NEW Toxic forever chemicals in drinking water: Is Canada doing enough?
As the United States sets its first national limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water, researchers say Canada is lagging when it comes to regulations.
When the CEO of one of Canada’s then-largest cryptocurrency exchanges QuadrigaCX suddenly died in India back in 2019, his wife Jennifer Robertson’s life fell apart, according to her new book.
Speaking on CTV’s Your Morning Tuesday, Robertson said the aftermath of her husband Gerald Cotten’s sudden death from complications of Crohn’s disease has haunted her, after it quickly became clear that the millions of dollars worth of investors’ cryptocurrency her husband handled were locked away in offshore bitcoin wallets that only he had the passwords for.
What followed were allegations of her husband faking his death, that she was somehow involved in what was described as a Ponzi scheme, and questions about her naiveté regarding her husband’s business and their previously lavish lifestyle.
Now she is telling her side of the story.
“I decided to write this book because I wanted to be able to have a platform where I could say exactly what I wanted to say, and the media wouldn’t be able to twist it,” Robertson said of ‘Bitcoin widow: Love, Betrayal & The Missing Millions.’ “I also had a lot of grief and things I had to work through so I had to make sure that I was ready to write the book and have it be published.”
Robertson said that her new book is very clear about her mental health struggles in the hopes that her experiences will help others “going through something difficult” make a turnaround.
When asked how she felt about investors turning to her for answers about their millions disappearing with her husband’s death, Robertson said she felt “very betrayed” by him.
“He had mentioned that if anything were to happen to him, there would be this ‘dead man switch’ which would provide me with all of his financial information or his parents might have got it, he said – and then it never came,” she said. “It threw us and Quadriga into absolute chaos, he affected so many lives and he hurt so many people.”
Robertson said dealing with the conspiracy theories about her husband faking his death have been “difficult.”
“I saw him die, I brought his body back to Halifax with me from India and there have been numerous people who have seen his body, including his mother and his father,” she continued. “I so badly wanted Gerry to obviously be alive, one because he is my husband and two because he could sort this all out or provide answers, so when the world is screaming ‘he’s still alive,’ and you know that he’s not, it can be difficult to deal with that when you’re grieving.”
Speaking about when the Ontario Securities Commission determined that Cotten was basically running a Ponzi scheme and Robertson was forced to hand over the majority of the assets left to her in her husband’s will, which was signed two weeks before his death, Robertson said she lost her home but just “had to keep pushing forward.”
She eventually went back to school and fell in love with teaching, she said, and is looking forward to “a new chapter” in her life, telling Your Morning that she is now in the third trimester of pregnancy.
But some things are hard to forget.
“I think the most misunderstood part of everything that happened was that I had something to do with Gerry’s disappearance or Gerry’s death, or that I hadn’t cared about the investors, which is absolutely not true,” Robertson said. “I tried to do everything that I could to the users – I gave access to all of Gerry’s laptops, all our personal conversations, everything I could do.”
Robertson said she never suspected anything in all those years with Cotten.
As the United States sets its first national limits on toxic forever chemicals in drinking water, researchers say Canada is lagging when it comes to regulations.
Drivers in Eastern Canada face a big increase in gas prices because of various factors, especially the higher cost of the summer blend, industry analysts say.
The journey to home ownership can be exciting, but personal finance columnist Christopher Liew warns about the trappings of becoming 'house poor' -- where an overwhelming portion of your income is devoured by housing costs. Liew offers some practical strategies to maintain better financial health while owning a home.
A Winnipeg woman was sentenced to house arrest after a single date with a man she met online culminated in her harassing him for years, and spurred false allegations which resulted in the innocent man being arrested three times.
Calgary police have arrested a man and a charge is pending in connection with the death of a toddler in 2022.
New archeological investigations in Guatemala reveal that the ancient Maya people had a ritual of burning royal human remains as a public display of political regime change.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.
It took years for Vinnie Deluca to collect more than 400 cards worth of free McDonald's McCafe coffee, a collection that now has "zero value" after the company discontinued the program.
Prince William will return to public duties on Thursday for the first time since his wife Kate revealed she was undergoing preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent thousands of hours on Crown land developing an unusual bond with deer.
A Sudbury woman said her husband was bringing the recycling out to the curb Wednesday night when he had to make a 'mad dash' inside after seeing a bear.