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The Interview: Microsoft President Brad Smith

Tucked behind Web Summit’s main stage at the Vancouver Convention Centre was a room lined with rows of sand-coloured interview pods resembling horse stalls. Inside one sat Microsoft president and vice-chair Brad Smith. In an interview with The Logic before his keynote, Smith offered a sleek vision of the future of AI that formed a stark contrast with the rustic backdrop.

Though Microsoft has walked away from some data centre leases globally, it’s conti...
The Logic •

U.S. investors’ dominance of Canadian tech doesn't matter, industry says

There hasn’t been this much energy in downtown Vancouver since the 2010 Olympics, says Jack Newton, chief executive of AI legal software company Clio. “It’s just buzzing,” he told The Logic.

At Web Summit’s inaugural Vancouver conference, artificial intelligence dominated panels, pitches and investor chatter. Nearly every company claimed an AI angle, and many credited their momentum to funding and expertise from Silicon Valley. Despite ongoing U.S.-Can...
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The U.S. brain drain could be Canada’s gain

When Praveen Arichandran worked at Facebook in the San Francisco Bay Area, he noticed the tech giant’s top source of talent wasn’t Harvard, MIT, or even nearby Stanford. It was University of Waterloo, his own alma mater, thousands of kilometres away in Ontario. 

After stints at Facebook across continents and a role as Tesla’s director of growth, Arichandran left Canada to help build a “globally disruptive company,” and last year decided to bring his sk...
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Investigation: The untold story of how Shopify killed DEI

It started when protestors marching against police brutality toppled a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in downtown Montreal. It was the fall of 2020 and Shopify employees were watching four of their colleagues debate the legacy of one of Canada’s most important and controversial political figures.
The virtual town hall had been called because Kaz Nejatian, a recently arrived, fast-rising executive, had publicly pledged to put up $50,000 to restore the...
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University of Waterloo withholds prestigious coding competition results over suspected AI cheating

After returning to Canada after a few years in Colombia, Marulanda De Los Rios soon fell behind in ninth grade classes that required him to read and write in English. But math required no code-switching, and he excelled at it—so unlike his peers, he dove into the University of Waterloo’s Canadian Computing Competition (CCC) and other exams throughout high school just for the challenge. 

Students around the world enroll in the gruelling CCC to better their...
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The OSC says looser regulations in the U.S. could lead to Canadian exodus

Speaking on stage at the Ontario Securities Commission’s annual symposium in Toronto on Thursday, CEO Grant Vingoe said Canadian capital markets risk facing a “hollowing out.” A looser and more favourable U.S. regulatory environment, including in sectors that the Trump administration has supported, like crypto, could entice Canadian companies to move there.

To combat this, the commission is focused on both short and long-term measures to reduce regulatory burdens. Last week the Canadian Securit...
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Canadian business travel to the U.S. rebounds after February slump

After falling 10 per cent in February, travel bookings by Canadian businesses nearly recovered in March—down just 1 per cent from last year, according to data from Corporate Traveller, a subsidiary of major travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group. Corporate Traveller helps small and medium-sized companies book trips and serves clients including Bumble and Aston Martin.

The “substantial pullback” in travel in February occurred when “the rhetoric about tari...
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Exclusive: SRTX has a deal to raise roughly US$40M as it scrambles to stave off insolvency

Montreal textiles manufacturing company SRTX has raised roughly US$40 million from key investors in a deal that would see founder Katherine Homuth step down as CEO, The Logic has learned, as the company works to stave off an insolvency that some expect could otherwise come as soon as next month.










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Desjardins CEO eyes fresh acquisitions as trade war escalates

An all-out trade war with the U.S. isn’t deterring Desjardins from its acquisition spree. The financial services group is willing to take on additional tariff-related costs as it hunts for property and casualty insurance companies to beef up its portfolio, according to its chief executive.










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The Logic •

Businesses scramble as Trump's tariffs kick in

Instead of sending mineralized water filters directly to the homes of American customers, Delta, B.C.-based Santevia Water Systems will have them make a pit stop at a warehouse stateside.

The change might help some customers get their filters faster, but that’s not why the company is doing it. As U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports officially kick in, Santevia is moving to keep a lid on costs. Instead of placing a 25 per cent tariff on the retail price of the filter, the markup will be levied on its cost, because a U.S. business will serve as a middleman.
The Logic •

Canada's big banks aren't letting tariffs spoil the party

Canada’s big banks aren’t letting tariffs spoil the party.
Yes, the vibes are off. The Big Six banks (except for CIBC) put more aside for credit losses compared to this quarter last year. And TD is still being dragged down by its U.S. retail business.
But, as RBC's Dave McKay put it: “The world’s not going to collapse overnight."
The country's six largest banks all beat first-quarter analyst expectations this week, with chief executives assuring shareholders they are well-positioned to tackle uncertainty south of the border.
The Logic •

Exclusive: Shopify lays off team supporting Black, Indigenous and women entrepreneurs

TORONTO — Shopify has laid off the team responsible for its social impact initiatives, including programs to support Black, Indigenous, and women entrepreneurs, sources have told The Logic.

The layoffs, which took place in January, coincided with Shopify shutting down its Build Native, Build Black and social impact programs. Around a dozen people worked on the team, two sources said. The sources asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The Logic •

A trade war would destroy the Big Mac

The Big Mac might be an American icon, but it wouldn’t exist without Canadian potash. 
More than 500 million of these hamburgers are sold in the U.S. each year, requiring huge quantities of wheat, corn, soy and other crops to feed the machine. Some of these ingredients make the Big Mac’s bun, while others feed the cattle that become the beef patties. And almost none of this would exist without Canadian potash fertilizers.
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