Nepotism, corruption and blackmail--the key to all successful businesses. Indigo was started by Heather Reisman, and bought out Chapters four years later thanks to the Onex Corp., headed by Gerry Schwartz. Wanna guess who he's married to? Yes, Heather Reisman. (More than a few people have wondered if Indigo wasn't created with the express goal of taking over Chapters in the first place.) The merger was sanctioned by the government with barely a wrist slap, making the combined entity sell off some of their stores, which they were promptly able to rebuy or drive the new owners out of business because it was difficult to compete with a juggernaut like Indigo/Chapters. Schwartz, a billionaire and one of the richest men in the country, is chummy with the government, at the time the Liberals, and then switching his support to the Conservadors in 2006 a few months after they came into power (supposedly over the Lebanon War that summer). Moreover, his Onex Corp.--a beast of such numerous tendrils that it ought to have been written about by H.P. Lovecraft--is Canada's second largest employer, just behind the government itself. What do you suppose government officials say to underlings who'd like to bring antitrust lawsuits against the pet project of the wife of a billionaire backer and the country's largest private employer? Yeah. The case has never gotten the attention it deserves, either from the government, or in the public sphere (and, on that note, guess who co-founded CanWest Global Media? Yep, Schwartz.)
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
