Catch up: Cellphone companies lose court battle and other stories you may have missed today

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

The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a challenge launched by Canada’s biggest cellphone carriers over the final implementation date of the national wireless code.

The code, introduced by the CRTC in December, 2013, is expected to spark an increased period of competition for wireless customers, Christine Dobby reports.

It says wireless providers must spread out the cost of recouping any up-front subsidies they offer customers on smartphones or other devices over no more than two years.

It did not initially apply to existing three-year contracts, which have been the norm in Canada for years.

But as of this June 3, the code will apply to all agreements. That means anyone still on a three-year contract will be able to walk away without paying off the balance of the device subsidy they owe and no additional cancellation fee.

An employee of TC Transcontinental has been suspended after sexually heckling a comedian during her show, causing her to leave the stage in tears.

Like the CityNews TV reporter who made international headlines last week, Jen Grant was - as she puts it - sexually harassed at work, Marsha Lederman reports.

Grant was delivering a comedy routine at an awards night for the Ontario Printing and Imaging Association in Toronto earlier this month.

She says she was interrupted by a man near the front who yelled there was a 51-per-cent chance that his buddy would have sex with her, among other lewd comments.

“That’s my workplace, the stage. There’s no HR [department]; it’s just me,” Grant said.

Grant received repeated apologies from both the OPIA and a high-level Transcontinental executive.

Transcontinental has launched an investigation.

Provinces, municipalities and community groups have as little as three weeks to get their proposals in for a new “Canada 150” infrastructure fund.

The quick deadline has prompted concern that the Conservatives are rushing to spend the cash ahead of the coming election, Bill Curry reports.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched the program on Friday, announcing that the fund would be worth $150-million over two years, and would be managed by Canada’s six regional development agencies.

The fund appears to be a response to concerns over the expiration of the virtually identical and now-defunct program called the Community Infrastructure Improvement Fund.

The opposition says the tight deadline shows the program is all about rushing money out the door ahead of an election.

The federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation also said the timing seems “awfully convenient” for the Conservatives.

Ottawa expects the program will renovate up to 1,800 existing facilities, such as community centres, hockey rinks, Legion halls and bike trails.

The new owner of Tim Hortons has shut the coffee chain’s U.S. head office.

The move comes just as Tim Hortons is gearing up for a big push south of the border, Marina Strauss reports.

While he did not elaborate on job cuts, spokesman Patrick McGrade said the closing “will see new positions located here in Canada focused on supporting the U.S. business.”

“We have made the strategic decision to drive that growth from our newly built Tim Hortons Global Restaurant Support Centre located here in Oakville, Ont.,” he said.

3G Capital Partners of Brazil, which acquired Tim Hortons in December, is known for its cost cutting at an array of companies it has taken over, such as Burger King. At Tim Hortons, it has already chopped about 15 per cent of its 2,300 staff at headquarters and regional offices.

“If you aint cheating, you aint trying.”

That’s what one employee at Barclay’s wrote in an invitation-only online chat room where traders used coded langauge to manipulate foreign exchange rates between December, 2007, and January, 2013, according to U.S authorities.

Four major banks including Citigroup, JP Morgan, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland pleaded guilty to conspiring to manipulate the foreign exchange market.

Those banks, plus the Bank of America, were fined a total of nearly $6-billion.

It’s a settlement that substantially ends a global probe into misconduct in the $5-trillion-a-day market.

In total, authorities in the United States and Europe have fined seven banks over $10-billion for failing to stop their forex traders from sharing confidential information about client orders and co-ordinating trades to boost their own profits.

Follow Kat Sieniuc on Twitter: @katsieniuc