Good morning. Today we’re looking at how Weihong (Ruby) Liu’s contentious play for 25 former Hudson’s Bay stores fell apart after her team portrayed her as the person who would “save Canadian retail”– a case The Globe spent months following. That’s in focus today, along with Ottawa’s Swedish affairs.
Up first
In the news
Energy: Sources say Michael Sabia is playing a key role in negotiations between Ottawa and Alberta that appear close to striking an energy accord
Labour: Ontario has suspended a fast-track immigration stream for skilled tradespeople, citing “systemic compliance and enforcement concerns”
Trade: The U.S. has quietly opened the door to lowering tariffs on some Canadian steel and aluminum exports
Ruby Liu is shown leaving court in Toronto. June 23, 2025.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
In focus
Why a B.C. billionaire’s bid for HBC stores fell apart
Hi, I’m Susan Krashinsky Robertson, The Globe’s retail industry reporter, and I’ve been covering the demise of Hudson’s Bay Co. for months, ever since Canada’s oldest retailer was granted court protection from its creditors in March.
After the 355-year-old company tried and failed to come up with a plan to save even a handful of its stores, the liquidation of its assets began. That included clearing its store shelves; selling off its brand names, logos and recognizable multistripe design; auctioning its art collection; and seeking retailers who might be willing to pay to take over the leases on those empty store spaces.
Then, HBC announced in late May that it was not a retailer, but a B.C. real estate executive named Weihong (Ruby) Liu who had won the bidding for 28 of those stores. After Liu’s initial plan to launch a new chain of department stores called “New Bay” raised trademark concerns, she said instead that she wanted to name the stores Ruby Liu.
But as The Globe first reported in June, landlords became concerned after meetings in which Liu was unable to satisfactorily answer questions about how she would operate those stores.
A business plan prepared by Central Walk included images of the Ruby Liu logo and renderings of the interiors of the proposed department stores.Supplied
What resulted was a bitter legal battle that included accusations of corruption and discrimination, “inappropriate” letters to the judge in the case and questions about whether Liu’s business plans were realistic.
The Globe has published an in-depth examination of the case, finding examples of unusual conduct beyond the details that have been made public in the past several months.
With help from my colleague, Hong Kong-based reporter James Griffiths, as well as Alexandra Li in Beijing, our story looked at discrepancies between what Liu said publicly about her plans for the Bay – and about her business background – and what she said elsewhere.
We found omissions and contradictions from the information supplied to the Canadian courts, including about her hiring plans for the stores, and allegations in China about leasing practices at a mall she owned there.
Liu receives the keys to the former HBC retail space at Tsawwassen Mills shopping mall, another of her B.C. retail acquisitions, in June.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
There were also signs of unusual attempts to demonstrate support, including by packing the courtroom with an entourage of supporters and by adding a Canadian trade reporter who had been writing about the case to her payroll.
You can read our feature story about how the deal fell apart. Or you can listen to the Decibel podcast episode.
What’s next
It continues to be a busy week for Bay news.
The highlights of the company’s art collection are on the auction block today, when bidding will be under way in Toronto. We’ve got a look at the most notable pieces up for sale, including art by Sir Winston Churchill, and by Canadian painters such as William von Moll Berczy and Frederic Marlett Bell-Smith.
With more than 1,700 pieces of art and more than 2,700 artifacts, the Bay collection will take months to process and sell.
Plus, the company heads back to court on Friday to discuss the sale of by far its most valuable artifact: the 1670 royal charter that gave Hudson’s Bay a trading monopoly over a vast swath of North America, and that played a pivotal role in Canada’s history.
The fate of the charter is being closely watched by historians, Indigenous groups and government officials, who all want to ensure that the document is appropriately preserved, kept in public hands and presented in a way that accounts for its complicated history.
Charted
This or that?
Have homes gotten pricier – or has money lost its value? As shown in the chart, while home prices have surged in nominal terms, their value in older and longer-used forms of money, such as gold, is now at its lowest level in more than four decades. This might seem counterintuitive, but the reason is fiat currency.
Quoted
“We’re not looking for clients, we’re looking for partners. For us, being a smaller country, it is vital for us to share maintaining the cost of that [Gripen] platform and enhancing it during its lifecycle span.”
— Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson
Swedish defence company Saab is intensifying its campaign to secure Canadian aircraft sales with an offer to build the entire GlobalEye military surveillance plane in Canada. Meanwhile, Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia arrived in Ottawa yesterday to kick off a three-day state visit.
Up next
More files we’re following
Shake on it: Mark Carney hopes to woo foreign investment on a visit to the United Arab Emirates. Starting Thursday, the PM will be in the UAE to build relationships with investment funds and deep-pocketed companies.
Shake it: Elliott Investment Management L.P., an activist investor with a history of shaking up Canadian resource companies, is pushing for change at underperforming and leaderless Barrick Mining Corp.
Fake it: According to court records filed by the U.S. Attorney of New York, the planes that Flair Airlines used to launch its expansion in 2021 were allegedly purchased for it by an investor in a multimillion-dollar fraud using phony financial records.
Morning update
Global shares were mixed amid cautious trading as investors eyed what could be make-or-break earnings from chip giant Nvidia today and U.S. jobs data tomorrow.
Wall Street futures were in positive territory after a selloff yesterday, while TSX futures followed sentiment higher.
Overseas, the pan-European STOXX 600 was flat in morning trading. Britain’s FTSE 100rose 0.11 per cent, Germany’s DAX edged up 0.06 per cent and France’s CAC 40 gave back 0.2 per cent.
In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.34 per cent lower, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 0.38 per cent.
The Canadian dollar traded at 71.40 U.S. cents.