Front Burner

CBC•www.cbc.ca

Front Burner is a daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Each morning, from Monday to Friday, host Jayme Poisson talks with the smartest people covering the biggest stories to help you understand what’s going on. We’re Canada’s number one news podcast and a trusted source of Canadian news.

We cover Canadian news and Canadian politics, Pierre Poilievre, Mark Carney, the Donald Trump administration, the upcoming 2025 Canadian election, provincial politics from Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and politicians Danielle Smith, David Eby and Doug Ford. We cover Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary as well as other municipalities across Canada.

In this Canadian election year, Front Burner will be focusing more on Canadian politics. We will take a close look at Mark Carney’s first few weeks as Prime Minister-Designate, the Conservatives and Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre as well as other leaders like Jagmeet Singh from the NDP and Quebec’s Yves-François Blanchet from the Bloc Québécois during the 2025 Canadian federal election. The podcast goes beyond Ottawa and digs deeper into major election issues like U.S.-Canada relations, jobs, the economy, immigration, cost of living, housing and rental costs, taxes and tariffs, democracy and technology.

The Front Burner daily podcast covers Canadian news from every province and territory: Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon. We cover news from major cities like Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

When U.S. President Donald Trump declares he wants to make Canada the 51st state, and decides to implement tariffs, Front Burner has an analysis into what is happening. We cover Elon Musk’s DOGE. We cover the latest in technology from the rise of bitcoin and crypto, the future of TikTok, Meta, artificial intelligence, influencers, and more.

Look to our archives to see fact-checked stories about infrastructure, fascism, border security, immigration, Pierre Poilievre, Justin Trudeau, the Republican Party, American politics, Canadian politics, India, China, Trump’s tariffs, Mark Carney, Elon Musk, Toronto, technology, artificial intelligence, international students, healthcare, and inflation. We cover global news like the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, the ceasefire, the Ukraine-Russia war, and the U.S. economy and U.S. politics.

Front Burner is a part of your morning news routine. Whether you’re in Toronto or Vancouver or Washington, this is the news that matters to Canadians. We take a look at the economy and break it down from the budget to interest rate hikes to inflation to recessions to jobs to the cost of living. We look at the policy around housing, Canadian housing supply, and what this means for first-time home buyers, renters, and those with a mortgage. We look at technology, from AI to the manosphere to social media like Meta, Twitter, Facebook, and more. We look at influential newsmakers like Elon Musk and influential technology industries like crypto and AI.

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Episodes

The downfall of NXIVM’s Keith Raniere

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.

Oct 28, 2020•23 min

Borat walks through the 2020 looking-glass

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 ho...

Oct 27, 2020•22 min

Renters brace for winter COVID-19 evictions

Hicham Alasbachi is a Syrian refugee who lives in a one bedroom, first-floor apartment on Weston Road in North York, Ontario. He’s been there for a couple years now, but he’s not sure how much longer he’ll be able to stay. Alasbachi’s had problems paying his rent for a long time, and now, seven months into the pandemic, he’s facing the possibility of eviction. As part of Year K, our ongoing series exploring how the pandemic could make Canada a less equal place, today we’re focused on evictions a...

Oct 26, 2020•30 min

Trump versus Biden: The final debate

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.

Oct 23, 2020•20 min

B.C.'s pandemic election

This Saturday, British Columbians head to the polls in a snap provincial election. According to NDP Leader John Horgan, the intent is to maintain political stability in the next year as the province continues to deal with the threat of COVID-19. Today on Front Burner, CBC provincial affairs reporter Tanya Fletcher, who covers the B.C. Legislature, walks us through the issues and controversies that are capturing attention during the short but eventful campaign.

Oct 22, 2020•23 min

A showdown in Ottawa, and a snap election?

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.

Oct 21, 2020•25 min

36 years later: The truth about who murdered Christine Jessop

After 36 years, an infamous cold case involving the rape and mutilation of a little girl has finally been solved. The horrific mystery surrounding the abduction and murder of Christine Jessop captured the attention of the nation in the '80s and led to the wrongful conviction of an innocent man. Today, former CBC investigative journalist Linden MacIntyre has come out of retirement to explain why it took nearly four decades to uncover Jessop’s killer and what haunting questions still remain.

Oct 20, 2020•25 min

Arson, violence and a decades-old fishing feud

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 repor...

Oct 19, 2020•25 min

The problems pile up for Alberta

This week, the Alberta government detailed cuts to the province’s health service, including up to 11,000 layoffs. While all of Canada’s provinces have taken an economic hit because of COVID, Alberta in particular has been clobbered. Oil and gas revenues have tanked. Liquor sales are projected to bring in more than bitumen royalties from the oil sands this fiscal year. Support for United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney is down, too. According to a late summer poll, he’s got the second low...

Oct 16, 2020•24 min

A fatal 12-story fall, and a no-knock police search

Anthony Aust died last week, after falling 12 storeys during a raid by Ottawa police of his home. He was out on bail and under the supervision of his family. His mother, stepfather, and brother spoke to the CBC about how traumatizing the no-knock search was, and how they’re looking for answers about why it happened in the first place. The case is currently under investigation by Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit. CBC reporter Judy Trinh spoke to Aust’s family, and investigated the practice o...

Oct 15, 2020•20 min

Who’s the GOAT: Michael Jordan or LeBron James?

On Sunday, L.A. Lakers star LeBron James took home his fourth NBA championship and his fourth finals MVP award. He also became the first player to have won a championship on three different teams. Those wins are reviving an old debate over who gets to claim the title of the greatest basketball player of all time: Is it LeBron now, or does His Airness, Michael Jordan, still reign? Today Ben Golliver, the Washington Post’s national NBA writer, and Alex Wong, a freelance sports writer, debate it.

Oct 14, 2020•24 min

COVID-19 update: Explaining rapid tests and experimental treatments

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 coronavir...

Oct 13, 2020•23 min

The Central Park Five’s Yusef Salaam on life after wrongful conviction

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 ...

Oct 12, 2020•21 min

Will a fix for racial bias in jury trials backfire?

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 diff...

Oct 09, 2020•21 min

Aging Presidential candidates loom over VP debate

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.

Oct 08, 2020•22 min

New Green Party Leader Annamie Paul's vision for Canada

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 di...

Oct 07, 2020•22 min

Her mother survived the first wave in long-term care. Then the second wave came

Iona Guindon felt lucky that her mother Perriette's long-term care home in Ottawa was spared in the first wave of the pandemic. But an outbreak that began on Aug. 30 exposed Iona to horrifying scenes inside the home, and left her wondering why West End Villa wasn't better prepared to control the virus. In the spring, long-term care companies and the Ontario government promised they would be far better prepared for a second wave. Now, as outbreaks rip through 50 such homes in the province, advoca...

Oct 06, 2020•28 min

Donald Trump has COVID-19. Now what?

On Sunday, doctors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center briefed the media on the health of U.S. President Donald Trump. The news conference came after a whirlwind weekend where a growing number of the president’s inner circle, including first lady Melania Trump, tested positive for COVID-19, and where the president's doctors and team issued conflicting messages about his medical status. CBC’s senior Washington editor Lyndsay Duncombe joins us to explain what’s known about the presiden...

Oct 05, 2020•23 min

Indigenous woman records racist abuse in her dying moments

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 ...

Oct 02, 2020•20 min

Will Ontario’s second wave become a tsunami?

Like many places in Canada, summer felt a bit more normal in Ontario, at least by pandemic standards. But as Premier Doug Ford said earlier this week, the province is officially in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today on Front Burner, CBC's Ontario provincial affairs reporter Mike Crawley on what led us to this second wave of COVID-19 cases, the government's response, and what it might take to stop it from becoming a tsunami.

Oct 01, 2020•22 min

U.S. President refuses to condemn white supremacists, militias in debate

While the interruptions made the debate hard to follow, it’s what U.S. President Donald Trump didn’t say that was most notable. When asked to condemn white supremacists and far-right militias, Trump would not. When asked if he would call on his supporters to remain calm if the vote wasn’t decided on election night, Trump railed against mail-in voting. At times Trump drew insults from his exasperated opponent Joe Biden. Today, CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta walks us through the highlig...

Sep 30, 2020•21 min

A Canadian said he killed for ISIS. The RCMP say it’s a hoax

The story was chronicled in detail in the mega-hit New York Times podcast Caliphate: a young Canadian man who claimed he had travelled to Syria to join ISIS, committing executions on behalf of the group before becoming disillusioned and fleeing. Now, Shehroze Chaudry, a.k.a. "Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi" has been charged by the RCMP not for being a member of ISIS, but for allegedly lying about it. He's now facing a terrorism hoax charge. Today, terrorism and radicalization expert Amarnath Amarasingam ...

Sep 29, 2020•22 min

Anti-mask conspiracy movement thriving in Quebec

Across Quebec, a COVID-19 conspiracy movement with ties to the far right is gaining ground — even as new cases continue to skyrocket. Today, CBC Montreal digital reporter Jonathan Montpetit joins us to talk about what has caused this conspiracy movement to thrive in the province, and what it could mean for Quebec’s fight against COVID-19.

Sep 28, 2020•23 min

Introducing: Brainwashed

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 Kes...

Sep 26, 2020•24 min

'Breonna Taylor's killing was an institutional one'

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Wednesday said there would be no charges against Louisville police officers for the killing of Breonna Taylor back in March. Only one of three men involved, who has since been fired from the force, was indicted, and faces three counts of "wanton endangerment" for shooting into Taylor's neighbour's home. After the grand jury decision was released, protests erupted in Louisville. Today, host Josh Bloch talks to USA Today politics reporter Phillip M. Bail...

Sep 25, 2020•21 min

Liberals promise child care, one million jobs and more

On Wednesday, the Liberals laid out what they called an "ambitious plan for an unprecedented reality" in the speech from the throne, pledging to extend some COVID-19 emergency supports, boost child care spending, create a million jobs, and more. Today, host of CBC's Power and Politics Vassy Kapelos unpacks some of the ambitious promises and the opposition's response.

Sep 24, 2020•24 min

Is COVID-19 airborne? The CDC said yes, then no

This weekend, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sparked a major controversy after updating, then removing, a warning about the airborne spread of COVID-19. Today, CBC senior health writer Adam Miller joins us to explain why this has re-ignited questions about just how easily COVID-19 travels through the air and whether the CDC is being influenced by the president’s political goals.

Sep 23, 2020•21 min

Year K: The Canadian economic crisis enters phase two

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 ser...

Sep 22, 2020•23 min

Supreme Court vacancy a game changer for U.S. election

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.

Sep 21, 2020•23 min

Tackling far-right activity in the Canadian military

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 eno...

Sep 18, 2020•21 min

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