CANADALAND

Last year, we published an episode about all the tape that didn’t make it into one of our shows. Today is different… but similar. Here are three interviews we did that just never made it to air. And we’ll tell you why they never made it to air. Next month on Off The Record we are back to our call-in show format. On Thursday August 27, 2026 we will be taking your calls on a new question. Seasonal n...

Seven years in, we're looking at what might just be the longest and most involved media defamation trial in Canadian history: former Alberta United Conservative Party candidate Caylan Ford is suing PressProgress, the CBC, Toronto Star and several others, for $7.65 million. She says that they wrongly portrayed her as a white supremacist, they say that they were only quoting her…  Host: Jesse B...

Stories about The Prime Minister’s residence at 24 Sussex just won’t die. Lumber barons, dead brides, Trudeau’s secret pool, nacho machines, you name it. But now, the Prime Minister’s crumbling, rat-infested, maybe haunted official residence is getting a re-vamp.  Carney just launched a fifty-million-dollar national campaign to actually fix the place. What is he planning? And what does it say...

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Palestinian-American writer who grew up in Gaza City. When he was eleven years-old he survived an Israeli airstrike that killed two of his friends and left him with permanent hearing loss in one ear. He travelled to the United States as a teenage exchange student in 2005 and later received political asylum after Hamas took over in Gaza. He now leads Realign for Palestine,...

San Grewal and Rahim Mohamed discuss Robyn Urback's opinion piece in the Globe and Mail, titled, “Like a bad ex, Donald Trump is accidentally making Canada become its best self”. Indeed, national pride seems to be at an all-time high, but is it warranted? After all, hate crimes are on the rise, two Jewish bakeries were vandalized last weekend, and a group of white supremacists just threw a "family...

After the Premier's meeting in PEI last week hosts San Grewal and Rahim Mohamed look at who got the media's attention, who didn't, and what strategies Premiers are using to capture the nation's interest. Correction: In this episode, host San Grewal gives an example of a "Sikh physician would not be allowed to wear his turban in a public hospital." Bill 21 provides an exemption for hospital workers...

Canada's relationship with Donald Trump feels like it's one big, messy, public fight. Meanwhile, Mexico seems... strangely calm. Has President Claudia Sheinbaum figured out how to deal with Trump in a way we haven’t? Host Noor Azrieh talks to journalist David Agren, who has covered Mexico for more than two decades, about Trump's latest tariff threats, the CUSMA negotiations, and whether there's ac...

Is the American empire officially in its "dying animal" era? Author and cultural critic Stephen Marche certainly thinks so and for the first time in his career, he’s feeling downright optimistic. In Stephen's view, the collapse of U.S. global dominance isn't a tragedy for Canada; it's a once-in-a-generation opportunity to ditch our toxic relationship with American markets, invest in our own sovere...

Decoding Carney’s climate pivot.  Despite the headlines about pipelines and Carney’s offer to double oil exports to the US, Canada’s future as an energy superpower may still be clean and green.  Max Fawcett joins to explain why Carney is distancing himself from Trudeau’s climate policies, while laying the groundwork for Canada’s energy transition. Host: Jesse Brown Credits: James Nichols...

After threatening to tariff Canada in response to wildfire smoke crossing the border, Trump announces 50% tariffs on a long list of products, ostensibly in response to Canada’s "discriminatory" trade practices. Trump says these aren’t the wildfire tariffs, but are they the wildfires tariffs? Meanwhile, will Canada finally get serious about wildfires as a result of Trump’s absurd threats? Host: Jes...

Unsealed U.S. indictments allege that India-based organized crime networks orchestrated political assassinations, extortion schemes, and large-scale drug trafficking across North America and Europe. And according to prosecutors, Canada wasn't just another country caught in the crossfire. It was both a target for extortion and a hub for cross-border operations. Host Noor Azrieh asks Punjab-based jo...

Kevin O'Leary is not just a rich Canadian businessman — he's a phenomenon. He's a media phenomenon both here in Canada and in the US. And he's known for one thing: being an asshole.  But is he really an asshole? Is it just a schtick? A character? A clown that he plays on TV to entertain us all? Or is it all sincere? Does he mean all of the stuff he says? And if he does mean it, why should we...

Danielle Smith announces a $13 billion Meta data centre in Sturgeon County, Alberta, set to be the largest in Canada. In contrast to Carney’s federal A.I. strategy, which promised clean, sovereign, and ethical A.I.,  Smith refers to the Meta project as a “digital refinery,” fuelled by a natural gas plant that will be built to power it.  Instead of digital sovereignty, is Canada going to...

Booze, bridges, and the fog of the trade war. Canada’s booze boycotts are working, and Senator Adam Schiff says it’s unfair and devastating for the California wine industry. Isn’t that the point?  Meanwhile, Carney offers concessions to Trump on the Gordie Howe Bridge deal. Did we get bamboozled?  Plus, a Wall Street Journal deep dive paints Carney as the leader of the resistance against...

Canada’s Access to Information Act was supposed to give Canadians a window into their government. But more than 40 years later, critics say the system is failing — with delays, redactions, and a culture of secrecy. Host Noor Azrieh speaks with transparency activist Ken Rubin, journalist Dean Beeby, and lawyer Matt Malone about the fight over the future of access to information in Canada, and why p...

Canada’s  Assisted Human Reproduction Act made it illegal to pay a woman to donate her eggs in Canada. The goal was to avoid incentivizing women to donate their eggs without fully understanding the risks of the procedure. But loopholes and a lax regulatory system have let a “grey market” prosper. In her investigation Gemma Boothroyd spent months meeting egg donors, doctors, researchers, lawyers —...

Canadian newsrooms are hesitant to embrace A.I. but new tools offer the potential to revolutionize workflows and expand the capacity of individual journalists. Rather than a threat to journalism, Kevin Newman joins Julian Abraham to explain why A.I. should be viewed as an opportunity for newsrooms to create new business models and do more in-depth reporting.   Host: Julian Abraham Credit...

A new strictly Canadian social media platform is promising a friendlier alternative, but is it too Canadian to succeed?  Gander Social launched on Canada Day with an ambitious plan to “fix” social media with a bot-free, less divisive approach that includes moderation based on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.  But, do people really want social media that “makes them smile”?&nb...

 Fifty years ago, Alberta had a chance to build one of the greatest sovereign wealth funds in the world. It could have been a trillion-dollar province. This episode, host Sam traces the full story of the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund: the booms, the busts, and the mistakes made along the way. How did the richest province in Canadian history end up with almost nothing saved?  And no...

Investigative reporter Laura Robinson and Senator Marilou McPhedran were accused of faking government documents. The RCMP were called in followed quickly by the Senate Ethics Committee.  Several weeks ago that committee finally handed down their verdict. For years Robinson could say little about the case. But today she brings the whole story to Canadaland. The story of her part in an operatio...

You might not be super familiar with the name Corus Entertainment, but you definitely know their work: Global News, Teletoon, YTV, Treehouse, Showcase etc. Since 1987 Corus has dominated Canadian media across TV and radio, but just last month (June 2026) they reported a $36.5-million loss in the third quarter! With yet another Canadian legacy media company, Corus Entertainment, at risk of being ta...

Today we’re talking about Canadaland the company the show. Where is Canadaland going in 2026? CBS, CNN, maybe The Rivoli?  CanCon jokes aside, today Sam sits down with Jesse to talk all about the state of Canadaland. We have a new collective bargaining agreement, we have a new Journalistic Standards and Practices document, we have new hosts coming on board. And what new shows are we working o...

It's hard not to be swept up into the overflowing joy and national pride gripping millions across the country, as Canada’s men’s national soccer team plays on the world’s largest stage, and it’s certainly an accomplishment that deserves a huge celebration. But as the economic benefits promised by FIFA don’t seem to be meeting reality, we have to ask: are the good vibes really worth the financial r...

An Iraqi man, Mohammad Baqer Saad Dawood al-Saadi, is at the center of a major U.S. terrorism case. Federal prosecutors allege he helped coordinate nearly 20 attacks across Europe and North America as an operative of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In a recorded conversation cited in the criminal complaint, Al-Saadi allegedly claimed members of his network carried out two attacks...

From Upton Sinclair to modern day animal activists, going undercover has been a staple of animal cruelty reporting. But in Ontario, a court recently ruled that it might be illegal to get that footage, that reporting, in the first place — you can no longer take a job under false pretences on farms in Ontario.  Why do animal rights activists believe they should have a right to lie? What do farmers a...