Investigations launched over mobile fees and FIFA ticket fiasco: CBC's Marketplace Cheat Sheet

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Telecom regulator warns Bell, Telus over fees that appear to violate new rules

Canada's telecom regulator has launched a inquiry into wireless fees charged by Rogers Communications, Bell Canada and Telus Communications, claiming the charges appear to violate new consumer protection rules.

In a notice posted Tuesday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ordered Canada's three largest telecom companies to justify their contentious fees and explain why they shouldn't face fines for apparent federal violations.

The dispute stems from new CRTC rules implemented last month that ban telecoms from charging extra fees to activate, change or cancel cellphone and internet plans. The now-prohibited charges include early cancellation fees and the once-ubiquitous activation fee for phone plans.

The regulations are meant to make it easier for Canadians to switch phone and internet plans to secure better deals. But the CRTC suggests Rogers, Bell and Telus are flouting the rules with newly introduced fees that resemble the outlawed charges.

Between May and mid-June, the CRTC sent stern letters to the telecoms, warning that Telus's newly introduced $15 SIM card fee, Bell's new $40 device handling charge and Rogers's new $40 device setup charge each appear to violate the regulations.

However, the companies have refused to back down, maintaining their fees are fully compliant.

No tickets on game day despite constant assurances from StubHub

British Columbia's Attorney General Niki Sharma has announced an investigation into StubHub, the online ticket resale site, over its handling of tickets for the FIFA World Cup.

Sharma called reports of people in B.C. Purchasing tickets without receiving them "deeply concerning."

"Major events like the FIFA World Cup 2026 should be an exciting experience and people should not have to worry about whether the tickets they purchased on StubHub will be honoured," she said.

Though Sharma wouldn't comment on the specifics of the investigation, she said the province is closely monitoring the situation.

"I understand Consumer Protection B.C., which independently administers B.C.'s Ticket Sales Act, is currently investigating these complaints to see if the law has been broken," she said.

"While I cannot comment on this investigation directly, and StubHub has publicly committed to honouring its refund guarantees to fans, I want people to know they may have options available to them if they have been affected."

Stubhub has blamed the event organizer FIFA's ticketing technology for difficulties delivering fans thousands of tickets.

However, industry insiders say professional scalpers have been either cancelling and reselling for bigger profits — or failing to deliver on orders for "speculative tickets."

To keep up with world events, Grade 12 student Hanna Grover ventures online, like most teens do. But she finds it "disturbing" that violent content regularly pops up — often appearing from questionable sources or without context.

The Surrey, B.C., high schooler said she has seen "brutal short-form videos that, one, provide absolutely no context on what's happening, and two, are just very graphic and often not from verified sources. They're just individual, private users posting videos."

As well, Grover said, "I've seen influencers and commentary accounts do stories on these kinds of very graphic events and using [that] footage because they know that it will provide them with engagement."

Friends scrolling for entertainment — and not news specifically — also see this kind of content, Grover added.

"Those disturbing images stay with me. Graphic content stays in your head and sometimes you will find yourself thinking about it days later."

Chilling videos of school fights. The Charlie Kirk killing. Violent encounters with police. Depictions of animal abuse, sexual abuse or sexual content. A new survey of more than 1,000 teens across Canada offers a glimpse into graphic content they say they're seeing online — largely without seeking it out — and what young people want done about it.

More than four out of five of the teen respondents, who were aged 13 to 18 and hailed from every province in Canada, said they've seen violent or gory content on online platforms like YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. Few were searching this material out, with most noting the material appears in posts from a stranger's account or through a platform's algorithmic recommendations.

The report, entitled Young Canadians’ Exposure to Authentic Violent and Gore Content Online, came out of recurring comments teens shared in focus groups for the research project Digitally Informed Youth: Digital Safety, according to project member and lead author Alexa Dodge, an associate professor of criminology at Saint Mary's University in Halifax.

"We imagined this was something that maybe a couple of teens were experiencing," she said from Halifax. "When we did the survey, we found that 85 per cent of young people in Canada had seen real gore or violent content, and some of the categories of content they saw were really on the more severe end of what we thought we would see."

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