This Matters

Guest: Peter Edwards , crime reporter The theft of $20 million in gold and other high-end items from Pearson airport was likely a well-planned professional job, but authorities are tight lipped about what happened so we are left to only speculate. To gain insight, long-time organized crime journalist Peter Edwards reached out to a former professional criminal (who did prison time for his role in a...

Guest: Stephanie Levitz , federal politics reporter Over 100,000 federal civil servants went on strike on April 19, impacting government services like passport offices, immigration support and the Canada Revenue Agency. The issues include higher wages, remote work, seniority rights and contract workers. A week later, there was motion in addressing some of these, but the union says it has "compromi...

Guest: Steve McKinley , Atlantic correspondent Nurses are in demand across the country, so much so some provinces are offering perks like cash incentives to entice them to come work and live there. While this is good for people in the profession, will it actually work to bring people back to the job or just result in a more unequal landscape across the country? This episode was produced by Brian B...

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel, featuring columnists Emma Teitel , Shawn Micallef , Matt Elliott and host Edward Keenan After a snooze of an election in October , Toronto thought it was in for four more years of John Tory 's bland inevitability. One career-ending political scandal later, the city has been thrust back into a wide-open campaign for the top job at city hall, one...

Guest: Kenyon Wallace , investigative reporter Malcom Madsen went missing in Mexico in 2018, and when the authorities did little to pursue an investigation, his daughter, Brooke Mullins, took matters into her own hands. What followed was a true crime tale of private investigation, damning evidence and dealing with the varying interests of authority figures in a search for justice. This episode was...

Two years ago, Cowessess First Nation announced the discovery of 715 unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school. The news shocked the world and ignited a national conversation on Canada's colonial history. At the centre was Chief Cadmus Delorme , a young and vibrant leader, who came to office wanting to show that an Indigenous world view could work with, and even improve, Western...

Guest: Robert Benzie , Queen's Park bureau chief Redevelopment at Ontario Place just took an "experimental" turn. The Ontario Science Centre will now be moving to the waterfront site, entwining the futures for these two institutions and tourist draws. There's plenty of push back, from people in the science centre's current neighbourhood to Toronto mayoral candidates and citizens who disagree with...

Guests: Kris Rushowy , Queen's Park reporter, and Matt Bradley, teacher and Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program co-ordinator Ontario is facing a skilled trades shortage and is looking at changing the education system to get more students thinking about, and working in, these fields. There are many issues to tackle, including how these fields are promoted and finding capable trades teachers. As we...

Guest: Jeremy Hansen, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Col. Jeremy Hansen, a CAF fighter pilot and Canadian Space Agency astronaut, has been named to NASA's Artemis II mission , the first scheduled crewed mission of the Space Launch System with the Orion spacecraft. It will leave Earth's orbit and perform a lunar flyby, the first time people have travelled by the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and th...

Guest: Stephanie Carvin, associate professor at Carleton University and former national security analyst According to leaked documents from the Pentagon, a Canadian pipeline was successfully hacked in February. The FBI has arrested the suspected leaker, but the information is out there and could have wide-reaching ramifications, especially for the war in Ukraine. Today, we are joined by national s...

On this episode of This Matters we bring you a bonus episode of The Billionaire Murders: The hunt for the killers of Honey and Barry Sherman . Chief investigative reporter Kevin Donovan brings you along for the ride as he and the Toronto Star argue in the courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, to unseal documents related to the Sherman homicide investigation, and the multi-billion dollar e...

Guest: David Rider , City Hall bureau chief Ontario Place is becoming an election issue in the Toronto mayoral byelection. It is early days, but the province's controversial plans to redevelop the waterfront site is something candidates are already using to stake out their ideological turf while also signalling how they plan to deal with the Ontario government and Premier  Doug Ford . This episode...

Guest: Megan Ogilvie , health reporter More than 6.5 million adult Canadian do not have a primary care practitioner , like a family doctor. There have been several reports pointing to this gap of access to medical care with a number of recommendations to help solve the problem and create more equitable access to health care for everyone. Megan Ogilvie, the Star's health reporter, joins " This Matt...

Guest: Nicholas Keung , immigration reporter When forty per cent of farm operators retire in the next decade , an influx of skilled labourers will be needed to fill the gap. A new report says targeted immigration is one step to keep the sector sustainable, but it also calls for a better understanding of the needs of the agricultural business sector to attract more workers. This episode was produce...

Today, we're bringing you an episode of It's Political with Althia Raj .  This week on "It's Political," we mark April's high religious holidays, such as Easter, Ramadan, Passover and Vaisakhi, with a conversation on faith and politics. How it influences MPs' policy positions, where they believe the line between state and church should be drawn, and the impact of political parties using religion a...

Guest: Kate Allen , climate change reporter Chlorofluorocarbons, a.ka. CFCs, are chemicals that were used in all kinds of household items in the 70s and 80s, but they were found to be causing a massive hole in the Earth's ozone layer. The world committed to act and their use was banned. The ozone layer is now healing, but new research shows that some CFC levels are mysteriously rising. What does t...

Guest: Lex Harvey , transportation reporter Violence on transit is an issue that is plaguing cities across North America, including Toronto. Answers to problems have not been clear. In fact, Toronto's temporary solution to introduce more policing has now ended. What are other cities doing? Authorities in New York doubled down with policing while Philadelphia took a more supportive, service approac...

Guest: Christina Clark-Kazak, associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa In the aftermath of U.S. President Joe Biden 's recent visit to Canada, changes were made to the Safe Third Country Agreement, a key immigration policy to close a loophole that enabled migrants to claim asylum in the U.S. or Canada through unofficial ports of entry. After...

Guest: Steve McKinley, Atlantic correspondent After two and a half years and more than $20 million, the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry has released its final report, looking back on the worst mass shooting in Canadian history. The 130 recommendations within envision a full overhaul of Canada's national police force, a strengthening of gun control laws, and more attention to preventing gender-bas...

Guest: Jennifer Pagliaro , crime reporter In December, eight teenage girls were accused of allegedly swarming and killing a man in downtown Toronto. This shocking crime is now making its way through the criminal justice system, and due to the ages of the suspects, there are limits on what can be reported on the crime. Jennifer Pagliaro , a crime reporter for the Star, has been following the case t...

With the start of the Jays season, This Matters is broadcasting today's opening day episode of Deep Left Field from the Star's Mike Wilner. Guests: Blue Jays Opening Day starter Alek Manoah, first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., right fielder George Springer, closer Jordan Romano and catcher Danny Jansen. This week in Deep Left Field, it's the Opening Day Extravaganza! We kick off our third year of...

Guest: Tonda MacCharles , Ottawa Bureau Chief The new federal budget spends $497 billion in all manner of ways , with a host of new green incentives, a grocery rebate for some Canadians and a dental care plan for others. The rich will be taxed more, there is money for the development of a lunar rover vehicle but there is no allotment to help bail out Toronto from its budget shortfall. This episode...

Guest: Christine Dobby , business reporter Scam calls are an annoying and growing problem that cost Canadians $57 million in losses last year. With a technological arms race between con artists, phone companies and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), there is no clear path to stop calls. Some will always get through, making awareness one of the best tools to mak...

Guest: Noor Javed , staff reporter Peel Region is being studied for potential governance changes and Mississauga wants out . The city is the economic powerhouse of the region and feels it pays for services in Brampton and Caledon that could be repurposed to its own causes. Brampton and Caledon worry dividing shared infrastructure and services like utilities could be costly and cumbersome. Amalgama...

Guest: Robert Benzie , Queen's Park bureau chief Ontario's record-breaking $204.7 billion spending plan spreads money around to a lot of places, injecting dollars in health care, education and a number of programs, including Indigenous mental health. That said, critics feel there is little to help people who are struggling with the high cost of living and inflation. The Ford government says this b...