This Matters

We all saw "Friends," but what if we told you it was a universal truth? New research shows two-thirds of the friends end up together. Danu Stinson, Associate professor of psychology at the University of Victoria talks about the relationship science around dating and friends.

Guest: Stephanie Nolen, the 2020-21 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy Stephanie Nolen is on "This Matters" to talk about her extensive reporting on the impact of COVID-19 in Canada, where it hit the hardest, who fell through the cracks and what institutions created those vulnerabilities. Nolen's Atkinson series "What COVID Reveals" featuring her in-depth reporting is available at thestar.com .

Guest: Robert Cribb, Toronto Star investigative reporter and director of the Investigative Journalism Bureau at the University of Toronto The opioid crisis has been raging, with deaths surging in Toronto, climbing 80 per cent from 2019 to 2020. Now, new research shows that this city's street supply of drugs is growing more toxic, stronger and potentially more deadly with additives that make it har...

This Matters is happy to share that sports broadcaster and author Brendan Dunlop hosts "Tokyo Daily," the daily Summer Olympics podcast, also from the Toronto Star. Each day during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Brendan will recap the Canadian headlines and talk about the major stories with Star journalists on location in Japan and at home, ex-Olympians and other experts. Listen to the show every a...

Guest: Rebecca Cotter, GTA-based event specialist It is summer and many of us are gathering again, from inviting friends over for a pool party to getting together for meetings, holidays, festivals and weddings. But there are more considerations than there were before. COVID-19 has redefined how to gather safely and changed our rules of etiquette for everything from handshaking to screening to the...

Guest: Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at University of Toronto There are plenty of positive signs regarding COVID-19 in Canada, with vaccination rates leading the world and case counts coming down, but the fourth wave is on the horizon. There are worrying signs in several countries around the world, with some jurisdictions considering further mask mandat...

Guest: Nicholas Schiavo, founder of No Conversion Canada There was an important piece of legislation brought to the Senate last month, but with senators now on summer break and the possibility of an election looming, that legislation might be lost. Bill C-6 would ban conversion therapy, a widely discredited practice that claims to change someone's sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expr...

Guest: Dania Suleman, a lawyer and author from Quebec The National Council of Canadian Muslims wants the government to show they're serious about tackling violent and systemic Islamophobia. This week, the council released a list of 60 calls to action to implement policy change at a federal, provincial and local levels. The NCCM is also calling on governments to challenge Bill 21 in Quebec, the law...

Guest: John Moores, associate professor and York University Research Chair in Space Exploration In the future, we may say space tourism really began in July 2021. Following Virgin Galactic's recent successful suborbital flight, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is set to blast off and achieve an even higher orbit. With estimates that space tourism could be worth $5 billion by 2025, both billionaires are not...

Guest: Hannah Brown, manager of the criminal justice system reform program at Humane Canada During COVID-19, domestic violence numbers spiked to the point where we began to call it "the shadow pandemic." Alongside that, data across North America has begun to reveal "the violence link" which means that often cruelty towards the family pet is intertwined with other violence within the home. Hannah B...

Guest: Professor Nina Kohn, law professor at Syracuse University and expert on elder law and conservatorships Britney Spears is fighting to free herself from a decade-long conservatorship under her father James and yesterday, she might have reached a milestone win when a California court judge agreed to let the pop star choose her own lawyer. Today on "This Matters," we take a look at exactly how...

Guest:  Dr. Andrew Young, assistant professor of systematic entomology at the University of Guelph The bugs are back. With summer in full bloom and many of us enjoying the great outdoors, it's a good time to remember that there are plenty of creepy crawly critters out there. Some are really making their presence known. From cicada to tick to caterpillar moth infestations, there are plenty of insec...

Guest: Sunny Handa, technology group lead at Blakes, Cassels & Graydon LLP Cybercrime is growing at an incredible rate. Ransomware attacks are up and according to the experts, companies are willing to pay to get their data back. Hackers are increasingly sophisticated in how they breach companies but also in the way they deal and negotiate with the companies they are attacking. We talk with a lawye...

Guest: Ben Spurr, The Star's transportation reporter Tax avoidance isn't tax evasion, but is it fair? A new report from the non-profit Canadians for Tax Fairness says ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft could be avoiding millions of dollars in taxes by classifying their workers as contractors instead of employees. This isn't illegal, but is it time to take a look at the rules governing corporation...

Guest: Jennifer Pagliaro, Toronto city hall reporter for the Star Toronto continues to reopen alongside the staged plan created by the Ontario government. How we progress and when reopening happens depends on many factors: vaccination rates, case numbers and other public health data. But the City of Toronto is getting ready with a 'playbook' plan for businesses, twinned with a renewed push for vac...

Guest: Nadine Yousif, mental health reporter for the Star A new report by Sick Kids has revealed worryingly high rates of depression and other mental health issues in kids in the aftermath of the second wave of COVID-19. They did not just bounce back as many experts had predicted earlier. On "This Matters" today, we talk about what's next as kids prepare to return to school in the fall amid deep c...

Guest: Nadine Yousif, mental health reporter for the Star A new report by Sick Kids has revealed worryingly high rates of depression and other mental health issues in kids in the aftermath of the second wave of COVID-19. They did not just bounce back as many experts had predicted earlier. On "This Matters" today, we talk about what's next as kids prepare to return to school in the fall amid deep c...

Guest: Omar Mosleh, Edmonton-based reporter for the Star A wave of terrifying racist attacks in Alberta has the province on edge. The targets have been Muslim women, most of them Black and wearing a hijab. The Muslim community says Islamophobia and anti-Black racism have always been a problem in the province, and the pandemic might have made it worse. The Star's Edmonton-based reporter Omar Mosleh...

Guest: Robert Cribb, investigative and foreign affairs reporter at the Toronto Star The Star's Robert Cribb speaks to "This Matters" about a recent investigative collaboration that took a deep dive into the disturbing world of the garment manufacturing industry, its global supply chain and how the pandemic has devastated workers who were working under very questionable conditions to begin with. Th...

Guest: Kareem Clark, post-doctoral associate in neuroscience at Virginia Tech's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute With all the time in COVID-related lockdown, you and your brain are likely out of practice at social interactions. Studies and research have shown even short periods of social isolation can have detrimental effects, including our mental abilities. The good news is the brain can quic...

Guest: Brendan Dunlop, host of the Star's Headers and Footers UEFA Euro 2020 podcast Canada is not among the traditional superpowers of world football (or soccer, if you like). But a new generation of the brightest talents in the game — Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David — are giving Canadian footy fans a reason to dream of competing with the biggest names and nations of the beautiful game. It's b...

Guests: Ontario NDP MPP Sol Mamakwa, and Samanta Krishnapillai, founder of On Canada Project The calls to cancel Canada Day are loud. After more than 1,000 bodies of Indigenous children have been found in unmarked graves at former residential schools, many are questioning whether it is appropriate to celebrate national pride while a deep national trauma is ongoing and being reckoned with. After mu...

Guest: Erin Benjamin, president and CEO of the Canadian Live Music Association With over 85 entertainment venues closed across the country during this pandemic, the people behind the concert halls and performance spaces that managed to survive repeated lockdowns are now cautiously optimistic that business can get back to normal. But there is still a long way to go with a confusing patchwork set of...

With eye doctors embroiled in a pay dispute with the Ontario government over what OHIP covers of an annual eye exam, the province's optometrists have threatened to not accept OHIP-covered patients — which most affects patients under 18 and above 65 — come September unless the province agrees to legally-binding negotiations on the issue. Dr. Salaba joins us to explain the doctor's case. Guest: Dr....

June is Pride month. It's a month that is a celebration of 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, a recognition of a decades-long struggle for rights and equality and a reminder that this struggle is ongoing. Brian Bradley joins on "This Matters" to talk about how that struggle is going in Hamilton, Ont., two years after Pride Hamilton organizers had to grapple with violent hate by far-right groups and questiona...