park and marched toward the city’s financial district.

The demand that protesters clear out set up a turning point in a movement that began Sept. 17 with a small group of activists and has swelled to include several thousand people at times, from many walks of life. Occupy Wall Street has inspired similar demonstrations across America, is spreading to Canada and Britain, and become an issue in the Republican presidential primary race.

The protesters’ demands are amorphous, but they are united in blaming Wall Street and corporate interests for the economic pain they say all but the wealthiest Americans have endured since the financial meltdown.

Scramble of activity

There was a scramble of activity in the park Thursday afternoon and into the night. Hundreds of demonstrators scrubbed benches and mopped the park’s stone flooring in an attempt to get Brookfield to abandon its cleanup plan.

Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrate by marching to city hall in New York after learning that they will not be evicted from Zuccotti Park. (Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

Members of the protesters’ sanitation working group passed out bins for people to organize their belongings.

Protesters would have been allowed to return after the cleaning, which was expected to take 12 hours, but Brookfield said it plans to start enforcing regulations that have been ignored. That means no more tarps, no more sleeping bags, no more storing personal property on the ground — in other words, no more camping out for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, who have been living at Zuccotti Park for weeks. The park is privately owned but is required to be open to the public 24 hours per day.

“They’re going to use the cleanup to get us out of here,” said Justin Wedes, a 25-year-old part-time public high school science teacher from Brooklyn who was one of about 400 people in the park Thursday night. “It’s a de facto eviction notice.”

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose girlfriend is a member of Brookfield’s board of directors, said Brookfield requested the city’s assistance in maintaining the park. “We will continue to defend and guarantee their free speech rights, but those rights do not include the ability to infringe on the rights of others,” Bloomberg spokesman Marc La Vorgna said, “which is why the rules governing the park will be enforced.”

P.O.V.:

Is the protesters’ message relevant in Canada? Take our survey.

Protesters said the only way they will leave is by force. Organizers sent out a mass email asking supporters to “defend the occupation from eviction.”

“We are doubling up on our determination to stay here as a result of this,” Sophie Mascia, 26, a Queens resident who has been living in Zuccotti Park for three weeks, said before the postponement was announced. “I think this is only going to strengthen our movement.”

Protesters have had some run-ins with police, but mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge and an incident in which some protesters were pepper-sprayed by police seemed to energize their movement.

Bill de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, expressed concern over the city’s actions as he inspected the park Thursday afternoon and listened to protesters’ complaints.

“This has been a very peaceful movement by the people,” he said. “I’m concerned about this new set of policies. At the very least, the city should slow down.”

Attorneys from the New York City chapter of the National Lawyers Guild — who are representing an Occupy Wall Street sanitation working group — wrote a letter to Brookfield saying the company’s request to get police to help implement its cleanup plan threatens “fundamental constitutional rights.”

“There is no basis in the law for your request for police intervention, nor have you cited any,” the attorneys wrote in a letter Thursday to Brookfield CEO Richard B. Clark. “Such police action without a prior court order would be unconstitutional and unlawful.”

The attorneys said the sanitation working group has “committed itself to carrying out a thorough and complete cleaning” and to negotiate with the park’s owner in good faith.

The protest has led sympathetic groups in other cities to stage their own local rallies and demonstrations: Occupy Boston, Occupy Cincinnati, Occupy Houston, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy Philadelphia, Occupy Providence, Occupy Salt Lake and Occupy Seattle, among them.

In Denver, police moved early Friday to push protesters from a park near the state Capitol. Officers placed plastic handcuffs on protesters and took down tents.

Canadian protests planned

More protests are planned 15 Canadians cities, including Toronto and Vancouver, this weekend, and European activists also are also joining in. Organizers announced a protesters’ “occupation” of the London Stock Exchange to begin there on Saturday.

The movement has also drawn reaction from world leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, former Polish president Lech Walesa, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Walesa said Thursday that he supports the New York protest and is planning to either visit or write a letter to the protesters. He said the global economic crisis has made people aware that “we need to change the capitalist system” because we need “more justice, more people’s interests, and less money for money’s sake.”

Khamenei said Wednesday that the wave of protests reflects a serious problem that will ultimately topple capitalism in America. He claimed the United States is in a full-blown crisis because its “corrupt foundation has been exposed to the American people.”

With files from The Associated Press Accessibility Links

Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam also was fined $10 million US and ordered to forfeit $53.8 million by U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell, who said he concluded that Rajaratnam made well over $50 million in profits from his illegal trades.

“His crimes and the scope of his crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated,” Holwell said. “When the integrity of the marketplace is called into question, the public suffers.”

The sentence eclipsed by one year the prison term given to one of Rajaratnam’s co-defendants just weeks ago.

The Sri Lanka-born Rajaratnam, 54, was ordered to report to a yet-to-be-designated prison on Nov. 28.

His lawyers asked that he be allowed to report to the medical facility at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, where Bernard Madoff is serving his 150-year sentence after admitting to a multi-decade Ponzi scheme that cheated thousands of people out of billions of dollars.

The judge gave Rajaratnam leniency, citing his need for a kidney transplant and his advanced diabetes.

And he credited Rajaratnam’s charitable work, which he called “the defendant’s responsiveness to and care for the less privileged.” The judge cited Rajaratnam’s work to help victims of the earthquake in Pakistan and Sept. 11, among others.

Asked if he wished to speak, Rajaratnam said only, “No thank you.”

‘His crimes reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated.’ —U.S. District Judge Richard J. Holwell

He has been a quiet presence at all his court proceedings, declining even to sit at the defense table during his trial. When he stepped off the elevator on the floor of his courtroom Thursday, he was carrying a water bottle and casually asked no one in particular: “Which way?”

The sentencing culminates a series of convictions and sentencings that followed the October 2009 announcement of Rajaratnam’s arrest.

More than two dozen people were arrested; all were convicted. The other defendants got sentences ranging from a few months to 10 years. The probe touched off a related investigation of those on Wall Street who corrupt the research purpose of networking firms by letting unscrupulous public company employees spill secrets to hedge fund managers.

The case drew intense coverage in much the way the prosecutions of Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky had two decades before.

Boesky was a stock speculator who pleaded guilty to charges and was released in 1990 after serving two years in prison. Milken was known as the junk bond king. He pleaded guilty to securities violations in 1989, served 22 months in prison and paid a $200 million fine.

The Rajaratnam probe relied heavily on the most extensive use of wiretaps ever for a white-collar case, capturing conversations in which Rajaratnam and his co-conspirators could be heard gleefully celebrating their inside information.

Rajaratnam’s crime ‘brazen, pervasive and egregious’

Assistant U.S. Attorney Reed Brodsky told Holwell before the sentence was announced that Rajaratnam made up to $75 million in illegal profits from insider trading he indulged in since at least the late 1990s as he led one of the world’s largest hedge funds.

The government has said he switched so much money around within his multibillion dollar funds that the movement of price in individual stocks could be traced to his trading whims.

“Today you sentence a man who is the modern face of illegal insider trading,” Brodsky told Holwell. “He is arguably the most egregious insider trader to face sentencing in a courthouse in the United States.”

The prosecutor said Rajaratnam went about his crime in a “brazen, pervasive and egregious” manner, corrupting at least 20 fellow traders and at least 16 insiders with a lust for the millions of dollars that can flow to anyone who gets an edge in the securities markets. He said at least 19 public companies were victims of his crimes.

“The duration of his crimes was extraordinary,” Brodsky said.

Prosecutors had asked Holwell to send Rajaratnam to prison for at least 19 1/2 years for his May conviction on securities fraud charges. They said federal sentencing guidelines called for up to 24 1/2 years. A Probation Department report recommended a 15-year sentence.

The defense asked for leniency partly based on Rajaratnam’s “failing health” and his “unique constellation of ailments.”

Attorney Terence Lynam told Holwell that Rajaratnam should receive credit for his considerable charitable works and he urged compassion for his illnesses.

“Any lengthy term of imprisonment will surely shorten his life,” he said. “Based on the conduct for which he was convicted, he does not deserve to die in prison.”

Lawyers for the Sri Lanka native argued for 6 1/2 to 9 years. They said the illegal profits actually total around $7 million, when the trades at his Galleon Group are disregarded.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara recalled telling an audience when he announced charges against Rajaratnam two years ago that the case was a wake-up call for Wall Street.

“We can only hope that this case will be the wake-up call we said it should be,” he said in the statement Thursday. “It is a sad conclusion to what once seemed to be a glittering story. … Privileged professionals do not get a free pass to pursue profit through corrupt means.”

In another statement, FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk said Rajaratnam was no different from so many others who claim “superior research and acumen” gave them superior results in the stock markets.

“In fact, as his trial determined, he relied on — indeed, actively cultivated — insider information. His considerable fortune was built on a clandestine network of corruption and concealment,” she said.

© The Associated Press, 2011

Accessibility Links

The company filed its defence in the Supreme Court of P.E.I. on Wednesday, in response to a lawsuit filed in June by the province against Ocean Choice.

In its claim, the P.E.I. government said Ocean Choice International violated a sales agreement to purchase the assets of the bankrupt Polar Foods International.

Premier Robert Ghiz has said the company still owes taxpayers $9.75 million from the 2004 deal, when Ocean Choice bought the Polar Foods International assets from the province.

After the countersuit was filed, Ocean Choice officials released a statement saying the company “lived up to every commitment” made in the purchase agreement, including investing $10.9 million in capital improvements.

Most of that money went into the plant in Souris, the company said.

“I very much regret that we find it necessary to defend ourselves in court,” Blaine Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer for Ocean Choice International, said in a statement.

“It is not the route I would have chosen, but the government of P.E.I. has given us no alternative after more than two years of inconclusive negotiations.”

Ocean Choice International said the original agreement was that the province would not issue any more fish processing licences in order to maintain the value of the Polar Foods International assets. According to the company, there was also an agreement that if the government gave financial assistance to any other processor, it had to make the same offer to Ocean Choice P.E.I.

The company claimed by issuing further lobster and groundfish processing licences and providing financial assistance to competitors without offering the same benefit to Ocean Choice, government broke the contract.

“We asked for nothing other than the government live up to its obligations in the sales agreement. The government elected not to do so. In fact, the government did not inform us as it was required to do, when it secretly provided financial aid to our competitors,” Sullivan said in the statement.

“We do not believe that constitutes dealing in a manner that is either honest or forthright.”

The company is claiming $9,092,930.56 in damages. The company also says it’s not required to pay the outstanding balance of the purchase price for Polar Foods which the province claims is $9.75 million. Those two amounts bring the total value of the suit to more than $19 million.

Ocean Choice International announced in April that it was ceasing lobster processing at its plant in Souris, just days before the lobster season opened. About 300 workers lost their jobs.

The provincial government refused to comment on the $19-million countersuit.

Ocean Choice Suit http://d1.scribdassets.com/ScribdViewer.swf?document_id=68539822&access_key=key-7h9q24q6pbjvxj3mgy8&page=1&viewMode=list Accessibility Links

The protesters from the Occupy Boston movement were arrested after they ignored warnings to move from a downtown greenway near where they have been camped out for more than a week, police said.

Police spokesman Jamie Kenneally said the arrests began about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday and were mostly for trespassing. A conservancy group recently planted $150,000 worth of shrubs along the greenway and officials said they were concerned about damage.

Hundreds of college students marched through downtown Boston on Monday and gathered on Boston Common, holding signs that read “Fund education, not corporations.” The protesters are angry with an education system they say mimics “irresponsible, unaccountable, and unethical financial practices” of Wall Street.

Symbolic cheques

During the New York City march on Tuesday afternoon, protesters will bear oversize cheques, intended to symbolize how much less the wealthy will pay when New York’s two per cent “millionaires’ tax” expires in December.

A protester with Occupy Boston is led off by police during a stand-off at the Charlestown Bridge. Josh Reynolds/AP

The marchers plan to visit the homes of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and oil tycoon David Koch, among others. They don’t have a permit, but will walk in a narrow column so they don’t block sidewalks, according to Doug Forand, a protest leader.

Forand, citing budget cuts affecting schools and senior citizens, said the state’s plan to end the “millionaires’ tax” is “unconscionable” and urged lawmakers to extend it.

Asked if he thought any of the millionaires would be home, Forand replied, “They don’t share their schedules with me, but probably not.”

On Tuesday, several hundred protesters marched around the Financial District in Lower Manhattan.

The police presence is constant and comes with a price tag. The New York Police Department already has spent $1.9 million, mostly in overtime pay, to patrol the area near Zuccotti Park, where hundreds of protesters have camped out for several weeks. Though cold weather is on the way, they’re prepared to stay put for the long haul.

The expense comes at a time when Mayor Michael Bloomberg has ordered citywide budget cuts.

Mayor wants budget cuts

Last week, Bloomberg ordered all agencies to prepare to cut expenses by a total of $2 billion during the next 18 months. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the budget cuts may cause the cancellation of a new class of police officers entering the academy in January.

Police officials would not comment Monday on whether the Occupy Wall Street protest would have any bearing on how the budget cuts would play out. A spokesman for Bloomberg declined to comment on any financial issues.

“We always prefer to not spend overtime, but again, this is a big, complex city, lots of things going on,” Kelly said last week, describing the protesters’ effect on the NYPD. “And we have to spend overtime for unplanned operations.”

The protesters say they’re fighting for the “99 per cent,” or the vast majority of Americans who do not fall into the wealthiest one per cent of the population. Their causes range from bringing down Wall Street to fighting global warming.

The movement gained traction through social media, and protests have taken place in several other cities nationwide.

© The Associated Press, 2011

Accessibility Links

However, a statement issued by Labour Minister Lisa Raitt’s office leaves little doubt the government will intervene if the flight attendants go on strike.

“We will be clear that a work stoppage is unacceptable in this time of fragile economy,” the statement said.

The 6,800 flight attendants have rejected a tentative deal reached between their union and the airline and are poised to go on strike at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, the union said in a news release Sunday.

Air Canada said it hopes to avoid a work stoppage but will maintain a partial schedule in the event of a strike.

Customers who have already bought tickets to fly over the next six days will be allowed to change their travel dates at no charge, the airline said.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees said 65 per cent of the flight attendants who cast ballots voted to reject management proposals.

Earlier agreement rejected

It was the second time in recent months that flight attendants have turned down a tentative agreement with the airline. They voted 87 per cent against ratifying the previous effort, in August.

“We ask the federal government, in the strongest possible terms, to respect our right to collective bargaining and not intervene unilaterally in this dispute,” Jeff Taylor, president of CUPE’s branch for Air Canada flight attendants, said in a statement Sunday night.

After the first day of a three-day walkout by Air Canada’s sales and support staff in June, Raitt indicated she would introduce back-work-legislation. The airline and the Canadian Auto Workers union reached a deal the next day.

Raitt vowed last month to force a contract on flight attendants, too, if they walk off the job. In a statement released Monday, Raitt said all options are being considered, “including proceeding with the legislation proposed in September, which remains on the House of Common’s notice paper.”

“It is clear there is a breakdown in the process contemplated in the Canada Labour Code,” the statement said.

Taylor said this second rejection by attendants shows how frustrated they are with the airline after years of making concessions in wages and benefits.

Union leaders had predicted the second, revamped offer, reached Sept. 20, would be approved. They said they had managed to get about 80 per cent of what the membership was demanding in the areas of wages, pensions, crew rest, working conditions and work rules.

With files from Canadian Press Accessibility Links

The newly privatized arm of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Candu Energy, signed the $400-million deal with Argentina in August to overhaul a Candu reactor that has been providing electricity in Argentina since 1984.

Companies that make up the supply chain for Candu say the contract will keep skilled jobs in Canada.

The Babcock and Wilcox plant in Cambridge, Ont., makes steam generators, one of the components in Candu nuclear reactors.

Babcock and Wilcox doesn’t rely entirely on Candu for work, but company president Michael Lees says this contract means about 150,000 hours of work, much of it in high-paying engineering jobs.

“I would look at it as a way of sort of maintaining a steady workforce,” Lees says. “We may have had to hire some people to fill in a few gaps, we may have avoided a few layoffs.”

The contract in Argentina is the first one signed by AECL since the government announced it was selling the Crown company in 2007. Ron Oberth, president of the Organization of Candu Industries — representing the supply chain for Candus — says it took four years for the federal government to sell AECL’s Candu division, and in the meantime, no new contracts could be signed. Oberth says that took a toll on business with countries such as Argentina.

“That strained relationships in what had been a long term partnership in the nuclear industry betweeen Argentina and Canada,” he says.

He says many of the companies he represents are happy the work is starting to flow again.

“Some of the smaller ones were struggling, so I think some of them will see there is a strong opportunity for them to continue manufacturing to retain important high technology jobs.”

Oberth says this contract is also a good bridge for the industry, while it waits for Ontario to decide which company will build one or both of two new nuclear reactors the province plans to build at the Darlington generating station in Clarington, 70 kilometres east of Toronto.

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The satellite malfunction yesterday morning disrupted services beginning at about 6:30 a.m. for long-distance and cellphones, the internet, bank and debit machines, and grounded flights in Nunavut.

Services began coming back online across the North Thursday night around 10:30 p.m. ET.

Northwestel reported that long-distance, cellphone and data communications were all operational by 12:40 a.m ET this morning.

This kind of satellite malfunction is extremely rare, said Paul Bush, Telesat’s vice-president of business development.

“The reliability is almost 100 per cent – 99.999. Now, you see issues on the ground with ground stations, and you always have operational issues with power, etc. But it’s a rare occurrence. So, fortunately we are back online and we’ll be investigating the issue over the next couple weeks.”

Telesat technicians believe there was a glitch in software recently loaded into the satellite, he said. When a satellite malfunctions, it turns away from the Earth and towards the sun so that it won’t disrupt other machinery.

They had to re-load the software yesterday to re-establish control over the satellite and turn it back to face the right direction.

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