Yesterday, more kids in Canada started the most uncertain back to school of their academic careers. Schools in Durham Region became the first in the GTA to welcome students back, with many schools staggering in-person attendance. A Toronto Star report described the first day of school as quiet, saying "In fact it was hard to believe there was any school at all."

How's it going so far?

How are schools adjusting?

Some of the measures school boards are taking include:

Bottom Line... Case numbers have been ticking up across the country in the past few weeks, it's likely that the return to class rooms will accelerate this trend. Wear a mask and buckle up for a long winter.

Aurora Cannabis, once a darling of Canada's cannabis boom, has announced a write down of a whopping $1.8 billion in impairment charges, this includes $140 million in inventory charges and a $90-million asset write down. The announcement from the Edmonton based company is just the latest in bad news for the sector that has seen thousands of layoffs and other losses, starting before and continuing through covid.

Ok, but what's an impairment charge? It's back to school, so let's take a quick trip to Peak University. An impairment charge is an accounting term to refer to a drastic reduction in the recoverable value of an asset. Simply put, it's a way of bringing the value of an inflated asset back down to the reality of fair market value. Impairment charges are common when bubble markets hit hard times.

Getting High Again...Aurora is hoping to get back in the green (in more ways than one) they've started by appointing Miguel Martin as their new CEO, and have embarked on cost cutting measures which include the cancellation of a multi-year research and marketing deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. A cancellation that will cost them $30m.

Market Impact: The company's stock (TSE:ACB) closed at $9.92, down 10.79% since open.

Two new fronts have opened up in the economic war being waged between China and the West. Disney's new live action remake of Mulan is facing a boycott while the U.S. government may imminently be banning cotton grown in China's Xingjiang region.

Mulan
The controversy surrounding Mulan dates back several months to when the film's star Liu Yifei, said she backed the police in their brutal crackdown against Hong Kong's independence movement. The statement led to backers of a free Hong Kong to call for the film to be boycotted.

The anger towards the film was stoked again recently when viewers pointed out that the film thanked several governments in China's Xingjiang region, where parts of the movie was filmed, who are known to be part of the repression of Uighurs.

Fallout... The pressure is on Disney to save face now that they're being called out by members of the US House, and prominent Hong Kong Independence activist Joshua Wong.

Cotton
The Trump Administration is very close to putting an import ban in place on cotton grown in the Xianjiang region, again due to the Chinese governments repression of the Uighur population, and the possible use of Uighur slave labour in the production of the cotton.

Fallout...The ban would have major repercussions for China and many western countries who rely on Chinese supply chains for manufacturing. Experts warn that this would lead to brands scrambling to relocate their manufacturing to other Asian countries, which although are competitive on price, do not have the same quality.

Ok, this headline might be an overstatement, but Apple is now counter suing Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, further complicating what might become an Epic legal battle.

Flashback: Epic started the battle with Apple in an August lawsuit, after launching their own in-app payment system, in order to circumvent Apple's payment system which takes a 30% cut of transactions.

Apple's Claim: Apple is asking the court for damages related to the loss of revenue cause by Fortnite's in-app payment, as well as damages related to reputation harm after Fortnite launched a public relations campaign against the tech giant.

What's Next: Apple says it would readmit Fortnite to the App Store if it removed its direct payment system, but Epic is refusing, saying doing so would be "to collude with Apple to maintain their monopoly over in-app payments on iOS."

As if things couldn't get worse for Boeing, they announced yesterday an issue with their 787 Jetliner, which will lead to further delivery delays of the plane.

Boeing's Big Picture: More delays getting planes to customers is bad news for Boeing, they're already facing mounting cancellations as the Corona Virus devastates the travel sector. Meanwhile, the plane manufacturer is still struggling to get clearance to return their 737 Max to the skies after two deadly plane crashes grounded the fleet worldwide in 2019.

The Sky High Big Picture: The entire travel industry is on tenterhooks, it's unlikely any sort of stability will return before a vaccine. Hopefully for Boeing they'll be able to stabilize the Max by then.