E-TRADE Canada - Bid On Celebrity Items From Wayne Gretzky, Liam Neeson and More; Celebrity Charity Online Auction Surfs Into Action; Father's Day Initiative to Benefit CANFAR.

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 1999--

E-TRADE Canada(TSE:V) (ME:V). Canada's top online companies are coming together to give back to the community with an unprecedented and innovative Internet charity auction. From May 26 - June 13, leading Canadian websites will feature banners and buttons linked to the E-TRADE Canada Charity Online auction site, where Internet users can bid online for items donated by Canadian and international celebrities. All proceeds will be donated to CANFAR, the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research. To visit the auction, go to www.canada.etrade.com and click on the Charity Online link.

The E-TRADE Canada Charity Online auction items are suitable as Father's Day gifts, or as special treats for practically everyone. The donated items range from the easily affordable to the truly extravagant - including a hockey puck signed by Wayne Gretzky, a jersey signed by Bobby Orr, a CD autographed by Alanis Morrisette, a hat and T-shirt from Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace's Liam Neeson, and a shiny black 1954 Jaguar.

In addition to supporting the auction, a number of sponsors will make special donations. Lead sponsor E-TRADE Canada, a Canadian online investing service for individual investors, will donate $100 to CANFAR for each new account opened by June 30 by anyone who has registered on the auction site. People can register on the auction site without actually bidding for an item. In total, E-TRADE Canada will donate a minimum of $5,000. Another sponsor, Chapters.ca, will give everyone who registers on the site a $10 gift certificate for its merchandise, such as books, videos, CDs and software.

"It's inspiring to see Canada's online companies working together in an innovative way to bring Canadians online for charity," says Colleen Moorehead, President of E-TRADE Canada, the lead sponsor of the auction. "Not only will you be contributing to a great cause, the online auction will be a fun way to find unique gifts for the special men in your life - or even for yourself."

The auction items will be displayed on a special web page, where participants can enter bids throughout the auction period. The highest bid for an item as of noon, Sunday, June 13th, will win - in time for it to be delivered to the winner before Father's Day on Sunday, June 20. (Other arrangements will be made for delivery of the Jaguar.)

You can find more detailed auction information at www.canada.etrade.com.

Auction sponsors include E-TRADE Canada, Canada's leading online investing service for the independent investor; AOL Canada, an interactive online service; Bargoon.com, an Internet auction service operated by Salter New Media Limited (TSE:SSF); and Chapters.ca (TSE:CHP), an e-commerce company that sells books, videos and DVDs, music CDs and software. In addition to these key sponsors, a wide range of companies, including: Infopreneur Inc., Quicken.ca, Globe and Mail, Carlson OnLine, iDirect, Sympatico, Canada Corporate News, International Teledata Group, i-Money, Gordon Pape, and McManus Elliott Communications Inc., will support the auction by donating products and services, or by proudly displaying the Charity Online hyperlink on their websites.

The proceeds from the auction will benefit CANFAR, the only Canadian organization devoted to raising awareness and funds from the private sector for HIV/AIDS research. As of December 31, 1998, CANFAR had provided $4.6 million in research grants to 186 scientists across Canada. According to CANFAR national spokesperson and CTV personality Valerie Pringle: "It's wonderful that the same businesses leading Canada into a new age of online commerce are also taking the lead in encouraging philanthropy online. CANFAR supports Canadian scientists in their quest to find effective treatment and even a cure for HIV/AIDS - and online companies are showing all of us that it pays to dream big."

E-TRADE Canada is a service of VERSUS Brokerage Services Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of VERSUS Technologies Inc. (TSE:V) (ME: V). E-TRADE Canada is a trademark of E-TRADE Securities, Inc. and is used with their permission.