The Big Story

In the days after Canada’s worst mass shooting, there were dozens of questions we couldn’t answer. The list started with things as basic as "How many victims?" and "Who were they?" It ended with the biggest one of all: Why? Police were clear that there would be no quick, neatly reported answers to anything. Now two weeks later, we know more, but not enough. We know Who and What and Where and, mostly, How. That’s what we can lay out for you today. The why, though? We might never know. GUEST: Greg Mercer, Atlantic Canada 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

This is a report from the front lines, and it's about both tragedy and triumph. When the COVID-19 crisis began, Canadian ICU doctors looked at their colleagues in Italy and Spain and feared that would happen here—that they would have to make horrible choices about who to treat and who to let die. That hasn't happened, in part because all of Canada came together to stay home and flatten the curve, and in part because we've been learning. About the virus. About how to treat it. About which strands of red tape to cut to free doctors up to do their jobs more efficiently. And a lot of those lessons will help us as this continues. GUEST: Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital 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 sounds like a first-world problem: "What if people can't visit their second homes?" But behind the stereotype there are hundreds of thousands of people facing tough choices. People who flee cities for rural areas in the summer are not exclusively rich folks off to a lakefront mansion, and the communities people visit on hot summer weekends depend on that influx of cash to get businesses through the winter. So with Victoria Day weekend approaching, what guidelines have been given to people who own cottages? To people who live year-round in the communities visitors frequent? What happens if small towns are overrun with city visitors, or if those visitors never show up at all? We're about to find out. GUEST: Matt Gurney, National Post 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

Ontario and British Columbia discovered their first cases of COVID-19 just one day apart. B.C. was the first province to report community transmission. But since early March, while the virus numbers skyrocketed in Ontario and Quebec, B.C. kept the pandemic largely under control. How? What did B.C. do that other large provinces didn't? Who is Dr. Bonnie Henry, the provincial health officer who has become a rock star in her adopted province? How much of this was preparation, how much reaction and how much luck? And what happens if the curve starts to bend upwards again? GUEST: Liza Yuzda, legislative reporter in Victoria, B.C. for NEWS1130 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

All the reports say that, so far, Canada's strategy is working. The curves from province to province are beginning to flatten. That's thanks to Canadians isolating themselves for almost two months now. But how long can this high level of cooperation keep up? The weather in many parts of the country is getting warmer, we're already seeing some tiny protests, and if some people start bending and breaking the rules, how will we collectively respond to that? What do we need from governments and health officials to convince us to keep it up, but also give us enough hope that people won't be tempted to start finding ways around the rules? GUEST: Dr. Caroline McDonald-Harker, Sociologist at Mount Royal university, Director of the Centre for Community Disaster Research 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 figured you might have exhausted your first choices and the obvious options by now—and with at least a few more weeks to go of self-isolation and sheltering in place, we wanted to make sure that you had something to take your mind off things. So we gathered up viewing types from across the spectrum, and put them to our media expert, who keeps tabs on what's available everywhere as part of his job. Whether you want to binge old rom-coms, miss sports dearly or want a jump on seeing things that will win awards next year, we've got a recommendation for you. GUEST: Norm Wilner, senior film writer for NOW Magazine, host of Someone Else's Movie and NOW WHAT? 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 six weeks since every major sports league hit pause on their seasons. We still don't have a timetable for their return. But the world of sports is as busy as ever, just in a very different way. There's no question COVID-19 will dramatically change the games we love to watch. But how? And for how long? And what have we realized about our relationship with sports in the time that they've been gone? GUEST: Richard Deitsch, The Athletic, Sportsnet (Check out Richard's new podcast, Sports On Pause, 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

Dr. David Fisman has been at the forefront of the battle against infectious diseases, from SARS to COVID-19. We asked him about this new virus in January, and he got it wrong. He was far from alone in that. The nature of discovering new diseases is making hypothesis based on what's known, and then adjusting as new data becomes available. But in a world where we are held to our predictions or told not to flip-flop our positions, that nuanced approach can be mistaken for failure. Today, Dr. Fisman joins us again to walk us through everything we've been wrong about since COVID-19 emerged, how new discoveries have informed our approach and what we could still be wrong about as we plan for the months to come. GUEST: Dr. David Fisman, professor of epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health 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 almost 48 hours, and police still aren’t sure how many people are dead. But it’s at least 19. It’s the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history. We don’t yet have a motive. The surest piece of information we have about the tragedy in Nova Scotia this weekend, is that it’s going to be weeks and months, not hours or days, before we learn the full story. That, and that a province in the middle of a tragedy is not trying to properly mourn a second one. GUEST: Dan Ahlstrand, news director, News 95.7 Halifax 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

Open-concept floor plans. Roads designed for peak traffic at peak times on week days. Apartments built for sleeping and eating but not extended isolation. Sidewalks built for...closeness. This pandemic has cast a spotlight on the nature of how we design our homes, offices and cities. It's left huge swaths of space empty, and crammed some people into tiny boxes. There are design and planning lessons we can learn from what we're seeing now that could impact the way we live forever—but only if we want them to. What does a city look like after it's been changed by a year of social distancing? And which of those changes will become permanent? GUEST: Toon Dreessen, president of Architects DCA; former president of Ontario Association of Architects 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 self-isolation, for some people food was an adventure. For others, an obstacle. But now that we've been at this for a while, perhaps you've realized that your standards are slipping. How can we possibly feed ourselves well through this when there are so many barriers? Some of us have lost access to ingredients, or the income to buy them. Some of us are alone—and cooking for one is hard. Some of us are trying to keep young children fed—when they aren't getting enough exercise to make them properly hungry. And a lot of us are anxious, or depressed, and that makes it really tough to work up the energy to cook a proper meal. So when you do get the chance to shop or order, what should be on your list to help change that? GUEST: Leslie Beck, dietician 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

Shelters and advocates and even governments have sounded the alarm about what our efforts to stay in our homes and battle COVID-19 means for people who have an abusive partner. Many of the usual paths out of an awful situation have become much more complicated, if not impossible. As we face potentially several more weeks of sheltering in place, how can we help people who are living with abuse and violence in the home? What's the government doing to help them? How are shelters adapting to comply with social distancing? What needs to be done to protect people who are in vulnerable situations where they're supposed to be staying for their own safety? GUEST: Sarah Boesveld, reporter and guest-host of The Big Story 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

Health stories are basically the only stories now. There are reams of sometimes-conflicting data, no shortage of sources (though some are much better than others) and someone has to sift out the themes that will have lasting impacts from the one-day scares and triumphs. This is where those who have made the health beat their career are essential. It might be the toughest job in journalism right now. So how do they do it? And what are they seeing? 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

It's been used in desperate times of disease for a century—but there's never been a large-scale study of its effectiveness. It's relatively simple to administer, but requires a lot of resources to get right. Will it work? We don't know, but if it does it could be the armour the front-line workers need to battle COVID-19. Today we look at a Canada-wide experimental treatment that could provide some important insights into how we beat this virus. GUEST: Michael Doyle, journalist (Read Michael's piece in the Globe and Mail 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

A global pandemic has trapped most of us inside our homes. We're cut off from friends and family. We're scared and lonely and worried about our jobs and the rent or the mortgage. Which means, sadly, that we've never been riper targets for scammers and fraudsters looking to profit off our collective misery. The scams began as soon as news of a virus made its way out of China in January, and as COVID-19 spread, so did they. And once you lose your money or information to a scammer, it's far too late. So today, we'll try to arm you with information—to identify a fraud and protect yourself if you're targeted. GUEST: Sam Cooper, National Investigative Reporter, 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

An early estimate says perhaps one in 10 non-chain restaurants have already closed for good. This month could add 15-20% more. The hospitality industry depends so closely on incoming cash flow, that they simply aren't built to survive a shutdown like this. A group of independent restaurant owners have banded together to lobby all levels of government for the only thing they say can keep them alive through Canada's physical distancing regulations. Why are they different from other industries? Will they get it? And what will your local bar or eatery look like when this is all over? GUEST: John Sinopoli, co-organizer 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

When Shannon Fleming's loved ones gathered to mourn her passing, there hadn't yet been any official bans on gatherings of this size in Newfoundland. Attendees remember it as a normal funeral, though the funeral home says it took precautions. A week later, someone who had visited the funeral home tested positive for COVID-19. More and more positive tests followed. Now it's Canada's largest single outbreak, and what should have been a farewell that drew a community together has become the centre of suspicion and anger between neighbours. GUEST: Greg Mercer, The Globe and Mail (Read Greg's story 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

Everyone you know probably has an opinion on whether or not we should be wearing masks outside. So does Canada's chief public health officer—and her opinion has evolved over the past month. Canadians are now being encouraged to wear non-medical masks in places where social distancing is difficult. Which raises a couple of questions: What difference is this supposed to make, and to whom, and if it is supposed to make a difference, then why weren't we told to do so earlier? GUEST: Stephen Maher, contributing editor, Maclean's 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

Pandemics force us into a lot of changes that otherwise might never have been made. Some of those changes are horrible choices between 'bad' and 'worse'. But not every one of them. In an effort to help both drug users and the front-line care workers who support them, British Columbia is changing its drug policy in a way that advocates have long hoped for. Will this approach spread to the rest of Canada, as provinces move to protect a vulnerable population? Will the results it delivers help modernize our approach to this problem for good? Time will tell, but for now those who have been pushing for progressive solutions say it's a welcome step taken under horrible circumstances. GUEST: Justin Ling, writer and reporter (Read Justin's piece on B.C.'s approach 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

The novel coronavirus presents in different ways for different people, and that means that experts think we're likely missing lots of cases due to mild symptoms, test shortages or both. This, perhaps, includes our host. But it definitely includes today's guest, who despite not being tested, due to not being at risk, was told by doctors that she had COVID-19, and then was told to go home and ride out the worst of it, unless she needed help breathing. So what are the course of symptoms, day by day, for one healthy young woman hit hard by the virus? She'll tell you, and also give you an idea of what to expect if you have to go through the process yourself. GUEST: Meghan Kraft 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

POP QUIZ! If a province's report says it has 426 new cases of COVID-19 in one day, which brings the provincial total to 2392 and represents a 22% increase day-over-day—but the number of test results on that day tops 6,200, a figure more than double the total previous day's test results, when 260 new cases were found...is that a good day or bad day in the fight against this virus? The Coronavirus numbers come in a swirl, the data is not always accurate, and sometimes it's weeks behind. And yet everyone who has ever made a chart in Excel has a theory on what today's numbers mean for our effort to flatten the curve. Today, we'll tell you why the datasets aren't reliable, which numbers really matter and how we're doing—or how we think we're doing—based on the numbers we have. If you've been confused by conflicting reports based on the same numbers, this episode is for you. GUEST: Dr. Tim Sly 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 decades, the image of Montreal apartments has been a lure to the rest of Canada: Huge, spacious units in beautiful old walkups, for prices that wouldn't get you a basement in most other cities. Those days are gone. Montreal today features rising rents, evictions and the same short-term AirBnB challenges that have decimated the rental availability in Toronto and Vancouver. And now, in a city where a huge percentage of people have leases that expire at the end of June, a pandemic forcing the city into lockdown has the potential to upend the city's entire rental culture. GUEST: Tracey Lindeman, reporter, Montreal (Read Tracey's piece in Maisonneuve 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

These are stressful times, to put it lightly. And the message from Canada's health officials is that there's no clear end in sight for physical distancing measures. As we go longer and longer without the sort of everyday things that make us feel good, the COVID-19 pandemic will take a higher emotional toll. But that doesn't mean we're powerless. We actually know quite a bit about what our brains crave, and what makes us feel good. And there's a lot of it that can be done without leaving our houses. So, here's a little helpful instruction on how to get what you need no matter what's outside your door. GUEST: Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, University of British Columbia, Happiness 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

The last time we talked to Dr. Michael Warner, he was headed in a week leading his time in the critical care unit at a Toronto hospital. He joins us to update what teams at hospitals across the province are seeing on the front lines. The worst is coming, and it's scary, but the community response has also buoyed his spirits. This is a fight everyone can help win, by listening to doctors and helping frontline care workers. Want to pitch in? Start at ThePPEDrive.com. Start with one mask. GUEST: Dr. Michael Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital 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

Do you qualify? How much will you get? For how long? What if you still have a tiny bit of income, but it's not enough to live on? What if you're already on EI? What if you haven't been fired, but can't work? What if the rent's due before the money arrives? The federal government announced an unprecedented aid package for Canadians who have lost their incomes in the pandemic. But the bill is complicated and there's more in it than the headlines you've read. Today we'll break down exactly who qualifies for what, and how you can get it if you're eligible. 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