I grew up in the Ottawa region. One of my closest friends, his Dad lost his job, his pension[0], and the entire local IT market crumbled. The guy became a carpenter I believe- which is awesome- but starting over when you already have teenage kids is really tough.

[0]Nortel's pension plan primarily invested in Nortel stocks. Genius, right? There's now laws in place entirely because of that debacle.

I’m guessing they worked at Nortel