SaskWatch Newsletter

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Welcome to the Spring 2024 edition of SaskWatch. As we wind down our fiscal year it is a great time to reflect on our accomplishments. The 2023-2024 fiscal year started with the development of our strategic plan which has resulted in a number of changes for the organization.

New to CASK

We are very pleased to announce that we have a new board member, Koby Kelln, and a new administrative assistant, Monica Gordon. We welcome them both to our team. You will learn more about them below.

What have we been working on?

Consultations

CASK provided input into the 2023 CRTC Consultation: Proposed increase to the minimum retail price of basic cable service proposed by SaskTel.  We also provided input into the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority (FCAA) Consumer Protection Consultation Film and Video Classification Consultation. We will continue to provide input into provincial and federal consultations that have an impact on consumers in Saskatchewan.

Other activities

CASK provided a letter of support to the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority for two candidates nominated to the Funeral and Cremation Services Council of Saskatchewan. We attended the Spotlight On Seniors display in Saskatoon. Below you will see a summary of that event. [cite: 10]

We distributed over 400 copies of the Fall SaskWatch to individuals in Saskatchewan through libraries, retail outlets, by regular mail and email. Let us know how you would like to receive your copy.

We have started the process of redesigning and updating our website. We have identified organizations that we will liaise with. The Annual General Meeting is being planned. [cite: 13] Everyone is welcome to attend the meeting to hear our speaker and learn more about our organization.

CASK has had a successful year and we look forward to continue meeting the goals identified in our strategic plan as we move into the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Thank you to the Board and staff who have worked very hard to make this a successful year.

Patricia Lewis
President

New Recruits

Koby Kelln was born and raised in Saskatoon, and is proud to call this city home. Koby works for W Law LLP as an Associate lawyer and practices in the areas of corporate commercial law and wills and estates. Koby joined the Board of CASK in October of 2023 based on his interest in consumer issues and trends. He is thrilled to have the opportunity to join the Board and to serve alongside his fellow Board members. Outside of work and professional commitments, you are likely to find Koby on the golf course, or watching lacrosse.

Monica Gordon joined CASK in November 2023 as our part-time administrative assistant. Monica was born and raised in Saskatchewan and has spent the past several years working in the agriculture industry. She is looking forward to spending some time in the non-profit sector and supporting CASK in advocating for Saskatchewan consumers.

Updates & Edits

In our previous edition of SaskWatch, we included an article titled “Reconciling Convenience with Saving the Environment.” We received some feedback from readers expressing concerns about Keurig’s recycling program. Keurig has recently made changes to their recycling program, the details of which can be found at this link. For those reading a physical copy of this newsletter, the article in question can be found at Food & Wine dot com – just search for “Keurig’s new coffee pods.”

Article

Convenience or saving the environment: Part II

 by Donna Slusar

In the Fall 2023 issue of SaskWatch, I shared my thoughts on switching to a single-use coffee maker for convenience, while making sure I did my part for the environment by choosing coffee capsules/pods that were fully recyclable. After writing on one company’s process to fully recycle their coffee capsules at two of their own facilities in Canada, I decided to see what other companies like Keurig, Tassimo, Hamilton Beach, and Cuisinart have in place to recycle their coffee pods. With so many companies producing single-use coffee makers that use coffee pods, Keurig promotes their K-Cups coffee pods as being “100% recyclable,” so I decided to start there. In my research on the Keurig K-Cup, I found an article from October 10, 2022 written by Maureen Wise entitled “Recycling Mystery: K-Cups & Other Coffee Pods” published by Earth 911.

Wise shares my own views about how convenient it is to make a single cup of coffee with the options of deciding how dark, light, or which flavour to brew, but she warns that single use coffee pods can be “very hard to recycle.” Apparently, Keurig may have been the first company to produce the single serve coffee maker, but notes that their K-Cup coffee pods have not been recyclable until recently after they switched from using polypropylene #7 to polypropylene #5 plastic. Another online article published by Editorial Assistant Gabby Romero of Delish Unlimited on June 23, 2022 entitled “Can You Actually Recycle Keurig Cups?” notes that although Keurig advertises their K-Cups as recyclable, there is “fine print” that says to check your local recycling centre to see if they accept the pods or not. So, I checked with our local recycling company and found out that polypropylene #5 plastic can be recycled, but because coffee pods are so small, they often get missed in the sorting machine and end up in the trash. To create a bigger size that won’t fall through these machines, stacking and compacting several pods together before placing them in a blue recycling bin is highly recommended.

Romero’s article also says that even when a recycling centre does accept polypropylene, there are still many hoops for the consumer to jump through to prepare each pod for recycling. These steps include: peeling away and disposing or recycling the foil lid; throwing away or composting the interior paper filter and coffee grounds; and making sure the plastic cup is free from any coffee grounds. After all of this preparation, there is still a chance that if a plastic cup reaches a sorting machine with any small amount of coffee grounds on it, it’s considered contaminated and ends up in the landfill.

To actually see how pods are recycled, I checked out several You Tube videos with step-by-step instructions. Just as Romero said, every one of the tutorials I watched confirmed that preparing coffee pods for recycling is time consuming, not an easy task, messy, and the coffee grounds can stain your fingers. Some videos also recommend making the process easier by buying a special cutter called a “Recycle a cup” to cut the plastic rim away from the foil.

With the effort it takes to recycle coffee pods, Romero says a more convenient, but pricier, alternative is to purchase recyclable boxes.

I found that TerraCycle Canada sells recyclable boxes for used coffee pods which can be filled up and shipped back to TerraCycle for recycling. As pointed out by Romero, the only downside may be the price. TerraCycle sells a small recycling box that holds up to 450 used coffee pods for $138.00, and a large box that holds up to 2,000 pods for $409.00. The good news is that shipping is easy and TerraCycle covers the cost by including a pre-paid shipping label with each box. All you have to do is to fill up the box with the used coffee pods and call UPS for pick-up.

In addition to Keurig, many other companies also advertise their coffee pods as being “recyclable.” However, there isn’t any information saying they recycle their pods in their own facilities, they don’t guarantee all recycling centres will accept their coffee pods, they don’t explain how much time it takes to prepare the pods for recycling, and they don’t advise that after all the time you’ve spent getting the pods ready for recycling, due to the small size of the pods, they may by-pass the sorting machine and end up in the landfill.

While I would like to continue to enjoy the convenience of making a single cup of coffee, if I had to go through the process of preparing coffee pods for recycling, knowing they still may end up in the landfill, I would probably go back to brewing a pot of coffee.

Sources:

1. Maureen Wise, Earth 911, article found at https://earth911.com
2. Gabby Romero, Delish Unlimited, article found at delish.com/kitchen-tools
3. Terracycle Canada found at https://www.terracycle.com/en-CA

Article

SHINING THE LIGHT ON CONSUMER ISSUES AFFECTING SENIORS

by Lou Hammond Ketilson

As a consumer education organization, we are always looking for opportunities to share information and gather input regarding today’s consumers’ concerns. Wednesday October 11 2023 CASK was very pleased to have a display table at Spot Light on Seniors, a premier event for seniors held at TCU Place in Saskatoon. Over 700 attendees were able to access information from 87 booths which included 250 staff and volunteers. Our booth displayed materials from the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan (FCAA), the Better Business Bureau (BBB), CASK information sheets on a variety of consumer issues, and our own SaskWatch. Spotlight on Seniors is a very effective means to reach out to the senior demographic and gather information regarding the issues most relevant to them.

Our draw for a bouquet of flowers was a popular item and a great mechanism to bring people to our table. From the 65 entries for the flowers, we were able to add another 25 names to our mailing list. We were pleased to see that 97 copies of SaskWatch were given out.

Our poll question, “Are there grocery items you don’t buy anymore because of inflation? If so, what are they?” resulted in a wide range of responses, reflecting the high level of concern over rising costs and the impact on those with restricted incomes. Meat in general, and expensive cuts of meat, in particular beef roasts and steak, were items dropped due to cost. Fruit and vegetables also made the list.

Our query regarding today’s consumer issues generated a lot of discussion. Issues identified ranged from the cost of groceries, internet and cellphone service to shrinkflation and accessibility. But the main issue that everyone was talking about was scams. Almost everyone said that they get scam phone calls, emails or text messages. Some said they knew people who were scammed out of money. The BBB handout on scam detection and prevention is a great resource and was a very popular take away.

All in all, attending this event was very useful for CASK. We gathered a great deal of important information, and in the process, increased our visibility with consumers and other organizations providing support and services to seniors. The information gathered will direct our educational and lobbying efforts for the coming year. We would like to thank all those who stopped by our table. It was lovely to meet you, to hear your concerns and answer your questions.

Article

Why You Should Always Get Permission Before Using a Photo Off the Internet: A Primer on Copyright Protection in Canada

by Koby Kelln

It has been common recently for organizations for-profit and not-for-profit alike to find themselves confronted by a disturbing legal letter demanding that they not only remove a photograph from their newsletter but also pay a penalty to the affected copyright owner. A number of companies have emerged that specialize in searching out what may seem like inconsequential offences to the organization. In fact the damages sought may be quite challenging, in particular to a small organization. Best to understand why this might be happen, what should be done to avoid receiving such a letter in the first place and what steps to take if you do receive one.

Why you might receive such a letter

Copyright protection exists in Canada to protect original works, ensuring that such works are not exploited at the expense of the original creator. While most people seem to understand the principles behind copyright protection, many might not be aware of its implications in everyday life, especially given the technologically-dependent society that we live in today. This article will briefly expand on the effects, and impacts, of copyright protection in this country.

It is important to clarify both how and when copyright protection begins to exist in Canada. Registration of one’s work is not necessary to garner copyright protection for the piece. Rather, a copyrightable work attracts the protections of copyright law the very moment it is created and fixed in a material form. Copyright protection is largely ‘automatic’ for the creator of the work, so long as the legislated requirements are met under the Copyright Act (the “Act”), a piece of federal legislation that governs in this area. There is no requirement under Canadian copyright laws to mark a work with the copyright symbol (©) for the work to be protectable.

A practical and everyday application of copyright protection is found in the images that populate in a Google search. Unless the use of such images are otherwise excluded from the relevant copyright regime, these images remain subject to copyright protections which can be exercised by the owner of the work. These protections exist in the form of a bundle of rights which can be exercised by the work’s creator, including (but not limited to) the right to restrict who can reproduce or use the images. Therefore, professional photographers, for example, who host their photographs on Google images, may find it worthwhile to expend (sometimes significant) resources on policing the use and reproduction of such images. This is especially pertinent when one considers the fact that these photographers may depend on the licensing and royalties from the use of these images to earn a living.

With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that the unauthorized use and/or reproduction of such images is met with aggressive deterrence measures. Such measures may include a simple letter demanding that the unauthorized use of the copyrighted material is stopped, something commonly known as a “cease and desist” letter. These letters may come from the photographer themselves, or, more likely, they may come from their legal counsel. The message behind these letters is simple; stop doing what you are not legally permitted to do, otherwise further action will be taken to ensure that this occurs.

In addition to demanding the other party to stop infringing on one’s legal right, the cease and desist letter may also demand financial compensation for the alleged wrongdoing that has occurred.

From the perspective of the alleged infringing party, receipt of such a letter is often startling. However, it is important to be aware of the fact that works otherwise protected by copyright laws may be used and/or exploited under certain, limited circumstances. One such example is found in the Act’s fair dealing provision that permits copyrighted works to be used for specific purposes, namely research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, education, parody and satire. If the use of the work falls within one of these enumerated purposes, then a fairness analysis is further undertaken to determine whether the dealing was fair. In performing this analysis, a court would examine factors such as (a) the purpose of the dealing, (b) the amount of the dealing and (c) alternatives to the dealing.

By this point, you are likely asking yourself why copyright laws in Canada are so onerous. The short answer is this: Canadian society, through its laws, places a very high value on the continued creation of original works in this country. Without such copyright protection for new works, artists, musicians and photographers would be reluctant to ever create and/or release any of their works to the public, for fear that such works would be copied by others for their own use and/or profit, leaving the creator with no recourse and no desire to ever create and/or release an original work again. No individual would undertake to create an original work if this was the case, as it typically takes much time, energy and money to bring an original work to fruition.

What steps should be taken?

So what should an individual or organization do? First of all, get permission to use any photo prior to incorporating it into your newsletter. However, if you failed to do this and receive a “cease and desist” letter:

1. Do not ignore it – it is not a joke or spam.
2. Remove the offending photograph.
3. Respond to the letter state your case clearly, the mandate of your organization, your purpose in using the photograph. It may be that you fall under the one of the limited circumstances stated above, and you can avoid any payment of penalty.

Sources:

1. Government of Canada, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, retrieved from https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/guide-copyright.
2. Ibid.
3. Government of Canada, Canadian Intellectual Property Office, retrieved from https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/canadian-intellectual-property-office/en/what-intellectual-property/what-copyright.
4. RSC, 1985, с С-42.
5. Supra note 1.
6. Supra note 4 at ss 29, 29.1 and 29.2.
7. CCH Canadian Ltd v Law Society of Upper Canada, 2004 SCC 13, 1 SCR 339.
8. Final Report of the Media Access and Copyright Working Group, Film Studies Association of Canada, retrieved from https://opus.uleth.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/5e58e8c8-ec4a-4379-8310-0cc606cbe8dd/content.

Article

A NEW APPROACH TO CONSUMER DISPUTE RESOLUTION

by Monica Gordon

In June of 2023, the Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan (FCAA) launched a new online portal with the goal of providing consumers with greater access to FCAA services. The online portal consists of two primary parts: an informational database meant to educate consumers and businesses what their rights and obligations are, as well as an online dispute platform designed to streamline the resolution process.

The informational database, referred to as the “Consumer Rights Pathway” by the FCAA, goes into detail about who is obligated to do what in certain transactions, and the website is set up to be as helpful and user-friendly as possible. In their 2022/23 annual report, the FCAA provided their rationale for the creation of the site: “Consumers and businesses were hindered by lack of clarity on their legal rights and obligations and often struggled to understand the relevant legal information. [The Consumer Rights Pathway] removes this barrier by educating consumers and businesses about their respective rights and responsibilities.”

The dispute portal is designed to help consumers access help when they need it. Consumers no longer need to wait until standard business hours to file a complaint, as the online portal is available 24/7. Consumers fill out the online form, provide the details of their complaint, and submit any relevant supporting documentation. According to the FCAA’s 2022/23 annual report: “With just a few clicks, the system empowers citizens to advocate for their rights and equips businesses with the information to fulfill their responsibilities. It also guides users through a system-led, party-to-party negotiation and supports a facilitated resolution process…”

After the consumer files this form, the business in question is then notified and can then use the portal to try and resolve the issue with the consumer. In the event that the consumer and business cannot reach an agreement, an FCAA facilitator or an independent mediator will then be involved. There is no additional cost to the consumer or business should this come to pass.

The portal appears to be primarily designed for situations where there is genuine confusion about the obligations of the consumer and business in a given scenario. The assumption seems to be that both parties are acting in good faith and will do the right thing once they are educated on the topic. This will likely be sufficient in many cases. However, given that not all disputes involve good-faith actors, it is reassuring to know that there will be some FCAA oversight in the event that one of the parties isn’t inclined to do the right thing without encouragement.

Sources:

1. Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan, Annual Report 2022-23, https://fcaa.gov.sk.ca/public/CKeditorUpload/Annual%20Report%2022%2023.finalweb.pdf
2. FCAA Registration and Licensing Portal, https://fcaa.saskatchewan.ca/apex/f?p=200:299:0::::CUR_GRP_ID:2978953&cs=1E72F8B647C542A1BA211867C9EAEB535

Consumer Resources

Ombudsman Saskatchewan Are you having problems with a provincial or municipal government service? Ombudsman Saskatchewan says they may be able to help. They takes complaints about provincial government ministries, agencies, crown corporations and most health entities. They also take complaints about Saskatchewan cities, towns, villages, resort villages, rural municipalities, northern municipalities, and municipal council members. If you’ve tried to resolve a problem and you still think it’s unfair, they suggest you make a complaint to their office. Their website: ombudsman.sk.ca has detailed information on how to go about making a complaint or you can phone toll-free: 1-800-667-9787; Regina: 306-787-6211; Saskatoon: 306-933-5500.

Canadian Anti-fraud Centre (CAFC) is Canada’s national anti-fraud call centre and fraud data repository. As of December 31, 2022 there were 90,137 reports of fraud with 56,352 victims loosing a total of $530 million dollars. The call takers are trained anti-fraud specialists who provide advice on the steps that victims should take to recover lost funds and to protect themselves in the future. They also play a crucial role in educating the public about specific fraudulent telemarketing pitches and in collecting and disseminating victim evidence, statistics and documentation, all of which are made available to law enforcement agencies. Check out CAFC’s web for a list and description of common scams plus some tips on how to avoid being caught in one. If you’re reporting a fraud, start with your local police agency and then contact the CAFC toll free at: 1.888.495-8501 or go to their web: antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca

NotifyNow. In the event of an emergency caused by extreme weather or a man-made event, whether it’s citywide or area specific, NotifyNow will contact you with important information on what to do, where to go, and what to expect. You will receive either a voice message to your home, work or cell phone, an email, or a text message depending on your preference. To receive notifications, you must have some form of contact information entered into their database. Sign up at: saskatoon.ca/notifynow or regina.ca/ residents/notifynow/. Disaster can strike with little to no notice, so the best way to be ready for any emergency is to have a plan. Public Safety Canada offers valuable information on being prepared: www.getprepared.gc.ca