Matt O'Grady

Awareness about autism—and the range of conditions that fall under its umbrella—is a relatively recent thing. The word first appeared in 1938, when Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger used it to describe a pattern of developmental behaviour in children—posthumously referred to...

When Geoff Dickson entered the aviation world 35 years ago, it was, he recalls, “quite a challenging time.” The federal government had just launched airline deregulation, and Dickson—hired as a financial analyst for Pacific Western Airlines—was helping the company shift...

This article was originally published in our April issue, and written before the COVID-19 pandemic came to Canada. Sometimes when you’re looking for the root of a problem, the culprit is clear. With B.C.’s forestry sector, rotten roots could be seen...

Growing up in West Van, a teenaged Erik Lees pined for only one thing: “It was the late 1960s, man. I just wanted to go back to the land—to check out of the city.” He soon achieved that dream, moving...

This article was originally published in our March issue, before the COVID-19 pandemic came to Canada. When BCBusiness last caught up with venture capitalist Stephen Sidwell, it was the spring of 2014, and Sidwell had just brought in Christine Day as...

Last November, more than 100 people gathered in Microsoft’s airy downtown Vancouver offices to learn about the future of artificial intelligence. They listened as the panellists—Tim O’Brien, Microsoft’s GM of AI programs; Maya Medeiros, an intellectual property lawyer at Norton...

In every election, including the one just past, Canadians put health care at the top of their political priorities. We have a love-hate relationship with this country’s system: love that it’s (mostly) free and (mostly) equitable, but hate the waiting...

This fall, we’re promised, ride-hailing will arrive in B.C. after many years of obstruction and obfuscation. In fact, you may even be reading this column right now from your mobile phone, seated in the back of a Lyft or Uber...

Discrimination against persons with disabilities has been outlawed by Canada’s Human Rights Act since 1985. Over the past three decades, attitudes and laws have continued to progress—with a new British Columbia Accessibility Act, coming into effect this fall, enshrining the right to barrier-free...

If you ask Zena Harris why she launched Green Spark Group—a Vancouver-based consultancy, focused on sustainability in the film and television sector—you won’t hear phrases like “reducing our carbon footprint,” “greening our industry” or “saving the world.” What you will...

Growing up in northern B.C., Teara Fraser had a rather limited horizon. The family bounced from town to town, and her single mother from job to job (her Métis father died when she was three). Fraser left Quesnel for Vancouver...

In the early 1970s, a Montana professor by the name of Jess Lair published a book, I Ain’t Much, Baby—But I’m All I’ve Got, considered one of the forerunners of the self-help movement. Among the quotable quotes attributed to Lair: “If you love something, set it free.” Jeff Kroeker isn’t much of...