Fresh Routes, a not-for-profit social enterprise with the mission of advancing local food security, was focused on creating new and innovative ways of providing healthy and affordable food to as many people as possible in the Canadian cities of Calgary and Edmonton.<br><br>As the global COVID-19 pandemic raged in 2020-21, Fresh Routes found itself questioning if it could still provide its much-needed services. Demand was exponentially increasing as more and more people experienced food insecurity due to the pandemic’s impact on their employment status, mobility, and health. Would Fresh Routes be able to find a new way to operate, or would the company need to shut down its operations?
David Heller began delivering food in Toronto using the UberEATS platform in December 2016. Several months after signing a service agreement with Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber), Heller drove for Uber approximately 40–50 hours every week, generating earnings that ranged from CA$400 to $600 per week, or approximately CA$20,800–$31,200 per year. Uber drivers could not enjoy the rights and protections granted to employees under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act. If a dispute were to arise, Heller would have to pay approximately CA$19,000 to have his dispute with Uber resolved in the Netherlands. According to Uber, the dispute resolution process was to take place in the Netherlands even though Heller was living and working in Toronto. Was this fair? It could be argued that Heller had no bargaining power due to the financial and geographic constraints Uber had imposed. If Heller could convince Ontario’s court that Uber’s dispute regulation was unconscionable, this would change the nature of relationships between workers and companies in the Canadian gig economy.
In 2016, the University of Calgary (U of C) was celebrating its 50th anniversary with a variety of events, such as the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, which brought visiting scholars from across the globe. At the same time, Alberta, ON, had been hit with significant forest fires, and many residents that were evacuated from northern communities had moved into U of C residences. The campus was alive with activity when its information technology (IT) systems were encrypted in a ransomware attack. The university’s emergency response team had to act quickly to identify and isolate the root cause of the problem and to decide how to contain it, whether to pay the demanded ransom, and what to tell members of the university and the wider community. The university’s response to this threat and its management through the crisis would ultimately shape the IT team and future investment decisions.