OTTAWA - A witness who is helping Elections Canada unravel a Conservative MP's 2008 campaign expenses says he has been publicly bullied, discredited and intimidated. Frank Hall, who ran an Ottawa-based polling firm that did work for Conservative MP Dean Del Mastro, has written to both the Speaker of the House of Commons and the prime minister saying Del Mastro has abused the concept of parliamentary immunity.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Restaurant chain Tim Hortons Inc <THI.TO>, which recently outlined plans to address the concerns of activist investor Highfields Capital, now faces pressure from another activist investor. Scout Capital Management, a U.S. hedge fund, disclosed on Monday that it has raised its stake in the Canadian chain. The fund now owns 5.5 percent of Tim Hortons' stock, up from about 1.5 percent, as of the end of March.

CALGARY - The Conference Board of Canada says uncertainty over new pipeline projects poses a threat to Canadian companies that provide services to oil and gas producers. The Ottawa-based think-tank predicts the sector's real economic output this year will drop slightly by $60 million, or half a per cent, to $11.55 billion. It says some of that is due to a lingering weakness in natural gas prices and a levelling off in conventional oil drilling, but there's another big challenge looming over the industry.

OTTAWA - Justin Trudeau is promising to compensate all groups that paid him hefty speaking fees since he became an MP. The Liberal leader said Sunday he'll either give back the fees or find some other way to "make it right." He could, for instance, give charitable groups donations equivalent to the fees charged or agree to appear at future fundraisers for them — for free this time. "I'm willing to pay all of the money back, if that's what it comes to," Trudeau told CTV's Question Period. "But I am going to fix this."