Saturday digest: What went wrong between John Risley and Brendan Paddick?, and other notes
I wonder if there are many shared smiles between John Risley and Brendan Paddick these days, as the two of them deal with separate court actions — one in which they are pitted against each other, the other in which they are accused of enriching themselves at the expense of investors — in two separate provinces.
Risley is fighting in Nova Scotia court for the future of his investment firm, trying to keep his creditors at bay. One of the people chasing him in court is Brendan Paddick, who made his own fortune in the cable industry in rural Newfoundland, and who has been a business ally to Risley for at least a couple of decades. (Paddick has many other connections, too; he founded the Dollar A Day Foundation with singer Alan Doyle and former N.L. premier Andrew Furey.)
The photo above was taken by the venerable Canadian Press photographer Andrew Vaughan in 2007, at a shareholders meeting for Clearwater Fine Foods. That’s Risley on the left, and Paddick smiling by his side.
CFFI Ventures Inc. is the successor company that Risley founded, and its current problems are mighty, if not staggering. It emerged this week that CFFI owes more than US $776 million.
That’s a considerable sum, at three quarters of a billion dollars, and it prompted me to recall the book about Risley that came out in 2023: Net Worth: John Risley, Clearwater, and the Building of a Billion-Dollar Empire.
Risley is hoping his creditors will agree with a restructuring plan involving a transfer of ownership.
In the meantime, he’s also dealing with a lawsuit brought against him by Paddick. From the CP report:
Also Tuesday, Risley’s longtime business associate, Brendan Paddick, filed an application in Nova Scotia Supreme Court claiming CFFI owed him more than $22 million…. When reached by phone on Wednesday, Risley said he had not seen Paddick’s suit. He also said he had been advised not to comment further on CFFI’s restructuring.
And here’s some of the nitty gritty:
Meanwhile, Paddick’s lawsuit claims he provided CFFI with a “substantial loan” in 2018. Paddick alleges the company said in a promissory note in January 2024 that it owed him $15.8 million plus 14 per cent interest. The company said it would add three per cent to the interest rate each year if it failed to make interest payments, the lawsuit claims. Paddick alleges CFFI defaulted on the note and now owes him $22.8 million, plus 20 per cent interest.
Risley was a driving force to develop what proponents insisted on calling “green hydrogen” in western Newfoundland, in a project that would develop wind energy in and around the Port au Port Peninsula, and then export processed hydrogen to markets in Europe.
There definitely was hype. Former German chancellor Olaf Scholz signed a tentative agreement with Canadian officials in Stephenville in August 2022, promoting what was then called a “transatlantic Canada-Germany supply corridor.”
The idea was to export energy by 2025. In January 2026, a CBC headline summed it up: “John Risley calls time of death on green hydrogen plans. But he’s still set on wind turbines.” Risley said millions of dollars were then being spent on developing an Atlantic power grid that would benefit from wind energy.
Paddick, in a profile for Atlantic Business magazine published in early 2015, described how his relationship with Risley worked:
“He is a great partner for me. Where I am impatient, he is measured. Where I gloss over details he picks his way through them, seldom missing anything. When I get emotional and excited, he stays calm and cool. When I start talking about technology in detail or specifics which are close to nonsense he doesn’t expose me as uninitiated or just plain ignorant but politely fills the gaps and corrects the message… We can both disagree with one another, get angry at each other and five minutes later bury the hatchet and move on.”
Paddick’s suit against Risley, as mentioned, is not the only court date the two have together.
In January, the Globe & Mail reported that a proposed class action lawsuit has been brought against MDA Space Inc., including Paddick, in his role as chair of the board. From the story (gift subscription link included):
Meanwhile, the statement of claim alleges that during August, 2025, [CEO Mike] Greenley, Mr. Paddick and director John Risley became “unjustly enriched” when they collectively sold more than $85-million worth of MDA shares when the company’s share price was at a record high.
At that time, a statement of defence had not yet been filed.
Some interesting times ahead.
Quick bits: Some things I’ve read lately
St. John’s is rethinking its use of mail-in ballots, after a strike-plagued election that saw the lowest turnout ever with that method.
Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court toss-out of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff order “marked a muscular show of independence by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.,” says this NYT analysis.
The use of antidepressants has soared in Russia during the years of war against Ukraine.
Behind the 8-ball: Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, eighth in line to the British throne, may be legislated out of the succession.
Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights adaptation has been accused of whitewashing the vague but definite dark ethnicity from the Brontë original, and has also been called “astonishingly bad.”
Kid Rock is having more problems.
It’s never been kerfluffle, Michael
I got a kick out of this exchange with political writer Michael Woolf — whose specialty for more than a decade has been the foibles of Donald Trump — and Joanna Coles of the Daily Beast, as Woolf insists “kerfluffle,” with an extra L, is a real word. It’s cued up for you.
My kitchen, my sanctuary
I read an interesting bit about home design in a newsletter from Monocle magazine (you can read it archived here). It argued against the trend for open-plan design, especially for kitchens:
Though an open-plan kitchen might work in compact mid-century homes (pictured above), small apartments and airy lofts, a closed kitchen maintains a sense of intimacy that is hard to come by in our already highly supervised world. It’s meant for smaller gatherings and quick get-togethers, where you don’t need to bring out the fine china and set up the dining table. It’s an invitation-only area, away from prying eyes and unsolicited cooking advice.
The post notes that Julia Child appreciated the walls on her own kitchen. I wrote a post in January about Child, including a note about her kitchen, which was painstakingly recreated in one of the Smithsonian museums.
Our own kitchen probably benefits from walls. I like the wide open spaces that connect other parts of our living space, but it’s true: the kitchen is a place where we can focus. Walls make it cosy. Being Newfoundlanders, the kitchen is almost always where people congregate during parties, and we wouldn’t have that any other way, too.
Kermie hands for all
Like millions of people, we tuned into The Muppet Show reboot special that aired on ABC and streamed on Disney+. I liked it, and it met the enthusiasm I had expressed in this post about a month ago. As to why it worked, I agree with a lot that’s in this video:
“Kermie hands,” by the way, have been the words that my sister, Lisa, and I have exchanged with each other to say hello, preferably with something like this.
May the Muppets continue to provide gifs to siblings for many years to come.
Have a wonderful weekend, and thanks to everyone who has taken the time to get in touch. You can reach me at john@johngushue.com.