The Big Story

They've been around in one form or another for almost two decades. And the impact these apps have had on the restaurant business has been immense, and costly. But even as they take over every aspect of food delivery, these apps aren't turning a profit — so whatever their final form, they haven't found it yet.The real value of these apps is in the data they collect from their users—and that leads to the next logical question: If tech companies know everything about what kind of food we like, when we like it and how much we're prepared to pay...what do they need local, independent restaurants for, anyway?GUEST: Corey Mintz, food reporter, author of The Next Supper: The End of Restaurants as We Knew Them and What Comes After 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 been a few days since the world learned of a new variant of Covid-19. There is a ton of data we don't have yet. But when the world's leading epidemiologists look at what we do know, they see some worrying signs. How worried should we be? That still depends. What can we do to stop it? We already know that, and there is one thing we still haven't really done in Canada that could make a huge difference...Have our public health officials tell Canadians clearly that Covid-19 is airborne, and adapt our public health guidelines right now to reflect that, even if it means admitting we've been wrong. Scientists have known this for 18 months. Our federal government reluctantly admitted it, just barely, a month ago. Why?GUEST: David Fisman, epidemiologist, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto 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 the initial storm that caused severe flooding, mudslides, evacuations and forced the province to call in the armed forces, things haven't improved much in British Columbia. Yesterday, the third major storm in the past two weeks dumped a new round of heavy rain onto much of the province, raising fears that rivers already above their banks could overwhelm dikes. Meanwhile, gas is being rationed and highways are open for essential use only.A state of emergency will last at least two more weeks, and nobody knows when life could hope to return to normal. Is the rest of Canada paying enough attention to what's happening on the West Coast right now?GUEST: Monika Gul, morning reporter, CityNews1130 Vancouver 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 centuries Quebec saw few, if any, immigrants from France. Over the past several decades that trend began to change, and in the past few years, it's been accelerating rapidly. So why are French ex-pats settling in the province en masse? What do they find when they get there? And from housing, to the workforce, to the currently booming economy: how might this influx change Quebec? GUEST: Eric Andrew Gee, Quebec correspondent, 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

In 70 days, the Winter Olympics will open in China. Probably, everything will proceed as though it's a normal games. But maybe not. For the first time, many athletes have been speaking out against China for silencing—or even disappearing—tennis player Peng Shuai after she made an allegation of sexual assault against a prominent Chinese politician. Meanwhile, the NHL is grappling with the fallout of a sex abuse scandal of its own. The NFL is confronting what appears to be years of racism and sexism from one of its most prominent coaches, and anti-vax rhetoric from its reigning MVP. Fans might still enjoy the spectacle, but it's clear the ugly underbelly of the games are increasingly on full display. The question is, will anyone do anything about it? Or does money still talk too loudly?GUEST: Donnovan Bennett, Sportsnet 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

A few years ago, the world was dotted with proposals for utopian Smart Cities, like Toronto's Sidewalk Labs. One by one, those ambitious dreams were scaled down or, in the case of Toronto, canceled altogether. But the technology behind them hasn't gone away—it's still being adopted in cities around the world. Only instead of being a part of a complex urban renewal project aimed at sustainability, it's mostly used for surveillance, by police and other organizations.What happened to the dream of the smart city—and what are we willing to trade for a little more convenience?GUEST: Anna Artyushina, research fellow in data governance; Ph.D. Candidate, Science and Technology Studies, York 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

In January of 2020 one of Canada's senior military men warned that domestic deployments in response to weather events were stretching the military too thin to properly prepare for exercises or deployments. Since then we've had a pandemic, a deadly heat wave, massive forest fires and a devastating flood. The military has been called upon repeatedly and they've done all they can.But it's becoming clear that these crises aren't slowing down. And we're running out of personnel and equipment to properly respond to them. Why is Canada's military so poorly funded and equipped? How did we end up in this situation? And are the compounding catastrophes of the climate era waking us up to the need for more resources?GUEST: Matt Gurney, reporter and columnist (Read Matt's piece in The Line 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

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of projects underway to get plastic out of the ocean. They range from hands-on cleanups of beaches (Canada's effort here is one of the best) to incredibly complex solutions involving fleets of plastic scoopers working in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. None of them are perfect, all of them will miss a lot, but every one is vital.As we try to save the world's oceans over the next decades, there is still a place for both old-fashioned hard work, and daring dreams. But the resources we devote to each project will determine what gets done. So...what has the best chance of actually working?GUEST: Ryan Stuart, writing for Hakai magazine 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 September's election, the federal Liberals won the right to govern with the support of less than a third of voters, a record low for a ruling party. They achieved this by hyper-targeting ridings they knew could change the result, and ignoring ones that couldn't. With the example of the past two elections to go on, other parties are following suit in aiming for maximum vote efficiency.What happens when the best strategy to win involves ignoring most of the population? Is this a natural outcome of a longstanding strategy, or a warning that our governments are getting less representative every time we go to the polls?GUEST: Stephen Maher, journalist and writer 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

Everyone knows that in order to save the planet, electric vehicles need to replace internal combustion engines. And it's happening, at a more rapid pace than we might have expected. But something else is happening, too: As companies race to grab market share in the EV space, they are replicating recent trends that have made fuel-powered cars more dangerous to everyone not inside them. And since EVs are even heavier than traditional vehicles, that could be very bad news for pedestrians.What if the car of the future ends up just as bad as the cars of the present? Or worse?GUEST: Tim Querengesser, journalist and writer, CityHack 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

A little more than a century ago, Abbotsford's Sumas Prairie was actually Sumas Lake. It might be about to return to that state, as massive storms, lake overflows and a pumping station threaten to fill the plains once again, covering homes, fields, crops, cattle and any humans who failed to heed the evacuation order.Why did Sumas Lake become Sumas Prairie in the first place? How did the complex conditions around Abbotsford combine to create a potentially lethal danger? How has it (so far) been averted? And what is it like living in and reporting on British Columbia, a province that is quickly becoming the front line of the climate crisis?GUEST: Tyler Olsen, Managing Editor, Fraser Valley Current 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 may remember that focusing solely on transit and road messaging is something of a Ford family trademark. Ontario Premier Doug Ford's late brother Rob put it succinctly: "Subways, subways, subways!" Now that his party is staring down the barrel of a 2022 provincial election, Doug Ford has similarly put a laser-like focus on one message: Highways.The Conservatives want to build two new ones, long discussed but never actually paved: The 413 and the Bradford Bypass. How much will it cost? How much time will they really save commuters? What's with the whispering around Ford and his relationship with area developers? And can Ontario's Greenbelt deal with the environmental impact of these new roads?GUEST: Emma McIntosh, 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

You would think we'd have learned this lesson by now—but alas. Yukon had one of the best records in Canada for managing the pandemic. Then they tried to go back to normal, and it didn't work so well. What happened to lead them down this path? What does a packed concert with no masks, distancing or capacity limits feel like? And what happens if a territory without a real ICU suddenly needs dozens of those beds?GUEST: Jackie Hong, CBC North 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

Try to walk just a few blocks in the downtown core without passing a cannabis retailer. Good luck! You'll probably pass at least two. Since the lottery process ended and applications for retailers were opened up, hundreds of stores have flocked to...basically the same neighbourhoods. Obviously it's not optimal business strategy to open a store next to two or more other stores selling exactly the same thing, so what's going on here? Is this a bubble ready to burst? Is there an endgame for the companies and entrepreneurs still opening stores right now? What happens next?GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, 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

We've known for some time that we're due for a massive earthquake—but it could happen tomorrow or 20 years from now. In geological terms that's roughly the same. But it's not for us—if the Big One happened tomorrow, Canada's west coast would be devastated. We know what we need to do to prepare for it. We even have the blueprints for how to reinforce our structures. We could prepare properly anytime ... so why don't we? And what happens if we're not ready when the day arrives?GUEST: Gregor Craigie, author of On Borrowed Time: North America's Next Big Quake 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

Almost one million American children under 12 have been vaccinated against Covid-19 since the FDA approved the shot more than a week ago. The Canadian total is still zero, and parents are getting angry. When can we expect approval? How will the shots get into those little arms? What concerns do hesitant parents have and how can public health ease their minds?And finally, for adults who are still contracting the disease every day, what are the new oral Covid-19 treatments? And why do medical professionals call them the game-changer that could be our ticket out of the pandemic?GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller 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

More than a decade ago, a Canadian researcher tracked local media coverage given to cases of missing Indigenous and missing white women. You can probably guess what that revealed. Since then, however, Canada and other countries have spent time discussing racial bias, and attempting to correct it. Canada even had an entire national inquiry dedicated to the travesty of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.Yet in late summer, when a pretty young white woman named Gabby Petito disappeared, none of that mattered. The media was flooded with a continent-wide search for Petito while Indigenous and Black women who had vanished just as recently were barely mentioned. Why is this phenomenon so pervasive and how has seemingly nothing aside from words changed in a decade?GUEST: Kristen Gilchrist-Salles, 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

It's been more than a year and a half since Canadians could freely drive across the border to the United States — to visit friends and family, to see a game or do some shopping. But maybe "freely" isn't the most accurate way to put it, since the crossing process will be more regulated and restricted than pre-pandemic times.So what do you need to cross? What arrangements do you have to make? How much might it cost? What about kids? And what else do you need to know before finally heading south again?GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill 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

The minister who managed to secure tens of millions of Covid-19 vaccines gets the toughest job in government as a thank you. or much of the past year, barely a month has gone by without a new sexual harassment or assault scandal in the Canadian Armed Forces — and all too often those scandals have involved some of the military’s top ranked officials.Previous attempts at reform have failed, efforts to shift the culture have barely budged it and meanwhile, recruitment has fallen dramatically. So something needed to change. Why not the minister? What challenges will Anand face and where should she start if this is to be the reform that actually works?GUEST: Julie Lalonde, advocate and educator, author of Resilience is Futile: The Life and Death of Julie S. Lalonde 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

The Eternals hits theatres today, and will no doubt earn Marvel Studios and Disney hundreds of millions of dollars. But is it really fair to call these things "movies" anymore? They are projects that require viewers to come equipped with vast background knowledge and exist to set up the next film, and the film after that. Today we examine what has become of the modern "Super Hero Movie" through the lends of the seven (soon to be eight) big-budget Spider-Man films. How did we get from a Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, to whatever this has become?GUEST: Jeremy Gordon 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

Amid a worsening climate crisis and reports detailing the need for urgency, world leaders took to the stage at COP26 this week to ... promise to do more. There were impressive promises, to be sure, including several from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But at least from the leaders there were precious few details about exactly how these ambitious targets would be achieved. We know the goals we need to hit to keep our planet livable—the question is if we're prepared to do more than agree we should hit them.GUEST: Fatima Syed, The Narwhal and The Backbench 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 problem that predates the pandemic—but eighteen months of a public health crisis has only made it worse. Every day nurses and emergency room staff in Canada face threats and assault from the public they care for. For decades they have suffered mostly in silence. But as Covid-19 has made their jobs even less safe, some of them are finally speaking out.These are critical workers, who are already dealing with exhaustion and burnout. What's being done to protect them? Why is this happening now? And what becomes of the health care system if even more of them give up and walk away?GUEST: Flannery Dean, writing in 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

John Tory has a longstanding relationship with Rogers Communications Inc., as a previous executive and as a friend of the late founder, Ted Rogers. Toronto voters knew he would maintain some ties with the company when he ran for office—but the depth and power of those ties went largely unreported—until an internal fight for company control made it obvious that Tory would be a key mediator and decision-maker in the ultimate outcome.What did the public know of this relationship—and what has it only learned now? Where has Tory recused himself and where could conflicts remain? And will the fact that the city's mayor was making six figures from one of Toronto's biggest companies, and the public didn't know, be a re-election issue?GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, 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

Meth has always been a dangerous drug — but never this dangerous, users and social workers across the continent tell Sam Quinones in his new book. A new production method has made the drug easier to and cheaper to make, allowing it to spread from the Mexican border all the way up to Canada, with devastating effects. Amid the opioid and fentanyl crises, the impact of new meth can be lost among the overdoses, but this drug seems to attack users' minds in a way it hasn't before.How did meth spread so fast and so far? What's different about the meth on the streets today? What is it doing to users, and what is being done to help them? And why can't researchers dig into what's happening in users' brains?GUEST: Sam Quinones, author of The Least Of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth 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 cold cases ... stay cold. For every one that closes, and makes headlines, dozens or hundreds more are left languishing in files and databases. But sometimes, if you ask the right question, to the right person, after enough time has passed, you learn something new. And one new fact can be enough to unearth a bunch more, if you're lucky enough to find the right one.So how do you reheat a cold case? Where do you start? What do you do with something new when you find it? What happens if you approach a decades-old murder with the urgency of breaking news?GUEST: Fil Martino, crime reporter, co-host of Tracking a Killer: The Cold Case Files 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 are many communities and public health units across Canada where, for one reason or another, vaccination rates lag way behind other population centres. In many places, this happens quietly. In Aylmer, Ontario, it happens very loudly. Aylmer isn’t a big town. And it wouldn’t be particularly notable, except for one man, and one church, and the national and international attention he has brought to it.Why are Henry Hildebrandt and the Church of God Restoration so against public health measures? What has the town done about their refusal to comply with them? How did Hildebrandt turn this small Ontario town into a magnet for prominent anti-vaxxers from across North America and if and when this is all over, what happens to a community that has been fractured?GUEST: Luc Rinaldi, writing for Toronto Life 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 probably know Bonavista best from the Canadian lyrics to "This land is your land". It's a town of a few thousand people on the far east coast of the country. And it's growing—especially during the pandemic. But it's not alone. Towns, villages and even cities across Newfoundland and all of Atlantic Canada have seen a population boom during the pandemic as newly-freed remote workers relocate to places with space and affordable housing.But are these towns equipped to handle a sudden influx of citizens? Are citizens prepared for life in a small town and everything that comes with it? How do you walk the fine line of needing new residents with the reality of welcoming them all to town without spoiling what you've got?GUEST: John Norman, Mayor of Bonavista, Newfoundland 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 one of those crimes with an image — and that image is mostly fictional. The vast majority of victims who end up trafficked in Canada are not abducted by strangers and chained to beds as Hollywood depicts. They are victims of intimate partner violence, often pushed into the industry by a person they know. And it doesn't happen in dark warehouses, but in well-lit chain hotels, like one's you've stayed at on a business trip.Today we'll meet the women fighting to help trafficking victims, learn where and how this crime really happens, and why police charge so few people in these cases. And you'll learn how to recognize a potential trafficking situation when it's right in front of you.GUEST: Cristina Howorun, CityNews, lead reporter on VeraCity: Fighting Traffick documentary 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

Through a so-called "public safety escrow account", Canada's biggest energy company, Enbridge, has payed somewhere in the neighbourhood of $2.4 million to law enforcement agencies in Minnesota, ostensibly to reimburse police for any help provided in 'protecting' the construction of the new Line 3 oil pipeline through the state. While Enbridge claims that there is nothing untoward about the arrangement, others have been sounding the alarm that this sort of arrangement between public and private entities is unethical, and may serve to incentivize the use of violence against demonstrators. And so it begs the question: what exactly is Enbridge paying for? GUEST: Hilary Beaumont, investigative journalist Read Hilary's coverage 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

To the rest of the world, the Mountie in red dress uniform is a symbol of Canada. The world has bought into the myth of the good-hearted, white man who protects the little guys and always gets his man. Even a cursory look at the history of the RCMP would reveal that to be far from the truth—and in-depth reporting over the past decade has made it very clear just how poorly reality compares to the image.But the image endures. Why? How did it come to be so powerful? Why is the RCMP so resistant to reform? And if an ongoing investigation into Canada's largest shooting reveals that their actions made a bad situation deadly, will even that be enough to change things?GUEST: Jane Gerster, journalist and author 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 probably heard warnings to start your holiday shopping early this year — this is why. With much of the global supply chain thrown into chaos by a combination of several complicating factors, it's impossible to tell when or if you'll be able to find exactly what you want. But a little shipping inconvenience is hardly the end of the world. What should concern us all about the current situation is what it reveals about the fragility of the systems the world uses to manufacture and move goods with pinpoint efficiency.Has our quest for the most efficient system created a system that can't handle it when something goes awry? What are the implications of that?GUEST: Michael LeBlanc, retailer, host of The Voice of Retail podcast, Senior Retail Advisor at the Retail Council of Canada 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

Early in October, some Iqaluit residents noticed something funny about their tap water — it smelled like gas. After they raised the alarm it took more than a week of varied testing to confirm the presence of fuel in the water. Since last week, citizens have been told not to drink the water at all, not even to boil it first. How did this happen and how can it be fixed? Why are health officials dodging questions about how much fuel is in the water? And what does the entire mess reveal about infrastructure in Canada's northernmost regions?GUEST: Kent Driscoll, APTN Iqaluit 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

Much of the Atlantic bubble is intact, but in New Brunswick, cases are spiking. Ontario has mostly escaped unscathed so far, while Saskatchewan and Alberta grapple with a wave worse than the first three. Is this evidence of the pandemic diverging regionally across Canada, or just a more infectious variant that can better find holes that existed the entire time?What have we learned from previous waves that we're employing now? What are we still finding out? And, most importantly, will this be Covid's last wave in Canada?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

A nation of 100 million people? New towns and cities springing up in previously rural areas? A revitalized and younger workforce? As the impact of the climate era makes parts of the world uninhabitable, billions of people will need to move to survive — one of the largest migrations in human history. Where will these people go? Who is equipped to best take them in, and help them build new homes and lives? Canada may not have taken the lead on fighting climate change yet, but this is an area in which we're perfectly equipped to blaze a trail.GUEST: Parag Khanna, author of Move: The Forces Uprooting Us 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 North American cities are locked in a damaging cycle, whereby new suburban expansion is needed to subsidize the infrastructure costs of old development. The pattern has left many municipalities teetering on the brink of insolvency, and led to the decimation of once vibrant streetscapes to make way for unsightly, car-friendly strip malls.What went awry in this continent's approach to urban planning? And to the extent that it's even possible, how can we even begin to correct the mistakes of the past?GUEST: Jason Slaughter, Creator and Host of the Youtube channel, Not Just Bikeshttps://www.youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes 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

The Canadian government thought it was an agreement on a minor part of the settlement the church owed for its part in residential schools. The church managed to convince a court that the government had agreed to waive the entire remaining amount — potentially more than $20 million. How did a legal loophole allow the church to avoid payment, and ... it has to be asked: Why didn't the Catholic Church just pay what it owed as reparations for the part it played in residential school horrors? GUEST: Tom Cardoso, The Globe and Mail investigations team 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

The Prime Minister said in the closing days of a close campaign that he was "open" to electoral reform. That came as a surprise to the millions of people who watched him break his promise on the issue after the 2015 election. But it's worth asking, as Canada's elections continue to reward parties who win fewer votes with more seats — what would equitable electoral reform look like in Canada? How could it be accomplished? Which systems offer which parties advantages? And is it even a possibility?GUEST: Max Fawcett, political writer and commentator 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

The Canadian government receives more credible information regarding Unidentified Flying Objects than you'd ever imagine. And you don't see much, if any, of it. Instead, it sends reports to a private citizen, in Winnipeg, who has become something of a UFO consultant for sightings across Canada. Why?GUEST: Daniel Otis, reporting for Vice Canada(Today's episode is brought to you by CBC's War of the Worlds. You can watch it right here on CBC Gem.) 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

UPDATE: On Nov. 23, 2021, Crown Counsel decided not to proceed with sexual assault charges against Steve Wallace. Wallace died within days of that decision.Steve Wallace claims he's taught more than 25,000 people to drive. Dozens of them say he harassed and abused them while he did so. The allegations which now date back into the 1970s came to light after one young woman, who says he harassed her during a lesson, created a social media account about it—and the victims have been sharing stories since. Now Wallace faces charges and two communities ask themselves the same questions: How did this happen? Why did nobody come forward sooner?GUEST: Brishti Basu, Capital Daily (Read the Capital Daily's coverage of Steve Wallace here and 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

Ozy was a digital publisher that claimed to have an audience of tens of millions. Had you ever heard of them before last week? Me neither. A New York Times expose began a flood of reporting that showed us all just how little most of us understand about ad fraud, digital media and the ecosystem that drives this multi-billion-dollar industry. From absurd claims, to impersonations, paid traffic and more, major brands stuck by Ozy and continued to invest with them. Why?GUEST: Craig Silverman, ProPublica, formerly of Buzzfeed 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

When Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp all vanished for hours on Monday, it wasn't a nefarious plan. It was a mistake. But what it revealed about how much the world has come to depend on Mark Zuckerberg's collection of apps was plain: Millions of people and businesses around the world—and even one nation's government—were completely cut off. What Facebook has built has become essential to the functioning of much of global communications. So what are we going to do about that?GUEST: Jesse Hirsh, Metaviews.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

Portpass was recommended to fans by the entity that owns two Calgary sports teams. They weren't alone. According to the company's estimates, more than 500,000 Canadians were using Portpass to show proof of their vaccination status. And then a local app developer got curious about what was under the hood of this supposedly secure application and started digging around. Now the police are investigating and Portpass is no longer in application stores. What happened, and how many people's records may have been exposed?GUEST: Sarah Rieger, CBC Calgary 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 the early days of the pandemic, a conspiracy theory claimed that the virus was intentionally released from a lab. It was seized upon by the worst people and drove racist scapegoating of Asian people around the world. And if that wasn't horrific enough, it also managed to poison the well for the investigations that must be done now. Not to prove that the virus was released on purpose—that's conspiracy—but to pinpoint as accurately as we can how the virus made its way into humans and what we can learn from understanding that. So: What's the case for Covid-19 having leaked from a laboratory?GUEST: Elaine Dewar, investigative journalist and author of On the Origin of the Deadliest Pandemic in 100 Years 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

Private-sector union membership has declined significantly in recent decades, in part due to a vast pool of foreign labour that has left many domestic workers in constant fear of being outsourced.The stresses of the pandemic, and a historically high cost of living is putting the squeeze on North American low-wage workers, but as the current labour shortage worsens and companies become increasingly desperate to hire employees, people in industries like hospitality, or healthcare, or manufacturing find themselves in a much-strengthened bargaining position.As workers become more empowered, will they be emboldened to organize and advocate for their rights?GUEST: Stephanie Ross 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 they were, you probably wouldn't know it. Since millions of white-collar workers began working from home during the pandemic, the demand for 'Tattleware' has rapidly increased. What does this software do? How sophisticated is it? How invasive? Is it ethical? And do employees have any option other than to suck it up, or quit? As the office vs. remote battle continues, the amount of privacy workers will part with, in exchange for staying home, will be an important front in the fight...GUEST: Sandy Milne, writing for 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 can be daunting, as a non-Indigenous Canadian to wrestle with the enormity of the crimes committed against Indigenous people by this country. And when we're asked to reflect upon it, the guilt can be overwhelming. But the same guilt can stop us from taking action, from making progress and from delivering results instead of symbolic gestures. On Canada's first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, one of the leading voices from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls shares a vision for reconciliation based on hope, not guilt.GUEST: Karine Duhamel, Anishinaabe-Métis, Director of Research for the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls 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 Canadian provinces now have or are planning to implement a vaccine passport. But who will have to ask for those passports? Check their authenticity? Deny service to those who refuse to show one?It'll be the same people who have already spent the pandemic bearing the brunt of anger over public health restrictions: Frontline service and hospitality industry workers who didn't sign up to enforce health regulations. Is there a way to both protect necessary measures like the passports, but give these workers the help and support they need to deal with the inevitable garbage that will come their way?GUEST: John Sinopoli, restaurateur, co-founder of savehospitality.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

It's wonderful that two Canadians caught in the middle of geopolitics are home and safe after more than 1,000 days detained in China. It's not great that the circumstances of their return seem to imply that hostage diplomacy works. How should Canada be dealing with China? Do we have any power in this situation? Was this a win, or a capitulation? And what's to stop it from happening again the next time we make China angry?GUEST: Stephanie Carvin, former National Security Analyst, author of Stand on Guard: Reassessing Threats To Canada's National Security 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

The app is called Staffy and it was created to help the hospitality industry fill gaps in scheduling when a server or cook couldn't work. But when the pandemic began and shortages rose at long-term care homes and hospitals, Staffy pivoted to focus on demand. Now nurses and care workers and more are taking day gigs through the app, with no benefits, insurance, sick days or anything else.Is it ethical to bring health care into the gig economy? And if it isn't, why do we think drivers or handymen are different?GUEST: Alison Motluk, writing for The Local(This is what Staffy looks like.) 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

A month ago, they needed a miracle. Now they're in the final stages of a playoff push—and no team in their right mind wants to face the Blue Jays in the post-season. How did Toronto turn it all around? What will it take to bring it home this final week? And what does a thrilling September for baseball in Canada mean to a country that just trudged through a joyless election and is facing a fourth pandemic wave?GUEST: Stephen Brunt, Sportsnet 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