Zoomer Week in Review

This week brought more tragedy for the victims of drunk driver Marco Muzzo. Edward Lake, father of the three children who were killed with their grandfather, died by suicide. That prompted a petition signed by thousands to remove the Muzzo name from a hospital building. It’s part of a larger controversy over the rights to naming rights. Libby Znaimer reached Prof. David Soberman of the Rotman Scho...

Canada’s Jewish Immigrant Aid Services has been supporting refugees to this country for a remarkable 100 years, an anniversary marked this week here at the Zoomerplex. June 20th is World Refugee Day and this year it carries more significance as beleaguered Ukrainian refugees crossed their nation's border to various destinations including Canada. Ukraine has the fastest growing refugee crisis since...

Delayed and cancelled flights, huge waits on the tarmac after landing, even longer delays to get through security and customs. That is reality around the world as tens of thousands of people rush to fulfill their delayed holiday plans. Travel insurance expert Martin Firestone experienced it all first hand this week. Libby Znaimer reached him a few hours after he got home to talk about what to expe...

The Progressive Conservative’s huge majority victory this week means it will be harder to hold that government to account. But CARP has a plan to push its healthcare priorities to the top of the agenda. Anthony Quinn, CARP’s Ontario Election Lead, shared the strategy. AND Langdon Hall, in Cambridge - is one of Canada’s most luxurious and celebrated country inns and it boasts one of the best restau...

Experts say we should expect more extreme weather events like last weekend’s devastating storms which killed 11 people. But are we doing the right things to limit the damage? Libby Znaimer reached Blair Feltmate, head of the University of Waterloo’s Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation. AND Maye Musk’s billionaire son Elon has been all over the news lately, but now she is making headlines of her ow...

This week’s whirlwind Royal visit by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla focussed on reconciliation with Indigenous people. But for many Canadians it raised the question of whether it’s time to cut ties with the monarchy. Recent polls show a slim majority think that should happen when Charles becomes king. Libby talked with David Onley who served as the Queen’s representative, the Lieutenant Gover...

Israel’s Emergency Medical Service is unique in the world because its 25,000 staff medics work alongside 29,000 trained volunteers and filmmaker Martin Himel is one of them! Libby Znaimer sat down with Martin at our Liberty Village Studios. Tel Aviv 911 premiers Monday, May 16, 2022 at 9pm ET on our sister station VisionTV. AND The recent carnage in the markets has many Zoomers reviewing their fin...

Marsha Lederman first learned that her family went through the Holocaust at the age of five. But it has taken all these years to learn about their epic stories of survival and to understand their impact on her. Her new book is called “Kiss the Red Stairs” and Libby's conversation with her was intensely personal because her parents also went through the Holocaust and she's still trying to piece tog...

The Palace Papers promised to share riveting details about the British Royal family since Diana's death - and it delivers. Author Tina Brown is the celebrated former editor of Tatler, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair and she tapped more than 100 sources for the juicy details. We talked when she was in town this week. Will the monarchy survive after Queen Elizabeth? Tina thinks Charles and Camilla w...

It's more proof that traditional retirement, and especially retirement planning, is long gone. JP Morgan told its asset management advisors ''to plan for clients to live to 100 if they are in excellent health and non-smokers.'' This caught the attention of David Cravit, vice-president at ZoomerMedia, who's written books and blogs about the ''reinvention'' of aging. AND Prostate cancer is the 4th m...

A new report from food rescue organization Second Harvest reveals the severity of Canada’s food waste problem and suggests solutions the food industry can implement to resolve the issue. WASTED OPPORTUNITY finds a staggering 96 percent of surplus edible food is wasted instead of being donated to feed those in need. And with nearly two-thirds of Canadians reporting difficulty feeding their families...

After two pandemic seasons, summer festivals are set to resume. One organization - the Shaw Festival - is emerging in much better shape than its peers and it’s because of one very smart decision. Libby Znaimer talked with Executive Director Tim Jennings. AND She started her career in the maternity ward and pivoted to the end of life. Dr. Stephanie Green was one of the first doctors to deliver MAID...

Can the lessons of history help us make sense of the war on Ukraine? What is the impact of a single unexpected figure like Ukrainian President Volodimir Zylenskyy? Libby Znaimer turned to eminent historian Margaret MacMillan, former warden and professor at St. Anthony’s College, University of Oxford. AND It’s well known that Leonard Cohen’s classic “Who By Fire” is based on a Hebrew prayer recited...

Liana Markunina and Leonid Markunin are among the first Ukranians to arrive in Canada since Russia invaded a month ago. They already had visitors’ visas because they have two sons who live in Toronto. They had been hoping to eventually immigrate here under the family reunification program. Instead they fled their home in Odesa to escape Russian bombing. Libby Znaimer talked with them, through a tr...

Today marks the International Day of Happiness and it’s hard to remember a time when we needed it more. This year’s World Happiness Report says Canada is 15th out of 146 countries in the ranking of places with the happiest people - and there’s a surprising finding on the wellbeing of Zoomers amid the pandemic. Libby Znaimer talked with economist John Helliwell, the editor of the report and an idea...

This past Friday marked a grim milestone. It’s been two years since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. While there’s been no official end to the virus and its variants, the world tries to turn the page on this once in a lifetime pandemic that upended the world. In the same week of the two year anniversary, the global COVID-19 death toll surpassed 6 million. For...

As Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine goes on, many of Ukrainian heritage living around the world are returning to their homeland to defend it. Mark Preston-Horin of Victoria B.C. is one of them. Bob Komsic talked to him as he was finalizing his travel plans. If you’re 50 and older, or have a loved one who is, hopefully you or they have received vaccine shots to prevent Shingles. The number who...

We live in a world of misinformation which is described as any information that turns out to be false. It infiltrates current events ranging from elections, the pandemic, the recent blockades and protests in Canada and now, the war in Ukraine. While it’s not a new phenomenon, gone are the days of getting all of our information from the newspaper. And experts who study this influence of people’s re...

This long weekend, we mark Family Day. It comes as the two-year pandemic has changed our demographics and the structure of our families: more people live alone or in couples and there are fewer households with children. Doug Norris, chief demographer at Environics Analytics says it all flows from the aging of the population. AND There’s always lots of public discussion about immigration. This week...

The blockading protests calling themselves the Freedom Convoy have raised millions of dollars in a very short period of time. When GoFundMe froze their funds, sites like GiveSendGo took over. Reports suggest much of that cash is coming from the US and much has been donated anonymously. Who’s behind the money? Christian Leuprecht is a Professor of Political Science at the Royal Military College of...

Over half of Canada’s 30,000 deaths from COVID-19 were in long term care homes. Two years in, as hundreds of homes report new outbreaks of the Omicron variant, new draft national standards for the sector have been released that the authors claim would have saved many lives. Advocates say the changes are long overdue. Critics say they don’t go far enough. Dr. Samir Sinha is director of geriatrics a...

When the pandemic began, it seemed that Covid would convince many Canadians to retire early. The science made it clear that the risks increased with age and the demands of moving everything online required a massive shift. But the opposite has happened. The pandemic is making Canadians delay retirement. Fidelity Canada explored the reasons in its most recent report. I talked with Michelle Munro, D...

A new book details how a cold case team brought modern investigative techniques to a decades-old Holocaust mystery: who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? The project took nearly five years, and used AI in addition to more than 20 people and dozens of consultants. Libby Znaimer talked with Canadian author Rosemary Sullivan about The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation. AND It’s a hy...

Do you still carry a lot of cash and how often do you use it? There’s no question the pandemic has accelerated the move to contactless payment. Our next guest argues that the end of cash is almost here and it will affect us in many ways. Libby Znaimer reached Eswar Prasad, a Cornell professor, an author, and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. AND According to research from the CMHA and the Uni...

On January 6th 2021, the world watched in horror as the United States capitol building was attacked. Since then, over 700 rioters have been charged, many remain in jail, and a commission is tasked with finding the roots of the insurrection and plans to release its final report this summer. Christine Ross spoke with political science professor Dr. Christopher Gelpi to reflect on the one year annive...