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Alberta

Canopy Growth reports $648 million net loss in Q4 as it parts way with BioSteel staff

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Canopy Growth Corp.’s chief executive said the company has made management changes and parted ways with some staff as it continues to review its BioSteel business after uncovering “material misstatements” in the sports drink unit’s previous financial filings.

“Based on the results of the review, we’ll be implementing several remedial actions to strengthen our controls for the BioSteel business,” David Klein, chief executive of the Smiths Falls, Ont.-based cannabis company, said on a Thursday call with analysts.

“We felt it was important to act swiftly to provide stability to the business at this pivotal time, so to this effect, we have exited several members of the BioSteel leadership team and are considering all legal remedies available to us including litigation to recover damages and costs associated with and resulting from the findings of the BioSteel review.”

His remarks came after Canopy promised in May to refile three of its past quarterly financial statements because of misstatements linked to BioSteel, a brand of dietary supplement products targeting athletes.

The misstatements were in its first-, second- and third-quarter filings from 2022 and included sales information from that period which Canopy said in regulatory filings “should no longer be relied upon.”

It discovered the misstatements when it was preparing its financial results for the financial year ended March 31, and determined on May 4 that there were errors in its filings after a review of BioSteel results with independent external counsel and forensic accountants.

Canopy now says the sales misstatements found are linked to BioSteel’s “timing and amount of revenue recognition.”

The company revealed new details about the misstatements as it released its fourth-quarter and full-year results Thursday. Canopy’s fourth-quarter net loss amounted to $648 million, $59 million more than the loss it incurred a year earlier.

It attributed much of the loss to $164 million in asset impairment and restructuring costs, but says those costs were partially offset by improved gross margins.

The corrected numbers for BioSteel resulted in a decrease of roughly $10 million in net revenue for the company’s 2022 financial year, or about two per cent of its total net revenue.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2022, Canopy said the correction resulted in a decrease of about $14 million in net revenue or four per cent of total consolidated revenue.

“Despite this, we have great confidence in the BioSteel brand, which saw a 101 per cent revenue increase in fiscal (2023),” Klein said.

Canopy also noted that BioSteel is continuing to gain market share in Canada, especially through NHL partnerships.

Meanwhile, Canopy is continuing with a transformation plan for its overall business that included the departure of 800 workers — roughly 35 per cent of its workforce — in February.

At the time, it also planned to wind down 1 Hershey Dr. in Smiths Falls, Ont., its flagship facility where chocolate company Hershey once had a factory, and move post-production flower activity to a building across the street.

Canopy said it would cease to source flower from its Mirabel, Que., facility, which is owned and operated through Les Serres Vert Cannabis Inc., a joint venture partnership between the company and Les Serres Stephane Bertrand Inc., a tomato greenhouse operator.

Canopy previously purchased pot from the joint venture, but will cease that activity and now move to a more flexible sourcing strategy to ensure Quebec-grown products are brought to consumers in the province.

Consolidation was also planned for its Kincardine, Ont. and Kelowna, B.C. sites.

Canopy’s net revenue for the period ended March 31 totalled $88 million, 14 per cent lower than the revenue reported a year prior.

Canopy’s adjusted loss for the quarter was $96 million, a $36 million improvement from its negative adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization a year earlier. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 22, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:WEED)

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press

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Alberta

Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.

Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.

“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.

“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”

Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.

The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”

It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”

Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”

Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced  she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.

With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.

While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”

This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.

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Alberta

Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.

An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.

On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.

“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.

Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.

“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”

After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.

Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.

He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.

In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”

“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.

Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.

Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.

The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.

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