Busy year. It’s hard to choose, but here are some of my favourite stories from @thelogic.co over the past 12 months. And if you want to support fearless, independent journalism, and you’re not already a subscriber, please do consider signing up. 👉 thelogic.co

“People are being laid off all the time:" A look at the regular drumbeat of layoffs at Shopify where staff have become accustomed to seeing coworkers vanish from Slack.

One year ago, Kevin O'Leary said he would help build the world's largest data centre in rural Alberta. When we asked for an update, O'Leary Ventures didn't respond to our questions. So we went to Wonder Valley to get some answers. Story by @davidreevely.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/the-big...

Messing up Cyber Monday? "It’s catastrophic," one retailer said of their experience being locked out of their Shopify store for hours during an outage on one of the biggest sales days of the year.

There are some witnesses representing Canadian and bilateral interests appearing at the USTR hearings on USMCA in Washington this week. What do they plan to say? Read more from @thelogic.co thelogic.co/news/canadia... #TradeSky

Compensation will soon be "100 per cent" tied to the billed revenue salespeople bring in through merchants that use Shopify.

Some Shopify merchants found they were unable to log into their online stores or use the company's point-of-sale system in their physical locations amid a partial outage of Shopify services on one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

In the small industrial city of Trois-Rivières, thousands of kilometres away from Silicon Valley’s AI gold rush, Etienne Brisson is racing to record the devastating impact the technology is having on some of its most vulnerable users. Story by @patriquin.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/the-big...

Ireland wants to help Canadian tech firms build a ‘digital superhighway’ to Europe, Ireland's minister for enterprise, tourism and employment told @thelogic.co while in Ottawa last week on a mission to expand bilateral trade and investment thelogic.co/news/ireland... #TradeSky #AI #EU

Shopify salespeople inflated the value of the deals they were closing amid aggressive quotas and a lack of accountability, sources told me. When management found out, after big deals failed to bring in the numbers projected, they gave staff an ultimatum: own up or be found out.

The Logic is hiring for an assistant editor! Work from anywhere in Canada, full details and salary range here: thelogic.applytojobs.ca/editorial/42...

From customs chatbots to services that help find clients, AI-powered tools are helping companies steer through the messy new world of global trade thelogic.co/news/ai-help... Story by me and @muradhem.bsky.social for @thelogic.co #TradeSky

A Canadian man claims ChatGPT destroyed his reputation and sent him into a mental health crisis. He’s one of 7 plaintiffs suing OpenAI for allegedly encouraging dangerous delusions. In 4 of the 7 cases, the people talking to ChatGPT died by suicide. thelogic.co/news/openai-...

Shopify "parted ways" with 3 key executives, said new COO Jess Hertz in an internal message to staff earlier this month, including CRO Bobby Morrison. The departures marked a "turning point" after Shopify drifted too far from its "core."

Quantum firm Xanadu to go public in SPAC deal valuing it at US$3.6B. thelogic.co/news/xanadu-...

"The AI is just not there," says one merchant who pays for a premium tier that promises 24/7 support and a dedicated service rep, but is now faced w/ an "endless back and forth" with AI. How Shopify's plan to turnaround its struggling customer-service dept. by using more AI has left merchants angry:

When Amazon ditched Quebec, Ottawa suggested it might ditch AWS as part of a review of its deals with the firm. Documents obtained by @thelogic.co show that Ottawa concluded it would take years, and cost huge sums of money, to do so. Scoop by @lauraosman.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/ottawa-...

Shopify unleashed AI on its support system—and merchants aren't happy. An early version of the firm's support chatbot made merchants so angry that devs created a feature that connected them to a human faster if they started swearing. Story by @aleksagan.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/shopify...

If you work(ed) at #Shopify and have been a part of the ongoing quiet layoffs, and want to speak about it securely, reach me at aleksagan.12 on Signal or pop into my DMs.

“How do you even understand what you have to pay? It’s a challenge,” Jim Jarrell, CEO of Linamar, said in an interview with @thelogic.co as he described how the growing list of tariffs on steel and aluminum derivatives is becoming a problem. thelogic.co/news/tariffs... #TradeSky #autoindustry

Canada's border agency says it has taken steps to stop outages on a $706-million digital system to assess and collect customs duties and taxes. The glitches were one reason the platform landed on a U.S. list of non-tariff trade barriers thelogic.co/news/canada-... #TradeSky

The U.S. government is encouraging domestic industries to snitch on businesses they suspect of evading tariffs as part of a trade-fraud crackdown that some lawyers say should put Canadian companies on guard. More in @thelogic.co on how to stay out of trouble. thelogic.co/news/us-trad... #TradeSky

Online sellers in Canada are joining the paperwork push to avoid U.S. tariffs on low-value goods thelogic.co/news/de-mini... #TradeSky

"When it came to explaining how his government overshot a half-billion dollar contract by half a billion dollars, Legault sounded suddenly laissez-faire." @patriquin.bsky.social on Quebec premier François Legault's terrible Tuesday. thelogic.co/news/quebec-...

Telecoms are scrambling to catch copper thieves running riot across their networks. Stopping the thieves, though, is a little like playing Whac-A-Mole. And so far, the thieves are winning. thelogic.co/news/copper-...

Canadians ought to be observing Trump's attacks on the Fed with a mix of dismay and relief. Imagine if we had two strongman leaders attempting to fire central bankers at the same time? My latest:

Come work with me! @thelogic.co is hiring a business reporter to work on the finance desk in Toronto. More details here: thelogic.applytojobs.ca/editorial/41... Please send a DM if you want to hear how great it is to work here, or have any questions. Please share! #cdnmedia #journojobs

My latest is on the danger of binary thinking.

A registry set up to shed light on attempts to influence government policy is vulnerable to misrepresentations, the federal lobbying watchdog acknowledged after her office published false claims about a Middle Eastern bank's interests in Canada. What went wrong? thelogic.co/news/saudi-s... #cdnpoli

An updated guide to the various layers of U.S. tariffs on Canada to help you keep track of what’s officially on paper, not just what President Donald Trump’s saying out loud. thelogic.co/news/trump-t... #TradeSky #Tariffs #CanadaUS

A B.C. man claiming to represent the Saudi Investment Bank raised hopes of money pouring into major projects in Canada. A bank official now calls the claims ‘gibberish.’ thelogic.co/news/the-big... An investigation for @thelogic.co by me and @catherinemcintyre.bsky.social

The Logic is hiring! We're looking for two fantastic journalists to join our editing and production desk. You can be based anywhere in Canada. Assistant Editor, $58,902 to $78,536: thelogic.applytojobs.ca/editorial/40... Senior Editor, $89,739 to $119,653: thelogic.applytojobs.ca/editorial/40...

The Logic is hiring: Senior Editor & Assistant Editor. Apply today: thelogic.applytojobs.ca

Scoop: Flo, Canada's biggest EV charging company, has lost access to charging networks in New York State and California. Story by @patriquin.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/exclusi...

Canada imported a little less than $1.1 million worth of American wine in May—a 98 per cent decrease from the same month last year. What's going on? Check out The Big Read for @thelogic.co by me and @aimlo.bsky.social thelogic.co/news/the-big... #TradeSky #Wine

Trump administration took note of Ottawa’s recent action on foreign steel and aluminum, says Dominic LeBlancRead more from my interview for @thelogic.co with the federal minister leading the Canada-U.S. trade file. thelogic.co/news/canada-... #TradeSky #CanadaUS #Steel #Aluminum #Tariffs

On electric vehicles, tariffs and fighting U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda in court: my interview with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis for @thelogic.co thelogic.co/news/keep-ev... #TradeSky #EVs

Climate change is being crowded out of the conversation. We might need to learn to cope with more than one existential threat at a time. My latest: thelogic.co/comment/carm...

Latest from me on a landmark new report from the Competition Bureau, which recommends measures like increased foreign ownership and better merger scrutiny in the airline industry—where Air Canada and WestJet account for up to 78% of domestic passenger traffic. thelogic.co/news/canada-...

Meet Michael Sabia. Michael Sabia likes building things. Michael Sabia likes kicking ass. Great, timely profile of the Ottawa-bound Sabia by @patriquin.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/quebec-...

Canada’s canola farmers are caught in the crossfire of a global trade war thelogic.co/news/the-big... via @thelogic.co #TradeSky #Agriculture

Little-known fact: the Internet Archive has a bunch of servers scattered across Canada's West Coast. With the Trump administration deleting vast swathes of the federal internet, having backups outside of the U.S. is more important than ever. thelogic.co/news/the-big...

Ottawa wants to build 500,000 homes per year, but decades absent from affordable housing might mean they've lost the expertise to do so. Now, experts say Carney must be strategic about what type of home—not just how many—are built. Read my latest for @thelogic.co thelogic.co/news/build-c...

Quebec will soon ban student use of cellphones in all schools in the province. A new cross-party report now recommends all kids under 14 should be banned from using social media. thelogic.co/news/quebec-...

In 2020, Shopify pledged to uplift underrepresented entrepreneurs. This year, it quietly laid off teams focused on Black and Indigenous founders. To some staff, it was a clear sign: the company’s DEI promises were never meant to last. The Logic has the whole story: thelogic.co/news/the-big...

As Trump's war on DEI raged, Shopify laid off teams that supported Black and Indigenous entrepreneurs and shut down initiatives that supported similar work internally. This is the untold story of how Shopify killed DEI. By @muradhem.bsky.social and @aimlo.bsky.social. thelogic.co/news/the-big...

Montreal has basically made 'Airbnb landlords' illegal. It's one of the toughest short-term rental crackdowns in the world thelogic.co/news/montrea...

Who's in Prime Minister Mark Carney's new cabinet and what is on their to-do list? A guide to some key portfolios from @thelogic.co thelogic.co/news/special...

Insurance firms want to cash in on the AI boom. Armilla AI now sells insurance to cover the legal costs and other losses that businesses might incur when AI systems make mistakes. thelogic.co/news/ai-insu...

Expertise mounts a comeback. My latest: thelogic.co/comment/carm...