This Matters

Guest: Toronto Star climate reporter Kate Allen Canada is the leader in maple syrup production and Quebec's maple syrup producers maintain a strategic reserve stockpile that in recent years held over 100 million pounds of the sweet stuff, but levels have this year dwindled to less than 7 million pounds. Star reporter  Kate Allen wrote a feature on this topic and explains how the explanation has so...

Guest:   Richard Warnica , staff reporter The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was a massive component of the port city's entire transportation network, and in a matter of moments this week, it collapsed after being struck by a container ship.  The Star's Richard Warnica reports from the scene , explaining his reflections on standing next to the bridge that used to be there and just isn't any...

Guest:   Noor Javed , staff reporter When Bonnie Crombie was elected leader of the Ontario Liberals, she left the mayor's chair in Mississauga vacant. That means that for the first time since the 1970s,  no one is certain who will lead the city next . An election with real choice comes at an interesting time for a municipality that, fifty years after it was created, has grown into a big city and a...

Guest:  Brendan Kennedy , investigative reporter  The evidence is overwhelming and it's the government's own research. Getting any education while incarcerated reduces the rate of recidivism by as much as 30 per cent. It's more than double that for inmates who get a post-secondary education. Government officials confirm that at least some education beyond the high school level is key to a successf...

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, "Road Trip: Electric Avenues," every Saturday. This week, we are proud to share the final episode in the series: When we started this podcast, we really wanted to visit each step of the EV production process to show a complete picture of the supply chain, but in the end, we couldn't seal the deal. First off, the cam and cat...

After The Star revealed many details of Toronto's secret contract with FIFA for hosting the World Cup, the preparations led off the city council meeting this week. We talk about what we've learned and what we still don't know. Council also passed a resolution to turn surface parking lots into housing, which led to yet another episode of War on the Car rhetoric. Plus, were protests targeting a city...

Guest:   Susan Delacourt , politics columnist Former prime minister Brian Mulroney died late last month, and through this week as he's lain in state, columnist Susan Delacourt has watched the long lines of dignitaries and functionaries who've come to greet his family and pay their respects. Delacourt walks us through her own memories and reflections from covering Mulroney's years in office, includ...

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, "Road Trip: Electric Avenues," every Saturday. The next episode will be available next week here, or already in the Road Trip feed. This week, we are proud to share episode five: While China dominates the EV supply chain today, the ranking — put out by Bloomberg — really looks at the future and singles out Canada for having...

Guest:  Megan Ogilvie , health reporter  A global surge in measles has made its way to Canada, where there's been almost twice as many cases just three months into this year than in all of 2023. Just in Ontario, as of Wednesday, public health officials have confirmed eight measles cases. Last year, there were seven cases in total for the entire year. Cases have now also been confirmed in Quebec, S...

Toronto Star national columnist Susan Delacourt recently had her X account (the platform formerly known as Twitter) hacked. It compromised her entire digital life, from her sensitive emails to her banking information, even her phone number and home address. The hacker tried to blackmail her and appeared to be targeting her for her work as a journalist. While the "fake Susan" continues to be active...

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, "Road Trip: Electric Avenues," every Saturday. The next episode will be available next week here, or already in the  Road Trip feed . This week, we are proud to share episode four:  Steel is one of the biggest emitters of carbon in the world. Currently, steelmaking is responsible for seven to nine percent of total global em...

Earlier this year, it seemed like the dream of a WNBA team in Toronto had died, but recent news revives the possibility, even if it won't come until at least 2026. Speaking of sports in 2026, there's more news about Toronto's agreement to co-host the FIFA World Cup, and more to discuss about how costs are going to be shared. Ed wrote about a transportation miracle on King Street, and Emma discusse...

Guests : Tracy Moore of Cityline and Meredith Shaw of Breakfast Television Fat. Flattering. Big boned. Curvy. March 8 is International Women's Day  and to mark it  we're breaking down the negative ways we talk about women's bodies. Most women are familiar with body shaming — none more so than women in the public eye. Meredith Shaw and Tracy Moore join us to talk about their own self-acceptance jou...

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, "Road Trip: Electric Avenues," every Saturday. The next episode will be available next week here, or already in the  Road Trip feed . Ontario is virtually unique in the world. Thanks to plentiful natural resources, clean energy and a large automotive sector, it has every stage in the EV supply chain right here at home. In t...

Guest:  Dr. Tara Kiran, national lead for OurCare, scientist at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto A nationwide health-care crisis has led a group of medical researchers to criss-cross the country to hear how Canadians would fix primary care, the front door of the health system. It's called the OurCare project, the largest initiative o...

This Matters is pleased to publish the first episode of the Toronto Star, TVO and IJB collaborative podcast, The Ultimate Choice. The podcast follows the journey of Michael and his wife, Ann. Michael, housebound by pain and incurable disease, sees his choice for a medically assisted death (MAID) as a powerful solution to his suffering. The series explores Michael's motivations and how his decision...

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, Road Trip: Electric Avenues, every Saturday. The next episode will be available next week here, or already in the Road Trip feed.  In episode 2, we visit a cobalt refinery in Cobalt, Ont. that's running on renewable power and doubling as a battery recycling plant. Electra Battery Materials bought the plant in 2018 and five...

The first episode of "Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent" aired this week, and we agree the city not only looked like itself, but looked beautiful too. But beautiful or not, this is still a very expensive place to live, and a new report shows it's dragging down quality of life across the board. Does the Chow/Ford announcement this week offer any hope of change? Meanwhile, we discuss Emma's colum...

Guest:  Richard Warnica , Toronto Star feature writer Richard Warnica sees it everywhere – business meetings, the subway, even at his own dinner table – the blank-eyed stare of someone mindlessly scrolling their smartphone.  These devices, despite their increasingly documented negative effects on our mental health, have us firmly in their grips , and their utility and ubiquity makes it hard to env...

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, Road Trip: Electric Avenues, every Saturday. The next episode will be available next week here, or already in the Road Trip feed.  Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell and climate change reporter Marco Chown Oved went on a road trip through northern Ontario in the dead of winter. It was cold, blizzarding and icy. They tr...

On Valentine's Day, hours before the Toronto women's hockey team continued its rise in the standings, city council met to debate the mayor's budget. Police got the money they were demanding: was that a good move or bad move by the mayor? And who knew plowing out the end of driveways would be the cause that united everyone? Meanwhile, a tax increase that was for years considered the third rail of T...

Guests:  Angelyn Francis and Kevin Jiang Deepfakes are the latest manifestation of artificial intelligence-generated technology. They are false, but very lifelike, AI generated images of real people. Last month, deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift were viewed tens of millions of times on X, formerly known as Twitter, before being removed. The incident is raising serious concerns among exp...

Guest:   Jennifer Pagliaro , staff reporter When the proposed city budgets were announced (first by city staff and later by the mayor), the police chief and the association representing officers went on the offensive, threatening that funding levels would leave them unable to answer emergency calls and protect Torontonians. In the end, the cops got what they were asking for with the cooperation of...

In a cross-over episode of Toronto Star podcasts, This Matters' Ed Keenan interviews Road Trip: Electric Avenues'  Marco Chown Oved, the Star's climate change reporter . He and photographer (and EV owner) Steve Russell embarked upon a week-long road trip  – in an EV, of course – to visit sites around the province that will figure in this cleantech future.

It's been one year since John Tory announced his surprise resignation and what difference those 12 months have made at city hall, never more in evidence than in the budget scheduled to be passed next week. We discuss what's changed, why Mayor Olivia Chow seemed so pleased with the federal refugee funding, a prebudget meeting of council and more. As well, Premier Doug Ford deserves (partial) credit...