This week, Ontario Housing Minister Paul Calandra (new to the job after his predecessor resigned amid scandal in September) announced another reversal of a key government policy. This time, it was massive changes to urban boundaries outside several Ontario cities—changes most of the cities themselves fought against. Coming a week after the government introduced legislation to officially reverse its actions on Ontario's Greenbelt, and on the heels of reversals of everything from pandemic policy t...
Oct 26, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast The promise of untold millions once puffed up the legal cannabis industry to unimaginable highs. Then blunt reality set in. Now, with dreams of fortunes going up in smoke, some producers are entering joint ventures into other industries, hoping to find ways to keep business rolling. Meanwhile, the government's long-awaited review of the Cannabis Act is still pending, and everyone with money still invested in the industry is hoping the grass will be greener on the other side of that process. Is t...
Oct 25, 2023•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Two weeks after a terror attack by Hamas, and two weeks into a devastating retaliatory bombing campaign by Israel, thousands of lives are gone, and the world wonders how and when the horror might stop. There are calls for a humanitarian pause. A ceasefire. Deescalation. It seems impossible in the moment, but then, it usually does. So today, a brief history of ceasefires, peace deals, and other quests for a pause in a deadly conflict—and an explanation from a longtime observer of how they come to...
Oct 24, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Technically, it's called "extended producer responsibility"—and in practice it means governments handing over the task of recycling packaging to the companies that produce the waste. It happens in some capacity in most of Canada, and now Ontario is turning all of its recycling over to this model. But can we really trust for-profit companies to take recycling seriously? Are we seeing the lower costs and packaging innovations that are supposed to be the upsides of using this strategy? When we say,...
Oct 23, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The team behind The Big Story, has a new podcast! Hosted by Jordan Heath-Rawlings, In This Economy?! debuts with weekly episodes on Nov. 2. You can follow the show on your preferred podcast app right here ! We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us: Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter...
Oct 21, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast We've all been told not to judge a book by its cover. So why do so many people—from readers, to retailers, to publishers and reviewers—judge them by one little name, next to a little generic quote, that appears on that cover? If you've ever chosen your next read because the book came with a kind word from your favourite author, or if you've ever read some of those effusive blurbs, then read the book and wondered, "Did that person even read this thing?!" ... well, welcome to the publishing indust...
Oct 20, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Israel-Hamas war is near a tipping point. At some point Israel will have to decide to push forward with a massive and unprecedented ground offensive into Gaza in an attempt to eradicate Hamas, or find a way to back down from its stated goal of its response. A large-scale ground invasion, however, may well draw other entities into a widening conflict. If Israel sends in ground troops, what happens next? How reliable is information coming out of Gaza right now? Will US President Joe Biden's pr...
Oct 19, 2023•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Earlier this year, the province decriminalized certain amounts of some hard drugs, in an attempt to curb the overdose crisis. Nine months later, the same government has introduced legislation to ban those same drugs from public use. On the surface it looks like two conflicting approaches to the same problem—but is that true? What do we know about how decriminalization has gone so far? What will the new act mean for users in the province, and for non-users who share public space with them? How wi...
Oct 18, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Now that we know how huge the gap on housing is—Canada needs 3.5 million more homes by 2030—you would think governments across the country would be doing everything they can to narrow it. But instead, it's widening. In fact, our rate of building new homes has slowed to less than what it was during 2020, when many construction sites were shuttered for weeks during the first wave of Covid. How did this happen? Why aren't companies building? And if they won't, why aren't governments? Why is the pro...
Oct 17, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast After a Charter challenge was turned away in Ontario, an appeal may bring the laws that govern sex work in this country directly to the supreme court—and these laws are a battleground right now. At the heart of it is this question: Is sex work inherently exploitative? Or can it be just a job? And if it can't be, then why have the courts sided with a Halifax sex worker who took a non-paying client to small claims court, and won? GUEST: Dr. Meredith Ralston, professor, Mount Saint Vincent Universi...
Oct 16, 2023•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast A couple of years ago, NFTs were the Next Big Thing. They were everywhere, with celebrity endorsements, big media companies jumping on the bandwagon and ceaseless promotion from nearly everyone in the crypto sphere. They were "valued" as one-of-a-kind tokens to exclusive communities and riches to come. Today? A new report finds that 95 percent of them are absolutely worthless, and the communities that sprung up around them are ghost towns. Millions of dollars have been lost. But whose millions? ...
Oct 13, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you, like millions of people in Canada—and two million in Ontario alone—do not have a family doctor, the prospect of paying hundreds of dollars for the services they provide might be something you'd do, if you could afford it. That's the demand that has "nurse practitioner clinics" springing up across the province, fuelling accusations that Ontario is hurtling towards a Pay For Access system. The province's minister of health says the government is investigating the claims of patients being c...
Oct 12, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Since Saturday's horrific Hamas attacks and Israel's brutal response, fighting has continued, but has been contained to those two sides. There are worries, though, that may not last. Some reporting suggests that Iran, which supports Hamas and calls for the end of a Jewish state, gave approval for the attacks, which has already started some of America's hawks calling for the United States to get involved against Iran. The past four days have been bloody and heartbreaking. Many nations are trying ...
Oct 11, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every use of deadly force by police in the province requires an inquest to determine how and why it happened. In theory, this prevents fear or favour from influencing the decision whether or not to hold one, ensures that an initial investigation will not simply shut down a case, and offers every family suffering through a loss the chance to ask their questions, and get their answers. In practice? As a recent investigation has revealed, it rarely works that way. And the families of those killed b...
Oct 10, 2023•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, we're lending the feed to our friends over at Heaven Bent, a show hosted by Tara Jean Stevens that examines trends in modern christianity, and explores her own complex relationship with faith. In the first episode of the newest season, Tara Jean begins digging into an organization known as The International House of Prayer, and what she uncovers is both fascinating and thought provoking. You can listen to the rest of the season here. Enjoy! -------------------------------------------- ORI...
Oct 07, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Romana Didulo rose to prominence in 2020, gained a massive number of followers, moved her followers from online talk to in-person action, and has been traversing thew country in a notorious RV for the past year. All of this sounds absurd, but it's all tinged with the very real threat of violence. Today, Didulo and her followers have holed up in a tiny prairie town, that absolutely does not want them there. They are encamped at an abandoned school, refusing to leave and urging more to join them. ...
Oct 06, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the next few months, we're likely to find out how well Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms actually protects marginalized groups. A divisive policy enacted in Saskatchewan would require students to obtain parental consent before using a different name or pronouns at school. Advocates say the policy will out transgender kids in potentially dangerous homes. A challenge to the policy is currently before the courts, but rather than wait for an answer, Premier Scott Moe plans to use the "nuc...
Oct 05, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast The Canada Pension Plan is a world-renowned fund that controls hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for our retirements. Alberta premier Danielle Smith, unhappy that Alberta contributes more to the fund than its citizens receive, has plans to leave the fund and start the Alberta Pension Plan—while taking more than half the CPP's money on the way out the door. Can she actually do this? How much money would Alberta get? Why would the province want to go it alone as opposed to staying in one o...
Oct 04, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is the first generation of kids to grow up entirely with smartphones in hand. Most of the time, even during school hours. Schools who have tried to ban or regulate their use have mostly failed—with a few notable exceptions. And when teachers have tried to enforce these rules on the ground in their classrooms, it can get ugly. Just how addicted are students to their phones? What are they being used for in class? Is there a way to incorporate them into learning that doesn't enable their detri...
Oct 03, 2023•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast You and a friend might be given two different prices by the same website for the same item. Heck, you might be given two different prices yourself depending on where you are when you're browsing the site. It's a phenomenon that began as dynamic pricing—a computer balancing supply and demand to ensure everything was sold at a price the market was prepared to pay—but it's now gone well beyond that. As algorithms become smarter and more advanced, and as we voluntarily offer our devices and the comp...
Sep 29, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Somehow, nobody involved in the now-infamous affair clued into the fact that a man who was fighting against the Russians in 1943 would have been fighting ... with the Nazis. That's at the core of last week's House of Commons' screwup that has made international waves, become a hyperpartisan blame game in Ottawa and has many people speedrunning the history of the Second World War. But who's really to blame for this failure? Why will the blame land at the feet of the Liberals and Justin Trudeau re...
Sep 28, 2023•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Yup, the government body overseeing the economy has been hoping for a while now that some of the low unemployment rates that have been driving up salaries and opportunities for workers will vanish. It's a key pillar of their plan to steer the country away from a recession. That, and higher interest rates. All good, right? Right now a surprising amount of our economic future is being determined because, according to contemporary economic thought, things were going too well. So now we're paying fo...
Sep 27, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, Ontario premier Doug Ford caved, spectacularly. He apologized for breaking his promise, and vowed to reverse his decision to open up parts of the province's Greenbelt to development. The move came after months of scandal, investigations and public outcry—it's a rare example of a politician listening and admitting he screwed up, and got it wrong. But the saga isn't over yet. There are developers who spent billions buying up land they assumed would be developed. They may sue. There are ...
Sep 26, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast The numbers have been climbing for years, and last year was a high not seen since the old days of manual hot-wiring. This year figures to be even worse, as a perfect storm of factors make modern cars vulnerable, movable and the target of highly organized thieves. How does a modern car-theft work, anyway? Why do the thieves seem to be ahead of the automakers? What's the best way to stop this wave, on both an individual and regulatory level? OH—and just where do all those stolen cars wind up, anyw...
Sep 25, 2023•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast In many regions of Europe, wild boars roam the landscape. Also, they're radioactive. For a long time, it was assumed the Chernobyl disaster was the cause, and that's still partly true. But the real answer goes back even further, and offers us a glimpse of how the byproducts of nuclear technology can lay dormant for decades, only detected in the most visible part of a system we're still learning to understand. This is the wild boar paradox, and this is what it can teach us about nuclear technolog...
Sep 22, 2023•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast You've probably got some in your medicine cabinet right now, and if you take them hoping for a relief from congestion, you're pretty much taking a placebo. A recent FDA review found that one of the most most popular active ingredients in these medications is basically useless. So how has this drug been approved and available for decades when evidence shows it doesn't do what it's supposed to? Why did it take us so long to realize it? Which medications actually will relieve congestion? And what s...
Sep 21, 2023•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Justin Trudeau told the country that his government has evidence implicating India in a June murder of a Sikh leader in BC, it shocked even seasoned intelligence experts. Foreign interference is by now a nationally known problem in this country, but extrajudicial killings are a large step beyond that. What would India's role in the murder tell us about the state of Canada's national security? Will we ever find out what the government actually knows about the murder? Was there any way to sto...
Sep 20, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, the president of Spanish soccer resigned amid a furor over a nonconsensual kiss given to one of the Spanish women's team's players in the wake of their world cup triumph. Players around the world—not only women—had demanded this resignation and more, pushing for the total restructuring of Spanish soccer. In Canada, last month's collapse at the world cup marked a long-running battle between our women's team and the federation that pays and oversees the national teams. Women's teams aro...
Sep 19, 2023•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast This afternoon, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons, and all of Canada, that this country has credible evidence that India was behind the killing of a high profile Sikh leader in BC in June. This evening we're re-sharing with you an episode we published in June, a few days after the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a well-known community leader and pro-Khalistan activist who the Indian government had previously accused of terror offences. There were questions when it happened ...
Sep 18, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast In many places across Canada, outdated 911 systems are strapped for operators and barely holding on to functionality. That has led to some people calling with emergencies—like a Brampton, Ont. family dealing with a home invasion—not being able to get through to an operator. It should go without saying that if 911 doesn't work properly, lives are at risk ... yet here we are. What are the problems here? A combination of factors that are creating a serious problem. What's being done about it? Lots,...
Sep 18, 2023•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
