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Good morning. The most memorable Olympic moments don’t always involve awe-inspiring displays of athletic prowess. Case in point: Norway’s Sturla Holm Lægreid broke down in a post-race interview after winning bronze in the men’s 20km biathlon, as he admitted to cheating on his ex-girlfriend and begged for her forgiveness in front of a global audience.

It was supposed to be a grand romantic gesture, but with cringeworthy lines like "I had a gold medal in my life,” it felt more like a drunk text that should have been left in the drafts. 

Today’s reading time is 6 minutes.

Markets: Canada’s main stock index rose yesterday on strong performances in the tech and financial sectors, even as gold and oil dipped. Meanwhile, Spotify crushed it, with shares up 14.8% after reporting strong quarterly earnings, including 290 million premium subscribers.

One of Canada’s fastest-growing startups is looking to cash in on bar patrons glued to TVs. 

What happened: Winnipeg-based advertising startup Taiv, which offers restaurants and bars targeted commercials to air on their TVs, raised US$13 million in a funding round that values the company at nearly $100 million. 

Catch-up: Taiv offers its service free to venues and even gives them a cut of the cash from advertisers. The startup’s revenue, which has grown by over 7,400% since launching in 2021, comes from selling slots to individual partners, including Pepsi, Google, and FanDuel.

Why it matters: Taiv is applying the same lucrative targeted advertising model to live sports that has made Meta a US$1.7 trillion company, giving advertisers more control over how their ad is delivered while also creating a brand new revenue stream for venues.

Our take: We’re getting closer and closer to a world where ads on every platform we interact with are personalized to some degree. Let’s just hope we never lose the shared experience of watching (and critiquing) US$10 million Super Bowl commercials.—LA

10 people died in a B.C. mass shooting. Authorities reported 10 people were dead, including the shooter, and at least 25 injured in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. after a mass shooting. Victims were found in a local high school and a residence. As of writing, police had not identified the suspected shooter. (Global News)

After talking with Trump, Carney says Gordie Howe bridge dispute will be resolved. The prime minister said that he explained to President Trump that the bridge is jointly owned by Ottawa and Michigan, paid for by Canadians, and, despite Trump’s previous claims, was built using both Canadian and U.S. steel. Carney said they also discussed the two countries’ women’s hockey matchup at the Olympics. Unfortunately, Carney’s promise that Team Canada would beat the Americans proved premature. (CTV News)

Ottawa has quietly made payments for more F-35 fighter jets. Despite its ongoing review of future F-35 purchases, the feds have reportedly put down money on components for 14 more of the U.S.-made aircraft. Ottawa had originally committed to buying 88 of the F-35s, but put the full order under review following annexation threats from President Trump. (CBC News)

U.S. official says Canada will certify Gulfstream aircraft. The head of the Federal Aviation ⁠Administration said Canadian regulators were close to certifying the Gulfstream aircraft. Donald Trump had threatened to tariff Canadian aircraft if the jets weren’t fully approved. (The Globe & Mail)

Bell and SAP are building a sovereign cloud in Canada. The two companies signed a deal to co-develop a cloud that can serve Canadian governments and other customers that need to host sensitive information on domestic servers. (The Canadian Press)

📡 What else is on our radar: 

Valentine’s Day is basically a masterclass in sharing. Dessert. A cab home. A blanket on the couch. And pretending the bill wasn’t that bad.

You already share dinners, plans, and bills. Shouldn’t sharing the perks of smarter banking feel like the next logical step?

With EQ Bank's Joint Account, you’ll get to share:

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🤝 Meet Erica Karbelnik. She’s a former Top Chef Canada champion and the co-owner and chef of Karbs Catering, an upscale private dining business based in Ontario. She runs the company alongside her husband and fellow Top Chef alum Josh. We asked Erica about dining trends, Canada’s best food cities, and the hardest part of competing on cooking shows. 

What was the hardest part of winning Top Chef Canada that viewers might not see at home?

The hardest part wasn’t just the pressure of the competition — it was the mental grind. Long hours, high stakes, and constantly being judged push you past your comfort zone. Viewers see the drama and the challenges, but they don’t always see the emotional weight of having to create perfection under extreme time pressure. You have to balance creativity, technique, and nerves all at once, and it’s exhausting.

What is the value of having that fine dining experience at home vs. at a restaurant? 

There’s something magical about sharing a fine dining experience in your own home. It’s intimate, personal, and tailored just for you and your guests. You get the elegance and attention to detail of a restaurant, but in a relaxed, private setting where the focus is on connection, storytelling, and making memories around food.

What’s your favourite place to eat in Canada (other than your own kitchen)?

That’s a hard one. My husband Josh and I love Montreal. We cannot pinpoint one restaurant, but food-wise, for Canada, Montreal is the spot for everything from grab-and-go to breakfasts to date night spots. We love the food scene there. We currently live in Niagara, and we do have to say, the food scene here is getting up there as well. We are finding some gems! 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Read the full Q&A here on our website.

Catch up on yesterday: 

What’s happening today:

If you had a bad day at work recently, know that it can’t be worse than the South Korean employee who almost cost their company over US$40 billion.  

What happened: South Korean financial regulators launched an investigation into Bithumb, the country’s second-largest crypto exchange, after an episode last week where the company mistakenly gave away ~$42 billion worth of bitcoin in a promotion gone wrong.

Zoom in: The promo was supposed to let 695 customers win small cash prizes from a pool of 620,000 won ($423). However, an employee who wasn’t on the ball that day input the amount as 620,000 bitcoin, which was over 12 times more than Bithumb’s bitcoin reserves.

Why it matters: Incidents like this are rare, but they show the still-limited protections around crypto assets compared with tightly regulated traditional financial systems, where errors like this are quickly resolved. It’s exactly this sort of authority that is antithetical to the decentralization promise underlying the blockchain. Learning that you can’t have your cake and eat it too is never easy.—QH

🇨🇳 9.5 billion. Trips that are expected to be made in China during the Lunar New Year period, a record high. The celebration is one of the few times of the year when workers across the country are all given time off. Train stations have been packed, with an estimated 540 million people set to travel home via train during the holiday.

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Shake off that morning rust with the mini-crossword, the daily sudoku, and Codebreaker.