This Matters

Guest: Sahar Habib Ghazi, South Asia editor for Vice World News As Atlantic Canada deals with the fallout of Hurricane Fiona, Pakistan continues to grapple with one of the most cataclysmic floods in its history. Over 33 million people have been affected in a country that is now one-third underwater. As of Friday, more than 1,600 have been killed and millions more have been displaced. Experts say a...

This Matters would like to share another Toronto Star podcast episode, welcoming back 'It's Political with Althia Raj.' Listen here then subscribe or follow in your podcast feeds.  This week on "It's Political," Althia focuses on Pierre Poilievre's leadership. First, she'll take a look back at the divisive leadership race and Poilievre's big win. Then she sits down with Yan Plante, the former chie...

Guest: Edward Keenan, Toronto Star journalist Edward Keenan was the Star's Washington bureau chief from 2019 until just a few weeks ago. Over his brief tenure, he witnessed two impeachment trials, the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest mass street movement in the form of Black Lives Matter, a disputed election, an unprecedented insurrection attempt at the Capitol and the overturning of Roe v Wade. He'...

Guest: Heather Scoffield, economics columnist The latest inflation numbers are in and while it looks to be slowing slightly due to lower gas prices, all other signs show that Canadians are paying higher prices for all kinds of consumer goods. With the Bank of Canada raising interest rates, property values continue to fall and many worry that it will trigger a recession. Heather Scoffield, The Star...

Guest : Maayan Ziv, disability advocate and the founder and CEO of AccessNow When disability advocate Maayan Ziv flew to an accessibility conference in Israel last week, she found herself stranded and traumatized after her wheelchair was severely damaged in transit. Her all too common experience has opened up a conversation on accessibility and mobility obstacles for disabled people at the hands o...

Guests: Kelly Matheson, a recently retired teacher, and David Macdonald, senior economist at Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. During the pandemic, Americans quit their jobs in such high numbers that the trend was dubbed The Great Resignation. Economists watched for signs of it in Canada, but it just did not happen here. It seems instead more people are retiring, and many at a younger age....

Guest: Madison Dyck, youth climate activist Climate activists brought the Ontario government to court last week, alleging the provincial climate plan fails to protect them and future generations. The landmark lawsuit dates back to 2018 when Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government repealed the Climate Change Act and replaced it with an act that has weaker emission reduction targets....

On the patio of a pub near Green Park in London, the Star's Rosie DiManno and Canadian journalist Lisa LaFlamme, on special assignment for City News, discuss what they are seeing as the city prepares for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II on Monday. This episode was produced by Rosie DiManno, Lisa LaFlamme, Raju Mudhar and Sean Pattendon.

Guests: Angela Mashford-Pringle and Courtney Skye The death of Queen Elizabeth II last week fuelled a wave of global grief, but also reawakened memories and ignited conversation of a brutal colonial legacy and the future of the British monarchy. The monarch's 70 years on the throne have been both celebrated and questioned. Her reign included seven decades of silence for Indigenous peoples of Canad...

Guest: Rosa Saba, business reporter The future of cannabis retail is headed for a reckoning that could see a third of stores across the country close. Once thought to be a product that would be a license to print money, the retail cannabis space is dealing with a number of issues including steep competition, oversaturation in some markets and distribution issues while still having to contend with...

Guest: Kevin Donovan, Chief Investigative Reporter Reality television is a genre that has taken over the airwaves with all kinds of dating series and extreme competitions. Some find the genre shallow. But in one recent attempt, a producer gathered altruistic entrepreneurs to tackle some of the world's biggest problems, like racism and poverty. However, it turns out the television show had a proble...

Guest: Stephanie Levitz, politics reporter Pierre Poilievre is the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. The front-runner for much of the leadership campaign, he won a decisive victory over his rivals and is now poised to shape the Conservative party. That has raised concern from critics who say that not only are some of his ideas very classically conservative, some court consp...

Guest: Omar Mosleh, staff reporter The stabbing rampage in the James Smith Cree Nation has left that community reeling. The fatalities, injuries and subsequent manhunt for suspects left a trail of trauma and many questions unanswered. An entire community has to pick up the pieces, heal and move on, and ensure something like this never happens again. Toronto Star staff reporter Omar Mosleh joins "T...

Guest : Lex Harvey, transportation reporter With a number of recent traffic-related collisions resulting in fatalities and kids on the sidewalks with classes back in session, road safety is back under the microscope. While the City of Toronto has Vision Zero, an initiative to reduce traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries on city streets, many road safety advocates feel the measures are no...

Guest: Christine Dobby is business reporter at the Star Ontario's bingo halls are looking at lot like casinos with rows of modern gaming machines. The question is, are they slot machines? Because if they are, they may be in violation of provincial law that prohibits slot machines in bingo halls. Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation says the machines follow the law. Business reporter Christine Do...

Guest: Jason Miller, crime reporter Peel police used force on Black people 3.2 times more often than their share of the population, a report on 2021 police data has shown. With only minimal improvement from 2020, the results are not a surprise to both police and the community. The police service has faced criticism after a series of high-profile killings of racialized men in crisis and questions a...

Guest: Alex Boyd, reporter Health Canada has authorized a new type of COVID shot from Moderna. It is a bivalent vaccine which means it is essentially two vaccines in one, in this case targeting the original virus and the Omicron variant BA.1. The new vaccines are arriving in Canada just ahead of a predicted COVID surge this fall. Toronto Star reporter Alex Boyd tells us more about bivalent vaccine...

Guest: Robert Benzie, Queen's Park Bureau chief for The Star Bill 7, also known as the "More Beds, Better Care" act is now law, and gives the government and medical authorities more power to potentially move patients from hospitals to long term care facilities that may not prefer to go too. The government says it is a necessary move as Flu season and an expected Fall COVID surge. Critics fear that...

Guest: Syed Hussan, the executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change Crowded bunkhouses. Rat-infested food. Verbal abuse and threats of termination. These are among the allegations made by Jamaican migrant workers on two farms hours from Canada's biggest city. The allegations were made earlier this month in an open letter to Jamaica's Ministry of Labour. They are unproven, but critics...

Guest: David Rider, City Hall Bureau Chief Municipal elections are coming soon across the province with campaigns just about to get underway. While Toronto Mayor John Tory seems to be safely heading toward a third term, there are plenty of interesting and competitive races for councillor seats in many wards. Here's what you need to know at the outset of the campaign. This episode was produced by A...

The following episode contains graphic language and references to sexual and racial violence. Listener discretion is advised. Guests: Erica Ifill, The Hill Times columnist, and Rachel Gilmore, Global News reporter The past two weeks have seen a peak in the wave of hate washing over Canada fuelled by political polarization, divisions over masks and vaccines, and a growing far-right movement. It res...

Guest: Amanda Watson, senior lecturer and sociologist at Simon Fraser University It's been two weeks since journalist Lisa LaFlamme announced she'd been let go from her job as chief news anchor and senior editor at CTV National News. The decision came two years before LaFlamme's contract was up and despite the fact she presided over one of Canada's most watched newscasts. The network said a "busin...

Guest: Marco Oved, climate change reporter. The air travel industry is betting big on sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) to drastically cut the amount of airplane emissions over the next few decades. It is a solution that will work with existing aircraft, but there are plenty of questions including the supply and the cost. Is the industry latching on to a solution that sounds good in order to avoid...

Guest: Diane Therrien, mayor of Peterborough It was a tweet read across the country that got her city trending on Twitter. Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien called a group of QAnon-linked demonstrators who came to her city imbeciles and with a few uncensored expletives, told them to leave. Response to Therrien's tweet has been varied. Some credit her for taking a strong stance against conspiracy t...

Guest: Alex Boyd, Toronto Star journalist While there are many reasons including equity and access issues that can prevent someone from getting a vaccine, some have chosen not to because of the myth that COVID-19 vaccines have led to hundreds of deaths in Canada and abroad. If billions of vaccine doses have been administered around the world, how did some people end up taking the view a vaccine co...