Another Vancouver-Spawned Bitcoin Firm Accused of Owing Millions

“Last year, I made five withdrawals totalling almost $17,000 from ezBtc, an exchange platform for buying and selling cryptocurrency, then based in Vancouver. I hit delays every time. Once I did not see my money for more than a month. That was the proverbial last straw. I swore off the platform. I cast it out of my mind. I had little idea of the turmoil beneath the surface.”

Ethan Lou – The Tyee – July 2019

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What Do We Do About SNC-Lavalin?

“When a company talks about the cost of doing business, it isn’t usually referring to more than $20,000 worth of stripper, escort, and security services for a foreign dictator’s kid. But, according to La Presse, that was just a fraction of the $2 million that SNC-Lavalin, the Quebec-based engineering firm, spent swanning Moammar Gadhafi’s son Saadi around Canada in 2008. And it’s one of a litany of dubious ethical decisions the company is said to have made in its efforts to win major contracts. SNC-Lavalin allegedly paid tens of millions of dollars to rig bids in places as far away as Bangladesh and even at home in Quebec.”

Max Fawcett – The Walrus – August 2019

Using Pop Science to Build the Perfect Workforce

“Recent Canadian stats are harder to find, but we know that in 2013 almost 30 percent of small and medium Canadian businesses reported using them. By relying on these tests, employers can ask questions that would be inappropriate—or at best bizarre—in a traditional interview. At Michaels, a North America–wide arts-and-crafts supply store, for example, Canadians who applied for a job online in March 2017 were directed to a questionnaire that asked them to assess themselves in reference to around 200 items.”

 

Sebastian Leck – The Walrus – August 2019

Hello from the other side

“Beth Wilson’s dream job slipped away on a sunny summer morning in 2016. She was seated at her desk inside KPMG’s downtown Toronto offices when the phone rang, delivering bad news: she would not be the firm’s next CEO. Wilson was shattered. She’d spent months gunning for the top position, plus more than a quarter-century climbing the ranks of the company—she’d never worked anywhere else. At home that night, she cried in her 18-year-old son’s arms, wondering what would come next. She didn’t want to be known as the woman who almost became the first female CEO of a Big Four firm.”

Luc Rinaldi – Pivot – June 2019

Frank Stronach still chasing his dreams amid legal feud with daughter Belinda

“An old man walks into the dining room of the private golf club northeast of Toronto with apparent purpose. He is two minutes late for an appointment and carrying a black briefcase in his right hand, which he plunks onto a chair, and then fishes through its contents to produce a spiral-bound book with colour-coded page dividers. He starts flipping pages, and stops when he finds what he is looking for. ‘I don’t know how much you know about me,” he said. “But this is my resumé. It’s two pages long. I thought it might be helpful for you to read.'”

Joe O’Connor – Financial Post – May 2019

Bad Jobs: Why We Stayed

“They tasked me with designing and developing a website, marketing plans and brochures, and dealing with customers, as well as purchase orders, packaging goods and arranging shipments. Most days, I had a lot of independence; I hired printing companies, and sourced out costs, and travel to the U.S. Work made me feel important and valuable. As someone who had grown up working in various not-for-profit organizations, this type of fast-paced capitalist driven enterprise was exhilarating.”

Leonarda Carranza, Tamara Jong – Carte Blanche – January 2019

The Business of Bedtime

“Somewhere, right now, there is a baby who should be sleeping. Instead, she is screaming in a crib, wailing in a stroller, or sitting up, eyes wide open, in a car being driven endlessly in circles. But there is one baby who isn’t. Jack is four and a half months old, and he just passed out in his mother’s arms. She is sitting on a grey felt rocking chair, and on a nearby table, a down-tempo, slightly spacey version of Brahms’s ‘Lullaby’ is playing from a Bluetooth-connected gizmo, a cylindrical speaker and night light, all of which she is controlling with her iPhone.”

David Sax – The Walrus – January 2019