Q.  I was fascinated to watch Brian Pitkin try and explain to Marketplace host Erica Johnson (”Debt Collector Dread”, March 4, 2011) why Global Credit and Natale Law Offices were sending out draft statement of claims to Ontario residents for more than two years after Pitkin wrote a letter warning collection agencies not to engage in this practice.  Why do you think Pitkin did not stop Global and Natale earlier? 

Joan in Sault Ste. Marie

A.  That is one of the questions I intend to answer in my new book, tentatively titled Draft Statement of Claim Gate:  That Scandal That Rocked The Canadian Collection Industry.   You can watch Brian Pitkin being interrogated by Erica Johnson, the host of Marketplace, in this 82-second clip from the episode titled “Debt Collector Dread”, which aired on March 4, 2011, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjp4X1bfGkg 

Q.   I watched the Marketplace episode on Friday, March 4th titled “Debt Collector Dread” when Brian Pitkin defended the conduct of the Ontario Government in protecting consumers from bill collectors.  I believe that Ontario residents have virtually no protection from the Ontario Government when it comes to dealing with collection agencies.  What do you think?

Bill in Stratford, Ontario

A.   Like you, I watched the CBC Marketplace episode on bill collectors.  At one point host Erica Johnson said that over the past five years the Ontario Government has received 20,000 complaints about collection agencies and there have been 14–count them, a mere14 prosecutions–resulting in less than $110,000 in fines.  You can watch Erica Johnson put Brian Pitkin, the Ontario Registrar of Collection Agencies, on the spot in an excerpt from this Marketplace episode which is up on Youtube:  Marketplace confronts Brian Pitkin over his job regulating ON bill collectors