The Big Story

Some United Kingdom supermarkets have done away with 'best before' dates on most of their products. Others are planning to follow their lead. Research shows that best before dates lead to food waste, as still-edible items are frequently tossed in the trash. And with food inflation making waste more costly, it seems like an idea worth considering... So a new survey asked Canadians just that. Would...

You've seen the little buttons right next to your 'checkout' box when you're shopping online. Would you like to break this payment up into four or six instalments, with no interest? With no interest? It's tempting!  As online shopping skyrocketed during the pandemic, so did the new way to buy now and pay later, with companies like PayBright or Sezzle receiving increasing amounts of business. But w...

It's a conversation nobody wants to have with aging loved ones. But right now Canada's Long-Term Care Facilities are struggling. They are crowded, conditions can be awful, and at least in Ontario seniors waiting in hospitals for beds can now be moved far from their families. It's urgent. When we talk to older family members, they often say, "Just don't put me in a home." But unfortunately, in Cana...

Peacocks look beautiful. They sound horrible. They're unique and special and can bring some whimsy to a town. They're a nuisance, and they damage property, chase cars and ruin gardens. This is the story of a peacock named Pearl, who made a town fall in love with her, until she started having more chicks.... GUEST: Lyndsie Bourgon, writing in The Walrus CORRECTION: In this episode, Okanagan Lake is...

It's no longer a question of if our comfortable lives will change as the climate does over the next few decades. The questions are how much will they change, and where will they change the least? People with lots of money are already buying property in places they believe will be safe from disaster. You can Google "Best places to live in climate crisis" and find a lot of listicles. But very few of...

Early in the pandemic, nothing had to be perfect, governments just needed solutions. And Canada's developed the ArriveCAN app to help process returning Canadians and incoming foreigners, to ensure their compliance with what were then very strict Covid protocols. It might have been messy, but it sure seemed necessary. Today, most of those protocols no longer exist. But ArriveCAN is still going stro...

The former US President once said he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and his supporters would never waver. After a week in which it was revealed that his Florida property was searched by the FBI in an ongoing investigation related to classified documents—including some pertaining to nuclear weapons—that statement looks prophetic. Trump's base and the Republican party have rallied around him,...

It's tempting to see Romana Didulo and her followers as a big joke. No, she's not the "Queen of Canada", or the world, so have a laugh. Why not? The answer to that question was on display in Peterborough, Ontario this weekend, when her followers attempted to perform citizens' arrests on members of the police force. Of course it didn't work, but things very nearly got out of hand. And if there were...

It seems like a problem half a world away that doesn't concern us. But it's not. Strict new targets for fertilizer emissions have Dutch farmers fighting back, saying they will be forced to close. Canada's targets are not nearly as aggressive, but they have been poorly explained and may be badly implemented, causing a lot of fear among Canadian farmers worried they won't be able to care for their c...

Kitsault was a mining town of 1,200 or so people in one of the most remote areas of British Columbia. It opened in 1981. It was empty by 1982. That was its first lifetime. Since then, however, something has happened to Kitsault. Unlike other abandoned towns, Kitsault has been maintained. First by the mining company, later by a private owner. So today it sits, almost perfectly preserved, ready for...

There's a lot of money in creating and patenting new drugs. Like, tens of billions of dollars. But the field is crowded, competitive and dominated by large pharmaceutical companies. So some new startups are looking elsewhere. For decades psychedelics have been illegal, taboo and largely considered the drugs of hippies. The past decade, though, has changed that, as psilocybin, ketamine and others h...

Ontario's health minister wants regulators to figure out a way to expedite the licensing of internationally trained doctors and nurses to help staff the province's ICUs, ERs and long-term care facilities. She hasn't said much about how, but it's a first step. There are thousands of people who would like to work in the province's hospitals, but can't. It takes money, patience and years to become li...

The World Junior Championships begin today in Edmonton. And the summer date is not the reason they'll be different this year. The past few months have seen disturbing accusations of sexual assault against several members of two team Canadas — 2003 and 2018.  Hockey Canada has spent decades of time and energy turning its world juniors into a Canadian myth, and lots of people have profited from that...

When 40-year-old Amber Manthorne fails to show up to work on Friday, July 8th, 2022, her friends immediately believe something is wrong. At first, it is thought that Amber is with her boyfriend, Justin Hall, but then Justin surfaces days later, without Amber, leaving more questions than answers. In this episode, host Laura Palmer outlines the timeline of events surrounding Amber's disappearance an...

We've known about fast radio bursts (or FRBs) for 15 years now. But nobody had seen one quite like this. A Canadian telescope detected an FRB that not only was much longer than usual, it had a distinct repeating pattern. We learn more and more about the universe every year, and we're finding more and more things we can't quite understand. What are FRBs? Why was this one so special? And what's at t...

You may have missed the final Conservative Party of Canada leadership debate Wednesday night. No worries! Pierre Poilievre missed it, too. The frontrunner has such a huge lead according to every report, that he had nothing to gain by attending. How did this race go from competitive to ... not? Will Poilievre be different as CPC leader than he was as a candidate? How will this change both the Conse...

A seminal 2006 research paper on Alzheimer's has been cited more than 2000 times over the past decade and a half. Its conclusions have informed much of the direction the field has taken since then. And recently an investigation concluded that critical images in the paper may well have been fabricated. Alzheimer's is already something of a mystery of a disease. We know so little about it. And now i...

Now that the Pope has left Canada, it's worth looking at what he's leaving behind. It's complicated. Was the Papal Apology a sincere expression of regret and compassion and a promise to do better? Or was it checking off call to action #58 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's list? Will his visit help to heal the pain of survivors and the grief of their families? Or will it be seen as an...

Even if you haven't been there, you've heard the stories. Every airport is troubled this summer,  but Toronto's may literally be the worst in the world. While blame is passed from the federal government to the airlines to the airport authority and back again, one reporter decided to find out what was really behind the utter collapse of the complex systems that keep planes and passengers moving on...

And how to listen to people you disagree with, so they'll listen to you. It feels like we're more stubborn than ever before. More likely to dig in our heels, refuse to listen to facts and in general hold tight to our positions no matter what. But is that true, or is that just a function of the new ways of communication that we're still learning to use? Regardless, if we can't figure out how to fin...

As the world continues to hope for the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has declared an outbreak of monkeypox a "global health emergency". But what makes this monkeypox virus different from ones that have been under control for decades? As numbers rise around the world and here in Canada, public health messaging needs to walk a fine line between informing the public of t...

Or was it never really a bubble in the first place? What we know right now is that sales are falling, prices are dropping (slightly!) and some investors are getting out. What we don't know are the full ramifications of rising interest rates on a market that has been white hot for more than a decade now. Over the next few months, we'll see if this is a correction, a cooling or a crash. What will th...

Heat isn't the same everywhere. Last week Toronto was the hottest place in Canada, but even if it wasn't it might have felt like it. Large metropolises are adept at soaking up heat and trapping it. Which means even the absence of the sun won't cool things down much. If you've got a nice shady street and plenty of air conditioning, it's an annoyance. If you don't have either, it's deadly. And with...

50 years ago, a dispute arose between Canada and Denmark over Hans Island, a piece of land that exists almost exactly halfway between the coast of Nunavut and Greenland, a Danish territory. The island holds value as a hunting ground for local Indigenous populations, but holds no strategic or economic value for either nation. And yet, for five decades our two countries were unable to reach an agree...

This week, Doug Ford announced an expansion of mayoral powers in Ontario's two largest municipalities, Toronto and Ottawa. The move would provide the mayors of both cities with significant veto power, giving them the ability to force motions through council without broader support. The changes come at an interesting time for Toronto, which is in the midst of a mayoral race where the incumbent, Joh...