Winnipeg artist Divya Mehra wins $100K Sobey prize for visual art

We all seek certainty in our daily lives. We expect if we make a decision, the outcome will be just as we planned: a direct correlation between the decision and result.

You, as a business leader, seek the same certainty from the decisions you make. And sometimes, the result is what was expected. Sometimes, it isn’t.

The big question is: why is it so difficult to achieve the business results you expect when you carefully craft your plans and seemingly make good decisions?

The truth is we cannot predict the future. This means we almost never know precisely how customers will respond to a sales quote, what competitors are planning, and a myriad of other external variables at play.

BEIJING - A Chinese court sentenced a Canadian man to death Monday in a sudden retrial in a drug smuggling case that is likely to escalate tensions between the countries over the arrest of a top Chinese technology executive.

The court in northeastern Liaoning province announced that it had given Robert Lloyd Schellenberg the death penalty after rejecting his plea of innocence and convicting him of being an accessory to drug smuggling. It gave no indication that the penalty could be commuted, but Schellenberg's fate could become intertwined in diplomatic negotiations over China's demand for the top executive's release.

Schellenberg was detained more than four years ago and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016. But suddenly last month, an appeals court agreed with prosecutors who said the sentence was too lenient, and scheduled Monday's retrial with just four days' notice.

The Chinese press began publicizing Schellenberg's case in December after Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, on Dec. 1 at the request of the United States.