The Decibel

After spending more than a 1,000 days in Chinese detention, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor arrived back in Canada on Saturday. Just hours earlier, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Vancouver’s airport in 2018 on charges related to violating U.S. sanctions, returned to China after a deal was reached with U.S. prosecutors. These events signal a swift and dramatic end to what has...

There’s a four-lane bridge that separates Del Rio, Texas from Acuña, Mexico. As far as border crossings go, it’s not that remarkable. But until this Friday , the scene had looked more like a refugee camp for most of September as thousands of migrants gathered there with hopes of getting into the United States. The Globe’s Nathan Vanderklippe went to visit the migrant camp at this spot along the U....

What do you do when your depression doesn’t respond to traditional treatments? Especially when that depression is severe and causes suicidal thoughts? For author Anna Mehler Paperny , that meant turning to ketamine. Often thought of as just a party drug, evidence for the use of ketamine as a treatment for depression is growing. Anna details her journey navigating the new treatment as a patient, ex...

China’s second-largest property developer, Evergrande, owes about US$300-billion in liabilities , sparking fears that the property developer could default. But would Beijing allow such a huge company to fail? The Globe’s Asia correspondent James Griffiths explains how Evergrande became a behemoth in a real estate market overrun with speculation, and why its current trouble started partly because o...

There is a reckoning happening on campus at Western University. The London, Ont., post-secondary institution is reeling after allegations that young women were drugged and sexually assaulted started spilling out over social media following its orientation week earlier this month. Now the university is pledging to do something, not just to make students feel safer on campus but to address the under...

Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party of Canada won their third straight election , but failed to capture a majority mandate in Canada’s 44th federal election. By early Tuesday morning, the results nearly mirrored the seat count when parliament was dissolved. So now the question that is being asked is: Was the campaign worth it? Political columnist and writer at-large John Ibbitson and parliamentar...

One hundred and eighty two. That’s how many COVID-19 patients were in intensive care unit (ICU) beds at the peak of Alberta’s third wave in May. But after a summer of no restrictions, that number is now beyond 200. And it is going to climb; public officials are nearly certain about that. Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller is on the show to explain how the province wound up here, why vaccination rat...

At the start of the federal election campaign, we asked the three major federal party leaders to come on the show. Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s team declined, and we never heard back from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. But this week, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said yes, and from his tour bus between campaign stops, we asked him about his party’s plans to protect people from the effects of clim...

For the first time, all four major federal parties have credible climate plans. And there is even some agreement between them. For example, they all want to invest in electric vehicles, develop battery supply chains and transition to a greener economy . But where do they differ? And whose plans are the most realistic according to experts? And will any of them actually hit their greenhouse gas emis...

In scenes that have baffled many across the country, groups of people have been protesting COVID-19 legislation outside hospitals. Despite the fact that healthcare workers have nothing to do with lockdowns or vaccine mandates, they are still being targeted by these demonstrations. Globe health reporter Andrea Woo went to one of these protests in Vancouver this week and is on the show today to disc...

The increasing price of everything from cell phone bills to housing to child care can feel overwhelming. And when a federal election rolls around, it’s a chance for politicians of all parties to vie for votes by pledging to make life more affordable for Canadians. So who is promising what in this election? And what do the experts think about their solutions? Report on Business reporter Mark Rendel...

Mohammed Sharif Sharaf and Mukhtar Amiri worked for The Globe in Afghanistan alongside our correspondents. Between them, their work for the newspaper spans a decade, and included translating, arranging interviews, reporting trips and helping Globe reporters safely navigate a country at war. When the Taliban took back Afghanistan in August, Sharif and Mukhtar knew that work put them – and their ent...

Omar Mouallem was just a kid growing up in High Prairie, Alberta when the World Trade Center in New York was brought down by two commercial airplanes hijacked by members of the terrorist group al-Qaeda, killing almost 3,000 people. Now a journalist and author, Omar explores how the events of that day shaped his own relationship to his Muslim heritage, and about his journey to mosques and Muslim co...

With less than two weeks to go, the federal election campaign is heating up with two official election debates back-to-back. While Jagmeet Singh’s NDP have gained ground, polling suggests the Conservatives’ popularity have tied them with Justin Trudeau’s Liberals. Writer-at-large and political columnist John Ibbitson has been on the campaign trail with Erin O’Toole, and tells us how the leader has...

Women were hit harder than men by layoffs during the pandemic, and those who were caregivers or parents and kept working had to contend with COVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care and schools. Online learning, runny noses and COVID-19 scares all meant that kids stayed home more, often on short notice. This made remote work necessary for many parents and the burden fell disproportionately on women ....

Even before COVID-19, one in five kids in Canada met the diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder. Since school closures, lockdowns, job loss, and of course the illness and death caused by the pandemic, children’s mental health has gotten even worse. Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt is co-author of a report from the Royal Society of Canada that explains what we know about the effects of school closures on...

Seven Hong Kong democracy activists were sentenced to prison this week for their roles in the 2019 protests that saw hundreds of thousands of people protesting, and many violent clashes with the city’s police. That unrest continues to have a major impact on Hong Kong today, thanks to the national security law passed in its wake, which banned secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with fore...

We’re heading into the third school year of the pandemic. For 18 months now, students and their parents have had to deal with unpredictable school disruptions and a lot of anxiety around contracting COVID-19 . Most students were forced into remote learning for weeks at a time. Kids in Ontario spent more than half of the 2020-2021 academic year out of the classrooms. Most kids and parents managed t...

The fraud trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes has started in California. Holmes has been accused of defrauding investors and patients by lying about a groundbreaking technology that could test for a range of diseases from a single drop of blood. Jason Kirby , a reporter with The Globe’s Report on Business section, has been following the case and tells us Silicon Valley entrepreneurs will no...

On Monday it was announced that the last American troops had left Kabul’s airport, ending 20 years of Western military presence in Afghanistan. Canada’s last flight evacuating Canadians and Afghans who had worked with Canada departed last week. But individuals and groups, including The Globe and Mail, continued to try to arrange ways out of the country for those threatened by the Taliban. Adrian L...

In his new memoir, environmentalist Clayton Thomas-Müller recounts growing up surrounded by love and strength – but also family violence, relentless racism, and poverty. From selling drugs in a gang to organizing environmental campaigns against oil and gas extraction, the stories of Thomas-Müller’s life defy any one category to paint a complex picture of what it is to be a Cree man in Canada. Gues...

As a bonus, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test , a podcast about personal finance from The Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carrick and Roma Luciw. A lot of people feel uncomfortable negotiating with their boss for a raise and other perks. But if you don’t ask, you won’t get. And it’s definitely a lot easier to save money if you’re making more of it. We hear from a group of friends (who tel...

Despite the pandemic, Canada’s federal election campaign has felt somewhat normal. There have been socially-distant campaign events and speeches full of policy promises. The NDP and Conservatives have released their platforms and while the Liberals haven’t released theirs, they are still making new announcements. But has one of these issues come to define the campaign so far? Marieke Walsh , a pol...

Should judges take race into account when deciding on punishments for crimes? The Nova Scotia Court of Appeal ruled last week that it should. Judges in that province must now take the effects of marginalization and racism into account when sentencing Black offenders by considering ensuring reports called Impact of Race and Culture Assessments – or it could be grounds for an appeal. Justice Anne De...

Shein may be one of the most successful clothing brands that you’ve never heard of. The fast-fashion giant is where Gen Z shoppers go to find cheap, trendy clothing. Over the course of the pandemic, the brand managed to bring in nearly $10 billion (USD) in sales. But what are the environmental and ethical costs of this quickly produced yet easily disposed form of fashion? Terry Ngyuen , a reporter...