Front Burner

After a bombshell interview between Oprah and Meghan Markle watched by millions around the world, culture writer Kovie Biakolo discusses the revelations in the interview, and the issue of racism in the royal family.

How solid is the science behind delaying second COVID-19 vaccine doses? Are the shots from AstraZeneca-Oxford and Johnson & Johnson effective enough? Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch answers our most pressing questions about the latest vaccine news.

Mohamedou Salahi was detained in Guantanamo Bay for 14 years without charge. He was considered one of its most tortured prisoners. The new Hollywood film “The Mauritanian” portrays his detention and his fight for freedom, but does not touch on Canada’s connection to what happened. CBC senior correspondent Adrienne Arsenault spoke to Mohamedou Salahi about that connection, and today, describes what she learned.

Dr. Seuss Enterprises will no longer publish six of the beloved author’s books because of their racist content and imagery. Philip Nel and Michelle H. Martin, two experts on children’s lit, discuss Dr. Seuss’s legacy, and how to engage with problematic children’s classics.

“Now we have no choice. We have to fight back.” Today we hear from a young pro-democracy activist in Myanmar who is risking her life on the streets of Yangon to fight back against the military coup.

According to a newly declassified U.S report, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince approved the operation that led to the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Today on Front Burner, how the Saudi regime’s campaign to crush dissent extends far beyond that murder.

Today, CBC’s Murray Brewster examines the sexual misconduct allegation that led Admiral Art McDonald, Canada’s top military commander, to step aside, as well as the ongoing investigation into his predecessor, Gen. Jonathan Vance.

On Sunday, Hollywood will celebrate the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards. The event is considered influential, even as it is dogged by persistent jokes that it's out of touch, and even corrupt. When this year's nominations were announced, many were puzzled that the fluffy Netflix series Emily in Paris received two nods, while the critically acclaimed I May Destroy You was shut out. This week, a sprawling Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that some 30 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which puts on the awards, were set up in a luxury hotel and treated like "kings and queens" during a visit to the Emily in Paris set. Today, the two journalists behind that investigation, Josh Rottenberg and Stacy Perman, explain Golden Globes, the small, secretive body behind them, and why the event's shady reputation persists.

The death of Cindy Gladue became a flashpoint for the anger surrounding missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada. Now, a manslaughter conviction for Bradley Barton closes the long legal saga — but as CBC reporter Jorge Barrera tells us, for Gladue's family, healing has just begun.

As three B.C. churches get ready to head to court to fight the province's COVID-19 rules, CBC Vancouver reporter Jason Proctor explains how the pandemic is testing the limits of religious freedom.

As Canada considers ways to make big tech pay for news, Wired digital editor James Temperton outlines some lessons it could take from Australia's fight with Facebook.

Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative collective Bellingcat, tells us how the group used online information to break some of its biggest stories — from the poisoning of Alexei Navalny to the downing of Flight MH17 in Ukraine — and why he wants others to follow in Bellingcat's footsteps.

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are just a year away, and pressure is building for Canada to take a stand by boycotting them in response to China’s imprisonment of the “Two Michaels” and the ongoing human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority.

Mamadi III Fara Camara’s lawyer says he called police to help an officer who had been attacked, and after trying to help, he was charged with attempted murder. Today, how this case of wrongful arrest fits into a wider debate about policing in Montreal.

More than a decade ago Canadian comedian Mike Ward told a joke about a disabled young singer named Jérémy Gabriel. Marie-Danielle Smith on the questions it raises about freedom of speech versus discrimination.

An unprecedented outbreak in Newfoundland of the coronavirus variant originally found in the UK holds lessons for the rest of Canada. CBC St-John’s reporter Peter Cowan on what those lessons are.

Former president Donald Trump's second impeachment trial ended with another acquittal on Saturday. We ask CBC News senior correspondent Susan Ormiston why anger over the insurrection didn't lead to a conviction in the U.S. Senate and whether the impeachment process can produce accountability in the country.

Profitable companies have accessed the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy while increasing dividend payouts to shareholders. And now both the companies and the program are under fire. Today, CBC’s Jonathan Monpetit explains how CEWS works, and Liberal MP Nathan Erskine-Smith who wants to see some companies pay part of that money back.

As COVID-19 cases go down, pandemic restrictions are loosening across the country, including in Ontario, but concerns about variants remain. Today on Front Burner, what that means for the safety of kids at school.

Jeff Bezos made Amazon into one of the world’s biggest retailers, but critics argue he did it at the expense of his workers. Now, one Alabama warehouse is voting on whether to unionize, a move that could spark major change, even here in Canada. Recode’s Jason Del Rey on how Amazon got here.

Donald Trump is facing an historic second Senate impeachment trial. Will the former U.S. president avoid conviction once again? Politico reporter Andrew Desiderio explains why all signs point to an acquittal.

Strong corporate ties. A lot of attention paid to make sure donors were happy. Those were just some of the concerns that former employees had about WE Charity, as told to the CBC’s The Fifth Estate. Today, more on that investigation.

The Canadian government recently listed the Proud Boys and three other far-right organizations as terrorist entities. They also moved to list nine other militant Islamist groups. For some people, this is a huge win. But others worry it's a sign that the war on terror is continuing to expand, and they're concerned about who might get caught up in its dragnet. Today, Ben Makuch a national security reporter for Vice, and Michelle Shephard, author of Decade of Fear: Reporting from Terrorism's Grey Zone, wade through the complex ramifications.

The Brazilian city of Manaus has been dealing with a raging outbreak of COVID-19, one that has left hospitals overrun and oxygen supplies dwindling; and not for the first time. The city was hit so hard by the coronavirus in the spring, that researchers estimated that 75 per cent of the population had been infected, which makes the severity of this recent outbreak unexpected and concerning. Today, Atlantic writer and Yale University public health policy lecturer Dr. James Hamblin explains the potential threat posed by new variants of the coronavirus popping up around the world, how they could upend expectations about herd immunity, and the need for a truly global vaccination response.

In the summer of 2019, newly elected Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said he was determined to blow the lid off of what he called a "shadowy," foreign-funded campaign to crush Alberta's oil and gas industry. He mentioned Russia, OPEC and the Rockefeller Foundation as possibly playing a role. And he announced an inquiry to get to the bottom of it. But three delays and $3.5 million later, evidence of a shady international campaign has yet to materialize. And the still-ongoing inquiry has been mired in allegations of cronyism, climate denialism and conspiracy theories. Jennie Russell and Charles Rusnell — investigative reporters with CBC Edmonton — join us to explain how the inquiry into "anti-Alberta energy campaigns" started and how it's going.

On Friday CBC announced it was ending Trickster, a well-received television show that aired both here and in the U.S. There will be no second season as previously planned. The cancellation follows scrutiny over showrunner Michelle Latimer and questions about her Indigenous identity. Today, Anishnawbe playwright and humorist Drew Hayden Taylor joins us to share his thoughts on the cancellation and what it means to be Indigenous.

As of Sunday, Canada had fallen to 27th in the world in vaccines administered, behind the U.S., the U.K. and smaller countries like Poland and Serbia, according to data aggregated by the University of Oxford. Canada was one of the first countries in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for use and have reserved record doses per person — but the country is facing significant shipment delays. There are also growing questions about whether the vaccine contracts signed by the federal government are in the country's best interest, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assures the public that Canada is on track to meet its vaccination goals. Today on Front Burner, CBC News senior writer J.P. Tasker discusses why Canada is falling behind and what might be done about it.

More than 80 women from around the world have accused the fast-fashion mogul Peter Nygard of rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking in incidents across four decades and at least four countries. He denies it all, and claims his accusers are lying as part of a vast conspiracy. Nygard had built a sprawling international retail empire over the past 50 years — but now, his professional achievements are being overshadowed by a sinister personal life, earning him the moniker, ‘Canada’s Jeffrey Epstein’. Evil by Design is a new podcast that asks the key questions: Who are the women and men who have stepped forward? Which systems failed them? And how did Nygard get away with it for so long? More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/evilbydesign

Shares of the video game retailer GameStop soared by 1,000 per cent in less than two weeks, thanks in part to a popular subreddit called r/WallStreetBets. This, at the expense of several Wall Street investment funds that bet against GameStop and lost billions of dollars. Today on Front Burner, business reporter Pete Evans is here to explain the GameStop saga, and what it reveals about the stock market writ large.

Following a massive international investigation led by Australia, an alleged meth kingpin was arrested by Dutch authorities at an Amsterdam airport. Chinese-Canadian Tse Chi Lop is accused of running a syndicate that commands the $70 billion-a-year Asia-Pacific drug trade. He's been compared to Pablo Escobar and called Asia's El Chapo. Today, we hear from Reuters chief correspondent in Southeast Asia, Tom Allard. He's been a leading reporter on the story and he's here to explain how Tse has allegedly revolutionized and dominated the underground industry.

One woman’s story of how two of her loved ones got sucked into conspiracy theories — and how she fought to bring them back from the brink.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Moscow, St. Petersburg and across Russia to demand the release of prominent Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny this past weekend. Police used force to break up the protests and detained more than 2,500 people. Navalny is best known for his anti-corruption investigations and was recently the subject of an assassination attempt. After recovering from his poisoning in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia only to be arrested and imprisoned in Moscow. CBC Russia correspondent Chris Brown talks to host Jayme Poisson about the growing movement in support of Navalny, and whether it might actually challenge President Vladimir Putin’s hold on power in Russia.

QAnon believers are in turmoil. For years the baseless, wide-ranging conspiracy theory has gained steam, making serious inroads in Canada after exploding in the United States. QAnon believers think a blood-thirsty, child-trafficking cabal is running the world and that Donald Trump will bring justice through a day of reckoning known as “The Storm”. But now, following Joe Biden’s inauguration, many QAnon followers are devastated and disillusioned — while others are doubling-down. Today on Front Burner, Daily Beast politics reporter Will Sommer joins us to discuss what might happen to QAnon and its followers next.

For four years, Daniel Dale, a CNN reporter and former Washington bureau chief for the Toronto Star, fact checked every single word that Donald Trump said publicly. Now, he looks back on some of the strangest and most significant lies of Trump’s presidency, and the lasting impact they had on both American politics and our shared sense of reality.

Gov. Gen. Julie Payette has been accused of bullying, berating, and publicly humiliating staff at Rideau Hall. The allegations were substantial enough that an independent workplace review was ordered last year. On Thursday, it was revealed that that review had been completed, and that its findings were scathing. Late in the afternoon, Payette resigned from her position as the Queen’s representative. Today, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos explains Payette’s resignation.

Besides the police presence, the inauguration of Joe Biden on Wednesday as 46th president of the United States was a paired-down affair, thanks to the pandemic and the recent violence at the Capitol. CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter covered the inauguration from the roof of the Canadian Embassy. Today he joins Front Burner to report on the meaning behind the day’s pageantry, Donald Trump’s last day in power, and the most pressing problems facing this new administration.

More than 350 people currently face trial for their alleged connections with one of Italy’s most powerful Mafia syndicates, the ‘Ndrangheta. The crime group is known for its secrecy. Bosses, accused of murder, money laundering, and drug trafficking, often hide in bunkers in Calabria, even though their business extends around the world. Italy has not held a Mafia trial of this scale since the late 1980s — when the Cosa Nostra was under fire for their operations in Sicily and abroad. Today on Front Burner, CBC Rome correspondent Megan Williams on the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, its evolution, and what this trial could mean for their future.

"There is no place for the far right in our party." That's a quote from a statement released on Sunday by Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole, where he condemns the riot in the U.S. Capitol and paints a moderate picture of the Conservative Party under his leadership. On the heels of the statement, PressProgress revealed that MP Derek Sloan accepted a donation from a notorious white supremacist, leading O'Toole to move to oust Sloan from the Conservative party. Today, CBC parliamentary hill journalist Aaron Wherry on why O'Toole felt he had to declare the Conservatives to be "sitting squarely in the centre of Canadian politics" and what it says about him and the party he leads.

For sometimes as little as two dollars an hour, some migrant workers in Malaysia say they spend their days producing disposable gloves in sweatshop-like conditions in a factory — and spend their nights in dirty, overcrowded shared quarters. As global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) surges, it would appear that so has the human cost for those making it overseas, an investigation by CBC's Marketplace has found. The investigation revealed allegations of exploitation, debt bondage and passport retention from across the disposable glove industry in Malaysia. Marketplace host Asha Tomlinson and producer Eric Szeto join Front Burner to explain why we should be asking where Canada’s PPE comes from.

In the wake of last week's attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Proud Boys — a group founded by Canadian Gavin McInnes — has been under intense pressure. The FBI is arresting some of its members. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has called for the them to be designated a terrorist group, and the federal government is considering it. Today, how the Proud Boys started, and where they ended up, with Jared Holt — a visiting researcher at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab who studies domestic extremism

"Post-truth is pre-fascism." So wrote historian Timothy Snyder in his 2017 book, On Tyranny. He penned it in the lead-up to Donald Trump's inauguration, and he's been warning ever since: The United States is not exceptional, a coup could be attempted there, too. Now, Trump's presidency is in its dying days. He has been impeached by the House again, this time for "incitement of insurrection." But the big lie, as Snyder calls it, that Trump seeded — that the 2020 election was stolen from him — what becomes of that lie now? Today on Front Burner, Snyder explores that question.

Last Friday, 16-year-old Ariana Quesada walked into an RCMP station in High River, Alta., to file a formal complaint about the death of her father, Benito, who died eight months ago of COVID-19. He worked at the Cargill meat-packing plant, home to the largest coronavirus outbreak in the country, with at least 950 staff members contracting it last spring. The RCMP have now opened an investigation into Benito Quesada's death. Today, CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins on Benito's story and larger questions about corporate responsibility in a global pandemic.

On Monday, for the second time in his one-term presidency, Democrats introduced an article to impeach Donald Trump. Previously, Trump was impeached but not convicted by the Senate. But following last week's deadly riot at the Capitol building, Democrats are trying to hold Trump accountable. Their tactics also include a resolution urging Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from power. Today on Front Burner, CBC Washington correspondents Lyndsay Duncombe and Alex Panetta explain what might happen next.

U.S. President Donald Trump was permanently banned from Twitter after the platform cited “the risk of further incitement of violence” following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week. Facebook previously banned him for the remainder of his time in office, and many other tech companies have followed suit. Today on Front Burner, Julia Angwin joins host Jayme Poisson for a conversation about Trump’s ban from multiple social media platforms and what consequences that might have. Angwin is editor-in-chief of The Markup, an American non-profit that takes on data-driven investigations about the ethics and impact of technology.

Canada has received more than 430,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. But as of Thursday, only about 45 per cent of those doses have gone into arms. Those numbers are sourced from the COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group, made up of public health experts and data scientists from the University of Toronto and the University of Guelph. Provincial governments across the country have been roundly criticized for not administering the vaccines they got in mid December quickly enough. Today on Front Burner, Globe and Mail health columnist André Picard and scientist Krishana Sankar, on why the rollout has been so challenging and what can be done about it.

Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump sowed chaos in and around the U.S. Capitol, forcing lawmakers to flee as they’d gathered to certify president-elect Joe Biden’s victory, after Trump himself encouraged them. CBC Washington correspondents Katie Simpson and Paul Hunter explain how pro-Trump extremists managed to breach Capitol security and storm the complex.

Last spring, Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised to move "heaven and earth" to prevent more long-term care residents from dying of COVID-19. But today, more than one-third of the province's long-term care homes are in an outbreak. More than 960 residents have died since the start of October. And experts say it didn't have to be this way. Today, we're speaking to Dr. Samir Sinha — the director of geriatrics at the Sinai Health System and the University Health Network, and the director of health policy research at the National Institute on Ageing — about what Ontario could have done, but didn't.

On Tuesday, voters in Georgia go to the polls for a pair of pivotal run-off elections that will determine which party has control of the United States senate. Meanwhile, outgoing President Donald Trump pressured and pleaded with the state's election chief to overturn Joe Biden's win in the state, according to a recorded phone call obtained by the Washington Post this weekend. Today on Front Burner, CBC Washington correspondent Katie Simpson walks us through the high-stakes races in Georgia, and how Trump's baseless claims of election fraud loom over them.

You’ve probably heard the words “avoid non-essential travel” frequently since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in Canada. But a growing number of provincial and federal politicians haven’t heeded that message. And as more stories emerge about vacations or travelling to see sick family members, many Canadians are furious. Today, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos discusses what we know so far and what the public health impacts of these revelations might be.

It’s been one year since Chinese officials in Wuhan confirmed they were treating dozens of cases of a mysterious pneumonia. Since then, we’ve watched the world transform as this new novel coronavirus accelerated into the COVID-19 pandemic, killing more than 1.6 million people and infecting more than 75 million. Today, CBC senior health writer Adam Miller and host Jayme Poisson look back on the long year of COVID-19.