With the advent of electronic records has come heightened concerns about breach of privacy (see “Has our obsession with privacy gone too far?”). One step beyond breach of privacy – particularly in the age of social media – is the potential for defamation. Defamation is the false or unjustified injury to the good reputation of  more...

Privacy can be defined as the ability to control information about oneself, or being selective about what personal information gets disclosed, and to whom. But too often, privacy protections seem simply to be an excuse for withholding reasonably expected information. Example #1: the National Post reported last month that a scientist leading a government-funded research  more...

The reforms to vehicle insurance in this province put in place by the provincial government have run for a full year (starting September 1, 2010). And except for the very small percentage of policyholders who have initiated changes to their basic policy, this means that every driver, passenger, and pedestrian now has less healthcare coverage  more...

Everybody buys an insurance policy for protection – the right to recovery when the unforeseen happens. However, insurance policies also extend entitlements to the insurer.  When insuring property against physical damage, the insurer has the right of subrogation. In its most common usage, subrogation refers to a situation where an insurance company attempts to recover  more...

Congratulations to FRANCOIS R!  Francois is the Grand Prize Winner of the Accidents Waiting to Happen 2011 Contest!  Francois’s winning entry can be found here.  Thank you to everyone who ent more...

Canada’s most frequent re-occurring natural hazard is one to which other parts of the world are now encountering with greater frequency. Flooding. As referenced previously in TheRiskFactor, flooding is particularly painful in Canada because overland flooding is not covered by Canadian homeowners’ insurance policies. Coverage can be purchased for plumbing overflow and sewer-back, and many  more...

The driverless car – an automobile using autopilot allowing it to navigate parking lots, city roads and even highways – may be coming to a street near you! Google has launched one of the most advanced road transportation projects in the world.  The program uses Google Street View and artificial intelligence software combined with video  more...

Saturday night’s stage collapse at the Indiana State Fair is already being called the deadliest of its kind in U.S. history. The crowd of roughly 10,000 were awaiting the show, and witnessing the ominous signs of the imminent storm. Quite abruptly, wind gusts – estimated to have exceeded 60 mph – tore through the metal  more...

Within a few days of the June 15th Stanley Cup riot on the streets of Vancouver, the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) made a simple offer to police. In that province – where vehicles are insured through the single government owned and operated monopoly – every driver is identified by their most identifiable feature:  more...

AirBNB, the website that allows people to list their homes for “rent” like hotel rooms, has been in the news lately – for one, because of its monetary valuation of billions of dollars, and second because of what is being called a vacation rental horror story where an AirBNB user’s apartment was ransacked by her  more...