Canada's banking system is often lauded for being one of the world's safest. But an analysis by CCPA senior economist David Macdonald found that Canada's major lenders were in a far worse position during the downturn than has ever been previously believed.

Macdonald pored over data provided by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the big banks themselves for his report published Monday.

It says support for Canadian banks reached $114 billion at its peak. That works out to $3,400 for every man, woman and child in Canada, and also to seven per cent of Canada's gross domestic product in 2009.

The figure is also 10 times the size of the amount Canadian taxpayers spent to bail out the auto industry in 2009.
Full story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/04/30/bank-bailout-...

BMO launches lawsuit
As the CBC first reported on Tuesday, the Bank of Montreal has launched a massive lawsuit accusing more than 300 Albertans — including mortgage brokers, realtors and 17 lawyers — of being involved in a sophisticated scheme that generated $70 million worth of phony mortgages in one year.

The bank's investigators claim the scheme's organizers wired money from the alleged fraud to several countries, including Lebanon, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. Among those named in the suit is Calgary Conservative MP and lawyer Dervinder Shory.

"So where is the police in all this? Will there be criminal investigations and possibly criminal charges," one reader asked. Another wrote: "The RCMP and CSIS should be investigating this."

But Mathers questioned whether public money should be spent to investigate an alleged fraud that he said the bank should have avoided by properly vetting mortgage applications. He blamed the banks for creating a climate in which mortgage fraud thrives.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2010/05/09/calgary-bmo-...

Flaherty: Occupy movement has little to protest in Canada
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is defending Ottawa's record on banking regulations and economic equality, as Occupy protesters in Toronto plan a "large impact" event for the coming week.
Flaherty said the situation is much different here than it is south of the border - thanks to a "very progressive tax system," a "generous social system" and strong regulations in the banking sector - "It's not a situation where, as some Americans can say, that they suffered financially as a result of the misbehaviour of their banks and the use of tax dollars to assist their banks," Flaherty said Sunday on CTV's Question Period.

"That isn't true in Canada. In fact, just the opposite. The government on behalf of the people of Canada strongly regulated and supervised our banks and we still do, in order to avoid that kind of situation."

Flaherty was speaking from Paris, where he was attending a meeting of G20 finance ministers.
Full story: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20111016/occupy-canada-large-i...

The only thing missing from this CTV story, is text of Flaherty saying that Canadian Banks were not bailed out...but view their video (included at :59 seconds) in the story.

And here is the description provided from the Google search:
Flaherty: Occupy movement has little to protest in Canada | CTV News
www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/.../occupy-canada-lar...pact-event-111016...
16 Oct 2011 – While many have been calling for a stronger economy and more jobs, .... It's true that Canada did not need to bail out the banks and that our ...
The Google link: www.google.ca/search?q=flaherty%2Bcanada...amp;client=firefox-a