This Matters

Guests: May Warren and Lex Harvey, reporters at The Star Hark! The Omicron variant threatens to put a damper on holiday plans as many people are trying to balance seeing their loved ones with a now what seems to be a more transmissible variant of COVID-19 spreading rapidly. With that in mind, The Star reached out to dozens of health care professionals to ask how they feel about the holidays and how they plan to spend them. They shared ideas of how to mitigate spread and talked about precautions people should take in this season.

Guest: Sara Mojtehedzadeh, work and wealth reporter for the Star A recent Star investigation has revealed a tangled thread of wage theft, threats and intimidation, all a systemic pattern of abuse within Canada's long-haul trucking industry. Now, truck drivers from Brampton, Ont. are mobilizing and fighting back through a public campaign, as the trucking companies facing allegations have denied any wrongdoing. Work and wealth reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh joins "This Matters" to talk about her investigation and what the stakes are in this mounting crisis.

Guest: Josh Rubin, business reporter at The Star Is it time to say a final "cheers" to The Beer Store? The provincial government wants to change alcohol sales in Ontario are and has already loosened some things during the pandemic. The Beer Store is losing money with a continually dropping market share as beer retails in more outlets outside their stores. The contract between the province and The Beer Store's owners is up in 2025, and with that deadline looming and little news of negotiations, the retail outlet's murky future is as clear as a dark stout.

Guest: Kerry Gillespie, sports reporter for the Star Are Olympians born or are they created? While Canada has a big athletic talent pool to choose from, there are athletes flying under the radar who have world-class abilities but perhaps not the sport to match them. The RBC Training Centre is aiming to find "diamonds in the rough" of Canadian athletes, putting them through tests and trials of their athletic prowess to see if one day they could become Olympians for Team Canada. It's not just a far-fetched dream. It's already led to gold medallists. Today on "This Matters," we take you inside the lab and talk about the state of amateur sports in Canada.

Guest: Jake Roach, senior writer, computing at Digitaltrends.com If you've tried to buy a hot ticket item online like a new video game console, PC graphics cards or high end sneakers, you know that it is a race against the bots to purchase it. Now, as the holiday season approaches, these programs are spreading to other highly sought after items like toys, prompting members of U.S. Congress to table the Stopping Grinch Bots Act. Building on legislation that first targeted concert tickets which have long been scooped up by scalper's bots, there are plenty of questions about enforcement, jurisdictions and whether it will have any effect at all.

Guests: Natasha Shakespeare, mother of a 13-year-old girl facing bullying and harassment at school, and Shree Paradkar, The Star's race and gender columnist Warning: Graphic content outlining anti-Black racism and antisemitic abuse. There has been an explosion of anti-Black racism in schools across Ontario, often intersecting with other forms of hate, including antisemitism. Black parents are now reaching out to advocacy groups, media and legal experts in a desperate bid for the safety of their children in their own schools. In today's episode, mother Natasha Shakespeare shares the harrowing story of how her 13-year-old daughter was targeted by anti-Black violence at not one but two schools in Ontario. Later on, Star journalist Shree Paradkar explains why these incidents are happening so frequently and what, if anything, is being done to stop them.

Guest: Danica Samuel, reporter for the Toronto Star With hundreds of ethnicities, cultures and unique neighbourhoods, one of the great points of pride for Toronto is its diversity. The City of Toronto wants to define what exactly this is through a "cultural districts" program that would identify different cultural enclaves as being worthy of being preserved. Who gets to decide what should be preserved? Would a "cultural district" designation make these places more secure or is it more red-tape? We parse through what this program is to ultimately answer: who gets to decide what stays and what goes in an ever-changing city.

Guest: Kevin Donovan, The Star's chief investigative reporter With films like "Gone in 60 Seconds" to "The Fast and The Furious," the world of car theft has been portrayed as a glamorous life full of high stakes and rollicking action. In fact, the modern car thief has high tech tools and they usually work in groups. Cars stolen in the middle of the night and are often on their way to being shipped out of the country before you even wake up. That's what happened to journalist Kevin Donovan's car, and despite what the authorities said and long odds, it was actually recovered. From there he dove into finding out how the world of auto theft works.

Guest: Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, infectious diseases physician at Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga News and serious worry over the Omicron variant of COVID-19 spread almost as quickly as the virus itself. The World Health Organization says the newest, potentially more contagious variant poses a "very high" global risk. The UK's Health and Security Agency calls it "the most worrying we've ever seen." In the span of a week and a half, the Omicron variant has been detected in more than a dozen countries around the world. But what do we really know about Omicron? What makes it more transmissible? Given what we know about how COVID works, how worried should we be? Today on "This Matters," we go to the basics with an infectious diseases doctor to explain why scientists believe the variant is more transmissible, talk through what we know and perhaps more crucially, what we're still waiting to find out.

Guest: Alex Boyd, Calgary-based reporter for the Toronto Star The latest Omicron variant has starkly reminded the world about what global health advocates have been shouting about for more than a year – if vaccines aren't shared, the virus and its variants will spread. Canada has followed dozens of other countries in announcing more travel bans on African countries, and many in South Africa are feeling like they're being punished for alerting the world about Omicron. And just as it came made its presence known in the pandemic, Star reporter Alex Boyd was travelling across Africa to report on exactly these issues. She made it back to Canada from South Africa right under the wire, just hours ahead of the travel ban. She joins "This Matters" to talk about Canada's initial quarantine confusion and how vaccine inequality in the Global South is connected to what's unfolding now.

Guest: Kenyon Wallace, investigative reporter for the Star The start of the school year in Canada was in effect a real-time experiment of how COVID-19 could spread among a mostly unvaccinated population. Despite vaccine mandates among school staff, mask use, physical distancing and ventilation, the vast majority of elementary school-age children are unvaccinated with their vaccine rollout only now in its initial stages. COVID outbreaks have surged in Ontario schools since November leaving the question about what we can do to slow the spread before the holidays.

Guest: Andrew Young, founder and director of Vaccine Hunters Canada For more than a million Canadians, volunteers for Vaccine Hunters Canada have been heroes and messengers of hope in the difficulties of the pandemic. After the initial rollout of vaccines in spring 2021 were plagued by shipment delays, miscommunication, massive lines that stretched for hours that were no guarantee you'd get a shot, Vaccine Hunters Canada stepped in. The grassroots, citizen-led volunteer team sourced information on where to get the vaccine, confirmed the eligibility requirements and then shared that information across social media channels in a clear and accessible way. After a brief hiatus in the late summer, they're back to connect Canadians to children's vaccines as talk about third-dose boosters over the winter heats up. We talk to the founder of Vaccine Hunters on the community of helpers that have helped transform the pandemic.

Guest: Brandi Morin, French/Cree/Iroquois human rights journalist who lives in Treaty 6 territory Last Friday, RCMP arrested award-winning journalist Amber Bracken and documentary maker Michael Toledano, as well as 15 others, as part of a raid on one of the camps set up to keep TransCanada Energy's Coastal GasLink gas pipeline out of Indigenous territory. Many say the multibillion-dollar gas project — one of the largest private sector investments in Canada — violates both Indigenous and international laws. The consequent standoff in the territory of the Wet'suwet'en is raising serious questions about the role of the RCMP when it comes to Indigenous communities, and what the current situation means for press freedom and access to information on this issue.

Guest: Emma Westecott, associate professor of game design at OCAD University and co-director of the Game: Play Lab The Metaverse is coming. Long thought to be one of the next great leaps in shared digital spaces, the idea of the Metaverse recently got a boost from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg when he announced the company is investing $10 billion and rebranding its own platform with the name Meta. But Facebook is not alone. There are already game worlds and platforms like Fortnite and Roblox that are building elements of it. There is a long way to go before we get to something that's been depicted in movies like "The Matrix" and "Ready Player One." But as development really gets underway, now is the time to be asking what do we want the Metaverse to look like and how to make it beneficial for everyone?

Guests: Canadian astronaut Dr. Dave Williams and Alex Boyd, Toronto Star reporter What if the answers and solutions of the pandemic are found in the stars? The two industries of space and medicine are more closely aligned than we may think, as many of the technologies we use today were first tested in the rigours of space. Can space exploration and research help us find our way through this pandemic and prevent the next one? We talk to one of Canada's most decorated and experienced astronauts, Dave Williams, to learn the future of medical care is already being pushed to the limits in space.

Guest: May Warren, reporter for the Toronto Star With winter months bringing in an uptick in COVID-19 cases and a relatively static vaccination rate, Canada's top health officers are urging people to double down on masking because masks are the last line of defence against the virus. With a major shift (again!) in the conversation and culture around masking and new data available, reporter May Warren joins "This Matters" for a little bit of a refresher on masks, how we should wear them and why we're still talking about them. See Health Canada's latest guidelines and policies on masks here.

Guest: Megan Ogilvie is a health reporter at the Star Parents of children aged 5 to 11 can now book their children for their first dose of vaccines across Canada. It's been a long wait for this cohort, which is the largest unvaccinated group in Canada. Most parents — who have had to live through plenty of invasive COVID tests at the first sign of symptom — now have an option to get their kids more protection against this disease. But will it be another mad rush to book online, only to come up empty? Or will things be better this time around? Also, for many parents, getting the shot booked is just the first hurdle, now you've got to deal with a youngster who has to face a needle. This episodes provide some initial observations on the booking process and some helpful tips and advice.

Guest: Adrienne Appell, toy trends expert and senior vice-president of marketing communications of The Toy Association While many industries were devastated by the pandemic, the toy industry enjoyed record breaking sales. One of the most interesting trends to come out of the past two years is that growth shows adults are buying toys for themselves, which the industry has dubbed the "kidult" category. From expensive Lego sets to collectibles for fans of all kinds, there are now toys for people of all ages and also in every price range. This trend is being fuelled by many factors including social media, people trying to recapture their youth and the emphasis on self care and wellness.

Guest: Edward Keenan, Washington Bureau Chief for the Star It's been five years since the last trilateral summit between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. on trade, co-operation and diplomatic relations. Now this week, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the first North American leader summit since 2016. It was nicknamed the 'Three Amigos' summit. It's being seen as a potential new phase in Canada-U.S. relations following the strained ties of the Trump era, but with Biden struggling with plummeting approval ratings and domestic priorities, many wonder if he is listening to the concerns of allies. The Star's Washington Bureau Chief Edward Keenan recaps the highlights of the summit and the impact on the Canada-U.S. relationship.

Guest: Kieran Leavitt, Toronto Star politics reporter For decades, adding fluoride to the water supply of many Canadians towns and cities has been standard public health protocol. Fluoridation has proven to slow tooth decay, and the practice has widespread support among doctors and dentists, including the World Health Organization, Health Canada and the Canadian Association of Public Health Dentistry. But there remains a vocal opposition against fluoride in Canada's water supply, borne out of distrust of government and science. The City of Calgary has recently voted on whether to restore fluoride in their tap water, the latest in a long, fraught history over the chemical compound. Alberta-based journalist Kieran Leavitt joins "This Matters" to chat about how a widely-supported public health measure has become a battleground of politics.

Guest: Dr. Naheed Dosani, Toronto-based palliative care physician and health justice activist Even as health care workers were being hailed by many as heroes for facing the deadly COVID-19 pandemic on the front line, many were also targets of online hate, racism and xenophobia. The digital harassment has seeped into real-life with anti-vaccination protests outside hospitals where there have been reports of violence and abuse. Dr. Naheed Dosani joins "This Matters" to talk about the nightmare that has been the last 18 months and what needs to happen next to protect them.

Guest: Ruke Okome, program manager of the after-school program Free Play for Kids Alphonso Davies, Canadian soccer superstar, has become a world-renowned name with highlight reel goals, pride in his country and awards-laden recognition of his sporting excellence. He will soon return home to Edmonton as Canada faces a crucial match in its qualification for the World Cup where Free Play for Kids, the after-school program that Davies attended, continues to give a safe space for marginalized and often racialized kids. Free Play for Kids may have Davies as an alumni but its impact stretches to the next generation with aims of empowering future leaders in the community. Today on "This Matters," we go inside the program to learn how the lessons being taught are more than sports.

Guest: Liam Casey, Canadian Press reporter Ontario is the only province that has legislation that bans pit bulls. Since it's enactment over 15 years ago, dog lovers have had issues with the ban, from the determination of dogs, the enforcement and seizure of animals, the lack of personal responsibility of owners and little to no recourse for owners of dogs who haven't done anything wrong, but fit the description of the breed. In recent weeks, there was a groundswell of support after a dog name Dwaeji was taken from his family in Vaughan. With a lot of public and political pressure, many thought change might be on the horizon, but after the dog in question was released, he bit a 13-year-old boy, once again, raising the issues that got these type of dogs banned in the first place.

Guest: Jeremy Nuttall, investigative reporter for the Toronto Star In the middle of societal and racial reckonings, many Canadians are asking questions about their shared histories, education and how reliable the stories of our past are. Are they written by the people and communities they're reflecting or is it colonial history? Some of Canada's biggest museums are now are taking a hard look at their exhibits and storytelling, especially when it comes to Indigenous history, which has often be treated as separate from Canada's past rather than a central part of it. The work of "decolonizing" the spaces where we share our stories has begun but what does that actually look like?

Guest: Corey Mintz, freelance food reporter and the author of the upcoming book "The Next Supper: The End of Restaurants as We Knew Them, and What Comes After" The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that in a lot of cases what was once normal couldn't sustain a lot of people. Among many things, the pandemic highlighted longstanding issues within the restaurant industry, such as low pay, worker protections, burnout and delivery apps eating into profit margins. The impact on restaurants closing and reopening through lockdowns, and not having every table filled, was also visibly apparent. Toronto Star food reporter Karon Liu guest hosts "This Matters" to speak with Corey Mintz, former Star restaurant critic and author of the new book "The Next Supper, The End of Restaurants as We Knew Them, and What Comes After," about these issues and what diners can do about it.

Guest: Robert Benzie, The Star's Queen's Park bureau chief It seems like the Progressive Conservatives believe the road to next year's election will be paved with new highways. Recently, Premier Doug Ford announced the province would fund the Bradford Bypass, a new 16 km road that would connect Highways 400 and 404. As well, the Ontario government has proposed plans to build Highway 413, a new 60 km freeway that would connect Milton to Vaughan, despite opposition from the municipalities that it would affect. There are a lot of questions about the specifics of these new roads, but also about some of the motivations behind them. Is this the kind of wedge issue that the PCs hope will propel them to re-election? Or is this a road to nowhere?

Guest: Monte McNaughton, Ontario Labour Minister The last two years of this pandemic hit everyone differently. It is undeniable that its impacts were not equitable and those with precarious jobs — including frontline essential workers — paid the most disproportionate price. Now the government that was previously criticized for favouring businesses over workers seems to be trying to make amends. Last week, the province announced the minimum wage would be raised to $15 an hour starting January 2022. Ontario has also proposed an omnibus bill that includes a number of labour-friendly policies like more rights for temporary and migrant workers, and a new right to disconnect. But many note that the minimum wage is not a living wage, and others ask if these new changes might be a case of too little too late just around the corner from a provincial election. Ontario's Labour Minister Monte McNaughton joins "This Matters" to answer questions and clear confusion around the proposed new labour legislation.

Guest: Jennifer Pagliaro, City Hall reporter for the Star It's been three years since cannabis was legalized in Canada, and you can see the results on many streets around the GTA. In Ontario, there are now just over 1,000 cannabis stores. Toronto has over 300 alone, with another 200 in the process of getting approval. The issue is that many of them are in neighbourhoods and often right next each other, creating clusters that are in direct competition with each other. With little or no regulations about distancing between stores, and several structural issues within the province's regulations for cannabis sales, the really big question is whether all these stores can survive or if the weed boom will go up in smoke.

Guest: Deborah Dundas, Star Books Editor Canada's prestigious literary award, the Scotiabank Giller Prize recently announced its shortlist — which is not short on diverse Canadian literature — and we'll have a winner on Monday in an actual in-person award ceremony after nearly two years of this pandemic. The Toronto Star's Books Editor Deborah Dundas is on "This Matters" for a breakdown of the Giller Prize 2021, the nominees and potential winners and recommends some of Canada's best, buzzworthy book titles to add to your holiday reading list

Guests: Peter Edwards is a reporter covering crime at the Star. Luis Najera is a journalist who covers crime, and is in exile from Mexico. They are the co-authors of The Wolfpack: The Millennial Mobsters Who Brought Chaos and the Cartels to the Canadian Underworld. When many of us think of organized crimes, the images that endure are those of mafia movies from the 70s, or shows like The Sopranos. In their new book, The Wolfpack: The Millennial Mobsters Who Brought Chaos and the Cartels to the Canadian Underworld, author's Edwards and Najera paint a picture of diverse, digitally savvy criminals who hook up with the Mexican cartels and help them build their beachhead into Canada. Filling in the backstory behind many crimes in Canada over the past two decades, it's a fascinating look at how criminal organizations work now.

Guest: Heather Scoffield, Toronto Star's Ottawa bureau chief and economics columnist COP26, the United Nations-led summit on climate change is underway in Glasgow, where world leaders and their delegates are meeting for a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change. Despite the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, many of the world's biggest emitters have not backed up promises with concrete policies. Climate activist Greta Thunberg has accused leaders of empty words and "blah, blah, blah" when it comes to taking the threat seriously. The world is heading to a 2.7 degree Celsius increase by 2050, according to the UN's latest report on climate change. Are countries around the world treating climate change with enough urgency? Will COP26 be a turning point or a final missed opportunity to stop the climate crisis?

Guest: Nadine Yousif, reporter covering mental health issues, the Star New data shows that the number of teachers taking sick leave during the pandemic has doubled over the past two years of the pandemic. Researchers at Brock University have done early research that shows teachers are dealing with higher levels of stress and burnout, in large part due to the disruptions to the education system brought on by COVID-19. From the demands of remote, virtual and hybrid schooling, to the ever-present threat of students and teachers catching COVID-19 in a classroom setting, it is has been an extraordinarily unsettling time for many educators, which also has an effect on the students and the system as whole.

Guest: Liam Casey, reporter at The Canadian Press Trying to tackle the issue of homelessness is a difficult one, as there is no one singular fix. But one issue for many people living on the streets is that they dislike the shelter system, which in many communities is seen as the only real solution. During the pandemic, the feeling of unease best showed itself as many people experiencing homeless set up tents in public parks throughout the province. In Kitchener, a radical new idea called A Better Tent City was undertaken by citizens in that community. Using sheds and creating a communal space, this homeless encampment has been embraced by officials in the community and is being accepted by those that are seeking help. It's certainly not perfect, but it is a new approach that already has other communities asking about a closer look.

Guest: Tess Kalinowski, real estate reporter for the Star Toronto's hotel industry has been one of the hardest hit in the COVID-19 pandemic. With the start of the first lockdown, hotel rooms emptied as dozens of hotels were closed completely. Thousands of workers were badly impacted by the loss of jobs and working hours. Many just never came back. As more people are vaccinated and travel restrictions get lifted, hotels are slowly coming back to life. But experts say there's still a long, difficult road to recovery for a city that was at its peak of marketing itself as a global destination before the pandemic. On "This Matters" today, we take a look at what it will take for Toronto's hotel and tourism industry to bounce back, nearly two years after the first lockdown all while reeling with financial losses and a severe staff shortage.

Guests: Shawn Micallef, columnist, and Gilbert Ngabo, reporter Toronto is one of the major Canadian cities where collisions with pedestrians are at a dangerous high. More than a hundred pedestrians were killed on Toronto roads between 2018 and 2020. Among those, 69 per cent were age 55 years or older, according to the Toronto Police Service. It's been nearly five years since the launch of Toronto's $123-million Vision Zero plan with aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. The city hasn't come close to that target even with an unprecedented decline in car use last year. There have been 46 casualties in 2021, and the year hasn't ended yet. October has been particularly deadly with a string of traffic deaths that included a 17-year-old girl and a much-loved couple. Today on "This Matters," columnist Shawn Micallef and reporter Gilbert Ngabo talk about why Torontonians are dying on the streets of their city, and what needs to happen for the roads to be safe, accessible and equitable for everyone.

Guest: Omar Mosleh, Toronto Star reporter The medical community is only beginning to understand long COVID, the debilitating and often mysterious symptoms so-called "long hauler" patients face that can last for months after they've fought the virus. Even less is known about long COVID in children, flipping the misconception that the worst of the illness only impacts adults and seniors. To date, only people 12 years of age and older have been approved by Health Canada to receive a COVID vaccine in Canada. The children and families affected with long-haul symptoms are speaking out about how their lives have been turned upside down, and now the questions and calculations they're making with an approved COVID vaccine for children in the works.

Guests: Dr. Louis Kwantes, president of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association, and Jory Bocknek, veterinarian The phenomenon of the pandemic pet boom is real. According to an Abacus Data research poll, more than 900,000 Canadians got a pet who didn't have one before. Animal shelters and rescue organizations have seen a dramatic rise in requests from hopeful pet owners. But all those new pets have led to an unprecedented demand in veterinary care, which was already stretched to its limits pre-pandemic. If there's an emergency for your four-legged family member, can you get them medical care? Veterinarians and medical associations say the situation is reaching a breaking point with the ever-growing number of pets in Canada.

Guest: Christine Dobby, Business Reporter at the Star It has been an extraordinary week at the highest level of power at Rogers Communications, one of Canada's largest telecommunications empires. A battle for control has been underway, pitting Edward Rogers against other family members as he attempted to change the company's CEO and put his hand-picked replacement in his place. While that manoeuvre was thwarted, the power struggle has resulted in Twitter storms from Martha Rogers, Edward's sister, and John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, being called in to attempt to mediate. Now the company seems to find itself with two board of directors, with each claiming legitimacy. On top of all that, exclusive Star reporting confirmed that Edward tried to meddle with the Raptors' leadership this past summer, in a manner that may show some patterns to his corporate activism. With 24,000 employees and the ongoing $26 billion acquisition of former rival, Shaw Communications, there is at lot stake for one of Canada's largest media empires.

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, Toronto Star health reporter It's well documented and well-known now that pregnant people and their unborn babies are at significantly high-risk due to COVID-19, with many requiring hospitalization and intensive care. Six months ago, COVID's third wave in Ontario saw more pregnant people in ICU's than both the previous waves combined. Now we are seeing similar tragedies play out in Alberta as the province grapples a devastating fourth wave. Babies are being delivered while pregnant patients are on ventilators. This is why there was such the push and prioritization of vaccination for those who are pregnant. There is now global data proving that the vaccines have no risk for pregnant people, in fact it could save lives. Yet, vaccine rates of pregnant people remain low in Ontario and vaccine hesitancy remains high. There are multiple reasons for that and they're important to understand.

Guest: Star journalist Morgan Bocknek and Keanu Uchida, professional dancer An exclusive Star investigation has found allegations of widespread sexual harassment and predatory behaviour by Break the Floor (a big part of the dance community of North America) coaches over their younger students. Eight former staff and students allege BTF employees, famous in the dance world, initiated sexual conversations, propositioned them for sex, sent them nude photos, sexually harassed them at work or engaged in sexual relationships with them. Break the Floor CEO Gil Stroming did not respond to specific questions, though told the Star that the dance company did not have "fully thought out policies and procedures regarding this" and, "over the last year and a half we have worked very hard to make BTF a better and safer environment for everyone," and, "we could have and should have done better." BTF has undergone training and revised its code of conduct, the company said in a statement. "We are truly heartbroken that anyone has been subject to inappropriate behaviour by any person associated with Break The Floor," the statement read. "We remain committed to these initiatives and will continue to learn and be better."

Guests: Star reporters Noor Javed, who covers 905 municipal politics, and Kris Rushowy, Queen's Park reporter Earlier this year, the Ontario government controversially used the notwithstanding clause to push through a new election advertising law which, despite being found to be unconstitutional, added new restrictions on third-party advertising to curb large scale, American-style special interest political fundraising in the election process. Now, exclusive Star reporting has found that a sitting minister contacted Elections Ontario and asked it to look into at least three small community groups to see if they were in violation of the new laws. Critics say it could lead a muzzling of political dissent in the province and change the rules for political advocacy.

Guest: Rosa Saba, Business Reporter at The Star With vaccine mandates now being enforced in many establishments, workplace mandates are now proliferating across many businesses as they try to return to normal. This raises questions about employer and workers rights if an employee chooses to remain unvaccinated. It's something we are seeing play out on large stages, like the NBA, where star player Kyrie Irving has been told to stay away from his team until he decides to get vaccinated. But we are seeing it all across North America, as health care workers and police officers and others choose to remain unvaccinated. In Canada, the question is, can people be fired with cause? Do accommodations need to made? Is the employee eligible for Employment Insurance? These are all questions that need to be worked through and dealt with by all kinds of organizations and their personnel.

Guest: Edward Keenan, Toronto Star's Washington Bureau Chief More than 18 months it closed due to the pandemic, the world's largest undefended border will reopen in November. The closure has resulted in long delays and frustration, and fraught with clear-as-mud guidance around the air travel and policies around mixed doses and vaccination. As Canadians get ready to cross the land border once again, we sort through the many questions that still remain on how the reopening will work amidst the politics of the pandemic.

Guest: Shawn Micallef, contributing columnist for the Star This summer, the city of Toronto spent almost $2 million on private security guards and police to forcefully clear encampments in public parks. Despite the obvious need for housing, council has once again delayed a decision on legalizing rooming houses citywide, a debate that's been ongoing for ten years at City Hall. Rooming houses, also called multi-tenant homes, are currently illegal in most of Toronto, yet they are said to be an accessible and affordable living option for students, newcomers, and individuals with low income in a city where the cost of living is among the highest in Canada. Columnist Shawn Micallef joins "This Matters" to explain the significance of rooming houses, renters' rights and why encampment clearing should not have taken place the way it did in the middle of a pandemic and an escalating housing crisis.

Guest: David Johnston of the Schulich School of Business at York University With the holiday season fast approaching, many retailers have been ramping up their efforts to make sure there is enough stock on the shelves for consumers to buy, but experts warn that disruptions in the global supply chain are already resulting in product shortages, delays in delivery and higher prices. There are container ships lined up outside of U.S. ports waiting to off-load their freight, and there aren't enough docks or truck drivers to move the goods through. While COVID-19 has exposed some of the weak links in our global supply chain infrastructure, many issues were already there and experts are warning it might be some time before things return to normal.

Guest: Nicholas Keung, immigration reporter The pandemic, travel restrictions and the recent refugee crisis in Afghanistan have created some serious issues within Canada's immigration system. From refugees, to permanent residency holders trying to make their landing in Canada, to those already living in the country waiting for citizenship, everyone has been in limbo as the backlog piles up. To try and address some of this, the federal government announced a special one-time immigration program in April, as a potential pathway to permanent residency for those already in Canada who might be eligible. To qualify, applicants needed to jump through a lot of hoops and navigate a tricky new system, all within a limited time window for limited slots. For thousands of students and workers, this was their only chance to make a life in Canada. Now those who made it that far are in danger of having their dreams dashed, all potentially because of a computer glitch. The Star's Immigration Reporter Nicholas Keung joins "This Matters" to explain.

Guest: Alex McKeen, Toronto Star reporter For much of the pandemic, New Zealand has avoided mass outbreaks, a large number of deaths and high case counts, and in doing so has been heralded by COVID-Zero supporters as the poster-child of the strategy to eliminate the virus. But that's all come to an end as New Zealand, like a number of other nations, has all but abandoned the official strategy. The goal now is low rates of transmission, rather than total elimination. The COVID-Zero movement has drawn a number of supporters from epidemiologists and public health experts as well its share of criticism from people who compare the approach to the anti-vax movement. Where does the goal of eliminating COVID spread go now? Is it even possible to achieve? Why is the dream of eliminating COVID spread such a controversial one?

COVID-19 showed how under-resourced and ill-equipped many Canadian nursing homes were to cope with a crisis. It also opened up an important conversation on structural and systemic issues within the long-term care industry — and the right of senior citizens to a better quality of living. Ontario has now opened up legislation on this front for the first time in more than ten years. Star investigative reporter Moira Welsh explains what the current state of Ontario's long-term care is and what those changes could look like.

Guest: Tess Kalinowski, real estate reporter at The Star The real estate market has been one of the few things that this pandemic has not really disrupted. After an initial lockdown, the Greater Toronto Area market has been soaring to new heights in terms of prices and sales. After 21 months of the pandemic, there is cautious optimism that the market might return closer to normal — at least in terms of a sense timing — but there will remain challenges, mostly exacerbated by a lack of houses for sales.

Guest: Ben Spurr, the Star's transportation reporter The pandemic has been near catastrophic for public transit. Ridership dropped for the TTC, costing the transit service millions in fare revenue and the Ontario government more than $140 a ride as the province covered the cost of near-empty GO Transit and UP Express trips. But the worst could still be to come and the fear of the "death spiral" remains a real possibility. Today on "This Matters," we explain the pain and drain of the "transit death spiral" and whether how we move in a city post-pandemic will be led by cars instead of buses and subways.