‘Bitcoin widow’ speaks out on relationship with Quadriga founder Gerald Cotten, the missing millions and her struggle to go on

‘Bitcoin widow’ speaks out on relationship with Quadriga founder Gerald Cotten, the missing millions and her struggle to go on

When she was 26 years old, the woman who would become known to the world as Jennifer Robertson swiped right on a Tinder profile that would change her life, ruin her life and then almost end it.

Robertson (she assumed the name after splitting with her first husband and deciding her family name no longer suited) would date, fall in love and marry the man she met through the app that day. Gerald Cotten was a like a dream to her, at first: he owned and ran his own company — a cryptocurrency trading platform called Quadriga — and like her, loved to travel.

Behind the scenes, even then, he was something else, too: the mastermind behind one of the most lucrative, though ultimately doomed, scams in Canadian history.

In 2018, shortly after they wed, they flew to India for a luxury vacation, and to attend the opening of an orphanage they were funding. However, soon after arriving, Cotten, who had Crohn’s Disease, fell violently ill and died at 30 years old.

His death kicked off the unravelling of what was found to be a massive Ponzi scheme. Auditors and lawyers would only ever recover a fraction of the more than $200 million of users’ money that was supposedly in Quadriga accounts.

Cotten’s death also threw Robertson into the spotlight, and by her account, under the bus. She has always claimed that she knew nothing about her husband’s scams, but with him dead, she became the face of them anyway. Online, she was the subject of harried speculation: that she had killed her husband; that she had covered up his fake death; that her serial name changes were proof she was guilty of … something.

Eventually, she agreed to give up almost everything she owned to Quadriga’s creditors, including homes in Nova Scotia and Kelowna, B.C., the family yacht, Cotten’s plane, her real estate business and even her engagement ring. One night, when as the scandal raged, and she was at her lowest, she tried to kill herself with prescription Ativan and red wine.

Robertson has since built a new life. She moved into the attic of her father’s cottage; she lives there still. She went back to school. (She wants to be an elementary schoolteacher.) This March, she’s expecting a baby girl with her partner.

Robertson has rarely discussed her role in the Quadriga scandal. But this week, she spoke to the Star about her life with Cotten, the aftermath of his death, and her new memoir “Bitcoin Widow,” out today.

The conversation below has been edited for length and clarity.

A lot of this book is about the toll Gerry’s death and the mess he left behind took on you. You talk about this in the book, but I’m still not sure I understand: After all the work you did to move on, why write a book at all?

I always wanted to tell the general public and the affected users what really happened. I felt that my story was never fairly reported on. And so I wanted to tell my story on a platform that I trusted. I also wrote a book because of the issue of mental health. When I tried to take my life, I was so embarrassed. I thought “people are going to judge me, or think less than me.” I had all these terrible things happen. I thought my life was not worth living. And I want people know that you can come back from that point.

After Gerry’s death, you became the public face of his company and the public focus for a lot of rage. You eventually lost almost everything you owned. And yet, after everything, you say that you don’t regret meeting Gerry and that you still love him, why?

There are dark days I wake up and wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t met Gerry. I assume something this terrible would not have happened. But I did absolutely love the person that I knew. This Gerry that he turned out to be? That person is so hard to relate to the Gerry that I fell in love with. He was so unbelievably kind and caring. He adored me. He was the best husband I could ever have hoped for.

This book is, in many ways, about what you didn’t know. You say you didn’t know Quadriga was a fraud, that Gerry had been running online scams since he was a teen or that he was stealing millions of dollars from his investors to fund your lifestyle. If you didn’t know any of that, where did you think all that money was coming from?

I thought it was coming from his profits. He would talk to me about how Bitcoin was so successful. He would say Bitcoin is going to the moon and be all excited about how it was affecting his company. It just seemed like such a betrayal because he went above and beyond to make it seem legitimate and talk about how happy he was and how hard he worked. And to find out that he wasn’t? That he was stealing? It just blows my mind.

I’m sure there are people who will read the book and not believe you, who will find it implausible that you had no idea about any of it, that you weren’t suspicious at all. What would you say to them?

I mean, no one’s going to 100 per cent agree with me, but All I can do is tell the truth and hope that it does provide some answers, at least, to some affected users. I was trying desperately hard to make it all right, for everybody. And it just was beyond my control.

What do you think would have happened to the company, and to your life, if Gerry hadn’t died when he did?

I honestly have no idea. Because if the hole was as big as it was, I don’t know how he would have ever dug himself out of it. And I don’t know if that’s part of this intense stress that he had in the six months before he died. He just would drink all night, even if I wasn’t drinking. I thought that was really odd.

You write that, after Gerry’s death, creditors, reporters and others twisted the ordinary events of your real life “into puzzle pieces in a grand conspiracy.” I don’t think there’s any question that you suffered tremendously because of that. I’m curious, who do you blame for that suffering?

I don’t know if there’s anyone specifically to blame, except I really kind of want to blame Gerry. He was the one that put me in that position. And as much as I was hurt by the media and all the accusations by the affected users, they were just going off of the facts that were known. And that is one reason why I wanted to tell them what happened in the book because I’m hoping that if they really know what happened, from my side, that they’ll understand more.

You write in the book that investors “trusted Gerry, accepted the risks until they got burned then looked around for someone to blame.” You also write that Gerry “should never have been in a position to hold all the levers of a multi-billion-dollar company with no internal and external oversight.” Do you think anyone — investors, banks, regulators — besides Gerry should share any of the blame for what happened with Quadriga?

Ultimately, it was Gerry. As a normal, decent human being, you should not have done something that terrible to other people. But I do think that regulations and regulators are there to keep other people responsible and in line, and I wish that there had been more of that because then Gerry wouldn’t been able to get away with what he did for so long.

There was a Vanity Fair story that played off two narratives: the narrative of Gerry the Royal Screwup: where scams begat scams, and the Mastermind Theory, where he planned to keep the con going as long as possible before vanishing with the money. Where do you think the truth lies?

This is a tough question. And I thought about it too, because I know he knows that I never would have vanished with him if I found out what was going on, like absolutely not. And I find it hard to believe that Gerry would want to be anywhere without me. I can make guesses all day, and it really sort of depends on the day. But either way, to be honest, when I really think about it, I don’t even know if he knew what he was going to do. And that’s why he was so stressed out and drinking heavily, because he wasn’t sure what was going to happen.

There are, as you acknowledge, a lot of odd facts about this story: the fact that Gerry signed his will just before his death, that you’ve changed your name multiple times, that he died suddenly as things were collapsing behind the scenes. But what all of that adds up to, you write, is, “far more mundane, random and explicable” than the faked-death and other conspiracy theories alleged. If you had to sum up the real story here, what would you say?

If I had to sum up the real story, I would say: Boy met girl. They fell in love. He had a successful company, from the outside, that he fooled everybody with. And then he ended up running a Ponzi scheme. And before he got caught, he died.

Read more about:

39 works of Canadian nonfiction to watch for in spring 2022

If you love memoirs, biographies and narrative nonfiction, check out these Canadian books coming out in the first half of 2022.

People Change is a book by Vivek Shraya. (Penguin Canada, Ariane Laezza)

In People Change , multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya reflects on what motivates us to change and why we often fear it. From making resolutions to outgrowing relationships and dreams, the nonfiction book looks at why and how we are constantly contemplating who we want to be.

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When you can read it: Jan. 4, 2022

Shraya is a Canadian artist and author whose work in music, writing and visual art often transcends and overlaps with one another. Her books include the novel The Subtweet , the longform essay I’m Afraid of Men and graphic novel Death Threat .

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The Next Civil War is a book by Stephen Marche. (Simon & Schuster, Dave Gillespie)

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Lost in the Valley of Death is a book by Harley Rustad. (Michelle Proctor, Knopf Canada)

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Lost in the Valley of Death is about Shetler’s disappearance and presumed death — and the many ways we seek fulfilment in life.

When you can read it: Jan. 11, 2022

Harley Rustad is a writer, journalist and editor from Salt Spring Island, B.C. He is the author of Big Lonely Doug which was shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. Lost in the Valley of Death is his second book.

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Bitcoin Widow is a book by Jennifer Robertson, left, written with Stephen Kimber. (Jennifer Robertson, HarperCollins Canada, Nicola Davison)

Jennifer Robertson was in the process of rebuilding her life after her marriage dissolved — and then she met Gerry Cotten. Gerry worked in bitcoin and amassed substantial wealth through his company Quadriga. The two fell in love and got married. While on their honeymoon in India, Gerry suddenly became ill and died. In the aftermath of his death, Jennifer discovers that Gerry owed millions to Quadriga customers — and that only he held all the passwords to Quadriga’s encrypted virtual vaults.

Bitcoin Widow shares Robertson’s story as the widow of the man behind what was once Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

When you can read it: Jan. 18, 2022

Robertson is a former HR specialist and property manager. She is the widow of Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX. Robertson lives in Nova Scotia.

Stephen Kimber is a writer, editor and broadcaster. He is the author of two novels, The Sweetness in the Lime and Reparations, as well as ten books of nonfiction. Kimber works as a professor of journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank is a book by Rosemary Sullivan. (HarperCollins Canada, Susanna Gordon)

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When you can read it: Jan. 18, 2022

Rosemary Sullivan is a poet and biographer from Quebec. She was the 1995 recipient of the Governor General’s Award for English-language nonfiction and the winner of the 2015 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. Her other books include the historical accounts Villa Air-Bel , Stalin’s Daughter and Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen .

Have You Eaten Yet? is a nonfiction book by Cheuk Kwan. (D&M Publishers, Cedric Sam)

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Have You Eaten Yet? explores the global Chinese migration and how Chinese immigrants grapple with assimilation, cultural identity and economic survival.

When you can read it: Jan. 29, 2022

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Secrets of Sprakker is a nonfiction book by Iceland’s first lady, Eliza Reid. (Simon & Schuster Canada)

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The Naked Don’t Fear the Water is a book by Matthieu Aikins. (Kiana Hayeri, HarperCollins Canada)

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Di-bayn-di-zi-win (To Own Ourselves) is a book by Don McCaskill and Jerry Fontaine. (Dundurn Press/CBC)

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When you can read it: Feb. 22, 2022

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The Running Shaped Hole is a book by Robert Earl Stewart. (Dundurn Press)

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When you can read it: Feb. 22, 2022

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When you can read it: Feb. 24, 2022

North is the former Grand Chief of the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak. She worked as a broadcast journalist and won a Radio Television Digital News Association Award. She is a Gemini Award nominee and was featured in Chatelaine Magazine’s list of the Top 30 Women of 2015. North is a member of the Bunibonibee Cree Nation.

Run Towards the Danger is by Sarah Polley (George Pimentel/WIREIMAGE/Getty Images, Penguin Random House)

In this collection of essays, actor, screenwriter and director Sarah Polley reflects on the pieces of her life and the fallibility of memory. From stage fright to high risk childbirth, Polly contemplates these events and how she remembers them. In struggling with the aftermath of a concussion, she must retrain her mind to find a new path forward.

Run Towards the Danger is a book about learning, changing and what it’s like to live in one’s body.

When you can read it: March 1, 2022

Polley is an Oscar-nominated Canadian actor, screenwriter and director. Her first feature-length film, Away from Her, was adapted from the Alice Munro story The Bear Came Over the Mountain and was nominated for the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay. Her other films include Stories We Tell and Take This Waltz.

Margaret Atwood is the author of Burning Questions (Aaron Vincent Elkaim/Canadian Press, McClelland & Stewart)

Margaret Atwood seeks to answer burning questions like: Why do people tell stories? How can we live on our planet? What do zombies have to do with authoritarianism?

In over 50 essays written between 2004 to 2021, Atwood reflects on a financial crash, the rise of Trump and a pandemic. Burning Questions covers topics like debt, tech and climate change, as Atwood ponders the many mysteries of our universe.

When you can read it: March 1, 2022

Atwood is the celebrated Canadian writer who has published fiction, nonfiction, poetry and comics. Her acclaimed books include The Handmaid’s Tale, Alias Grace, Oryx and Crake and The Edible Woman. She has won several awards for her work including the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Man Booker Prize. She is also a founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Writers' Trust of Canada.

How Margaret Atwood helped save an award for young writers Duration 2:02 Giller Prize-nominated author Omar El Akkad says that writers can make a difference and tells a story about how Margaret Atwood helped save a literary award for young writers. Filmed at the inaugural Graeme Gibson Talk, hosted by PEN Canada the Toronto International Festival of Authors. 2:02

Good Mom on Paper is a book edited by by Stacey May Fowles, middle, and Jen Sookfong Lee, right. (Book*Hug Press, N. Maxwell, Kyrani Kanavaro)

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When you can read it: May 3, 2022

Stacey May Fowles is an award-winning journalist, essayist and the author of four books. Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, The National Post, Elle Canada, The Walrus and elsewhere. Fowles lives in Toronto, where she is working on a children’s book and her fourth novel.

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The Next Chapter 17:06 Jen Sookfong Lee on The Shadow List Poems Jen Sookfong Lee talks to Shelagh Rogers about her collection of poems, The Shadow List. 17:06

Ed O’Loughlin is the author of The Last Good Funeral of the Year. (edoloughlin.com/Crispin Rodwell, House of Anansi Press)

After Ed O’Loughlin hears that an old friend has died young, he begins to rethink his life. In his search for meaning, O’Loughlin reflects on his early days, young love, the journalists and photographers with whom he covered wars in Africa and the Middle East, the suicide of his brother, his new life as an author and the mysteries of memory, aging, and loss.

When you can read it: March 3, 2022

O’Loughlin is a Toronto-born author and journalist. His other books include the novels Not Untrue and Not Unkind, This Eden, and Minds of Winter, which was a finalist for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Still Hopeful is a book by Maude Barlow. (ECW Press)

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When you can read it: March 8, 2022

Barlow is a Canadian activist and writer. She is the bestselling author of 20 books and served as the senior water advisor to the UN General Assembly. Barlow was a leader in the campaign to have water recognized as a human right. She lives in Ottawa.

How to Take Over the World is a book by Ryan North. (Connie Tsang, Riverhead Books)

How to Take Over the World is a guide for supervillains with a keen interest in world domination. In this introduction to the science of comic-book supervillainy, Ryan North details various evil schemes that harness the potential of today’s most advanced technologies. The book also considers how one might save the world from some of its greatest threats by exploring emerging techniques to combat cyberterrorism, communicate across millennia and extend human life spans.

When you can read it: March 15, 2022

North is a writer and comics creator from Toronto. North’s work on the comics Adventure Time, Jughead and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, have received three Eisner Awards. He has also written two “choose-your-own-path” books, To Be Or Not To Be and Romeo and/or Juliet, parodying Shakespeare’s famous tragedies. His recent book How to Invent Everything, is a guide on how to rebuild modern civilization for lost time travellers.

Queasy is a book by Madeline Sonik. (Anvil Press)

In a series of linked memoirs, Madeline Sonik reflects on her move from Windsor, Ont., to a seaside village in England when she was a teenager. Her first romantic relationship has ended, her father just died and nothing has prepared her for the cultural differences she would encounter. From trade union strikes and mass unemployment to IRA violence and the growing popularity of Margaret Thatcher, Sonik found the sustenance to fuel her development as a person and writer.

When you can read it: March 25, 2022

Sonik is a teacher, writer and editor. Her memoir, Afflictions & Departures, won the 2012 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize and was nominated for the BC National Award for Canadian nonfiction. Sonik lives in Victoria.

Who by Fire is by Matti Friedman (Sebastian Sheiner HR, Signal)

Who by Fire recounts the time Leonard Cohen spent in Israel in October 1973 during the chaos and bloodshed of the Yom Kippur War. With access to material written by Cohen himself, along with dozens of interviews and rare photographs, Matti Friedman paints a portrait of an artist and the young people who heard him sing in the midst of combat.

When you can read it: March 29, 2022

Matti Friedman is a Canadian Israeli journalist and writer. His other books include Spies of No Country, which won the history category for the 2020 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature, and Pumpkinflowers, which won the history category for the 2017 Vine Awards.

Stories I Might Regret Telling You is a book by Martha Wainwright. (Flatiron Books, Cathy Irving/CBC)

In her memoir, Martha Wainwright reflects on her tumultuous public life, her competitive relationship with her brother and the loss of her mother. She writes about finding her voice as an artist, becoming a mother herself and making peace with the past.

Stories I Might Regret Telling You offers a thoughtful and deeply personal look into the life of one of the most talented singer-songwriters in music today.

When you can read it: March 29, 2022

Wainwright is a Canadian musician and artist. She is the daughter of folk legends Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister of singer Rufus Wainwright. She lives in Montreal.

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Grant Lawrence is a CBC broadcaster, musician and writer. (Antonia Allan)

In Return to Solitude , the follow up to Adventures in Solitude, Grant Lawrence explores the history of the Desolation Sound area alongside his own experiences living on the coast of British Columbia. Lawrence introduces interesting characters like the legendary Cougar Lady, a squatter known as the Spaghetti Bandit and Bernard the German. Beloved personalities, like Russell the Hermit, return in this story about time, family and life on the coast.

When you can read it: April 2, 2022

Lawrence is a writer, musician and host of the CBC Music Top 20. His memoir, Dirty Windshields, recounts his time as the singer of the Smugglers, a 1990s rock ‘n’ roll band that cut a chaotic path through Canada, the U.S., and Europe.

Be a Triangle is a book by Lilly Singh. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images, Doubleday Canada)

Actor, author and creator Lilly Singh explores how to create inner peace in the face of adversity. From Singh’s personal struggles with identity, success and self-doubt, she teaches readers to “unsubscribe” from cookie-cutter ideals.

Be a Triangle is an uplifting guide to befriending yourself.

When you can read it: April 5, 2022

Singh is an actor, writer and social media creator from Scarborough, Ont. She was the executive producer and host of NBC’s A Little Late with Lilly Singh. Singh is the author of the bestselling book How To Be a Bawse . She lives in Los Angeles.

Know It All is a book by James H. Marsh. (Durvile Publications/CBC)

James Marsh tells the story of his evolution from a troubled childhood to a long career in Canadian publishing that culminated in the creation of The Canadian Encyclopedia. Through friendships, curiosity, a passion for books and the insights of a psychiatrist, Marsh championed an inclusive view of Canada.

Know It All offers insights into the intricacies of Canadian identity, the profession of book editors, and is a first-hand story about the creation of The Canadian Encyclopedia.

When you can read it: April 5, 2022

Marsh is an editor, writer and the creator of The Canadian Encyclopedia. He was the editor of the Carleton Library Series, a series of scholarly works on Canadian history and social science. He is the co-author of New Beginnings, a textbook on the history of Canada.

The Book of Grief and Hamburgers is a book by Stuart Ross. (ECW Press)

Written after the sudden death of his brother, Stuart Ross is left the last living member of his family. This hybrid book of memoir, essays and poetic meditation reflects on what it means to grieve the people one loves and how to go on living in the face of an enormous accumulation of loss.

When you can read it: April 5, 2022

Ross is a writer, editor and teacher. He is the author of several books of poetry, fiction and essays including You Exist, Pockets and A Sparrow Came Down Resplendent. Ross was the 2019 recipient of the prestigious Harbourfront Festival Prize. He lives in Cobourg, Ont.

My Ackee Tree is a book by Suzanne Barr, pictured, written with Suzanne Hancock. (Samuel Engelking, Penguin Canada)

Suzanne Barr began her journey to become a chef when she was 30 years old. After her mother was diagnosed with cancer, Suzanne moved home to Florida to care for her, but she didn’t know how to cook.

My Ackee Tree tells the story of a woman who battles the stereotypes of being a Black female chef to become a culinary star. It is a celebration of creativity, soul searching and motherhood.

When you can read it: April 5, 2022

Barr is a chef, restaurateur, social advocate and author. She was one of the judges on Food Network Canada’s new series, Wall of Chefs, and has a passion for local community and food security. Barr lives in Toronto.

Suzanne Hancock is the Toronto-based host and producer of Sunday Night Dinner, a podcast about cooking, food and that last meal of the weekend. She received an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan.

So You Girls Remember That is a book by Gaadgas Nora Bellis, left, written with Jenny Nelson, right. (Harbour Publishing)

So You Girls Remember That is an oral history of a Haida Elder, Naanii Nora, who lived from 1902 to 1997. It offers a window into Nora’s life and her family, from the young girl who sang all the time to the days she spent picking berries and canning. The book reflects on the larger story of Nora’s times, depicting the changing political relationships between Canada and the Haida people.

So You Girls Remember That contains the collected wisdoms, reflections and stories of Elder Naanii Nora.

When you can read it: April 9, 2022

Gaadgas Nora Bellis was a storyteller and elder of the Haida Nation who was born in 1902. Jenny Nelson compiled the book So You Girls Remember That .

Send Me Into the Woods Alone is a book by Erin Pepler. (Invisible Publishing)

Send Me Into the Woods Alone is an honest, heartfelt and funny collection of essays about the joys, struggles and complexities of motherhood. Written from the perspective of a tired and often anxious mother, the essays in this book discuss giving birth, lying to kids about the Tooth Fairy and the online culture that puts unattainable expectations on mothers.

When you can read it: April 19, 2022

Erin Pepler is a freelance writer who lives near Toronto. Her work has appeared in Today’s Parent, ParentsCanada, Scary Mommy, MoneySense and elsewhere. Send Me Into the Woods Alone is her first book.

Kiss the Red Stairs is a book by Marsha Lederman. (McClelland & Stewart)

Marsha Lederman delves into her parents' Holocaust stories in the wake of her own divorce, investigating how trauma moves through generations and how history has shaped her own life.

Kiss the Red Stairs is a memoir of survival, intergenerational trauma and discovery.

When you can read it: April 26, 2022

Lederman is the Western Arts Correspondent for the Globe and Mail. She previously worked for CBC Radio. Born in Toronto, Lederman lives in Vancouver.

q 20:53 Canada’s own Lilly Singh on late-night TV, Kamala Harris and what she’s learned along the way In a few short years, Lilly Singh has made the crossover from YouTube sensation to host of her very own late-night talk show. She joined Tom Power to talk about her Canadian roots, the pressures of late-night TV and what she’s prioritizing in season two. 20:53

Dr. Brian Goldman is a physician and the host of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art host. (CBC)

The Power of Teamwork shows how a team approach to medicine can improve more than our healthcare systems. This new model can lead to better customer service, solidify the provision of social services to troubled youth, make professional sports teams perform better and even help women break the glass ceiling.

When you can read it: April 26, 2022

Dr. Brian Goldman is an ER doctor and a bestselling author. He is the host of CBC Radio’s White Coat, Black Art and the CBC podcast The Dose , which is about the latest in health news. Goldman lives in Toronto.

Simu Liu is a Canadian actor, and the star of CBC’s Kim’s Convenience. (CBC)

Simu Liu details his journey from China to Canada to Hollywood, where he becomes the star of Marvel’s first Asian superhero film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

Born in China, Liu’s parents brought him to Canada when he was just four years old. As he grows up, he gets top marks in school, participates in national math competitions and makes his parents proud. But less than a year out of college and disillusioned with the life laid out for him, Liu is determined to carve out his own path.

When you can read it: May 3, 2022

Liu is an actor and writer best known for his work on Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the CBC sitcom Kim’s Convenience . He lives in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Q 20:44 Simu Liu on his life-changing role as Marvel’s 1st Asian lead superhero and the end of Kim’s Convenience Canada’s Simu Liu has leapt from the small screen to the big screen with a life-changing role in Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He sat down with Tom Power in the Q studio to talk about being the first Asian superhero to lead a Marvel film and how he felt saying goodbye to Kim’s Convenience. 20:44

Elamin Abdelmahmoud is the author of Son of Elsewhere. (CBC, McClelland & Stewart)

In his memoir, Elamin Abdelmahmoud recounts his experience leaving his native Sudan and moving to Kingston, Ont. Like all teens, he spent his adolescence trying to figure out who he was, but he had to do it while learning to balance a new racial identity and all the assumptions that came with being Black and Muslim.

Son of Elsewhere explores how our experiences and environments can define our identity and who we truly are.

When you can read it: May 17, 2022

Abdelmahmoud is the host of CBC’s weekly pop culture podcast Pop Chat, co-host of CBC’s political podcast Party Lines and a frequent culture commentator for CBC News. He’s a culture writer for BuzzFeed News, where he also writes Incoming, the daily morning newsletter.

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Woman, Watching tells the story of Louise de Kiriline Lawrence, who joined the Canadian Red Cross after her husband was killed by Bolsheviks. Louise eventually retreated to her wilderness cabin, where she devoted her life to studying the birds in her forest. She was the author of six books and several magazine stories. Her home became a mecca for international ornithologists.

When you can read it: May 24, 2022

Merilyn Simonds is the author of 18 books including The Convict Lover, Gutenberg’s Fingerprint, and the novel Refuge. She is the founder and first artistic director of the Kingston WritersFest. Simonds divides her time between Kingston, Ont., and Mexico.

(M)othering is a book edited by Anne Sorbie and Heidi Grogan. (Inanna Publications/CBC)

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When you can read it: May 27, 2022

Annie Sorbie is a Scottish Canadian writer, artist and editor. Her first collection of poetry, Falling Backwards Into Mirrors, was published in 2019.

Heidi Grogan is a writer and editor from Alberta. She has written several pieces of nonfiction including the Boobs anthology, which is about the burdens, expectations and pleasures of having breasts.

Rooms is a book by Sina Queyras. (sinaqueyras.com, Coach House Books)

Thirty years ago, a professor threw a chair at Sina Queyras after they submitted an essay on Virginia Woolf. In their book, Queyras returns to that first encounter with Virignia Woolf and blends memoir, tweets, poetry and criticism to reflect on how they found their way as a young queer writer from a life of chaos to a public life as a writer.

When you can read it: May 31, 2022

Queyras is a poet and novelist from Montreal. Their other books include My Ariel, the poetry collection Lemon Hound, which received the Pat Lowther Award and a Lambda Literary Award, and her debut novel Autobiography of a Childhood, which was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award in 2011.

The Next Chapter 3:36 Sina Queyras on My Ariel Sina Queyras on her latest book of poetry My Ariel, a “poem-by-poem engagement with Sylvia Plath’s Ariel.” 3:36

Straggle is a book by Tanis McDonald. (Wolsak & Wynn, John Roscoe)

In this collection of essays, Tanis MacDonald questions who gets to walk freely through our cities, parks and wilderness. Using walking as a means to understand her home of Southern Ontario, MacDonald catalogues the fauna, animals and people she comes across. Straggle explores the joys, dangers and healing power of walking.

When you can read it: June 14, 2022

MacDonald is a poet, writer and professor. She won the Bliss Carman Poetry Prize in 2003 and was a finalist for the Gabrielle Roy Prize in 2013 for her book The Daughter’s Way. Her other work includes the poetry collections Mobile and Arguments with the Lake and the book Out of Line: Daring to be an Artist Outside the Big City. MacDonald was also on the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for her poem Walking in Space.

The Weekend Morning Show (Manitoba) 7:44 Manitoba writer longlisted for CBC’s annual poetry prize A trip to Northern Ireland to visit a rope bridge is the inspiration behind a former-Manitoban poet’s newest work, which is longlisted for the annual CBC Poetry Prize. Tanis MacDonald joined Stephanie Cram on the Weekend Morning Show! 7:44

Field Notes on Listening is a book by Kit Dobson. (Wolsak & Wynn, Aubrey Jean Hanson)

Kit Dobson reflects on how little modern-day humans interact with the natural world and how that has changed our place within it. Field Notes on Listening is a response to our lack of connection with the land, the difficult history of how many came to be here and what we could discover if we listened to the world around us. From Dobson’s lost family farm to climate change and the effects of late-stage capitalism, the book moves through time to grapple with growing challenges.

When you can read it: June 14, 2022

Dobson is a writer, editor and professor. His work includes Transnational Canadas: Canadian Literature and Globalization, Producing Canadian Literature: Authors Speak on the Literary Marketplace and Malled: Deciphering Shopping in Canada. Dobson teaches in the Department of English at the University of Calgary.

A Life Spent Listening is a book by Dr. Hassan Khalil. (Breakwater Books/CBC)

Dr. Hassan Khalili reflects on four decades of being a frontline community psychotherapist and shares the wisdom he has gained in A Life Spent Listening . From his experience as a young Iranian immigrant in Newfoundland to his role as one of the province’s top psychologists, Khalili reveals how we hold the key to our own happiness.

When you can read it: June 17, 2022

T: The FinTech Times - The Quadriga quandary

Plus: Canadian crypto exchanges take issue with Crypto.com’s domestic advertising blitz.

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The company lets you process payments directly on your site or in your app, but you can also rely on hosted payment pages, create payment links, etc.

After less than a year in business, decentralized finance (DeFi) startup Conduit has raised $21.2 million CAD in seed funding led by Portage Ventures and supported by Diagram Ventures, FinVC, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gradient Ventures, Inovia Capital, and Jump Capital. The Diagram company aims to become the ‘Stripe for DeFi’ by making DeFi “invisible” via its APIs.

Widow of Quadriga crypto founder Gerald Cotten says she had no idea about the $215-million scam (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

In an exclusive interview, Jennifer Robertson speaks out publicly about her deceased husband Gerald Cotten, his $215-million fraud and her new book, Bitcoin Widow.

In an interview with BetaKit, FundThrough co-founder and CEO Steven Uster explained how BlueVine had moved away from that part of its business in recent years.

Including the Series E, Bolt’s total funding to date is nearly $1 billion. The company’s valuation is nearly double what it was at the Series D, Ryan Breslow, founder and CEO, told TechCrunch.

Kevin Sandhu reviews his list of the 11 Canadian tech companies to watch in 2021 to check in on how they fared over the past year. In 2021, Sandhu tagged Bluedot, Clutch, Symend, Ollie Order, Craver Solutions, Synctera, Showbie, Elastic Garage, Synex Medical, Lufa Farms, and LifeSpeak as worth watching.

Lewis Hower, Managing Director at Silicon Valley Bank, explains the investor mindset and how it can impact startup valuations.

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency-trading platform by volume, has registered three new corporate entities in Calgary and hired two senior employees with experience working for Canadian securities regulators as it seeks to comply with the country’s rules.

Calgary-based FinTech startup Wagepoint has made its first acquisition, purchasing Massachusetts-based Timesheet Mobile, a provider of workforce management solutions. Wagepoint noted the deal was made possible due to the financing it received from Providence Strategic Growth, which acquired a majority stake in Wagepoint in 2020.

Crypto exchange FTX Trading Ltd. has launched a $2 billion venture fund, one of the largest vehicles to date aiming to tap into the crypto market’s startups.

Launched in 2019 by SkipTheDishes founders Andrew Chau and Jeff Adamson, alongside Kris Read, Neo Financial is a FinTech startup in the challenger bank space.

Canadian crypto exchanges take issue with Crypto.com’s domestic advertising blitz (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)

Crypto.com has reportedly spent close to $1-billion on marketing deals with major sports leagues and celebrities, but the company’s regulatory status in Canada is murky.

Founded in 2018, with offices in the United States and Asia-Pacific region, PayFacto describes itself as one of Canada’s largest non-bank payment processors, as well as a provider of fully integrated payment processing and hospitality technologies.

The National | Record snowfall, COVID-19 antiviral, Quadriga CEO widow

The National | Record snowfall, COVID-19 antiviral, Quadriga CEO widow

News

Duration 45:31

DESCRIPTION: Jan. 17, 2022 | Much of Central Canada is brought to a standstill by record snowfall that could take days to clear. Canada approves a COVID-19 antiviral drug that experts call a game changer. Plus, the widow of the Quadriga CEO breaks her silence on the cryptocurrency scam more than three years after his death.

Inside Atari’s plan to reinvent itself, again

In 2022, Atari will celebrate its 50th anniversary. In so doing, the company’s new boss, Wade Rosen, tells Polygon he is determined to turn a badly tarnished gaming icon into something relevant to the present, and to the future.

Rosen took the top position at the company in March, and soon announced a new focus for the business: modern versions of the classics that made Atari famous. In recent months, the company has released “Recharged” versions of Centipede, Black Widow, and Asteroids, all of which are lively and fast, with jaunty electronic soundtracks. Rosen says more revamped classics are planned for 2022.

His ambitions mark a shift away from Atari’s previous model of brand licensing, including a bizarre motley of partnerships and offshoots for hotel chains, casinos, movie productions, and cryptocurrency — though the company remains involved with many of those, leaving it with ill-fitting legacy deals and fans skeptical of the new direction.

Rosen’s immediate plan centers around upgraded retro games, and in the longer term, he says he wants to turn Atari back into a game publishing powerhouse. He’s frank about the limitations of a company that currently employs around 25 people, though: “It’s much easier for us to make [retro updates] than to make a massive open-world 100-hour gameplay experience.”

Owning Atari

At 35 years of age, Rosen is too young to have experienced many of Atari’s original games when they were fresh and new. But he talks a good game. During our 90-minute interview, he spends at least half an hour reminiscing about his favorite games.

Raised in a small town in Minnesota, Rosen grew up with parents who believed that video games were a waste of time. Finally, and after much badgering, he says, “they compromised” and bought him a Game Boy. He went on to play a lot of 1990s RPGs like The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and Final Fantasy Legend 2, which, he says, “blew my head off.”

He still has that Game Boy — though it’s now held together with duct tape — and he says his favorite console ever was the Dreamcast, followed by the PSP. In later years, he moved onto PC and PlayStation strategy games like StarCraft and Final Fantasy Tactics. He’s also a fan of FromSoftware games like Demon’s Souls, and he admires more recent games like Hades and Slay the Spire.

After college, Rosen planned to enter the world of banking, but the crash of 2008 steered him toward startup entrepreneurialism. He co-founded two successful companies (ThrivePass and Wishlist) that created employer-targeted software as a service.

“I had this longer-term plan to step into it, but the Atari opportunity came up and it accelerated really quickly.”

He then decided he wanted a change of pace; he wanted to enter the game industry. He looked around for a way in, and opted for one of the biggest names in gaming history: Atari. Rosen bought enough Atari shares to install himself as CEO, taking over from former incumbent Fred Chesnais.

“When I was younger, I was told you shouldn’t go into what you’re passionate about,” he says, “because it will ruin your passion. So I went into more traditional tech and built several companies. Then, I stopped and sat back and said, ‘What am I passionate about? What do I really love?’ My whole life has been video games. They’ve always been there for me. So I made a choice to go into video games.

“I had this longer-term plan to step into it, but the Atari opportunity came up and it accelerated really quickly. [Chesnais] was the largest shareholder and I purchased most of his shares. He was ready to move onto something new. I was in the right place at the right time.”

Successful business people occasionally buy their way into glamorous industries, from airlines to movie studios to sports teams. But most gaming entrepreneurs earn their chops in the business, which is notoriously incomprehensible to outsiders.

“I didn’t target Atari because I saw it as this great financial opportunity,” says Rosen. “More, because it’s one of the iconic names in video games. I just looked at it and I thought, OK, that could bring me joy. Doing that could be an act of creativity and adventurousness and potentially love if it were successful, and it were done the right way.”

Apart from Atari’s stable of intellectual properties and its name recognition, Rosen sees emotive and financial value in its logo, sometimes called the Fuji because of its passing similarity to the mountain in Japan, and the Atari name’s connection to the famous game of Go, which is popular in East Asia (very roughly, it’s a bit like saying “checkmate” or “bullseye”).

“I would have said this before I ever got involved in Atari: I think the logo is one of the greatest logos ever made,” he says. “It’s perfect. It’s just perfect.”

That logo

Currently airing on Paramount Plus, Ghosts is a comedy series in which a young couple tries to renovate an old mansion populated by a gang of, well, ghosts. The young woman sees the ghosts and befriends them. The slightly dorky husband cannot see the ghosts. He is a likable, unemployed millennial, somewhat hapless, but with a good heart. A bit of a loser, he wears a T-shirt sporting the Atari logo. The same T-shirt is available to buy online.

Tim Lapetino, author of Art of Atari, tells Polygon: “The logo is a stand-in for that whole era of early video games. I think people smush together history, and Atari has become a standard for retro video games. So you see a 20-year-old walking down the street with an Atari T-shirt. Did they play those games? Probably not. Did they grow up in that era? Surely not. But that Atari logo has a retro connection to that whole era.”

In a 1983 interview with Video Games magazine (as quoted in Art of Atari), logo designer George Opperman talked about the Fuji’s origins: “Symbols are just visual nicknames that combine first letters and interpretive design elements. I kept trying to stylize the A, then I looked at Pong, their big game at the time. Pong had a center line and a force (the ball) that kept hitting its center from either side. I thought that (force) would bend the center outward. And that’s what I designed.”

“Logo design is often quite subjective,” says Olly Wright, who spent 15 years as head of graphic design at PlayStation, working on logos as well as game and hardware packaging. “But the Atari logo is objectively a real triumph of design. That design aesthetic, having bold, simple, color palettes and iconic diametric shapes, cuts through any surrounding visual noise. It has a pleasing geometric symmetry that seems to flow.”

Catherine DeSpira is a historian and a collector of Atari arcade machines. She says the brand has an emotional pull, especially on those who experienced it the first time around. “The 1970s was a tough time to grow up,” she recalls. “Unemployment was crazy. Divorce rates were soaring, and the American family felt like it was breaking up. Kids found sanctuary in arcades, and later, in the Atari 2600 home console. It was a promise of hope at a time when there wasn’t much hope around.”

These days, Atari’s fall is as famous as its rise. The spectacular failure of a single game, E.T., stands as an object lesson in hubris, and how not to marshal a console platform. The 2600’s portfolio of later games was plagued by poor quality control, leading to a glut of low-quality releases.

After 1984, Atari ceased to be a major player in console gaming, and was rapidly superseded by Nintendo, which had watched and learned all the hard and expensive lessons that Atari had provided. Nintendo was independent, focused, controlling, slickly professional. The company’s leaders understood the future of gaming. None of these things were true of Atari.

Atari’s afterlife encompassed various also-ran products like the Atari ST home computer, the Jaguar console, and the Lynx handheld. The brand went through a dismal series of acquisitions, relaunches, partnerships, and consolidations, finally ending up at French games publisher Infogrames, which, in its own frenzied death throes, rebranded to Atari.

When that company declared bankruptcy, longtime Infogrames exec Fred Chesnais took control of the wreckage, and sought to extract as much value from the brand as possible, through a raft of licensing deals and offshoots including a planned hotel chain, cryptocurrency, a home computer, casinos, and movie production. Buzzy initiatives abounded concerning NFTs, blockchain, and Atari’s rightful place as a real estate giant in the metaverse. There were also a few game releases, mainly in the realm of free-to-play and mobile titles like the licensed Roller Coaster Tycoon Stories, and Atari Combat: Tank Fury.

In the media, each new announcement met with eye-rolling skepticism. The Verge described the company as a “restless ghost.” Writing in PC Gamer, journalist Rich Stanton called Atari “a zombie.”

New beginnings

Under Rosen, the company has made some money by selling NFTs, releasing digital 3D models of classic Atari 2600 cartridges. He is careful to stress that he’s standing by existing deals, like the hotels.

“We try to enable [licensing partners] to be successful. We’re not just like, OK, here it is — buy it, and we’re hands off. We’ll provide support, but we’re not hotel experts. I draw a parallel with Nintendo working with Universal to make amusement parks.”

For Atari, comparisons with Nintendo are useful. After all, that company’s obsession with brand integrity is a model for any gaming company. But Atari’s mess of extant licensing deals would likely make a Nintendo executive blanch, especially when things go awry. In December, an Atari branded pre-launch casino metaverse was accidently published by a licensing partner. A spokesperson for Atari proper said: “The content has not been approved or authorized for release by Atari” but would not be drawn on further details. Atari’s website includes a licensing page, featuring the logos of 20 partners, and adding that “we are always searching for new cool, innovative products that fit our vision for the brand.”

Still, Rosen says his focus is on the nitty-gritty of making games and publishing them. “I’m not trying to criticize the past,” he says, “but the first thing we did as a team was to say, ‘Yes, there’s licensing and other things that exist in the market, but we’ll be doing video games, because we’re a video game company.’ That’s what we do. That’s what we’re honing in on. And we’re really focusing and putting our energy into making great games.”

“It’s OK for us, right now, to appeal to the people who know Atari best, and to do the things that Atari did well,” says Rosen. “We want to make good games that don’t mess up the formula too much, but which are modernized with challenge modes, two-player modes, score tags, things like that.”

Recharged series producer Jason Polansky adds: “Anyone who’s tried to hook up a 2600 to HDMI television knows how challenging that is. Even then, you can boot up the game as it was played in the ’70s or ’80s and say, ‘Wow, OK, that’s not exactly how I remember playing it.’

“We modify the games so they give you the understanding that you’re playing what you remember, without fundamentally altering the experience. Anybody who’s not familiar with the games can still jump in and play them and have just as much fun with them as somebody who does get the nostalgic reference.”

He points to Black Widow Recharged, released in late October, as an example. In the original 1982 arcade game, players took on the role of a spider at the center of its web, moving along the tendrils and either pushing or shooting enemies and obstacles. The new game is the same, except everything moves much faster, with a greater variety of enemies, colors, and sound effects.

“Atari created these genres in the first place,” says Polansky. “But we have to step up to what the genre is now. We can’t ignore the fact that Geometry Wars exists. We have to compete, while retaining the DNA of the original.”

Polansky says sales of these games are “in line with expectations,” adding that classics generally continue to sell steadily long after their initial release. The advantage of brands like Asteroids is that people often search for the name rather than, say, “spaceship-shooting-rocks games,” of which there are hundreds.

Hardware choices

Successful game companies like Nintendo take care to nurture their image. Fans trust Nintendo to deliver games that sit within an overall aura of Nintendo-ness. In contrast, corporate owners of the Atari name have historically focused instead on short-term goals.

The result is that many people who view themselves as keepers of the Atari flame stand outside the office walls. They are the fans, collectors, modders, and historians who gather at retro expos and on sites like AtariAge (slogan: “Have you played Atari today?”).

We interviewed a handful of them for this story. Sitting in their workspaces, they appear proudly in front of original arcade cabinets, which wink and tinkle in the background. Or they wear original Atari-branded clothing. They are all skeptical about this latest iteration of Atari.

Marty Goldberg worked with the Infogrames version of Atari and then-licensing partner AtGames back in the 2000s, helping to bring the Atari Flashback 2 to market. It was a mini console featuring original classic games.

“Re-releasing old games does nothing new [for Atari],” he says. “There’s a bunch of new versions already out there. Where are the new ideas? That’s what Atari was all about. That’s the Atari I want to see.”

“What would I do if it was me?” asks Cassandra Quirk, aka Vintage Arcade Gal, a blogger, collector, and historian. “I think it would be amazing if somebody went in and said, ‘We’re gonna reinvent arcade games. We’re gonna go back to our Atari heritage and create destination arcade games, with innovations in controls, screens, presentation. Something that can’t be replicated in the home.’ Atari needs to create something new.”

It doesn’t help Atari’s cause when the company stumbles along the way. In November, Atari launched three collectible Atari 2600 cartridges for Aquaventure, Saboteur, and Yars’ Return. Each included playable prototypes, hacks, and homebrew versions of the games, with limited editions including physical goods such as pins and posters. Unfortunately, some of the crediting details were wildly inaccurate, leading to frustration among game historians and the Atari faithful.

“In some ways, Atari’s history is a millstone around their neck,” says Tony Temple, who runs the website The Arcade Blogger. “When they are massively inaccurate about their own history, they’re going to get found out. You have to wonder what’s going on. You’re Atari. You’re supposed to know this stuff.”

Soon after that debacle, Atari announced plans to purchase retro streaming service Antstream Arcade with an option to buy respected video game database MobyGames. These could give the company’s rank and file the kind of historical expertise it needs.

The fans we spoke to are especially scornful of Atari’s latest venture into the hardware business, once again dating back to the Chesnais era. The new “Atari VCS” was crowdfunded to the tune of more than $3 million back in 2018. Final machines shipped out in the first half of 2021.

It’s a Linux box shaped like an Atari 2600 that runs emulated retro games. Its $299-$399 price was widely panned by hardware reviewers. IGN described it as “nothing more than a watered-down combination of a console and a PC,” adding that “it definitely doesn’t justify its price tag.”

“It’s extraordinarily expensive,” concurs Quirk. “It’s very clunky. There’s no kid on Christmas morning that’s going to open up a Christmas present, hoping they find an Atari VCS instead of a PlayStation 5 or a new Xbox. Creating a streaming box that looks like an Atari 2600 is not the answer. Nor is releasing cartridges stuffed with lost prototypes.”

When I suggest to Rosen that the VCS is not a great product, he visibly bristles, arguing that more support is coming. He says that the hardware team is currently struggling to source enough components to keep machines on retail shelves, part of the current shortage of parts that’s affecting manufacturers around the world.

“I feel really passionately about the VCS,” he says. “It was one of the main reasons I wanted to come into Atari. It’s an awesome opportunity.” He concedes that there is work to be done in order for others to appreciate its value. “It should never have been called a console. It’s a computer. It’s an open, out-of-the-box Linux computer that looks cool. What makes our Linux box better than other ones is really up to us. And that’s what we have to prove in the coming year.”

Rosen adds: “I just want to say that it’s wrong to compare us to PlayStation or Xbox. Those are closed ecosystems, while we’re trying to make something that’s flexible and open, with a ton of functionality. We have not done a good enough job really articulating that value.”

Time to celebrate

As well as updating and re-releasing the classics, trying to sell and support a Linux box, dabbling in NFTs and collectibles, and supporting an unusual array of licensing partners, the new Atari is also working on celebrations for the company’s 50th anniversary.

“Inadvertently, it’s taking up a lot of time and planning,” says Rosen. “It’s constantly on our mind, but you’ll see us tying it into the games we’re releasing in the next year that haven’t been announced yet. It’s a big, big year for us, but we also see it as a beginning, not as an end in itself. It’s the 50th anniversary of Pong [in 2022], but a lot of other games have their own anniversaries coming up, and we’re doing a lot of prepping around those.”

When I ask if Atari is looking to buy and release intellectual properties that weren’t originally from Atari, Rosen says: “Short answer is yes. If you want to be the retro company that’s really pushing retro gaming forward, I think you have to look at that era as a whole and see what makes sense. It’s definitely a part of the business, and we’re actively doing that.”

Atari isn’t the only company looking to turn old into gold. New versions or repackaged bundles of classics are a gaming staple. Taito recently announced a 10-game bundle for Nintendo Switch (via licensee Inin), and Bandai Namco’s Pac-Man Museum Plus is coming sometime in early 2022.

Rosen sees co-op couch play as a big opportunity. Like many parents, he says he enjoys the sensation of playing the classics with his child. In a way, Atari’s strategy now is not dissimilar to the way home consoles were marketed in the early ’80s, with the different generations enjoying games together. “We want to capture awesome family experiences,” he says. “We’re making games that people remember, that are approachable, and that connect parents with kids. It’s like, Oh, I used to play this. Let me show you how it works.”

For the moment, he says the company has to start delivering. “We know we can’t come out and say that we’re different [from previous efforts to relaunch Atari]. People are sick of hearing that. They’ve started to roll their eyes. When you get to that point, the answer isn’t to keep talking. It’s to make the things you do really count. We have to start showing it every day.”

Referring to the skepticism of Atari fans, Rosen says: “It’s a ton of pressure. They’re very vocal about what they want, and we have to earn their goodwill and rebuild those relationships. I’m here to help restore something that is fundamentally great, and it’s cool to see that so many other people want the same thing.”