The Big Story

Thousands of small businesses used the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to keep afloat and avoid laying off their staff. But they weren't the only type of business to qualify for and receive the CEWS. Among some of the companies that took government money are companies that bounced back after a bad month, companies who fared well during the pandemic and publicly-traded companies who were even able to...

It began with allegations of sexual misconduct, but it went beyond that into a bureaucratic tangle that left the alleged victim's parents without justice, the RCMP spending hundreds of thousands to keep a constable on leave and an embarrassing look into an organization that badly needs to fix its policies. What went wrong in the case of Const. Justin Harris? And how systemic are the problems in th...

Shopping! Parties! Beer! Reunions! As the United Kingdom moves into phase three of its reopening on Monday, even phase two seems far beyond what Canada can expect. But it's not. As our country struggles through what will hopefully be our last lockdown, it's worth hearing about what happens next from the places in the world that most closely resemble where we've been. This isn't a fever dream, it's...

When Ontario and Alberta decided they would stop giving the AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose, part of the reasoning was an abundant supply of other vaccines. But that feels like cold comfort to Canadians who eagerly lined up because "the best shot you can get is the one in your arm" and now might be feeling scared or ripped off. What options do those Canadians have? Another vaccine fo...

We are in the home stretch of this pandemic, even if you wouldn't know it from anything Canadian officials tell you. Vaccines work, and hundreds of thousands of Canadians are getting theirs every day. We can look to the United Kingdom right now to see what happens when enough people get their shots. We know a lot more than we ever have about what's safe and what's not, how to protect ourselves and...

He ran for mayor, and won three times, on a platform of bipartisanship, even as political squabbles were getting nastier by the day. He used social media to drive his campaign before 'going viral' became the goal of a comms staff. He took over the job of running a city that had never declared a state of emergency, then had to do it three times in his decade in charge. Naheed Nenshi is leaving offi...

There are tens of thousands of infant Canadians who have never been held by anyone but their moms and dads; who have never played with another real live child or spent a second in daycare or with a babysitter. Sometime soon, when restrictions are lifted, all that will change. What do we know about how a year without socialization will impact these infants? How can parents help them enter a world t...

The forest in question this time is a piece of land known as the Greenbelt. The highway, if it's built, would be known as Hwy. 413. If you think this is just a story about Toronto—you're wrong. The fight over Hwy. 413 has arrived at the federal government's level. And how the government chooses to use the powers it has in this situation will decide the project's fate. And quite possibly the fate o...

You know something's gone wrong when the government is promising to amend their changes to the broadcasting act to make sure it doesn't apply to, say, your personal Twitter feed. But that's what the federal government had to do this week after public outcry surrounding Bill C-10. That is just one of the more obvious examples of the problems with this bill, which has been trounced by experts on bot...

How many strangers have you chatted with recently? Probably not a lot. And while your immediate reaction to that might be, "Great, I hate talking to strangers about nothing"—the research doesn't back you up. Casual small talk plays a larger role in our well-being than we assume it does, and most of us are doing much, much less of it these days. What does that mean for our happiness? And...

A year ago we never would have imagined that humanity could collectively change its work habits so quickly, or that governments could unveil ambitious national programs so quickly. We all saw a silver lining last Spring when the global shutdown brought with it clearer waters and skies and a record drop in emissions. If we're smart enough to harness what we've learned over the past 15 months, it co...

The Alberta Premier does not like restrictions, or telling people to stay home. His caucus likes that stuff even less. But the third wave of Covid-19, which is hammering Alberta thanks to looser restrictions than the rest of Canada, has left Kenney with no choice. Kenney hasn't been tough enough on restrictions to contain Covid-19, or loose enough to please his base. Now, more than a year into the...

We have a certain image of the sort of person who reports encounters with Unidentified Flying Objects. It's a ... skeptical image, to put it mildly. And it couldn't be further from the truth, at least according to the actual reports that are filed. And there are actual reports. Dozens of them. Filed by pilots and crew and air traffic controllers — not exactly the sort of people you'd expect to be...

A year ago, as the pandemic's first wave began to recede, British Columbia was held up as a shining example of a large Canadian province that managed to beat back Covid-19. Its top doctor, Bonnie Henry, was a hero and even something of a celebrity. A year later, all that has changed. BC has been one of Canada's worst hit province's in the third wave, Dr. Henry's decisions are being second guessed,...

In neighbourhoods like Peel in Ontario, South Asian-Canadians are being impacted by Covid-19 at a much greater number than their share of the population. At the same time, many have friends and family in India, which is facing perhaps the worst outbreak of the entire global pandemic. As South Asian-Canadians in hotspots try to navigate inequality at home, they're also desperate to help their loved...

You probably know already that most of the illegal guns in Canada come from the United States. But how much do you—or the police—really know about the long journeys they take to get here? Who's buying them and moving them? How do they get across the border? Why aren't more stopped before they can enter Canada? And how do they get from the border to the street to the hands of a would-be killer? A n...

A rare side effect has dominated the discussion of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Some people have used the potential for blood clotting as a reason to "hold out" for other vaccines, even as the wait leaves them vulnerable to Covid-19. How realistic are their fears? What are we learning about this side effect? And what could that learning do to help us understand the...

Today we revisit the van attack of April 23, 2018. It's been three years since a van mounted the sidewalk near Yonge and Finch in Toronto's north end, killing 10 and injuring 16. All it took was 7 minutes to terrorize a community and traumatize a city. Now we reflect on how the attack impacted the people who lived through it. We'll hear from first-hand witnesses, family members of victims, and peo...

Even people who have spent their lives covering governments of all stripes can't recall a week like the one Ontario's Progressive Conservative government has had. New restrictions, massive public blowback, and immediate reversal on some just-announced measures. Rising ICU numbers threatening to overwhelm the hospital system. Police forces publicly declining to enforce new tactics the government cl...

Picture the moment Covid-19 became real to you—when you left to work from home, or sports shut down, or someone you know got sick. How accurate is that memory? Now, what do you remember about the days, weeks and months that came afterward? When you tell these stories to your grandchildren one day, how will you frame them? The past year has been unbelievably hard, and if you've lost something it ca...

In one week, the @VaxHuntersCan Twitter account has grown from a few thousand followers to more than 85,000. By the time you read this it may be close to 100,000. And that's because the account has one simple mission: find available Covid-19 vaccination appointments in clinics, hospitals and pharmacies across Canada, and find people ready to take them. In the middle of a vaccine rollout that has b...

In the middle of a world gripped by plague, a major scientific discovery passed nearly unnoticed. If it's verified, it means one of the most important models we use to understand particle physics is incomplete. And that would open a doorway to a world of things we can't explain yet. If you've spent that past few days gripped in a cycle of Covid-19 rage and anxiety, come and rediscover the wonder o...

In recent years, meditation has become a huge business in the western world—with millions of people testifying it has helped them calm their minds, improve their mood or even work through bouts of mental illness. There is no shortage of press about the positive effects of meditation on people, and there are plenty of studies to back them up. But there is also evidence—evidence that's been growing...

Last weekend, protesters clashed with police over the closing of GraceLife Church in Alberta. It's not the first time that houses of worship have been a flashpoint for anti-lockdown action. Why has religion, and in particular evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity been so opposed to restrictions on in-person gatherings, even in provinces run by conservatives? How have churches of all denomina...

In the late 1990s, it became clear that Canada's health data systems would need to go digital. A thorough report was presented, the first of many to come, laying out what needed to happen for Canada to lead the world in digital health data. A national data system would track everything from outbreaks and symptoms to vaccinations and side effects. But...we never built it. Over the next 20-plus year...