The Decibel

Lebanon’s financial crisis was only made worse last year when an explosion ripped through the port of its capital city, Beirut, killing more than 200 people. Now, people are left scrambling for basic medicine, gas and other necessities. The Globe’s senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon is in Lebanon, and talks about what he has seen in Beirut’s largest hospital, how Lebanon has gotten...

Domestic vaccine passports offer one way of letting vaccinated people get back to normal life by giving them access to privileges non-vaccinated people wouldn’t have. But civil liberties advocates have been pushing back against the concept since the start of the pandemic, pointing to a number of equality and privacy concerns. Cara Zwibel is the director of the fundamental freedoms program at the C...

The village of Lytton, BC burned to the ground a day after hitting the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada, forcing residents to evacuate in as little as a few minutes. Investigators now believe the fire was caused by human activity . On today’s show, Globe environment reporter Kathryn Blaze Baum joins Tamara to share a conversation she’s had with one Lytton resident about the human toll o...

Soaring house prices have made it harder to afford a house in Canada than it’s been in three decades, with experts blaming everything from low interest rates to blind bidding to intergenerational wealth transfers. So how do you cool the housing market? Rachelle Younglai covers real estate for The Globe and Mail, and she’ll explain how we got here , why the measures taken by governments so far have...

Calls to reconsider the fireworks and celebrations of Canada Day have intensified as we approach the national holiday, in light of the announcements from B.C. and Saskatchewan First Nations that they’d located hundreds of unmarked graves where residential schools once stood. Crystal Fraser is assistant professor of history at the University of Alberta, and is Gwichyà Gwich’in, originally from Inuv...

New guidelines for people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 were published by the Public Health Agency of Canada last week, which now applies to over a quarter of people in Canada. So we asked Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard back on the show to lead us through what those guidelines mean, why they’re different from the provincial guidelines, and how to navigate them as the coun...

A lot of Canadians have pandemic-savings money to burn – and not many places to spend it. With travel, entertainment and even dining still severely limited, many have turned to recreational toys and home improvement projects, and then found out that in-demand items like bicycles and kayaks are sold out. Economics reporter Matt Lundy breaks down the demand side of the equation, talks about just-in-...

China is encouraging people to have up to three children in a bid to reverse the effects of its one-child policy, which has left the country with an aging population in need of workers to support them and the economy. But as Globe Asia correspondent Nathan Vanderklippe reports following his recent trip to the region , some Muslim Uyghurs of the western Xinjiang province are subject to different fa...

For Dr. Vett Lloyd, there really is nothing good about a tick. That’s why she studies them. After getting bit herself and developing Lyme disease, Dr. Lloyd made it her life’s work to understand these parasitic vectors to help others avoid these creatures and the potentially life-altering disease they can pass on. As we head off into nature this summer, the need for tick prevention is more urgent...

The head of the Public Health Agency of Canada defied an order of the House of Commons on Monday, refusing to provide unredacted documents about the dismissal of two scientists from Canada’s high-security infectious disease laboratory. Opposition members are hoping the documents will explain why Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were fired from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Win...

Nearly 20 per cent of people in Canada have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 , making almost all of them immune to the virus. But how long will that immunity last? The answer to that question will dictate what the years ahead will look like for us as we fight to put the pandemic behind us. Globe and Mail science reporter Ivan Semeniuk on what scientists have learned about the way our bodies...

The genocide in Rwanda shocked the world in 1994, and since then the country has been praised for its recovery. But the trial of Paul Rusesabagina – the central character in the Hollywood movie Hotel Rwanda – is just the latest example of the Rwandan government cracking down on its dissidents, according to prominent human rights groups. The Globe’s Africa correspondent, Geoffrey York, has investig...

When Ethan Lou unexpectedly found himself quarantining with his uncle in Beijing, he learned that his uncle was trying to bridge the distance between him and his children living in the United States by sending them near-daily emails of advice. Lou adapted that writing into an essay, which he reads for us on the show. Correction : An earlier version of these show notes incorrectly said Ethan Lou an...

A defection. Calls for a leader’s resignation. Internal fighting. The Green Party of Canada is in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. On Friday, former Green MP Jenica Atwin crossed the floor to join the Liberals after a clash with her party over her position on the Israel-Palestine fighting. By Monday, some factions of the Greens were calling on their new leader, Annamie Paul, to step down...

Six months after former astronaut Julie Payette resigned from the role of Governor General of Canada, Trudeau has yet to find her permanent replacement. Globe political reporter Kristy Kirkup tells us what the job entails, why Julie Payette resigned, and who the government might choose next. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use...

With the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline and the increasing pressures of climate change, transitioning Alberta from an oil-based economy is feeling more and more urgent. Hydrogen fuel may end up playing a transformative role for the energy-producing province. Emma Graney, The Globe’s energy reporter, gives listeners a primer on hydrogen: the different ways it’s made, how it plays into gov...

As a correspondent based in Beijing, Nathan VanderKlippe prepares to leave his post after eight years and return to Canada. He talks about the changes he has seen and felt while covering China – and Asia – for The Globe and Mail. He shares stories of being followed in Xinjiang by the Chinese state while covering the treatment of Uyghurs, and talks about the ethical responsibilities journalists fac...

The Globe and Mail’s European Bureau Chief Eric Reguly is in East Jerusalem, covering a very tense moment in Israel’s history. While last month’s ceasefire has held, the dispute over home ownership in the city’s Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhood continues. Some Palestinian families are already being evicted from their homes in favour of Jewish settlers. Protests around these developments have...

Police charged a man on Monday for hitting an entire family with his truck on Sunday night in London, Ontario, alleging that he did it intentionally because of their Muslim faith. Four members of the Afzaal family died , leaving the only survivor and youngest child, a boy named Fayez, seriously hurt in hospital. An outpouring of grief from the community and across the country followed; a vigil hel...

On Sunday, Pope Francis prayed for Indigenous families, addressing the announcement that remains of children were found in unmarked gravesites at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. But despite calls from survivors, some Catholics, and even the Prime Minister to do so, the Pope did not apologize for the Church’s role in running many residential schools. Tavia Grant is a reporter for The...

Three First Nations have deferred the logging of old-growth forest in and around Fairy Creek, B.C. This follows months of blockading by environmental activists to stop logging roads being built by forestry company Teal Jones Group, which brought an injunction against the protesters that led to over 170 arrests by RCMP. Meanwhile, Premier John Horgan’s NDP government has signalled through an intent...

Women have been graduating from university at higher rates than men for decades but are still under-represented in the best-paid jobs, like university deans and full professors. Reporter Robyn Doolittle shares insights from the new investigation she did with Chen Wang, analyzing salaries of Ontario professors over the last 20 years. She also talks about structural issues that explain why women are...

Tanya Talaga is an Anishinaabe journalist, speaker and columnist for The Globe. After being invited by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, Tanya travelled to Kamloops, B.C., to report on the Nation’s announcement that ground-penetrating radar had located 215 unmarked gravesites near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. The number for the National Indian Residential School Crisis Lin...

Dr. Konia Trouton is a physician in Victoria, B.C., who provides medical assistance in dying, also known as MAID. She describes the process, discusses recent changes to the laws around MAID and how that may change her practice, and why we need to become more comfortable with talking about dying. You can read her opinion essay on MAID here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz....

How did a junior oil company from Calgary end up at the heart of a dispute over wildlife preservation in Namibia? Energy reporter Emma Graney talks about the effort by a company called Reconnaissance Energy Africa Ltd. to drill for oil in Namibia’s Okavango Delta area, at a time when governments and investors are looking toward a future without fossil fuel consumption to stop climate change. Hoste...