Front Burner

What does a reporter do when they receive a cold call from one of the most horrific serial killers in Canadian history? The killer: Clifford Olson, who murdered at least eleven children in the 1980s. The reporter: Arlene Bynon, who recorded her jailhouse calls with Olson for years. Alongside legendary journalist Peter Worthington, Arlene spent hundreds of hours on the phone with Olson. It was kept...

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced plans to officially recognize Palestinian statehood in September — if certain criteria are met — marking a radical departure on Canada’s position in the region. Evan Dyer is a reporter with the CBC’s parliamentary bureau. He joins the show for a discussion about this landmark moment in Canadian foreign policy, the status of Canadian arms sales to I...

Late last week, the UK government implemented a new set of rules from its Online Safety Act to keep children away from quote, “harmful and age-inappropriate content”. Companies ranging from pornography websites, social media platforms, and large search engines will need to comply by building guardrails that would prevent children from accessing porn, or material that promotes self-harm or eating d...

The U.S. federal immigration law enforcement agency — ICE — is offshoring migrants incarcerated in the U.S. to detention camps in Africa. In at least one of these cases, migrants were told they would be transported to a domestic detention facility and instead were taken to a prison located nearly 10,000 KM away from the U.S.   This decision to deport groups of people in American prisons,...

A New York City billionaire and conservative talk radio host. Two of the most vocally antivax members of Donald Trump's administration. Protesters associated with the "Freedom Convoy" that occupied downtown Ottawa in 2022. What do they have in common? They all want to save a herd of more than 400 ostriches on a small farm in rural B.C. Earlier this year, Universal Ostrich Farms was ordered to cull...

When the Trump administration announced earlier this month that it was dropping its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and would not be releasing any further "Epstein files," it was already an unpopular decision among the MAGA faithful — many of whom Donald Trump won over by leaning into conspiracy theories about pedophilic political elites. In the weeks since, the rift has only widened. New revel...

A trial that was seven years in the making came to its conclusion with all five former Hockey Canada players found not guilty of sexual assault. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote were acquitted in a London, Ontario courtroom by Justice Maria Carroccia. McLeod was also found not guilty of being a party to a sexual assault. All five had pleaded not guilty. The At...

Many First Nations leaders across Canada are furious about two laws just passed by both the federal government and Ontario's provincial government. The Protecting Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act and the federal Building Canada Act, better known as Bill 5 and Bill C5, are meant to fast-track large development projects and have faced similar criticisms. Many Indigenous people say the bills sto...

Groups known as "active clubs" are growing across Canada. They often meet in public parks or martial arts clubs, and say they are building community and fitness while standing up for Canada's European history. But they're part of a decentralized network with deep ties to white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and other far-right groups — and they're spreading fast. An exclusive CBC investigation has uncover...

Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, told journalists earlier this month that he has instructed the military to draw up plans for a camp in southern Gaza, which would eventually house the entire population of the strip. According to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, Katz said residents would not be allowed to leave once they entered — although he and other Israeli officials are still talking about pl...

In the rapidly growing world of generative AI chatbots, Grok stands out. Created by Elon Musk's xAI and touted as a "politically incorrect," "anti-woke" alternative to models like ChatGPT, Grok has become a pervasive presence on Musk's social media platform X. So a lot of people took notice earlier this month when Grok started spouting anti-Semitic stereotypes, making violent sexually charged thre...

U.S. President Donald Trump promised to make America the cryptocurrency capital of the world and he’s been working to make good on that. This week, in what House Republicans dubbed “Crypto Week”, he pushed Congress to pass three major pieces of legislation championed by the industry. Trump hasn’t always been a fan of crypto but after his sons caught on and tens of millions from the crypto industry...

After more than four decades of activism and advocacy, David Suzuki is one of the most renowned and respected voices in the environmental movement. So when he says it's too late to stop climate change, people take notice. And that's now exactly what he's saying. He's delivering this message as Prime Minister Mark Carney's government focuses on fast-tracking major projects it deems to be of nationa...

Zohran Mamdani’s win in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York is one of the most stunning upsets in the city’s political history. The 33-year-old assemblyman led a campaign focused on affordability, with a platform that included a rent freeze, free public transportation and free child care. Zohran’s win garnered international attention. It also marked the introduction of the first star the...

U.S. President Donald Trump wrote letters to over two dozen trading partners last week, threatening a fresh set of tariffs. Canada was among them and is now facing the possibility of 35% tariffs on all Canadian goods that don’t comply with CUSMA, the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, if a deal isn’t reached by August 1st.  Where do our negotiations with the Trump administration stand and how much...

To kick off the week, we tackle a few big stories in two realms of Canadian politics: the military, and the federal public service. First, the Ottawa Citizen's David Pugliese tells us about the investigation into a Facebook group where military members of one regiment regularly share misogynistic, racist and derogatory content. He also shares his thoughts on another story involving the Canadian ar...

Following years of speculation, this week U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed the existence of a long-rumored "Epstein client list," and reaffirmed that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide. This comes after months of hopes — in some quarters — that Trump would make good on his promise to reveal more details about the case and those involved in a powerful network surrounding the now-dead Epstein....

The Dalai Lama has spent almost his entire adult life as a refugee from his homeland of Tibet. Fleeing Chinese persecution in the 1950s, he has built a nation in exile, striving to preserve Tibetan culture as not just the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, but as a global ambassador for his people's cause. But he knows a transition is coming. On his 90th birthday this week, the Dalai Lama annou...

Search efforts continue in central Texas after extraordinary flash flooding killed more than 100 people. As the death toll rises, questions are growing about whether local, state and federal authorities should have done more to warn residents, and help them get to safety. The disaster is also placing fresh scrutiny on the Trump administration's enormous cuts to the federal bodies involved in...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington this week, meeting with Donald Trump and senior members of the Trump administration, in a trip that could end in a Gaza ceasefire agreement expected to last 60 days.  The critical questions revolve around Hamas’ attitude toward the repatriation of the remaining 50 Israeli hostages in their custody, and Israel’s hesitancy to agree to a...

The passing of Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill last week came with over a trillion dollars of cuts to Medicaid, kicking an estimated 12 million Americans off health insurance coverage by 2034. And it was passed with the blessing of the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Widespread upheaval of the American healthcare system, including cuts to public health departments a...

After a long and very public trial, producer and music mogul Sean Diddy Combs has been found not guilty of the most severe charges against him. On Wednesday he was acquitted of racketeering and sex trafficking, but found guilty on lesser charges - two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. This was widely considered as a huge victory for Diddy. During the trial, prosecu...

Prime Minister Mark Carney made big promises to transform the Canadian economy, fast track national building projects and secure a trade deal with U.S. He also set Canada Day this year as a deadline for some key goals. How has he done so far and what are we learning about what he’s willing to do to make things happen? Plus, where do trade talks stand now that Ottawa has dropped the Digital Service...

For at least the last decade U.S. President Doanld Trump has discussed his desire to end the practice of birthright citizenship. On his first day back in office Trump passed an executive order looking to exclude the children of undocumented people from birthright citizenship completely: an action that was immediately challenged in lower courts across the country.  Last week, the U.S. Supreme...

The Outlaw Ocean is an anthology podcast that plunges you into the vast and often lawless world of the open seas. Today we're featuring an investigation from S2 called The repo man of the seas.  In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Urbina joins Max Hardberger. Depending on who you ask, Max is either a seagoing James Bond or a swashbuckling pirate. Hardberger runs a rare kind...