Alice Campbell is the first victim we meet. A long-time employee of Nortel, both her disability income and her pension were badly compromised by the company’s descent from technology leader to its current receivership. When Bruce Livesey, then a producer with CBC’s Investigative Unit, shared with Alice information on million-dollar bonuses paid to Nortel senior managers, she was outraged. Nortel executives justified these bonuses by “cooking the books” to convert their losses into profits. And while some of those responsible are now facing their day in court, we later learn that Alice passed away prematurely.
Although one of the most spectacular, Nortel’s is just one of many cases Livesey shares with readers in Thieves of Bay Street: How Banks, Brokerages and the Wealthy Steal Billions from Canadians, his well-written and passionate tour of the past several decades of scandals and failures. From Bre-X to Hollinger to Earl Jones and from YBM Magnex to...
Michael Decter is the board chair of Patients Canada, Medavie Blue Cross and The Walrus Foundation. He has served as Ontario’s deputy minister of health and chair of the Canadian Institute for Health Information. He is the author of Healing Medicare: Managing Health System Change the Canadian Way (McGilligan Books, 1996), Four Strong Winds: Understanding the Growing Challenges to Health Care (Stoddart, 2000) and the co-author with Francesca Grosso of Navigating Canada’s Health Care: A User’s Guide to Getting the Care You Need (Penguin, 2006).
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