Slack has been cut a really big cheque
A new era of working from home has proven lucrative for Stewart Butterfield, whose Vancouver hippie parents initially raised him in a log cabin. Slack, which Salesforce acquired in a deal worth $27.7 billion, spawned from a non-starter video game called Glitch. Butterfield was previously part of turning virtual-world tools into Flickr.
Another day of vaccine memes
The federal Liberal slant on a COVID-19 jab consists of assuring Canada that the day will eventually come. But approval of the Pfizer vaccine in the U.K. means watching a mother country get theirs sooner. Ontario has retired general Rick Hillier readying the rollout with words about how waiting is easier than having to storm the beaches of Normady.
Hudson’s Bay led an open letter asking for retail reopening in Ontario. The request to lift lockdown restrictions in Toronto and Peel was co-signed by multiple chains that lack a big-box store exemption. Concurrently, the province is hearing from hair salons brandishing statistics that show no notable trend of outbreaks through their chairs.
Radio debate goes off the air
Toronto employment lawyer Howard Levitt is defending the ways of talk radio in North America, on behalf of client Corus Entertainment, in response to a morning show host citing listener threats as contributing to her resignation. Supriya Dwivedi outlines why she’s now filed a human-rights complaint about Global News:
“Thank you, Elliot, for sharing these words and speaking your truth.” Justin Trudeau expressed support for the Halifax-born star of Juno, who announced they are trans. Netflix quickly updated prior credits to read “Elliot Page,” whose main character in the Toronto-filmed The Umbrella Academy will remain a cisgender woman next season.
Finally, life after cord-cutting
Reinvention of the VJ is a new podcast for which Erica Ehm is interviewing other on-camera MuchMusic hosts, from its 1984 launch to when Bell Media wound down its original programming. The latest episode with Nam Kiwanuka is a reminder of how a job of introducing music videos had social significance on both sides of every screen:
