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Catch up: Canada's wild housing market valuations and other stories you may have missed today
Kat Sieniuc

This article was published more than 10 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Busy day? Here are five stories popular with Globe readers to help you catch up.

House of Cards: Deconstructing Canada’s housing market valuations

Is Canada’s housing market in a bubble? Real estate reporter Tamsin McMahon looks at seven wildly varied predictions:

Deutsche bank

  • Analysis: Housing market is overvalued by 60 per cent
  • Most recent date measured: fourth quarter of 2014

Bank of Canada

  • Analysis: Housing market is overvalued by about 20 per cent
  • Most recent date measured: third quarter of 2014

Fitch ratings

  • Analysis: Housing market is overvalued by about 24 per cent
  • When: Second quarter of 2014

International Monetary Fund

  • Analysis: Housing market is overvalued by about 11 per cent
  • When: last quarter of 2014

Toronto-Dominion Bank

  • Analysis: Housing market is overvalued by about 11 per cent
  • When: last quarter of 2014

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation

  • Analysis: Housing market is moderately overvalued, by about 3 per cent
  • When: second quarter of 2014

Canadian housing market economist Will Dunning

  • Analysis: Housing market is undervalued by about 9 per cent
  • When: report published last March

Clear as mud? Find the full analysis here.

Court case reveals feud among CRTC’s upper ranks

An internal feud at the highest levels of Canada’s broadcast and telecom regulator has boiled over, providing a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the commission and its power structure.

An application filed with the Federal Court in Ottawa on Tuesday suggests there are serious tensions between Raj Shoan – the commissioner for Ontario for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission – and senior management at the regulator, including chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.

The case, Christine Dobby reports, stems from a harassment complaint against Shoan and a subsequent third-party investigation, which found he did commit harassment.

None of the allegations in the filing has been proved in court.

Shoan is one of seven CRTC commissioners, including Blais, all of whom were appointed by the federal cabinet.

City councillor Rob Ford, centre, stands before council to deliver an apology following a complaint to the Integrity Commission during a city council meeting at City Hall in Toronto on Tuesday, March 31, 2015. (Darren Calabrese For The Globe and Mail)

Scathing report coming on Toronto City Hall security and Rob Ford

Toronto’s ombudsman is preparing to release a report on Thursday blasting the conduct of City Hall security at the height of the Rob Ford scandal, Ann Hui reports.

The report includes one instance where a guard reportedly covered a security camera to block it from recording the former mayor’s alleged intoxication, according to sources.

Ford was known to frequently call on City Hall security instead of police or body guards to escort him throughout the building.

Ombudsman Fiona Crean’s investigation into the actions of the publicly funded security officers came from a number of complaints by members of the public.

In this handout picture released on April 27, 2015 an RAF C-17 is loaded with aid at RAF Brize Norton, north west of London to be flown to Nepal. (STEVE LYMPANY/AFP/Getty Images)

Want to help Nepal? Follow these five rules of disaster charity

As with all major disasters and humanitarian emergencies, you need to be careful that your charitable efforts don’t end up causing more harm than help, Doug Saunders writes.

Five things to keep in mind when sending aid to Nepal:

  • 1. Helping can hurt: religious aid agencies, for example, can send the wrong message and cause people to lose hope.
  • 2. Good intentions are a bad idea: small charities may sound charming, but in the end only the big United Nations bodies - Unicef and the High Commission for Refugees – and the Red Cross possess the scale and organizational talent to help communities rebuild.
  • 3. Don’t go there: When the help that’s needed is framing crews, diesel mechanics and electrical technicians, don’t send doctors.
  • 4. Don’t send stuff: Sending a planeload of toys, shoes or used clothing to a faraway country and overseeing their distribution cost a fortune and can tie up hundreds of people who could have been doing actual good.
  • 5. Give, but don’t be specific: Giving is a good idea, but keep it non-specific. Charity works best when combined with trust.

Bland corn chips were made tasty by covering them with a variety of chemicals to produce exciting flavours. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News)

The Dorito Effect: How our approach to food is killing its flavour

Has good food become too bland?

For half a century, we’ve been making the stuff people should eat – fruits, vegetables, whole grains, unprocessed meats – incrementally less delicious, Mark Schatzker writes.

Meanwhile, we’ve been making the food people shouldn’t eat – chips, fast food, soft drinks, crackers – taste ever more exciting with added chemicals.

Instead of eating living things designed by nature, we started doing the designing.

Indeed, Doritos were originally bland, which is why people used to dip them in salsa - and why they are now covered in chemicals that create the illusion of food.

The result is exactly what you’d expect.

Follow Kat Sieniuc on Twitter: @katsieniuc