Terry Pender

The Medical Information Exchange, Canada’s first industry-led hub dedicated to helping med-tech start-ups scale successfully in Canada, is thriving.

The Guelph-based green-tech startup Friendlier now includes the Canadian-owned speciality food retailer Farm Boy among its customers. The fast-growing company’s re-usable containers and lids are normally found in corporate and institutional cafeterias, and the expansion into Farm Boy outlets around Ontario is the startup’s first move into grocery store chains.

The startup economy is expanding in Downtown Kitchener. After sitting empty for decades, the City of Kitchener and the University of Waterloo’s startup program Velocity, transformed the building at the west end of Joseph Street into what’s now called the Innovation Arena. It was once part of a sprawling factory that made rubber products, Kitchener is doubling down on its support for the innovation economy in the city’s downtown, which has transformed the west end of city centre.

The Waterloo Region Record’s Terry Pender documents how this led to Nazi war criminals quietly settling parts of Canada, including Waterloo Region.

Hera Fertility is a Communitech startup with a home-test kit for men to check their sperm counts and sperm health. It is among the first cohort of startups in Communitech’s new Medtech Accelerator. Sperm counts down by 50 per cent during the past 50 years, say medical experts.

A Kitchener-based hacker posted threats about buying guns for mass shootings and targeting black people. The hacker also has millions in cryptocurrency, and is an alleged mastermind behind the data breach of 165 American corporations using the online data storage platform called Snowflake. Connor Riley Moucka, also known as Alexander Antonin Moucka, 25, remains in the Maplehurst Correctional Complex. He is next scheduled to appear in the Superior Court of Justice Dec. 20, and an extradition hearing is scheduled for Dec. 17, 2025. He faces several charges in the U.S.

An accused hacker remains in jail waiting for legal aid after a brief appearance via Zoom in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice Friday morning. Connor Riley Moucka, 25, of Kitchener, faces several charges in the U.S. for one of the biggest data breaches in history.

Kitchener-based hacker Alexander “Connor” Moucka was unmasked after making threats against a woman on the messaging app Telegram. Moucka threatened Allison Nixon, the chief research officer at Unit221B, a U.S. cybersecurity firm.

The internet watchdog Citizen Lab has called out Amazon for censorship. Researchers at the Citizen Lab say Amazon will not send certain books to countries ruled by authoritarian regimes. The Citizen Lab released its report, called “Banned Books,” Monday Nov. 25.

The Kitchener-based farm-tech startup BinSentry raised $25 million during the past year, moved into a new location in the Communitech Tannery and is hiring 20 new workers. The founder and CEO Nathan Hoel said the new location has 11,000-square-feet but the fast-growing company will soon need more room. BinSentry developed technology that monitors the amount of feed, eliminating the need for farmers to climb ladders and physically inspect the bins.