From the aggressive tactics of police at demonstrations in the United States, to the increasing demand to recognize systemic racism against Black communities and deal with police violence, to the ongoing threat of COVID-19 — it has been a chaotic and politically charged week. Today on Front Burner, we take a step back to listen to individuals who are deeply affected by the week’s events. Five Black Canadians share their reflections on worldwide protests following the death of George Floyd, who was killed by police, and the current attention towards issues of racial injustice and police brutality at home and abroad.

Government and public health officials are urging Canadians to practice social distancing. But what, exactly, does that mean? We speak to a man with cerebral palsy who says that for him, social distancing could make the difference between life and death. Then, a public health expert answers some of our questions about how to do social distancing right.

It's been nine months since marijuana was legalized in Canada, and illegal dispensaries are not only prevalent across the country — but in many cases, thriving. Today on Front Burner, CBC investigative reporter Zach Dubinsky and Sol Israel from The Leaf News on illegal pot shops that brazenly defy the law and why they exist in the age of legal weed.

After a four-month suspension due to COVID-19, Major League Baseball returns for a condensed 60-game season on Thursday. The old ball game, however, is going to look a bit different: there’s social distancing in the dugouts, no fans in the stands and no games in Canada. This weekend, the federal government announced that the Blue Jays can’t play in Toronto during the pandemic. Today on Front Burner, The Athletic staff writer Kaitlyn McGrath tells us where the Jays could go, and what baseball’s tumultuous summer could mean for the future of the MLB.

A growing crisis between Canada and China has led to the expulsion of diplomats from both countries, following revelations that a Chinese official reportedly targeted Canadian MP Michael Chong’s family. CBC parliamentary reporter Catharine Tunney joins Front Burner to sort through what happened to Chong, what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his government knew about the 2021 incident, and how the two countries are now handling it. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today on Front Burner, we talk to the National Observer’s Fatima Syed, and to doctor Ritika Goel, about Justin Trudeau’s blackface scandal, and why for so many Canadians of colour, it’s a familiar sort of racism.

"If a few white people were being killed at the rate that we are being killed...we wouldn't be having this conversation today," says Desmond Cole, in response to an Ontario Human Rights commission report on policing and race in Toronto. The report's findings include that a black person in Toronto is nearly 20 times more likely than a white person to be shot and killed by police. Cole is a writer and activist who focuses on race and policing.

Over the past month, Israelis have taken to the streets in massive demonstrations. They're opposed to Prime Minister Netanyahu's new plan to limit the power of the Supreme Court and worry about what that means for minority rights and Israeli democracy. Today, we will talk about the make-up of Netanyahu's new coalition government and why that has protestors so concerned. We'll talk about Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir who has been convicted of incitement to racism and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich who has described himself as a homophobe. Yair Rosenberg is a staff writer for The Atlantic and he'll explain what's behind the government's shift rightward, what it means for democracy, and how it moves Israelis and Palestinians even further from a two-state solution.

After days of speculation about a deepening rift between Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Morneau resigned on Monday. CBC Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos on why it might have happened, and what it could mean for the Trudeau government.

As infertility rates go up in Canada, desperate couples are turning to surrogacy. But a new investigation reveals that because there are few federal regulations on the surrogacy system, the process isn’t working for everyone. Jayme Poisson speaks with Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez, who spent months investigating surrogacy in Canada, in the first of a two-part series.

For the last four years, Vice reporter Ben Makuch has been fighting to keep communications he had with a suspected ISIS fighter from the RCMP. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and last week, Makuch and Vice lost their final appeal on this case. Ben Makuch talks to host Jayme Poisson about that journey, and what it might mean for press freedom in Canada.

Millions of climate strikers all across the world took to the street on Sept 20th. And there’s another strike scheduled on Sept 27th, as well. Today on Front Burner, we talk to Naomi Klein, author of the new book “On Fire: The Burning Case for the Green New Deal” about Greta Thunberg, the Green New Deal, and why she thinks mass mobilization around climate change may be the only thing that can help us avoid global warming’s most devastating effects: “If you don’t believe in social movements, and if they make you kind of queasy and they seem kind of messy, then you should feel really pessimistic, because it’s actually our only hope.”

"If we were doing something killing thousands of Chinese, we would hear from them loud and clear," says former Canadian ambassador to China, David Mulroney. He argues that Canada needs to pressure China to do more to stop the flow of fentanyl, and questions why PM Justin Trudeau didn't apply more diplomatic pressure at the G20 this week.

In 2010, during the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of classified military and diplomatic records were released, revealing civilian death and disaster on the ground for both conflicts. It was one of the largest and most explosive leaks in U.S. history and included every incident report the United States Army had ever filed about Iraq or Afghanistan. The mass leak pulled back the curtain on both wars, igniting an intense debate over the role of the U.S. military and about what information the public deserves to know. And at the centre of it all was Chelsea Manning. Manning was a young American military intelligence analyst on her first tour in Iraq who was secretly struggling with her gender identity. She became so disillusioned by the horrors of war that she decided to risk everything to publicize highly-sensitive military information. Now, more than a decade later, Manning is speaking out about her experience as a whistleblower in a new memoir called README.Txt. She joins Front Burner from New York.

Last Wednesday, Ontario auditor general Bonnie Lysyk delivered a scathing report about the province’s plans to build on parts of the protected Greenbelt. While Premier Doug Ford had promised to preserve this vast network of vulnerable greenspace, he announced in November that the province would lift protections on thousands of acres to build more houses. The auditor general’s report finds there’s no evidence the land was needed to meet the government’s housing target and says that it was chosen under heavy influence from a small group of well-connected developers. The report goes on to say that those same landowners now stand to make a lot of money and could “ultimately see more than a collective $8.3 billion increase to the value of their properties”. To make sense of the report, we’re joined by an Ontario reporter with The Narwhal, Fatima Syed. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Were the ‘Freedom Convoy’ protests in Ottawa a “peaceful protest against a tyrannical ruler,” or a bunch of people driven by “lies and misinformation, disturbing the peace of everyone, and being bigoted”? These two conflicting perspectives help illustrate Canadian polarization in a new report from the Public Policy Forum, authored by journalist Justin Ling, titled ‘Far and Wider: The Rise of Polarization in Canada.’ Ling joins guest host Tamara Khandaker to discuss political polarization in Canada, what’s driving it, and how it’s impacting young Canadians. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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

At least 36 people have died as massive fires rip through the Western United States, engulfing towns and blowing noxious smoke north to Vancouver and other parts of Canada. Today on Front Burner, we talk about what’s to blame for this historic devastation and what we have to do to adapt to life with wildfires. Mike Flannigan is a professor with the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta and the co-host of the CBC Edmonton podcast “World on Fire”.

Last night, six Conservative leadership hopefuls squared off in the first official debate of the race. Conservative MPs Pierre Poilievre, Leslyn Lewis and Scott Aitchison; former Quebec premier Jean Charest; Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown; and Ontario MPP Roman Baber shared the stage – and while they’re all supposed to be playing for the same team, things still got a bit scrappy. Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos was in Edmonton for the event and she joins Jayme Poisson to recap the night.

The toll of British Columbia's money laundering problem is climbing, with recent reports suggesting that about a billion dollars a year have been laundered through the province's casinos.This week, the federal government promised it will do more to help B.C. finally clamp down. Today on Front Burner, CBC Investigative journalist Eric Rankin explains the long-term problem and breaks down how the money is tangled up in organized crime, illegal drugs, and even real estate.

Canadian and U.S. Coast Guard officials are undertaking a desperate search in a vast swath of the North Atlantic, after five men in a small sub embarked on a risky dive to the wreck of the Titanic, 3,800 metres below the surface. Passengers each paid $250,000 for a spot in the cramped submersible, which has no chairs, one small portal, a consumer-grade gaming controller to operate the vessel, and a limited amount of oxygen to sustain life. On this episode, Timothy Bella, a national reporter with the Washington Post, shares the latest details of the search, the expedition that’s gone awry, and the company offering the pricey opportunity for tourists to see the Titanic for themselves, OceanGate. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna are among 28 people that a U.S. grand jury indictment accuses of being part of a criminal street gang. The alleged members of the Young Slime Life gang are charged under Georgia's racketeering law known as RICO, which is similar to federal laws introduced in the 1970s to combat the mafia. The 56-count indictment includes allegations of murder and attempted armed robbery. Some of the evidence of gang activity cited by prosecutors are lyrics from artists like Young Thug. Today, journalist and commentator Jacques Morel discusses why prosecutors are bringing lyrics into courtrooms, and why the practice seems to target Black men and hip hop artists.

Seasonal viruses including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) have come back with a vengeance, after sparing the public through most of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, new COVID subvariants threaten to be the most transmissible seen yet, and appear to be on the rise. This triple-whammy 'tridemic' is straining the healthcare system and many families — especially those with young children who skipped a couple years of viral infection. Today we're joined by Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the University of Toronto's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, to figure out when an especially tough sick season will ease up.

Jean Chrétien says he never heard about abuse in residential schools when he was minister of Indian affairs. As Jorge Barrera and Cindy Blackstock explain, documents suggest otherwise.

"For 40 years, sovereignty has been in elections by default because either the party in power or the party in opposition was a sovereigntist party ? that is no longer the case," says long-time Quebec journalist Martin Patriquin. While the question of sovereignty remains front of mind for many Quebecers, this year it wasn't an issue in a Quebec election for the first time in decades. Today on Front Burner, Patriquin sheds light on why the province's separatist movement is struggling, but why it will endure.

Two devastating crashes, five months apart, left 346 people dead. Both Ethiopian Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610 went down shortly after take off. The victims' families are still looking for answers. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg testified in front of two committees in Washington this week about the 737 Max. Today on Front Burner, CBC correspondent Susan Ormiston tells us what he said, and how the families responded.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced a permanent ceasefire on the Syrian border with Turkey. But can the peace be stable? The CBC’s Margaret Evans on her experience travelling there last week.

A new investigation from the Guardian’s climate journalists shows that oil and gas investment continues globally on 195 projects that would each release more than one gigaton of carbon if the reserves were fully exploited. This, despite the fact that scientists say 60 per cent of oil and gas reserves will need to stay in the ground if we want to avoid heating the Earth by 1.5 C. If you add up all of the carbon that could be released from these oil and gas “carbon bombs,” Canada is in sixth place as one of the worst potential polluters. We’re home to nine sites that could release more than 27 gigatons of carbon. Canada is also home to three coal carbon bombs. Damian Carrington is the environment editor of the Guardian. He says the ongoing investment in these projects reveal an oil and gas industry that does not believe the world will achieve its climate goals.

Affordability policy pledges are front and centre in the Canadian federal election campaign. We’ve seen Conservatives and Liberals promise tax cuts. The Liberals and NDP promise to lower your cellphone bill. There are national pharmacare pledges from the NDP, the Liberals and the Greens. The Greens even propose a guaranteed annual income. And these are just a few of the policies on offer from the major parties. Today on Front Burner, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos and national business correspondent Peter Armstrong on what these affordability promises accomplish, what they don’t, and the tradeoffs they may require.

According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, an unstable world demands a stable Canadian Parliament. Trudeau pointed to the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and financial and trade woes yesterday, before announcing a “confidence-and-supply” deal between the Liberals and NDP. Essentially, in exchange for moving forward on NDP policy priorities, the NDP will back the Trudeau government in votes that could defeat it until June of 2025. But the opposition Conservatives are already decrying the deal as a “power grab.” NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says the deal will end if the Liberals don’t hold up their end of the bargain. Questions remain about whether the agreement can create any kind of lasting stability, and whether it safeguards — or jeopardizes — the parties’ future influence. Today, a look at how this deal changes Canada’s political landscape with the reporter who broke the story, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos

Omicron is spreading rapidly in Canada. Barely two weeks after the first cases of the coronavirus variant were identified in Ontario, it became the dominant strain in the province, and experts say that will soon be the case across the country. Even as Canada is reporting some of the highest daily case counts seen throughout the whole pandemic, some doctors say the real numbers could be several times higher because of the difficulties many people face in accessing tests. Today, Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, explains the latest research on Omicron from around the world — and how that research can help inform your choices around holiday gatherings.

Recent reports by the Globe and Mail and Global News, relying on Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) documents and unnamed intelligence sources, have detailed different ways the Chinese government has allegedly interfered with Canadian elections. On this episode, Dick Fadden, a former director of CSIS and a former national security advisor to both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau, walks us through the way the spy agency operates on cases like this, and what should be done now to ensure Canadian elections are free of foreign meddling. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

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

As the world continues to socially distance - a few countries are easing restrictions for children. But, it’s still unclear how COVID-19 affects kids. Some doctors are raising concern over a mysterious illness in a small number of children, which could be linked to COVID-19. Meanwhile, public health experts in Australia say kids may not be superspreaders after all.

On Sunday, Twitter owner Elon Musk joined comedian Dave Chappelle on stage and was roundly booed. Musk responded on Twitter saying, “Technically, it was 90% cheers,” and that “It’s almost as if I’ve offended SF’s unhinged leftists … but nahhh.” Musk has said that he’s politically a centrist, but the tweet is just one recent example of how he’s adopted partisan language in a social media culture war. Musk has distributed Twitter records that are supposed to reveal biased censorship, indulged in far-right talking points about COVID-19 and unbanned white nationalist accounts. Today, a discussion with the Atlantic’s Charlie Warzel about how and why Musk is aligning himself with different factions of the right. Warzel writes the Galaxy Brain newsletter about tech, media and politics.

The release of a WHO report on the origins of COVID-19 is drawing both international curiosity and concern over China’s transparency. Nature senior reporter Amy Maxmen explains the investigation’s findings as well as criticisms over its access and independence.

CBC Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos breaks down the secretly-recorded phone call between former Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould and former Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick - as the SNC-Lavalin controversy grows.

Hockey Canada has settled 21 sexual assault claims. For nine of those cases, it used a fund that draws in part from players' registration fees, paying out $7.6 million dollars. The scope of Hockey Canada's settlements was just one revelation from parliamentary committee hearings this week, where MPs probed the organization's handling of an alleged group sexual assault in 2018 involving national junior players. Today The Athletic's Dan Robson, a hockey writer who has reported extensively on this issue, joins Front Burner to discuss why Hockey Canada's promise to change is being met with skepticism.

Old-growth logging at B.C.’s Fairy Creek watershed has been temporarily deferred, but activists aren’t leaving the blockades. CBC reporter Kieran Oudshoorn brings us an inside look at the hardest-to-access Fairy Creek protest camp — and why activists are staying put.

In December a digital privacy watchdog began receiving mysterious emails from businessmen who didn't seem to exist. John Scott-Railton from the Citizen Lab joins us to try and understand why his group was targeted by what they believe to be undercover operatives.

For the first time, police are treating an alleged incel-inspired killing as an act of terror. In February, a 17-year-old male was charged with murder and attempted murder in the broad daylight slaying of a woman at a North Toronto massage parlour. Last week, those charges were updated to terror charges. Today on Front Burner, former CSIS analyst Jessica Davis and University of Calgary law professor Michael Nesbitt on the significance of these new charges, what message they send, and what the potential consequences may be.

Neil Bantleman was teaching at a school in Jakarta, Indonesia when he and seven others were accused of sex crimes against students. He maintained his innocence despite being convicted in an Indonesian court. CBC's The Fifth Estate co-host Mark Kelley travelled to Indonesia to look into the case and found the serious flaws in the investigation and evidence presented against him. Now, Bantleman is back in Canada after being granted clemency. Today on Front Burner, Kelley talks to guest host Michelle Sheppard about what he found in the course of making The Fifth Estate's 2016 documentary Nightmare in Indonesia.

In June, a group called YYC Muslims organized a large protest in front of Calgary's city hall. They were there to oppose what they call "gender ideology" in schools. They chanted, “leave our kids alone” saying they don’t want it imposed on young children. They were joined by seniors wearing T-shirts with biblical verses on them, and others sporting shirts with slogans about “government tyranny.” Counter-protesters were there too, many baffled by the unlikely alliances between the different groups of people there. This protest in Calgary is just one example of Muslim parents pushing back against LGBTQ representation in schools. Today, Omar Mosleh, a Toronto Star reporter based in Edmonton, walks us through this pushback, the people behind it, and how it has spurred a challenging conversation within the wider Muslim community in Canada. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The prime minister is firing off a warning today to Canadians who are not abiding by social distancing measures. He said “enough is enough” and asked people to “go home and stay home.” On tonight’s coronavirus episode, we will get you caught up on: The increasingly tough language coming from the federal government on social distancing. Questions about whether the Emergencies Act Measures act will go into effect. And how Canada is handling the return of tens of thousands of Canadians who have been stranded abroad.

Orcas ramming boats and chewing on rudders pierced the hull of a yacht near Spain last week. They've also brought down three vessels in the surrounding waters in the last year. Many experts are suggesting the killer whales could be playing. Others have wondered whether a matriarch named White Gladis could be teaching her pod the behaviour, following a traumatic incident with a ship. The internet, meanwhile, can't stop joking about the orcas taking revenge on humanity. If this is a case of psychological projection, it might be because orcas have reason to be mad at us. Today, Raincoast Conservation Foundation senior scientist Peter Ross tells us about the health of the orca population including the one we understand best, the Southern Resident killer whales near our west coast, and discusses why humans see so much of themselves in these neighbours. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When Yusef Salaam was 15, he and four other teenage boys were falsely accused of raping a woman in New York's Central Park. Salaam was imprisoned for nearly seven years before he was exonerated. His life story has inspired a new book called Punching the Air, which he co-wrote with young adult novelist Ibi Zoboi. Salaam and Zoboi talk to host Josh Bloch about why the stories and perspectives of Black youth are so important right now, and how they connect to the global movement against anti-Black racism in America.

The city of Melbourne, Australia, is currently under some of the world's strictest pandemic lockdown measures. Residents have to be home by 8 p.m., and anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 can expect frequent, unannounced visits by police to ensure they're staying home. Today, on Front Burner, we speak to Melissa Davey, Australian bureau chief for The Guardian, to find out how a country — one that had so quickly flattened the curve early on in the pandemic — is now in the grips of a second wave of COVID-19.

Winnipeg Police are alleging that a serial killer murdered four women earlier this year. Investigators believe that each of the man’s alleged victims died between March and May, and – despite only having identified three of the women – that all are Indigenous. The accused is now facing four counts of first-degree murder. Today, CBC Winnipeg reporter Stephanie Cram helps us understand more about the lives of the alleged victims, and how communities are grappling with further loss in a province some advocates call “ground zero” for violence against Indigenous women and girls.

As a federal election looms, two parties mustered over the weekend. Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos joins Jayme Poisson to break down what happened at the Liberal and NDP policy conventions.

After Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai posted a sexual assault allegation against a former top Communist Party official on social media, the post — and Peng — disappeared. In the weeks that followed, the Women's Tennis Association and the sport's top athletes joined the hashtag #WhereIsPengShuai, including Naomi Osaka, Roger Federer and Serena Williams. Even the UN called for proof of her safety. Now, Chinese state-run broadcasters have tweeted a supposed email along with photos and videos as evidence of her safety. The International Olympic committee says it had an interview with Peng where she reassured them of her wellbeing. Today on Front Burner, Racquet publisher and co-founder Caitlin Thompson explains why China's moves have done little to calm fears for Peng's autonomy, and why this is a crucial moment for sports to re-examine their relationship with China.

The Christchurch mosque shooter formed his radical views online. Today, an examination of how far right communities spread their toxic messages on the Internet and how they use YouTube to do it.

Ron Posno knows how he wants to die: on his own terms and with help from a healthcare professional. He’s an advocate for people with dementia and a volunteer with Dying with Dignity Canada from London, Ontario. But he doesn’t qualify for a medically-assisted death right now. That could change. Starting this week, the federal government has launched two weeks of public consultations asking Canadians how they would like to amend the existing medically-assisted dying laws. This follows a Quebec ruling last September that found people should be able to access assisted dying even if death is not imminent. Today on Front Burner, we ask if dementia patients should be able to consent to an assisted death in advance.

Last month, the African nation of Niger became the seventh government in Western and Central Africa to suffer a military takeover in the last three years. And as of today, virtually every country in Africa’s Sahel region is governed by a current or former military officer. The Sahel is a part of the world that was dominated by France through the colonial period — and many leaders of military governments that have taken over, from Mali to Burkina Faso, have identified the unresolved legacies of colonialism as a source of their dissatisfaction. For decades, Niger, and countries in the Sahel more broadly, have received enormous investment from both France and the U.S. They have been called a “strategic partner” by both nations in the fight against islamic extremism in West Africa. Niger specifically was long touted as West Africa’s last bastion of democracy. So what happened? Today, BBC journalist Beverly Ochieng, whose reporting has long focused on the region, on what’s happening in Niger, and whether this era of insurrection in the Sahel is evidence of an anti-colonial renaissance, or something a little more complicated. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This summer a humanitarian crisis played out on the streets of downtown Toronto. With city and federal shelters at capacity, dozens of asylum seekers resorted to camping on the sidewalk, in the busy entertainment district, sleeping outside in the blistering heat and through thunderstorms, for weeks. Last week, the federal government announced a one-time $212 million dollar injection into an existing program that helps provide temporary housing to refugee claimants. And most of that funding goes to Toronto. But the city’s mayor and the Ontario premier want more funding and resources from Ottawa. While the funding is being negotiated, about 200 asylum seekers are now staying at two churches in North York, thanks to mostly Black-led community organizations and faith groups. Today on Front Burner, producer Shannon Higgins visits one of those churches to hear from the refugee claimants themselves. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For many Canadians, rent is due on the first of the month. But nearly half of the households in this country have lost work due to the pandemic, and emergency government benefits are not yet in people’s pockets. Today on Front Burner, an anxious Vancouver tenant on her concerns about making rent, and Toronto lawyer Caryma Sa’d on what is being done to keep tenants housed as their incomes evaporate.

Since the first pediatric Pfizer vaccines landed in Canada last weekend, provinces have been moving fast to get them into arms. Children got their first jabs in Ontario on Tuesday; more kids started being vaccinated in Quebec, Manitoba and Saskatchewan on Wednesday; and the rollout continues to expand. Today we’re joined by Dr. Fatima Kakkar, an infectious diseases pediatrician at the research centre of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Université de Montréal. She breaks down what’s happening with these shots, how they work on kids and what to expect from the rollout.

Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Moscow Correspondent Chris Brown takes us through Vladimir Putin’s decades-long grip on power, and whether or not a popular protest movement and falling approval numbers could signal change for Russia's political future.

A federal election has been called for Sept. 20, less than two years after the last one. Today, Aaron Wherry of CBC's Parliament Hill bureau on why now.

A caravan of about 4,000 migrants is heading north through Mexico. Their journey has become heavily politicized. CBC's senior correspondent Susan Ormiston describes what she's seen during her travels with the migrants.

In September, schools across the country will reopen — many for the first time since the pandemic shut them down months ago. And while provinces have released their plans to keep students and teachers safe, parents are still struggling with whether to send their children to class. Today on Front Burner, Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University and author of parenting books like Cribsheet and Expecting Better breaks down what the data says about the risks of opening up schools.

Sharing your skincare routine, whether it’s on DermTok or Instagram, is a hugely popular trend on social media. These days, there is one product that you’ll hear talked about religiously: sunscreen. You’ll find dermatologists and skincare influencers alike evangelizing about the importance of cancer- and wrinkle-preventing SPF. But there’s another reason why sunscreen is top of mind this summer — it’s become a political issue in the United States, thanks to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She recently took to TikTok to talk about how few quality sunscreens are available in America, compared to Asia and Europe. And it’s not just the U.S. — it’s a problem that’s also playing out here in Canada. Today we’ll be talking about the rise of sunscreen as a skincare must-have and the fight for better SPF options with Julian Sass. He is a cosmetic research and development professional and a content creator focused on sunscreen in Montreal. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A new investigative series from CBC Podcasts and the Norwegian newspaper VG. Hunting Warhead follows an international team of police officers as they attempt to track down the people behind a massive child-abuse site on the dark web. Listen at hyperurl.co/huntingwarhead

In recent weeks, the latest versions of AI art-creating tools, along with a compelling new AI chatbot have flooded social media. The tools can be fun, with people creating artistic and enhanced selfies using Lensa, strange concept art with DALL-E 2, or exploring the way the chatbot, ChatGPT, creates seemingly original and complex prose in seconds. But the new tools are also a demonstration of how powerful AI has become, and hint at a relatively near future where it could convincingly replace human workers. Today, Will Knight, senior writer with WIRED, joins us to discuss what’s behind these popular new AI tools, some of their pitfalls, and the impact they’re already having on society.

Scientists are still trying to determine the origin of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, but a predominant theory is that it began in a "wet market" in Wuhan, China. This has put the spotlight on China's wet markets, with growing calls to shut them down entirely. But, what are these wet markets, what makes them so controversial — and why do some think a ban is the only answer? Today on Front Burner, we take a deep dive into China's world of wet markets with Peter Li, China policy specialist for the Humane Society International.

A CBC News investigation into a prominent University of Saskatchewan professor found no evidence to support her claims to Indigeneity. Reporter Geoff Leo breaks down the story, and Veldon Coburn tells us how to address the issue.

Legendary singer-songwriter John Prine has died at 73 due to complications caused by COVID-19. He was celebrated for the way he wrote about the human condition — from thoughtful reflections on heartbreak and loss, to funny quips about life’s absurdities. We remember him with Tom Power, host of CBC's q.

Danielle Smith and her United Conservative Party have been returned to power in Alberta, as voters reject the NDP and Rachel Notley's vision for the province. Smith overcame a slew of stumbles and hiccups in her first seven months as premier, and won over enough people to secure another four years in control for her party. On this episode, CBC Calgary's Jason Markusoff shares his analysis of how Smith won, what it means for Alberta, and for the rest of the country. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

"What Fortnite has done is break all the rules around what makes a successful video game," says Tom Power, host of CBC Radio's q. Fortnite has over 200 million registered users, and is reported to have brought in two billion dollars in profits for Epic Games this year. Since its launch in 2017, it's also become a pop culture phenomenon. So how did a free-to-play game become such a cultural and economic powerhouse? Tom Power helps us understand the game, and even teaches host Jayme Poisson how to play.

In 2007, Hassan Diab was an unassuming sociology lecturer at Carleton University, when he was suddenly told French authorities were investigating him for committing a terrorist act in Paris in 1980. Diab has always claimed innocence — but the revelation was just the beginning of an 12-year ordeal, including a lengthy court case, extradition to France and three years spent in prison. An external review was ordered into his case, but Diab and his legal team are less than satisfied with its findings. On Front Burner, CBC senior reporter David Cochrane breaks down one of the most intensely fought extradition cases in Canadian history.

In the weeks after FTX filed for bankruptcy Sam stuck to his story: he did not commit fraud. FTX’s post-collapse CEO claimed the company had been a managerial and financial disaster, writing that he had never seen “such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information.” In response to his cratering public image, Sam Bankman-Fried talked. A lot. He exhibited an almost reckless desire to tell his side of things, insisting he could explain – and vindicate – himself. It was an exceptionally bizarre move for someone who had lost not just his personal fortune, but potentially the funds of millions of customers. Even as U.S. prosecutors filed charges, and his former friends turned on him, SBF was unwavering. With the legal odds against him, why would SBF risk so much by refusing to shut up? Update: Since this episode was published, U.S. prosecutors have added a new charge against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing him of conspiring to bribe one or more Chinese government officials. The charge has not been proven in court. For more episodes of The Naked Emperor, check out its podcast feed: https://link.chtbl.com/uXdCyMR8 For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As smoke from wildfires in Ontario and Quebec blanketed the nation’s capital early last week, air quality advisories caused residents to wear masks and kids to stay inside for recess. Most debate in the House of Commons, however, remained around the economy and inflation – including arguments that climate change measures should be stopped or curtailed. Smoke and burning skies in Toronto, New York, Philadelphia and Washington have since sparked international conversations about our changing climate. Today, CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry joins us to discuss why – even as Canada itself burns – our environmental policy debate continues to stagnate around the merits of carbon taxes. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After nearly three decades of trying, Canada qualified for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and proceeded to not score a goal. But Canada could write a new chapter in its soccer history, starting Sunday, when the Qatar World Cup kicks off. We've covered the controversy surrounding soccer's biggest tournament — from human rights abuses to allegations of bribery, and corruption at FIFA. Today, we're focusing on the tournament itself. Roger Bennett is back to give us a primer on the favourites, the underdogs and some of the big storylines expected to unfold on the pitch in Qatar. He's the founder of the Men in Blazers Media network, co-host of the Men in Blazers podcast and co-author of the newly published book Gods of Soccer.

Nearly 78 per cent of eligible people in Canada have at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine. What’s stopping the rest? Today, Dr. Naheed Dosani and Dr. Jia Hu discuss.

Bryson seems like a perfectly healthy baby. But soon doctors confirm his parents’ worst fears: something is wrong with Bryson’s brain. Despite dozens of tests over nearly a decade, doctors come up empty in their efforts to find a diagnosis.Then one day, everything changes. Scientists working at the cutting edge of genetics believe they know what's causing Bryson's disease — and think it could be reversed. Here’s the first episode of the new CBC podcast, Unlocking Bryson’s Brain. More episodes are available at hyperurl.co/unlocking

Pride Nights began in the NHL about ten years ago. They're meant to send a clear message to LGBTQ+ fans to feel welcome spending money and time watching hockey. But since January, a growing number of teams and players are refusing to wear the rainbow-themed jerseys teams use for warm up skates and then auction off to charity. Some players say wearing the jersey is against their faith. Some teams have said they're concerned Russia would see participation as a violation of Putin's anti-gay laws and that would put their Russian players at risk. Now, league commissioner Gary Bettman says the league will need to decide whether Pride Nights should continue. Mark Lazerus writes about hockey for The Athletic. He says the NHL is failing to show leadership in this latest crisis of culture. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

To the frustration and hurt of the families of Paul Bernardo’s victims, the notorious rapist and murderer has been moved from a maximum security prison to a medium security one. Conservatives are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene and move Bernardo back to a maximum security facility. They also want Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino to resign over how his office handled information about the transfer. Ashley Burke is a senior reporter at the CBC’s Parliamentary Bureau. She’s been looking into how the Liberals handled Bernardo’s move and the controversy that has followed. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada and a growing list of more than 20 countries have confirmed cases of omicron, the latest version of the COVID-19 virus to be labelled a "variant of concern" by the World Health Organization. Despite omicron's global reach, dozens of nations are enforcing travel bans on mainly southern Africa, where the variant was originally detected. Some countries have celebrated South Africa's identification of the variant mere moments before announcing restrictions. Meanwhile, vaccine stockpiling by outside nations has contributed to spotty supply and high hesitancy on the continent. Africa faces a looming wave of omicron, with a full vaccination rate in the single digits. Today on Front Burner, infectious diseases physician Dr. Zain Chagla explains how measures by countries like Canada have put Africa into this precarious position with omicron, and why vaccines are more important in regions that are currently seeing far fewer doses.

There has been renewed attention on the treatment of migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border over the last two weeks. First, accounts of inadequate food, water and sanitation at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities where unaccompanied children are held awaiting shelter space sparked outrage. Then, a horrible photograph of the drowned bodies of a father and his young daughter in the Rio Grande river offered a stark reminder of the perils of crossing into the United States. Today on Front Burner, Bob Moore has reported on immigration and the border from El Paso, Texas for more than 30 years. He walks us through what kids go through on their way to the border and how they’re treated once they get into the country: “These are human beings who are paying the price of all this political failure.”

After a major outage and stinging whistleblower testimony, NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn breaks down Facebook’s bad week.

Nearly two years ago, denturist Gabriel Wortman, in a fake police cruiser and uniform, terrorized rural Nova Scotia and killed 22 people. Looking for answers, a public inquiry is now connecting the dots between how the killer evaded RCMP and the chaotic situation officers faced on the ground. For weeks, the Mass Casualty Commission has shared its findings, revealed critical documents, and gathered public testimony from witnesses. Today on Front Burner we hear RCMP testimony about how officers constantly felt a step behind the gunman – and how they eventually ended the rampage. CBC Nova Scotia reporter Elizabeth McMillan joins us to explain what happened on April 18 and 19, 2020 and what's still to come from the commission. (This episode originally played a clip that was misattributed. We've corrected the error.)

Canadian Michael Spavor, who’s been detained in China since 2018, has been given an 11-year prison sentence by a Chinese court. Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau called the verdict “completely unjustified.” Today, Toronto Star reporter Joanna Chiu on what this means for Canada-China relations.

On Monday, world tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic won a legal battle to stay in Australia and defend his title at the Australian Open — for now. The unvaccinated player's visa was revoked when he arrived at the border despite a vaccine exemption granted by Tennis Australia. His visa was ultimately reinstated but Australia’s immigration minister reserves the power to overturn that decision, revoke his visa and kick him out. If deported, Djokovic could be banned from Australia for up to three years. Djokovic’s personal stance as “anti-vaccine” isn’t winning him any friends in a country hit hard by the pandemic, with strict vaccine protocols and seemingly endless COVID-19 lockdowns. Today on Front Burner, we’re talking to Canberra-based journalist Kishor Napier-Raman on how the tennis star’s decision to stay unvaccinated has turned into a massive political headache for the Australian government and has triggered a fierce debate about whether he should be allowed to stay.

A metallic orb scans your iris and turns it into a numeric code, providing a unique ID that confirms you as human. This is the process people in dozens of countries are undergoing for Worldcoin, a new cryptocurrency project that’s handing out free tokens and even local currency in exchange for biometric verification. The project claims it can prove our personhood online and enable voting, financial equality or even the distribution of a universal basic income. But even before its official launch late last month, Worldcoin was already facing accusations of deception, exploitation and crypto-colonialism in countries like Kenya and Sudan. Today, Jacob Silverman explains the utopian promises and dystopian fears surrounding Worldcoin. Silverman is co-author of Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, and he’s also the host of Front Burner’s special series The Naked Emperor. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Health Canada has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech after scientists wrapped up a two-month review of the company's clinical trial data. The approval is a crucial step in what will be the largest vaccination campaign in Canadian history. Today, host Jayme Poisson goes through what we know about the vaccine with Dr. Maria Sundaram, an infectious disease epidemiologist based in Toronto.

It’s been almost a month since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The UN Human Rights Office says at least 902 civilians have been killed between Feb. 24 and March 19, but warns that the real death toll is actually considerably higher as it has not yet verified numbers from several badly hit cities, including the besieged Mariupol. Still, as the war rages on, the capital Kyiv and much of the rest of the country remains in Ukrainian control. Today, the Wall Street Journal’s European security correspondent James Marson explains the state of Russia’s war in Ukraine now, where Russian forces have advanced, and the strength of the Ukrainian resistance.

Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard was arrested Monday night in Winnipeg under the Extradition Act. He faces nine charges related to sex trafficking and racketeering in a New York court. You may remember that Nygard has already been accused by dozens of women across the globe of sexual assault, rape and human trafficking. While he has denied all allegations, these charges out of New York are the first criminal charges he will contend with. Today we are joined by Timothy Sawa. He's a CBC investigative reporter who has been covering this story for more than a decade and has a new CBC podcast about Nygard, Evil by Design, out this February.

A massive network outage at Rogers Communications shut down mobile and internet services across much of Canada. Millions of people found themselves offline, but the widespread impact of the outage also meant business owners couldn't process debit card payments and many 911 services couldn't receive incoming calls. The mass disruption has put Canada's telecommunications sector under the microscope. Three companies dominate the market and underpin some of the most basic services that are relied upon across the country. Today, Ben Klass, a member of the Canadian Media Concentration Research Project, explains the stranglehold that Rogers, Bell and Telus have on Canadian telecommunications and what, if anything, can be done about it.

After their record-setting fourth World Cup win, the U.S. women's soccer team has found themselves at the centre of an ongoing debate about pay equity in sport. The team has been followed by a chorus of "equal pay" from the pitch to their celebration parade in New York City. These calls for equal pay have been heightened by the fact that the team generates more revenue than their male counterparts — selling more jerseys, tickets and signing more sponsorship deals. So how does a pay difference of as much as $730,000 persist? On today's Front Burner, we talk to writer and podcast host Shireen Ahmed for answers.

Journalist Matthew Remski explains why new age spirituality is such fertile ground for anti-vaccine movements.

It’s been a week of nationwide protests, blockades and arrests over the Coastal GasLink pipeline, a section of which would pass through traditional Wet’suwet’en territory in northwestern British Columbia. At the core of this conflict is a long-running dispute over who has authority over the land where the pipeline would be contructed. Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Duncan McCue offers a close look at the pivotal 1997 court case that set the stage for this dispute: Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia.

This week, Facebook announced it will launch a cryptocurrency in 2020. A new global currency, available to billions of people - is something like that legal? Or a good idea? Jon Porter from The Verge breaks it down.

In 2017, Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, and its aging electrical grid. In the hurricane's aftermath, and after decades of neglect and underfunding, the island's public electrical utility, PREPA, went bankrupt. In 2020, the government made the controversial choice to hand control of the grid over to the private sector. They awarded a 15-year contract to a new Canadian-American company, LUMA Energy. And since LUMA Energy took over the electrical grid, the company has been a source of controversy, and faced harsh criticism on the island. There have been weekly protests against LUMA Energy, reggaeton star Bad Bunny has called the company out at concerts, and the governor of Puerto Rico has called on the CEO to resign. Today, CBC senior investigative reporter Jonathon Gatehouse and Front Burner producer Allie Jaynes explain how Luma Energy and its Canadian co-parent became embroiled in controversy and what it all means for Puerto Rico's access to reliable electricity. Update: After this episode was released, five changes were made to the content. We originally reported that a penalty leveled at the Canadian co-parent company ATCO was described as the largest of its kind in Canadian enforcement history. The penalty was among the largest of its kind. We also reported that a company called ASL could have made up to $100 million on a contract. The $100 million figure represents the capital costs of the project and not the profit. Additional information provided by Luma after publication was added at the end of the episode. The headline was changed in the online and podcast version of this story. When published, the headline was "How a Canadian company became a public enemy in Puerto Rico." The headline is now, "How a Canadian-led company became a public enemy in Puerto Rico," to better reflect the leadership of the company. Two sentences were altered following the receipt of additional information provided by LUMA Energy, after publication, that specified when a private firm was hired to make electrical repairs at Escuela Rafael Rivera Otero, and by whom.

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

What happens when your fragile parenthood dream is not in your control? In the second part of our series on surrogacy in Canada, we look at how the surrogacy industry affects parents. The costs can reach more than $100,000. There’s a fear that they’re breaking the law. The pressure to not rock the boat is high. Jayme talks to Chris Glover and Chelsea Gomez about the ways surrogacy is not working for parents.

Last week, Canada asked France to extradite a Catholic priest accused of crimes against Inuit children in Nunavut decades ago. RCMP have said Rev. Johannes Rivoire is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant related to a sexual assault charge laid in February. Rivoire had previously been charged with sexually abusing children in Nunavut, but those charges were stayed in 2017. In Iqaluit on Friday, as part of the Pope's final stop in his "penitential pilgrimage" in Canada, a delegation once again called on the pontiff to personally intervene. Today, we're talking to investigative journalist Kathleen Martens about the long fight to put Rivoire on trial. This episode will also feature clips from Martens's exclusive interview with Rivoire for APTN.

Bloomberg's Vancouver bureau chief Natalie Obiko Pearson helps us navigate the city's complicated relationship with Chinese money. That relationship has ties to the city's housing affordability crisis. Tackling affordability is job number one for Kennedy Stewart, who begins his work as Vancouver's mayor today.

On Monday afternoon one of the most powerful men in Ottawa resigned. Following allegations of political interference in a court case involving engineering giant SNC-Lavalin, Gerald Butts stepped aside as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. Today on Front Burner, CBC Parliamentary reporter John Paul Tasker explains why Justin Trudeau's most senior adviser-and longtime friend- would resign while denying any wrongdoing.

It's been almost 20 years since four jets were hijacked mid-air and crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, the Pentagon in D.C., and a field near Shanksville, Penn., killing nearly 3,000 people. Pretrials have begun, and a full trial date for the surviving alleged plotters of the attack is set for January 2021, at Guantanamo Bay. But the legal case — and the logistics of holding it at the notorious U.S. military base — are complicated. Today on Front Burner, longtime national security reporter Michelle Shephard on the preparations for what could be the trial of the century.

Brazil is nearing two million confirmed cases of COVID-19. The country is second to only the United States in its number of cases and deaths and, recently, Brazil's leader himself tested positive. Despite this, President Jair Bolsonaro continues to downplay the threat of the virus. Today on Front Burner, we're joined by Gustavo Ribiero, a journalist with the Brazilian Report and host of the Explaining Brazil podcast. He'll tell us how COVID-19 overtook Brazil, and why he thinks its president is unlikely to acknowledge the danger.

Longtime MP Tony Clement has resigned as justice critic for the official opposition and is leaving the Conservative caucus after admitting that sharing sexually explicit images and video led to an extortion attempt. Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos delves into how a seasoned politician known for being an early social media adopter ended up at the centre of a sexting scandal.

Two years ago, Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, the creator and star of the show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, bought Wrexham AFC. The small Welsh soccer team had been languishing in the lowest possible division of football in the U.K. This week, the team celebrated a triumphant victory that earned it promotion out of the game’s backwater. On this episode, Richard Sutcliffe, a writer for The Athletic covering Wrexham AFC, discusses how the Hollywood touch has helped turn the relatively obscure team into a global sensation. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney addressed United Conservative Party members at a special general meeting on Saturday and made his pitch to stay on as party leader. UCP members can begin voting via mail-in ballot on the future of Kenney’s leadership this week, with results expected May 18. But the lead-up to this vote has been rife with party infighting. Today, Maclean's Alberta correspondent Jason Markusoff explains what’s preceded this leadership review, the discontent within the UCP and why Kenney may have reason to be concerned regardless of the outcome next month.

For decades, First Nations children on reserves had to live with less child welfare funding than other kids in Canada. And that led to kids being taken from their communities at higher rates, often for problems that could have been solved with better supports. This week, after years of court battles, the federal government made a $40 billion promise to First Nations leaders. $20 billion of that will go to compensate kids who were unnecessarily removed from their homes on reserve or in the Yukon. The other $20 billion will go to long-term reform of the on-reserve child welfare system. Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society and a professor at McGill University's School of Social Work, has made it her mission to make sure First Nations kids get care that matches up with care received by other kids in Canada. Today, she talks about the long fight for this agreement, and why she’s still waiting to celebrate.

After months of pressure by MPs, corporate sponsors and its own members across the country, Hockey Canada announced on Tuesday that its CEO and entire board was stepping down. A parliamentary committee has been probing Hockey Canada’s handling of 2018 sexual assault allegations since July. During that time, further allegations of group sexual assault have emerged, and Hockey Canada has confirmed a fund that draws from minor hockey memberships was used to settle claims. A new wave of financial and political pressure began last week, after then-interim board chair Andrea Skinner spoke to the committee. Her defence of the organization’s leadership included giving CEO Scott Smith an “A” grade for his performance – drawing laughter from some MPs. Today on Front Burner, CBC senior reporter Ashley Burke joins us to explain why Hockey Canada resisted the push for new leadership for so long, and what still needs to be done before we see substantial change in hockey culture.

Last week, a gunman in a white SUV pulled up to a restaurant on a busy Toronto street in broad daylight and shot the restaurant's owner dead. Police are saying the fatal shooting was targeted. And according to the Toronto Star's crime reporter, the victim may have had links to the mob. Today on Front Burner, Peter Edwards shares his thoughts on the brazen drive-by shooting, the connection to another shocking death from 2012, and the state of organized crime in Canada today.

Two pharmaceutical companies, Eisai and Biogen, have published the results of an 18-month human trial for their new drug, lecanemab. It's meant to treat people with early stages of Alzheimer's disease, a devastating condition that causes the majority of dementia cases and affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians. The results of the lecanemab trial are promising — the condition of people who were given the drug declined at a rate that was 27 per cent slower than those who were given a placebo. It's a glimmer of hope for those facing Alzheimer's disease, but questions about the new drug remain. Today, Mike Crawley, a reporter with CBC's health unit, is here to explain how the drug works and what it may mean for people living with Alzheimer's disease.

The Canadian government has already admitted that it probably won’t be able to meet its Paris climate targets, the international agreement Canada signed promising to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. As part of a new CBC News project called In Our Backyard, reporter Connie Walker has been using climate modelling to investigate different policy options to find out what it would actually take for Canada to meet its goals. Today on Front Burner, she shares her findings.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka announced last week that she wouldn’t go to postmatch news conferences over mental health concerns and this week she dropped out of the tournament altogether. Caitlin Thompson of Racquet Magazine walks us through how this led to controversy in the tennis world and highlights broader problems surrounding the media culture in the sport.

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

Marvel Studios has announced plans for the latest phase of the Marvel cinematic universe, setting the world of deep superhero fandom abuzz. On Front Burner, we speak to Eli Glasner, CBC's national entertainment reporter and film critic, about what Western cinema gains and loses.

The military has a problem with far-right extremism in its ranks. We've seen it rear its head before, most recently in a CBC News investigation into a Canadian Ranger unit, which found that a B.C. reservist who openly supported two far-right groups was allowed to continue serving even after being identified by military counterintelligence and interviewed as a potential threat. Now, the commander of the army says he will issue a special order to specifically tackle the problem. But will it be enough? Today, CBC senior defence writer Murray Brewster on far-right extremism in the Canadian Forces, and what's being done to address it.

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

Calgary city council nearly killed a bid to host the 2026 Winter Olympics. If a city wide vote cancels the bid, just two possible locations remain, Italy and Sweden. Those campaigns face opposition as well. Toronto Star sports columnist Bruce Arthur explains why.

You may not have heard of political third parties like Engage Canada or Canada Proud, but you’ve likely already encountered their messaging through a traditional television ad, a Facebook meme, or maybe even a person in a banana costume. Today on Front Burner, we talk to iPolitics reporter Marieke Walsh about who’s behind these groups, what kind of influence they may have, and the new rules governing their spending in the leadup to the federal election.

David Wallace-Wells, the acclaimed science journalist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth, says the past few years have given him reason to feel both "buoyant optimism" and "abject despair" about the future of climate change. As the COP27 climate summit kicks into gear, we're speaking to Wallace-Wells about both — and we're going to start by talking about the good news. While we aren't currently on track to keep global warming down to the levels the scientific community has called for, the worst-case scenarios are also looking far less likely than they did even a few years ago. There's more and more evidence that the actions the world has taken so far really have made a difference — and that we still have significant capacity to determine the kind of world that lies ahead.

Twenty four years ago the Toronto Raptors were named the newest team in basketball - and the first franchise outside of the United States. In the years that followed, the team would go from widespread public indifference, to one of the most successful teams in the NBA. The Raptors are in the middle of their most successful period as a franchise; with six straight playoff berths under their belt, and a prospective finals push on the horizon. Today on Front Burner, we sit down with longtime voice of the Toronto Raptors, Jack Armstrong, to track the teams unlikely rise. For more about Armstrong visit https://hellojack.entripyshirts.com/

Across Canada, there's never been a Green Party government federally or provincially. But on Tuesday, that could all change when people on Prince Edward Island cast their ballots. If the polls are right, the P.E.I. Green Party is out in front, beating out the ruling Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives. Kerry Campbell is CBC's P.E.I. provincial affairs reporter. Today on Front Burner, he joins guest host J.P. Tasker to walk us through how a Scottish-Canadian dentist leading a party that's never won before? could end up the next Premier of P.E.I.

This year is the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which marks her 70 years on the throne and as our head of state. But as Elizabeth ages, she’s been stepping back and paving the way for her son, Charles, to become King. This week, Charles and his wife, Camilla, are coming to Canada — visiting St. John's, Ottawa and Yellowknife — on a trip they say will focus on Indigenous reconciliation and climate change. Today we’re exploring whether we should follow in the footsteps of other Commonwealth nations that have recently abolished the monarchy — notably, Barbados and Jamaica. According to a recent Angus Reid poll, 51 per cent of respondents said Canada should not remain a monarchy in coming generations. But abolishing the monarchy is a lot more complex than you might think. We’re talking about why that is with David Schneiderman, a law and political science professor at the University of Toronto, and Jordan Gray, a policy analyst with Indigenous Affairs Canada.

Cockroaches, rotten food, improper feeding of patients. These are just a few of the disturbing details emerging from a military report into five long-term care facilities in Ontario that were hit hard by coronavirus outbreaks. Today on Front Burner, CBC News correspondent David Common, who has investigated long-term care facilities since before the pandemic hit, walks us through the report.

On Wednesday, U.S. president Donald Trump thanked QAnon conspiracy theorists for their support. This follows his move last week to publicly back a QAnon supporter who just won a Republican primary run-off in Georgia. The endorsement drew widespread criticism because QAnon is a baseless conspiracy theory built on an unfounded belief about a deep state group of elites who exploit children and are united against Trump. Kevin Roose is a tech columnist for the New York Times and host of the podcast Rabbit Hole. Today he explains why QAnon is a dangerous source of misinformation with the makings of a national security threat.

More than three weeks after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, aftershocks continue to shake devastated cities in Turkey. Officials say more than 44,000 people have died in the country, and the UN estimates 1.5 million people are without homes. One of the worst-hit cities in Turkey's southeast, Antakya, is largely uninhabitable after entire sections of the city collapsed into rubble. Today, The Sunday Times Middle East correspondent Louise Callaghan tells us what she saw in Antakya in the weeks after the earthquake, the stories of survival and loss she heard from residents, and the allegations that corruption and illegal construction amplified that destruction and casualties. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After the Wagner Group’s leader made threats against Russian military leadership on Friday, Wagner mercenaries came over the border from Ukraine, captured a military headquarters, and marched toward the capital. The world discussed whether a coup was unfolding. But after just 36 hours of rebellion, Belarus announced it had brokered a deal for the Wagner Group to turn around, and for its leader to leave the country unscathed. It was a confusing end to a chaotic insurgency. Today, Washington Post reporter Mary Ilyushina returns to discuss why the Wagner Group stopped, why President Vladimir Putin was so soft on a “mutiny,” and what this could mean for the future of the Kremlin and the conflict in Ukraine. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On June 15, Maria Ressa, along with a former colleague of her news organization, Rappler, were convicted of ‘cyber libel’ in the Philippines. This, along with seven other charges, are widely seen as an encroachment on press freedom in the country by President Rodrigo Duterte’s authoritarian government. Today on Front Burner, a conversation with Maria Ressa on why she continues to pursue her journalistic work, despite possible jail time and the threats on her life.

Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney’s scathing new documentary, The Crime of the Century, looks into how Big Pharma created and profited from the opioid crisis.

Monkeypox was first detected in humans in 1970, but it has rarely spread beyond Central and West Africa, until now. As of Tuesday, 17 countries where the virus is not endemic have reported at least one case, including Canada. Given that COVID-19 is still a part of our day-to-day lives, the threat of another infectious disease spreading at a rapid rate feels unsettling at best. While there are many reasons to be aware of monkeypox, its symptoms and how it spreads, there are also plenty of reasons not to panic. Today on Front Burner, Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases doctor and scientist from Cameroon who is currently based at Emory University in Atlanta, delivers a primer on what you need to know about monkeypox. She also dispels some rumours about how it spreads and explains where we go from here.

The high seas are beyond the reach of international law – and beyond the beat of most reporters. But Pulitzer-Prize-winner and former New York Times journalist, Ian Urbina, has sailed into uncharted territories. Urbina sets out on a years-long quest to investigate murder at sea, modern slave labour, environmental crimes and quixotic adventurers. Part travelog, part true-crime thriller, this 7-part series takes listeners to places where the laws of the land no longer exist. The Outlaw Ocean is brought to you by CBC Podcasts and the LA Times and produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project. More episodes are available at http://hyperurl.co/theoutlawocean

For those using drugs in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Thomus Donaghy was a lifeline, committed to saving those on the brink of overdose. On the night of July 27, 2020, Donaghy, a volunteer at the Overdose Prevention Society, had just saved another life. Moments later, he lost his own. Today, the stories of two men whose lives were shaped by a city in the grips of an overdose epidemic, the tragic circumstances that brought them together that night, and why Maximus Roland Hayes, the man who killed Donaghy, wants to make sure his life wasn't lost for nothing. Our guests are CBC Vancouver reporter Jason Proctor, and Sara Blyth, the executive director of Vancouver’s Overdose Prevention Society.

Reporter Shannon Carranco got access to over 150,000 chat logs from a Canadian alt-right forum. What she found is frightening.

Many world-renowned ballet productions, from Swan Lake to Romeo and Juliet, have graced the stage of the legendary Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow since the 1800s. No matter what wars and revolutions the Russians confronted, the Bolshoi would find a way to stay open. That is, until COVID-19. The theatre closed down for six months this year because of the pandemic. It relaunched in the fall, and it's getting ready for a busy Christmas season. Today on Front Burner, CBC Russia correspondent Chris Brown on how the Bolshoi is handling the threat of COVID-19, as Russia deals with one of the highest coronavirus case totals in the world.

With over 4 million COVID-19 cases, and 70,000 deaths, India is set to surpass Brazil as the second most-affected country in the world by the coronavirus. But that hasn't stopped the country from reopening, because the pandemic has also taken a massive toll on India's economy and workforce. Today on Front Burner, host Josh Bloch talks to the Washington Post's India Bureau Chief, Joanna Slater, about why the Indian government is lifting its lockdown, just as the country recorded the largest single-day jump of COVID-19 cases anywhere in the world.

CBC/Radio-Canada journalists crunch the data on more than 9-million troll tweets and reveal foreign campaigns to influence Canadians' opinions. Retweets focused on issues like pipelines and immigration. Jeff Yates joins us to explain what he learned. Elizabeth Dubois from the University of Ottawa paints the wider picture of how troll activity is changing.

As wildfires burn in the Northwest Territories, premier Caroline Cochrane called out Ottawa for failing to respond to decades-long requests to address basic infrastructure gaps. And as the residents who were forced to evacuate know, things like safe road systems and strong telecommunication networks are essential for emergency management. Today we’re talking about how this lack of infrastructure combined with other barriers have affected access to vital communication on the ground. Ollie Williams is the Editor of Cabin Radio, an independent internet radio station and an online news service based in Yellowknife that’s become a beacon of information during the crisis. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Vancouver mayor Kennedy Stewart wants to decriminalize small amounts of illegal drugs. If he gets his way, Vancouver will be the first Canadian city to do so. The move comes as overdose deaths continue to surge in Vancouver and across the country. CBC Vancouver producer Jodie Martinson has been speaking to drug users in the city. She’ll explain the significance and limitations of the possible change.

"This is his biggest political test to date. It will decide the fate of Jagmeet Singh." With a federal election looming, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is under intense pressure to win a seat in the House of Commons in the upcoming Burnaby South byelection. Today on Front Burner, CBC National News reporter Hannah Thibedeau breaks down how things are looking for Singh and explains what's at stake for the future of the entire New Democratic Party.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ordered a new trial for a man accused of killing Cindy Gladue. CBC's Kathleen Harris explains why the first trial raised so many questions about how Indigenous women are treated by the Canadian justice system.

Puerto Rican TV personality Walter Mercado wasn’t just one of the world’s most famous astrologers — for his millions of viewers, he was a spiritual guide, motivational speaker, and a bedazzled fashion icon. And for generations of queer Latino kids, his refusal to conform to gender norms was a sign that they, too, could be adored and accepted. Today, Kareem Tabsch, co-director of the new Netflix documentary Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado, gives us an intimate look at the larger-than-life performer in the last years of his life — and explores why, even after his death, Mercado is resonating with a whole new generation.

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan may have been brief, but it wasn’t short on controversy. She's the most senior U.S. official to visit Taiwan in decades — but many worry her visit will fan the flames of an already tense relationship between the self-governed island and China, which claims Taiwan as its territory and opposes any engagement by Taiwanese officials with foreign governments. Ahead of Pelosi's visit, China ramped up military drills near Taiwan, and Beijing has vowed to hold even more military exercises over the next several days. Some experts are calling it the most hazardous escalation between the two regions since the 1990s. Today Christian Shepherd, a Washington Post correspondent based in Taipei, explains how tensions between China and Taiwan got to this point, and why Pelosi’s visit was so controversial.

Last week, former reservist Patrik Mathews was arrested by the FBI on firearms-related charges. Front Burner first covered his story last summer, when he was being investigated by law enforcement for suspected ties to a militant white supremacist group called The Base. After a raid by the RCMP, Mathews disappeared. Because of his arrest, we have access to a trove of court documents from the FBI's investigation of Mathews. Today on Front Burner, we talk to Vice national security correspondent Ben Makuch about what we've learned from these documents, and what they might say about efforts to stop the growth of white supremacist groups.

COVID-19 has sent an economic shockwave through this country with countless livelihoods impact in the short term, and maybe permanently. To help, the federal government announced an $82-billion aid package. Today, one woman who has been laid off tells her story. And CBC senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong unpacks how the federal response is intended to help.

Last year, a video of Atikamekw woman Joyce Echaquan being taunted by nursing staff in a Quebec hospital, shortly before she died, sparked global outrage. Now, a dramatic coroner’s inquest is shedding more light on what happened — and why generations of Atikamekw people have feared that hospital.

Throughout the week hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets to protest a proposed extradition bill. Many fear it will be used to target dissidents who speak out against the Chinese state. Protests escalated to violent clashes between police and young demonstrators. Today on Front Burner, Hong Kong Free Press reporter Jennifer Creery on what this means for the region’s fight to resist China’s influence.

The Oath Keepers are a far-right militia, founded in 2009 by Stewart Rhodes. He’s one of five members currently on trial in Washington, facing charges of seditious conspiracy and other felonies related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Prosecutors say they planned to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden following the 2020 election. Explosive, secretly recorded, audio from an alleged insurrection planning meeting was played last week in court. Today, we’re joined by Andy Campbell, senior editor at HuffPost and author of the new book We Are Proud Boys. He explains who the Oath Keepers are and what’s been revealed at the trial about how the deadly attack may have been prevented.

One woman’s experience using magic mushrooms therapeutically, and why some are now pushing for greater legal access to the drug in Canada.

The World Economic Forum, and its annual summit for the rich and powerful in Davos, Switzerland, have long been targeted by criticism from the left. But since the start of the pandemic, the forum has become a huge concern for many people on the right, including those who view the WEF as shadowy puppet masters at the centre of a complex web of conspiracy theories. Today, journalist Justin Ling — host of the CBC podcasts The Flame Throwers and The Village — joins us to unpack many of those conspiracy theories, and examine the potential consequences of mainstream Canadian politicians amplifying suspicions about the organization.

With the United States in a renewed fight over abortion rights, it's led many to ask: where exactly do we stand in Canada? Today on Front Burner, we speak to reproductive health historian and pro-choice advocate, Shannon Stettner, about Canada's history with legal abortion, and whether reproductive rights are as protected as many think.

On Wednesday, Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet was sworn in at Rideau Hall. The scene was a lot different from 2015 when Trudeau was coming in with a majority mandate and coming off a campaign based on hope and change. This time around the days of “sunny ways” are gone thanks to some high-profile scandals and deepening regional divides. Today on Front Burner, CBC’s John Paul Tasker analyzes how the government tried to address some of it’s biggest issues through it’s 2019 cabinet appointments.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is back in the public eye and is striking a more diplomatic tone in a bid to improve his dismal approval rating. Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Ontario legislature reporter Mike Crawley explains how Ford’s government plans on turning things around and what’s changed.

Military-style field hospitals in the middle of Toronto. A children’s ICU filling up with dying adults. Medical advisers at the end of their rope. Today, host Jayme Poisson looks at the choices Premier Doug Ford made in recent months and how they led Ontario down the path to what many doctors are calling a catastrophe.

In 2018, the public outcry around the Gerald Stanley case, where a white farmer was acquitted in the killing of Colton Boushie, a young Indigenous man, paved the way for the creation of Bill C-75. It's legislation meant to address racism in the jury selection process. But some say it actually does the opposite. The dispute made its way to the country's highest court this week. And while the court upheld the law, opinions remain divided on its usefulness. Today, we hear from two lawyers with different points of view on this jury reform legislation. Peter Thorning and Caitlyn Kasper both intervened in this week's hearings. Thorning represented the Canadian Association for Black Lawyers, and Kasper represented Aboriginal Legal Services.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was protested by dozens of young women with political aspirations who were visiting the House of Commons. This came just hours after expelling Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott from caucus. It's just one example of the kind of frustration that's surrounded the SNC-Lavalin controversy. CBC opinion columnist Robyn Urback and freelance journalist Jen Gerson share their thoughts on that, and what it means for Canadians' expectations of government.

On Monday evening, the U.K. Conservative Party held a vote to determine whether it should oust its leader, Boris Johnson. More than 40 per cent of his own MPs voted against him. This, after a damning report from senior civil servant Sue Gray, which added to a long list of revelations about the so-called ‘partygate’ scandal. The report details several parties with dozens of participants, excess drinking and physical altercations at 10 Downing Street — all during the height of COVID-19 restrictions in Britain. Today, CBC foreign correspondent Chris Brown brings us up to speed on Johnson’s scandals, and what this vote means for his leadership moving forward.

The prospect of a snap election has been looming over Ottawa, all because of a fight over the most unlikely of controversies: a new committee. Vassy Kapelos, host of the CBC’s Power and Politics, joins us to talk about how we got here, the latest on the WE affair, and what might happen next.

Justice has not come easy for the Rohingya Muslim victims of what serveral countries call a genocide in Myanmar. But a turning point could stem from the testimony of two men claiming to be deserters from the Myanmar army. Today, the CBC’s Nahlah Ayed on how these men say they committed acts of violence under orders from their military superiors.

Nova Scotia is still coming to terms with the mass shooting that unfolded just over a week ago, taking the lives of 22 people. The RCMP has released a more detailed timeline, including information provided by a surviving witness — a woman who had been in a relationship with the gunman — speculation about how the gunman escaped a police perimeter, and more. But questions remain about the crimes and the RCMP’s response.

Kyle Lowry’s Toronto Raptors career is coming to an end after nine seasons. Sports writer Alex Wong looks back at his legacy on and off the court, through victory and defeat.

As she lay dying, Joyce Echaquan clicked on her phone to broadcast a Facebook Live video from her hospital bed, as staff hurled racist remarks at her. You can hear Joyce call out for her husband to come get her, but that would never happen. The 37 year old Atikamekw mother of seven died on Monday. In response, one of the nurses captured on video has been fired, along with an orderly. Joyce's death has also sparked three investigations. Dr. Barry Lavallee, a physician CEO of Keewatinohk Innniniw Minoayawin, which works to advance the health care of First Nations communities in Northern Manitoba, spoke to host Josh Bloch about Joyce Echaquan's death, and what it says about the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada's health care system.

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

The Taliban continues to gain territory at a rapid pace, as the U.S. army and NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan. Journalist Akhtar Mohammad Makoii takes us to Herat, a city contested by Taliban and government forces.

With Jody Wilson-Raybould's resignation from the Liberal cabinet, the scandal involving SNC-Lavalin and the Liberal government continues to grow. CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins guides us through the troubled history of the engineering company that's at the heart of the political firestorm.

TikTok is facing tough questions from many western democracies about the personal data it gathers and who has access to it. The app’s parent company is based in China and now US politicians want to make sure the country’s government can’t get access to Americans’ personal information. They aren’t liking the answers they’re getting. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today we cover the Derek Chauvin guilty verdict in the killing of George Floyd and hear from a civil rights lawyer, who represented Rodney King, about the long history of police violence in America against Black people.

For more than a year the possibility of peace in Ukraine has seemed out of reach. But this week, a new world leader stepped in with an offer to mediate. After months of waiting, this week Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the phone. Zelensky described the call as "meaningful" and as a potential step toward the elusive goal of peace. China says it plans to help facilitate communication between Russia and Ukraine. Emma Graham-Harrison is the senior international affairs correspondent for The Guardian and The Observer. She has lived in China and is currently reporting from Ukraine. Today, she takes us through what Xi Jinping is proposing, whether China could bring peace to Ukraine and whether there is reason to be skeptical.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, made a name — and a fortune — for himself making and saying whatever pops into his head. But for nearly a decade the things he says have increasingly become rooted in bigotry, ignorance and hatred. His recent and repeated antisemitic statements emboldened a group of people to throw Nazi salutes and unfurl a banner above a Los Angeles highway that read "Kanye is right about the Jews." His comments also resulted in the termination of his hugely lucrative partnership with Adidas and he was dropped by CAA, one of the world's major agencies. Despite this he remains one of the most influential and deeply embedded cultural figures of the 21st century, a reality that is hard to shake for many people. Today on Front Burner, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, a longtime chronicler of Kanye, senior culture writer at Buzzfeed and host of the CBC podcast Pop Chat joins us to discuss the rap star's long history of saying things he shouldn't, absorbing the consequences and coming back.

As Republicans push voting laws widely seen as suppression, Texas becomes the next battleground. Today on Front Burner, CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter on what — if anything — U.S. President Joe Biden will do to fight back.

This weekend, in at least 75 U.S. cities, demonstrators marched against racism and police violence in the wake of the video showing the last moments of George Floyd's life, with a Minneapolis police officer's knee on his neck. North of the border, thousands of people rallied in Toronto, some holding signs demanding "Justice for Regis." Regis Korchinski-Paquet is a black woman from Toronto whose death last week is now being investigated by Ontario's police watchdog. Today on Front Burner, we have three guests: journalist Ebyan Abdigir on the Toronto demonstration, CBC senior correspondent Susan Ormiston on the ground in Minneapolis and writer Joel Anderson on the American police response.

Jason Kenney will be Alberta's next premier after leading the United Conservative Party to a majority government in the province.Today on Front Burner, CBC Calgary's Allison Dempster breaks down last night's election results, and Maclean's Paul Wells shares a deep look at Jason Kenney's career so far, and how he came to be a driving force behind conservative political ideas in this country.

The number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise around the world — and here at home. That has many wondering whether public health officials should revisit their policies on people wearing face masks. But as we learn, there are many questions with not so many definitive answers. Where is the science on wearing masks? Where should you wear a mask? How should you wear it? What about supply? Jayme Poisson tries to tackle some of these questions with Dr. Isaac Bogoch, on tonight’s Front Burner.

Not even one week into the federal election campaign and the major parties are already struggling with controversial candidates. Today on Front Burner, host of Power and Politics Vassy Kapelos and CBC senior reporter Katie Simpson join us to break down how the leaders are reacting and go through the latest platform promises.

As 2020 comes to a close, we take a look back at the year in pop culture. From TV shows adjusting to the pandemic to the NBA bubble, Elamin Abdelmahmoud and Amil Niazi from the CBC podcast Pop Chat drop by to talk about what movies, TV shows, and music helped us make sense of this unprecedented year.

Canada has granted asylum to Rahaf Mohammed, a Saudi teenager who fled to Thailand to escape alleged abuse from her family. CBC's senior correspondent Susan Ormiston shares the inside story of Mohammed's plight and her plans for the future.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca is hailed as a cheap and easy jab to fight COVID-19. But a series of corporate stumbles have clouded it's promise, and science backed results.

After years of allegations, singer R. Kelly faces ten charges of aggravated sexual assault. Music critic Lindsay Zoladz talks about the case, and why #metoo moved more slowly in the music industry.

In an election that's divided Brazil, Sunday’s vote ended up even more split than polls predicted. Many pollsters had signalled that incumbent Jair Bolsonaro would lose the election on the first ballot, but the far-right populist far outperformed their predictions. Meanwhile, his leftist nemesis, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, failed to reach the 50 per cent of votes needed for victory — triggering a head-to-head run-off vote on Oct. 30. Today, Brazilian Report editor-in-chief Gustavo Ribeiro joins us to explain why these candidates are both the “most loved and most hated” politicians in Brazil and why Brazilians remain divided between these opposite ends of the political spectrum.

A former member of the Canadian Armed Forces who experienced a culture of sexual misconduct first-hand reflects on the latest onslaught of allegations that go straight to the top.

The new investigative series White Hot Hate follows the extraordinary case of young Canadian journalist Ryan Thorpe who infiltrated an international neo-Nazi extremist network. While host Michelle Shephard explores the rise of white supremacist accelerationism: the ultra-violent ideology that drives believers to create chaos, in order to seize ultimate control. More episodes are available at: hyperurl.co/whitehothate

Russia has sent almost 100,000 troops near the Ukraine border in recent weeks. Observers believe the state is trying to extract certain concessions from Europe, particularly assurances from NATO that Ukraine will never be able to join the security group. Janice Gross Stein was a founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto. She argues that NATO’s "strategic ambiguity" toward Ukraine gave the country false hope we had its back — so now, we’re partly seeing the fallout of promises we couldn’t keep.

Nearly six years after her disappearance, Sheree Fertuck’s husband is on trial for murder in Saskatoon. Today, Front Burner explores the controversial undercover police sting operation at the heart of the case.

You’ve probably noticed that prices of practically everything — food, gas, haircuts, housing — have been going up lately. Canada’s inflation rate is now the highest it’s been in 18 years. In Parliament, the Conservative party has been pointing fingers at Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, and calling on them to quit racking up deficits. They’ve even come up with a nickname for the problem: #Justinflation. But economists say this isn’t a normal inflation problem and warn normal solutions may not work.

New details revealed by The Fifth Estate question the RCMP's timeline about the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history. It's been seven months since a gunman disguised as a Mountie went on a rampage, killing 22 people over 13 hours in Nova Scotia, travelling a distance of nearly 200 kilometres. Gillian Findlay joins Jayme to describe the fuller picture of what happened in that time, how the RCMP was one step behind the killer, and how the public was left in the dark.

Dr. Shelly Dev and Dr. Alex Wong, two physicians in two different provinces, describe the desperate situation unfolding inside Canada's hospitals where a record number of COVID-19 patients are being admitted into intensive care.

A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Syria's Idlib province. Nearly one million people have been displaced since a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive began in December, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee to ever-shrinking camps along the border with Turkey. Today on Front Burner, we talk to CNN senior correspondent Arwa Damon, who was just in Idlib, about what she saw on the ground. “These are families that have been displaced multiple times,” she tells Jayme. “What makes this time so much more different is that it’s almost as if there is a sense of finality to it … they’re going to reach a point where they can’t run anymore.”

The Liberal government has been criticized for not acting substantially enough on the climate crisis. Former environment and current Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna defends her party’s actions on the issue, and explains why she believes Canada is on track to meet its emission targets.

Journalist Harvey Cashore on the revelation of SNC Lavalin employees who made illegal campaign donations worth more than $100,000 to the Liberal Party of Canada.

The $10 Canadian bill honouring civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond goes into circulation this week. The bill is being celebrated by many across the country. But for some, including El Jones, this is also an opportunity to reflect on the racism that remains today in Viola Desmond's home province of Nova Scotia. El Jones is an advocate for black communities in Nova Scotia, and Halifax's former poet-laureate.

Even with 80 per cent of eligible Canadians fully vaccinated, hospitals in many parts of the country are facing an unprecedented crisis. Today, we speak to doctors and nurses about how the fourth wave is pushing Canadian health-care systems to their breaking point.

There are fewer restrictions on vaping devices in Canada than on tobacco, cannabis or even alcohol. Health Canada made e-cigarettes widely accessible based on an understanding that they could be used as a smoking cessation tool. Now, Canada is investigating almost a dozen possible or confirmed cases of vaping-related lung disease and the U.S. is tallying up thousands of lung injuries and over 40 deaths.

The writer Salman Rushdie is still recovering in hospital from a brutal attack at a literary event last Friday. A young man rushed onstage and stabbed Rushdie nearly a dozen times, leaving him with injuries so severe he may lose an eye. While Rushdie himself has never been attacked like this before, this isn't the first attempt on his life. He has been targeted by death threats ever since the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death in 1989. The fatwa was over Rushdie's 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, parts of which some Muslims consider blasphemous. The uproar over the book led to huge protests in many countries, pushed Rushdie into hiding for nearly a decade, and led to the deaths of several people around the world. In England, where Rushdie was based, many people believe it also transformed U.K. society — particularly relations between British Muslims and non-Muslims. Today, we're looking back at The Satanic Verses affair and its long-term impacts with Mobeen Azhar, a BBC journalist and filmmaker. He's made a documentary about it, The Satanic Verses: 30 Years On, and a podcast, Fatwa. We'll also hear from celebrated British novelist and playwright Hanif Kureishi, who is a longtime friend of Rushdie's.

Juan Guaidó is touring Venezuela this week, meeting with journalists and citizens. But while Canada acknowledges Guaidó as the official president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro says the job is still rightfully his. The CBC's Adrienne Arsenault and Evan Dyer on the latest from Caracas.

From drownings to suicides in broad daylight, a new CBC investigation reveals a horrific picture of what life was like at the Kamloops Indian Residential school. Today on Front Burner, the stories of some who lived and died there.

The Liberal government faced tough questions this session on everything from accusations they pressured RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki on the Portapique investigation, to their decision to invoke the Emergencies Act in the winter, to inflation. Today, CBC Parliamentary Bureau senior writer Aaron Wherry explains why those questions won’t just disappear over the summer, and why the Liberals are “arguably in as difficult a stage as it has maybe ever been, which is a funny thing to say for a government that’s been through some pretty major crises.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday, Western powers have remained steadfast on one point: They will not engage Russia in a hot war to defend Ukraine. Instead, they are piling on an increasingly punishing slate of economic penalties. Today, we’re going to break down some of the key sanctions, and look at their current and potential impacts. First, Giles Gibson, a correspondent for Feature Story News, will give us a view from Moscow, where people are already starting to feel the effects of the penalties. Then, we’ll speak to Ian Talley from the Wall Street Journal about what exactly these sanctions are — and whether they’ll work to limit Russian President Vladimir Putin’s actions.

World news, local voices. Nothing is Foreign is a weekly trip to where the story is unfolding. Hosted by Tamara Khandaker. Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, there has been a crackdown on the rights and freedoms of women in the country. This episode of Nothing is Foreign shares the courageous story of a teacher in Afghanistan and her students — a secret class of girls between grades 7-12 in Kabul — who are defying Taliban laws that prevent girls and women from getting an education. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/zMgUEUti

As Canada’s fight against COVID-19 continues, questions are being raised about whether the federal government acted fast enough to prevent the spread of the virus. Now, documents show Canada two steps behind as the pandemic spread across the country. JP Tasker, a senior writer for CBC’s parliamentary bureau, joins us to talk about what he found in those documents — and what they reveal about the situation Canada finds itself in now.

This week – Ontario police charged Kenneth Law, of Mississauga, with 12 counts of counselling or aiding suicide. That’s on top of the two counts he was charged with when he was first arrested in May. Law is accused of running several websites that were used to sell sodium nitrite and other items that can be used for self harm. He’s alleged to have sent at least 1,200 packages to people in more than 40 countries, and is being investigated by police forces from the UK to New Zealand. Thomas Daigle has been covering this story extensively for CBC News. He’s here to explain this complicated case, and what we know about the man at the centre of it. If you or someone you know is struggling, here's where to get help: Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566 | Text 45645 (between 4 p.m. and midnight ET) Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868, live chat counseling on http://www.kidshelpphone.ca/ Find a 24-hour crisis centre, via the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: https://suicideprevention.ca/need-help/ Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Tuesday a convoy of trucks arrived in Ottawa. The rolling protest is driven by Canadians who want pipelines, hate carbon taxes and are calling for more help for the Alberta economy. But there is another element: some in the group have also been protesting immigration and using hateful, racist, language. Today on Front Burner, CBC's David Common and Rosemary Barton explain the complicated politics around this protest.

As a kid in the Winnipeg suburb of Transcona, Tyson Smith was obsessed with hockey and the Winnipeg Jets. He dreamed of being a professional goaltender. Decades later, Smith – now known as “Kenny Omega” – has made his way to the Jets’ home arena for a different reason: he’s performing as a professional wrestler. Omega is the headliner for a show with All Elite Wrestling, the wrestling company he helped build into the first direct competitor to the WWE in almost 20 years. Before he stepped into the ring, Omega joined Front Burner host Jayme Poisson to discuss the culture of wrestling in Winnipeg, his path to fame in Japan, his push to expand inclusivity and storytelling in the sport, and swirling rumours about what he’ll do next. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The second wave of the coronavirus is battering much of the country right now. Over the weekend, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec all had record-breaking new case numbers. As some familiar issues re-emerge, like deadly outbreaks at long-term care homes, we're talking to Globe and Mail health columnist Andre Picard about what Canadians learned from the first wave, and what lessons we've missed.

In 2016 a violent altercation with an off-duty Toronto police officer, and the officer’s brother, cost Dafonte Miller his eye. On Friday, officer Michael Theriault was convicted of assaulting the Black young man. An Ontario Superior Court Justice acquitted Theriault and his brother of aggravated assault and obstruction of justice, but called their justification of self-defence “razor thin.” Today on Front Burner, Miller’s lawyer, Julian Falconer shares his thoughts on the long path to that single conviction, and the fight Black Canadians face to get justice for police violence.

Just when Europe thought it had beat COVID-19, it’s once again an epicentre of the pandemic. As countries struggle to fight off yet another wave of the virus many governments in the E.U. are bringing in strict new lockdowns, and in some cases contemplating vaccine mandates. But these efforts are meeting fierce — and sometimes violent — resistance. Today, the host of the Berlin podcast Common Ground Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson walks us through what’s fuelling this latest surge across Western European countries — vaccine hesitancy, a more aggressive variant, general distrust in government, or all of the above?

Saskatchewan has just become the first Canadian province to enact Clare’s Law, which aims to help prevent domestic violence by allowing police to warn people about a partner's violent past. But it’s already hit a stumbling block: the RCMP says it won’t take part. Bonnie Allen, a CBC national reporter based in Regina, walks us through the new law and talks about why it’s controversial – including among some anti-domestic violence advocates.

With election day less than two weeks away, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden debated for the second and final time on Thursday. CBC Washington correspondent Susan Ormiston discusses what happened and what it could mean for election day.

As the third wave dominates ICU across the country, this week Ontario and B.C. each finally buckled to pressure and announced the introduction of, at least some, mandated paid sick leave. But the urgent call remains in other provinces. So why is it such a fight to get it? CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry explains.

It’s been a busy month in Alberta energy politics. In early August, the provincial government caught many by surprise with a six-month pause on any new solar and wind projects that would produce more than one megawatt of power. Since then, Premier Danielle Smith has doubled down on her vow not to go along with the federal government’s plan to get to a net zero power grid by 2035. Meanwhile, Canada is experiencing its worst wildfire season on record. Today, CBC’s Jason Markusoff discusses these recent developments and the politics at play. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Maxime Bernier says the People's Party of Canada will be on the ballot across the country in the upcoming federal election. But for a lot of people, the new fiscally-conservative libertarian party is still a big mystery. To find out more, we went to one of his political rallies and spoke to three Canadians who showed up to hear the former cabinet minister speak.

In the first wave of the pandemic, Alberta was one of the provinces that seemed to have things relatively under control. Now, the province has daily case rates three times as high as Quebec or Ontario, and ICUs in Calgary and Edmonton have been hitting 90 per cent capacity. But Premier Jason Kenney hasn't addressed the province at a COVID-19 briefing for almost two weeks, and has resisted repeated calls for lockdowns from doctors and other experts. It's leading some Albertans to tweet the hashtag #WhereIsKenney. Today, Jason Markusoff of Maclean's Magazine joins us to talk about how Alberta got here, and what happens now.

The wildly popular Punjabi artist Sidhu Moose Wala was a pioneer in his genre, fusing traditional folk sounds with contemporary rap and trap music. Sidhu shaped his career in Brampton, Ont., calling the city his second home. Through his rich, soul-filled melodies, and his socially conscious and sometimes politically charged lyrics, he gave Punjab's youth, and the youth of the Punjabi diaspora, a new way to connect to their roots. On Sunday, Sidhu was gunned down near his family's home in his home state of Punjab. There has since been an outpouring of grief and anger. Today, Jaskaran Sandhu, co-founder of Baaz News, takes us through Sidhu's life, legacy and the questions surrounding his death.

Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered child protective services to investigate parents of transgender youth seeking gender-affirming care. Even going so far as to say that this care should be categorized as “child abuse.” Abbot’s directive, although not actually law, was an alarming consequence of a rise of anti-trans bills being proposed at the state level across the U.S. In Alabama, lawmakers have introduced a bill that would make it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a doctor to provide gender-affirming care to minors. Today on Front Burner, Gillian Branstetter gets into the importance of gender-affirming care, and the impact of blocking trans youth from safely accessing it. We also explore the forces behind this Republican-led movement, and the kind of effort an opposition needs to mount to counter it.

It was a historically bad day for global markets. The twin factors of COVID-19 and a collapse in the price of oil led to widespread panic and one of the worst days in the stock market in years, with consequences still to come. What just happened, and why are people freaking out? Manulife global chief economist Frances Donald is here to explain.

Just six weeks before Americans vote for their next president, the death of legendary Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has left a gigantic hole on the U.S. top court. Today, CBC’s senior Washington editor Lyndsay Duncombe explains how the vacancy has ignited a fight for legal dominance that could shape the election’s outcome and the country for decades.

The high seas are beyond the reach of international law – and beyond the beat of most reporters. But Pulitzer-Prize-winner and former New York Times journalist, Ian Urbina, has sailed into uncharted territories. Urbina sets out on a years-long quest to investigate murder at sea, modern slave labour, environmental crimes and quixotic adventurers. Part travelog, part true-crime thriller, this 7-part series takes listeners to places where the laws of the land no longer exist. The Outlaw Ocean is brought to you by CBC Podcasts and the LA Times and produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project. More episodes are available at http://hyperurl.co/theoutlawocean

Former governor general David Johnston — now serving as a special rapporteur — says a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections would not satisfy the public, because so much of the material is classified and can’t be shared. Will the decision to reject a public inquiry on foreign interference in Canadian elections darken the cloud of mistrust, or help clear it? On this episode, David Fraser, a reporter with the Canadian Press, details what Johnston is recommending instead of an inquiry. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

COVID-19 disrupted almost everything about our lives when it struck. Now, as the WHO says the global emergency over the novel virus is over, how dangerous is the virus and what will it be like to live with it into the future? Helen Branswell is a world-respected reporter who has spent her career writing about infectious disease and global health. She writes for STAT News and takes us through the latest science. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A massive data breach at Capital One has led to the arrest of a Seattle-based woman who allegedly stole the private information of more than 100 million people, including 6 million Canadians. Today on Front Burner, Greg Otto, Editor-in-Chief of CyberScoop, brings us the story of accused hacker Paige Thompson and explains how the crime was done and why experts say a trail of clues was left for the FBI.

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

As Canada’s housing prices continue to rise we take a closer look at the political and economic tools that could be used to help cool it down with the help of Bloomberg News reporter, Ari Altstedter.

On Tuesday, after the painful victim impact statements of 15 people, disgraced NXIVM self-help guru Keith Raniere was sentenced to what amounts to life in prison. Today, reporter Josh Bloch tells Jayme how the trial unfolded.

A growing list of countries have grounded the Boeing 737 Max 8 following a crash that killed 157 people, including 18 Canadians. Not even six months ago the same type of airplane plunged into the Java sea near Indonesia. Today on Front Burner, an aviation expert explains the mounting concerns over this Boeing model and CBC's Susan Ormiston reports from the Ethiopian crash site.

Last night was the only English-language federal leaders’ debate of this election cycle. And with Justin Trudeau and Erin O’Toole neck and neck in the polls, the stakes couldn’t be much higher. CBC senior writer Ryan Maloney joins us for a look at the night’s most significant moments

It’s been a year since a runaway train derailed near Field, B.C., killing the three crew members on board: Dylan Paradis, Andy Dockrell and Daniel Waldenberger-Bulmer. But questions remain about what led to the crash of Canadian Pacific Railway Train 301. The only formal police investigation into the derailment was done by CP Rail’s own police force. CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins has dug into the crash for his Fifth Estate documentary Runaway Train. Today on Front Burner, he talks about what he found, and what it can tell us about safety and accountability on railways across the country.

Erin O’Toole says he supports a ban on conversion therapy, but that doesn’t mean everyone in his party has to share his beliefs. Ahead of a looming federal election, hear more in part one of a wide-ranging interview with the federal Conservative party leader.

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

An extreme heat wave has taken over Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest this week. Today on Front Burner, climate journalist Eric Holthaus on why he thinks this weather is a clear call to action on the climate emergency.

As the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs face off in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since 1979, CBC Montreal reporters Jonathon Montpetit and Antoni Nerestant break down the historic rivalry between the two teams.

Thousands of protesters hit the streets of Paris with renewed anger this week, as an unpopular raise to France’s retirement age became law. President Emmanuel Macron’s government announced plans to shift the age from 62 to 64 in January. Since then, demonstrations across France have included strikes from rail workers and garbage collectors, leading to piles of trash growing in Paris. On Monday, his government survived a resulting no-confidence motion by only nine votes. Today, New York Times correspondent Catherine Porter joins us to explain France’s unique identity of work-life balance, and the globally relevant reasons Macron risked his future to delay the country’s retirement. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Quebec Premier François Legault came to power saying he would protect the province's cultural identity by reducing its intake of immigrants. On Jan. 1, Legault fulfils part of his controversial plan — the implementation of a "values" test some potential immigrants will have to complete. Today, we talk with CBC reporter Ben Shingler about the policy, how it will likely play out, and the message it sends.

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

Police are investigating alleged assaults and sexual assaults at St. Michael's College School, including one reportedly involving members of the football team holding down another student and sexually assaulting him with a broom handle. D'Arcy McKeown was the victim of a similar 'hazing' incident at McGill University. He speaks out about his experience.

There have been some gloomy economic headlines lately as stock indexes like the TSX and Dow drop and Canada’s unemployment rate goes up for the first time in months. This, as central banks continue to raise interest rates to combat inflation, which — while showing signs of slowing — remains high. Today, CBC business reporter Pete Evans brings us a closer look at whether a recession is near, and the role that central banks — including the Bank of Canada — play.

Canada's ambassador to China, John McCallum, was forced to resign after making multiple comments that were out of step with the federal government's stance on the Canadian arrest of Chinese Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Today on Front Burner, CBC's Katie Simpson breaks down what happened and why it is such a big deal.

For tourists interested in a beach vacation, Maui residents have a simple message: this is not the time to visit Hawaii. The wildfires that decimated the historic town of Lahaina, leaving at least 111 people dead and hundreds more still missing, have also laid bare the long-simmering tensions between native Hawaiians, and wealthy tourists and developers. Today we’ll be talking about why many Hawaiians have been asking tourists to stay out long before the fires and why many are afraid recovery will open the door to even more outside ownership. Savannah Harriman-Pote is an energy and climate change reporter and the lead producer of This Is Our Hawaiʻi, a new podcast from Hawai‘i Public Radio. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has admitted that things are not looking good for the province, saying, “right now, today, there is very little separating what we will face here in Ontario from the devastation we’ve seen in Italy and Spain." He’s right to be concerned: the number of patients in Ontario’s ICU beds is doubling every four days. And according to public health officials, this is just the beginning. A surge is coming for Ontario. Today, we cover how prepared the province is and why it got this bad, with help from Mike Crawley, CBC’s Ontario provincial affairs reporter.

It's been a month since Joe Biden was voted in as the next president of the United States. But a lot has happened since then. There are the final weeks of Donald Trump's chaotic tenure, the importance of Georgia's runoff Senate race and the tensions that are dividing the Democrats even as they prepare to take power. Today, former CBC Washington correspondent Keith Boag joins us to get us up to speed.

On Monday evening, Newsmax TV beat Fox News Channel in ratings for the very first time. Since Fox News accurately called the U.S. election for Joe Biden, Donald Trump has soured on the network in favour of smaller, more controversial outlets. And the outgoing president is urging his political base to join him. Today, CBC senior Washington correspondent Susan Ormiston reports how this fissure is shaking the bedrock of American conservative media, and elevates networks that further promote opinion and conspiracy over real news.

Even as most businesses in Canada have shut their doors, grocery stores remain open. And workers in those stores – who are often in low-wage positions – are worried about their own safety as COVID-19 continues to spread. Today on Front Burner, CBC reporter Haydn Watters talks to guest host Michelle Shephard about how grocery store staff are coping with the crisis, and what their companies are aiming to do about it

He's called, "the smiling Stephen Harper," and he's known for his knack of bringing people together. But beyond his dimples, what do you really know about Andrew Scheer? Today, with the federal election fast approaching, we talk to Maclean's Ottawa bureau chief, John Geddes about the leader of the Conservative Party. We'll get insight into how he became such a unifier (hint: his favourite book is the self-help classic How to Win Friends and Influence People) and how that squares with his more divisive moments, such as his hardline stance on the United Nations migration pact. This is the first in a series of pre-election profiles we'll do about Canada's federal party leaders.

As lawsuits, a criminal investigation and social media try to assign blame for the fatal crowd surge at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival, a look at the warning signs before the concert, and the long history of festival disasters.

Canada’s men’s soccer team is closer to going to the World Cup tournament than it has been in decades, after a historic win against heavyweight team Mexico. The last time they qualified was in 1986. They didn’t score a single goal. But now with coaching from John Herdman and star players like Alphonso Davies, the team has started to believe in itself — and this week, won an important qualifying event against Mexico. After scoring their second goal, team members leaped into a snowbank in the –10 C Edmonton weather to celebrate. This iconic moment comes only a few months after Canada’s women won their first Olympic gold for soccer in Tokyo. Shireen Ahmed is a regular contributor to TSN, and a co-host of the Burn It All Down podcast. Today, she takes us through the game, what it means for Canada, and what comes next for soccer in this country.

Today on Front Burner, CBC Queen's Park reporter Mike Crawley on the cascade of cuts in Doug Ford's Ontario and how they might be felt in the province.

How do a treasure hunter, claims of bamboo fibres in ballots and QAnon-related conspiracies all come into play in the official “audit” of the 2020 U.S. election currently underway in Maricopa County, Ariz.? The Daily Beast’s politics reporter Will Sommer explains.

Toni Morrison's literary and academic career was honoured with a Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her writing explored, celebrated, questioned and critiqued the space of black lives in America, up until her death on Monday at the age of 88. Today on Front Burner, we speak with Halifax's former poet laureate El Jones and former poet laureate of Canada George Elliott Clarke about the importance of her work, both as a source of art, and form of activism.

Mass shootings at two mosques on Friday evening in Christchurch, New Zealand, were felt around the globe. We hear from Adrienne Arsenault, who is in Christchurch. And from Stephanie Carvin, a former analyst for CSIS, on the steady rise of far-right extremism in Canada.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was known as a "Teflon" leader for his ability to withstand scandal after scandal. But after surviving "Partygate'' and a slew of other missteps, Johnson finally met a scandal he couldn't outrun. Johnson said on Thursday he would step down as prime minister after more than 50 of his own government officials resigned. But he's also pledged to stay on until a new Conservative leader is chosen. Today, the New Statesman's Rachel Cunliffe explains what finally led to Johnson's downfall, what his resignation speech really means and what it all says about the state of British democracy.

Andrew Tate, the controversial influencer and self-declared misogynist, was arrested on Thursday in Romania on charges of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group. Depending on your social circles — and your algorithms — you may not have heard of Andrew Tate before. But he has quickly risen from relative obscurity to become one of the most-discussed people on social media. His controversial video clips, including some where he describes hitting and choking women, have been viewed billions of times. Today, we dive into the story of Andrew Tate: who he is, his arrest, and what it means that a man known as the “king of toxic masculinity” could gain so much fame and influence.

Advocates have been calling for a national child care program for decades. Governments have even gotten close to enacting it a few times. Is this finally the moment the idea becomes reality? We’re joined by Martha Friendly, executive director of the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, for a look at the long, winding road toward universal child care in Canada.

Nearly two full years have passed since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Now, from the Coutts border-crossing blockade in Alberta, to the streets around Parliament Hill, it’s obvious that there are some people with very strong opinions out there about how the disease is being handled. But beyond the noise of these chaotic protests, how exactly do Canadians feel about how we’ve weathered COVID-19? And how do they feel about the protests? David Coletto is the CEO of the polling firm Abacus Data, which has been asking people across the country for their thoughts. He breaks down what the numbers tell us so far. The margin of error for the data discussed in today’s episode is about 2.5 to 2.6 per cent.

On Friday, a man in Grande Prairie, Alta., accosted Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and swore at her repeatedly as she entered the city hall building. A video of the incident, posted online, shows the man yelling at Freeland, calling her a "f--king bitch" and a traitor, and following her in close proximity as she boards an elevator. RCMP say they are investigating the altercation, which has provoked widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum. And it’s also sparked broader conversations about the increasing sense of danger many politicians are feeling of late when interacting with the public — particularly in an era when the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation are on the rise. It’s also raising questions about the line between when yelling at a politician is a dangerous or destructive act — and when it’s an expression of a healthy democracy. Today, we break it all down with Aaron Wherry, a senior writer with CBC’s Parliament Hill bureau.

Masai Ujiri recently signed on to become vice-chairman of the Toronto Raptors, in addition to his role as the NBA team's president. Today, he talks to host Jayme Poisson about what it means to rebuild the team after Kyle Lowry's departure, his commitment to growing African basketball, and why he wants to stay in Toronto.

On Tuesday Iran's foreign minister accused the U.S. of playing a "very dangerous" game. He was referring to America's decision to move warships and bombers to the Persian Gulf and, more broadly, to the serious escalation of tensions between the two countries. Could the U.S. and Iran be headed for war? Today on Front Burner, Nader Hashemi, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, shares his thoughts on how relations took such a serious turn

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

This week, hundreds of fans gathered in London to celebrate the launch of The Testaments, the much-anticipated sequel to Margaret Atwood's best-selling novel, The Handmaid's Tale. Similar events took place around the world, and the novel has already been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Today on Front Burner, Slate's book critic Laura Miller on the political and cultural relevance of The Handmaid's Tale, and why there's been so much anticipation for its sequel.

On Monday, Canada pledged $15 million to help fight fires in the Amazon rainforest. That's on top of the $26.5 million the G7 pledged at the conclusion of this weekend's gathering in France. But why are so many of these fires ablaze in the first place? Today on Front Burner, we talk to Jake Spring. He's a Reuters correspondent based in Brazil and the host of the Foreign Correspondence podcast who has reported on the fires from up close.

Today on Front Burner, former Conservative leader Rona Ambrose on why she thinks her bill on judges sexual assault training must pass, and soon.

On Tuesday, Bruce McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first-degree murder and we heard never-before-released details about the evidence in the case. But as we hear from freelance reporter Justin Ling, there are still lots of unanswered questions about how McArthur committed his crimes and what comes next.

This week, Quebec Premier François Legault announced a new reason for people to get their jabs: His government would place a significant tax on the unvaccinated. The announcement came a day after Legault accepted the resignation of the province's public health director, Dr. Horacio Arruda — leading some to ask if this bold plan was merely a distraction from the political strife within the province. CBC Montreal’s Sarah Leavitt explains what exactly has been going on in Quebec under the Omicron wave. We then talk about the tax and if it’s even a good idea. For some frustrated with people who won’t get the shot, the controversial proposal was welcome news. But bioethics scholar Bryn Williams-Jones at Université de Montréal disagrees. He tells us why, in his view, this kind of tax is a legal and moral minefield.

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

An unprecedented leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision suggested plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that enshrined abortion rights across the country in 1973. If Roe v. Wade is reversed, abortion could be banned in as many as 26 states, some starting almost immediately. Today on Front Burner, we talk to journalist and Nomadland author Jessica Bruder about the networks of underground abortion providers and what comes next for people seeking help.

Conservative Rishi Sunak has just become the third leader of the U.K. in two months, and he's got a mandate to rule until 2025. But many are questioning the process that led to him, and his predecessor Liz Truss, becoming prime minister in the first place: neither was chosen by British voters in a general election. They voted for a different Conservative MP, Boris Johnson, back in 2019 — before he was pushed out by a series of scandals. And they may not get to choose another prime minister until 2025. This is not an uncommon situation in parliamentary democracies. B.C., Alberta and Manitoba now all have leaders that weren't voted in by the general public. Is this a bad thing? A bug, or a feature? And if it is a problem, what should be done about it? Today, Aaron Wherry, a senior writer with CBC's parliamentary bureau, is here to dive into all of that.

It’s been three straight election losses for the Conservative Party of Canada, and now three consecutive races to find a new leader. MPs booted Erin O’Toole as leader last month after he failed to best Justin Trudeau in an unpopular 2021 election. Now, the race to replace him as leader is underway, with the first week of the race marked by attacks, ideology and differing tactics for how to return the party to power. Five candidates have put their names in so far: Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, former Quebec premier Jean Charest, Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis and independent Ontario MPP Roman Baber. Today, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos returns with an overview of the candidates, their strategies and what’s at stake for the party beyond just winning.

After years of delays, Canada is upgrading its air force and replacing its fleet of aging CF-18 fighters with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II — a jet the Liberals once vowed they would never buy. The stealth fighter jet has long been touted as the future of aerial warfare, but the debate over buying a fleet has dragged on for more than a decade, starting under the Harper government. On the campaign trail in 2015, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the F-35 would be a "nightmare" for Canadian taxpayers. Today on Front Burner, we talk to Ottawa Citizen's Defence Reporter David Pugliese about why, after disavowing the F-35 fighter jet, the Liberals have decided to launch negotiations to buy 88 of them at an expected cost of $19-billion.

For more than 60 nights, protesters have gone out on the streets of Portland, Ore. to fight anti-Black racism and police violence. It seemed like things were calming down, but then U.S. President Donald Trump sent federal agents into the city. Today on Front Burner, we're joined by Tuck Woodstock, an independent journalist who has spent the majority of the last two months out at the protests. They tell us what it looks like on the ground, and how the violence has escalated since federal agents arrived.

The Liberal cabinet retreat is underway in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, with ministers discussing fall priorities amid flagging poll numbers. Once a source of strength for the party, the Liberals appear to be losing ground with Canadians in their 20s and 30s who are concerned with affordability. Abacus Data says the Liberals have fallen over 10 points behind the Conservatives with millennial voters. Today, CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry explains how a leader once obsessed with the middle class ended up on the opposite side of affordability anger, and what the Liberals could still do to reclaim their 2015 image. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

CBC technology reporter Matthew Braga explains Sidewalk Toronto's plan to create a futuristic neighbourhood on waterfront property in downtown Toronto and breaks down why some say the high-tech smart city is the solution to our urban woes... while others are concerned about the intentions of the Google-affiliated company.

Right now, undercover inspectors from France’s prestigious Michelin Guide are visiting Canada for the first time, to decide if any of Toronto’s restaurants are worthy of a coveted Michelin Star. Getting that designation from the de facto gastronomical authority can propel a chef and their restaurant to stardom. But the Michelin Guide has also been plagued with allegations of bias, elitism, putting dangerous levels of strain on chefs, and ignoring how the workers making the food are treated. Today, food writers Nancy Matsumoto and Corey Mintz join us to hash out what the guide’s arrival in Canada could mean for a beleaguered industry — and whether it even matters.

On Monday, NXIVM member and former Smallville actress Allison Mack pleaded guilty in a New York court to racketeering charges for her role in a cult-like group called NXIVM. Mack is one of several high-ranking NXIVM members who have been charged with manipulating women into becoming sex slaves for Keith Raniere, the group's leader, among other charges. Today on Front Burner, Josh Bloch, host of CBC podcast Uncover: Escaping NXIVM, reports on what we've now learned about the secretive organization.

On Thursday, Justin Trudeau kicked off Canada's 43rd parliamentary session with his government's speech from the throne, delivered by Gov. Gen. Julie Payette. Today, on Front Burner, Vassy Kapelos, host of CBC's Power & Politics, joins Jayme Poisson to discuss the speech, how it was received by the other party leaders and how likely the prime minister will be able to fulfil his promises considering his government's minority status.

In February, as a massive trucker convoy rolled into Ottawa to protest COVID-19 mandates, another convoy set up outside the tiny town of Coutts, Alta., where protesters paralyzed a major U.S.-Canada border crossing for over two weeks. A month after those blockades were finally dismantled, CBC reporter Joel Dryden travelled to Coutts to look at the lasting rifts the protests created among residents — and why, even with most mandates now lifted across Canada, some protesters are staying put.

"We're left with a more divided country than ever...it's going to be a really hard thing for the government to address." On Monday night, Canadians voted in a Liberal minority government led by Justin Trudeau. Today on Front Burner, Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos lays out what the election results mean, and what to expect next.

In 2007, a man known as the "Berlin patient" was cured of HIV through a stem cell transplant. It was an incredible accomplishment that researchers all over the world scrutinized for years to come. He was the first and only documented case of a person who has been cured of HIV until March of this year, when a second patient was declared HIV-free from a similar treatment. Today on Front Burner, a conversation with Timothy Ray Brown, the "Berlin patient."

For many people, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s showdown with CUPE education workers has become about much more than one fight with one union. Experts say that what the Ontario government chooses to do here — and how the public responds — could have ripple effects for labour disputes, and the right to strike, across the country. That’s because the Ford government introduced legislation this week that would prevent these workers from striking before they even start, and do it using the highly controversial notwithstanding clause, which allows provinces to temporarily override some parts of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Today, we’ll first speak to Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, about what’s been happening on the ground in Ontario. Then we’ll speak to Charles Smith, an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Saskatchewan’s St. Thomas More College, about whether this could set a precedent for labour fights across the country.

Three years ago, if you were one of the women who had been victimized by Keith Raniere, the man seemed untouchable. Raniere was the leader of the cult-like self help group NXIVM. On October 27th, that all changed. In a U.S. federal courtroom, Keith Raniere was sentenced to 120 years—having been convicted of a slew of crimes. During the trial and sentencing, victims came forward about how the self-professed empowerment “vanguard” had turned some of his followers into sex slaves and branded them with his initials. Josh Bloch investigated Raniere in his podcast UNCOVER: Escaping NXIVM. He joined Jayme to break down the case. This is an encore of their October conversation.

In 1985, at the height of the Black Power era, police dropped a bomb in a Philadelphia neighborhood. Their target? A family of Black radicals known as ‘MOVE,’ who found themselves ensnared in a city — and nation’s — domestic war on Black Liberation. Over seven episodes, host Matthew Amha investigates the events that culminated in the MOVE bombing, and the long afterlife of a forgotten American tragedy. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/X9pEruGw

This week, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb across the country, there is a glimmer of hope for returning to normal life: a vaccine. Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech say that results from a Phase 3 study of their vaccine candidate look promising and that immunity could last a year. Today, we hear from CBC science and technology reporter Emily Chung on what we know about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine that early results suggest is 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19.

A leaked phone conversation between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and a pastor facing pandemic-related charges is raising questions about potential political interference. During the call, Smith tells the pastor she will discuss his case with justice officials. Smith has continuously denied that she or her office engaged in any inappropriate conduct regarding COVID prosecutions. Today, the CBC’s Jason Markusoff joins the show to talk about the leaked call, and the political implications in the leadup to a closely contested Alberta election. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts Editor’s Note: This segment follows a Jan. 19, 2023 story that has been updated. As detailed in the Editor’s Note accompanying that story, while Crown prosecutors felt political pressure, CBC could not substantiate the content of emails referenced here or confirm their existence. Read the full note here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-premier-office-emails-prosecutors-coutts-1.6719743

CBC Washington reporter Lyndsay Duncombe guides us through the growing list of Democratic presidential candidates vying to run in 2020.

After years of fervent campaigning from fans, director Zack Snyder’s cut of the 2017 Justice League movie has been greenlit for release in 2021. Culture critics John Semley and Tina Hassannia on why this campaign struck a cultural chord, and what it says about fandom today.

In two parts of the world, the future of nuclear power plants and their remains are causing alarm for very different reasons. In Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant has become a battleground in the war. Further east, Japan is one step closer to releasing 1.32 million tonnes of radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear meltdown into the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, for many, nuclear power is one of the tools we have to wean ourselves off fossil fuels. Today, Jim Smith, a Professor of Environmental Science at Portsmouth University joins us to discuss whether nuclear power in an unstable world is a net positive, or a terrifying liability. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich has delivered unprecedented success for his team, London's Chelsea Football Club, in the English Premier League. But with sanctions tightening around Abramovich, who is on the list of those deemed to be enabling Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine, the team's finances and ethics are under the microscope. And that scrutiny levelled at Abramovich has expanded to other Premier League clubs that are owned by countries with questionable human rights records, leaving fans and its millions of viewers around the world asking what team they're really supporting. Does the blinding gleam of trophies cover up bigger, darker and more complicated questions about ethical ownership in sports? This week, Nothing is Foreign looks into how oligarchs and countries have used "sportswashing" to launder their reputations, the tentacles that extend from England into Russia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and beyond, and the reckoning underway at the highest levels of sports and business. Note, this episode contains explicit language. Featuring: Mayowa Quadri, editorial officer at Versus and Chelsea FC supporter. Ben Jacobs, sports journalist and producer, CBS Sports.

As cryptocurrencies experience “bonkers” volatility, The Logic’s Claire Brownell explains why some regulatory crackdowns are happening, and where cryptocurrency could go from here.

With the House of Commons adjourned and the federal election just months away, summertime hours mean Members of Parliament and hopeful candidates will be out campaigning on the BBQ circuit. The writ drop is expected for September and voting day is slated for on or before October 21. So what issues are shaping the election so far? Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos joins us to explain.

Last month, Hans Niemann, a 19-year-old grandmaster chess player and rising star, defeated the reigning five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in a round robin tournament game. After the match, Carlsen, who is also a grandmaster, dropped out of the competition and posted a tweet insinuating that Niemann had cheated. The accusation has rocked the chess world, and Niemann has confessed that he has cheated in online games in the past. But there is no evidence of him cheating in over-the-board games played face-to-face, let alone in the match against Carlsen. Today on Front Burner, Nate Solon, a chess master, data scientist and co-author of the book Evaluate Like a Grandmaster, brings us up to speed on the scandal.

A mysterious noise frustrating an affluent Alberta community sparked the discovery of a secretly set up bitcoin-mining operation. CBC Calgary’s Sarah Rieger explains.

The Canadian government is considering regulating social media giants like Facebook. This comes after the release of a report by Canadians electronic spy agency, showing how Canadians are vulnerable to foreign interference in this upcoming election. Today on Front Burner, Roger McNamee, the author of "Zucked: Waking up to the Facebook Catastrophe" explains how the business model of big tech is inseparable from its most negative effects.

The demands are growing in Jamaica to get Britain to pay up and offer reparations for slavery. Anti-monarchy sentiments, protests and calls for reparations made for an uncomfortable visit for Prince William and Kate through the Caribbean last week. Jamaica's prime minister said the Commonwealth realm is looking to "move on" from the monarchy and become an independent republic. One of its most urgent demands — reparations for slavery — has been decades in the making but is now gaining momentum as more Jamaicans say the intergenerational trauma of slavery has shaped the nation in a way that must be rectified. This week, Nothing is Foreign takes a closer look at Jamaica's push for reparations, the long legacy of resistance against colonialism in the country, and the Royal Family's connection to the slave trade. Featuring: Matthew J. Smith, professor of history and director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery. Bert Samuels, lawyer and member of Jamaica's Reparations Council.

From David Ridgen, the creator of Someone Knows Something, comes the new investigative podcast The Next Call. Tackling unsolved cases through strategic phone calls. From the victim's family members to potential suspects, the investigation unfolds with The Next Call. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/thenextcall

Eleven people have died, including a suspect, and at least 18 injured after a brutal attack that started in James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan on Sunday. Two brothers, Damien and Myles Sanderson, were charged with first-degree murder and were being sought for the attack. On Monday, the RCMP confirmed Damien, 31, has been found dead, while Myles, 30, is still at large. The RCMP have asked residents across the province to remain vigilant. At this stage of the investigation, they believe some victims were “targeted by the suspects” while others were attacked “randomly.” Today on Front Burner, we talk to CBC Saskatoon’s Dan Zakreski on what we know so far about the suspects, the victims, and the investigation into the attack.

Last Thursday, a 26-year-old Indigenous woman was killed by a New Brunswick police officer. Chantel Moore was shot five times during what was meant to be a wellness check. Her death is one of several recent incidents of police violence against Indigenous people in Canada. As the Black Lives Matter movement shines a light on police brutality and calls into question the power and even necessity of police services across the world, today we talk about what defunding the police means for Indigenous people. CBC’s Angela Sterritt reports from Vancouver.

Rocky, Legally Blonde, The Hobbit and even part of the James Bond franchise could soon be under the ownership of Amazon. Film critic John Semley joins host Jayme Poisson for a closer look at what the tech giant's bid to buy MGM Studios could mean for the shows and films that end up on your screens.

A bill to fire Alberta's election commissioner has passed in a legislature dominated by United Conservative Party MLAs. That's while the commissioner is investigating the UCP leadership race, won by Premier Jason Kenney. The opposition is outraged. Today on Front Burner, we talk to Maclean's Alberta correspondent Jason Markusoff about how Kenney has been using his strong majority, and how the electorate may respond.

After a manhunt that spanned four days, the main suspect in the mass stabbing that injured at least 18 and left 10 people dead in northern Saskatchewan was arrested last Wednesday. Shortly after, he died in police custody after going into what RCMP call "medical distress." His death means we may never know the motive of the attack. But questions remain about why, despite being a wanted man, he remained at large for months before — and days after — the stabbings. Today on Front Burner, CBC Saskatoon reporter Dan Zakreski walks us through all the updates on the attacks, the chase and the investigation.

CBC’s Margaret Evans tells the stories of a coroner, a mufti and a fisherman all living through a border crisis in northern Greece — a country taking steps to keep refugees out.

With the news that a woman in Quebec died of a rare blood clot after receiving the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, some people may feel concerned about the vaccine. Epidemiologist Maria Sundaram unpacks what you need to know about these extremely rare blood clots and the COVID-19 vaccines.

On Tuesday, Front Burner learned that Ontario's Orchard Villa long term care home has one of the highest COVID-19 death tolls in the country — 31 residents have been killed by the virus. We spoke to family members who say the sick weren't segregated, and that they were left in the dark about what was happening inside. Advocates say there are serious systemic problems in Canada's long term care facilities, and that this pandemic is exposing the deadly consequences of allowing those problems to fester for years.

This week, jury selection is underway for one of the most scrutinized court cases in recent history: the second-degree murder and manslaughter trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. Floyd's killing sparked an enormous, international protest movement for racial justice. Today, CBC senior correspondent Susan Ormiston takes us to Minneapolis to hear from the people there as they brace for this trial.

Tennis analyst Caitlin Thompson on how Bianca Andreescu won the U.S. Open this week, becoming the first Canadian to take a singles championship.

Kanye West’s recent comments praising Hitler and the Nazis are just the latest examples of a wave of antisemitism that appears to be penetrating further and further into mainstream U.S. society. Today on Front Burner, Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp on the long roots of American antisemitism and the threats Jewish people are currently facing in the U.S. and Canada.

Activists are calling for a boycott of the newly released Mulan remake, after revelations that it was partly filmed in Xinjiang, a province of China known, through extensive reporting, for the detention and persecution of Uighur Muslims. Today, freelance writer Frankie Huang on the controversy and what it reveals about China's influence on Western culture.

After 1,020 days in Chinese jail cells, the two Michaels — Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — came home. CBC’s Jason Proctor and the University of Ottawa’s Errol Mendes break it down.

CBC News has learned about an alleged massive immigration scheme involving illicit job offers, hundreds of Chinese nationals, and dozens of business people in Saskatchewan. The story follows an investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency and court documents relating to a criminal trial for a married couple from the province. CBC investigative reporter Geoff Leo unravels the story.

For weeks, inmates, correctional officers and penal reform advocates have been sounding the alarm that Canada's prisons are sorely underprepared for the arrival of COVID-19. Canada's chief public health officer, Dr Theresa Tam, has called correctional facilities a "high-risk setting" in which a mass infection could have grave consequences. Three inmates and 18 employees in federal institutions have tested positive for the coronavirus, as have an inmate and a guard at the Toronto South Detention Centre. On today's Front Burner, freelance reporter Justin Ling walks us through how the government can stave off a prison outbreak, protecting both inmates and society at large.

A year after Beirut’s deadly port explosion, Lebanon’s economy is in freefall and protesters have hit the streets. Journalist Rebecca Collard gives us the backstory.

Theresa May's Brexit plan is one step closer to reality. But members of the British Prime Minister's party are resigning and she could be removed from power. CBC London correspondent Nahlah Ayed explains how we got here and what it means for the future of the United Kingdom and the EU.

On June 5, after six days of deliberation, a jury found former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard guilty of sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman. The jury also acquitted Hoggard of sexually assaulting a fan who was 16 years old during a separate encounter, and of a sexual interference charge related to accusations he touched her when she was still 15. What happened in the jury room is a secret, but consent and the credibility of the accusers were key points in the proceedings. Today, a summary of what happened at the trial, and a conversation with lawyer Megan Stephens about the tensions that continue to exist between criminal justice and accusations of sexual assault. WARNING: This episode contains graphic allegations and details of sexual assault.

When Lawrence Wright started writing a novel about a deadly influenza virus, he delved deep into researching the 1918 Spanish Flu, and more recent epidemics like SARS and MERS. Little did he know that by the time he’d release the book, we’d be living through a new and viscous influenza pandemic. Today on Front Burner, he shares his unique insight on COVID-19 given the knowledge he gained writing “The End of October”.

Kenora Ontario, a small city in the province’s northwest, is in the midst of a drug crisis. In an attempt to address the situation, the city has temporarily shut down the only homeless shelter in the area. Some see it as a positive move, others see NIMBYism. Today on Front Burner, TVO reporter Jon Thompson, helps us understand the roots of the city’s drugs crisis and how it’s affecting the local population.

Sam Bankman-Fried wasn't like other crypto moguls: he drove a Toyota Corolla, he was an advocate for government regulation, he said he would give billions away to charity. That is, until he lost it all in what has been called “one of history’s greatest-ever destructions of wealth.” In episode 1 of Front Burner’s first spin off podcast series — The Naked Emperor — host Jacob Silverman, co-author of a forthcoming book about crypto and fraud, takes a closer look at the hype around SBF and FTX, and how it only grew, even as other crypto companies crashed around them. How powerful was Sam Bankman-Fried? And how did he initially manage to hang on, to thrive even, as other giants tumbled towards bankruptcy? For more episodes of The Naked Emperor, check out its podcast feed: https://link.chtbl.com/uXdCyMR8

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

When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, much of the foreign aid to the country was suspended. Today, CBC’s Susan Ormiston tells us about what she heard on the ground about the looming humanitarian crisis.

This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Canada as part of his mission to shore up alternative sources of energy to reduce Germany's dependence on Russian natural gas. Scholz finished the trip in Newfoundland, where he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to form what Trudeau called the “Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance.” Meanwhile, Scholz also said he wanted more liquified natural gas from Canada. Today, CBC’s Peter Cowan and J.P. Tasker explain what happened during this trip and what it means for the future of Canadian energy.

The weather turned hot suddenly this year in Alberta and it is already remarkably dry. Wildfires, some burning out of control, have forced people to flee their homes, triggered a provincial state of emergency, and now there’s a request for the military to move in. CBC Edmonton host and producer Nancy Carlson is no stranger to wildfires in her home province. She covered the 2016 fires that swept Fort McMurray. She was evacuated last week when fires threatened her neighbourhood. Nancy explains what led to this season and how Albertans like her are managing with the threat of what’s already being called an ‘unprecedented’ fire season. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After three years without cases, cholera is spreading through Haiti’s poorest neighbourhoods as they struggle for access to clean water. At the same time, nearly five million Haitians are facing acute hunger. Gangs have seized the majority of Haiti’s capital, a critical fuel terminal, and the nation’s politics remain unstable after the assassination of the president in July last year. It’s these compounding crises that have led the unpopular current government to call for international intervention from the US, Canada and the UN – a controversial move in a country with a long history of foreign meddling. Today on Front Burner, independent Haitian journalist Harold Isaac explains how citizens are enduring yet another desperate situation, and why they’re starting to feel like they’re on their own.

Now that Pierre Poilievre is leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, how will he lead? Today, in the second part of our two-part deep dive on Poilievre, the Globe and Mail’s Shannon Proudfoot returns to talk about the leadership campaign he ran, the criticism he’s faced and where the Conservative Party could go from here. Plus, we hear from more supporters on the floor of the convention about what they think Pierre Poilievre’s Canada will look like, his "angry" reputation and whether they think he’ll change, now that he’s leader, to broaden his appeal.

Microsoft soft-launched its new AI-powered search engine in early February. After years of playing second fiddle to Google, the new Bing seemed to finally have something exciting to offer. More than a million people signed up on a wait list to try out the new feature. But it wasn’t long before some early testers reported that their interactions with the chatbot had taken an unsettling turn. For some, the bizarre interactions were disconcertingly similar to depictions of AI gone sentient straight out of science fiction. Today, Chris Stokel-Walker, a technology journalist and contributor to the Guardian’s TechScape newsletter, explains this latest chatbot, what the technology is doing and whether it’s as terrifying as it sounds.

There’s a growing chorus of critics of the central bank’s decision to increase interest rates, as things like food and housing are keeping inflation up, and seem largely unaffected by higher rates. This comes as the Bank of Canada increased its key interest rate on Wednesday. It’s the 10th time the central bank has hiked the rate since March, 2022 — bringing it to five per cent. The move is all part of an effort to rein in high inflation, but that has come down significantly since its peak last year. Armine Yalnizyan, economist and the Atkinson Fellow On The Future Of Workers, explains on today’s episode. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last night, Vice-Presidential candidates Mike Pence and Kamala Harris faced off in their one and only debate of the 2020 campaign. The debate comes less than a week after Donald Trump was diagnosed with coronavirus, and in a race between the two oldest presidential candidates in US history. Today, CBC Washington Correspondent Katie Simpson recaps the unusually significant VP debate.

From Iran to Italy to South Korea — there are new epicentres for the coronavirus. On Thursday, World Health Organization officials stressed the need for governments to have national preparedness plans and training in place for health-care workers.Today on Front Burner, infectious disease expert Isaac Bogoch returns to the podcast to talk about how the public health response needs to change to address the growing epidemic.

On Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau once again resisted a call that’s been getting progressively louder in Ottawa: the call for a public inquiry into allegations of Beijing’s interference in our most recent elections. Opposition MPs on a Parliamentary committee have already voted in favour of an inquiry into foreign interference, although that motion is non-binding. Meanwhile, a number of reports, committee investigations and witness testimonies have either already been delivered, or are on the way. Today, CBC’s The House host Catherine Cullen explains the newest revelations, what big questions are still at play, and what avenues remain to get those answers. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Dose is a weekly look at the health news that matters to you. Dr. Brian Goldman brings you the best science from top experts in plain language. This episode answers listener questions about perimenopause and menopause symptoms and treatments. Dr. Shafeena Premji, a family doctor and medical director of Mahogany Clinic in Calgary, shares her best advice on how to manage symptoms and when to speak to a health-care provider. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/mOAbEQfT

The streets in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa are now mostly cleared after more than three weeks of intense protest. But the debate inside Parliament carried on into Monday night as MPs voted to pass the Emergencies Act. Still, the impact of those convoy protests that led to the unprecedented use of this emergency law could last beyond just this week. Today, Aaron Wherry, of CBC's Parliamentary Bureau, talks about the potential effects of the convoy protests on the Conservative Party, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the health of our political discourse writ large.

Before his death, John Lennon recorded a demo of a new song, "Now and Then" on a cassette. His Beatles bandmates later tried to repurpose it for release, but abandoned the project in part because of the poor voice quality. This week, Paul McCartney revealed that, 43 years after Lennon's death, the song will drop – thanks to AI technology. It's just the latest example of artificial intelligence's increasing presence in the music industry. Fake Drake songs, AI-generated Kanye covers and posthumous Biggie collabs have raised alarm about copyright, and existential questions about songwriting and creativity. Today, Saroja Coelho speaks with the host of Vulture's Switched on Pop podcast, Charlie Harding, about what the technology means for the music industry and art itself. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada's latest COVID-19 surge is being fuelled by the BA.5 variant. It's prompting some public health officials to make fourth jabs of a COVID-19 vaccine available to all adults. While most provinces are already offering fourth doses to their most vulnerable residents, some — such as New Brunswick, Quebec and P.E.I. — are urging the general adult population to sign up as well. However experts are divided about the urgency at which Canadians should receive a second boost, and when. Prof. Raywat Deonandan is an epidemiologist specializing in global health at the University of Ottawa. He breaks down what we need to know about the future of COVID-19 vaccination.

On Tuesday, an 18-year-old shooter barricaded himself in an elementary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. This, nearly 10 years after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. In the years between the shootings, no meaningful national legislation on gun control has passed in the United States. Veronique De La Rosa's son Noah was the youngest victim at Sandy Hook. She tells Jayme Poisson that she had hoped what happened at her son's school would be a watershed, but that now, "it's become painfully obvious that thoughts and prayers are not the way out of every single one of these tragedies."

On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Bucks refused to come out on the court, protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis. Soon after, other NBA teams followed — and so did other athletes in other leagues, from the WNBA to MLS to Major League Baseball. Subsequently, the NBA postponed games on Thursday, but officials said in a statement that they hope playoffs would resume this weekend. Today on Front Burner, Morgan Campbell, a senior contributor to CBC Sports, joins us to talk about the significance of this unprecedented act of protest in the sports world, and the pressure on Black athletes to push for social justice.

On Monday, Chinese authorities accused two Canadians who have been detained since December of being spies. This news comes as Canada proceeds with a U.S. extradition request for Huawei's CFO Meng Wanzhou. But this isn't the first time Canadians have been caught in the middle of an escalating diplomatic dispute with China. Kevin and Julia Garratt know what it's like to live in Chinese custody under suspicion of espionage. Today on Front Burner, they describe what happened to them and share what they learned about China's judicial system during their two-year ordeal.

After 18 months of consultation, Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has released its master draft proposal to develop a portion of Toronto’s waterfront. The proposal includes everything from an affordable housing plan, to sensored pneumatic garbage shoots, to a data privacy framework in the form of an independent urban data trust. Today on Front Burner, we talk to The Logic’s editor-in-chief David Skok about what’s in the report, and what questions we need to ask ourselves when we consider building smart cities.

The family behind the telecom giant Rogers Communications is in a bizarre public spat over control of the company. Today, CBC business reporter Pete Evans explains the unusual infighting.

The explosion near Beirut’s port on Tuesday killed 135 people and injured thousands more, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Officials say 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate was the cause. According to public records, the chemicals were held at the port for six years, despite warnings about the danger they posed. Today on Front Burner, we get a first-hand account of the explosion and aftermath from Hanna Anbar of Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper, and discuss the challenge of rebuilding in a country already deep in economic crisis.

Today on Front Burner, professor Taylor Owen helps us understand the changing nature of online extremism and what we learned from dealing with ISIS.

The price of food is soaring and so are the profits of Canada’s major grocery stores, raising questions and concerns among consumers, politicians and economists about their conduct. A parliamentary committee is scheduled to question officials for Metro and Save-On-Foods about their prices today and representatives from Loblaws and the owner of Sobeys defended themselves at the committee last week, saying they are not taking advantage of inflation to drive profit. Today on Front Burner, we’re talking to Jim Stanford, an economist and the director of a progressive think tank called the Centre for Future Work, who says grocery stores are profiting off of inflation, at the expense of struggling Canadians and that they are far from the only industry doing it.

Tonight, at 11 p.m. local time, it finally happens: Brexit. It's been almost four years since Britain launched a referendum on whether to leave the European Union. To remember the highs and lows of how the U.K. got to this point, we're joined by the BBC World Service's political correspondent Rob Watson. He walks us through the big moments of Brexit, like the big red Brexit bus, the resignations of two prime ministers, and the stockpiling of food. Plus we look ahead to what might come next.

In nine months, Front Burner has covered a lot of stories. But we haven’t had time to follow up on all of them. Today, we revisit a handful, including the mystery illness that befell Canadian diplomats in Cuba, the law in Quebec to outlaw religious garb for public servants, and the odyssey of a Syrian refugee who moved to Canada after living in an airport for months. Plus, how a country rap oddity became the biggest song of 2019.

For months, a B.C.-based QAnon conspiracy influencer named Romana Didulo has been amassing followers online, declaring herself the “Queen of Canada.” In the summer, her audience began distributing cease-and-desist letters across North America on her behalf, demanding a stop to COVID-19 restrictions. Recently, her rhetoric escalated when she urged her followers to “shoot to kill” anyone who administers vaccines to children. The RCMP have visited her since, and one of her followers in Laval, Que., was arrested after allegedly posting threats about his daughter’s school. Today on Front Burner, Vice World News reporter Mack Lamoureux discusses this influential QAnon figure, her active base of followers and law enforcement’s response.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi has seen the city through major change and shifted the world’s perceptions about the city he loves. He talks with Elamin Abdelmahmoud about why he’s leaving office after more than a decade.

Today, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov after a week of escalation over the future of Ukraine. Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly was in Ukraine earlier this week, expressing Canada's support for the country. But Ottawa Citizen defence reporter David Pugliese says Canada's military actions paint a different picture. In fact — Canada's moves on the ground reveal a limit to the government's willingness to help in Ukraine's looming fight. We're also joined by Eilish Hart, the English-language news editor for the Latvia-based news site Meduza, who explains why that means Ukraine is getting ready to go it alone — and how regular Russians may curtail the Kremlin's actions.

Sarah Everard’s killing in South London earlier this month has sparked protests and a renewed conversation about violence against women in the U.K. and beyond. Today, Guardian reporter Alexandra Topping on why her story is resonating.

Public health bodies like the World Health Organization tell us that widespread testing for COVID-19 is key to fighting the pandemic. But we’re also hearing that some provinces are planning to tighten criteria for who can get tested. Today on Front Burner, we speak to infectious disease specialist Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti about the testing strategy being used across Canada and how effective it is in flattening the curve.

Two Canadian women have surrendered to US-backed forces after spending years in ISIS-controlled territory. Journalist Michelle Shephard made a documentary about a similar case last year. She says repatriation is a thorny subject for the Canadian government. "It really feels like the Canadian policy has been not to have a policy," says Shephard.

Today, Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Lawrence Wright joins us to talk about The Plague Year, his new account of the biggest failures and successes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sacha Baron Cohen's new satire, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, uses the same kind of pranks and antics as his first Borat film to tackle sexism, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories and politics. But a lot has changed in the world since the original movie came out in 2006. And thanks to social media and the current U.S. political climate, the satire in this new movie hits very differently. Alissa Wilkinson, a film critic and culture reporter for Vox, joins us to talk about the mirror the new movie holds up to U.S. society.

Queen Elizabeth took the throne at the age 25, and stayed there through seven decades, 15 British prime ministers and the longest reign in U.K. history. From the earliest days as Queen, Elizabeth grappled with the British Empire transforming into a Commonwealth with more self-determined nations. But in more recent years, the Queen also ruled through the death of Princess Diana, numerous royal family scandals, and political upheaval like Brexit. Today, royal historian Carolyn Harris gives us a look back at how the Queen dealt with a colonial legacy, and a look forward at how the monarchy could change without her.

Many employers continue to struggle to fill vacant positions, despite the end of most pandemic restrictions — and the underlying explanations for this vary depending on who you ask. A common notion is that people just don’t want to work anymore. But when Canada’s unemployment rate is at its lowest level in decades, does the data really bear that out? Today on Front Burner, economist and Atkinson Fellow Armine Yalnizyan debunks common myths and explains how the current labour crunch has roots stretching back well before the pandemic — and what to expect moving forward.

It’s been an eventful week following the U.S presidential election, as we continue to await the final results. From Trump’s demands to stop the vote count, to the lawsuits contesting ballots in several states, one key theme that’s emerged is that America’s democratic system is being tested. This is an issue that Lawrence Lessig has been studying for a long time. He’s the author of “America, Compromised” and “They Don't Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy”, and the founder of Equal Citizens, a non-profit dedicated to democratic reform. He joined host Jayme Poisson to reflect on what the 2020 election says about the state of democracy in the U.S.

News of the mysterious deaths of billionaire Canadian pharma giant Barry Sherman and his philanthropist wife Honey in December 2017 reverberated around the world. Five years later, with no arrests and little news from the police, their deaths remain shrouded in mystery and conspiracy theories, with too many lingering questions. Not just who killed them, but what kind of life do you have to live that when you’re found dead, there are multiple theories, including some involving your own family? That’s the question journalist Kathleen Goldhar set out to discover, in The No Good, Terribly Kind, Wonderful Lives and Tragic Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman, as she explores who the Shermans really were and why too much money might have been what killed them in the end. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/DTlP12wc

France is electing a new president this weekend — and once again the culture war over Islam is front and centre. Marine Le Pen, the far-right candidate, has proposed a ban on Muslim women wearing headscarves in public, and she's in striking distance of upsetting Emmanuel Macron, France's current centrist president. With the debate over French identity and rampant Islamaphobia flaring up again, Nothing is Foreign host Tamara Khandaker speaks with guest, Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar, who says it's "draining" to feel as a French Muslim that "you are never enough." So what does this moment mean for Western Europe's largest Muslim population? And just how close is France to the brink of a far-right future? Featuring: Rim-Sarah Alouane, a French legal scholar and civil liberties expert.

Quebec’s premier, François Legault, has announced a plan to re-open the province in May, and he says the province’s COVID-19 crisis is now under control — at least, outside long term care facilities. But is it really under control? And will reopening the province trigger deepen community transmission of the disease? CBC Montreal’s Kate McKenna and Jonathan Montpetit join us to talk about what’s happening in the epicentre of Canada’s coronavirus pandemic.

The notorious former Hells Angels boss Maurice "Mom" Boucher died of cancer on Sunday. He was serving a life sentence in prison. Before being convicted, he was at the centre of the violent biker wars that took place in Quebec in the 1990s. Today on Front Burner, we discuss this vicious chapter in Canada's history and how Boucher made a name for himself. Julian Sher, an investigative journalist and a former producer at the CBC's Fifth Estate joins us. For years, Sher covered the biker wars and Boucher's role in them. He's co-written two books on the Hells Angels in Canada and around the world.

For weeks, tens of thousands of Russian troops have been within striking distance of Ukraine’s border. And then on Thursday came a sudden announcement of a partial de-escalation. Today on Front Burner, Moscow correspondent Chris Brown on the politics behind these moves.

The union representing almost 160,000 actors, SAG-AFTRA, is striking after negotiations fell through with the group representing most major Hollywood studios. The news comes about two months after 11,000 members of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) announced their strike. Studios say the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of streaming services like Netflix, Crave and Disney+ has caused financial strain. Meanwhile, actors say the shift to streaming has led to decreasing residuals, meaning they aren’t being paid for repeats of films and television shows. They're also concerned about proposals from studios to use their images and likeness in combination with artificial intelligence to create new content without their involvement. Maureen Ryan, a Vanity Fair contributing editor and author of “Burn It Down: Power, Complicity, and a Call for Change in Hollywood,” explains why Hollywood actors are striking and what it could mean for the future of television, film and the labour movement as a whole. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Starting in the mid-2000s, a pulsing fusion of EDM, rap and Egyptian folk – known as Mahraganat – has risen from the streets of Cairo and become a worldwide phenomenon. But Egypt's authorities are now cracking down on the music and the artists creating it, saying it's immoral and corrupting young people. We take you inside the culture and class wars of Egypt and explore what the banning of popular music says about the African country's image and its future. Featuring: Mahmoud Refat, music producer and executive of 100Copies Music. Fady Adel, Egyptian culture journalist.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election is still yet to be determined. Vote counting in crucial battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan are still not completed. Today, CBC’s Lyndsay Duncombe and Alex Panetta on what we know after a long night, and what we are still waiting to find out.

"This really is the beginning of a cultural shift," says Solomon Israel, cannabis reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Nearly two months into cannabis legalization he breaks down the complaints - from low quality to short supplies - and the positives - including the benefits that legal weed provides for medical research.

Love him or hate him, Joe Rogan is one of the biggest names in podcasting. Now, he’s inked a $100-million deal with Spotify that could turn the podcasting industry on its head. Nick Quah, writer of the newsletter Hot Pod, and Devin Gordon, a journalist who’s written about Rogan for The Atlantic, join us to speak about Rogan’s appeal, and why this Spotify deal could be such a game-changer.

As desperate countries around the world compete to secure as much personal protective equipment as they can, Canada is establishing a new supply chain to bring in millions of N95 masks and other supplies. Today, on Front Burner, CBC senior reporter David Cochrane explains how Canada's diplomats and consultants in China are working to set up a new supply chain amid the pandemic.

Twitter says its staff can work from home as long as they want. The head of Shopify says “office centricity is over.” OpenText is shuttering half of its offices, reducing its workforce and shifting 2000 employees to remote work. COVID-19 forced hundreds of millions of employees to temporarily work from home, but companies are starting to change their remote work strategies from “pandemic” to “permanent.” Today on Front Burner, NPR reporter Bobby Allyn explains what’s driving the enthusiasm for remote work in Silicon Valley, and the employee surveillance tools he calls a “morale destroyer.” Then, author and UN Happiness Committee member Jennifer Moss tells us who working from home is and isn’t working for.

Last week, after months of requests, Germany agreed to send German-built tanks called Leopard 2s to Ukraine, to help in their fight against Russia. That decision opened the door for other countries to send their Leopard 2s, including Canada – which will send four. The US also jumped in, agreeing to send 31 of its M1 Abrams tanks. All in, over 300 tanks are being sent to the country. Now, Ukraine is asking for more weapons – including long range guided missiles – faster. But this begs the question: how will an influx of heavy weaponry change the situation on the ground? Could this mean an end to the war? Or could it mark the start of a new, increasingly violent and dangerous impasse? Rajan Menon is the Director of The Grand Strategy program at The Defence Priorities think tank. He’s also a senior research scholar at Columbia. He gives his take on how this next phase of the war could play out.

Opposition to the launch of a Mi’kmaw lobster fishery in Nova Scotia last month has grown increasingly violent. Over the past week, two facilities storing Mi’kmaw catches were targeted and vandalized by several hundred non-Indigenous commercial fishermen and their supporters, one facility was burned to the ground and a man has been charged with assaulting the chief of Sipekne'katik First Nation. But this is just the latest chapter in a dispute that stretches back at least two decades. APTN reporters Angel Moore and Trina Roache discuss the latest developments and explain the complex history behind this conflict.

This weekend marked the return of a major sporting event to North America, the first since the pandemic forced leagues into lockdown in mid-March. UFC 249 brought mixed martial arts fighters back into the octagon in an empty stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. As other major leagues make plans to open back up, Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur reports on the future of sports, post COVID-19. Will it ever be the same?

It was one of the most harrowing attacks in recent Canadian history. Alek Minassian plowed into pedestrians on a busy section of Yonge Street in Toronto with a rented van, killing 10 and wounding 16. Just before his attack on Facebook, he wrote of an 'incel rebellion,' aligning himself with the ideology of involuntarily celibate men who blame women for the fact they are alone. Minassian has admitted he carried out the attack. But this week, as he faces trial for murder and attempted murder, his lawyers are expected to argue that their client was not criminally responsible for his actions. CBC's Ioanna Roumeliotis tells us how it could unfold.

When an anti-fascist infiltrator left The Base in 2020, he took 80 gigabytes of files with him. Those screengrabs, videos and audio detail the neo-Nazi organization from its beginnings, including around 100 hours of vetting calls with white supremacists hoping to join. Today, The Fifth Estate host Gillian Findlay guides us through that audio, the first-ever interview with the infiltrator who calls himself Tradian and what the recordings all tell us about "accelerationist" ideology. Plus, FBI recordings of Base member and former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Mathews after he fled to the U.S.

Randy Hillier, a longtime member of Ontario’s legislature, is facing nine charges related to his participation in the Ottawa trucker convoy — and they could lead to jail time. Hillier’s protests against public health restrictions and spreading of misinformation about vaccines have also gotten him banned from Twitter and barred from speaking in the legislature. Today, we speak to CBC reporter Mike Crawley about how the long-standing Ontario politician became a high-profile voice in Canada’s anti-vaccine movement, and the trouble he finds himself in now.

U.S. President Donald Trump put TikTok on the clock this week. On Monday, Trump said that if Microsoft, or another U.S. company doesn’t take control of the Chinese-owned TikTok by Sept. 15 - he’ll shut down the hugely popular social media app in the U.S. Trump’s administration has expressed concerns about China’s influence and potential to demand data collected from the app - concerns that have also weighed on the diverse communities who use it. Today on Front Burner, MIT Technology Review senior editor Abby Ohlheiser tells us how TikTok users are grappling with the newest threats to their platform, and what’s at stake for them.

A summary of Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 election is out. CBC Washington correspondent Keith Boag breaks down what we know so far, and the implications for the Trump administration.

A photograph of Justin Trudeau in brownface and wearing a turban at a 2001 “Arabian Nights”-themed costume party was published in TIME Wednesday night. Soon after, Trudeau apologized, saying he now realizes it was “racist.” Today on Front Burner, Vassy Kapelos, host of Power & Politics, joins us talk about the reaction to the news and political fallout for a leader who has positioned himself as a champion of diversity and inclusion.

On Sunday President Donald Trump announced that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi died during a U.S. raid in Syria. Today on Front Burner, Joby Warrick explains the significance of Baghdadi’s death and what this means for the future of ISIS. Warrick is a national security reporter for the Washington Post and Pulitzer-prize winning author of Black Flags: The Rise Of ISIS.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kicked off an eight-day charm offensive in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this past weekend, attending a meeting of the African Union. Now, he’s Dakar, Senegal. And it’s all part of the government’s efforts to get Canada a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Today, CBC’s Catherine Cullen explains why the government’s gunning for this seat, and whether all the time and money put into this bid is really worth it.

Andrew Scheer is stepping down as leader of the federal Conservative party amidst a controversy over his use of party funds to send his kids to private school and growing criticisms over his election performance. Today, Jayme Poisson speaks with Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos for insight on Scheer’s resignation and to find out what, and who, could be next for the party.

With three months to go before the federal election, two parties on the left are trying to plant their flag as the party of environmentalists. The NDP recently introduced its "Canadian New Deal" which promises aggressive carbon targets and investments in energy efficiency. Meanwhile, the Green Party is surging in the polls, with its promise to double Canada's emission reduction targets. With the two parties battling for green voters on the left, analysts are beginning to wonder if there's room for both parties to thrive. Althia Raj is the Ottawa bureau chief for the Huffington Post. She's been speaking to voters in British Columbia about which party should get the environmentalist vote this fall.

Brainwashed investigates the CIA’s covert mind control experiments – from the Cold War and MKULTRA to the so-called War on Terror. It’s the story of how a renowned psychiatrist used his unwitting patients as human guinea pigs at a Montreal hospital, and the ripple effects on survivors, their families, and thousands of other people around the world. It also examines the cultural impact — how the CIA brought LSD to America and inadvertently created counterculture influencers such as author Ken Kessey and poet Allen Ginsberg. It’s an exploration of what happens in times of fear, when the military and medicine collide. And what happens when the survivors fight back. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/brainwashedcbc

With eight confirmed cases, Vancouver is facing Canada's worst measles outbreak in years. Dr. Natasha Crowcroft on why the infectious disease is having a worldwide comeback.

Rents in Canada are skyrocketing, and tenants are struggling to keep up. One in three Canadian households rent, and yet much of the public conversation around Canada’s housing crisis focuses on homebuyers. Today on Front Burner, Shaina Luck brings us her investigation for the Fifth Estate into Canada’s rental crisis: what’s driving prices up, the role of institutional landlords, and the absence of government action.

When the young CEO of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange is reported to have died while honeymooning in India, it sets off a cataclysmic chain of events that would leave about 76,000 people out of a quarter of a billion dollars and a trail of conspiracy theories around whether Gerald Cotten is dead or alive. A Death in Cryptoland is an original podcast series about a crypto-tycoon, his secret past, his sudden demise, and an online sleuth’s obsession to unravel the truth behind QuadrigaCX. More episodes are available at smarturl.it/cryptoland

This year alone, hundreds of new laws targeting trans people have been introduced by Republicans in the United States. Many of them make it harder for doctors to provide gender-affirming care for young people, or ban it completely. On this episode, Ryan Sallans, a transgender author and consultant focused on gender diversity based in Nebraska, and Dr. Hussein Abdul-Latif, an endocrinologist who works with trans kids in Alabama, discuss the impact of the new bills. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Peter Nygard is a fashion mogul who made his fortune selling sensible clothing to middle-aged women. He was also known for throwing so-called “pamper parties” in the Bahamas and for a raging feud with a billionaire neighbour. Today, Fifth Estate co-host Bob McKeown and producer Timothy Sawa bring us their longtime investigation into Peter Nygard and report on the international rape lawsuit involving 46 women, including at least 17 Canadians. Nygard denies all allegations. None have been proven in court.

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

In the last year, there has been a tremendous uptick in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes across North America. In Vancouver, police in February reported a 717 per cent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year. Today on Front Burner, producer Elaine Chau’s documentary shows how these incidents have changed one neighbourhood in the city: Chinatown.

Anna Mehler Paperny first tried to kill herself when she was 24 years old, just as she was finding success as a journalist. In her new memoir, Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person, she talks unflinchingly about her experience with depression and tries to better understand the illness.

The global rise of Uber's ride-sharing service — and the subsequent crushing of taxi services in many countries — has largely been portrayed as an inevitability. But a trove of 124,000 leaked, confidential documents reveal ruthless dealings inside the company as it expanded across the globe, and suggest that its rise was far more than an organic product of market forces. The "Uber files" — first leaked to the Guardian and then shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — show how the company broke laws, secretly lobbied governments, and put drivers at risk as it climbed to the top. Today, we're diving into those files with the Washington Post's Doug MacMillan and with CBC reporter Frédéric Zalac, who looked at what the documents expose about Uber's dealings in Canada.

This December, Front Burner hosted a live show at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. In this second part, host Jayme Poisson was joined by CBC personalities Peter Armstrong, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, Piya Chattopadhyay and Tom Power for a freewheeling news quiz.

NBA legend Kobe Bryant died on Sunday in a helicopter crash near Calabasas, California, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other people. The 41-year-old 18-time NBA all-star won five championships with the L.A. Lakers. His legacy is also complicated by the fact that in 2003 he was accused of sexual assault. The criminal charges were dropped after his accuser refused to testify in court. Today on Front Burner, we talk about Bryant's career and complicated legacy with Slate writer and podcast host Joel Anderson.

Months of Democratic strategizing and in-fighting culminates on Monday in the first caucus of the party’s 2020 leadership race. Historically, the Iowa caucuses are the first hint of which candidate could take on the President in November. Today on Front Burner, Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel takes us to Iowa, where the momentum of caucusing could be the key to capturing the Democratic nomination.

As the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine rolls out across the country, and other vaccines await imminent regulatory approval, many public health experts are focusing on the issue of vaccine hesitancy. Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has spoken out about the "moveable middle" and says it is critical that as many people get vaccinated as possible to protect themselves and others from risk. But, since conversations about vaccines can be hard, today we're bringing in an expert to explain how to have more meaningful and productive discussions with people who have questions or fears. Maria Sundaram is an infectious disease epidemiologist who studies vaccines.

Today on Front Burner, the CBC’s Jason Proctor tells why the ongoing manhunt for two B.C. murder suspects has left many residents of Canada’s north feeling vulnerable and afraid.

The Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading quickly. They already make up a majority of new COVID infections in the U.S., and it appears they are much better at getting around immunity. Research from Harvard Medical School shows the BA.5 subvariant “may escape antibody responses. The spread of these subvariants has coincided with the lifting of mask mandates and the relaxing of many public health measures nationwide. To provide you with details about the latest COVID-19 variants and the state of the pandemic here in Canada heading into the summer, we are joined once again by Dr. Zain Chagla, an infectious diseases physician at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton.

Last week, political leaders and elite business people gathered at the World Economic Forum's annual summit in Davos, Switzerland, to discuss solutions to problems such as climate change, the war in Ukraine and the growing global food crisis. But outside, among the usual crowds of protestors, were some unusual participants: members of the wealthy one per cent. They're part of a growing movement that is calling on governments to impose wealth taxes on the world's richest people. Today, Front Burner talks to Morris Pearl, the former managing director at the investment firm BlackRock and current chair of the group Patriotic Millionaires, about why he wants to pay much more in taxes and why it could alleviate many of society's biggest problems if more rich people wanted to do the same.

On Wednesday, Justin Trudeau will lay out his plan to lead Canada through this next stretch of the pandemic. It comes at a pivotal moment, as CERB and other programs helping people stay afloat are winding down, more than a million Canadians are still out of work because of COVID-19, and infections are on the rise. Today, the CBC’s economics reporter Peter Armstrong joins us to talk about the scope of the economic crisis right now, and what might be done to fix it. This is part of our ongoing series Year K, about how COVID-19 could make Canada a more unequal place.

"From the justice system's point of view, you also have these bigger questions about how to conduct terrorism investigations, and investigations into these elaborate societal issues where we have fears about the crimes that people might commit." Today on Front Burner, senior reporter for CBC Vancouver, Jason Proctor, explains why a B.C. couple accused of planning a bomb plot had their convictions stayed due to entrapment and abuse of process by the RCMP.

Led by South Africa and India, more than 100 mostly developing countries are calling on the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive vaccine makers’ intellectual property protections. Today, science writer Stephen Buranyi on why he believes this could boost global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, and save lives.

For many years, far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has touted that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a fake. The parents of its victims have been targeted because of Jones's claims that they were "crisis actors" in a plot to force gun control. Now, two of those parents are suing the InfoWars host for compensation and punitive damages. Today Dan Solomon, senior editor at Texas Daily, tells us more about the surprising turns that went down in the trial and what's at stake for Jones's conspiracy media empire.

In the weeks following the 2020 killings of 22 people in Portapique, Nova Scotia — the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history — the federal government began introducing steps to limit the types of guns people can own and use. There were orders in council, which began with a list of more than 1,500 firearms, before more were added, and later a piece of proposed gun control legislation, Bill C-21. That bill had two readings in the House of Commons, before a major 478-page amendment was added. The changes have drawn more criticism to what was already a contentious bill, as some question whether it’s too broad and will affect too many types of guns. On today’s episode, we’re joined by Kieran Oudshoorn, a producer with CBC’s audio documentary unit, to walk through Liberal government’s plans for gun control.

From record-breaking heat waves to droughts and floods — people are acutely experiencing climate change this summer. Many are struggling with ‘climate anxiety’ as a result. Stanford Planetary Health Fellow Britt Wray explains why, and what can be done about it.

Today on Front Burner, the first installment of a two part series exploring the growing political anger in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Part one: deja vu. Jayme Poisson and political science professor Loleen Berdahl guide you through the history of western alienation. They explore how Trudeau senior, set the stage for the deep schisms Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is dealing with today.

There’s a growing sense that the internet – or at least the big sites we use all the time like Amazon, Facebook and Google – is becoming worse. Instead of seeing what’s best for us at the top of our searches, we’re seeing more and more of what makes the tech giant the most money pop to the top. Cory Doctorow calls it ‘Enshittification.’ He explains how it works. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In this season of Uncover: The Village, reporter Justin Ling reveals the history of unsolved murder and missing persons cases in Toronto's gay village.

Canada's national police force is once again at the centre of disturbing allegations. Multiple women have come forward accusing a former RCMP doctor of sexually assaulting and harassing them decades ago when they were new recruits. CBC investigative reporter Dave Seglins explains what happened and why the RCMP is being accused of covering up sexual assaults from the '80s and '90s.

B.C. is on track to have another record-breaking year for toxic drug deaths. But as people continue to die, a backlash appears to be growing to the province’s current strategies for tackling the crisis. A recent polarizing documentary, Vancouver Is Dying, as well as a recent video by federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, have pointed fingers at B.C.’s slate of harm reduction policies. But many drug policy experts argue just the opposite. Today, Moira Wyton, a health reporter for the Tyee, joins us for a look at the state of BC’s toxic drug crisis, the criticisms coming from both ends of the spectrum, and where things go from here.

This weekend, a new Joker movie hit theatres, polarizing critics and audiences with a gritty take on the DC super-villain’s origin story. The film also caught the attention of intelligence and law enforcement agencies who fear it could trigger public violence. Today on Front Burner, film critic Tina Hassannia unpacks the iconic character and the different sides of the rhetoric surrounding the movie. Warning: There won’t be major spoilers, but this episode will cover some of the film’s plot.

As the United Kingdom hurtles towards the October 31 Brexit deadline, newly-appointed Prime Minister Boris Johnson is playing hardball with the European Union, saying the UK is leaving deal or no deal. Today on Front Burner, CBC’s senior correspondent Susan Ormiston pops by to explain what could be next for Brexit.

This week, Ontario Premier Doug Ford unveiled a plan to significantly increase the number of surgeries being done outside hospitals, which are struggling with a major backlog of operations. Many of the procedures — including things like cataract, hip and knee operations — will be performed by for-profit clinics. The plan has drawn criticism from several groups, including five major Ontario health care unions, which say it will divert frontline staff and funding away from the public health care system.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., John F. Kennedy’s nephew, is running for U.S. president. Like his forefathers, he’s vying to lead the Democrats – but his political focus is noticeably different. For decades, RFK Jr. has been spreading false information about vaccines, and has more recently been peddling conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and 5G. Vera Bergengruen, a senior correspondent at TIME, recently interviewed RFK Jr. Today, she explains why RFK is campaigning on conspiracy theories and how he reflects a conspiratorial shift in U.S. society. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The armed insurrection in Washington, after Donald Trump lost the presidential election, shook many. This week, U.S. lawmakers heard from the police officers who tried to hold it at bay — as a committee pieces together what happened.

This week's federal budget laid some initial groundwork for the possibility of a national pharmacare plan in Canada. But with a contentious election year ahead, there are still plenty of questions around how a strategy could be implemented. Today on Front Burner, Globe and Mail health reporter Kelly Grant explains how the pharmacare debate is unfolding and what we can expect from the Liberals in the coming year.

British Columbia declared a state of emergency Wednesday after days of extreme flooding and mudslides destroyed major highways and cut off entire communities in parts of the Lower Mainland. Mass evacuations were ordered in places like Merritt, Princeton and parts of Abbotsford, a city of nearly 100,000 people, but the full scale of the devastation still isn't known. These kinds of climate events are becoming all too familiar in B.C. It was just four and a half months ago that a crushing heat dome killed nearly 600 people in the province, and a wildfire burned the town of Lytton to the ground. Today on Front Burner, how this week's weather event, known as an atmospheric river, unfolded, and how other recent extreme climate events may have made it worse. If this is the new normal for B.C., what does the future look like for the people in the province? Finally, a conversation with CBC Vancouver reporter Justin McElroy about how the B.C. government responded and what needs to change moving forward.

This week, Donald Trump and 18 of his associates were charged under the state of Georgia’s RICO Act. RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, and it was originally designed to crack down on organized crime. And while Trump’s at the center of these latest charges, a lot of the heat is also on his former attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The former mayor of New York made his name in the 80s as a federal prosecutor for using the RICO act to take down the city’s mob. So how did this tough-on-crime anti-mafia crusader end up being charged with a legal tool he himself pioneered? Today on Front Burner, VICE News reporter Greg Walters on what led Giuliani to this point, and what these charges in Georgia could mean for his future. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Most long-term care residents have now been vaccinated, prompting BC to announce looser restrictions on visitors. But in Ontario, residents are still starving for human connection — and they’re calling for changes.

29-year-old Tyre Nichols was on his way to his mother’s house when Memphis police pulled him over. Police body cam footage and other video show officers punching, pepper-spraying, hitting him with a baton, and kicking him. He died three days later in hospital. Officials in Memphis have fired the five officers who were involved, who are all Black, and charged them with second-degree murder. They’ve also disbanded the special unit the officers were part of that had been created to bring down crime in certain neighbourhoods. Today we’ll be talking about how Americans have reacted to yet another police beating of an unarmed Black man. We’ll also talk about what needs to happen to fix the ways police treat Black Americans.

Over 50 nations arrived at COP26 with net-zero emissions targets, but many rely on high hopes for carbon capture tech. Today, a reality check — will carbon capture help us, or provide excuses for more pollution?

In Canada and around the world, women who’ve been struck with a rare form of cancer are joining class action lawsuits against the manufacturer of the Biocell textured breast implant. Today, on Front Burner, CBC investigative journalist Valérie Ouellet explains how this particular breast implant flew under the radar for so long.

Marc and Craig Kielburger's WE Charity routinely misled school-aged children and wealthy philanthropists across North America for years as it solicited millions for schoolhouses in Kenya in its Adopt-A-Village program, an investigation by CBC's The Fifth Estate has found. WE denies it has misled donors. Today, Mark Kelley explains what the team found over the course of the investigation, and the obstacles they faced while reporting the story.

As Pfizer and Moderna's vaccine candidates get closer to being approved in countries around the world, many Canadians are wondering when they might be able to get a shot here. Prime Minister Trudeau has said most Canadians could be vaccinated by next September, but the details on when those vaccines may arrive in the country — and how they'll be distributed — remain hazy. The government is also facing questions about whether other countries could be way ahead of Canada. Two parliamentary reporters — CBC's J.P. Tasker and the Globe and Mail's Marieke Walsh — break down everything we know, and don't know, about Canada's vaccine rollout plan.

Our brains aren’t wired to save the world. But if you’re ready to make changes that actually stick, 10 Minutes to Save the Planet will show you the way. Co-hosts meteorologist and climate reporter Johanna Wagstaffe and broadcaster Rohit Joseph work through the UN’s 10 actions for a healthy planet, but in a way that won’t shame, overwhelm or bore you. Think of each episode as a bite-size guide to fight climate change, rooted in behavioural therapy. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Gs-5DFiM

Canadian newsrooms have had serious financial woes for years now. But since the coronavirus pandemic began, layoffs, cuts and closures across the country have left many teetering on the brink of survival. Today, Craig Silverman, a Toronto-based media editor for Buzzfeed News, joins us to talk about how it got to this point and what can be done to stop the hemorrhaging.

A scandal's brewing in the Conservative leadership race. Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been disqualified from the race over allegations that his campaign broke financing rules. But he's denying these claims, and accusing the party establishment of corruption in favour of rival candidate Pierre Poilievre. Today, Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos on the latest in the increasingly messy race to lead the Conservative Party.

At a rally on Wednesday night, supporters of Donald Trump broke out in a chorus of "send her back!" chants, targeted toward Ilhan Omar, a Somali-born congresswoman from Minnesota. The chant came just days after the U.S. president took to Twitter, to attack four congresswomen of colour, suggesting they "go back and help fix the broken and crime-infested places from which they came." All of this has set off a debate in the media, on how to cover Trump and racism. On today's Front Burner, we talk to Adam Serwer, staff writer with The Atlantic, about journalistic objectivity, Trump, the media and the term "racist."

What does it mean that WHO is now calling COVID-19 a pandemic? And what’s behind the idea of “flattening the curve”? Plus, Prime Minister Trudeau has announced measures to fight the outbreak, including $1 billion in spending. So is Canada doing enough? We’re joined by CBC senior health writer Adam Miller to explain all that and to break down the latest news.

The Canadian government has introduced rules around the sale of edibles and other weed products, like topicals. Sol Israel from The Leaf News walks us through what these new regulations look like, and why the new rules around edibles may have unexpected consequences.

People in London waited in kilometres-long lines for the chance to pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest reigning monarch who died on Sept. 8, during her lying-in-state. Hundreds of leaders, dignitaries and royals travelled from around the world to attend her funeral. Queen Elizabeth II was just 25 when she took the throne in 1952. At 73, King Charles III — the Queen's son and longtime heir — is the oldest monarch to assume the British throne. Today on Front Burner, Stephen Bates, author and former religious affairs and royal correspondent for The Guardian, takes us through what's shaped King Charles's character and what his reign could mean for the future of the British monarchy.

In the global fight against the spread of COVID-19, Hong Kong has been recognized for its success keeping the number of cases low despite its proximity to China. Today on Front Burner, Shibani Mahtani, the Washington Post’s Hong Kong and Southeast Asia bureau chief, talks to guest host Michelle Shephard about how they did it, and what preparations are underway now for a second wave of imported COVID-19 cases.

On Monday, Sportsnet let go of Don Cherry after the hockey broadcaster called immigrants "you people", and claimed they don't wear poppies to honour Canadian veterans. This comes after a career filled with controversy, from anti-Quebecer sentiments to Cherry’s advocacy for fighting in hockey. Today on Front Burner, host Jayme Poisson talks to Postmedia sports columnist Scott Stinson about Cherry’s career, his controversial legacy, and what might happen next for Hockey Night in Canada.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is calling a major new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change "a code red for humanity." Today on Front Burner, we break down what's in the report, its potential impact and why there might be reason to feel hopeful about it.

The shelving of the Teck Resources Frontier project — an oilsands mine twice the size of Vancouver — has many arguing over the right balance between climate action and resource development. Today on Front Burner, we get two viewpoints on Canada's energy future: former TransCanada executive Dennis McConaghy and Stand.earth program director Tzeporah Berman. McConaghy says Canada is punishing itself while the rest of the world continues to profit off hydrocarbons. Berman believes markets and political leaders are turning the page on fossil fuels and Canada needs to do the same.

On Monday night, the six major federal party leaders faced off in an English-language debate for the only time in the 2019 election campaign. And the stage was packed: There were more leaders on stage in Gatineau, Que., than at any other point in Canadian political history. Today on Front Burner, Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos on the debate's highs, lows and takeaways.

Danielle Smith has been premier of Alberta for about six weeks. Her anti-Ottawa rhetoric and proposed sovereignty act ignited the leadership race. Then, on the day Smith took office, she commented that unvaccinated people were the "most discriminated against group.” A First Nations leader in Alberta has even called into question her claims of Indigenous heritage. Smith took to television Tuesday evening to address the province and lay out her agenda. Now, we’re starting to get a clearer picture of who she is as a leader and where she plans to take the province. Today, CBC’s Jason Markusoff is here to explain what has happened during Smith’s first weeks as premier.

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

Demonstrations across the US protesting the death of George Floyd are coinciding with a global pandemic and an economic crisis. And it’s a moment when many Americans are calling on the president for leadership. Keith Boag, a longtime political correspondent and a contributor to the CBC on US politics, joins us to talk about how Donald Trump is responding to this critical moment — and what lies ahead as the November election date looms.

We've heard from the key players in the SNC-Lavalin scandal. There's former Attorney-General Jody Wilson-Raybould, who said she was subjected to inappropriate pressure by the Prime Minister's office to intervene with the corruption case against engineering giant SNC-Lavalin. On the other side, Prime Minister Trudeau, his former principal secretary Gerry Butts and the Clerk of the Privy Council, all of whom say nothing outside the normal functioning of government happened. Today, we take a step back and navigate five lingering questions about the SNC-Lavalin scandal with CBC senior reporter David Cochrane.

This weekend, pop superstar Taylor Swift penned a distraught Tumblr post in which she took the news of a business deal very, very personally. Her former record label, Big Machine, was sold to music mogul Scooter Braun's company for a reported $300 million U.S. The acquisition essentially hands Braun control of Swift's masters from her entire back catalogue. She claims this is her "worst case scenario," as she accuses Scooter Braun of "incessant, manipulative bullying." Today on Front Burner, Emily Yahr, pop culture reporter with the Washington Post, breaks down the origin of this feud, and explains why some of the most successful recording artists in the world are powerless when it comes to owning their own music.

Dr. Brian Goldman is seeing more coronavirus cases at the emergency department of the Toronto hospital in which he works. Today on Front Burner, Dr. Goldman describes a shift in the pandemic, from the intense intubations, to the discomfort of the required personal protective equipment, to the compassion of younger colleagues concerned for his health.

World news, local voices. Nothing is Foreign is a weekly trip to where the story is unfolding. Hosted by Tamara Khandaker. This episode takes you inside El Salvador to hear from locals to see how the promise of a cryptocurrency paradise by a self-professed 'world's coolest dictator' is running up against the reality of regular people just trying to survive. More episodes are available at: http://hyperurl.co/nothingisforeign

Touring is often an essential aspect of a musician's career — perhaps now more than ever. Some bands rely on performance income because streaming plays net fractional pay, while for others it might be the only way they grow their audience. And while many COVID-19 restrictions have ended and music fans are flocking to stages, the virus is still making this very exposed way of life even more challenging. Today on Front Burner, producer Derek Vanderwyk speaks to independent musicians — including Charlotte Cornfield, Daniel Monkman and Zack Mykula — about the challenges of going on tour in 2022.

As Ontario lays out its plans to reopen, Quebec Premier François Legault pushes "herd immunity" as part of the strategy to reopen his province. But that strategy was tried elsewhere and led to rapidly climbing death rates. Tonight on Front Burner, we look into how this could play out in Quebec. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch returns to help us out.

If you're sitting in the West, listening to Western politicians, the Ukraine-Russia war has a pretty clear narrative: Russia is the aggressor and should be sanctioned to the fullest extent, in solidarity with Ukraine. But how does the rest of the world view this war? Much of the Global South and some of the most powerful nations in the world, like China, India and Brazil, don't see the war in black and white. They're refusing to sanction or officially condemn Russia over the invasion. Why aren't they taking a side and what does that mean for how this war can end? This week on Nothing is Foreign, we speak with two geopolitical experts on the tightrope these countries are walking and whether we're witnessing a reordering of power among the biggest players on the world stage. Featuring: Swapna Kona Nayudu, associate at the Harvard University Asia Center and Indian foreign policy expert. Chidochashe Nyere, post-doctoral research fellow at the Institute of Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg.

Former U.S. vice-president Joe Biden is denying an allegation that he sexually assaulted a Senate staffer twenty-seven years ago. The allegation was made by Tara Reade in March. Reade was among the women who came forward last year to accuse Biden of inappropriate touching. With the 2020 U.S. election coming up, CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter reports on how the Democratic Party is responding to the allegation against their presumptive presidential candidate.

We return to the beginning of Sam Bankman-Fried’s lucrative foray into crypto and ask: how did it all fall apart? Sam Bankman-Fried rose to the top of the crypto world with help from his friends. Gary Wang was a former fellow math-camper and brilliant programmer; Caroline Ellison was a former colleague at an elite Wall Street firm and an avid LARPer on the side. While still in their twenties, they were entrusted with billions of dollars of customer and investor funds. But in retrospect there were signs that maybe their enormous fortunes weren't created simply through their supposed technological and financial genius. For more episodes of The Naked Emperor, check out its podcast feed: https://link.chtbl.com/uXdCyMR8 For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the early 1990s, as AIDS tightens its grip on major cities around the world, the relative safety of Montreal’s nightlife becomes a magnet for gay men. But when they start turning up dead in hotel rooms, beaten lifeless in city parks, and violently murdered in their own homes, the queer community has more to fear than the disease. While the city’s police force dithers over the presence of a serial killer, a group of queer activists starts making connections, and rises up to start a movement that would end up changing thousands of lives. Hosted by Francis Plourde. More episodes are available at smarturl.it/thevillagecbc

Our behaviour online creates a lot of data that's useful for tech companies - what we buy, what videos we watch on YouTube, what movies we see on Netflix. Author Glen Weyl says if tech companies make money off this information, we should get paid for it.

If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Roe v. Wade, 13 states have already passed what are known as "trigger" bans which automatically ban abortion. While it is still unclear if the leaked draft opinion represents the court's final word on the matter, as many as half of U.S. states are expected to bring in restrictions in the future should it be struck down. Meanwhile, some predominantly Catholic countries have recently made moves once thought impossible: legalizing or expanding abortion access. Today on Front Burner, a look at the long road to legal abortion in Ireland and the tragic impacts bans have had on generations of women. Caelainn Hogan is a freelance journalist based in Ireland and the author of Republic of Shame: Stories from Ireland's Institutions for 'Fallen Women'.

If you've been to an airport in Canada recently, there's a good chance you've dealt with more than your average level of chaos. Some of the issues include hours-long security lineups, delayed or cancelled flights, passengers stuck on the tarmac and major congestion at border security. Many say most of the blame falls on two short-staffed government security entities, but some have also pointed fingers at COVID-19 testing rules, airlines and even out-of-practice travellers. Today on Front Burner, we will try to get a better understanding of the mess in Canada's airports right now with the help of two guests. Rosa Saba is a business reporter with the Toronto Star who has been following this story over the past couple of months, and John Gradek is a faculty lecturer and program coordinator for the aviation management program at McGill University.

Hamilton, Ontario, has the most hate crime per capita in the country. Along with that, it has ongoing weekly protests at city hall by members of the yellow vest movement and far-right groups. CBC News reporter Samantha Craggs has been covering this story in Hamilton, as part of an ongoing series called “Exposing Hate”. Today on Front Burner, she explains why Hamilton has become a flashpoint for hate in Canada.

Toronto-area MP Han Dong is denying allegations that he worked against the release of ‘the two Michaels’ in 2021. His denial comes in the wake of a story from Global News that alleges Dong advised a senior Chinese diplomat in Toronto to delay the release of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, two Canadians being held in Chinese detention. Meanwhile, calls for a public inquiry into foreign election interference grow louder. Today, CBC’s chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton brings us up to speed on the latest escalation in allegations of Chinese government interference in Canadian affairs. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Who owns the Arctic? There are several countries who think they have a right to the North Pole or the rich territory around it. Russia has a military presence close by, and recently fired two missiles from the Arctic Ocean as a show of strength. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. secretary of state, has called the Arctic "the forefront of opportunity and abundance" for the United States. And Canada is among the countries that have submitted scientific evidence bolstering a claim of sovereignty over the North Pole. Neil Shea recently travelled to the Arctic for National Geographic, and spent time with a group of Canadian Rangers responsible for bolstering Ottawa's claim. "There's a lot of oil and gas, and on the land, there's a lot of minerals," says Shea, who notes the Arctic land rush has been the result of climate change. "There's trillions of dollars of stuff that hasn't been accessible. But now that everything is melting, you have more opportunity to get at it."

On the weekend, a majority of the Minneapolis city council declared their intention to disband the city's police force. The move comes in response to the killing of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin — a member of that force — and to other local instances of police brutality. Today on Front Burner, we talk about the growing "defund police" movement that says scaling down police budgets and spending the money on social services could be a way to protect civilian lives.

Carrie Low trusted police when she reported her horrific rape. But she says they failed to investigate properly, and only succeeded in traumatizing her further. Now she’s setting out on a mission to hold these institutions to account. This all-new investigation is hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Maggie Rahr. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/carrielow

An online feud between two "beauty influencers," James Charles and Tati Westbrook, has racked up tens of millions of views on YouTube this week. Maybe you've never heard of them, but plenty of people have, and, according to Washington Post internet-culture reporter Abby Ohlheiser, this world is more influential than you might think: "Whether you like it or not, the future of entertainment and the future of industries touched by robust online communities ? are being shaped and changed by what's happening right now on these platforms."

In the midst of a pandemic, two veteran executives launched Quibi — a video-streaming app intended for watching on the go. With nearly $2 billion in cash invested and a huge roster of A-list celebrities creating content, it seemed like a recipe for success. But two months later, the app has largely missed the mark, with subscriptions way below expectations. Today on Front Burner, we talk to Kathryn VanArendonk, staff writer for New York magazine, to find out why Quibi is failing.

The public hearings into the deadliest mass shooting in Canadian history end today. Since February, the Mass Casualty Commission has heard evidence about the gunman and the warning signs reported to the RCMP in the years leading up to April 18, 2020, when he went on a rampage, killing 22 people in Nova Scotia while disguised as a Mountie. The inquiry has encountered multiple delays and controversies, leaving some victims’ family members to say they now have more questions than answers. Today, CBC Nova Scotia's investigative reporter, Angela McIvor, takes us through what the commission hearings have revealed and what questions remain.

Filmmaker and activist Avi Lewis has just announced he’ll be running to be an NDP MP in the next federal election. He speaks to Jayme about why he’s decided to enter the political ring, and whether the NDP — and Canadians — are ready for his ambitious vision of a Green New Deal.

Amazon has tapped into the power of J.R.R. Tolkien, spending around $715 million US on its new series, The Rings of Power, reportedly the most expensive TV show ever made. What is it about Tolkien's fantasy realm of Middle-earth that has held our attention for so long, since his early writings in the 1930s? Today on Front Burner, we're talking to historian Dominic Sandbrook — co-host of The Rest is History podcast — about how Tolkien's world strikingly mirrors our own, from war, to modernity, to greed, to the fight to save the environment.

The coronavirus outbreak has come to Canada. A man in his 50s who’d recently been to Wuhan, China is Canada’s first “presumptive case,” and is being treated in a Toronto hospital. Today, on Front Burner, we speak to infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch to learn what’s happening in this country and around the world to combat the 2019-nCoV coronavirus. He explains everything from front-line measures being taken by health professionals, to the co-ordination of international public health authorities, to the lab research being done to help us better understand and better fight this virus.

The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had secured constitutional protections for abortion in the country for nearly 50 years, raises questions about whether something similar could happen here. Canada has its own historic Supreme Court ruling that protects abortion rights: R. vs. Morgentaler. It still stands. But is it ironclad? Or could it be overturned, too? Today on Front Burner, we explore the history of abortion rights in Canada, just how protected they really are, and how much sway the anti-abortion movement has here. We talk to Kelly Gordon, an assistant professor at McGill University and co-author of the book, The Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of Pro-Woman Rhetoric in Canada and the United States.

In 1982 a brutal massacre in a small farming community during the Guatemalan civil war left over 160 men, women and children dead. Over thirty years later, one of the men responsible for the horrific murders has been sentenced to more than 5000 years in prison by a Guatemalan Court. His name is Santos López Alonzo. Today on Front Burner, CBC's Nahlah Ayed explains how a little boy that Santos López kidnapped from the village after the massacre? would one day grow up and help put him behind bars.

Fans are grieving the loss of actor Chadwick Boseman, best known as the star of the groundbreaking blockbuster Black Panther. Boseman died on Friday, at the age of 43. According to his family, he was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016. Boseman never spoke about that publicly, and the knowledge now of the diagnosis is giving new meaning to his work. Today on Front Burner, Rolling Stone senior writer Jamil Smith on Chadwick Boseman’s legacy.

As early as Friday the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on whether or not witness testimony will be allowed at Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. It could be a real game changer, especially in light of former national security adviser John Bolton’s new bombshell accusations against the president. Today on Front Burner, longtime CBC Washington correspondent Keith Boag explains the likelihood of testimony being heard and how it could possibly affect the outcome of the trial.

From David Ridgen, the creator of Someone Knows Something, comes the new investigative podcast The Next Call. Tackling unsolved cases through strategic phone calls. In the case of Terrie Dauphinais, a 24-year-old Metis woman is found dead in her Calgary home in the spring of 2002. New investigative efforts have held out promise, but the case still remains cold almost two decades later. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/thenextcall

For 36 years, Alex Trebek hosted the trivia show ‘Jeopardy!’ with gravitas and wit. On Sunday morning, Trebek died of pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. Today, we discuss Trebek’s legacy and what he meant to his fans with Andy Saunders, a ‘Jeopardy!’ superfan and the operator of TheJeopardyFan.com.

They looked like a family. Four people, including a baby, were found dead in a snowy Manitoba field last Wednesday, just metres from the North Dakota border, where they were believed to be heading. Authorities believe they had been part of a larger group travelling to the United States, in temperatures that felt like –35 C. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called their deaths "mind-blowing” and "tragic," and said he was working with the United States to crack down on people who facilitate undocumented travel over the border. But two people who’ve travelled the route — in the opposite direction — say what the system really needs is more compassion for people who are out of options. Razak Iyal and Seidu Mohammed, two former refugees from Ghana who now have the right to stay in Canada permanently, share their stories of making it to Canada from the United States in 2017. And CBC Manitoba reporter Ian Froese tells us what questions we’re still trying to answer about the four people who died last week.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May resigns as leader of the Conservative Party on June 7th. But she will stay on as a lame duck Prime Minister until her successor is chosen. Today on Front Burner, CBC Europe Correspondent Margaret Evans on who that successor might be, and what they'll have to grapple with as the country faces down Brexit: "It's a huge, huge mess in this country. People are angry, they're scared, they're tired of it."

Last week, a group of current and former Amazon workers in New York’s Staten Island accomplished what some of the biggest unions in the United States could not: they organized Amazon’s first successful union vote in the country. The battle isn’t over yet: in a statement, Amazon said it is weighing whether to file objections. But today, we speak to Chris Smalls, interim president of the newly-formed Amazon Labor Union, about how he sparked a movement that succeeded where others have failed — and where that movement is headed next.

Ten years ago, an eccentric Santa Fe art dealer named Forrest Fenn says he hid a treasure chest somewhere in the American Rocky Mountains – and then he wrote a poem with clues to tell people how to find it. Hundreds of thousands have tried. At least five have died on their search. And now, Fenn says the treasure has been found. But is the story really over? Today we’re joined by Robert Nott, a reporter for the Santa Fe New Mexican who’s been on the Forrest Fenn beat for the past five years, and Zachary Crockett, a journalist who made a documentary for Vox about his own quest to find the Fenn treasure.

Canada women's national soccer team currently ranks as one of the top ten teams worldwide. Despite their track record of victory, the team’s future success is now at risk. As the FIFA Women’s World Cup approaches, the team’s engaged in a very visible fight with their bosses that has meant strikes, on-field protests, and the resignation of the president of Soccer Canada. The turmoil comes because of what the players say is a shocking lack of funding and very different treatment compared to the men’s team. But the issue goes deeper than the women’s fight. TSN senior correspondent, Rick Westhead, takes guest host Daemon Fairless through the national women’s team’s fight, the controversial business deal that may be behind the federation’s money woes, and what’s at stake for the sport in Canada. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is scathing: it lays out the stark divide between rich and poor nations’ ability to withstand global warming’s worst effects. This, just months after COP26 in Glasgow, where many delegates and activists were asking rich nations most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions to pay for the losses and damages that many developing nations are already experiencing from climate change. Demands for a specific compensation fund were not met. Today, Canadian human rights lawyer Payam Akhavan is here to explain how some small island nations are looking at how they can use international law to make rich countries pay up. He’s a senior fellow at Massey College at the University of Toronto, and a former UN war crimes prosecutor who has served on tribunals investigating genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Now, he’s helped establish the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, and is serving as the group’s legal counsel.

On Tuesday, the U.S. holds its midterm elections. That means all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, as are about a third of the Senate's seats. These midterms are significant. It's the first big round of elections since Joe Biden became president, since rioters stormed the Capitol and since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The results could impact American policy for years to come. Today, CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter talks about some of the tight races, and what makes them so consequential.

As civilians try to flee a Taliban-held Afghanistan, Canadian veteran Ryerson Maybee reflects on our country’s historic role there, and what our government’s responsibilities should be to the Afghans who risked their lives to help Canadians during the war.

"The fact that these three judges really got this power imbalance between workers and this huge behemoth multi-national corporation...was just really breath-taking." Labour law professor and gig economy expert Veena Dubal talks about the significance of the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision to let a proposed class action lawsuit against Uber proceed, and how it fits into a larger picture of gig economy workers around the world trying to get recognized as employees.

As Canada deals with high inflation and a housing shortage, the world’s second-largest economy is grappling with a nearly opposite reality. China has been booming for over 40 years as Beijing invested heavily to build up the country. But now, demand for housing is sinking amid overbuilding and developers mired in debt, and consumer prices have recently fallen into deflation. Today, Wall Street Journal China bureau chief Jonathan Cheng explains the signs that China’s economy is slowing down, and what it could mean for the boom that changed the world to come to an end. Looking for a transcript of the show? They’re available here daily: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's Pride month, but a string of violent threats and extremist confrontations are looming over the celebrations. Police arrested 31 members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front near a Pride event in Idaho, saying the men were planning a riot. Proud Boys and other extremists have protested and stormed drag performances. And a teen in Mississauga, Ont., was arrested and charged for allegedly threatening a mass shooting at an event in Florida. Today, a conversation about the forces behind a right-wing surge in anti-LGBTQ sentiment, and how the rhetoric is driving real-world threats. Guest Parker Molloy spent years with progressive media watchdogs, and she's been covering recent threats in her newsletter The Present Age.

It’s been less than a year since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and now abortions are banned in 13 states. And in several other states, abortion is prohibited after a certain length of pregnancy. But now the new frontier in the legal fight is all about the abortion pill as a Texas judge weighs arguments from anti-abortion groups who are suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). These groups want the judge to order the FDA to withdraw its two decades-long approval of a drug called mifepristone that’s used in abortion pills. If this happens, it could curtail access to abortion pills across the entire country. Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California’s Davis School of Law, shares her thoughts on this case and other efforts that are contributing to the uncertain legal landscape for the abortion pill in the United States. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has won a seat in the riding of Burnaby-South. It's just one of three byelections that took place across the country. The CBC's Briar Stewart and Hannah Thibedeau break down the political stakes of the Burnaby-South byelection, and what it might tell us about the upcoming federal election.

WE Charity co-founders Marc and Craig Kielburger faced another grilling by politicians this week, this time by the ethics committee. Today on Front Burner, CBC senior parliamentary reporter Catherine Cullen on new calls for an RCMP investigation.

Less than 10 months into his presidency, Joe Biden’s popularity is plummeting, Democratic in-fighting has put some of the most ambitious parts of his agenda on life support, and recent elections in several states are spelling even more bad news for his party. Susan Ormiston joins us to take the pulse of the Democratic party.

This week, a federal court judge in Toronto heard arguments from a plastics lobby group and the federal government, in a challenge to a ban on single-use plastics like bags, straws and stir sticks that was introduced last year. On today’s episode, Lisa Erdle, microplastics researcher and the director of science and innovation at the U.S.-based 5 Gyres Institute, describes what’s at stake in the court hearing, the impact of plastics in the environment and what can be done to improve the situation. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week the leaders of the self-described "Freedom Convoy" protest in Ottawa were brought in front of the inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act. And for some of them, those facing charges, it won't be the last time they'll be held to account. We learned a lot. About the chaos, the infighting and the money. Plus, even more about what the police did, and didn't do to tackle the protest. Host of CBC's Power & Politics, and our good friend, Vassy Kapelos joins us from Ottawa to get us up to speed. We will also spend a bit of time talking about the mini-budget Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland released yesterday.

More than a month after 19 students and two teachers were murdered in the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, questions about what happened during the 77 minutes prior to law enforcement entering the classroom the gunman was occupying are starting to be answered. The picture that is being painted of the police response by journalists and investigators is one of miscommunication, confusion and inaction. Who is to blame for what Texas Department of Public Safety director Steve McCraw has criticized as an “abject failure,” depends on who you ask. Today on Front Burner, as anger and scrutiny continues to grow among the families of the victims, politics reporter with The Texas Tribune, James Barragán, tells us about what is known about the police response so far and what’s left to uncover.

Throughout its reign, the British Empire stole a lot of stuff. Today those objects are housed in genteel institutions across the U.K. and the world. They usually come with polite plaques. This is a series about the not-so-polite history behind those objects. Hosted by Marc Fennell. More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/stuffthebritishstole

Alaa Alakel says the night after major earthquakes struck her home country of Syria was maybe the worst night of her life. She is a student in Toronto and waited sleeplessly by her phone for news from her family back home in Idlib. Rescue teams continue to search for survivors of the earthquakes that hit southern Turkey and northwest Syria on Monday. It’s the deadliest earthquake in the last decade and, as of Wednesday, the death toll has risen to over 12,000. Among the hardest hit areas was Idlib province, a rebel-held part of Syria that was home to intense fighting over the last decade of conflict in the region. And the earthquakes are only the latest in a string of humanitarian disasters that have broken apart families and devastated communities. Today on Front Burner, we’re joined by Alaa Alakel and her brother, Mohammed Alakel. Mohammed spoke to us from his family's home in a camp in Barisha, a village in northwest Syria. And Alaa translated from Toronto.

Rachel Notley is expected to declare the date of the provincial election any day now. And within a matter of weeks, voters will cast their ballots to pick the next provincial government of Alberta. At the same time, one of the key parties in this race, the United Conservative Party, is at the center of a mounting political scandal. There are allegations that during the party's leadership race, Jason Kenney's campaign engaged in illegal practices. Over the weekend, Charles Rusnell and Jennie Russell, investigative journalists at CBC Edmonton, reported on a cache of documents that show collaboration between Jason Kenney's campaign team and the campaign team for another candidate, Jeff Callaway. Today on Front Burner, Charles Rusnell breaks it down.

As some prospective home buyers watched prices climb to dozens of times their income during the pandemic, they pinned their hopes of ownership on a market crash. And for nearly a year starting last April, prices did fall – in Toronto, the average price of a home dropped about 18%. But now, for the last two months, prices have been on the rise again. So with houses still historically unaffordable, what would it take for Canada’s home prices to drop or crash toward affordability, and would the economic damage do more harm than low prices can help? Today, Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives senior economist Marc Lee explains the paths that remain to ownership for the low and middle class. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould on Canada's plan to deal with interference and disinformation ahead of the fall election.

Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are promising a new era where anyone will have access to space. But not everyone’s on board. Today, we speak to science writer Shannon Stirone about the promises and perils of the billionaire space race.

"It's something we'll have to grapple with in an ongoing way," says Slate music critic Carl Wilson about the challenge of coming to terms with the sexual abuse allegations against Michael Jackson in the HBO documentary "Leaving Neverland". He, along with Exclaim! magazine contributor A. Harmony, talk to host Jayme Poisson about what that might mean for Jackson's legacy as a pop music icon.

Alexei Navalny is the most prominent opposition figure in Russia, an anti-corruption crusader and a frequent Kremlin critic. But right now, Navalny is comatose in a German hospital after a suspected poisoning. Today on Front Burner, Chris Brown from CBC's Moscow bureau explains why Navalny might have been targeted, by whom, and the potential fallout.

There’s another public health crisis killing Canadians in record numbers. In May, 170 people died from illicit drug overdoses in British Columbia. It's the worst death toll in the province’s history. And it’s not just B.C., people are overdosing all over the country, particularly in Ontario and Alberta. Garth Mullins is a documentarian and host of the award-winning podcast Crackdown. It was created to cover the opioid crisis from the perspective of drug users themselves. We spoke with Mullins back in April about how COVID-19 was affecting people in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Today, we talk about what’s driving the unprecedented number of deaths… and why this long-running public health crisis isn’t being prioritized.

British Columbia's former provincial health officer, Dr. Perry Kendall, has been a harm-reduction advocate for decades. Now, he's planning to launch a company to produce a domestic supply of affordable, legal and pharmaceutical-grade heroin to be used "as a medication for therapy and treatment, but also … to try and cut down the number of unfortunate and preventable deaths that we're currently seeing." Today on Front Burner, a conversation with Kendall about a safer supply of drugs and the overdose crisis.

After two years of silence, Robert Mueller delivered his first public statement since being appointed as Special Counsel. He announced his resignation from the United States Department of Justice and reiterated the central findings of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election, saying "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so." Today on Front Burner, Mueller biographer Garrett Graff on the man at the helm of the Trump-Russia investigation.

Cryptocurrency traders are relying on a stablecoin — a digital cryptocurrency backed with real-world assets — with ties to a Mighty Ducks star and the co-creator of Inspector Gadget. Today, we look at the search for the supposed billions of dollars backing its value, and what a shortfall could mean for the entire financial system.

The last time Salman Rushdie won the Booker Prize, it was 1981. It's been 24 years since his last nomination. After his new book, Quichotte, came out, he was pleasantly surprised to find himself back on the list of nominees. "It's like, finally!" says Rushdie. "They remembered I was around." The new book is a retelling of Don Quixote, with an Indian-American salesman travelling across the United States on a quest. His journey touches on issues like the opioid crisis, our addiction to reality TV, and the end of the world. Rushdie joins Jayme Poisson to give his unique perspective on these hectic times.

Canadians have loaded up on personal debt through more than half a century of financial crises — and it’s happening again. During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, cash from federal benefits allowed many people to pay down their credit card balances. Last year, however, huge mortgages pushed Canada’s household debt-to-income ratio back toward its all-time high, rising above 177 per cent in the third quarter of 2021. Economist Michael Hudson says this kind of debt buildup chokes economic growth and gives undue power to creditors like banks. He also says it demands a reset: cancelling our debts. Today, Hudson explains the millennia-old practice of debt cancellation and how it could help modern economies.

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

WARNING: This episode deals with sexual assault Rick Boguski's brother Darryl has cerebral palsy, is blind and has autism. And on April 20, Darryl's 62nd birthday, Rick was told by the RCMP that his brother had been identified as one of five victims of sexual assault that allegedly occurred at Shepherd's Villa, a group home for the severely disabled in Hepburn, Sask. The suspect, Brent Gabona, had cared for Darryl at the home for years. Since then, Gabona, 52, has been charged with five counts of sexual assault and three of sexual exploitation of a person with a disability — which court records say occurred between 1992 and 2006. But other families who had loved ones in his care wonder if there may be more victims, and are pressing the RCMP to dig deeper. Today on Front Burner, CBC's Jorge Barrera shares what he learned after his conversations with Rick — and with Gabona himself.

COVID-19 deaths have surpassed half a million in Brazil. Over the weekend, thousands of Brazilians took to the streets to protest President Jair Bolsonaro’s pandemic response. Today on Front Burner, how will Brazil find its way out of this crisis?

After a day of voting and with some ballots still left to be counted, Justin Trudeau will remain Canada's prime minister, and the Liberals will continue ruling with a minority. CBC's Aaron Wherry breaks down the results of the election so far.

In a record-breaking 2021-22 NHL season, Toronto Maple Leafs superstar Auston Matthews scored more goals than any other Leaf in history, and the team finished with more wins than in any other season. But for some fans, those accomplishments will only make the loss even more painful if the Leafs can’t succeed in the playoffs. The Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967, and haven’t won a single playoff series since 2004. Toronto is now tied 1-1 in its first-round series against the defending Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, after one decisive win and one wildly uneven loss. Today, a staple of the Maple Leafs fandom joins us to explain the modern history of Leafs losses, and why his growing frustration has given way to greater optimism than ever. Steven Glynn — better known as Steve Dangle — is the host of a podcast, Sportsnet live streams and a YouTube channel that’s been reacting to the Leafs for 15 seasons.

A Halifax committee tasked with defining what it means to defund the police has released its final report: a 219-page document that recommends numerous reforms and reimagines our communities' relationship with law enforcement. Last week, committee chairperson El Jones presented the report to Halifax's Board of Police Commissioners. While the document doesn't recommend a specific amount of money to be cut, it takes an in-depth look at shifting some responsibilities away from police — namely sexual assault reporting and responses to mental health crises. Today, Jones walks us through the report's rethink of how to keep our communities safe and examines the common ground between supporters and opponents of defunding.

Death threats, hotel rooms left empty for supposed visits by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hours upon hours of the song Rasputin by Boney M. These are the conditions former followers say they endured on a cross-country RV tour with Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada." Didulo became a well-known QAnon conspiracy figure, with claims she was the rightful ruler of Canada, but she originally didn’t appear in public. Now, she’s touring the country with supporters in RVs, including a stop in Peterborough, Ont., last month where her followers tried to arrest the city’s police. Vice World News reporter Mack Lamoureux spoke to former tour “staff” members, including some that Didulo reportedly abandoned in the middle of Newfoundland. Today, what they allege about the abuse they suffered, and why both Lamoureux and some experts increasingly believe the group has the makings of a cult.

In the last few weeks on this show, we've talked about a number of police forces under scrutiny across the country. But there’s a city we haven’t talked about, one that frequently has the highest number of police-involved shootings in the country -- Calgary. A new documentary streaming on CBC Gem examines the issue of police violence in Calgary. It's called “Above the Law” and co-director Marc Serpa Francoeur joins us today.

After the revelation of unmarked graves at a former residential school in Kamloops, former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner Marie Wilson speaks to us about what needs to happen next.

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

Leader Erin O’Toole brought a moderate strategy to the Conservative election campaign, but his loss was nearly identical to his predecessor's. What went wrong, and what that means for the party’s future.

A conspiracy theory about the death of millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been turned into a meme. The phrase "Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself" is appearing in tweets, TikToks, on live television, even on ugly Christmas sweaters. The New York City Medical Examiner's Office conclusively ruled Epstein's death in jail was a suicide. But that hasn't stopped the conspiracy theory from thriving on both the left and right sides of the political spectrum. Today on Front Burner, Anna Merlan, author of Republic of Lies: American conspiracy theorists and their surprising rise to power, on why she thinks this conspiracy theory has morphed into a widely shared, macabre meme.

Cuba’s historic protests — and the government crackdown that followed — have shone a new light on the crisis currently facing the island. But questions about how to fix that crisis, and who’s to blame, are hotly disputed. Journalist Ed Augustin on what the protesters want, and how Cuba got to this point.

CBC Washington correspondent Keith Boag walks us through the United States midterm election results and what they mean.

The day after Stan Lee's death, we look at the comic book legend's impact on popular culture. And New York Magazine and Vulture staff writer Abraham Riesman explains why Stan Lee's legacy is just a complicated as the superhero stories he helped create.

Shortly after George Santos was elected to Congress in 2022, the New York Times found that he had fabricated almost every aspect of his life story – personally and professionally.  On Wednesday, this once rising star was hit with 13 charges including fraud, money laundering, and theft of public funds. Santos, echoing the words of former President Donald Trump, calls it a "witch hunt." Despite calls for him to resign, he vows to continue to serve in Congress and pledges he will run again in 2024.  Today, Washington Post national reporter Azi Paybarah joins us to explain Santos' lies, the criminal charges he now faces, and how the American political star-making machine can sometimes attract fraudsters. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Feb. 19, Jean-Luc Brunel, a top French model scout and longtime associate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was found dead in his Paris prison cell. The 75-year-old was being held on suspicion of sexually abusing minors and sex-trafficking. Allegations against Brunel date back to his time as the head of top-ranked modelling agency Karin Models in the '80s and '90s, when he had close personal relationships with Epstein and other powerful figures. The long-running investigation into Epstein revealed ties to Brunel and the role he may have played in a global sex-trafficking ring that potentially targeted thousands of underage women. Today on Front Burner, we hear from former models Heather Braden and Thysia Huisman, who say they were among Brunel’s victims while they were underage and living in New York and Paris in the ‘80s. Then, we talk to The Guardian’s Jon Henley about the circumstances surrounding Brunel’s death, which echo that of Epstein’s, who died by suicide in prison. Brunel's death has ignited a firestorm of questions, even conspiracy theories, as another purported sex trafficker dies before anybody gets answers.

Peering inside Russia – and it’s complex web of state propaganda – presents a very different view of the war in Ukraine and who the real victims are. As nations around the world condemn Russia’s invasion, many within Russia are supporting Russian president Vladimir Putin. How is Putin selling the war to the Russian people? Will thousands of anti-war protesters challenging the Kremlin make a difference to the government? This week, Nothing is Foreign takes you inside the alternate reality being created by Russian state propaganda, explores how fear and new laws have choked off dissenting voices and listen in on the difficult conversations between a Ukrainian son and a Russian father in the war over disinformation. Featuring: Alexey Kovalev, investigative editor of Meduza. Sergey Utkin, researcher and head of strategic assessment at Primakov Institute of World Economy and International relations. Misha Katsurin, Kyiv resident and creator of Papapover.com. Yulia Zhivtsova, anti-war protester in Moscow.

Today, the Canadian company Bombardier is more than $9 billion US in debt. Over the years, it has received billions in taxpayer bailouts. But after some big failures, layoffs and criticism over executive bonuses, this time around may be different.

Ejaz Choudry. D’Andre Campbell. Rodney Levi. In the last few weeks, several Canadians struggling with their mental health have been shot and killed by police after authorities were called. Today on Front Burner, Jennifer Lavoie, a criminology professor who helps train police on how to handle mental health calls, talks to Josh Bloch about why this issue persists, and how it can be stopped.

George Floyd’s death under police officer Derek Chauvin’s knee sparked global protests over race and policing. Now, the world is watching Chauvin’s murder trial. Minneapolis Public Radio’s Brandt Williams breaks down the key moments so far.

Last week, NASA revealed five images from the James Webb Space Telescope which gave the sharpest look at the universe’s cosmic history. The images, which showed stunning visuals of orange and red gasses, spinning galaxies and dying stars, are the first to show in detail what the universe looked like billions of light-years away. The telescope, which was launched last December, is a collaboration between NASA and the European and Canadian space agencies and is designed to be successor to the older Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists and viewers alike have been in awe of these images. Today on Front Burner, we unpack the enormity of these visuals, what they mean for space research and why so many are emotional over these images with science writer Shannon Stirone.

The Toronto District School Board has become the first board in Canada to officially recognize caste based discrimination. The caste system is thought to be among the oldest forms of social hierarchy of classification in the world, and has dominated the Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. It can dictate romantic relationships, job prospects, housing, and even lead to violence. Today, reporter Uday Rana explores the beginnings of caste in Canada, and the modern impact the ancient hierarchy has on Canada's South Asian diaspora today. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The relationship between India and Pakistan has historically been troubled, but this week, tensions escalated with both countries launching airstrikes against one another. "There's of course the larger significance of these two countries being nuclear states," says UBC professor M.V. Ramana, an expert on nuclear energy in India. He traces the historical conflict between India and Pakistan, and sets up what's at stake globally.

According to a new report from the Canada Revenue Agency, in just one year - 2014 - Canadian corporations did not pay up to $11-billion in taxes. That amount is part of the “tax gap”. It’s the difference between the taxes Canada knows it's owed and the taxes that are actually collected. Today on Front Burner, Toronto Star investigative reporter Marco Chown Oved explains how corporations get away with this, and why it’s such a persistent issue.

Parts of Canada are back in lockdown as cases of COVID-19 spike across the country, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. And with the cold weather setting in, it’s tough to imagine how we may be able to return to normal. But there are some developments: Health Canada has now approved and bought over 20 million rapid tests. And Donald Trump’s COVID-19 treatment is raising a lot of questions about the use of experimental drugs. Today we’ll be talking about how the testing and treatment of coronavirus has evolved since the first wave with Dr. Isaac Bogoch, a physician and an infectious disease expert in Toronto.

CBC reporter Catharine Tunney says the reality TV show starring Canada's Border Services Agency was controversial. The show included footage of drug busts and interviews at ports of entry. It was not renewed after three seasons, but could come back. Correction: No additional lights were used during airport scenes of Border Security and the program aired for three seasons, not four and the name of the program in the introduction was corrected. This episode has been changed to reflect that.

"By 2045, China wants to become the strongest space power and space technology-based power in the world," says Namrata Goswami, an expert on China's space program. One step towards that goal is the launch of a research mission to the far side of the moon, where right now a Chinese rover is at work exploring. It was a complicated technological feat, and Goswami says it's just the beginning of the country's plans.

This week a new federal carbon tax on fossil fuels came into effect in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. These are all provinces that took a hard pass at creating their own version of a carbon pricing plan that would meet the Liberal government's standards. They're being called "The Holdouts". Today on Front Burner, CBC's J.P. Tasker walks us through how each province proposes to fight climate change without a carbon tax.

From rare, violent protests to long lines at the border — and even a shooting at a draft office in Siberia — Russia remains gripped by anger over its first military mobilization since the Second World War. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the draft of hundreds of thousands of men last Wednesday, following significant military defeats in Ukraine's northeast. Simultaneously, Putin renewed threats of nuclear retaliation. And soon after, the Kremlin orchestrated referendums over independence in Eastern Ukraine which Western leaders have denounced as a sham. Today, the Guardian's Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth untangles why Putin is betting on this even more aggressive strategy in Ukraine, and what it could mean for his grip on the home front.

Host David Ridgen joins victims' family members as they investigate cold cases, tracking down leads, speaking to suspects and searching for answers. In Season 7 of Someone Knows Something, Ridgen and investigative journalist Amanda Robb dig into the 1998 murder of her uncle, a New York doctor killed for performing abortions. They uncover a network of anti-abortion movements linked to violence in North America and Europe. Twenty years later, with debates about reproductive rights heating up in the U.S., could more violence be on the horizon? More episodes are available at hyperurl.co/sks

This episode originally aired Oct 18, 2021. Cryptocurrency traders are relying on a stablecoin — a digital cryptocurrency backed with real-world assets — with ties to a Mighty Ducks star and the co-creator of Inspector Gadget. Today, we look at the search for the supposed billions of dollars backing its value, and what a shortfall could mean for the entire financial system.

Last week, Ticketmaster pre-sales for Taylor Swift's Eras tour quickly devolved into chaos, with site crashes, many people waiting eight hours or more in online queues, and tickets going for upward of $40,000 US on secondary sales sites like Stubhub. This is far from the first incident to prompt widespread outrage against Ticketmaster. Sky-high prices for Blink-182 and Bruce Springsteen concerts have been among the sore spots. But the Swift fiasco is shining a new light on the company's virtual monopoly over wide swathes of the live music industry, prompting many — including several U.S. lawmakers — to call for the company to be investigated and broken up. Today, Jason Koebler — editor-in-chief of Motherboard, VICE's technology site — joins Front Burner to break this all down.

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

According to new reporting on the trove of leaked documents known as the ‘Pentagon Leaks,’ Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told NATO officials that Canada will never meet a two per cent defense-spending target. A secret document, accessed by the Washington Post, also details criticisms leveled at Canada by its NATO allies. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts On this episode, Amanda Coletta, who covers Canada for the Washington Post, discusses what the leaks mean for Canada’s military standing among its peers, and what shortcomings have been identified by those allies. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Between Grimes, Kings of Leon and even NBA Top Shot, all of a sudden it seems like NFTs are everywhere. But what are non-fungible tokens, really? And why are they blowing up right now? CBC Business reporter Pete Evans explains. Find the links we talk about in this episode here: cbc.ca/1.5943429

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed US congress and is now pushing a "no-compromises" path toward ending the war in his country. But neither Ukraine nor Russia have shown any signs of compromise in the ten months of conflict, and as the fighting rages on, peace seems out of reach for now. Today on Front Burner, BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams explores how far apart the Russian and Ukrainian sides are, what their standings are internationally and what that could all mean for a new year of war.

On Sunday, a group of U.S. government agencies made the extraordinary decision to ensure that everyone who had money in Silicon Valley Bank would be able to access that cash. The move comes on the heels of Friday’s collapse of the California-based bank following a bank run. Silicon Valley Bank is the second largest bank to fail in the U.S. – the first was Washington Mutual during the 2008 financial crisis. Felix Salmon is a Chief Financial Correspondent at Axios and the host of Slate Money. Today on Front Burner he joins us to explain why Silicon Valley Bank went under and what might happen next. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

She's the teenager who skipped school — and sparked a global protest. Today, Greta Thunberg is instantly recognizable by her stern demeanour and singular message: When it comes to climate change, listen to the scientists. But it was only last year that she was an unknown 15-year-old, protesting outside Swedish parliament. In the time since, she's dressed down heads of state at the UN, inspired millions of people to march in the global Climate Strike, and been named Time magazine's Person of the Year. But in 2019, it wasn't just Greta and the youth movement she inspires — there were other large-scale protests, led by groups like Extinction Rebellion. Today on Front Burner, Jayme Poisson talks to the Washington Post science and environment reporter Sarah Kaplan about whether these movements can produce real change in the year to come.

Life began returning to German streets this week as the country took small steps to slowly re-open the economy. New Zealand is set to follow suit by bringing back businesses and school for young children next week. Here in Canada, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has announced plans to reopen his province in five stages starting in May, and many other political leaders are starting to talk about how and when strict COVID-19 restrictions might be phased out. Today we’re asking about what benchmarks need to be hit for Canada to re-open, with help from Jeremy Konyndyk, Senior Policy Fellow at the Centre for Global Development, and Dr. Michael Gardam, an infectious disease specialist and chief of staff at Humber River Hospital.

NBA superstar Fred VanVleet had a long road to becoming a beloved Toronto Raptor. He suffered a terrible loss growing up in Rockford, Ill., when his father was shot and killed when he was just five years old. As a young man coming out of Wichita State University, the point guard went undrafted in 2016 and had to fight his way onto the roster of the lone Canadian franchise in the league. But only a few years later, VanVleet was a key member of the team that won the 2019 NBA championship. Now, VanVleet is the undisputed leader of the Toronto Raptors. In this special episode of Front Burner, we meet VanVleet at the OVO Athletic Centre in Toronto to hear about his unexpected journey from underdog to all-star, and why he's partnered with the University of Toronto's undergraduate business program to launch a needs-based scholarship for Black and Indigenous students. This episode orginally aired on September 28th, 2022.

Economically, Sri Lanka is on fire. Residents are dealing with ballooning food costs, hours-long lineups for fuel and power blackouts that last half the day. The country is facing record inflation and unemployment, the likes of which haven't been seen in 74 years. But the crisis has united a nation that's long been divided along ethnic and religious lines — all to oust the political family they blame for the disaster. This week on Nothing is Foreign, we hear from Sri Lankans who explain how their country landed in a $51-billion debt hole and the island nation's unprecedented protests. Featuring: Aritha Wickramasinghe, lawyer and human rights activist. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo.

Election day is just around the corner, so CBC’s Ryan Maloney is here to provide back-to-back platform primers for the major parties. First up: The Liberals and Conservatives.

Every member of the popular sports and culture website Deadspin’s editorial staff has resigned, after the firing of the site’s interim editor-in-chief. But tensions have been rising between Deadspin’s journalist and its executives since a private equity firm took over in April. Those executives issued an edict last week to “stick to sports.” Today on Front Burner, Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley discusses the mass exodus at Deadspin and what it says about the future of independent digital media.

Today on Front Burner, an intimate look at mental health struggles amongst workers in Alberta’s oilpatch with the co-producer of a new documentary on the subject, ‘Digging in the Dirt.’

Earlier this week, Blake Lemoine, an engineer who works for Google’s Responsible AI department, went public with his belief that Google’s LaMDA chatbot is sentient. LaMDA, or Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is an artificial intelligence program that mimics speech and tries to predict which words are most related to the prompts it is given. While some experts believe that conscious AI is something that will be possible in the future, many in the field think that Lemoine is mistaken — and that the conversation he has stirred up about sentience takes away from the immediate and pressing ethical questions surrounding Google’s control over this technology and the ease at which people can be fooled by it. Today on Front Burner, cognitive scientist and author of Rebooting AI, Gary Marcus, discusses LaMDA, the trouble with testing for consciousness in AI and what we should really be thinking about when it comes to AI’s ever-expanding role in our day-to-day lives.

"If you just say 'vote for me because I'm Chinese-Canadian', it didn't work. It hasn't worked, and it won't work." Former NDP MP Olivia Chow is a seasoned politician who has strong connections to the Chinese-Canadian community. She reflects on ex-Liberal candidate Karen Wang's race-based comments against NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, and the role of race in Canadian politics.

Until about 5 months ago, no one had heard of COVID-19. And, despite the overflow of information and research since then, there is much we still don’t know about the virus itself and the disease it causes. Today on Front Burner, we talk to special pathogens expert Dr. Syra Madad about some of the things we don’t know about COVID-19 and why this is such an unprecedented crisis.

After a harrowing escape, more than a hundred Syrian war zone first responders and their families are being resettled in Canada, as refugees. Hear the CBC's Murray Brewster describe their journey and why they could still be in danger.

The Toronto Raptors face the Golden State Warriors for game three of the NBA Finals tonight. It's an exciting time for fans of Raptors superstar Kawhi Leonard. Today on Front Burner, freelance sports writer Alex Wong helps us understand the man behind the calm exterior and shares his thoughts on whether Leonard will stay in the North when this historic series ends.

This summer, Canada's new air passenger protection regulations will begin to come into effect. The regulations apply to all flights to, from and within Canada, and include specific financial entitlements for things like delayed flights and damaged luggage. Today on Front Burner, CBC National Business Correspondent Peter Armstrong explains Canada's new air passenger protections, which some critics say don't go far enough.

Ethiopia’s deadly war in Tigray province is now threatening to engulf the entire country as rebels move toward the capital and a humanitarian crisis intensifies. Reporter Zecharias Zelalem explains how the conflict got to this point and where it could go from here.

This week, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $572 million US to the state of Oklahoma, in a landmark case that saw the court find the company liable for the state's opioid crisis. Johnson & Johnson says it will appeal the ruling. Purdue Pharma is also proposing to settle thousands of cases. These developments are the beginning of a far-reaching legal effort, in both the U.S and Canada, to hold drug makers accountable for the opioid epidemic. Today on Front Burner, we talk to journalist Zachary Siegel about what this ruling might mean for the thousands of cases soon to be before the courts.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he "would love to have the country opened up, and just raring to go, by Easter," which is two and a half weeks from now. But many public health experts say the result could be an increase in COVID-19 deaths. Today on Front Burner, CBC senior correspondent Susan Ormiston on the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. — Trump's hopes to see the economy reopened in mere weeks, and what it could mean for a country the World Health Organization warned could become the new epicentre of COVID-19.

"Canada doesn't have a refugee crisis. Canada has a crisis of will in terms of what we want to do," says refugee and immigration lawyer Zool Suleman about the influx of people crossing the American border to seek asylum in Canada. The country's budget watchdog has now confirmed the federal cost of asylum seekers making irregular crossings and warned of a growing refugee claimant case backlog. But what does that really mean? Today on Front Burner, we shed light on a confusing system and an issue that's often clouded by rhetoric.

As violence escalates between Israel and Hamas, we’re joined by journalist Irris Makler for a run-down of some of the major events of the past few days, as well as some context on the last month of tensions that led to this week’s eruption.

As Britney Spears fights for her legal freedom, Dominic Patten, senior editor for Deadline Hollywood, joins us to explain the latest revelations on the 13-year conservatorship that controls every aspect of the pop icon’s life.

When Jagmeet Singh became the leader of the NDP in 2017, he was the first person of colour to lead a major Canadian political party. There was a great deal of excitement around Singh, who is known for his ability to communicate genuinely and effectively - as demonstrated last week in the aftermath of Justin Trudeau’s brownface controversy. But the NDP leader has also been criticized for being ill-prepared for the job.Today, as part of our federal election profile series, Front Burner digs into the life and political career of Jagmeet Singh with the CBC’s Hannah Thibedeau.

This week, Silvio Berlusconi died at the age of 86. He served as Italy’s prime minister three separate times, leaving a permanent mark on the country’s politics, media, and culture. Berlusconi created an empire for himself, based on money, sex and a willingness to push legal limits — and in many ways, he created a template for billionaire populist political leaders. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts On this episode, Alexander Stille, professor of journalism at Columbia University and the author of The Sack of Rome: How a Beautiful European Country with a Fabled History and a Storied Culture Was Taken Over by a Man named Silvio Berlusconi, discusses how Berlusconi changed Italy and the world.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his chief of staff Katie Telford appeared before the House finance committee to answer questions about the government's decision to select WE Charity to run the federal government's $900-million student volunteer program. Earlier this week, WE co-founders Marc and Craig Kielburger also appeared before the same committee. The choice to select WE Charity for the program is also being investigated by the federal ethics watchdog because of Trudeau's ties to the organization. Today on Front Burner, CBC Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos breaks down the prime minister's testimony, and brings us up to speed on the WE Charity controversy.

Over the weekend, German researchers held a concert with over 1500 music fans to study how COVID-19 could spread at big indoor events. Here in Canada, provinces are still capping numbers at indoor shows and many venues are staying closed. Some have permanently shut down. This has been a huge challenge for musicians, and performing artists more widely. Today on Front Burner, we convene a panel with two Canadians who work in the arts, and depend on live audiences for their livelihoods. Miranda Mulholland is a Juno-nominated fiddler and singer, label owner, and a musician’s rights advocate. Nour Hadidi is a professional stand-up comedian who has written for This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

After the shocking interception of a commercial flight to arrest a dissident journalist, CBC’s Moscow correspondent explains Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko’s escalating crackdown on opposition.

In recent years, Pride Month has seen a flood of corporations using rainbow logos and products to show LGBTQ support. Whether the brands are being helpful or opportunistic has been cause for debate. But this year, amidst a wave of hate against queer and trans people, boycotts and threats are leading some brands to walk back their Pride marketing and merch. Today, Xtra Magazine senior editor Mel Woods discusses whether corporate support for Pride matters, and what brands giving in to homophobic demands could signal about rising hatred. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Why are lonely, young men a growing threat to our safety? In 2018, a Toronto man drove a van down a busy sidewalk, killing 11 people and injuring many more. He was linked to the "incel" movement, a dark online world fueled by violent misogyny, extreme isolation and perceived rejection. In the wake of the attack, Evan Mead discovers a disturbing connection to the perpetrator. They were former high school classmates; both outcasts, existing together on the fringes of social acceptance. How did two young men who started in similar circumstances, end up on such drastically different paths? More episodes are available at: smarturl.it/boyslikeme

In the last two years, cryptocurrency exchange FTX spent millions of dollars on advertisements with the likes of NFL quarterback Tom Brady and Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Larry David. FTX also sponsored Major League Baseball, the Mercedes Formula One racing team and Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary. Earlier this month, Bloomberg ranked the platform’s founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, as one of the world’s 100 richest people. He was sometimes referred to as the “King of Crypto.” But now, after financial leaks triggered mass withdrawals and a halt in trading, Bankman-Fried is worth effectively nothing. FTX has gone from a recent $32-billion US evaluation to bankruptcy. Today, CBC News senior business writer Pete Evans returns to explain how one of the world’s three biggest crypto exchanges was brought down so quickly.

Hotelier Paul Rusesabagina once won the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, for protecting Tutsis from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. This week, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for terrorism charges. What happened?

It may be election day. But it’s also the eve of the Toronto Raptors season opener. So we’re putting Canadian politics aside for one day to talk to sports writer Alex Wong. The last time we spoke to Alex, it was the night of the Raptors NBA Championship victory. Today, he brings us a preview of the Raptors season to come. Plus, he explains the ongoing tensions between the NBA and China.

Last year, about 39,000 people entered Canada at Roxham Road, an irregular border crossing in Quebec, in search of asylum. It was a record number — and so far this year, the upward trend is continuing. The steady flow of migrants entering Canada at Roxham Road has become a political issue, but how to handle the stream of people seeking asylum at the border is an open question. On this episode, Paul Hunter, a senior correspondent with CBC News, takes us to the US-Mexico border in Juarez to see what we can learn from migrants there about the issue at America’s northern border and Roxham Road. Clarification: In this episode we discuss a video shown to senior correspondent Paul Hunter by a Venezuelan migrant couple Nelson Ramirez, and his wife, Yescee Urbina at an aid office in Juarez, Mexico. The video depicts a crocodile swimming with a human leg in its mouth.  We reported that the video was filmed during the couple’s journey through the Panamanian jungle. However, the video shown to CBC News was filmed a few years ago. Ramirez showed the video to convey the desperation and danger that migrants from Central and South America experience trying to seek asylum further north. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

North America's largest single coronavirus outbreak started at Cargill, a meat-packing plant located in High River, Alta. Over 1,500 cases have been linked to it, with 949 employees testing positive, and one death. Despite the harrowing statistics, the plant reopened this week. CBC reporter Carolyn Dunn on what led to the outbreak, and why there's such a push to keep the plant open.

Last week a US congressional committee began what could be a months-long probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Was it the result of a lab leak in Wuhan? And did Dr. Anthony Fauci and his team of experts carry out a cover-up in the early days of the outbreak? These are the questions the Republican-led committee are trying to answer. Today on Front Burner, The Atlantic’s Daniel Enger on the shifting narratives around the origins of COVID-19 -- and how it went from the fringes to the mainstream. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Election day in the United States has finally arrived. More than 90 million people have already cast their ballots in advance — a historic high that signals just how consequential many Americans believe this election will be. And while polling shows that Joe Biden has maintained his lead over Donald Trump, in the key battleground states that decide elections Biden has a much slimmer edge. Today, CBC Washington correspondents Susan Ormiston and Paul Hunter join us for a look at the strategies that could win Trump or Biden the election and whether Biden’s lead in the polls will translate to a victory.

Despite making up only 13 per cent of the population, black Americans represent about a quarter of all people killed by police. Today on Front Burner, we speak to civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson about the concrete steps he thinks could be taken to deal with the problem of race-based police violence.

In China, the trials for Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have started and ended in the span of a few days, completely in secret. Globe and Mail reporter Nathan VanderKlippe tells us what he saw outside those courthouses, and where things go from here.

Governments around the world are making extraordinary moves to get COVID-19 under control -- including the curtailing of individual freedoms. In most countries, people are willing to go along with these measures, as long as they’re temporary. But what about when leaders use the coronavirus to grab more power? Today, we’re joined by Anne Applebaum, a historian and staff writer at The Atlantic, who has concerns about the potential lasting consequences of some governments’ pandemic responses.

Former U.S. president Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 37 federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national-security documents when he left office and lied to officials who sought to recover them. CBC’s Washington Correspondent Alex Panetta explains the evidence against him and the ramifications of this case for the next presidential election. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.K.'s plan to send refugees on a one-way trip to Rwanda is causing outrage. In a controversial, multimillion-pound deal, the British government will send some asylum seekers to Rwanda instead of allowing them to stay in the U.K. This plan marks a major shift in how refugees are treated and could have a far-reaching implications for the rest of Europe — and for thousands of refugees fleeing war and persecution. This week, Nothing is Foreign explains how the deal works, why thousands of lives could be in jeopardy, why some are calling this immigration policy "neo-colonialism" and why critics say Rwanda isn't a safe haven. Featuring: Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action. Theogene Rudasingwa, former Rwandan ambassador to the U.S.

An army reservist from a town near Winnipeg is being investigated by the RCMP and the Canadian Military for suspected ties to a shadowy militant neo-Nazi group called “The Base.” Today, we’ll talk to VICE national security correspondent Ben Makuch and VICE senior reporter Mack Lamoureux about the tactics and inner workings of the group, including its similarities to al-Qaeda. We’ll also touch on the Canadian military’s stance on extremism in their ranks.

Early Thursday morning, Russia launched a broad-scale invasion of Ukraine, attacking the country from three sides and targeting major urban centres. Today, we hear from two people on the ground there. First, we’ll speak to freelance journalist Olga Tokariuk, sheltering in an undisclosed location. And then BBC Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet describes how the first hours of the invasion unfolded in the capital of Kyiv, and what may happen next.

The calls for Pope Francis to fully apologize for the Catholic Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools, including the one in Kamloops, B.C., where what are believed to be the unmarked burial sites of children's remains have been found, continue to grow. Why won’t he? Columnist Michael Coren, who’s covered the Catholic Church for decades, explains.

Suicide prevention lines are dealing with an enormous surge in calls, and crisis centres say COVID-19 is to blame. Crisis Services Canada says that calls between August and October increased 159 per cent compared to last year. That surge is being felt at distress centres across the country, including at the Crisis Centre of BC. Front Burner producer Elaine Chau takes us there and talks to two people who are working directly with people in crisis. ----------------------------- Where to get help: Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 (Phone) | 45645 (Text, 4 p.m. to midnight ET only) | crisisservicescanada.ca

In his much anticipated testimony Gerald Butts, the Prime Minister's former principal secretary, laid out a counter-narrative to the allegations of political interference in the SNC-Lavalin case.

In her first month as leader of the ruling Conservatives, U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss plunged the British economy into chaos. A major tax cutting plan for top earners and corporations — meant to stimulate the economy as energy costs soar — terrified financial markets so deeply, it sent interest rates skyrocketing, drove the pound into the ground, and required an urgent intervention from the Bank of England. Truss changed course, and the economy is back from the brink, but Britain's fragile state post-Brexit begs the question: Is the U.K. ok? Today on Front Burner, Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London and the author of the upcoming book The Conservative Party after Brexit, gives a rundown of Britain's recent turbulence and the turning points that lead to this moment.

This month's FIFA World Cup is a big one for Canada. It's the first time in 36 years that our men's team has qualified to compete, and the last World Cup before Canada shares hosting duties in 2026. But in the decade since Qatar won its bid to host this year's tournament, allegations of bribery, discrimination and human rights abuses have threatened to overshadow the game. Qatar criminalizes same-sex relationships and a report from the Guardian says at least 6,500 migrant workers have died since its successful bid. As players and fans grapple with how to protest, we're joined by Roger Bennett of the Men in Blazers podcast. He's just co-authored a new book called Gods of Soccer and is co-hosting World Corrupt, a podcast that dives deep into FIFA corruption and the World Cup in Qatar.

As nearly 200 fires continue to burn in British Columbia, we hear stories of the people most affected, from CBC reporters Susana da Silva and Brady Strachan. They’ve been covering the devastating Lytton fire, and the ongoing firefighting efforts in B.C.

On This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Nathan for You and HBO’s new comedy The Rehearsal, Nathan Fielder has played a stiff, socially inept agitator that can barely get through a conversation. The amount that Fielder’s real personality informs his character is a mystery. But Fielder has used his bizarre comments and awkward silences to destabilize his interviewees, joining a wave of comedians that try to get authentic reactions in an age of careful-crafted “reality” television. And now, on The Rehearsal, Fielder is adding a layer of absurdity, as he helps people rehearse difficult social situations with paid actors and perfect sets of real locations. With the second episode of The Rehearsal out today, New York Magazine features writer Lila Shapiro joins us to discuss how Fielder’s over-controlling personality is paradoxically creating some of the most spontaneous moments on television.

In 2015, former Catholic priest Paul-André Harvey pled guilty to 39 counts of sexual assault and gross indecency against young girls. Before he died in 2018, he did something that sent shockwaves through his former Quebec diocese: he wrote a confession in which he alleged his superiors both enabled and covered up his crimes. Mark Kelley of CBC’s The Fifth Estate tells us about the role this confession is now playing in a class-action lawsuit, brought by Harvey’s alleged victims, against the church.

Ottawa is reeling after a story broke late last week alleging that the Prime Minister's Office pressured former Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to intervene in the prosecution of Quebec-based engineering company SNC-Lavalin. Today on Front Burner, CBC's David Cochrane breaks down the scandal and explains why this could be very problematic for Justin Trudeau and his closest allies.

For weeks, most of Shanghai’s 26 million residents haven’t been able to leave their apartments, due to a strict lockdown meant to curb a massive COVID-19 outbreak. There have been reports of food and medicine shortages, of unsanitary conditions in the city’s giant quarantine facilities, and of authorities forcibly separating parents from children who test positive. All of which is leading to rare public displays of anger against the government. Today, Reuters reporter Engen Tham joins us to explain what life has been like in Shanghai, why China is sticking to its “dynamic zero COVID” strategy, and where things could go from here.

The United States’ new and historic climate law is being hailed by some Canadian politicians and environmental advocates as a chance to turn Canada into a global hub for electric cars and their components. That’s thanks in part to money and incentives which could potentially give a boost to companies mining in Canada for the minerals used to make electric vehicle batteries. If that sounds like a big green win for Canada — it is. But it’s also more complicated than that. Today, we’re taking a look at one example where the promise of mining for nickel to power electric vehicles is presenting a climate conundrum: the Ring of Fire, a mineral-rich but ecologically sensitive region in northern Ontario. Our guest is Emma McIntosh, The Narwhal’s Ontario environment reporter.

The race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has officially started. There have been a lot of questions about who might run ever since Andrew Scheer quit last December. Today on Front Burner, host Jayme Poisson talks to Maclean's senior writer Paul Wells about how this isn't just about the leader the Conservative party wants — but also what kind of party it wants to be.

The constitutionally protected right to abortion was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, leaving millions of women in the U.S. with less control over their own bodies than they had the day before — and for nearly 50 years before that. Despite right-wing jubilation over the ruling, overturning Roe v. Wade may not be widely popular in the U.S.; recent polling by CNN suggests about two-thirds of Americans didn’t want it to happen. But there are so-called trigger laws on the books in at least 13 states that ban or severely limit abortion and come into effect virtually as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned. Other states may also move to restrict or ban abortions soon. Today on Front Burner, UC Davis legal historian Mary Ziegler — author of Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment — discusses why the conservative-majority court overturned Roe v. Wade, why modern abortion bans have dangers not seen since the 1970s and what widespread criticism of the decision means for the perceived legitimacy of the court.

As a U.S. judge has ruled a sex abuse lawsuit can proceed against Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth, who last week was stripped of his military titles and royal patronages. The lawsuit is being brought by Virginia Giuffre, who has long claimed she was sex-trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, and that she was raped by Andrew as a teenager. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking late last year. The prince denies the allegations against him. Today, ITV royal news editor and host of the Royal Rota podcast Chris Ship explains what's led up to this moment, what can be expected as the case moves forward, and what it means for the legacy of the Royal Family during the Platinum Jubilee year.

The debate over Quebec’s controversial secularism law, known as Bill 21, has been reignited after a teacher was told she can no longer teach her Grade 3 class, because she wears a hijab. Fatemeh Anvari was hired this fall at Chelsea Elementary School, during a period of confusion over whether English school boards had to enforce the religious symbols ban. Now, in the wake of a recent court decision on the ban, Anvari has been forced out of classroom teaching. Today, we’re speaking to Montreal teacher Maha Kassef about the far-reaching consequences of Bill 21 for both teachers and students. Then, CBC reporter Jonathan Montpetit gives us the latest on the court and political battles surrounding the law — and how they call into question our understanding of how much Canada’s constitution really protects individual rights and freedoms.

Federal Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion is investigating Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the Liberal government's decision to task WE Charity with administering a $900-million student grant program. On Friday, WE Charity stepped back from the contract, which had faced criticism because of the Trudeau family's close association with the charity. Today, CBC parliamentary reporter Catherine Cullen on the now-cancelled partnership, the surrounding controversy and why the ethics commissioner got involved.

An enormous effort is underway to gather evidence of alleged war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine. Investigators from the International Criminal Court, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are on the ground, collecting accounts of extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and torture, among other abuses. Today, Belkis Wille, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, talks about what she and her team have found so far, and why she believes it’s important that “people around the world, those in power, but also citizens of Russia, can actually read about what this war looks like and what abuses are being perpetrated.” WARNING: This episode contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.

Annamie Paul, a Toronto-based human rights lawyer, was on Saturday elected leader of the Green Party of Canada — becoming the first elected Black leader of a major federal party. She takes over from Elizabeth May, who stepped down last year, after 14 years as leader. In her victory speech, Paul talked about how she believes the party is the one that Canadians need to guide them through, "the challenges of this time." Today on Front Burner, Paul on why that is, and how the Green Party plans to differentiate itself.

On Monday, as the Recording Academy began its final round of voting for the 2022 Grammy winners, people learned Drake was off the ballot. Drake and his management had asked the Academy to pull his two nominations. He still hasn’t offered an explanation, but this is the latest in a series of tensions between Drake and the Grammys: he’s questioned their relevance in his lyrics, defended The Weeknd after a snub and even criticized the Academy while accepting a trophy. Today on Front Burner, music journalist and host of Marvin’s Room A. Harmony joins us to explain why so many Hip Hop artists are expressing frustration with the Grammys, and whether a show with limited recognition of Black talent can remain relevant.

The race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, previously paused by the COVID-19 outbreak, is back on. The party will select its new leader in August, by mail-in ballot. Today on Front Burner, Power & Politics host Vassy Kapelos analyzes the campaigns, and talks about how this current pandemic has changed the dynamics of the race.

Last week, after a video of one of his speeches went viral, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had to address a growing controversy over “The Great Reset”. The term means different things to different people. To the World Economic Forum it’s a vague goal to make the world more equal and address climate change in the wake of the pandemic. To Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre it’s evidence of a “power grab” by “global financial elites”. And to others, it’s part of a baseless and wide-ranging conspiracy theory. CBC senior writer Aaron Wherry has been covering this story in Ottawa. Today he helps us sort the real economics and politics at play… from the conspiracy gaining traction.

Miami Herald reporter and author of Perversion of Justice Julie K. Brown on Ghislaine Maxwell’s upcoming trial — and her bombshell investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 plea deal that brought global attention to the case. This episode originally aired on July 20, 2021.

After her death by suicide in 2012, Amanda Todd’s name became closely linked with cyberbullying in Canada. From the ages of 12 to 15, the teen was relentlessly harassed and exploited online by more than 20 social media accounts that extorted her for sexual images. On Saturday, nearly 10 years after her death, a 44-year-old Dutch national, Aydin Coban, was convicted of extortion, possession of child pornography, child luring and criminal harassment against Todd. Today, Eva Uguen-Csenge — who helped cover the trial for CBC Vancouver — explains Amanda Todd’s story, and the significance of this guilty verdict now. A warning that this episode contains descriptions of child sexual exploitation.

South’s Korea incoming president, Yoon Suk Yeol, demonizes feminism, blames women for the country’s low birth rate and denies the existence of gender inequality. His campaign — which capitalized on the politics of grievance — has drawn comparisons to former U.S. president Donald Trump. So much so that he is also known as K-Trump. This week, on Nothing is Foreign, we hear from the women who are fighting for their voices, rights and safety and explore the roots of the country’s anti-feminist movement. Featuring: Jieun Choi, South Korean journalist. Haein Shim, artist and activist of Seoul-based feminist group Haeil.

Parliament has approved a $107-billion aid package to help Canadians struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the prime minister has said people will be able to access those benefits within 10 days of applying. But who qualifies? And how long will this aid last? Meanwhile, stricter measures are being applied on those returning to the country, but how will they be enforced? CBC parliamentary reporter J.P. Tasker joins Jayme Poisson to talk about that, on this episode of Front Burner.

Notorious stalking and harassment site Kiwi Farms has been hacked and taken offline again, less than a month after the website security and hosting provider Cloudflare dropped it, citing an "unprecedented emergency and immediate threat to human life." Kiwi Farms had risen to prominence after Canadian trans activist and Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti was swatted in her London, Ont. home this past summer. Sorrenti organized a pressure campaign to remove Kiwi Farms from the internet, calling it "a matter of public safety for every single person online." Today, Alejandra Caraballo of the Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic explains how Kiwi Farms was able to operate for so long, and outlines the efforts to keep it offline.

The view of the war from inside Ukraine varies depending on where you are. For two weeks, CBC News senior correspondent Susan Ormiston has been crossing the country where the war has become a normal part of life for some. In the capital of Kyiv, businesses are re-opening, communities are rebuilding, and some who fled at the start of the war have returned. Meanwhile, in Kherson and Kharkiv, fierce fighting continues as Ukraine’s counteroffensive reportedly ramps up. The Ukrainians say they’re making good progress, but Russia denies this, saying Ukraine is suffering heavy losses. An ongoing media blackout makes it hard to get a clear picture. Today on Front Burner, Susan Ormiston shows us the complicated reality in Ukraine as the war grinds on.

The NFT market is booming in early 2022, with estimates easily surpassing a billion dollars in transactions. But hype from a die-hard community is colliding with concern for the tech’s impact. Celebrities are both boosting digital tokens and laughing at the very concept of NFTs. Projects are providing access to exclusive clubs and selling virtual land, but also scamming buyers and disappearing. Meanwhile, concerns about energy usage by blockchains are causing groups such as BTS fans to erupt in protest. As investors speculate over JPEGs while some struggle for necessities, social media discussions are devolving into class warfare. Today on Front Burner, we look at what's driving the hype and the hate. Andrew Hayward, senior writer for crypto-focused news site Decrypt, explains how NFT culture has grown and changed, and why we can expect the tech to have a more mundane — but more useful — future.

An inquiry into alleged anti-Alberta energy campaigns wasn't able to determine if foreign funding had an impact on derailing energy projects in the province, and found no evidence of wrongdoing. Today, we look at how that final report differs from the province’s rhetoric — past and present.

The bitter fight over the construction of a natural gas pipeline in Northern B.C. continues to escalate. Over the last several days, the RCMP has moved in to enforce an injunction order to allow Coastal GasLink to get to work on the $6 billion project. Dozens of people have now been arrested, on Wet'suwet'en territory where the pipeline passes through, and at solidarity protests across the country. Today, CBC reporter Chantelle Bellrichard explains why the stakes are so high for everyone involved.

NBA superstar Fred VanVleet had a long road to becoming a beloved Toronto Raptor. He suffered a terrible loss growing up in Rockford, Ill., when his father was shot and killed when he was just five years old. As a young man coming out of Wichita State University, the point guard went undrafted in 2016 and had to fight his way onto the roster of the lone Canadian franchise in the league. But only a few years later, VanVleet was a key member of the team that won the 2019 NBA championship. Now, VanVleet is the undisputed leader of the Toronto Raptors. In this special episode of Front Burner, we meet VanVleet at the OVO Athletic Centre in Toronto to hear about his unexpected journey from underdog to all-star, and why he's partnered with the University of Toronto's undergraduate business program to launch a needs-based scholarship for Black and Indigenous students.

Eva Wiener describes her voyage across the Atlantic and how she feels about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's upcoming apology for Canada having turned her ship back. Also, CBC Ottawa Senior Reporter Catherine Cullen describes the politics of the apology.

On Monday, Ontario passed the “More Homes Built Faster Act” – a controversial part of Premier Doug Ford’s plan for 1.5 million new homes in the next decade. Bill 23 includes measures like reducing developer fees that cities say are crucial for services and infrastructure and permits triplexes on single residential lots. Ford has also already given the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa extraordinary powers, including overruling majority votes in city council in certain circumstances. And the Ford government is moving to open up parts of the province’s Greenbelt for development – a supposedly permanently protected area that Ford said he wouldn’t “touch.” Today, CBC Toronto reporter Ryan Patrick Jones joins us to explain the controversies over Ford’s housing plan, and why critics say it’s the wrong kind of vision for a growing province.

We all know what pro wrestling is: scripted stories, exploding barbed wire death matches, and very real athleticism and danger. And for the last four decades, WWE has stayed in the cultural lexicon as the biggest name in the pro wrestling world. But now, a new contender is rising. All Elite Wrestling, founded in 2018 by 38-year-old Tony Khan, is gaining serious momentum — thanks to the help of the new generation of Canadian wrestlers like Winnipeg’s own Kenny Omega. Today on Front Burner, managing editor at Fightful.com Sean Ross Sapp on the legacy of WWE and the changing face of wrestling with the rise of its adversary, All Elite.

Not long ago, Tesla seemed unstoppable. But Elon Musk's electric vehicle juggernaut closed out 2022 as the worst-performing stock among the most valuable tech companies — and its shares have dipped even lower since then. Today, Patrick George — a contributing writer with Vox Media's The Verge and an editor with The Autopian — joins us for a look at where things went south for Tesla, and the hurdles the company faces going forward.

On Monday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced the Liberal government will spend up to $100 billion to support the post-pandemic economy. The priority is, as Freeland says, to do “whatever it takes” to help Canadians, despite the record-high $381 billion deficit. CBC senior parliamentary reporter David Cochrane breaks down the details of the economic update, and tells us what critics had to say about it.

Since the Kearl mine in northern Alberta began production on Treaty 8 territory in 2013, the company has touted technological innovations that they say “enhance environmental performance.” Yet for months, wastewater from the mine’s tailings ponds, containing arsenic, hydrocarbons and sulphides has been seeping into the land. The company that runs the mine, Imperial Oil, first reported the leak in May 2022 to the provincial regulator. But Chief Allan Adam of the nearby Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation says his community only learned of the seepage last month. That’s created anxiety, says Chief Adam, because people have been hunting, fishing and trapping without knowing there was a risk of contamination. Drew Anderson, the Narwhal’s Prairies reporter, joins us today to walk us through how the leak happened, Alberta’s tailings pond debate and who’s accountable. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

"When the agency that's supposed to protect you is also an agency that you fear, there is really little place for you to find shelter," says Jorge Barrera, a reporter with CBC's Indigenous Unit, in relation to a disturbing new report about the Thunder Bay Police Service. Ontario's police watchdog Gerry McNeilly says "systemic racism" exists at an institutional level inside the police force. And the consequences of this racism are so severe that he's recommending nine cases involving the deaths of Indigenous people be re-opened and re-investigated. Today on Front Burner, we look at how Thunder Bay Police failed Indigenous people.

“Boundaries,” “trauma,” “holding space,” “gaslighting” — These are all examples of what’s known as “therapy speak”: Phrases and buzzwords that have made their way out of the therapist’s office, onto social media and into our everyday lives. But what happens when those same words are misunderstood or used in manipulative and harmful ways? That’s what many are asking after Jonah Hill’s ex-girlfriend, professional surfer Sarah Brady, posted screenshots of text messages from their past where the actor allegedly asked her to respect his “boundaries,” which included not posting swimsuit pictures or surfing with men. Today, we sat down with Rebecca Fishbein, a culture writer that’s been following the “therapy speak” phenomenon, to unpack the benefits and pitfalls of relationship discourse in a moment where so many use the language of psychotherapy. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today Brian Hioe explains how Taiwan became a pawn in a global competition between China and the West — and what that means for the island’s people.

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

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the articles of impeachment. President Donald Trump is expected to become just the third U.S. president in history to be impeached. But after the House vote, the proceedings move to the Senate, where there will be a trial. Today on Front Burner, CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta explains how some Republicans want the trial to be swift, while others are hoping for a full-on spectacle.

On Wednesday night, B.C. NDP leadership candidate Anjali Appadurai was disqualified from the race, clearing the path for the coronation of her competitor, David Eby, who will become the province’s premier. After an investigation, Appadurai was disqualified for allegedly having "engaged in serious improper conduct'' by working with third parties for membership drives on her behalf and for allegedly soliciting ”fraudulent memberships.” Appadurai says her removal was a political hit job and that the NDP was threatened by her team's ability to out-organize her opponent. Today on Front Burner, Appadurai joins us.

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

Kuper Island is an 8-part series that tells the stories of four students: three who survived and one who didn’t. They attended one of Canada’s most notorious residential schools – where unsolved deaths, abuse, and lies haunt the community and the survivors to this day. Hosted by Duncan McCue. More episodes are available at hyperurl.co/kuperisland

A study last week from two Oregon universities has generated a lot of buzz, after findings suggested that some cannabis compounds may be able to block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells. It adds to a growing body of research on cannabis and the coronavirus, as studies from around the world — including from Canada — have found that the cannabis compound CBD may be effective in helping treat some of the virus’s most deadly symptoms. Today, Katie MacBride, a health science reporter at the online magazine Inverse, joins us for a deep dive into what the research says — and doesn’t say — about cannabis and COVID-19. CORRECTION: This episode misstated that mRNA vaccines are designed to attach to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. To be clear, mRNA vaccines instruct the body's cells to make harmless copies of the spike protein, causing the body to produce antibodies which then attach to the proteins.

On Monday at midnight, over 11,000 television and film writers with the Writers’ Guild of America officially went on strike. The strike has triggered a sense of déjà vu in the TV world, in part because Saturday Night Live and late night talk shows are headed into reruns. But it’s also rekindling memories of the last major work stoppage in Hollywood: the 100 day writers’ strike in 2007 which caused a boom in reality TV and – by some estimates – cost the California economy over $2 billion USD. Lucas Shaw covers media and entertainment for Bloomberg, and today he’ll explain why writers are striking in an industry changed by streaming, and what parallels exist with other job action happening across the economy. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A crisis is unfolding at the border of Poland and Belarus, where thousands of migrants are stranded in freezing temperatures, hoping to reach Europe. Belarus, under authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, is accused of deliberately creating this crisis by shepherding migrants from the Middle East to the Polish border as revenge for sanctions imposed on his regime. Poland, with the support of the European Union, has responded by fortifying its border in a massive show of force. Almost 20,000 police and soldiers have been deployed to the area, and there are claims that they have illegally pushed people back across the border into Belarus. Today, Guardian correspondent Lorenzo Tondo on the geopolitical standoff and the people trapped in the middle of what is increasingly looking like a humanitarian disaster.