It goes without saying that Ontario has an “interest in education.” The more important question is to what extent the province can use this broad interest to exert control over local board governance, pursuant to the Education Act and its regulations. One such tool at Ontario’s disposal is O Reg 43/10: Provincial Interest in Education (the “Regulation”), which confers broad powers on Ontario to insert itself into the affairs of…
Fifteen Stanford seniors, graduate students, and recent alumni received grants from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to study and teach abroad next year. The Stanford-affiliated grantees will travel to 12 countries, including Australia, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Paraguay, South Korea, and Thailand, to pursue individually designed research projects, graduate study programs, or English teaching assistant programs.p]:su-m-0 [&>p]:!su-mb-0 [&>p]:su-text-16 md:[&>p]:!su-text-19 last-of-type:[&>p]:!su-mb-0 su-p-20 md:su-p-36" readability="24.260869565217">Learn more about international scholarshipsThe Fulbright U.S. Student Program,…
Legislative developments continue in the federal government’s focus on strengthening Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime. Bill C-2, An Act respecting certain measures relating to the security of the border between Canada and the United States and respecting other related security measures (the Strong Borders Act) was introduced on June 3, 2025. Among other proposed measures, the Strong Borders Act proposes the following amendments to the Proceeds of Crime…
At a glance Nearly eight in ten companies report using gen AI—yet just as many report no significant bottom-line impact. Think of it as the “gen AI paradox.” At the heart of this paradox is an imbalance between “horizontal” (enterprise-wide) copilots and chatbots—which have scaled quickly but deliver diffuse, hard-to-measure gains—and more transformative “vertical” (function-specific) use cases—about 90 percent of which remain stuck in pilot mode. AI agents offer a…
On May 29, 2025, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) dismissed an application for leave to appeal from the decision of the Federal Court of Appeal (FCA) upholding drug and alcohol testing requirements of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. The application for leave was filed after the FCA dismissed the appeal of an earlier 2023 Federal Court decision on Nov.6, 2024. The testing requirements are a condition placed on individuals…
Back in 1959, our former colleague Gil Clee cowrote an article in Harvard Business Review that urged CEOs to embrace the challenge of creating “world enterprises.” Given the rapid expansion of international trade taking place at that time, the article advised CEOs “to view [their] responsibility as global in scope … and to organize [their] corporation in such a way that its major decisions are considered and made in the…
Companion of Honour (CH) – limited to 65 membersProfessor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been appointed a Companion of Honour (CH) for services to Astronomy and Physics and to Diversity. She is an astrophysicist and a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the Department of Physics, a Professorial Fellow in Physics at Mansfield College and Fellow of the Royal Society.Professor Bell Burnell was responsible for the discovery of pulsars while a…
Cuts to university spending are likely to be announced this summer as Stanford confronts federal funding risks and uncertainties, Provost Jenny Martinez told the Faculty Senate on Thursday in her annual budget presentation.Martinez presented a “modified continuing resolution budget” for the 2025-26 year, a provisional spending plan developed this spring that largely mirrors current-year spending with small adjustments. Given the significant revenue risks the university faces, the university’s Budget Group…
On May 8, 2025, the Province of Ontario announced that it approved Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) plan to begin construction on the first of four small modular reactors (SMR) at the Darlington nuclear site. The four SMRs are referred to collectively as the Darlington New Nuclear Project, or DNNP. OPG’s budget for the DNNP, which includes site preparation, engineering and design work to date, as well as the construction of…
Just under a year before what is now the Carrier Global Corporation was to complete its spin-off from United Technologies, David Gitlin was elevated to the position of president and CEO of Carrier. And in the final months before that spin-off was completed, the world shut down in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a challenging start to a new CEO’s tenure by any measure, despite Gitlin’s previous…
Against this backdrop, Russia has begun – albeit belatedly – to show growing interest in non-Western interpretations of the war and its outcome. For a long time, Russia’s international engagement with World War II memory was Western- and Eurocentric, as evidenced, for example, by the lists of heads of state attending anniversary Victory Parades. While leaders from China, Vietnam, and Mongolia participated in most of these events, the inclusion of…
Sustained Diamond and Platinum ratings in Change Management and key industries Following our recent King’s Award for International Trade, Consultancy UK has positioned Q5 as a top UK firm, receiving Diamond rating for Change Management alongside Platinum and Gold ratings for multiple industry sectors and service areas. Reading time: 2 minutes For two years in a row, we’re very proud to announce that Q5 has been ranked as one of…
Quick Hits The proposed “No Robo Bosses Act” (SB 7) in California aims to regulate the use of automated decision-making systems in employment by mandating human oversight and written notice to employees about such systems. The bill would prohibit employers from relying primarily on automated systems for critical employment decisions and allows affected employees to appeal those decisions within a specified timeframe. The No Robo Bosses Act, Senate Bill (SB)…
On Dec. 4, 2024, Bill 227, the Cutting Red Tape, Building Ontario Act, 2024, SO 2024, c 28 received Royal Assent. Among other legislative changes, Bill 227 amended the Education Act, RSO 1990, c. E.2, the Teaching Profession Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. T.2, the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act, 2014, S.O. 2014, c. 5, and the Provincial Schools Authority Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.35 to recognize the role that system…
A third of doctors trained in Ghana now live abroad, as do 91% of Ethiopian-born PhD holders and two-thirds of graduates from the top Canadian software engineering programs. Statistics like these have long prompted concerns that large, rich nations are depriving less populous, less wealthy ones of their native-born talent. If most of the skilled workers leave, the thinking goes, small countries and low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) will struggle…
Why are there so many different kinds of animals and plants on Earth? One of biology’s big questions is how new species arise and how nature’s incredible diversity came to be.Cichlid fish from Lake Malawi in East Africa offer a clue. In this single lake, over 800 different species have evolved from a common ancestor in a fraction of the time it took for humans and chimpanzees to evolve from…
Today, Jeniffer Ramnath spearheads innovation in her role as chief digital and information officer at the Mastercard Foundation (the Foundation), which works to advance education and financial inclusion for young people in Africa. However, she hasn’t forgotten her humble beginnings as a call center agent in a bustling, unfamiliar Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province—nor what it takes to break through in an industry that often privileges men over women.…
Diego Kagurabadza grew up in Long Beach, California, a large coastal city near Los Angeles. It’s known as “The International City” because of its global imports and diverse population. “I was really lucky to be exposed to a variety of cultures and backgrounds,” said Kagurabadza. “That’s definitely informed my development, growth, and how I approach the world.” Kagurabadza – whose father is from Zimbabwe and mother is from Mexico – loved the…
Quick Hits The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplace Act requires most Nebraska employers to provide earned paid sick time, starting October 1, 2025. On June 5, 2025, Nebraska Governor Pillen signed a bill that clarifies and amends the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplace Act. On November 5, 2024, Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved Nebraska Initiative 436 (also known as the Healthy Families and Workplace Act), which requires employers to begin providing…
The proposed changes would allow electricity distributors to earn a Margin on Payments (MoP) of up to 25 per cent of the payments made to DER providers. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) is proposing amendments to the Distribution System Code to accelerate the use of third-party distributed energy resources (DERs) as non-wires solutions (NWSs) in Ontario. The proposed changes would allow electricity distributors to earn a Margin on Payments (MoP)…
“In search funds, we get similar or better returns at a fraction of the risk we take on in VC portfolios,” says José Martín Cabiedes, a seasoned VC and search fund investor. “We buy healthy businesses with leverage. The beauty is that even if enterprise value remains flat, strong cash flow can double equity in just a few years. Try doing that in VC.”Put another way, search funds buy profitability and stable cash flows whereas VC trades in the…
The UK has a rare chance to show that inclusive prosperity, affordable homes, public health and ecological integrity can advance together. Realising that promise will depend on converting headline pledges into well-funded, nature-positive projects on the ground. Until that happens, support for the living systems underpinning the economy is likely to remain below the level that science and economics indicate is essential for durable growth, resilience and levelling-up.Professor Nathalie Seddon, Smith…
Article 6 provides one of the greatest opportunities to drive additional climate mitigation and resilience. With global greenhouse gas emissions still rising and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) collectively falling critically short of the ambition needed to keep the Paris Agreement’s goals within reach, there is an urgent need for effective tools to drive ambitious climate action.Our aim with the Oxford Principles for Article 6 is to foster international carbon markets that…
The Guardian calls it “shattering.” The Stage heralds it as a “challenging, artfully constructed indictment of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.”Written by Anastasiia Kosodii and Josephine Burton, and directed by Burton, The Reckoning channels voices of Ukrainians across the country – a priest, a volunteer, a dentist, a security guard, a journalist – who are forced to confront the sudden horrors of invasion and occupation and to repair bonds of…
Researchers at the University of Oxford have uncovered a potential new therapeutic target in a particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat form of leukaemia. A new target for potential treatments for blast phase myeloproliferative neoplasm (BP-MPN), one of the most aggressive forms of leukaemia, has been identified by a research team at the University of Oxford. In a study published in Nature Genetics, researchers investigated the role of chromothripsis - a dramatic…
In this interview, Horace Tiggs IV, a partner in McKinsey’s Detroit office, speaks with W. David Tarver, president and founder of the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative (UEI), about spurring innovation and entrepreneurship within urban communities, how that drives economic mobility, and the challenges it faces today. They also discuss the importance of connecting entrepreneurs to ecosystems that lead to new solutions and scale. This transcript has been edited for clarity and…
In an era when digital experiences are closely tied to customer loyalty and financial success, credit unions stand at a crossroads. In a 2024 article, we spotlighted the growing chasm between credit unions and their competitors, a gulf that’s particularly noticeable among younger generations. Despite credit unions’ inherent advantages over banks, such as stronger member relationships and community ties, they are losing ground in the digital space.Furthermore, changing demographics spell…
Legislative context On May 22, 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), a budget reconciliation package designed in part to extend provisions from prior tax reform efforts and introduce new revenue-generating measures. Among these is the newly proposed Section 899, title Enforcement of Remedies Against Unfair Foreign Taxes, which would authorize targeted tax increases on investors in non-U.S. jurisdictions that impose certain types…
Let’s look at the next chapter of AI—agentic AI, and how it could unlock the next generation of operational excellence and productivity in service operations. We dig into the high stakes of continued investment in digital transformation and the potential payoffs. We discuss collaborations between the chief information officer (CIO) and COO, and how thoughtful talent strategies can set organizations up for continued digital success.In this episode of McKinsey Talks…
Stanford alumni Gayatri Datar, MBA ’14, co-founder and CEO of EarthEnable, and Pamela Ronald, MS ’84, a renowned plant geneticist, are this year’s recipients of the President’s Award for Advancement of the Common Good. The award honors alumni who use their talent and education to positively and sustainably change the trajectory of people’s lives. Award recipients exemplify the university’s mission and values, and demonstrate a commitment to learning, social responsibility, and…
In a recent decision, the Superior Court of Québec authorized a class action against a major social media platform operator, paving the way for users to seek compensation for financial losses tied to allegedly fraudulent advertisements posted by third parties. The plaintiffs allege that they suffered significant financial losses, of $1,000,000 and $250,000 respectively, after being misled by cryptocurrency-related advertising and investing in fraudulent third-party websites. The advertisements falsely promised…
Smartphone apps that track menstrual cycles are a “gold mine” for consumer profiling, collecting information on everything from exercise, diet and medication to sexual preferences, hormone levels and contraception use.This is according to a new report from the University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy, which argues that the financial worth of this data is “vastly underestimated” by users who supply profit-driven companies with highly intimate details in…
On Jan. 28, 2025, Arbitrator Russell Goodfellow released a set of eight interest arbitration awards for seven different public and Catholic district school boards in Ontario.1 BLG had the opportunity to serve as counsel to three of these seven school boards in this complex and precedent-setting litigation, with a team consisting of John-Paul Alexandrowicz, Melissa Eldridge, Jessica Wuergler, Callum Hutchinson and articling students Grace Sarabia, Colleen Williams and Hannah White. Key takeaways…
A fast-growing market Sixty-one percent of French people have taken food supplements at some point in the past 24 months, up from just forty-six percent in 2018. The trend is clear: French people are increasingly taking supplements to support and safeguard their day-to-day health.The top sellers? Products aimed at boosting vitality, strengthening immunity, improving digestion and managing stress, which on their own account for nearly 70% of sales at pharmacies.According…
The roundtable will initiate a broader discussion planned by the organisers on the origins and methods of ensuring security in the modern world – first, through the individual human experience. The second part, on how individual states can ensure internal stability as the main prerequisite for their own security, will be discussed the next day during the Valdai Club session at the SPIEF site. Programme of the Roundtable Discussion…
Combining the powers of artificial intelligence and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a team of researchers at Stanford University have created “digital twins” of struggling math students to offer first-ever insights into the neurological underpinnings of math learning disabilities, which vex as many as one in five students in America.“Our study grew out of a couple of decades of behavioral, cognitive neuroimaging work on trying to understand the brain bases…
10 June 2025By Benjamin Böninghausen and Florian HartmannGeopolitical tensions and trade policy uncertainty are injecting unpredictability into global financial markets. What seems like rock-solid market sentiment today can turn into jitters tomorrow. In this ECB Blog, we present a new risk appetite indicator to systematically track such shifts in market sentiment.Market swings – important beyond the trading floorCentral banks need to keep an eye on market sentiment as it signals…
Although the momentum has slowed in recent years, a large share of leading companies around the world have set bold decarbonization targets, and in the coming years, many will need to tackle the Scope 3 emissions linked to the materials embedded in their products. This article, which focuses on glass—particularly the flat glass industry—is part of a series of articles on how materials industries can decarbonize and increase circularity, offering…
Across the copper value chain, companies are setting ambitious targets to reach carbon neutrality in the next decade. This push for decarbonization coincides with increasing demand for copper—driven by the metal’s significance in future-facing applications such as batteries, renewable energy, and electricity transmission and distribution—as well as restricted supply. In fact, the world is expected to face a refined-copper shortfall of about 3.6 million metric tons (Mt) by 2035, according…
The Edison Histotripsy System was purchased thanks to a generous donation to the University of Cambridge from Hong Kong-based philanthropist Sir Ka-shing Li, a longstanding supporter of cancer research at the University.Histotripsy uses pulsed sound waves to create ‘bubble clouds’ from gases present in targeted tissue. These bubble clouds form and collapse in microseconds, creating mechanical forces able to destroy tissue at cellular and sub-cellular levels while avoiding ionising energy…