Supreme Court upholds air passenger rules, first-time homebuyers fear Ottawa’s mortgage rules and Bay Street’s obsession with LinkedIn: Business and investing news for Oct. 6

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Getting caught up on a week that got away? Here’s your weekly digest of the Globe’s most essential business and investing stories, with insights and analysis from the pros, stock tips, portfolio strategies and more.

Supreme Court upholds international air passenger compensation rules in landmark decision

In a victory for Canadian travellers, the Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed an appeal by domestic and global airlines in a decision that upholds air passenger compensation rules. The decision means passengers will continue to be able to claim compensation as set out in the current rules – under the Air Passenger Protection Regulations – for international flights to and from Canada, Erica Alini reports. The regulations mandate that airlines provide standardized compensation to passengers for lengthy flight delays, cancellations and denial of boarding in certain cases. They also establish parameters on compensation and refunds for lost or damaged luggage. A group of airlines, however, had challenged the regulations, arguing they were incompatible with the Montreal Convention, which governs international air travel. In its judgment, issued on Friday, the country’s top court ruled that the regulations can coexist with the Montreal Convention.

Bay Street has a secret addiction to LinkedIn – and it’s getting toxic

For most of its existence, LinkedIn was a place for suits to peacock about their professional accomplishments or make virtual connections on the platform. Yet since the COVID-19 pandemic and Elon Musk’s purchase of the other social media platform Twitter (now X), LinkedIn has gone through a revolution – and Bay Street, specifically, is obsessed. The platform now has 24 million users in Canada, and according to Pew Research, 30 per cent of adult Americans say they use it. Executives, bankers and lawyers will tell you about posts of theirs that did well and it’s become common for one professional to send a LinkedIn message instead of an e-mail. Tim Kiladze reports on the business community’s secret addiction to the platform – and why it may be getting toxic.

Decoder: It’s not time to panic about consumer insolvencies, yet

High inflation and interest rates have left a deep mark, forcing Canadian consumers to cut back on spending. Consumer insolvencies are way up, but so too is the number of consumers. The latest insolvency numbers for August point to strain, with the combination of bankruptcy filings and consumer proposals jumping 9 per cent year-over-year. But the population boom also skews the picture. Jason Kirby takes a closer look at the figures in this week’s Decoder.

Canadian Tire store in Toronto under investigation for alleged mistreatment of temporary foreign workers

The owner of a Canadian Tire store in Toronto is being investigated for allegedly mistreating employees hired through the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, Vanmala Subramaniam reports. Employees allege their wages were arbitrarily reduced by the owner and that they were forced to do jobs for which they were not hired. They also claim the owner threatened to fire them on multiple occasions when they brought up their concerns about the working conditions. At least 13 of those employees resigned or were fired by the store late last year, according to documents reviewed by The Globe and Mail and conversations with several of the workers.

Shots fired at homes of two executives tied to waste management giant GFL

The homes of two executives tied to Canadian waste management giant GFL Environmental Inc. were shot at earlier this week –within one hour of each other – Robyn Doolittle and Tim Kiladze report. The first shooting took place at 11:52 p.m. Sunday in Rosedale at the home of GFL founder and CEO Patrick Dovigi. A second house was shot at one hour later, at 12:58 a.m. Monday, at the home of Ted Manziaris, a long-time business partner of Mr. Dovigi’s. GFL, which is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, is a serial acquirer of smaller rivals and has become one of the four largest waste management companies in Canada. The shootings are being investigated by Toronto Police’s guns and gangs unit, and police believe the incidents are connected and that the houses were targeted.

First-time homebuyers fear Ottawa’s new mortgage rules will drive up prices

When the recently-announced new mortgage rules go into effect in December, first-time homebuyers are concerned that it will drive up real estate prices and make it harder to buy a property, Rachelle Younglai reports. Under the new policies, first-time homebuyers will be given a longer time to pay down their mortgages, and all buyers will be allowed to put down smaller down payments on homes worth more than $1-million. But prospective buyers looking for their first home are worried that an influx of new buyers will increase competition and force them to take out a longer mortgage — and incur more debt over a longer period of time — just to secure a deal.

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