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The Citizen, 2016-03-17, Page 5Other Views Hello. You're going to jail J t was the kind of phone call you really don't want to hear on your message machine. The voice at the other end said that it belonged to a Canada Revenue agent who was about to issue a warrant for my arrest. I was being charged with tax fraud. He left a number for me to call him back. Immediately. Damn. I knew I shouldn't have claimed those Tim Horton double -glazed as a business lunch. Still, something smelled a little off. For one thing the agent had a Middle Eastern accent you could cut with a canoe paddle. For another, I could hear an awful lot of phones ringing and people yammering in the background. Also some weird balalaika-ish music. It didn't sound like any government office I'd ever been in. So I didn't phone the agent back at the number he left. I phoned the RCMP instead. The voice at the other end chuckled. "It's a scam," he told me. "There's a lot of that going on right now. Just ignore it." I told him that I'd kept the phone number. He could track these crooks down, or maybe pass it on to some special investigations unit. NCArthur Black He chuckled again. Nothing they could do, he told me. These crooks were untraceable. "They use `burner' phones", he said. "As soon as they hear from the authorities, they toss the phone in the garbage." So a citizen who gets one of these calls should...? "Just ignore it. It's a scam." But what if the target doesn't ignore the call? What if it's some gentle, unworldly widower who's spent his whole life obeying the law and is terrified out of his wits by the message? What if the victim falls for it, calls back and asks how he can avoid getting arrested? That's when the real scam begins. If the mark is gullible enough and the crook is sufficiently silver-tongued the mark will be let off with a 'fine' of several hundred dollars. Even worse, the crook may be able to winkle credit card information out of the mark, in THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 2016. PAGE 5. which case his bank account may be drained before he hangs up the phone. Bottom line: Revenue Canada agents do not make threats over the phone. Ever. But not everyone knows that. Too often the scam works. And there's really nothing the police can do? I'm not the only person who's dubious. In a letter to the editor, Victoria resident Bruce MacKenzie points out that recently the RCMP in British Columbia spent nearly $1 million in overtime to entrap a couple of pathetic, drug -addicted delusionaries who had incoherent plans to bomb a government building in Victoria. But when a scammer impersonating a policeman or a Canada Revenue agent makes threatening calls and leaves a call-back number, "the CRA and RCMP issue public statements warning us not to call back". American lawmen have found these crooks not to be so untraceable. Last year U.S. authorities tracked down and arrested a phone scammer by the name of Sahil Patel. He was found guilty of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy. The judge sent him to prison for 14 years. RCMP please copy. 'The Candy' - a really great idea Sunday marked the fourth iteration of the Canadian Screen Awards and, with any luck, that will be the last time they will be called by that name. Hosted by Canadian funny -man Norm MacDonald, the awards were created when the Gemini awards and the Genie awards were folded into a single entity to recognize Canadian excellence in television and film, with one minor exception. The Canadian Screen Awards recognize all Canadian films, but only English Canadian television. There is an independent awards ceremony for Canadian French -language television. When everything is tallied, there are 116 categories recognized by the awards including 22 film categories, 89 television categories and five digital media categories. The winners are a veritable who's who of Canadian icons when it comes to certain categories while other titles and people may not be so well known. However, it became clear this year that Schitt's Creek, a CBC television show featuring Canadian comedy royalty Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara, and a film called Room were without a doubt the big winners of the night. Schitt's Creek brought home nine awards including best comedy series, best performance by an actor in a continuing leading comedic role for Levy, best performance by an actress in a continuing leading comedic role for O'Hara, best photography in a comedy program or series, best picture editing, best performance by an actor in a featured supporting role or guest role for Chris Elliott, best performance by an actress in a featured supporting role or guest role for Emily Hampshire, best writing and best direction. The film Room brought home nine awards as well, including achievement awards for direction, art direction, editing and make-up and awards for best motion picture, best performance by an actor in a leading role for Jacob Tremblay, best performance by an actress in a leading role for Brie Larson, best adapted screenplay and best performance by an actress in a supporting role for Joan Allen. However, while those shows (and the plethora of other movies, reality shows, Denny illtAbi Denny's Den newscasts and television programmes) were certainly noteworthy, one of the big developments from the night was the proposal (and quick adoption) of a new name for the awards program: The Candy. Much like the Academy Awards are referred to as The Oscars, if Norm MacDonald has his way, the Canadian Screen Awards will soon be referred to as The Candy in honour of late, great Canadian comedian John Candy. Not long after MacDonald had made the suggestion, recipients and presenters began using the term and I, for one, couldn't be happier. A nickname would definitely have come about at some point and it likely would have revolved around something inane or something that people want to forget. Naming the awards after a man who has touched so many people's lives with comedy is as fitting as any nickname I can imagine (with the Northern Oscars coming a close second). Actually, the Oscars are proof of my point. The story behind the Oscars being named as such is a disputed one. In a Bette Davis (president of the Academy at one point) biography, it is explained the awards were named after her first husband, band leader Harmon Oscar Nelson while another story states the Academy's Executive Secretary Margaret Herrick, in 1931, said the statue reminded her of her "Uncle Oscar" (not actually an uncle, but cousin Oscar Pierce) within earshot of a reporter Sidney Skolsky who reported that was what employees of the Academy called it. By 1939, the name stuck, regardless of its genesis. Here we have one of the most coveted awards in the entertainment world and is it named after a person who likely would have won one, or several of them? No. The award is named after a relative of someone working for the group that gives them out. John Candy was a national treasure. I can't imagine there are many people who can't think back on some of their favourite movies or television shows (and I mean the real favourite ones, not the ones you tell your friends or list on Facebook so it looks like you avoid silly media) and not pick at least one that Candy was in. Whether it was SCTV, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Canadian Bacon, Cool Runnings, Uncle Buck or, my favourite Spaceballs, Candy's character acting was second to none. It's unfortunate that such a huge Canadian star had his life cut short by a heart attack but I can think of no better way to recognize the man that brought such mirth into people's homes than to use his name as a way to recognize people doing the same. It also might bring some needed attention to the awards because, I'll be honest, I hadn't even heard of them until I saw the story about 'The Candy'. Of course I knew about the Geminis and the Genies, but I had no idea they had been amalgamated into a single show. Maybe it's because I don't watch a heck of a lot of network television or maybe it's simply because the show doesn't have the clout of its U.S. or international counterparts, whatever the reason, I didn't know about the awards until after the fact. Attaching a name like John Candy's to the awards can only serve to help people remember the event and make a point to watch it, so I hope the Canadian Screen Awards welcomes the change with open arms. With so few celebrities to bring Canada together these days instead of dividing it, we do need to recognize and honour the people who make us all smile and this is the perfect way to remember John Candy. Final Thought The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. — Victor Hugo Shawn lornialii" Loughlin Shawn's Sense Baby your brain At a time when we're exploring more and more of this world every day, there is always the fear of the unknown. There is, of course, space. There are parts of the ocean that are so deep no human can explore them and then, sat atop every single one of our necks is our head — to me, the most bizarre of black holes. That, of course, isn't a joke about all of us being stupid. You know — the old joke about shining a flashlight through one ear and see the beam come out the other? No, that's not what I mean. If it was, I wouldn't imagine this would be a column many people would be interested in reading. In the last month and a half, two extremely high-profile people have walked away from promising careers, seemingly, in their prime because they're worried about the health of their brain. Calvin Johnson retired from the National Football League (NFL) on March 8 at the age of 30. The holder of many, many football records, Johnson decided that now was the time to walk away from football. And while he didn't directly reference his health when he decided to hang up his cleats, one doesn't even need to squint to see the wagons circling the NFL when it comes to the brain health of its athletes. Thanks to books like League of Denial and movies like Concussion, the NFL has been exposed for suppressing science pertaining to the link between football and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain condition linked to repeated blows to the head. This condition has been found posthumously in athletes as young as in their 20s and 30s and has been a factor in everything from suicide to dementia to domestic violence and murder. The second person to walk away from millions of dollars in favour of his health is Daniel Bryan, a "fake" wrestler in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) who has suffered so many "real" concussions that he can't even remember them all. Last month Bryan appeared on a wrestling program and gave a heartfelt retirement speech, telling his fans that while he loved to wrestle for them, he valued his health more and, at the age of 34, he was walking away. He also detailed a myriad of injuries including losing all strength in his right arm, a lesion on his brain and numerous post- concussion seizures, all of which led to his emotional decision. While doctors are making strides every day in the war against brain disease, there are still so many question marks. But, we are learning. People are learning what they should be doing and what they shouldn't be. Most importantly, people are taking care of their brains and choosing long-term viability over short-term glory. There's no doubt this is a tough decision to make. When an athlete is young and his body is strong and fit, telling him that he's in true danger of long-term health effects can be a tough sell. For hundreds of years we've been conditioned to diagnose injuries with our eyes. If we can't see what's happening, then it mustn't be happening. But attitudes are changing and people are acknowledging the seriousness of mental health, whether it's with athletes who've suffered injuries, or your co-worker who struggles with depression. While we're not there quite yet, we've certainly come a long way.