This Matters

Full transcription available here (thanks to Access Now for transcribing). A lot of us haven't thought about the fact that the way we're experiencing the world in the midst of a deadly virus, might actually just be every day in the life of a disabled person, even before a pandemic. Maayan Ziv, disability rights activist and the founder and CEO of AccessNow, a digital accessibility platform for the...

Edward Keenan, the Toronto Star's Washington bureau chief, talks to Adrian Cheung on the Canada/US border issue, what the timeline of reopening could look like, and how the US — through the policies of its administration — is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

The good ol' hockey game is about to come back, with the NHL set to confirm its choices of Toronto and Edmonton as its two hub cities where it will house players, teams and staff as it gets set to resume the season and hold the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It actually took a lot for the NHL to get here, and to discuss that, Raju Mudhar is joined by Kevin McGran, who covers the Leafs and The NHL for the T...

Pizza Pizza has been voluntarily serving up customer information to the police without a warrant. The Star has learned multiple police investigators obtained phone numbers and then went to a contact at Pizza Pizza to search their data for information. This Matters is joined by Jim Rankin, a Crimes, Courts and Justice reporter at the Toronto Star, who broke this story.

Toronto's Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vinita Dubey talks to Saba Eitizaz about the new mandatory mask policy, what we need to do to protect ourselves and others, and why there is such confusion and contention regarding this issue.

How do we travel now? What are the ways that are safest? Travel bubbles, a road-trip renaissance, camping, RVing, longer and more meaningful trips, visiting friends and family. Sarah Khan, travel writer, talks to Adrian Cheung about what the future of travel looks like and why this could be the great re-set on how we see the world. The way we travel has changed, perhaps forever. 

John Sewell, former Toronto Mayor and member of Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, speaks to Saba Eitizaz about why the police are on the mental health frontlines and what can be done to avoid these tragic outcomes. One of the questions being raised is why are police the first responders to mental health emergencies and why are "wellness checks" being conducted with the help of guns and body...

Facebook's current relationship status with advertisers: It's complicated. Steven Levy, tech journalist at Wired and author of Facebook: The Inside Story, discusses the Facebook advertising boycott campaign. The #StopHateforProfit campaign has picked up support from hundreds of companies, including Unilever, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Starbucks and all of Canada's 'Big 5' banks, to pressure the social...

For Toronto's cyclists, many of their dreams have come true, as the city has aggressively and quickly added a number of new bike lanes on several thoroughfares to provide more space for those travelling on two wheels. Toronto has added 40 kilometres of bike lanes to the city this spring. To discuss this, This Matters invited two Star columnists who have opined on this issue. Norris McDonald is a c...

Wendy Gillis, Toronto Star's crime reporter, breaks down the details of the Theriault trial verdict with Adrian Cheung. And they discuss how this case is playing into larger questions of community trust in policing and what justice looks like in Canada's judicial system.

Some say the "extreme intoxication" defence sends the wrong message on sexual assault, and takes society back to a time when judges found ways to excuse violence against women. In today's episode, Saba Eitizaz talks to criminal lawyer and social justice advocate Caryma Sa'd for her legal opinion the debate – and finds out what all of this could actually mean in a court room.

Three Canadian journalists discuss anti-Chinese racism. The Toronto Star's digital producer, Evy Kwong, audio engineer/producer, Sean Pattendon, and host/producer, Adrian Cheung, are in conversation about their experiences as Chinese-Canadians during the pandemic. Then, an interview with Justin Kong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council on how the organization is collecting...

This Matters is joined by Travis M. Andrews, an internet culture reporter at the Washington Post, to discuss Kpop stans' and TikTok teens' efforts to flex their online muscle and embrace a new kind of political activism.

Paul Burns is the managing director of Twitter Canada and he discusses why his company is letting employees choose if they want to come back to an office. We are also joined by Kennedy Gordon, managing editor of the Peterborough Examiner, which has announced it is leaving its office spaces and becoming a completely virtual newsroom. 

This Matters will broadcast the Toronto Star's six-part podcast Hustled each Monday. In the final episode of Hustled, Foodora couriers in Toronto are buoyed by a recent win. They want to create a gold standard for gig workers. We look to the Golden State. EPISODE 6: Golden State With a win under their belt, Foodora couriers in Toronto want to create a gold standard for gig work. In this final epis...

  Diane J. Brisebois is the president and CEO of the Retail Council of Canada, and with much of Ontario entering phase two of the reopening plans, she joins Raju Mudhar to talk about how the retail sector will respond to this turmoil and what comes next , from the economics for retailers, employees and consumers to the technology that will begin to be used. Ultimately, she says, health and safety...

Hal Johnson, of 'BodyBreak,' talks to Adrian Cheung about the racism he faced in Canada's media industry, how those incidents drove their will to make the famous show, and why systemic and structural racism continues to be a big problem today. 'BodyBreak', the popular mini-episodes on health, fitness and wellness is something many Canadians remember from the 1980s and '90s. But Johnson's admission...

Charlton McIlwain ( @cmcilwain ), Vice Provost of NYU and author of the book Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from the Afronet to Black Lives Matter, talks to Saba Eitizaz about whether technology is out there to liberate and empower or to control people. 

Andrew Lochhead started a petition to have the Dundas Street renamed, with over 10,000 signatures and City Hall looking int it. He and Melanie Newton, an associate professor of history of the Caribbean and the Atlantic World at the University of Toronto, join Raju Mudhar, to discuss the problematic past of the namesake and how a history of colonization and its monuments can harm.

This Matters will broadcast the Toronto Star's six-part podcast Hustled each Monday, where the Star's labour reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh takes us behind the scenes of a David vs. Goliath battle between a scrappy group of Toronto food couriers and the app company they work for. EPISODE 5: Groundhog Day An abrupt announcement from Foodora amid a global pandemic rattles couriers and raises questions...

How do film and TV come back safely? Emily Andras is the creator, executive producer and showrunner on supernatural horror western Wynonna Earp, and she joins Raju Mudhar to talk about television and film production and how it comes back in a COVID-19 world.  Like the rest of society, the business of film and television shut down in mid-March, affecting the plans of the some of the biggest enterta...

Doug Smith, the Toronto Star's reporter on the Toronto Raptors talks to Adrian Cheung about the Raptors' championship run, his memories covering the franchise for 25 years and what a restarting NBA season, in the middle of a pandemic, will look like. We revisit the magical 2019 NBA championship and its top moments, culminating in raising "Larry OB" on Thursday, June 13, 2019 — from Kawhi Leonard's...

Morgan Campbell, a freelance sports writer, joins Raju Mudhar to discuss the new world of sports activism, and how the business of sport is responding. "Stick to sports" has been the catch phrase whenever people got uncomfortable or disagreed with what a prominent athlete had to say on an issue. It's also an outdated idea, as athletes and sports have long been a part of social change. That has nev...

Desmond Cole, activist, journalist and author, offers his opinion in a conversation with Adrian Cheung, on the movement to defund policing and why he thinks the system of policing, as we understand it, should be abolished.

This Matters will broadcast the Toronto Star's six-part podcast Hustled each Monday, where the Star's labour reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh takes us behind the scenes of a David vs. Goliath battle between a scrappy group of Toronto food couriers and the app company they work for. EPISODE 4: Pandemic As COVID-19 grips the city, Foodora couriers find themselves working under even riskier conditions. Wh...