Village Gamer

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) warns all Canadians to beware of telephone calls, mail, or email that claim to be from the CRA but are not. These are phishing scams that could result in identity thefts.

Canadians should especially beware of phishing scams asking for their personal information, such as a social insurance, credit card, bank account, and passport numbers. Some of these scams ask for this personal information directly, and others refer the taxpayer to a Web site resembling the CRA’s where the person is asked to verify their identity by entering personal information.

An email scam that has been recently circulating notifies taxpayers that a complaint containing evidence of involvement in tax evasion has been filed against them and the company with which they are affiliated by using the Informant Leads Program. This email is not from the CRA. The CRA’s Informant Leads Program Web page warns taxpayers about this scam.

The CRA has well-established practices to protect the confidentiality of taxpayer information. For more information about security of taxpayer information and examples of fraudulent communications, go to the CRA’s Security Info Page.

Anyone who receives a suspicious communication should immediately report it to the Anti-Fraud Centre or to the institution that it appears to be from.

For information on scams, to report deceptive telemarketing, and if personal or financial information has been unwittingly provided, go to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Web page.

In its second news statement of the day, Spin Master Ltd., this time with Mind Candy, one of the world’s fastest growing social online gaming companies have announced the upcoming launch of an official toy line based on its safe online social networking platform for children, Moshi Monsters. The product assortment, which will be available across the U.S. exclusively at Toys”R”Us stores and online at Toysrus.com in late July, will feature six adorable plush Moshi Monsters characters, as well as 32 Moshling minifigures manufactured by Spin Master Ltd.

“We know that web-savvy kids want to enjoy tangible experiences with their favorite virtual properties, and the Moshi Monsters toy line delivers these experiences in a big way,” said Richard Barry, Vice President, General Merchandise Manager, Toys”R”Us, U.S. “We are thrilled to be the only U.S. retailer to provide kids the opportunity to bring Moshi Monsters into the physical world.”

Moshi Monsters is a new form of children’s entertainment, with its website forming the heart of the experience, combines adoptable pet monsters, safe social networking, stories, games, missions, virtual interaction and educational puzzles. The site has become hugely successful over the last year, growing at the rate of one new registration every second – with the fastest growth across North America. Recently, Moshi Monsters welcomed its 50 millionth registered user worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »

Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., the parent company of XM Canada, and Sirius Canada Inc. have released a statement that the final regulatory and government approvals related to the proposed merger announced in November, 2010 have been received.

The Merger is now currently scheduled to close on June 21, 2011 contemporaneously with the closing of CSR’s refinancing. CSR’s refinancing consists of an exchange offer and consent solicitation for its 12.75% Senior Notes due 2014 and a concurrent private placement offering of its 9.75% Senior Notes due 2018. The expiration date of the Exchange Offer is now set for June 16, 2011. The Exchange Offer and Concurrent Offering were undertaken in order to refinance certain debt of CSR in connection with the Merger. As of the date hereof, US$68.83 million aggregate principal amount of Existing Notes have been tendered in the Exchange Offer. The New Notes have not been, and will not be, qualified for distribution to the public under the securities laws of any province or territory of Canada or registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933.

On November 24, 2010, CSR and Sirius Canada entered into a securities purchase agreement to combine the companies in an all-stock merger.  On February 17, 2011, CSR received the support of its shareholders to approve the Merger.  On April 19, 2011, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission rendered its regulatory approval of the transaction.

Both Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Canada Inc. want readers to note that this statement does not constitute an offer to purchase or sell any securities. Any offer to purchase or sell securities will be made by means of an offering memorandum. No offer, solicitation, purchase or sale will be made in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful.

Technoparc Montréal is thrilled by the City of Montreal’s 2011-2017 Economic Development Strategy, spearheaded by Mayor Gérald Tremblay and Executive Committee Vice President, Richard Deschamps, an initiative aimed at capitalizing on the knowledge and creativity already present in Montreal.

Technoparc Montréal is fully behind the City’s commitment to increase strategic partnerships and alliances with a view to building bridges between businesses and to increasing innovation and creativity in Montreal. The City’s ongoing PR@M Industry program and new PR@M Innovation are also excellent tools that will help support Montreal’s future development.

Today’s major international cities must offer nearby services and dynamic employment zones that serve multiple purposes and are readily accessible to workers. “The advantage of living in an urban environment is the ability to work, live and play in the same general area,” explains Mario Monette, President and CEO of Technoparc Montréal. “The City’s new strategy will keep Montreal young and relevant on the eve of its 375^th anniversary and will shore up its positioning as a premier city of creativity and innovation.”

Technoparc Montréal’s mission is to support the Island of Montreal’s economic development through the emergence of world-class innovation poles and research centres in the following sectors: aerospace, life sciences, information technology, clean technology, agri-food and renewable energy.

FreshBooks has come up with a unique solution to ensure the rotating postal strike does not affect small business owners in Toronto. Mail delivery has been drastically affected since the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) commenced a strike in Toronto on June 13th.

“We recognize that delivering invoices is a lifeline to independent business owners,” says FreshBooks CEO Mike McDerment. “We want to show our commitment to making billing activities as painless as possible. Our customers are looked after since FreshBooks allows anyone to send their invoices online. We thought this was an interesting way to help out other people who are affected and show them that we’re serious about our commitment to helping everyone get paid.”

FreshBooks is offering to pick up and hand-deliver invoices to anywhere in Metro Toronto area. The company has equipped a special vehicle to safely transport invoices today. This offer is available to any small business affected (not just FreshBooks customers) and exclusively for invoices.

A delivery day is scheduled for Wednesday June 15^th contingent on Toronto mail services remaining restricted and for people sending invoices within the Metro Toronto region. Delivery can be arranged by contacting freshbooks with pickup details.

“To us,” says McDerment, “painless billing means that you can rely on the systems supporting your business even during periods of uncertainty.”

Adlib Software has announced the general availability of the Adlib Content Transformation Platform, the industry’s first complete, automated transformation solution for the enterprise. The Adlib Platform is uniquely designed to streamline document-intensive business processes to improve efficiency, mitigate compliance-related risks and reduce costs. It is deployed as a shared service and can scale enterprise-wide, enabling centralized content-to-PDF transformation capabilities to multiple applications, departments and lines of business.

Today’s enterprises are challenged with increased content management demands, and struggle to find efficient ways to capture, manage, preserve and share content. Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems including Microsoft® SharePoint® help ease these challenges. However, these solutions don’t always provide the necessary content transformation capabilities needed to enable the efficient automation of document-centric business processes that are important in removing time-consuming, error-prone and costly manual intervention.

Adlib turns volumes of content and intellectual property into digital assets that can be easily accessed, shared, leveraged and archived. For example, a leading international insurance company is using Adlib to increase sales by being faster than their competitors in delivering personalized customer quotes in PDF format. In addition, Pfizer, the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, is turning patents into profits by speeding time-to-market for its drugs by streamlining and automating the creation of submission-quality PDFs and eliminating the need for time-consuming, costly and error-prone manual quality control reviews. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer 2011 will see two new titles on many platforms coming from the Ludia game studios. The first announcement comes from Ludia Inc. and FremantleMedia Enterprises, who announced today that Hole In The Wall will be available worldwide exclusively for Kinect™ on the Microsoft Xbox 360^® and will be available for purchase from Xbox LIVE Arcade. Based on the global television game show phenomenon, Hole In The Wall is one of the trickiest, fastest and funniest games on the planet where agility and a hearty sense of humor are essential tools to survive.

Players must contort their bodies to fit through bizarrely shaped holes in themed moving walls hurtling towards them. Competitors attempt to clear the walls in order to boost their scores, or risk being swept away into a pool of water. Hole In The Wall will also incorporate online play, single and multiplayer game modes, as well as image captures of the outlandish player movements performed within the game and hilarious bonus videos from the TV show.

“Ludia is thrilled to create an immersive, controller-free Hole In The Wall game play experience that is perfectly suited to leverage Microsoft Kinect technology,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “This first title is just the beginning of Ludia games for Kinect on Xbox 360, and serves to further reinforce our multiplatform game strategy.”

“The Hole In The Wall television show has been highly successful in dozens of countries worldwide, so we are very pleased to work with Ludia to extend the franchise to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, said Olivier Delfosse, Director, Interactive, FremantleMedia Enterprises, licensor for Hole In The Wall. “We are sure that fans of the show and wider audiences alike will enjoy partaking in a fresh and exciting new Hole In The Wall experience.”

The second development announcement came from Ludia and Mark Burnett’s One Three Television LLC. The development studio will publish games based on the multiple-award winning Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader?® TV game show. The North America-wide, multi-year will result in games for Facebook and mobile platforms including iPhone™, iPod touch™ and iPad™.

“We are excited to have the opportunity to create Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? games for the millions of people that play games on Facebook and mobile devices,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “This new license helps amplify the Ludia portfolio of game show games, which has been a highly successful category for us and one we believe has strong on-going potential across platforms.”

The Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? games will feature the favorite game play elements of the television show as contestants vie to earn money by answering trivia questions from a set of ten grade school subjects in a quest to earn the top prize. The games will also incorporate real-time multiplayer competition as well as other unique social features that will result in high dynamic and entertaining game play experiences.

“We are pleased to add Ludia as a licensee to our Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? licensing program. We look forward to working with them on 5^th Grader games for social media and mobile platforms,” said Mark Burnett. “We are thrilled to see the franchise thrive so that fans of the show and wider audiences alike can enjoy their very own Are You Smarter Than A 5^th Grader? game experiences.”

Canadian small business owners say they are spending a lot of time sweating the small stuff when they could be focusing on the big picture of how to grow. According to the quarterly American Express Small Business Monitor, entrepreneurs recognize planning, hiring, and marketing as key business functions but admit to spending a big part of their day on tasks such as office administration, cleaning and repairs. It would appear a big part of Canada’s business backbone is caught between planning for success and maintaining the status quo.

More than half (59%) of respondents to the latest survey, conducted by Angus Reid Public Opinion, say their business would be in a much better position if they could spend more time doing what they’re good at. Specifically, small business owners say more than a quarter (26%) of every day is focused on activities they don’t consider core to their business. Almost half (48%) report that they can’t concentrate on growing their business because they are spending too much time running it, and many remain reluctant to hire outside help to share the workload.

“We know small business owners put their heart and soul into everything they do, so a reluctance to rely on others is only natural,” said Eric Nielsen, Vice President & General Manager, Small Business Services Canada, American Express Canada. “But looking for outside help for even a few tasks can allow owners to focus on the work they love and the reason for starting their own business in the first place.”

Exactly what non-core tasks are small business owners taking on themselves? Findings show owners are spending valuable time on such tasks as secretarial work (49%), technical support (48%), office/property repairs and cleaning (40%), and doing their own website construction (30%), rather than hiring outside help. Control is a key consideration for them: 56 per cent don’t want to give up control over any aspect of their business, even if it means doing everything themselves.

It’s not that small business owners don’t recognize the dilemma: 38 per cent of respondents say they waste a lot of time doing things that other people would be more qualified to do. Nevertheless, they are reluctant to outsource for a number of reasons, including a desire to maintain quality (38%), and the time it takes to hire and manage outsourced contractors (24%). The single greatest factor, though, is that outsourcing is seen by more than half (52%) as too expensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Canada’s top educators are expanding their traditional teaching methods to reach beyond reading, writing and arithmetic.  The new cornerstones of learning in their classrooms include social media, cyberspace and digitized projects.

Twenty-two remarkable teachers from across the nation are receiving national attention for bringing ‘history to life’ for their students.  These passionate educators are encouraging their students to digitally record interviews with World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors, create multimedia resources on Indian Residential Schools, and produce a film featuring Canada’s connection to the fatal voyage of the Titanic.

For their innovative and interactive teaching approaches, Canada’s History Society has selected the following twenty-two educators as the finalists of the 2011 Governor General’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History.

Lindsay Anderson, Niv Stilman & Yossi Suissa – Calgary Jewish Academy – Calgary
Kimberly Bartlett – Pickering College – Newmarket
Raymond Bédard – D’éducation Internationale de McMasterville – McMasterville
Sarah Beech & Chad Howie – Valley Creek Middle School – Calgary
Gregory Birkett – Nelson A. Boylen Collegiate – Toronto
Shantelle Browning-Morgan – Walkerville Collegiate Institute – Windsor
Pam Calvert – Oakville Trafalgar High School – Oakville
Marie-Laure Chevrier – École Anne-Hébert – Vancouver
François Desmarais – École Secondaire de Mortagne – Boucherville
Flora Fung – Oshawa Central Collegiate – Oshawa
Cynthia Mundell Hahn – Wes Hosford Elementary School – Sherwood Park
Clint Lovell – Eastview Secondary School – Barrie
Scott Masters – Crestwood Preparatory College – Toronto
Gilles Paulin – Centre Scolaire et Communautaire La Fontaine – Neguac
Elizabeth Phipps – Mayfair Community School – Saskatoon
Sylvia Smith – Elizabeth Wyn Wood Alternate High School Program – Ottawa
Andrew Stickings – École Grosvenor Wentworth Park School – Halifax
Michael Sweet & Raymond Tomasino – Lester B. Pearson High School – Montreal

Now in its 15^th year, the Awards recognize the outstanding contributions of Canada’s history teachers, ranging from elementary grades through to secondary schools.  Deborah Morrison, President and CEO of Canada’s History Society says, “Teachers like this years finalists not only change students’ perceptions of Canadian history, but they’re changing our perceptions of teaching as well.”

A national judging panel will next select six recipients out of the 22 finalists, based on a submission outlining the nominee’s innovations and achievements in the field of teaching Canadian History or Social Studies.  Those six recipients will receive $2,500, a gold medal and a trip this fall to the Awards ceremonies at Rideau Hall.  Their respective schools will also be awarded a cash gift of $1,000.  The program, including the Awards prizes are made possible through the generous support of TD Bank Group.

“Few things are more powerful than a teacher’s passion for their subject.  Their in-class enthusiasm can excite, inspire and even transform the lives of their students,” says Frank McKenna, Deputy Chair, TD Bank Group.  “TD is proud to support the 2011 Governor General’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching Canadian History recognizing the incredible contributions our Canadian history teachers are making in the classroom.”

NASCAR Team Properties and Toronto toy company Spin Master Ltd. have joined forces to connect with, and help build, a new generation of fans for the sport. In a strategic effort to build its merchandising program and to further its reach with the youth demographic, NASCAR has chosen Spin Master to inject excitement, innovation, and fun into its toys and merchandise. As the primary toy licensee, Spin Master’s line of products will begin hitting store shelves in 2012.

The multi-year agreement provides Spin Master with exclusive licensing rights for NASCAR branded toy categories including replica vehicles, play sets, action figures, remote control items and much more. Not only will these Spin Master NASCAR items be sold at mass market retailers, but also at online e-commerce sites and specialty retailers nationwide.

“Spin Master is not only one of the largest toy companies in the world, they are renowned for creating innovative products that combine play and technology in an interactive manner rarely seen in the industry,” said Blake Davidson, vice president, NASCAR licensing and consumer products and board member of the NASCAR Team Properties. “The NASCAR products that Spin Master will produce will be original and relevant to our sport and will be products that our young fans can connect with in a fun and creative way. We are excited about what really is a new era beginning for NASCAR, and the role Spin Master will play in helping us to reach new NASCAR fans at an early age.”

“Spin Master is going to stimulate energy into NASCAR branded toys like never before which will help young fans develop a deeper attachment to our drivers and teams,” said Scott Hammonds, vice president of licensing for HGJ Licensing and a member of the NTP board. “This partnership is a great testament to what forming NASCAR Team Properties has meant to the business of NASCAR.”

“It’s very exciting to be partnering with an iconic brand such as NASCAR,” said Craig Sims, VP of Global Licensing at Spin Master. “This partnership will allow us to work hand in hand with the sport. There is so much passion and lots of storytelling opportunities that we can capture and translate to toys. We’re looking forward to the amazing long term potential we have with this partnership.”

Spin Master’s Air Hogs, the largest radio-controlled toy brand in the world, is a sponsoring partner with Jr. Motorsports, and will be the primary sponsor of driver Josh Wise and the #7 Chevrolet car at the Nationwide Series race at Michigan International Speedway this Saturday, June 18.