More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
It's been a rough start to 2023 for more than 1,000 Canadians affected by layoffs announced by Canadian and American companies this month. There have also been further unannounced layoffs reported by media.
Most of the announced cuts have been among tech companies and follow an earlier wave of downsizing and restructuring announcements in late 2022 by heavyweights such as Meta, Amazon and Lyft.
Layoffs.fyi, a layoff tracker launched by entrepreneur Roger Lee during the COVID-19 pandemic, reports 155,126 tech jobs globally were lost in 2022, with another 55,324 announced since the start of 2023.
Here are some of the mass layoffs affecting Canadians so far in 2023.
Hudson's Bay Company confirmed to The Canadian Press this week that it plans to lay off two per cent of its total workforce, or an estimated 250 employees.
The Canadian Press reports the layoffs will impact largely Canadian corporate roles at The Bay and Hudson's Bay, the retailer's online and brick-and-mortar operations, respectively.
Less than a week after newspaper publisher Postmedia Network Corp. said it was grappling with "economic contraction," The Canadian Press reports the company is set to lay off 11 per cent of its editorial staff.
Postmedia employees were reportedly informed of the layoffs during a town hall meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
In an audio recording from that meeting obtained by The Canadian Press, Gerry Nott, acting senior vice-president of editorial content, said the cuts would impact all of the company's publications with the exception of Brunswick News and Postmedia Editorial Services, as they have already been downsized.
Postmedia owns publications across Canada, including the National Post, Vancouver Sun and Calgary Herald, and employs about 650 journalists.
Canadian law firm Samfiru Tumarkin LLP reports Salesforce, an American business software company, plans to lay off 10 per cent of its workforce. Canadian startup news website Betakit reports some of those layoffs will affect Canadians, but does not say how many.
Canadian tech firm Benevity announced in a notice to its employees on Jan. 18 that it would eliminate 137 jobs, or 14 per cent of its workforce.
CEO Kelly Schmitt explained the company is currently "overbuilt for current market conditions," necessitating the job cuts.
"We have always run the company for growth, both to maximize the social impact we could help to drive as an early B Corporation, and also to meet the market opportunity in front of us," she wrote in the notice to staff.
"In response to that demand, we significantly increased the size of our team, but over the last nine months, macroeconomic conditions have changed dramatically, and the demand we expected to see has slowed significantly."
In a memo to employees published Jan. 4, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced the company would eliminate another round of jobs following mass layoffs in November. Between the two layoffs, the company plans to eliminate 18,000 jobs.
Jassy said the majority of layoffs would be in Amazon Stores and PXT organizations, but did not say how many Canadians, if any, would be affected.
"These changes will help us pursue our long-term opportunities with a stronger cost structure," he wrote.
According to Layoffs.fyi, these Canadian companies have also cut jobs this month:
-- With files from The Canadian Press
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
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Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
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A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”