TORONTO—The COVID−19 pandemic has upended the lives of Canadians across the country, causing many to lose their jobs or businesses, or to adapt to a new life spent mostly at home. Some are leaning into the disruption, however, using these uncertain times as a launchpad for major life changes they may not otherwise have embraced. Here are some of their stories. Kristina Chau, 41 In the end it, took only six weeks for Kristina Chau and her partner to pack up their lives, sell their things and move to Nicaragua. But the change had been many months in the making, percolating since the first wave of the pandemic brought her career running an event production company to a standstill, she said in a recent interview from their new home in Hacienda Iguana, a gated community on the country’s Pacific coast. When Ontario was put under lockdown last winter, Chau initially …