After a day of posting great news from three startups, I hate to end things on a sad note.

The Canadian VC community is getting hit hard again, this time it looks like VenturesWest is on its heels. The Ottawa office has been shuttered several key folks have left.

Departures appear to include Chris Laird, David Mcintyre, Maha Katabi as well as Robin Axon, who has been a supporter of the startup community here in Toronto.

There is no official word yet as to what is going on and whether this is a reshuffling or whether the fund is being wound down. There have been persistent rumors lately indicating the latter. We will try to get some word tomorrow when someone is picking up the phone.

The Canadian VC industry in general seems to be paying the price for poor returns in the last few years with more and more of the talk on the street focusing on funds being unable to raise new rounds from LPs and the mood was decidedly bleak at the recent CVCA National Convention. Is this the beginning of a trend, or just a bad blip in the Canadian VC story?