The Big Story

Pain and fever meds for children—acetaminophen and ibuprofen, usually—have been in short (or no) supply across the country for several months. Purchases made by the government have begun to hit shelves, but for many parents it's still difficult to find. How did a handful of factors combine to cause this shortage? Why has it lasted so long?And although these medicines have been the ones grabbing headlines, why don't many Canadians know just how many drugs we're running out of?GUEST: Carly Weeks, health reporter, The Globe and Mail We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

When new drinking guidelines for Canadians were released, it was the headline takeaway that got the most attention, and scorn. And viral interview responses. In fact, many of the other recommendations were ignored. There is a lot of science behind limiting alcohol consumption, and there are many ways to do it.But is setting a goal that is daunting for many Canadian drinkers the best way to do it? How important is the messaging to actually achieving results? Are there lessons we can learn, both from the pandemic and Canada's approach to tobacco, that could help us drink less, while also not sparking ridicule from those who enjoy a few beers?GUEST: David Sweanor, chairman of the advisory committee for the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Health Law, Policy and Ethics. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's fair to be skeptical of ANY deal announced by a government or resource company that will lead to natural resource extraction on Indigenous land. They don't have a good track record here, to put it mildly. But even with that said—last week was very good week for putting more power over the land back in the hands that once held it.Are these deals, the sign of a new era in recognizing Indigenous rights, or will they prove to be more of the same when push comes to shove? Are they a sign of things to come, or outliers that will be overlooked?GUEST: Leyland Cecco, reporter, The Guardian We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It seems Impossible. Plant-based meat products were supposed to take us Beyond our love for beef, save the environment and maybe even make us healthier. For a while, it seemed the hype was real, and the growth was sustainable. Billions of dollars were spent backing that up. Three years later, it's pretty clear something went wrong.Where did the hype come from? What was expected from these products and how did they fail to deliver? What happened to the plant-based meat revolution?GUEST: Deena Shanker, Bloomberg food industry reporter We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

In one word: Cameras. If you live in a city, you should probably assume there's at least one camera watching you at all times, never mind the phones that are whipped out the second anything interesting happens. Reporters who cover the courts now report that basically every case features video compilations that track every moment of the suspect's day, as well as that of the victim. Through security cameras, store cameras, traffic cameras, even doorbell cameras—it's impossible not to be seen.On one hand, solving murders is a good thing. On the other hand is ... everything that goes along with living in an age where you're under surveillance the moment you step out your door, and where the police have many more video resources than the average defendant ever will.GUEST: Alyshah Hasham, former crime and courts reporter, current city hall reporter, Toronto Star We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's a process that can take up to a decade. And individual aspects of it can take up to a year or more. Or... it can take, like, a month.The drug development process is time-consuming, intense and very, very expensive. So much so that only huge pharmaceutical companies can afford to keep swinging and missing. But a Canadian team using AI programs is aiming to change that—everything from the length of time to who can afford to do the work, and it just might revolutionize the entire process.GUEST: Alán Aspuru-Guzik, professor of Chemistry and Computer Science at the University of Toronto; director of the Acceleration Consortium We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

In 2021, Statistics Canada reported 5.8 million Canadians suffered some level of food insecurity. As inflation has spiked, so have stories of hungry families needing food banks to fill their tables. But the root causes of food insecurity aren't captured by expensive groceries, nor are they solved with monthly boxes of food.If you want to know why millions of citizens of one of the world's richest countries are hungry, you have to look deeper than that. And if we're going to solve the problem, the solutions have to go beyond simply "give them food". GUEST: Valerie Tarasuk, professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto; leader of PROOF, an interdisciplinary research program studying effective policy approaches to reduce food insecurity We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Canadians are passionate about their healthcare. Even when the system is in crisis, we're proud of having universal care, and we want it to work. So when Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his government would move some surgeries into private clinics ... all hell broke loose.So what exactly is happening in Ontario? How is it different from what's already happening in British Columbia and Quebec? What are critics concerned about and just how can we tell if this is a necessary move, or a step onto a slippery slope? Or both?GUEST: Richard Southern, Queen's Park reporter, CityNews We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's probably the single brand most associated with Canada. It's also the single brand most associated with colonization, stolen land and genocide of Indigenous peoples.Yes, the Hudson's Bay company has a long legacy. But for how much longer? The company's retail footprint is shrinking and it hasn't become much of an online shopping destination. One thing it does have though, is billions of dollars in prime downtown real estate. It's given one building away already—and the motives behind that are up for debate. What will happen to the rest of them?GUEST: Don Gillmor, award-winning Canadian novelist, journalist and children's book author. Writing in The Walrus. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Many think of Canada as a promised land for immigrants from all over the world. That's because Canada literally needs newcomers to survive. As much as we love that image, it's not altruistic. Right now, we have the political and popular will to sustain big immigration targets and Canada ranks among the top destinations in the world for immigrants. That's a great place to start from.The question, though, is what are we doing to make sure immigrants will continue to want to come here? To attract the workers in sectors that we need the most? To make sure the infrastructure that already struggles, can accommodate another half million new Canadians, and do it well? And then again?GUEST: Rupa Banerjee, Canada Research Chair in Economic Inclusion, Employment and Entrepreneurship of Canada’s Immigrants, associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's known as Chronic Wasting Disease, and it's been around for more than a decade. In recent years, however, it has spread across Canadian prairies and animals at an alarming rate. In some places, up to 80 percent of deer populations tested may be infected. The illness makes animals like deer and elk waste away from the inside, looking like something from a horror movie (hence 'Zombie Deer').So far the disease has not moved to humans, or other unrelated animals. But it is certainly possible. Meanwhile, funding for testing, research and potential vaccines is tough to come by. So why aren't we taking this seriously? Should we? How urgent is this crisis?GUEST: Debbie McKenzie, University of Alberta professor and prion disease researcher We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

If that headline stunned you, you're not alone. Even veteran police officials and crime reporters can't recall a case like this one, in which eight teen girls ranging in age from 13 to 16 allegedly swarmed and attacked a homeless man, leading to his death from stab wounds. Police say there is an indication the group connected online and were involved in other altercations on the same night the attack took place. The accused are all under 18, and cannot be identified. Hard information in this case has so far been difficult to come by, and the media is fighting for more of it in court. In the meantime, what can we say about a crime with so little precedent? GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, crime reporter, The Toronto Star We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Lobbying is a tricky part of politics. It can be tricky to define, tricky to identify and really, really tough to analyze at scale. That's because of how it's tracked—across several different databases, with no standards, no searchability and often completely different spellings of the businesses, organizations and politicians involved.But a new data journalism project has tried to overcome that, and put everything we know about lobbying the highest levels of government in one place, so the public can see (and search) for themselves. And once they do that, you can answer the real questions: Who gets the most facetime with the most powerful people in the country, and what are they talking about?GUEST: Roberto Rocha, data journalist, Investigative Journalism Foundation We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Maybe it's the top you bought on Instagram or the flashy new appliance with a touchscreen. Maybe it's an Apple product that you can't repair yourself or a replacement for a product you've been buying forever that simply ... doesn't last as long as it once did. You've probably experienced at least one of these and likely more.You're not imagining things or just getting old and grumpy. There are a number of reasons—some purposeful, others a result of circumstances—that are lowering the lifespans of products that used to last years, even decades. So why is this happening and what can we do about it?GUEST: Izzie Ramirez, deputy editor of Vox's Future Perfect We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Stop us if you've heard this one before: It's more contagious, we're seeing it make up a higher percentage of cases, hospitalizations are beginning to climb, and we don't yet know if it's more severe or not. Playing the role of Omicron in this winter's version of a January spike is sub-variant XBB 1.5, otherwise known as The Kraken.So should you be worried? Will vaccines still protect us? How will we know if it's time to be concerned? What should we be doing now to make sure we can have a safe winter? And should we just prepare for this to be our seasonal situation for the next few years, as the virus moves towards real endemicity?GUEST: Dr. Raywat Deonandan, Global Health Epidemiologist, and Associate Professor with the Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences at The University of Ottawa We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Since Doug Ford reneged on his promise to protect the Greenbelt in November, resistance to his proposal has been fierce. In the past week that has culminated in a court challenge as well as a potential investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police. There are other investigations ongoing as well, and public protests at Queen's Park and elsewhere—but can any of it really stop development of the land for new homes?What basis do the investigations and challenges have? What does the Ford government say to answer them? What comes next in Ontario's fiercest environmental battle in years?GUEST: Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter, The Narwhal We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

In early December, scientists announced a major breakthrough on the way to a fusion-powered world of unlimited clean energy. It received reams of media coverage and lots of hope for a miracle future that would solve the climate crisis. The problem is that it won't. It can't possibly scale up in time to solve our current problems, never mind the ones we'll develop while waiting for it. But for the people who pay attention to clean energy and the climate emergency, the coverage was frustrating. Why? Because we don't need a miracle cure, we just need to focus on the technology we can scale up, right now. GUEST: David Roberts, editor, reporter and host at Volts We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Canadians were stranded in Mexico. They were on VIA trains for 20 hours, stopped on the tracks. They were stuck in airports waiting for flights that never took off or luggage that never arrived. The 2022 holiday season exposed just how fragile this country's transportation network has become. So who's to blame? What are they going to do about it? And will this ever get better?GUEST: Stephanie Taylor, Parliament Hill reporter, The Canadian Press We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This year marks the beginning of a delayed phase-out of single-use plastics, mandated by Canada's federal government. As the rules change over the coming months, restaurants are trying to figure out what to do—with plastic cutlery, plastic bags and most importantly with the takeout containers themselves.Over decades, plastic takeout containers have been adapted to hundreds of different meals, from soups, to burgers, curry dishes and products that must stay really hot or really cold. So now, they're experimenting, and you might find your food looking different from one week to the next as they hunt down solutions. So what will the end result be? Can restaurants afford it? And ... will any of this really make a difference to the glut of plastic clogging the planet?GUEST: Rosa Saba, business reporter, The Canadian Press We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Unlike the most recent Conservative Party of Canada leaders to attempt to win a federal election, Pierre Poilievre has a new strategy. Since he won the job last fall, he has avoided the typical shift to the centre that his predecessor's have attempted. How does he plan to win by holding firm to the right? Can he win without centrist suburban support?What would it take to get an election this year, anyway? And what would the campaign look like if one were called?GUEST: Stephen Maher, writing in The Walrus with Frank Graves We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

This is the time of year when many people try to organize their finances for the coming year—how much things will cost, how much to spend, how much to save, all of that. But after one of the most turbulent economic years in recent memory, 2023 is shaping up to be even more unpredictable.What should Canadians expect from their economy this year? How can you make financial plans in an age of inflation and interest rates, when everything from everyday groceries to the stocks in your portfolio are volatile? Should we still be worried about filling our RRSPs and savings accounts, or just stashing anything possible to try and get by? What does a 2023 budget look like?GUEST: Shannon Lee Simmons, certified financial planner, chartered investment manager, founder of the New School of Finance and author of No-Regret Decisions We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

One of the biggest problems facing humans attempting to travel anywhere in space that's farther than the moon is the years it will take to get there. A small ship simply can't support normal human life for that long. We need too much food, water, exercise and stimulation. But ... what if we didn't? What if we could shut ourselves down, the way animals do in the middle of winter, needing limited supplies and passing months as though they were days?This used to be the realm of science fiction. It's not anymore.GUEST: Brendan I. Koerner, contributing editor at WIRED, author of The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We asked different Frequency staff members which TBS episodes resonated most with them in 2022. As we take a break from releasing new episodes over the holidays, we felt this was the perfect time to revisit these old favourites, and give you a bit of a glimpse into all the work that goes into making your favourite shows. In the sixth and final instalment of our Staff Picks series, TBS host Jordan Heath-Rawlings explains why he selected an episode from July about our ever-decreasing attention spans, and what he's been doing to help regain his focus. —ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES—Have you by any chance been struggling to focus recently? Maybe you used to read long books, or dive into old hobbies and learning new things, and now that feels a lot harder than it should. You are not alone. Research shows that we are suffering through a profound loss of attention, and it's getting worse every day.So what happened to us? Did we lose ourselves in our new devices, or has our attention been deliberately stolen? And what can we do to get it back?GUEST: Johann Hari, journalist and author of Stolen Focus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We asked different Frequency staff members which TBS episodes resonated most with them in 2022. As we take a break from releasing new episodes over the holidays, we felt this was the perfect time to revisit these old favourites, and give you a bit of a glimpse into all the work that goes into making your favourite shows. In the fifth instalment of our Staff Picks series, TBS producer Joe Fish explains why he selected an episode from September about counterfeit toonies. —ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES—They call it the "camel-toe toonie", and you will understand why as soon as you look at the front right paw of the polar bear on it. Since they were first discovered in circulation in 2020, estimates range from at least tens of thousands to likely millions of them reaching circulation.But who is behind it? How do you counterfeit toonies at scale and get them into the banking system? And ... why toonies?GUEST: Brent Mackie, creator of cameltoetoonies.ca, numismatist, treasurer of Waterloo Coin Society We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We asked different Frequency staff members which TBS episodes resonated most with them in 2022. As we take a break from releasing new episodes over the holidays, we felt this was the perfect time to revisit these old favourites, and give you a bit of a glimpse into all the work that goes into making your favourite shows. In the fourth instalment of our Staff Picks series, TBS producer Ebyan Abdigir explains why she selected an episode that originally aired in the wake of the Pope's apology tour back in August. —ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES—Now that the Pope has left Canada, it's worth looking at what he's leaving behind. It's complicated. Was the Papal Apology a sincere expression of regret and compassion and a promise to do better? Or was it checking off call to action #58 from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's list?Will his visit help to heal the pain of survivors and the grief of their families? Or will it be seen as an unsatisfying end to a story that once hoped for so much more real change? Or ... both? What needs to come from this historic apology to make it meaningful?GUEST: Patty Krawec, Anishnaabe writer from Lac Seul First Nation, co-host of the podcast Medicine for the Resistance, and author of the upcoming book, Becoming Kin. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

What mattered most? What changed us? What didn't we pay enough attention to? And what will we remember about 2022 in 2025 or 2030?As the year wraps up we called some of our favourite guests from a variety of fields to ask them what stood out, and what really mattered. And we made you a blooper reel. Have a safe and happy new year from all of us at TBS, and we'll return with brand new episodes on January 3, 2023.GUESTS:Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill reporter, CityNewsVass Bednar, author of Regs 2 RichesBalkan Devlen, Superforecaster at Good Judgement Inc.Donnovan Bennett, Sportsnet Writer, host of Going DeepFatima Syed, guest host of TBS, Ontario reporter at The NarwhalSabina Vohra-Miller, clinical pharmacologist We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Grab a hot chocolate and settle in by the fire for two tales of supernatural wonder from Canada’s frozen north: one from the Yukon Territory, one from the coast of Labrador. The first is a long-forgotten, supposedly “true” tale about how a mining engineer from Alaska was saved by a stranger who appeared to him in a dream. The second is well-known story of a phantom trapper said to roam the wilds of Labrador. Both are deeply set in the snowy wilds of the north, and deal with themes of the supernatural and salvation—perfect for sharing on a cold winter’s night.Listen to more Fireside Canada. And read the complete show notes and more at FiresideCanada.ca We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We asked different Frequency staff members which TBS episodes resonated most with them in 2022. As we take a break from releasing new episodes over the holidays, we felt this was the perfect time to revisit these old favourites, and give you a bit of a glimpse into all the work that goes into making your favourite shows. In the third instalment of our Staff Picks series, Frequency's Digital Editor, Mary Jubran, explains why she selected an episode from April about a lack of available sex assault evidence collection kits in Canadian hospitals. —ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES—Many victims have come to Canadian hospitals after they've survived a sexual assault, only to be informed that the hospital doesn't have either the equipment or the personnel to properly collect evidence for a future investigation. In some cases, victims have been sent to hospitals many miles away. Why are these kits scattered around the country, instead of being immediately available at any hospital? And who has the power to fix it?GUEST: Jacqueline Villeneuve-Ahmed is the founder and director of She Matters, a community of women-identifying survivors and allies We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We asked different Frequency staff members which TBS episodes resonated most with them in 2022. As we take a break from releasing new episodes over the holidays, we felt this was the perfect time to revisit these old favourites, and give you a bit of a glimpse into all the work that goes into making your favourite shows. In the second instalment of our Staff Picks series, Frequency's manager of business development, Diana Keay, explains what she found so fascinating — and heartbreaking — about journalist Omar Mouallem's deep dive into the Canadian cannabis industry. —ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES—It was supposed to make billions upon billions as an industry, and the investors were chasing millions of their own. Instead, thousands of Canadians were left holding empty bags, having lost jobs, savings and opportunities to the promise of fast money and an industry that could never have possibly matched the hype.How did (almost) everyone get the weed industry so wrong? And what happened to those Canadians who bought into the hype?GUEST: Omar Mouallem, reporting in Canadian Business We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Christmas trees won't vanish in this country, but the people who farm them are facing some tough decisions in the coming years. As the climate changes, trees grown apart, in neat little rows, simply can't take it as well as trees that make up a natural forest. As this worsens, the cost of farmed trees will continue to rise, and farmers may have to look at non-native species.How does the tree farm industry work? Where does your perfect little triangle tree come from and why is it so difficult to grow? And ten years from now will more Canadians be heading out to the woods with axes, as our grandparents might have done?GUEST: Richard Hamelin, head of Forest Conservation Sciences at the University of British Columbia We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

We asked different Frequency staff members which TBS episodes resonated most with them in 2022. As we take a break from releasing new episodes over the holidays, we felt this was the perfect time to revisit these staff picks, and give you a bit of a glimpse into all the work that goes into making your favourite shows. Up first we have Stefanie Phillips, the show runner at Frequency Pods, telling us why she chose an episode from back in May, about rising food prices. —ORIGINAL SHOW NOTES— New numbers show Canada's rate of food inflation has hit a 40-year high, even passing the rate of the United States. Millions of Canadians are trying to balance their grocery bill with their budget and having to make difficult choices. So, where can you look for relief? What's less expensive even as other products are skyrocketing? How can you make sure you get the most for your money when there's little relief in sight?And finally, much of the world is facing a compounding food crisis, how can we make sure Canadians continue to have store shelves full of goods, even if they do cost more than in the past?GUEST: Sylvain Charlebois, Senior Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, co-host of The Food Professor podcast We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's a cliche to say the holidays can be a tough time for some people, but the truth is that almost everyone will spend some time this month exhausted, worried, lonely or just generally trying to make it through.If you're not one of those people, congratulations! For everyone else, or even for those with friends or family who may need some extra care, this is the prep session for you.GUEST: Erica Djossa, registered psychotherapist, host of Happy As A Mother We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Most Ontario rifle hunters get less than two weeks a year to bag their deer. On Griffith Island they got 11 weeks—until the provincial government recently raised it to 13. Why such a long season? Nobody wants to talk about it. Not the government, and definitely not the exclusive hunting club on the island with its secretive membership list.On the surface, Griffith Island is an interesting curiosity that can spark discussion of privilege. More than that, however, it raises questions about who sets hunting laws, who those laws are designed to benefit, and whether those decisions are driven by the best interests of conservation, or the best interests of the wealthy few.GUEST: Emma McIntosh, Ontario reporter, The Narwhal We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

At the time of year when we should be trying to help others, those struggling with homelessness might not be feeling the love. In some Canadian cities, encampment communities have been taken down, sometimes violently. Temporary hotel shelters created during the pandemic are being shut down. And all just in time for winter.Why has homelessness spiked in Canada? What's the root cause, and why aren't governments addressing it? We know we're not creating enough affordable housing, but what good does affordable housing do if you still can't afford it? What do those living outside, in the shelter system or in community encampments actually need—from governments, and from us?GUEST: Jen St. Denis, housing and civic issues reporter, The Tyee We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

You've heard parts of this story in every report of a teacher preying on a vulnerable student. What makes this case different is the sheer scale of the abuse. Nearly twenty years, dozens of students ... how did it go on for so long?Michael Gregory could have been stopped before most of this happened. But he wasn't. What can this horrific case teach us about protecting children from systematic abuse in the school system?GUEST: Omar Mouallem, writer, editor, and filmmaker. (You can read Omar's piece in Maclean's right here.) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Trials will begin in Uganda this week for three vaccines that could combat the Ebola outbreak—and one of those vaccines was created here in Canada. But it was created years ago, and simply sat there, waiting for someone, anyone, to move it to trial and manufacture. And this is something of a pattern.Why is Canada among the world leaders in finding vaccines, and never doing anything with them? Why does it take for-profit companies or dozens of deaths before these projects move forward? How many lives could be saved from how many viruses if Canada, and the world, were just a little more proactive?GUEST: Jason Nickerson, humanitarian representative to Canada for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

For the first time ever, snow crab season has been cancelled. A survey of the population revealed thousands of tons of crabs, more than eleven billion animals estimates had said were on the Pacific Ocean floor, simply weren't there. The reason for their absence is a mystery, with many possible solutions—disease, migration, cannibalism and more.In the days after the discovery however, most narratives focused on climate change's role in their absence. And while it surely played some part, what does it say about our rapidly changing world that this has become the first and simplest answer to any mystery in the natural world?GUEST: Spencer Roberts, writing in Nautilus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Bill C-21 would change Canada's approach to gun control. A little bit. But an amendment to Bill C-21 would radically alter it, and it seems that the party pushing the legislation may not even realize it. In theory, the bill is intended to ban "assault-style" weapons. In practice it could ban hundreds of guns that have been legal to own for decades.As you might imagine, this is not going over well with military gun owners, hunters and others who have used firearms safely and legally for many years. And the Liberals may now walk back to proposed amendment. But the big question here is this: How did a party that has made a ton of political hay on gun policy walk right into this mess with its eyes closed?GUEST: Matt Gurney, print and broadcast journalist, co-founder of The Line We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Has anyone in your family ever gotten away with murder? Are you sure? Because a new investigative DNA technique allows police to search a database for DNA linked to samples obtained in cold case investigations. Companies like 23andMe won't share your DNA with police, but many people who use those services choose to upload their results to other databases, in hopes of finding a match, or medical information, or many other things ... and they either allow, or forget to opt out of, police searching that data.Recently Toronto Police cracked two decades-old cold cases this way, and the process is gaining popularity with police forces everywhere. So how does it work? Is it legal, or ethical? And are we about to see a flood of cold cases coming off the books, thanks to curious but innocent people who don't realize there's a killer in their family tree?GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, crime reporter, Toronto Star We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Yes, sports betting has technically been around for a long time in this country. But it's only been a little more than a year since single-game sports betting arrived to change the landscape completely. Now it's difficult to watch any kind of sporting event without commercials urging viewers to get in on the action. What does that mean for the industry, for viewers and, perhaps most importantly, people who struggle with problem gambling? How does sports betting compare to other forms of legal gambling? Will we eventually see betting commercials and content recede as the industry establishes itself? And ... from the government's point of view, is this another legal cannabis fiasco?GUEST: Mark Hill, reporter and editor at Inverse We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Last week, a judge in Ontario ruled that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was in fact a "terrorist entity". This is a move that politicians on all sides have advocated for, as well as human rights groups and ordinary Iranian and Jewish Canadians. So why was a judge making the call and not the federal government, who has so far declined to do so?What makes the IRGC a terrorist organization, by our standards? Who should be making that call, and what does it mean for the groups that meet the definition? And what's the story behind this unique ruling?GUEST: Stewart Bell, National Online journalist, Global News We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Canadians are using credit cards to pay for purchases more than ever before.Why wouldn't they? Cash has been on the decline and rewards programs are better than ever. But small businesses say these programs are killing them, and it has become almost impossible to understand the complex system of fees that go into these payments. Right now, Ottawa is asking card companies and retailers to come to an agreement, before it has to step in and regulate. But why? How does the system work? Who pays for what? And what do you need to know the next time you whip out a card and chase the points during your holiday shopping?GUEST: Susan Krashinsky Robertson covers the retail industry for the Globe and Mail's Report on Business We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Anytime any government misplaces taxpayer money, it's a bad thing—whether that's wasteful spending, overpaying, mismanaging the budget or losing track in a spreadsheet. But when the government in question presides over a small municipality in rural Manitoba where a) $500,000 is an awful lot of money and b) the government is comprised of neighbours and business owners, friends and enemies, and everyone knows everyone, it can bring all kinds of long-simmering tensions and resentments to the surface.Here's what happened in Westlake-Gladstone when the money vanished.GUEST: J.R. Patterson, writing in The Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

There has been no shortage of political mudslinging regarding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's testimony at the Emergencies Act Inquiry last week—but perhaps the most important thing was that he took the stand at all. Beyond the Prime Minister answering questions, Canadians also got looks at emails, text messages, phone calls and all sorts of communications between governments and police services, different levels of leadership, different departments and more. It's important to understand how rare this is—because once we understand that, we can ask the inevitable follow-up questions: Why is it rare? Why should it be rare to see how our governments work behind closed doors? GUEST: David Moscrop, political writer and commentator; author and podcaster We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's the "Death Dilemma". When someone we love is at the end of their life, unresponsive in the ICU, our natural instinct when doctors ask us is to tell them to "do everything" to save them. But should it be?How has our changing relationship with the end of life altered the medical system? Do we prioritize quantity of life over quality? Are we costing both our loved ones and the medical system added pain by not just letting them go? And how do we balance that with the desperate need to keep them with us?GUEST: Dr. Blair Bigham, ER physician, author of Death Interrupted We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Right now, Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board is barely functional. The backlog of eviction challenges, both legal and illegal, is miles long, and currently the board is focused on rent increases. Meanwhile, in landlord Facebook groups, some are asking about penalties for illegal evictions, perhaps planning to simply do that and pay for it later. While tenants, tossed by the hundreds for potentially dubious reasons since the eviction moratorium lifted, have nowhere to go—both literally, and with regards to their challenges.How did it get this bad? What, if anything, is being done to fix it? And what do both renters and landlords need to know about the situation?GUEST: Jack Hauen, reporter, QP Briefing We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Depending on who you ask it will either help Canadian creators level the online playing field, or wreck their business model. The bill is intended to apply Canadian Content rules to online streaming—but it's incredibly complex and difficult to judge how it will work in practice. So what's in the bill? Why are some independent creators critical of it? What does it do in an ideal world, and will it actually work as intended? And what does it mean for the average Canadian who loves to surf YouTube or TikTok?GUEST: Vass Bednar, executive director of the Masters of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University, author of the Regs 2 Riches newsletter We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It goes without saying that police services often have their own version of events—which are often revealed in press releases or in conversation with reporters. But with public opinion turning against them as abuses of power are continually revealed, some police forces are going much further than that in an attempt to burnish their image.Should cops write newsletters on Substack with their side of the story? Should they hire crisis communication firms using tax dollars? And even as they do it, does it accomplish anything?GUEST: Julia-Simone Rutgers, writer and reporter based in Winnipeg, inaugural Justice Fund writer-in-residence at The Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

Surgeries for children are being cancelled at paediatric hospitals as staff race to care for a huge surge in kids arriving in the ER, or needing ICU space. This fall it seems like every child is coming down with something. What's going on? Can our children's hospitals handle it? What should parents be doing to keep their kids safe? And if you do need to take a child to the ER, what do you need to know?GUEST: Dr. Katherine Smart, practicing paediatrician, past president of the Canadian Medical Association We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky

It's only Team Canada's second time ever in FIFA's crown jewel tournament. They will be looking for their first goal. Making it to Qatar for the World Cup is the culmination of years of hard work, sacrifice and program building from Canada Soccer. For them, and the players and fans, it's a celebration.But this World Cup was ugly before it began, and has become uglier still since it kicked off. In Qatar, same sex relationships are illegal, thousands of migrant workers have died building the stadium where the team will play, and already stories of censorship and bigotry have been reported by journalists on the ground.How much ugliness will fans endure for the beautiful game?GUEST: Donnovan Bennett, Sportsnet (You can find Donnovan's new show, Going Deep, right here) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at [email protected] Or @thebigstory.bsky.social on Bluesky