This Matters

Guests: Dreddz, a community worker and an advocate for homeless issues who is currently in the shelter system; A.J. Withers, who is the Ruth Wynn Woodward Junior Chair in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University Toronto's homeless shelter system is at capacity, and hundreds of people seeking shelter every night cannot be accommodated. It's a desperate situation as the numbe...

Guest: Robert Benzie, Queen's Park bureau chief The Ontario government unveiled its massive new housing plan this week, with sweeping changes and housing targets for municipalities across the province, all to get to the goal of building 1.5 million homes in the next decade. Critics are already concerned about density, availability of tradespeople to build the homes, impacts on affordability and th...

Guest: Patricia Jaggernauth, former CP24 broadcaster Former CP24 broadcaster and Toronto television personality Patricia Jaggernauth has spoken out about an allegedly systemic pattern of racism, sexism and discrimination and filed a human rights complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC). Her announcement comes as the CP24 parent company, Bell Media, has been in the news over the t...

Guest: Jim Stanford, director at the Centre for Future Work The Competition Bureau is investigating if the Canadian grocery industry is contributing to skyrocketing food prices. Coming on the heels of the news that Loblaws and Metro are freezing prices on their in-house brands as part of a goodwill gesture to consumers, there are reports pointing to corporate profiteering leading to higher prices....

Guest: David Rider, City Hall Bureau Chief After a long election campaign, it comes as no surprise to many that John Tory won a third term as mayor of Toronto. What is surprising is the new makeup of council, with many progressive, diverse candidates winning seats. Some won in surprising wards, while a number of other familiar faces easily took their seats as voter turnout was around 29 per cent....

Guest: Alex Boutilier, Global News national reporter The inquiry into the federal government's unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act during the so-called "Freedom Convoy" protests has almost reached its third week. Testimony from civilians, government and security stakeholders have shed new light and heightened tensions after revelations about the response of Ottawa police in handling the crisi...

Guest: Alyshah Hasham, crime and court reporter Jacob Hoggard, the former lead singer of the band Hedley, has been sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault. The Canadian rock star was sentenced by a Superior Court justice on Thursday, after a jury found him guilty following a trial that began last May. The case has opened up an important conversation around consent and how it is percei...

Guest: DT Cochrane, economist with Canadians for Tax Fairness Canada's largest corporations avoided paying $30 billion in taxes last year, according to a new report from the non-profit organization Canadians for Tax Fairness. Compared to previous years this was due to record profits and a very low tax rate, and lower than the one stipulated in the tax code. How did this happen? While it all appear...

Guest: Jonathan Franks, crisis management consultant and president of Lucid Strategies Hostage diplomacy is on the rise and some experts believe that more civilians are in the crosshairs of governments using this tactic for their own purposes. Canadians are familiar with the case of "The Two Michaels," who were imprisoned in China and only freed after Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou was released fro...

Guest: Edward Keenan, city columnist As municipal elections across Ontario enter their final week, the Toronto election has been bereft of interest. Sure, housing and affordability are big issues, but those will require all levels of government working together to tackle. There are a lot of small things that add up to big quality of life improvements when living in a city, and it's some of those w...

Guest: Nora Jenkins Townson, founder of Bright and Early After two and a half years of lockdowns and working from home for millions of Canadians, many employers are expecting workers to return to the office. But according to a recent survey, four out of five Canadians would prefer to continue working from home and human resource experts are warning companies to remain flexible with their back-to-o...

Guest: Philip Cross, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute Many of the country's top economists are predicting that a recession is coming, and it will hit harder and last longer than previously forecast. The Canadian housing market has been pegged as being one of the most distorted in the world and, while interest rates are rising in order to combat inflation, that has often led to a re...

Guest: Judy Dempsey, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and editor-in-chief of Strategic Europe As Russia rains rockets down on a devastated Ukraine in retaliation for land victories in the Kherson region and for attacking the bridge to Crimea, the war trudged past its eight month with no real sign of diplomatic efforts to come to a peaceful conclusion. As allies try to send more weapons and support...

Guest : Jon Festinger, adjunct professor at the Allard School of Law The federal government is changing how the internet is regulated in Canada. Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, is new legislation that will give the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) the task of regulating companies like Netflix, YouTube and TikTok, similar to what it does with rad...

Guest: Will Oremus, Washington Post journalist Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter in April for $54.20 U.S. a share and, after signing to buy it, proceeded to act like a man who clearly wanted out of the $44 billion deal. Musk and Twitter were set to go to court, but the business giant and tech investor sent word last week he plans to honour the terms of the purchase and close the sale. What happens...

Guest: Bruce Arthur, columnist Developments with Hockey Canada have sparked a national conversation after revelations the organization spent millions in settlements following sexual misconduct claims that go back decades. There has been a push for change as the government amplifies its probe into Hockey Canada's top leadership and big name sponsors like Tim Hortons, Scotiabank, Telus and Canadian...

This Matters is broadcasting a special playoff edition of Deep Left Field, the Star's baseball podcast, hosted by Mike Wilner. He chats about the season and upcoming playoffs with Blue Jays ace, Alek Manoah, interim manager, John Schneider, and pitcher Ross Stripling, who were all chosen to win end-of-year awards by their fellow Blue Jays.

Guest: Enoch Wu, founder of Forward Alliance, a Taiwanese NGO focusing on national security. Last month Toronto Star journalist Joanna Chiu, a reporter covering national and international news, visited Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy at the centre of growing global tensions. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunified, by force if necessary. It's a growing source of conflict...

Guest: Alyshah Hasham, crime and court reporter A coalition made up of sex workers and advocates is taking the government to court to challenge a federal law from the Harper era that experts say is putting marginalized people in peril. Monday was the first of a five-day landmark Superior Court hearing that advocacy groups are hoping will be the first step in getting sex work fully decriminalized i...

Guest: Morgan Bocknek, investigative reporter After celebrity megachurch pastor Bruxy Cavey was arrested and charged with sexual assault in June, the Meeting House — once one of the most prominent megachurches in Canada — has been surrounded by scandal. Many other accounts have come to light and the church has acknowledged that three other former pastors have faced similar sexual misconduct allega...

Guests: Anonymous member of 1500Tasvir and Pardis Mahdavi, author of "Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution" A protest that erupted in the wake of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death allegedly at the hands of Iran's so-called morality police is now spreading like wildfire across the country and creating a serious challenge for the Islamist government. It's being called one of the largest and...

Guests: Star reporters Megan Ogilvie and Kenyon Wallace We all know the COVID-19 pandemic started for most of the world in March 2020, but how do we decide when it is over? U.S. President Joe Biden recently declared the pandemic over, and it might be easy to agree as the world appears closer to normal. Canada is about to lift its travel requirements and, for many, masking has become a memory. But...

Guest: Dr. Alika Lafontaine, president of the Canadian Medical Association As the second National Day for Truth and Reconciliation approaches to remember the Indigenous children who died in residential schools, the question remains: how does a country move forward with reconciliation without coming to terms with its past? Dr. Alika Lafontaine is the Canadian Medical Association's first Indigenous...

Guest : Alex Ballingall, politics reporter Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre has sent a strongly worded message denouncing the online group Diagolon after a clip emerged of de factor leader Jeremy Mackenzie threatening to sexually assault Poilievre's wife, Anaida. It is the latest bit of news about the loose knit, online organization that espouses beliefs like white supremacy, antisemitis...

Guest: Alexander McClelland, member of the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization The ongoing criminalization of HIV non-disclosure continues to perpetuate harmful stigma against people living with HIV has advocates noting how existing laws are overly punitive. A recent court decision also takes note of that. In 2013, Jennifer Murphy was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault and sent...