This Matters

Politicians have been using artists' music without permission for a long time, but Donald Trump is a new kind of offender. Neil Young has had enough. Entertainment lawyer Larry Iser tells us how a new lawsuit might stop the President from "Rockin' in the Free World."

Joanna Chiu, who covers China-Canada relations for the Star, joins This Matters to discuss the state of relations between the two nations, and the issues that are causing friction between them. With a number of issues that seemed to stem from the Canadian arrest of Meng Wanzhou and the subsequent detaining and imprisonment of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, that spat has coloured all interactio...

A bunch of bike lanes, a plethora of pop up patios and new landlocked beaches? What Toronto is this? Star columnist Shawn Micallef joins This Matters to talk about public spaces and the Toronto's changing cityscape.

The belief that schools are the safest place for kids is not the lived reality for many students who faced problems even before the pandemic. Dr. Tyler Black, child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia, talks to Adrian Cheung on the mental stress of reopening schools and why the pandemic is the moment to reshape and rethink how education works in Canada.

York University researchers published a study reporting that while the Chinese diaspora in Canada faced incidents of harassment, they often ahead of the curve in responses to the pandemic, even compared to the advice of public health officials at the time. Adrian Cheung and Star reporter May Warren talk about the reporting of the new study, what early reporting on racial incidents missed out on an...

The Star's Queen's Park Bureau reporter Kristin Rushowy joins Saba Eitizaz to try to answer some of the most burning questions that parents have about how to navigate a back to school season while still battling a public health crisis.

Advocates are raising the alarm as more than 20 percent of Toronto's homeless population is made up of children — nearly doubled in number from just four years ago. There are currently thousands of children living in shelters across Toronto, and nearly 70 percent of them are younger than ten. The Star's Affordable Housing Reporter Victoria Gibson spent time with some families in the system to unde...

Adrian Cheung and Toronto Star reporter Angelyn Francis break down the intricacies of the law, backed by the advice of employment lawyers, the changing societal acceptance of protests, and the cross-section of exercising your rights while potentially putting your job on the line.

You probably can't stop checking your phone for another news article, another video, another chart to help you make sense of what's happening. And there's a (relatively) new word for it: 'Doomscrolling.' Navneet Alang, technology columnist for the Toronto Star, and This Matters host, Adrian Cheung, talk about their terrible doomscrolling habits, why we're all doing it and maybe, just maybe, how we...

Investigative reporter David Bruser speaks to Saba Eitizaz about thousands of undocumented Torontonians who were brought here as children, grew up here and call Canada home and are being shut out of their own future and a higher education due to restrictive tuition and student loan policies. These are Canada's dreamers, living in the shadows of the only home that they have ever known — and they mi...

"We have an opportunity to create a different reputation." This episode is a rebroadcast from Thursday,  July 23, where Mahesh Prajapat, Chief Operating Officer of CAS Toronto, tells Saba Eitizaz it's time for CAS to stop trying to bring children in to the child welfare system — and focus on supporting the family instead. Since that episode ran, the Ontario government has announced initiatives tow...

Doug Smith, Toronto Raptors beat writer for the Toronto Star talks to Raju Mudhar about the NBA's return, the Orlando bubble and the Raptors chances of winning another NBA Championship.

Who gets priority access to a vaccine? Should the first vaccines go to the most vulnerable and elderly populations? How do we define these terms? Who gets to decide? 'This Matters' talks to Daniel Ashlock, mathematics professor at the University of Guelph, about the artificial intelligence program being developed by his team, spread across three Canadian universities, that could help public health...

Landlord/tenant lawyer Caryma Sa'd and Star reporter Victoria Gibson talk to Saba Eitizaz about the many questions surrounding the recently legislated Bill 184 and why many tenants are fearfully referring to it as the "eviction Bill."

Who was Pat Musitano? The Star's Peter Edwards first ran into him in the early '90s and has been writing about him and the Musitano family ever since. The Star's organized crime expert takes us through everything we need to know about the life and violent death of Pat Musitano.

Gun violence in the GTA has grown at an exponential pace and does not appear to be slowing. Wendy Gillis, who covers crime and policing for the Star, joins us to discuss the alarming numbers and what might be done to fix the problem.

Jennifer Pagliaro, city hall reporter for the Toronto Star, talks to Adrian Cheung about the rules and forces that shape our living in a city, during a most uncertain time. During the pandemic, bylaws have been front and centre in regulating new standard of living: how to enforce mask wearing inside stores and businesses, social distancing regulations and proper re-opening protocols. Are they fair...

According to Toronto Children's Aid Society, Black Torontonians only represent 9 percent of the city's population while Black children represent the highest percentage of children in their care. The most recent data shows 42 percent of children and youth in CAS-T's care identify as Black, reflecting a number that hasn't changed much in the last few years. Toronto's Children's Aid Society admits sy...

Robert Benzie, Toronto Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and David Rider, Toronto Star's City Hall bureau chief joins This Matters to talk about the future of Ontario Place, the false starts and new hope for the waterfront, and the battle between the province and the city over a Toronto institution. The Toronto Star exclusively reported this week that major bids from Canadian and international firm...

Karon Liu, culture reporter at the Star and a former food writer joins This Matters to discuss how bars and restaurants are reopening in Ontario.

With questions at how every level of education may safely return, Kris Rushowy, a Queen's Park Bureau reporter for the Star, who also spent many years as an education reporter, joins This Matters to explain where we stand right now and what a return to school might look like. We are almost at the middle of summer vacation, and parents and students from all levels of education are wondering what a...

Andrew Clark, director of the Humber School of Comedy joins This Matters to talk about TV comedy's racial reckoning, as several sitcoms have excised episodes featuring blackface on streaming platforms. This is a part of larger racial reckoning in comedy which has also seen several white actors step down from voicing people of colour on animated series.

Months after testing negative, thousands of patients around the world — known as 'long haulers — continue to face serious and often mysterious symptoms: skin rashes, short-term memory loss, shortness of breath and the loss of smell and taste. Two patients with long-haul symptoms, Hannah Wei and Hannah Davis, join Adrian Cheung to talk about their experiences with COVID-19 and why they're pushing f...

Saba Eitizaz talks to Sara Mojtehedzadeh, The Star's Work and Wealth Reporter, about a new report on occupational cancer in Ontario which looks at why sick workers or their surviving families might be left to suffer for years, often struggle to seek compensation and also prevent exposure in the first place.

Susan Delacourt, national political columnist for the Toronto Star, talks to Adrian Cheung about Trudeau's ethics violations, why he continues to find himself in the middle of controversies and what this means for his ongoing legacy as prime minister.