![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6960763.1720739914!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
'It's scary': 3 Ontario men lose $373,000 to crypto investment fraud
Three men across Ontario are speaking out after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to a cryptocurrency investment scam, including one man in Brampton who lost $226,000.
Thousands of unionized Metro grocery workers walked off the job Saturday in what is the latest in a series of strike actions taken across the country in the past year.
Some 3,700 members of Unifor Local 414 went on strike, described as the largest in the union's history and affecting 27 Metro locations in the Greater Toronto Area.
It comes as unionized workers at British Columbia's ports rejected a tentative agreement late Friday night and as Manitoba Liquor Mart employees stayed off the job Saturday in their continued strike action.
"Interest rates, inflation, CEO profits soaring, profits in terms of what corporations are making soaring, while our members are struggling to get by," Unifor national president Lana Payne said Saturday as Metro workers held their strike.
Although Unifor endorsed a deal with Metro, with Payne describing it as the "best agreement in decades," the membership did not support it.
Payne added that it is not enough for the workers to live on or support their families, with 70 per cent of jobs part-time and average pay between $16 and $17 an hour.
She said that the workers, who put their lives on the line during the height of COVID-19 and later saw their pandemic pay cut, deserve a share of the money that they helped Metro earn.
Gord Currie, president of Unifor Local 414, added that some have resorted to food banks.
Canada's Competition Bureau released a study in June that found the three largest grocery companies in the country — Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro — reported more than $100 billion in sales collectively and $3.6 billion in profits last year.
"Working people are fighting back everywhere, from the ports of Vancouver to grocery store workers here to Teamsters workers in the United States. This is not just happening here at Metro stores. It is the moment that we're in and, you know, you can only push it so long where corporations are doing so well, the CEOs are doing so well and workers are getting crumbs. That is not going to work anymore," Payne said.
A statement from Metro Ontario, a subsidiary of Metro, said it was "extremely disappointed" that a strike occurred despite the union endorsing the deal.
"The company has been negotiating with the union for the past few weeks and reached a fair and equitable agreement that meets the needs of our employees and our customers while ensuring that Metro remains competitive," the statement said.
"The settlement provided significant increases for employees in all four years of the agreement, as well as pension and benefits improvements for all employees, including part-time employees."
Larry Savage, a labour studies professor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., told CTV National News that workers have a heightened sense of their own worth coming out of the pandemic.
"I think there's a lot of anger and resentment as a result of the pandemic and the high cost of living," he said.
"Grocery store workers, for example, literally put their lives on the line for their employers and for society more generally during the pandemic and now lots of them can't even afford to pay their rent or their utility bills. So I think there's a sense out there that workers are fed up and they're demanding more and they're using the right to strike to do that."
Last month, about 1,800 striking Halifax-area education support workers returned to work after ratifying their latest contract.
More than 155,000 unionized federal public servants went on strike earlier this year, including 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency employees.
Last year, thousands of education support workers in Ontario also went on strike.
"I think there will be lots of labour disruption in the future, lots of labour militancy going into the future, until we see some of these companies redistribute their profits back into their workforces," Savage said.
With files from The Canadian Press
Three men across Ontario are speaking out after losing hundreds of thousands of dollars to a cryptocurrency investment scam, including one man in Brampton who lost $226,000.
A black bear accidentally got locked in a car in Coquitlam Thursday, destroying the interior before being freed by police.
One person has been hospitalized after falling from a swing ride at Canada's Wonderland.
They were billed as artworks by Pablo Picasso, paintings so valuable that an Australian art museum’s decision to display them in an exhibition restricted to women visitors provoked a gender discrimination lawsuit. The paintings again prompted international headlines when the gallery re-hung them in a women’s restroom to sidestep a legal ruling that said men could not be barred from viewing them.
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez have added a tiny bit of fuel to the fire surrounding their marriage. Amid speculation that the pair are struggling in their relationship after marrying about two years ago, the couple has listed their 12-bedroom, 24-bathroom California home for sale.
An Ontario mother says the increasing cost of baby formula for her seven month old is stressful. Since Samantha Krobel's child was born in November 2023, she says the cost of formula has gone up roughly $12.
A northern Alberta community declared a local state of emergency Thursday after wildfires close to it forced the evacuation of almost 1,000 residents.
Buckingham Palace’s famous balcony room, where the monarch and other members of the Royal Family gather on special occasions before waving at cheering crowds in the streets below, is opening to the public for the first time.
The average menstruating person will use an estimated 11,000 tampons, sanitary pads, panty liners and other menstrual products, experts say. What if some of those products contain heavy metals or potentially toxic chemicals?
Seven-year-old goalie Hudson Hardill is an unlikely Calgary Flames fan, being that he lives in Peterborough, Ont., and his dad Chris is a Toronto Maple Leafs fan.
A WestJet employee's chance encounter on a recent flight spiced up her life in a big way.
A Kelowna, B.C., man says he's always liked gnomes because they have a 'bit of mystery' to them. And he recently got a taste of that whimsy when his garden gnomes disappeared, and came back to him in a peculiar fashion.
After more than 50 years, Toronto's iconic 'Leslieville dollhouse' will soon have a new owner.
One man is bringing a blast from the past to a Winnipeg community.
Some say a photograph is simply a memory frozen in time – and a high school graduation photo taken in Churchill, Man. takes that adage to a completely new level.
A rising track and field star overcame a big hurdle in his dream to represent Canada at the Olympics.
Would-be homebuyers who backed out of a deal to purchase a B.C. property in a hot real estate market have been ordered to pay the seller the difference between what they offered and what he was able to sell the home for when the market cooled.
Ottawa city councillor Tim Tierney has waited decades for the chance to meet his rock-star idols Nickelback.