The Decibel

Since the pandemic, confidence in childhood vaccines has decreased around the world, according to a new report by UNICEF . Before COVID hit, 91 per cent of Canadians believed vaccines are important during childhood. That number is now 82 per cent . So what has caused this drop in the faith in children’s vaccines? The Globe’s health reporter, Carly Weeks explains to us how this happened, how it cou...

The federal government has restored its funding to Hockey Canada after removing it following the revelation that it settled a lawsuit accusing eight members of the 2018 world juniors hockey team of sexual assault. Since the scandal broke a year ago, Hockey Canada has endured audits , board resignations , and investigations . Its executives and board members have been called to Parliament Hill to t...

The largest public sector union in Canada went on strike on Wednesday after talks broke down with the government over better wages and remote working rules. This strike is expected to cause serious administrative delays for Canadians, from passport processing to filing your taxes. It’s the most recent event in a long string of labour disputes from all over the country in the last two years. The Gl...

Last month, Tennessee became the first state to pass-anti drag law and thirteen other U.S. states also have bills looking to ban or restrict drag performances. Over the past decade, drag has become more mainstream with the popularity of shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race, but this past year, drag shows have become the target of a U.S. political culture war. The Globe’s U.S. correspondent, Adrian Morrow...

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation has been coming under fire in the past few weeks over a controversial donation it received back in 2016. The Globe and Mail learned back in February that the donation – which was initially said to be from two Chinese billionaires – was allegedly tied to the Chinese government. Now, there’s even more to the story. Today, The Globe’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert F...

What happens when a Canadian company is accused of wrongdoing abroad? Well, in 2018, Ottawa announced the creation of a new ombudsperson to investigate these kinds of claims. But since then, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise – also known as CORE – has yet to complete a single investigation of a complaint . Investigative reporter Tavia Grant – who went to Peru to see the effects...

Since 1951, 24 Sussex Drive has been the Prime Minister’s official residence. Recently, It’s been making international headlines, but for the wrong reasons . The mansion is in such bad shape that rodent carcasses line the walls and are affecting the air quality. There’s a laundry list of problems including mould, asbestos, leaks and a cold winter draft. In the eight years Prime Minister Justin Tru...

Canadian officials have been warning since the war in Ukraine began of potential cyber attacks from Russia as retribution for Canada helping Ukraine. This week, at least two Canadian government websites were down , courtesy of Russian hackers, and claims surfaced that Russian hackers had compromised a Canadian gas company . Steven Chase is The Globe’s senior parliamentary reporter. He’s seen the d...

For months now, Canada’s unemployment rate has been hovering around 5 per cent – a near historic low. It’s a number that economists are watching closely because they expect it to rise now that the Bank of Canada has hiked interest rates. But it hasn’t. And businesses are still complaining about a shortage of workers . So what’s going on? Economics reporter Matt Lundy explains. Questions? Comments?...

On April 4, the body of Linda Mary Beardy, a woman from Lake St. Martin First Nation, was discovered at a Winnipeg landfill . It’s the same landfill where, less than a year ago, the victim of an alleged serial killer was found. Police say Ms. Beardy’s death is not being considered a homicide, but it has brought renewed attention and outrage over the deaths of First Nations women in the area. In th...

Adrial and Adiah Nadarajah are the youngest twins ever born to survive to their first birthday – they were born at just 22 weeks, about half of a full term pregnancy. If they had been born just two hours earlier, medical staff would not have tried to resuscitate them. They would have been considered too young to live. Their story is part of the medical and moral challenges that arise when babies a...

The smart city movement — driven by the idea that we can leverage data and technology to optimize life in our cities — is attractive for many reasons. But critics say that smart cities may not be so wise, and in some cases, they’ve proven to be dangerous for democracy. In the first episode of season three, we’re doing a deep dive into this very concept: What are smart cities, and who are they for?...

Insomnia, dizziness, hallucinations – these are just a few of the life-changing symptoms that dozens of people have reported having in New Brunswick. After several years and a provincial investigation , patients are still left wondering what is going on. They want the federal government to step in and examine their situations further. The Globe’s health reporter Wency Leung joins the podcast to ex...

On Tuesday, Donald Trump became the first former U.S. president to be indicted on criminal charges. He faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to porn star, Stormy Daniels. The scene at the Manhattan courthouse where Mr. Trump appeared was a frenzy of cameras, journalists, protesters and Trump supporters. While this moment is a first in U.S. history, Jared...

About two years after the merger was proposed, Rogers and Shaw are becoming one company . To ensure that this deal doesn’t hurt Canadians, Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne put a number of conditions on the companies involved. But are they enough? Jennifer Quaid is an expert in competition law in Canada. She’s an Associate Professor and Vice-Dean of Research of the Civil Law Section at...

The inquiry into Canada’s worst mass shooting has ended with the release of its final report. The 3,000 page document condemns the RCMP in how the police force responded to the tragedy where 22 people were killed in Portapique, Nova Scotia, in April 2020. A number of recommendations call for a complete overhaul of Canada’s federal police force in the hopes that a tragedy like this never happens ag...

The change came swiftly. A few hours after being announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden, the rules at Roxham Road had tightened . Globe reporter Frédérik-Xavier Duhamel went to the popular unofficial border crossing and spoke to migrants trying to make the trek as changes to the Safe Third Country Act now limit who can claim asylum in Canada via that passage. Quest...

As Canada races to compete in the clean tech sector as countries work toward their net zero climate goals, investors are trying to figure out where to park huge sums of money to back projects that are a part of this. Enter Canada’s green taxonomy , a guide to assess how green a project requiring investment actually is. Report on Business journalist Jeffrey Jones explains how it works and what it m...

The Canadian federal government unveiled its 2023 budget on Tuesday, which sets the economic strategy and tone for the next fiscal year. There’s a lot packed into this document, ranging from measures to help with inflation to an expansion of the national dental plan to investment incentives to help us transition to a greener economy. But how will this budget really impact you? The Globe and Mail’s...

The price of concert tickets has risen dramatically – with some tickets costing thousands of dollars. Ticketmaster, which controls a huge proportion of the market, has come under fire recently for some of its practices , like dynamic pricing and murky service fees. It’s now the subject of a proposed class action lawsuit in Quebec. The Globe’s Josh O’Kane has been covering concerns around Ticketmas...

Collagen supplements are marketed as a holy grail anti-aging product. Bovine collagen is made from cattle hides, and a new investigation from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism traced the supply chain of some collagen companies all the way to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Elisângela Mendonça is a London-based Brazilian journalist with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Her report...

In 2022, the number of people moving to Alberta hit its highest level in almost a decade. At the same time, a record number of people left Toronto for other provinces. And it all comes down to affordability. In this episode, we’ll delve into the factors contributing to the rise in interprovincial migration and hear from Canadians who made the move - and how it’s worked out for them. Hosted by Simp...

Haiti is in crisis , after months of cholera outbreaks, a fuel and energy crisis, and violence. The UN estimates that 500 people have died in gang violence incidents this year alone. And Canada is facing pressure – largely from the US – to intervene. Michaëlle Jean is the former governor-general of Canada, and the former UNESCO Special Envoy to Haiti, where she’s from. Today, she tells us what led...

Canada has committed to going net-zero by 2050 and a big part of making that goal a reality is by transitioning the economy from being fossil fuel dependent to a cleaner and low-carbon one. Canada’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland calls the change the most “significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution”. So what will a ‘green economy’ look like fo...

Allegations of academic misconduct at Canadian universities have risen sharply in the 2020 to 2021 school year as more and more students turn to hiring people to complete assignments and tests for them. The consequences for the student are clear: a permanent blemish on their academic careers and possible impact on their job prospects if they are caught. But the wider trend is also a concern for Ca...