This Matters

Guest: Mike Flannigan, chair in Predictive Services, Emergency Management and Fire Science at Thompson Rivers University Canada is on fire from coast-to-coast. As a wildfire burns on northern Vancouver Island, Alberta was in a state of emergency for most of May. As seasonal fires began shockingly early in Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia relied on weekend rain to contain flames that forced thous...

Guest: David Suzuki, world-renowned geneticist and environmentalist Before the Paris Agreement, before the Kyoto Protocol, before even the UN Climate Convention was signed in Rio, world-renowned geneticist and environmentalist David Suzuki was ringing the alarm bell and saying that climate change is a "matter of survival." In this episode, Suzuki joins " This Matters " guest host and climate repor...

Toronto Star columnists Emma Teitel and Edward Keenan co-host this episode of " This Matters " to discuss how Ana Bailão, Brad Bradford, Olivia Chow, Mitzie Hunter, Josh Matlow and Mark Saunders performed at the Toronto Star-United Way sponsored debate at the Ted Rogers School of Management, a part of Toronto Metropolitan University. It was moderated by Keenan and held May 31. This episode was pro...

Guests: Scott Reid, advisor to former prime minister Paul Martin and political analyst with CTV, speaks with guest host Edward Keenan Exactly 21 years ago, Scott Reid's boss, then Finance Minister Paul Martin, delivered a speech on the need to give cities a new source of revenue. It was regarded as the new deal for cities, and a speech Reid recalls led to Martin's departure from Jean Chrétien's ca...

Guest: Clarrie Feinstein , business reporter Elevators are key piece of apartment and condo living, but due to a number of factors, they often take a long time to get fixed once they break down. From a shortage of mechanics to a small number of companies who control the industry and use proprietary parts, there are several reasons why critics feel the entire sector can use better oversight . This...

Guest: Kerry Gillespie , sports reporter Ontario Soccer is launching a pilot project this summer that will see some referees wearing body cams to record and deter abuse. What is surprising is that this isn't happening at the professional or adult levels, but starting with the under 9 and 11 age groups. Many sports are facing a shortage of people wanting to officiate matches and one of the biggest...

Guest: Francine Kopun , senior writer Toronto is in the process of renaming Dundas Street , but some critics think it's not worth the cost and trouble. Three years after City Hall acted on a petition to change the name due to the actions of its namesake, Henry Dundas, some mayoral candidates are pledging to reopen the debate. Much of it hinges on the role Dundas may have played in delaying the abo...

Guest: David Rider , City Hall bureau chief We are learning a lot more about the candidates running to be mayor of Toronto, particularly the six leading contenders who have floated to the top while 96 others are in the mix somewhere else. Amid a busy week of campaigning that included a handful of debates, here's what we are learning about their policy positions and what we know our city wants in a...

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel, featuring columnists Emma Teitel , Shawn Micallef , Matt Elliott and guest host Edward Keenan Our political panel talks about the election race as Toronto enters the feverish debate season, and asks what to make of the polls, how a big lead can disappear, whether voters want hope or anger and which candidates are bringing real talk on taxes. Thi...

Guests: Robert Benzie , Queen's Park bureau chief, and Noor Javed , staff reporter covering the 905 The Ontario government is breaking up Peel Region to make Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon stand-alone municipalities in 2025. The move has had mixed responses but two things are clear: there will be plenty of haggling over resources like shared infrastructure and the "divorce" will change the poli...

Guest: Jason Miller , crime and justice reporter An Ontario man is facing two charges of counselling or aiding suicide and, as details emerge, we have learned authorities in other parts of the world are looking into other specific deaths never before questioned. The case centres around sodium nitrite, a substance widely available that can be used to cure meats but can also be lethal. Here's what w...

Guest: Isabel Teotonio , education reporter The Toronto District School Board has been experiencing a staffing shortage that is leaving administrations scrambling for teachers and some parents and students worried about time missed learning. To help, the board has redeployed nearly 100 of its learning coaches and hired more than 200 additional occasional teachers but there is a domino affect to al...

Guest: Lex Harvey , transportation reporter The Eglinton Crosstown LRT continues to be a nightmare for the residents of that area and the end is nowhere in sight. With reports of "no credible plan" toward completion of the $12.8-billion light-rail transit line, the consortium of companies building it has filed legal papers to stop work until a number of issues are resolved. With another court deci...

Guest: Mark Richardson, technical lead for HousingNowTO According to polls and the platforms, housing affordability is THE big issue in this mayoral election campaign, especially as the city's Housing Now program has failed to get shovels in the ground (or people in apartments). Mark Richardson's citizen-led HousingNowTO organization has monitored the problems and progress all along, and has been...

Guests: Katie Daubs , senior writer, and Christine Dobby , business reporter As cities around the world return to the office, Toronto lags behind other global centres as many workers are choosing to continue working from home. That's having a spillover effect on the downtown core, and in particular, on the PATH, the underground network of shops and stores that support a downtown economy. Are these...

Guest: Wendy Gillis , crime reporter When George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer, protests erupted around the world. Calls to defund the police rang out and, for a moment, it seemed like change was imminent. But three years on, efforts to revolutionize public safety have varied. Star reporter Wendy Gillis recently visited Minneapolis as part of the ongoing " Beyond the Badge " s...

Guest: Noor Javed , staff reporter The Ontario government has made building more housing fast a priority and, to get that done, it wants to throw out planning rules that set guidelines for how municipalities should grow. The proposed changes could upend how Ontario has planned its cities since 2005 and some critics fear that it is a perfect recipe for sprawl. This episode was produced by Alexis Gr...

Guest: Joanna Chiu , staff reporter The Canadian government is creating a list of foreign universities and labs that it says pose a national security risk. The news comes at the same time several Canadian universities are reviewing their research partnerships. Last week, the University of Waterloo announced it is ending its relationship with Chinese telecom giant Huawei amid security concerns. The...

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel, featuring columnists Emma Teitel , Shawn Micallef , Matt Elliott and guest host Edward Keenan More than 70 candidates have registered to run for mayor. As the opening phase of the campaign finishes, our panel talks about housing policy, why many candidates might misunderstand the task they've taken on, why attacks aren't landing and whether one...

Guest: Dr. Fahad Razak, internist at St. Michael's Hospital After more than three years, the World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19 is over as a global health emergency . However, the organization also said the virus remains a threat and can still get people very sick. For many people, the pandemic has been "over" for a while but there are also plenty of people for whom the effects l...

Guest: Alex Boyd , Calgary-based reporter The writ has dropped in Alberta and the campaign for premier is on. The NDP's Rachel Notley would like to win back power, while UCP incumbent Danielle Smith must now see if voters agree with her vision for the province. It's an election that will have ramifications for the rest of the country, as issues like energy and the environment are sure to be big fa...

Guest: Wendy Gillis , crime reporter After two Toronto police officers stole drugs for their personal use from evidence lockers, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigated and found a lax and dated system that all but opened the door for abuse. The report calls for greater restrictions on access to evidence by officers, just as it is becoming clear that such thefts are affecting cases before the...

Guest: David Miller, former mayor of Toronto and managing director of the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy While other issues have grabbed more headlines, Toronto faces no more fundamental challenges over the next few years than its billion-dollar budget gap and a provincial premier eager to force his will on the city. David Miller draws on his experience as Toronto mayor (and on les...

Guest: Raisa Patel , federal politics reporter Bill C-11, Canada's new Online Streaming Act , is now law. Considered a refresh to the outdated Broadcasting Act, there are still several questions about how this law will affect streaming platforms and what discoverability of Canadian-made content will look like. And what about cat videos? While the government insists the act doesn't cover user-gener...

Guests: Nagwa El Mamoun, Safiya Abbadi and Omar Mosleh It's been just over two weeks since violence erupted between two rival military factions in Khartoum, the Capital city of Sudan. The Canadian government has airlifted citizens out, but says that it may not be able to do so in the future. Nagwa El Mamoun, a Canadian who was in Sudan when the fighting broke out, her daughter Safiya Abbadi and To...