Oct. 16, 2025 "Canadian Tire will start selling iconic Hudson's Bay blankets, donating proceeds to Indigenous fund": Today I found this article on CBC:
Canadian Tire will begin selling the iconic Hudson's Bay point blankets
and has pledged to continue a program started by HBC to donate the net proceeds to support Indigenous-led initiatives.
Under an expanded partnership between Canadian Tire
and the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund,
the retailer has guaranteed at least $1 million a year to support Oshki Wupoowane, The Blanket Fund.
The money will be used for grants that support
grassroots Indigenous organizations
and one-time cultural, artistic and educational projects.
Canadian Tire acquired HBC's intellectual property, including the iconic Hudson's Bay stripes, earlier this year for $30 million as part of the wind down of the retailer.
The deal didn't include the company's art, artifacts and archives — some of which will be auctioned off next month.
While popular with shoppers today, the HBC point blankets have a problematic history because of their association with the company's colonial past.
The blankets were once used as currency to trade by early European settlers in Canada,
but there is oral history that says they were used to spread smallpox intentionally to Indigenous communities in the 1700s and 1800s.
The Blanket Fund was launched in 2022 in an effort for truth and reconciliation
with an initial $1 million investment from the Hudson's Bay Foundation
and a commitment to give 100 per cent of the net proceeds from the sale of Hudson's Bay point blankets to the fund.
“We are exceptionally proud to be the stewards of HBC’s legacy
— and as one of the nation’s longest-standing companies,
we don’t take the responsibility lightly,”
said Greg Hicks, President and CEO of Canadian Tire, in a statement.
“The Hudson’s Bay Point Blanket is a Canadian symbol with a complex history, and through our deepened relationship with [the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund],
we are committed to ensuring its
cultural preservation
and meaningful reconciliation for generations to come.”
With files from CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canadian-tire-blanket-fund-9.6940989
My opinion: I like this article because it's about charity.
Oct. 24, 2025 "B.C. billionaire Ruby Liu loses court fight to take over Hudson's Bay properties": Today I found this article by Tara Deschamps on CBC:
A B.C. billionaire who spent the summer fighting to move into former Hudson’s Bay properties found herself on the losing end of an Ontario Superior Court decision on Friday.
Judge Peter Osborne ruled that landlords for the collapsed retailer
will not be forced to accept Ruby Liu as a tenant.
In his judgment, Osborne said he had “significant concerns” about Liu’s ability to meet the terms of the leases she wanted.
HBC declined to comment on his decision, while a spokesperson for Liu did not immediately respond to messages from The Canadian Press.
Both parties have the ability to appeal the decision, though neither has announced plans to.
Major landlords including Cadillac Fairview, Oxford Properties and Ivanhoé Cambridge were opposed to Liu buying 25 former Hudson's Bay leases for $69.1 million.
Osborne’s decision was months in the making and came after he waded through 25,600 pages of arguments from a who’s who of commercial landlords and investors.
It was back in March that Hudson’s Bay, riddled with $1.1 billion in debt, filed for creditor protection. Unable to find a buyer, it later liquidated its 80 stores and 16 more from Saks, and then turned its attention to assets such as its leases, intellectual property and art.
A lease-bidding process netted a dozen bids for 39 properties.
YM Inc., which owns mall brands like Bluenotes, took five for $5.03 million.
A landlord took one for $20,000.
But the biggest bid came from Liu, who dreamed of opening a new department store chain named after herself. She wanted up to 28 leases to accomplish the feat and in May, the Bay announced it was willing to sell them to her.
Three of them easily won court approval because they were at properties in B.C. malls Liu owns — Woodgrove Centre, Mayfair Shopping Centre and Tsawwassen Mills.
The remaining 25 became one of the most hotly contested issues in the Bay’s winddown.
Almost as soon as the Bay announced they’d sell the leases to Liu for $69.1 million, landlords met with her and came away with a wide array of objections.
Most said they found her unprepared.
They said she had
no business plan,
and a team of inexperienced executives who had spent time as real estate agents and early child educators rather than retail leaders.
Furthermore, they said that Liu's plans for dining, entertainment and recreation weren’t allowed under the leases she wanted to take over.
When Liu did produce a business plan, it estimated she could have at least 20 of her stores renovated — from the rundown state the Bay left them in — and operating within 180 days of signing leases.
Landlords thought the timeline was unachievable and argued her $400 million budget for the project
— money they doubted she had readily available because her malls were $19 million in debt over the last two years — also wouldn’t suffice.
Liu, who made her fortune in Chinese real estate before immigrating to Canada, maintained her three malls prove she has what it takes. She argued landlords were battling her because she’s an “outsider” and not their preferred tenant.
The Bay and Pathlight Capital, the lender that stood to recoup the most from Liu’s deal, said the landlords objected because they wanted their properties back. If they got control of them again, they could lease their most venerable spaces to their pick of tenants — and could charge far more than the below-market rents in the Bay’s leases, some of which last for decades.
A return of the properties would also allow landlords to
break the spaces into multiple smaller units for use by multiple tenants
or redevelop them into mixed-use
or residential spaces.
In making his decision, Osborne had to consider section 11.3 of the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, which allows the court to assign leases to a potential tenant against the objections of landlords.
The section asked him to ponder whether Liu is an “appropriate” buyer who will be able to meet the lease obligations and whether her deal has the support of the monitor, a court-appointed, independent third party which regularly reviews the Bay's creditor protection.
Monitor Alvarez & Marsal had said it thought Liu could meet all her financial obligations but added there's a “very real risk” she will not be able to succeed with the “monumental" task, because she is inexperienced and unprepared.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ruby-liu-hudsons-bay-court-fight-9.6952982
My opinion:
For Ruby Lui: She still has money and her other BC mall properties.
For the Canadian customer: There are still a lot of stores in malls and online to shop at.
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