BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM For the first time, gig workers have binding international labour protections. The International Labour Organization voted June 12 to adopt a convention setting enforceable employment standards for platform workers in ride-hailing and food delivery. Four hundred and six member governments, employer groups, and workers’ representatives voted yes, including China,…
Lisa Lambert, the inaugural leader of the business consortium Quantum Industry Canada, has taken a new job at the US company IonQ. The news: College Park, Maryland-based IonQ has announced the appointment of Lambert as its new vice-president of global strategy and managing director for Canada. Lambert announced last week that she was stepping down…
Toronto’s Sellit9 has secured $4.1 million CAD in seed funding to expand its “recommerce” trade-in platform into more categories of goods and begin moving into the United States. The news: Sellit9 aims to provide Canadians looking to get rid of old household items with an alternative to throwing them out or selling them on existing…
Vancouver-based incubator Althra has opened applications for its third cohort. The news: Althra aims to find six to 10 promising, early-stage startups looking to build in person, alongside their peers. Its latest free, four-month program is scheduled to run from September until December, giving participating founders a dedicated workspace in downtown Vancouver, $12,500 in initial…
On a May evening in 2019, Edmonton’s Myrna Bittner watched as a 6.7-magnitude earthquake tore through Santa Clara, Calif. Labelled a nine on the Mercalli scale—an index measuring the intensity of earthquakes—the quake levelled buildings, upended roadways, and plunged the city of more than 100,000 into darkness. As the trembling settled, splintered gas lines spewed…
After 15 years covering Atlantic Canada’s startup ecosystem, the founders of Halifax’s Entrevestor are preparing to file their final stories. Earlier this month, Entrevestor publisher Peter Moreira announced that he, and his wife and Entrevestors editor, Carol Moreira, wil step away from the publication this fall. “Entrevestor is the standing morning read for anything Atlantic…
Episode Description: Tala and Farah Mousa received thousands of messages after they won the Earth Prize. “You gave us hope we had completely lost,” people wrote. “You showed us we can be seen.” They were sheltering in a tent when those messages came in. This episode is about what it takes to build something: a…
A Canadian medtech startup, built on another Canadian company’s data infrastructure, has secured the top prize at one of Europe’s biggest tech conferences. The news: Montréal-based medical AI company Reveal Life Science took home first place in the OVHcloud Startup Challenge at VivaTech in Paris on Thursday, beating out dozens of international competitors. The startup…
Bill C-25 has received royal assent, officially amending the Canada Elections Act to ban AI-generated imitations of real people, also known as deepfakes, of political figures. The news: Also known as The Strong and Free Elections Act, Bill C-25 contains multiple amendments intended to strengthen the electoral process. This includes “banning sophisticated deepfakes of electoral…
MDA Space will buy Blue Canyon Technologies, the small satellite manufacturing and mission services arm of US defence contractor RTX Raytheon, for $620 million USD ($874 million CAD). The news: Brampton, Ont.-based MDA announced on Friday morning that it will acquire the satellite maker in an all-cash transaction financed by secured debt. The deal is…
