Shuttered gypsum mine in central Cape Breton to reopen: USG Corp.

The Canadian Press

Changes to Mining Act help companies adopt a reuse/recycle mindset

A gypsum quarry in central Cape Breton that closed seven years ago will soon be reopened.

The Canadian division of USG Corp. says it will spend $104 million revitalizing the quarry at Little Narrows, N.S., creating 100 permanent jobs once the relaunch is completed in three years.

The Chicago-based building materials company says the quarry will produce up to two million tonnes of raw gypsum every year.

Gypsum is used to make drywall, a popular building material also known as wallboard that is used to form the flat surfaces of walls and ceilings.

The gypsum from Little Narrows will be shipped by boat to Montreal and other manufacturing locations along the eastern seaboard. 

USG says it kept the quarry operating between 1954 and 2016.

The quarry first started producing gypsum in 1935, and at its peak it employed 150 people.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.

Under pressure from crypto miners, NB Power places pause on electricity requests

The Canadian Press

New Brunswick's electric utility imposed a moratorium on providing new service to cryptocurrency mining operations last year, saying it was concerned about its ability to meet the increasing demands from the power-hungry sector.

Details about the moratorium are contained in a cabinet order dated March 1, 2022, which endorses the indefinite pause and directs Crown-owned NB Power to conduct a review of the industry and submit its findings by Dec. 31, 2022.

The cabinet document, which recently came to light in a CBC report, confirms that NB Power had received several "large-scale, short-notice" service requests from cryptocurrency mining companies, which were not named.

In February 2021, Vancouver-based Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. announced it would pay $25-million in shares to acquire GPU Atlantic Inc., which at the time was operating its own 50-megawatt substation and crypto mining data centre in Grand Falls, N.B.

Hive said it would deploy next-generation bitcoin mining hardware that would by powered by "some of the lowest electricity costs in the industry."

In early 2022, NB Power said it would put a temporary hold on all new large-scale, short-notice requests for electricity, and all new requests from cryptocurrency miners, due to concerns about its ability to meet the growing demand.

According to the cabinet order, signed by Premier Blaine Higgs, the utility said the requests were putting "significant pressure" on the province's electricity supply.

In response, the cabinet cited the province's Electricity Act, which states that the provincial government must ensure NB Power is managed in a way that is "consistent with reliable, safe and economically sustainable service."

The cabinet order was posted online by the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.

The New Brunswick government and NB Power did not respond to requests for an interview. It remains unclear what the review found or how the government or NB Power intends to deal with the crypto mining industry.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2023. 

Fishers crabby over Japan's Russian imports, but Tokyo says Canada exports negligible

Dylan Robertson, The Canadian Press

Atlantic fishers are feeling the pinch as Japan brings in cheap Russian product rather than Canadian snow crabs, with federal ministers and provincial premiers saying they are raising the issue with Japanese officials.

But Tokyo is pushing back on claims that its trade decisions are undermining G7 sanctions — or that they are having much of an effect on the Canadian industry.

Snow crab prices have dropped in Newfoundland and Labrador from $7.60 per pound at the start of last year's season to an opening price of $2.20 this year. 

Fishers in the province have refused to start harvesting this year as they scramble to sell off last year's surplus, although the price could still rise.

Analysts say crab is a lucrative species for Atlantic Canada, and it was the country's second-largest seafood export in 2021. Market prices hit record highs during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, but began plummeting last year.

The United States blocked sales from Russia to punish the country for its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and its own Alaska crab fishery collapsed, making Washington reliant on Canada. 

But American customers have opted against pricey Canadian crab during a period of inflated food prices, leaving unsold roughly 10 million pounds of Canadian crab that was caught last year.

Meanwhile, Moscow has flooded other parts of the international market with cheap product.

South Korea and Japan are still allowing such imports, and the latter has become the target of an influence campaign by Canadian politicians.

Japanese trade magazine Toyo Keizai reported that as of last October, Japan had increased its imports of all forms of Russian crab by 50 per cent compared with the same period the year before that.

Conservative fisheries critic Clifford Small has raised the issue in Parliament in recent months, saying Ottawa should press Japan to ban Russian crab as a measure of solidarity among G7 countries.

His home province of Newfoundland and Labrador says snow crab exports accounted for $886 million in sales in 2021, but the price crash has now left fishers trying to sell last year’s catch.

A week ago, Trade Minister Mary Ng would not specify when Small asked whether Ottawa had explicitly requested that Asian allies sanction Russian crab.

"We have raised this issue with Japan," she told the House of Commons. "We will continue to stand up for Canadian fishers."

Ng's office added Tuesday that Canada still hopes Japan will change course, as part of their ongoing collaboration to isolate Russia.

"We are thankful for Japan’s continued efforts to work with allies to isolate Russia, and have asked Japan to consider Canada’s sustainable, ethical and premium snow crab to replace its current supply of Russian products," spokeswoman Alice Hansen wrote in an email.

Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray told the Fisheries Committee on March 27 that she discussed the matter with Tokyo's envoy.

"I have raised this matter personally twice with the ambassador from Japan to Canada — in fact, once at his residence at a reception. We are taking a Team Canada approach," she said.

"We will stand up for our fish harvesters and our fishing industry and help export our top-quality products around the world."

The Japanese Embassy in Ottawa said it's been steadfast in sanctioning Russia and banning trade in multiple products. Tokyo removed preferential tariffs on Russian fishery products including crab, which drives up the price for those imports but doesn't block them.

The cause of shifting trade flows "is thought to be the soaring price of Canadian crab, as a result of the impact of higher fuel costs and other factors," the embassy's economic section told The Canadian Press in a statement.

"Should prices normalize, we expect that purchases of Canadian crab will increase."

Small, who is the Conservatives' fisheries critic, has asked for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to raise the issue with his Japanese counterpart. Trudeau is widely expected to visit Japan later this month for the G7 leaders' summit in Hiroshima.

"While Canadian prices may have been higher than that of crab dumped on the Japanese market as a result of U.S. sanctions, we are G7 partners and the government of Canada should be pressing Japan to buy from us, and sanction Russian crab until the Ukraine war is over," he said in an emailed statement.

Small said "aggressive Russian dumping" left unchecked is causing the biggest Newfoundland fishery shutdown since the calamitous 1992 cod moratorium.

"The economic devastation as a result of what’s happening is immense."

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey raised the issue with Japanese Ambassador Kanji Yamanouchi during his visit to St. John's in March, with the province noting in a statement "the negative impact that exports of Russian crab to Japan are having on the province's crab fishery."

And Nova Scotia's government said Fisheries Minister Steve Craig "raised the snow crab issue during two recent meetings with Japanese officials," adding the species makes up the province's second-largest seafood export.

New Brunswick's fisheries department said it was "aware of the issue" and is promoting exports where it can, such as with the ongoing Seafood Expo Global in Spain. Prince Edward Island did not offer a response.

Still, Japanese officials seem unconvinced that their country is having much of an effect on the Canadian market.

The embassy noted that roughly 90 per cent of Canada's snow crab exports go to the U.S., while Japan's share made up only about four per cent before the invasion of Ukraine.

"We consider it difficult to believe that the decrease in Japan's imports is the main factor having a major impact on the Canadian fisheries industry," the embassy said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.

Canadian Public Employees' remote work agreement just the beginning: labour expert

Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press May 2, 2023

The agreement on remote and flexible work between public sector workers and the federal government could set the stage for future union negotiations, according to labour experts. 

“We're basically entering a brand new phase of what we talk about in collective agreements, which includes workers’ autonomy over their time,” said Armine Yalnizyan, an economist and the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and Ottawa announced they had reached tentative agreements Monday morning for more than 120,000 workers, with wage gains and a letter of understanding about remote and hybrid work. 

The letter outside the collective agreement promises a joint review of the government’s directive on telework, and the union said the letter will mean managers have to assess telework requests individually instead of the government applying a one-size-fits-all approach. 

Yalnizyan said a case-by-case approach is appropriate for the post-pandemic era of work, even though it’s much more complicated than a one-size-fits-all policy. 

Issues of employee time, surveillance, productivity and the right to disconnect have all become hot-button topics in the wake of COVID, but haven’t really been baked into formalized language, said Yalnizyan, putting PSAC and the government at the forefront of what’s bound to be an ongoing discussion. 

While a letter of understanding is just the beginning, if a case-by-case approach to remote work gets baked into a collective agreement it could open the door to “a mountain of grievances,” she added. 

“This is a large bargaining unit, and the interpretation of whether the boss was too strict or the worker was too lazy is in the eye of the beholder. So that's the problem with this approach,” Yalnizyan said. 

“But it is also the best approach for the moment.” 

Remote work is an issue everywhere, said Jim Stanford, an economist and director at the Centre for Future Work.

“Everywhere there's offices, workers and employers are having some tough discussions about how they come back to the office and what rights they have to continue working from home, at least part of the time,” he said on Monday. 

Employers at unionized and non-unionized workplaces should expect to continue hearing about remote and flexible work in the months and years to come, said Lluc Cerda, a senior associate at employment law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP.

“The workplace has changed since the pandemic ... and a lot of employees are very reticent to give up some of the gains that they’ve acquired over that period," he said. 

Stanford said both the public and private sector are grappling with this, and PSAC decided it preferred to negotiate the best way forward instead of having changes unilaterally imposed by the government. 

“This is ... an important step toward making hybrid work a normalized part of the work environment and setting up reasonable balanced procedures to make all of those decisions,” he said. 

“All this contract does is commit both sides to discussing and negotiating return to work as it occurs.”

Cerda said non-unionized workers should make sure they get any promises of remote or hybrid work into their contracts to ensure the arrangements are enforceable. 

The same goes for getting remote work into a collective agreement, with a letter of understanding being a first step, said Cerda. 

“The union hasn't given up on getting this written into the collective bargaining agreements,” he said. 

Though remote work has been talked about a lot in the past couple of years, Yalnizyan pointed out it’s not something available to many workers, even those in white-collar jobs.

That’s likely why the government and the union were happy to start with a letter of understanding so they could get the wage demands, which affect all workers and have been top of mind for government workers without a contract during historic inflation, Yalnizyan said. 

“I just think that was just such an adult way of dealing with a very difficult and very real problem that we are all making a big deal of, but doesn't affect that many people,” she said. 

“Let’s get money to these workers first, and then we can talk about this other thing.” 

According to Statistics Canada, hybrid work has become more popular in the wake of the pandemic, with almost one in 10 workers in October 2022 reporting they work both at home and outside of their home, up from earlier in 2022. That month, almost 16 per cent of workers said they work exclusively from home, down from the beginning of the year.  

In a tight labour market where the workforce is shrinking as more Canadians retire, employers will use remote or hybrid work to attract and retain people, said Yalnizyan.

“We need all hands on deck, and that changes the dynamic,” she said. 

Meanwhile, for unionized workers, PSAC’s agreement with the government could be influential, she said.

“It becomes a foundation for pattern bargaining in some respects,” she said. 

“Talking is different than codifying. But it’s certainly a fascinating moment.” 

Canadian Pacific hit with violation notice after derailment in Maine

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

State authorities in Maine have hit Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. with a violation notice over fallout from its cleanup efforts after a freight train went off the tracks last month.

Officials sent a notice of violation to the railway after heavy construction equipment deployed to access the crash site caused a "significant amount of sediment" to enter local waters in violation of a pollution control law, according to Maine's Department of Environmental Protection.

"Culverts were crushed and dirt has been shifted in and around a number of streams as a result of heavy machinery using the forest management roads," the department said in a release Friday.

Melanie Loyzim, the department's commissioner, sent a second letter instructing CPKC to implement erosion control measures "immediately."

On April 15 a Canadian Pacific Kansas City train hit a track washout in a wooded area near Moosehead Lake in northwestern Maine, some 220 kilometres southeast of Quebec City, setting several cars ablaze.

CPKC said last month that locomotives and four derailed lumber cars went up in flames, with crews using booms — absorbent, tubelike barriers — to contain spilled diesel fuel.

Cars carrying drums of ethanol and another hazardous material also skidded off the rails but did not catch fire, CPKC said. State officials said there is no threat to public safety.

Three crew members were taken to a local hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and released the same day, the railway said.

As of Friday, CPKC had about 60 emergency spill responders and environmental professionals on site to clean it up and monitor soil and surface water quality, the state officials said. Specialized railway equipment arrived Thursday, set to be lined with plastic and loaded with oil-saturated materials from the site.

"The remote, forested nature of the area combined with the spring thaw has made cleanup efforts challenging, including for the ingress and egress of people and equipment," Canadian Pacific spokesman Patrick Waldron said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

"CPKC is committed to the restoration of the derailment area and full cleanup of the affected environment. CPKC crews are on the ground working in full co-operation with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, and other agencies, as we have since the derailment occurred."

The rail line is the same one where the fatal Lac-Mégantic disaster unfolded about 90 kilometres further west in 2013. Canadian Pacific did not own the track at the time.

The line — in CP Rail's hands until the mid-1990s, and later dubbed the Central Maine & Quebec Railway — was in dire need of an upgrade when the company repurchased it from private equity firm Fortress Investment Group in 2020.

"CP plans to invest as much as $90 million over the next three years to bring CMQ's rail infrastructure up to Federal Railroad Administration Class 3 standards," Canadian Pacific said nearly three years ago.

Greg Gormick, who heads On Track Consulting, said the accident could have been "much worse" given the route's rugged topography.

Last week, Canadian Pacific told Maine's environmental protection department its response team had recovered nearly 33,000 absorbent pads, 15,000-plus feet of absorbent boom and 12 cubic metres of fluid — oil, water and diesel — using vacuum trucks.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.

Cirque du Soleil president says AI in entertainment world a low risk to company

Stéphane Rolland, The Canadian Press

The head of Cirque du Soleil says artificial intelligence poses a low risk to the renowned Quebec company, even as debate is emerging about intellectual property protection for artists.

"We don't have all the answers yet, but I would be lying if I said I'm very worried, given the strength of the brand," president Stéphane Lefebvre said in an interview Tuesday.

"There are a lot of people in the past who wanted to do things that looked like Cirque du Soleil, even without artificial intelligence," he said. "There may be a lot of people who want to create similar circus shows, but without having the Cirque brand, the Cirque's seal of quality, it would become more complicated for people."

Artificial intelligence has raised hackles throughout the art and entertainment world, with AI platform users now able to create images, text and music inspired by — and sometimes nearly indistinguishable from — the pros.

Recently, a fake duet imitating the voices of Drake and The Weeknd went viral on social media, causing a stir in the recording community.

On the sidelines of a speech delivered to the Canadian Club in Montreal, Lefebvre acknowledged he's enjoyed experimenting with AI chatbots to tell a story or two to his kids.

He also said Cirque du Soleil would not completely close the door on the technology, but that he views it more as an administrative aid than an artistic one, pointing to potential legal pitfalls.

“We're trying try to see how we can use artificial intelligence to help us outside of the creative sphere,” he said.

In his speech, Lefebvre discussed Cirque du Soleil's recovery and current strategy. The 39-year-old circus troupe scrapped performances around the globe and cut nearly 3,500 employees after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, but began to add shows again in the summer of 2021.

The Montreal-based company aims to see its brand on other platforms beyond live entertainment, including video distribution and video games, he said, teasing an announcement in the latter industry for later this month.

MGM Studios has produced a documentary about Cirque du Soleil's return to the stage. Other video projects are in the pipeline, Lefebvre said, but he declined to offer specifics.

After the pandemic-induced shutdown, Cirque exceeded “all our expectations," Lefebvre said in his address, which was capped by a short acrobatic performance by Cirque artists.

In late 2020, Cirque was sold to a group of its creditors led by Catalyst Capital Group after the Montreal-based outfit was forced to file for creditor protection, having racked up a debt of US$1 billion.

The company now finds itself on more stable financial footing. In March, it managed to reduce its debt by US$100 million and to refinance it at lower rates, despite monetary tightening by central banks. Cirque du Soleil's total debt stood at US$550 million as of last month.

Lefebvre said demand remains strong for Cirque shows, despite the ongoing economic uncertainty. He attributed the interest to an entrenched desire for spectacle in the flesh, rather than to a post-confinement pendulum swing.

“People want to live experiences, to live them and to show everyone that they have had this experience. I think it's a strong trend and we're not going to go back."

HSBC expects later close of Canadian division sale to RBC

The Canadian Press

HSBC Holdings plc says the sale of its Canadian division to Royal Bank of Canada is going to take longer than first expected, but that the deal remains a key priority.

London-based HSBC says it now expects to complete the $13.5-billion transaction in the first quarter of 2024, rather than late this year as it guided when it announced the deal last November. 

The bank says the later close is to ensure a smooth transition, while several other recent bank deals have taken longer than expected amid heightened regulatory scrutiny including TD's still pending takeover of First Horizon. 

The Competition Bureau on Tuesday put out a call for input from the public on the RBC deal, seeking information that would help it assess potential impacts on competition from the deal.

Both the Competition Bureau and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions are reviewing the transaction, which requires approval from the finance minister.

HSBC Bank Canada says it had a record profit of $309 million before income tax expense in the first quarter, up $17 million from the same quarter last year, while its total assets were $123.3 billion at quarter end.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023.

Competition Bureau seeks input on RBC's

proposed takeover of HSBC Bank Canada

The Canadian Press

The Competition Bureau has put out a call for information to help it review Royal Bank of Canada's proposed takeover of HSBC Bank Canada.

The agency says it's looking for input from market participants and Canadians on a range of areas including residential mortgages, personal and business lending and bank accounts.

It says the type of information it's interested to hear about include what kind of rivalry there is between RBC and HSBC as well as with other banks, what kind of effect the deal might have on price, quality or choice, and how easy it is to switch between banks.

The Competition Bureau says it is investigating whether the proposed deal is likely to result in a substantial lessening or prevention of competition.

RBC emerged in late November last year as the winning bidder for HSBC's Canadian division with a $13.5 billion deal.

Both the Competition Bureau and the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions are reviewing the transaction, which requires approval from the Minister of Finance.

Not every airline can succeed in Canada's crowded market: Flair CEO

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Not all of the Canadian airlines currently jockeying for position in a crowded market are likely to survive in the long-term, said the CEO of Edmonton-based Flair Airlines on Tuesday.

Stephen Jones made the comments at the Calgary International Airport on Tuesday, where discount carrier Flair is establishing a new base of operations as part of its ongoing aggressive expansion plans. The company, which had just three aircraft at the start of 2021, will have a total fleet of 21 Boeing 737s by this summer with service to over 30 cities across Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

“I think there will be churn. I don’t think every airline is going to succeed and grow," said Jones in an interview.

"The trick I think will be picking a lane. Air Canada’s clearly got the top of it (the market), we’re clearly going for the bottom. I think the harder questions are for the airlines in the middle.”

The last few years have seen a surge of new Canadian airlines, including Edmonton-based Flair, Lynx and Canada Jetlines, while established carriers such as Porter Airlines are expanding aggressively.

Most of the new airlines are gunning to dominate the low-cost carrier model, which offers cheap base fares and then requires passengers to pay extra for add-ons such as checked bags, cancellations and changes, and seat selection.

Jones said in other parts of the world, the low-cost carrier model dominates the leisure travel market, and he said he expects in time that will be the case in Canada.

"I think there will be a significant low-class carrier dominating leisure travel 10 years from now. Our plan is for that to be Flair Airlines, but others have seen the same opportunity and they compete with us," he said.

One of those airlines "in the middle," which Jones suggested could be challenged to find its niche in future, is Canada's No. 2 airline, WestJet. 

By expanding in Calgary, Flair — which says it will employ nearly 150 people out of its Calgary base and offer 15 routes out of the city by this fall — is taking on WestJet in its own backyard. In fact, earlier this year WestJet announced a new strategic plan which will see the airline refocus on Western Canada, adding routes to and from Calgary and other Western cities and making Calgary the central hub for international flights using its wide-body 787 Dreamliner fleet.

When asked if Flair is trying to capture the market space that WestJet occupied in its early days, Jones said WestJet is in "transition." When WestJet launched in 1996, it aimed to emulate the successful low-cost model of Southwest Airlines, but the Calgary-based company has grown and expanded significantly since then — adding aircraft types, long-haul flying and different fare categories.

“I guess what I would say is they had a much more clear proposition back then than they have now," Jones said.

"Whereas we're much clearer on who we are and why we're here. We're not interested in inter-line, we're not interested in flights to Europe, or cargo ... That clarity makes things easier."

Jones also cast doubt on WestJet Airlines' purchase of Sunwing's main airline and vacation divisions, which became official Monday.

“Acquisitions and mergers in the airline industry are notoriously hard to implement," he said.

"I think it will be a little bit hard (for WestJet) to digest, as you’ve got different cultures, different pilot unions, and they’re notoriously hard to merge smoothly.”

In an emailed statement Tuesday, WestJet spokeswoman Madison Kruger said the airline believes in the value of competition, as "airlines with a strong foundation and business model" are essential to ensuring the longevity of the Canadian travel industry.

"We are confident in our new strategic direction that is rooted in providing friendly, reliable and affordable air travel to Canadians," Kruger wrote.

Jones' comments come as airlines and the travelling public are gearing up for the summer season, which is expected to be a busy one. He said Flair's summer bookings are up 30 per cent year-over-year, and already in the month of April the airline was flying planes that were 90 per cent full.

This is occurring at the same time that the Canadian Transportation Agency is dealing with a backlog of complaints from passengers who suffered flight disruptions, cancellations and general airport chaos last summer, as the Canadian aviation industry struggled to ramp up in the face of surging demand following the lifting of COVID-19 public health restrictions.

Flair was also forced to cancel multiple flights earlier this spring when four of its aircraft were seized by lessor Airborne Capital, which alleged that Flair fell behind in its payments.

Jones acknowledged that what happened last summer was a "meltdown" for the entire aviation system, from airlines to airports to border services agencies. He said that Canadians planning summer travel this year should rest assured that their experience in 2023 will be better.

"I look at our own performance just now, our on-time performance — it’s markedly better than it was last year. And I think the government services are all staffed up as well," he said.

"This summer, I’m sure there will be some disruptions, but it’s going to be completely different than last year.”

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

Securities Commission alleges fraud committed by B.C. crypto firm

Darryl Greer, The Canadian Press

The B.C. Securities Commission alleges a now-defunct cryptocurrency platform based in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island committed a multimillion-dollar securities fraud by diverting customer assets to online cryptocurrency gambling sites. 

In a notice of hearing issued last month, the commission says David Smillie and his numbered company, which did business as ezBtc, lied to customers about its crypto asset trading platform. 

The commission alleges Smillie and the company diverted about $13 million worth of bitcoin and ether, another cryptocurrency, to two online gambling sites without authorization from customers. 

The regulator says the company was dissolved in October 2022, but between 2016 and 2019 customers transferred 2,300 bitcoin and 600 ether tokens into wallets hosted by the platform. 

Smillie and the firm allegedly told customers their digital assets were mostly held off-line in so-called "cold storage," but they never truly maintained enough to cover users' assets.

Smillie and ezBtc were never registered under B.C.'s Securities Act, and the commission claims agreements with customers amounted to futures contracts, which fall under the commission's jurisdiction. 

Online court records searches show the company and Smillie face a number of lawsuits in British Columbia dating back several years, and the B.C. Securities Commission's director of enforcement Doug Muir said the hearing notice comes after a lengthy probe into the firm. 

"In this case, like in all of our cases, we need time to investigate, so we need to be able to gather evidence that we are satisfied," Muir said Tuesday. "So, that takes time to gather. Our investigations are often time consuming and complex and this one is an example of that."

Muir said the matter is administrative rather than criminal in nature, meaning the firm and Smillie won't face jail time, but may face monetary penalties or even banishment from public markets should the commission succeed in proving its case. 

Const. Gary O'Brien with the Nanaimo RCMP said the detachment's investigation into the company in 2019 didn't find enough evidence to lay criminal charges. 

"All I can say is that the matter was investigated and there was insufficient evidence gathered by the primary investigator to pursue criminal matters, so they decided it would probably be best to go from a civil angle," O'Brien said Tuesday. "That's the only information that I could provide at this point."

O'Brien said the file could be reopened should any victims or the securities commission reach out to investigators with new information. 

Sergei Goshko, an Ontario-based software engineer, said he used the ezBtc platform for cryptocurrency trading until it stopped allowing him access to his funds before its website "disappeared completely."

Goshko filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court in 2021 through a numbered company, and he said he was out between $70,000 and $80,000. 

His lawyers, though, weren't able to find Smillie and he was unaware the B.C. Securities Commission was taking action against ezBtc and its founder. 

"I guess it's a good thing, so maybe there'll be some progress," Goshko said Tuesday. "Maybe they will finally find him."

Smillie could not be reached for comment. 

The commission says Smillie and his company must attend its offices in downtown Vancouver on June 27 to fix a date for a hearing into the regulator's allegations. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2023. 

Canadian Twitter users on why they decided to pay for their blue check mark

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

Losing the app store is the last thing Twitter can afford

When Elon Musk took over Twitter last November, he quickly turned his attention to the platform's highly sought-after status symbol: the blue verification check mark.

The seal of approval previously handed out to celebrities, politicians, journalists and other public figures was meant to reduce impersonation attempts, help users wade through high volumes of replies and likes and make it easier to ensure people aren't duped by parody accounts.But Musk was intent on "treating everyone equally" and boosting the revenue of the US$44 billion social media platform he had just bought, so he announced last fall he would remove the check marks for users not paying for Twitter Blue. The platform's premium subscription also offers an edit button, fewer ads and the ability to post longer videos.

Accounts impersonating Tesla, gaming giant Nintendo and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly sprang up and paid for verification, pushing Musk to dump his check mark removal plans, but he revived them in April, yanking the symbol from accounts.

Some users were so angered they fled the platform, while others stuck around but lamented that the verification change along with several other moves Musk made that have shifted Twitter's public image. 

And then there were the people who decided to pay. The Canadian Press asked several what made them open up their wallets.

GUY FELICELLA

Felicella, a Vancouver-based harm reduction and recovery advocate with 15,300 followers, wasn't drawn to subscribing to Twitter Blue because of the tick he'd see beside his username.

"That blue check mark, they could take it away today. I couldn't care less," he said.

"It doesn't matter to me."

Instead, it was text-based two-factor authentication and the ability to publish longer tweets that drew him in to forking over $155 a year (users don't need to pay for Blue to use an authenticator app). Felicella figured longer tweets mean more space for context and maybe, additional chances to connect with someone in need of his support.

Though some have left Twitter, he's sticking with the platform because he wants to help counter misinformation, especially about drug use, that he's seen spreading online.

"You've got to balance (the misinformation) out. I don't want them to take over," he said.

"I keep saying I'd rather hang out here and ruffle some feathers than just walk away from it."

JENNIFER SHAIGEC

The Calgary-based independent director at Teako Minerals Corp. and commodity specialist for CommonStock Inc. considers herself a "Twitter addict," using the platform daily and crediting it for helping her cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"There was always someone to talk to about a common interest," she said via a Twitter direct message.

Shaigec subscribed to Blue for the features, which have reduced her ads by 50 per cent, let her tweet more than 280 characters, given her an edit button and helped her sort bookmarked posts by topic. 

"With the volume of tweets that I send out and the number I read daily, the Twitter Blue features seem to improve my efficiency on the app," she said.

But she added they're "more of a luxury" than a necessity.

"So I can understand why some are expressing dismay that the blue check mark is geared toward the elite – or those that can more easily afford the subscription price."

HEATHER STEFANSON

Manitoba's premier still has her blue check mark — a decision her communications team made to "protect the integrity of the account," a spokesperson said in an email.

"The subscription is covered by the PC Party of Manitoba — not taxpayers," the spokesperson added. 

DANIEL FOCH

The Keswick, Ont. real estate agent with 26,700 followers decided to shell out for a monthly subscription in March, after Twitter stopped text message-based two-factor authentication for users not paying for Blue.

By then, he had grown fed up with fake accounts impersonating people and peddling cryptocurrency scams and hoped Blue might cut down on such instances. 

"I'd get messages from people all the time telling me that there's this fake account. It's actually crazy how many times I'd get those messages," he said.

"If it eliminates that, that's worth it to me."

He still spots impersonators but feels the check mark gives his profile an added layer of authenticity and is part of a growing move toward paying for verification on other platforms. 

Meta announced in February that it will charge Facebook and Instagram users to have verified accounts.

SIMU LIU

The "Kim's Convenience" and "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" star shared in mid-April that a misunderstanding about changes to two-factor authentication led him to open his wallet.

"I'm still blue because I thought I had to pay to retain two-factor authentication. They got me," he wrote in a tweet he ended with a sad face.

OLUMUYIWA IGBALAJOBI

The Calgary-based founder of Scholarships Cafe, a platform connecting people with scholarships and other academic opportunities, tried to get verified by Twitter about five times over the last few years to help his work reach more people.

He submitted newspaper articles he appeared in and information about his work in academia, but still couldn't convince Twitter to give him the mark until Musk opened up verification to users paying $11 in November.

"When I saw the opportunity to get a tick, I felt like it was time," Igbalajobi said.

He doesn't think Twitter Blue has given his tweets more exposure or sent any more opportunities his way than having a non-verified account would, but likes that it allows him to send longer tweets.

"A couple of days ago I made a list of the top 25 scholarships in Canada and I didn't have to split those tweets," he said.

"I could do that within two minutes."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 3, 2023.