She stole millions from her boss. Then she got caught.

It’s every boss’s nightmare: to discover that a trusted member of your staff was surreptitiously stealing millions of dollars from your company. That’s what happened to Besim Halef, the founder and CEO of BANC Group, one of Halifax’s biggest property developers. He had employed Sherri Lamarche, now a convicted criminal, as a bookkeeper for 15 years.

Turns out Sherri Lamarche had a gambling problem. At first she stole small chunks from her boss, sums under $10,000. But the amounts grew. She cultivated a taste for travel. She visited Uganda, Tanzania and Thailand. She took cruises. She upgraded her car. And spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year gambling. The story of her long con—and how she was ultimately caught—is a riveting tale of deception and manipulation by Sarah Treleaven, published in the August issue of Maclean’s. The story also provides a fascinating window into the world of gambling addiction and the imperfect ways people cope with being caught.

—Sarah Fulford, editor-in-chief

Labour shortages and the sky-high cost of living have created the perfect climate for a rise in strike action across Canada, says labour expert Stephanie Ross. In this Q&A, Ross discusses how the strikes are affecting the labour market, and how generational attitudes are influencing the fight for better working conditions.

In 2018, Paul and Tina Schlotfeldt bought a fire-scorched plot of land bordering the Okanagan Mountain Provincial Park, with plans to build a home. Inspired by the mountain beetle, the architects designed a hard, fire-resistant shell to protect the couple from the area’s harsh elements. “We didn’t want to wreck the environment with a mansion,” says Paul. “We wanted it to remain wild.” Check out their mountaintop home, with panoramic views of the Okanagan Lake, from nearly every angle.

RSV is often flagged as a risk for infants and young children, but anyone can get RSV and adults 60 years and older are vulnerable to serious effects from the virus.

MY
ARRIVAL

Timothy Mark Bernard first came to Ontario from St. Lucia in 2010 to work in a greenhouse. Since then, he’s travelled back and forth, juggling work and family. Now, he’s applying to make Canada his permanent home, and the hardest part is not knowing when his family will be able to join him. “My wife is excited to come here. She’s good with taking care of children and the elderly, and my kids would grow up to have jobs here too,” Bernard writes.

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