Storylines

Amber Sheasgreen is a search and rescue veteran, based in the coastal waters of B.C. But last winter she took her skills to the Mediterranean Sea, where the refugee crisis has driven thousands of people to brave the dangerous central Mediterranean crossing, trying to get to Europe. Volunteering with a non-profit organization, Amber and her team head out in search of asylum seekers on the water, ho...

It was 1980, and 21-year-old Ilie Irinici was lying in a marsh, hiding from police dogs, meters from the Yugoslavian border, trying to escape communist Romania. Thousands had tried before, but many were caught and imprisoned or murdered and buried in graves on the shores of the Danube River. But Ilie was desperate. His daring choice would lead to a life full of incredible coincidences, and the kin...

"I wouldn't wish this upon anyone. The pain is so bad." - Anna. "I would compare it to an invading army coming in and occupying my head." - Sean. "If someone was punching you continuously in the head for a full day, that's probably the equivalent of what a migraine is." - Christina... A migraine is more than just a headache — it's an often debilitating headache disorder experienced by approximatel...

As a teenage girl, Tanya Marie Lee felt like a second class citizen. So, as an adult she decided to create the kind of space she wished she’d had growing up. Now, Tanya’s “A Room Of Your Own” book club is joined by hundreds of girls across Canada every month.

Bette-Joan Rac was a quiet piano teacher known as Madame Rac to her students. After she died, thousands of dollars worth of incredible clothes were found in her Edmonton home. Through the stories of the student who knew her best, and clues offered by the stylish clothing and treasures she left behind, CBC Reporter Alex Zabjek gets to know this magical, mysterious woman. PLUS, Why are Edmontonians...

Christopher has always had difficulty with reading. He struggled through most of high school but by 17-years-old, remained functionally illiterate. But after gaining access to a little-known resource in the Ontario school system, things may be changing for Christopher. PLUS, Kent Hoffman thinks about walking all the time. If he doesn't pay attention, he could end up falling. He lives with Becker m...

Mykella Van Cooten was raised to be a “strong Black woman”. That meant she was a high achiever in sports, academics, anything she touched—and she was proud. But one night she spotted a massive ad on the side of a bus that included those exact words. Mykella began to question the societal pressure to be strong... and nothing else. She set out to document the history of the “Strong Black Woman” arch...

Regan Burden grew up in Port Hope Simpson, Labrador, surrounded by husky puppies. Regan has Inuit ancestry on her father’s side. Her dad, like his dad before him, and family members going back at least four generations, all had dog sled teams. Dog sled teams were an important means of transportation right up until the 1950s, but as snowmobiles have increasingly replaced sled dogs, the tradition ha...

Jason Herterich lives with fibromyalgia. It’s a chronic condition that affects the nervous system, and causes pain throughout his entire body. Coping with constant pain has forced Jason to overhaul his life. He had to leave a job he loved. He was a rower and a triathlete, but is now sometimes too sick to get outside for a walk. But beyond the physical pain, there is something else that has hurt Ja...

Mark Drysdale loves his lions and wishes his neighbours did too. Instead, his presence in various southern Ontario communities over the past decade has caused quite the uproar. Battles have been waged across Wainfleet, Grand Bend, and most recently Maynooth, Ontario over his roadside zoos for exotic animals. It has led some residents to demand bylaws to prohibit big cats, meanwhile Drysdale insist...

St. Patrick’s High School in Ottawa has always had a strong basketball team, but in 1999-2000, the “Fighting Irish” were riding high. They won game after game, made it to the Ontario play-offs, and were invited to represent Ontario in a national tournament. But for a high school all-star, what happens in the years after the “Big Game”? And how do high school sports echo (like sneakers on a gym flo...

Gina Laing and Dennis Bob are survivors of the Alberni Indian Residential School on Vancouver Island. Both experienced abuse at the school, and still navigate the effects of that trauma. But Gina and Dennis are finding ways to heal and to regain agency in their lives. That includes returning to the grounds of the former school. PLUS, 15-year-old Skyla Hart chooses to remain seated every Monday whe...

The Highvale coal mine, operating since 1970, was the largest strip coal mine in Canada. There is still plenty of coal underground at the mine, but that is where it will stay. Coal is the single biggest global contributor to climate change and Canada has committed to putting an end to coal-fired electricity by 2030, with talk of a “just transition” away from coal. As part of the efforts to meet th...

Back in 1987, Janice Hoy was 17, and pregnant. She and her high-school boyfriend, Earl, placed their son for adoption. Years passed, Janice and Earl stayed together and had three more boys. But they never told them about their older brother. Decades later when Earl died suddenly in a snowmobile accident, Janice decided to face the trauma of losing both her husband and her firstborn son… by searchi...

It was a surreal delight for Kent Hoffman to produce an interview with the American mentalist 'The Amazing Kreskin' on CBC Radio in 2009. But what really surprised Kent was when, a few months later, he received a Christmas card from Kreskin... and every single Christmas since. It turns out that Kreskin sends out thousands of holiday cards, every year, and it means as much to him as it does to his...

Calgary’s Sudanese community is struggling. After fleeing civil war in Sudan, refugees are struggling with poverty, gangs, drugs and violence in their new home. Some in the community feel like they are cursed. Akeir Mel Kuol and Stephen Deng both arrived in Canada as refugees, but are now working to change their community’s narrative. They are refugees helping refugees.

When Craig Desson bought his condo in Montreal, he was finally achieving a big life goal of home ownership. But there was a question echoing in his mind. Montreal is on unceded territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka (often referred to as Mohawk). And if Montreal is on unceded territory, can he really own it? Craig and Doc Project host Acey Rowe trace the claim to the land his condo is on back through his...

CBC News producer Steve McNally recently took a trip back to the Ottawa neighbourhood where he grew up to meet up with some old school friends. But this isn't just any school reunion - or even a particularly happy one. An alarming number of Steve's old schoolmates had become very ill with the same debilitating condition. The question they've been trying to answer for decades now is, could this rea...

TJ Watt is a bit of a modern Lorax. He uses his camera to protect old-growth trees in British Columbia, capturing the ancient giants before -- and after -- they’ve been cut down. It’s all in the hopes of raising enough public pressure that the B.C. Government will end old growth logging. But why are these ancient trees being logged in the first place? And what’s going to happen next? Follow produc...

As reports of flooding, evacuations and mudslides in British Columbia emerged this week, two people in Saskatchewan were watching with keen interest... and empathy. That's because they survived a mudslide when they were driving along a B.C. highway in 2018. Sheri Nimegeers and Gabe Rosescu share the harrowing story and explain how the experience of surviving a mudslide changed them.

Denial, anger, depression and shame - Type 2 diabetes can lay the ultimate guilt trip. That’s what CBC journalist and musician Emily Brass discovered when she was diagnosed. She also discovered that even though a whopping 1 in 3 Canadians has diabetes or pre-diabetes, nobody seems to talk about it! Forced to make big changes, Emily opens up about her personal struggles in a series of intimate diar...

As a kid, Jonathan Ore was a Warhammer 40k fanatic. He spent hours painting the thumb-sized miniatures used in the tabletop game, and met up with his friends to play in his uncle's comic book shop. As an adult, Jonathan abandoned the hobby. But when the pandemic hit, he started painting again, and re-engaging with the Warhammer community, this time online… only to discover that divisive debates ha...

Grade 10 was going to be Richard Kelly Kemick’s year. He’d transferred to a new high school and this, Richard thought, was the perfect opportunity to catapult himself into popularity by hosting a Halloween party in his parents’ suburban Calgary basement. Twenty years later and still lightly traumatized, Richard checks in with three former classmates to get their read on how the party went so compl...

As a kid, Nabeel Pervaiz had no patience for his father’s favourite family activity: “mushairas,” or poetry symposiums. Nabeel’s father, Munir, would fill the family’s living room with people, food, music and poets performing Urdu poetry, while little Nabeel rolled his eyes. Nabeel, meanwhile, loved music: the louder and more obscure, the better. Then last year, a mystery began to unfold in the fo...

For the past eight years, author Christy Ann Conlin has been living a life that used to, in part, belong to someone else: her husband Andy’s first wife, Meg, who died of cancer at age 43. Now, Christy Ann is married to Meg’s husband, lives in Meg’s house in rural Nova Scotia, and has formed a blended family with Meg’s children. But it was the surprising relationship with Meg’s three sisters, and h...