Front Burner

In Canada, domestic violence has reached crisis levels. But in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a radical domestic abuse intervention project is showing the way forward, and how to save countless lives. Katie Nicholson joins Jayme Poisson to explain the “Blueprint for Safety” program and how it’s protecting victims of domestic violence.

COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have reached double digits. As efforts to contain the coronavirus in the U.S. continue, certain factors make it even more difficult. First, there's a shortage of test kits. Then there's the question of cost for patients. We look at the U.S. public health response with Laurie Garrett, a Pulitzer Prize-winning science journalist who built her career studying pandemics.

What happens when your fragile parenthood dream is not in your control? In the second part of our series on surrogacy in Canada, we look at how the surrogacy industry affects parents. The costs can reach more than $100,000. There’s a fear that they’re breaking the law. The pressure to not rock the boat is high. Jayme talks to Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez about the ways surrogacy is not working f...

As infertility rates go up in Canada, desperate couples are turning to surrogacy. But a new investigation reveals that because there are few federal regulations on the surrogacy system, the process isn’t working for everyone. Jayme Poisson speaks with Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez, who spent months investigating surrogacy in Canada, in the first of a two-part series.

That photo you posted to Instagram? It might be a part of Clearview AI’s massive database of some 3 billion images, all scraped from the internet. The facial recognition app has experts worried about privacy overreach. Canadian police forces first said they’re not using Clearview — until it turned out they are. Toronto Star reporters Wendy Gillis and Kate Allen have followed this story closely, an...

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders got off to a strong start in the early primaries and caucuses, but former vice-president Joe Biden is right behind him in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. After a major victory in South Carolina, Biden has momentum heading into Super Tuesday — when 14 states vote for their preferred candidate. Today on Front Burner, Alex Panetta from CBC's Washington...

The Dose is a new weekly podcast that answers everyday health questions like: What vaccines do adults need? Does your Fitbit actually make you fitter? Or, should I bother taking vitamins? Dr. Brian Goldman and the team behind White Coat Black Art bring you the best science from top experts in about the same amount of time as an appointment with your GP. Subscribe to The Dose at smarturl.it/thedose...

From Iran to Italy to South Korea — there are new epicentres for the coronavirus. On Thursday, World Health Organization officials stressed the need for governments to have national preparedness plans and training in place for health-care workers. Today on Front Burner, infectious disease expert Isaac Bogoch returns to the podcast to talk about how the public health response needs to change to add...

This week, a shocking report from L’Arche revealed Jean Vanier sexually abused at least six women. Less than a year ago, longtime Globe and Mail reporter Ian Brown wrote the obituary of Vanier. Brown wrote about how the beloved Canadian founder of L’Arche, an international network of communities for people with intellectual disabilities, will be remembered as a radical philosopher of disability. T...

The shelving of the Teck Resources Frontier project — an oilsands mine twice the size of Vancouver — has many arguing over the right balance between climate action and resource development. Today on Front Burner, we get two viewpoints on Canada's energy future: former TransCanada executive Dennis McConaghy and Stand.earth program director Tzeporah Berman. McConaghy says Canada is punishing itself...

A New York City jury has found Harvey Weinstein guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and of third-degree rape. Today, Megan Garber of The Atlantic joins Front Burner to unpack the court proceedings that led to Weinstein's conviction and discusses whether this trial is a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement

A challenge to Canada’s public healthcare system resumes Tuesday in BC’s Supreme Court. Dr. Brian Day -- who runs two private healthcare clinics in Vancouver -- says Canadians should have the right to pay for private treatment and that a two-tier system will cut down on wait times for everyone. Critics say this could undermine the entire Canadian public healthcare system. The CBC’s Dr. Brian Goldm...

A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Syria's Idlib province. Nearly one million people have been displaced since a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive began in December, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to ever-shrinking camps along the border with Turkey. Today on Front Burner, we talk to CNN senior correspondent Arwa Damon, who was just in Idlib, about what she saw on...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said this week he will donate $10 billion to fight climate change — working with others "both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting thedevastating impact of climate change." Today on Front Burner, we ask: What can $10 billion do for the environment? Guest host Michelle Shephard talks to David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth, which describe...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking Canadians to show "resolve" as he seeks an end to the rail blockades locking up trains in Canada. Hundreds of millions of dollars in goods are sitting idle on the tracks and CN Rail is laying off hundreds of workers as protesters demand police leave the territory of a B.C. First Nation. Trudeau is calling for dialogue, but offering few other details about hi...

In 2015, former Catholic priest Paul-André Harvey pled guilty to 39 counts of sexual assault and gross indecency against young girls. Before he died in 2018, he did something that sent shockwaves through his former Quebec diocese: he wrote a confession in which he alleged his superiors both enabled and covered up his crimes. Mark Kelley of CBC’s The Fifth Estate tells us about the role this confes...

Hamed Esmaeilion lost his wife and daughter in the downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight PS752 in Iran. Renée Sarojini Saklikar lost her aunt and uncle in the bombing of Air India Flight 182. Today on Front Burner, they share a conversation about confronting grief, living with unanswered questions and looking for justice in the midst of tragedy.

It’s been a week of nationwide protests, blockades and arrests over the Coastal GasLink pipeline, a section of which would pass through traditional Wet’suwet’en territory in northwestern British Columbia. At the core of this conflict is a long-running dispute over who has authority over the land where the pipeline would be contructed. Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Duncan McCue offers a close look a...

It's been almost 20 years since four jets were hijacked mid-air and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Penn., killing nearly 3,000 people. Pretrials have begun, and a full trial date for the surviving alleged plotters of the attack is set for January 2021, at Guantanamo Bay. But the legal case — and the logistics...

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kicked off an eight-day charm offensive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this past weekend, attending a meeting of the African Union. Now, he’s Dakar, Senegal. And it’s all part of the government’s efforts to get Canada a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Today, CBC’s Catherine Cullen explains why the government’s gunning for this seat, and whether all the time and...

The bitter fight over the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Northern B.C. continues to escalate. Over the last several days, the RCMP has moved in to enforce an injunction order to allow Coastal GasLink to get to work on the $6 billion project. Dozens of people have now been arrested, on Wet'suwet'en territory where the pipeline passes through, and at solidarity protests across the country...

Today, the Canadian company Bombardier is more than $9 billion US in debt. Over the years, it has received billions in taxpayer bailouts. But after some big failures, layoffs and criticism over executive bonuses, this time around may be different.

Throughout the 1980s, Satanic cults were widely believed to be terrorizing and torturing children. There were hundreds of false allegations and countless lives torn apart — but never any real proof. Uncover: Satanic Panic from CBC Podcasts is out now. Subscribe at cbc.ca/uncover

A CBC report has uncovered a series of internal government emails showing Canadian officials defending the use of glyphosate, frequently sold under the brand name Roundup. It's a herbicide that was at the heart of a landmark U.S. lawsuit in 2018 that linked the product to cancer. Monsanto, which makes Roundup, is appealing the decision, and its parent company Bayer says the weedkiller is safe when...

It’s been a year since a runaway train derailed near Field, B.C., killing the three crew members on board: Dylan Paradis, Andy Dockrell and Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer. But questions remain about what led to the crash of Canadian Pacific Railway Train 301. The only formal police investigation into the derailment was done by CP Rail’s own police force. CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins has dug...