The University of Toronto's law school accepted US$450,000 last year from Amazon to fund research and discussion on competition issues, without disclosing the company's involvement to participants or the public.
The contribution was revealed in documents The Logic obtained through access-to-information, and came as antitrust rules and the power of companies like Amazon were emerging as live issues in academia and the public sphere. The reach of Big Tech companies like Amazon is a matter of intense debate as the federal government considers reforms to ensure fair competition in the online marketplace.
Click on the link in our bio to read Martin Patriquin’s full story.
📸 Shutterstock
#Amazon #CompetitionBureau #competitionlaw #UniversityofToronto
Montreal's new light-rail service has been running a mere two weeks but, according to Martin Patriquin, is showing the same transformative potential the Metro revealed after it opened 57 years ago.
Click on the link in our bio to read Martin’s full column.
📸The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes
#Réseauexpressmétropolitain, #REM, #Montreal, #publictransit
Telesat’s much-delayed constellation of low-orbit internet satellites is a go after switching to novel technology that will cut the cost by more than US$2 billion.
The deal comes after the Ottawa-based space company’s earlier plans for a low Earth-orbit (LEO) constellation called Lightspeed to deliver industrial-grade internet connections to remote areas was scotched by the pandemic, supply-chain troubles and inflation.
Click on the link in our bio to read David Reevely’s full report.
📸 Ashley Fraser for The Logic
#LEO #MDA #satellites #Telecom #Telesat
Farmers Edge has cut 20 per cent of its staff as it introduces a new virtual-services business model aimed at cutting costs, the company announced on an earnings call, confirming The Logic’s report on the agtech company’s struggles.
The company also confirmed that it had closed its Australia office, after shutting its Russia and Ukraine operations last year, leaving just the U.S. and Brazil as its remaining foreign operations.
Click on the link in our bio to read Jesse Snyder’s full report.
📸 Farmers Edge | Handout
#FarmersEdge #digitalagriculture #agtech
A rise in extreme heat across much of the world this year—July was the hottest month on record globally—has shone a spotlight on workers’ safety, raising the question among policymakers and employers: how hot is too hot to work?
Labour experts say existing laws and guidelines in Canada are too vague, leaving workers vulnerable amid rising temperatures.
Click on the link in our bio to read Catherine McIntyre’s full report.
📸 AP Photo/George Walker
#labour, #climatechange, #talent, #leadership
The United States’s allies—including Canada—are digesting President Joe Biden’s executive order restricting American investments in Chinese companies involved in artificial intelligence, quantum computing or semiconductors.
But defining exactly what constitutes a Chinese, American or Canadian company could prove harder than it seems.
Click on the link in our bio to read David Reevely and Murad Hemmadi’s full report.
📸 The Canadian Press/Jade Gao/Pool Photo via AP
#artificialintelligence #China #FrançoisPhilippeChampagne #JoeBiden #quantumcomputing #semiconductors #trade #UnitedStates
The first day of Unifor’s negotiations with the Detroit Three has wrapped—and union head Lana Payne says she “made it very clear to the companies today that our members’ expectations are very high.”
The talks between automakers and the Canadian union, which represents nearly 20,000 Ford, GM and Stellantis workers, come at a time of drastic change. Since signing the last contract, the automakers have been straddling two realities: one marked by supply-chain challenges and soaring inflation, and another by billions of dollars of investments into a massive electric-vehicle transition.
Click on the link in our bio to read Catherine McIntyre’s full report.
📸 The Canadian Press/Tijana Martin
#EVs #Unifor #labour #Ford #Stellantis #GM
Farmers Edge is cutting some of the in-person services it offers clients, The Logic has learned, as the Winnipeg-based agtech company lays off staff and pulls out of a key international market.
Observers say the measures are part of cost-cutting efforts for the company, which has struggled to retain customers. Its stock, meanwhile, is trading at about 20 cents per share, down dramatically from its March 2021 IPO price.
Click on the link in our bio to read Jesse Snyder’s full report.
📸 Farmers Edge | Handout
#FarmersEdge, #digitalagriculture, #agtech
New York-based Kyndryl hopes to use its data infrastructure for large corporations to insert itself in the unfolding burst of AI adoption.
The firm, spun out of IBM in November 2021, wants to help customers “turn that science experiment into part of the way they actually run their business,” said CEO Martin Schroeter.
Click on the link in our bio to read Murad Hemmadi’s full report.
📸 Stanislav Kogiku/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
#artificialintelligence #IBM #Kyndryl
Since going public in summer 2021, WonderFi and the companies it now owns—CoinSmart and Coinsquare—have gone through a total overhaul of their business models, and have survived a regulatory crackdown, wild crypto-market volatility, the collapse of “strategic investor” FTX and public acrimony between the three rivals that ultimately ended in their merger.
It’s now one of Canada’s largest registered domestic crypto-trading businesses, marking an important step to professionalization for the sector.
Click on the link in our bio to read Claire Brownell’s full report.
📸 Nick Iwanyshyn for The Logic
#cryptocurrency, #WonderFi, #FTX, #CoinSmart, #Coinsquare, #M&A
As more employers impose layoffs, some companies are taking additional steps to protect their reputation in order to attract prospective and returning talent later. When they get laid off, tech workers say they want employers to connect them to a network for referrals to future job opportunities, and HR departments are stepping up to do just that.
Click on the link in our bio to read Jonathan Got’s full report.
📸 Pexels
#labour #layoffs #leadership #talent
Canada’s absence from NATO’s new US$1-billion innovation fund will needlessly restrict venture capital investment in domestic companies, national-security tech experts say, while further reinforcing Ottawa’s growing reputation as a defence-spending laggard.
Earlier this week, the international military alliance unveiled the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF). With funding from 23 of NATO’s 31 member states, it will invest in startups working on technologies including AI, quantum computing, hypersonic systems, cybersecurity, biotech, energy and propulsion and next-generation manufacturing.
Click on the link in our bio to read Jesse Snyder’s full report.
📸 AP Photo/Virginia Mayo
