VANCOUVER Western Canada’s largest appliance retailer, Trail Appliances B.C., has launched an investigation after being struck by a cyberattack early Friday morning. On Tuesday, Trail Appliances B.C. updated its website, stating: “Our core services pertaining to order processing and payment, online purchases, deliveries, and order pick up in-store or at our warehouses are temporarily unavailable. In addition, our email system and parts of our phone network are also affected. The company said it does not believe its payment systems or customer credit card information are at risk. Trail Appliances has hired outside experts to investigate the attack to determine the extent of the data breach and to restore services. A company employee shared an internal email with CTV News sent to employees on Friday that indicates employees were told when the attack happened to say it was a system outage until they knew more and not to talk to the media about it. That same employee
VANCOUVER COVID-19 has caused disruptions and delays for many businesses and organizations, including the U.S. Postal Service and Canada Post. The Canadian postal carrier has had to adjust some of the ways it does business because of it, and that has led to some glitches in the system. Artia Golestani experienced one of those glitches first-hand when he needed an important document sent to the Canada Revenue Agency by registered mail on April 8. As of May 10 – more than a month after it was sent the website said the document was still out for delivery. “Actually sending registered mail doesn’t make a difference,” Golestani told McLaughlin On Your Side in frustration. “We never got the signature that we had hoped with registered mail.”
VANCOUVER Frustration has been growing among people living in Canada who are trying to get permanent resident status and citizenship. However, the federal government has taken notice and the processing times for applications appear to be speeding up. The pandemic had slowed things down and created a backlog. Yet despite that, the federal government opened the door for more applications. On April 14, it announced a new pathway for 90,000 more immigrants currently living in Canada to get permanent residency. This applied to essential workers and international graduates. “Canada’s path to prosperity lies through immigration,” said Marco Mendicino, Canada s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship.
VANCOUVER If you’re planning to put some of your stuff into storage, make sure you take a look at the contract’s fine print. Cory Learmonth, who lives in Surrey, was shocked when most of the belongings in his storage locker were destroyed, and even more stunned to learn how little protection he had from his insurance. “It stunk,” he told McLaughlin On Your Side. “(There were) mouse droppings everywhere.” Learmonth and his wife had kept their stuff at the Public Storage location on 120 Street for about eight months. “You’d expect it to be safe and dry and clean,” Learmonth said. “The way you put it in there.”
VANCOUVER After nearly a year of cancelled trips, and now even more restrictions, many Canadians are itching to travel. But it’s going to be a long time before that’s possible again, and the travel industry has a long way to go to recover. According to a new report from the World Tourism Organization, 2020 was tourism’s worst year on record, plummeting 74 per cent. And 2021 may not be much better. The federal government announced Friday that Canadian airlines had agreed to stop flights to more than 20 sun destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean, in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.