Oland lawyers launch attack on ‘house of cards’ murder conviction + MORE Oct 16th

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – The head of Fortis Inc. laughed when asked who will get to press the button Tuesday morning when the Newfoundland-based company rings the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
“I’m a team player — mostly,” said CEO and President Barry Perry, whose 11th-floor office overlooks a spectacular sweep of colourful clapboard houses, the St. John’s harbour and iconic Signal Hill.
“But this time around, I’m going to be that guy. My former boss at times used to say: ‘Rank does have some privileges.’”
That former boss is his mentor and predecessor at Fortis, Stan Marshall, another Newfoundlander who was deeply proud of the North American corporate giant’s roots and steadfast presence in the province.
Perry took over the top job after Marshall retired in 2014. With the closing Friday of its US$11.3-billion deal to acquire Novi, Mich.-based ITC Holdings Corp., he now leads one of North America’s top 15 regulated, investor-owned utilities…

TORONTO – Five things to watch this week in Canadian business:
Mortgage changes: Come Monday, all insured mortgages will have to undergo stress tests to determine whether borrowers would still be able to make their mortgage payments should circumstances change, such as a job loss or a hike to interest rates. The measure is one of several being introduced by the federal government in an effort to stabilize the housing market.
Fortis rings the bell: Fortis, the utility based in St. John’s, N.L., will ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. The company began trading on the NYSE last week and has been buoyed by its recent US$11.3-billion acquisition of ITC Holdings.
CETA vote: European Union trade ministers are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to approve the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, the trade deal between Canada and the EU known as CETA. The deal was put into flux, however, after the legislature for Belgium’s Wallonia region rejected it last week…

LONDON – Britain has lost its place as one of the top five investment destinations in the wake of the country’s decision to leave the European Union, according to a survey released Monday.
In a half-yearly report of business executives, consulting firm EY said uncertainties related to the Brexit vote are discouraging potential investors, particularly from Europe, from planning deals in the country.
According to EY, Britain is now ranked seventh in terms of investment destination over the coming year, behind the United States, China, Germany, Canada, France and Japan. In the previous survey in April, Britain was second.
Steve Krouskos, EY’s global head of transactions, said there was a “knee-jerk” response, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the June 23 vote, but that he is optimistic that Britain’s ranking will improve by the time of the next survey in six months.
“In the longer term, we would expect the U.K. to bounce back as a top M&A destination of choice but the short-term uncertainty is giving investors pause for thought,” he said…

Dennis Oland, accompanied by his mother Constance Oland, arrives for the start of his trial in Saint John, N.B. on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015. Oland is charged with second degree murder in the death of his father. Richard Oland, 69, was found dead in his Saint John office on July 7, 2011. (Andrew Vaughan/CP)
FREDERICTON – It was one of the longest murder trials in New Brunswick history, involving one of the Maritimes’ most prominent families.
Dennis Oland, a financial planner and member of the family that owns Moosehead Breweries, was convicted in December of killing his millionaire father Richard Oland based on a “house of cards” of circumstantial evidence.
On Tuesday, Oland’s lawyers will try to pull apart that house of cards, and ask the Court of Appeal to overturn the verdict.
MORE: Inside the murder trial that took New Brunswick by storm
His lawyers say the trial judge made multiple errors in his instructions to the jury, citing his decision to admit certain pieces of evidence — including some cell phone records and the results of forensic testing on Oland’s brown Hugo Boss sports jacket…

Learn, save, invest and prosper with My Own Advisor.
Welcome to my latest dividend income update for 2016.  For those of you new to these posts on my site, every month I discuss my approach to investing using Canadian dividend paying stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), and how reinvesting the dividends and distributions paid from these Canadian holdings are helping us reach financial freedom.
Dividends are good but let’s be clear:  dividends can disappoint.
It’s true.
Even though my thinking about dividend investing has not changed for many years, it’s not all roses.  Dividends can be cut or eliminated.  Look at Dream REIT (D.UN) this year.  Hopefully that’s rare for your portfolio.
With this risk provided let’s also revisit why corporations have paid dividends.  It’s not as straightforward as you might think.
In a perfect world, all businesses would allocate capital in a way to perfectly maximize the return on that capital.  This would be done so reinvested money would go back into the business in way that pays off immensely for the shareholder (by increasing returns over time AND by continually reducing the company’s tax burden)…