When announced in December, it seemed like a new immigration program would allow Canadians with extended family in Gaza to finally bring them to safety. More than three months later, not a single person has arrived in the country. And it's not for lack of trying. Thousands have applied, and hundreds of applications are stuck in bureaucratic purgatory. Even Canada's minister of immigration has said Canada is "failing" Gazans. So what's gone wrong? Is the government to blame? Or is this the fog of...
Mar 20, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast You might have used the app during the pandemic. It may have saved you time at the airport. It may have cost you an unnecessary quarantine. Either way, even if you never downloaded it, you paid for it. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars went into developing, releasing and updating (dozens and dozens of times) the government's pandemic travel app. The question now is about how that money was spent, who received it, and how much work they did for it. The scandal has twists and turns and detail u...
Mar 19, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast With the rise in both legality and popularity of gambling, it can seem like images of both winners and losers are everywhere. Images of men, that is. Take a look at gambling advertising on TV, or even promotions offering help for problem gamblers. Men. Picture gamblers in your own head. They're probably men, too. This even extends to research, where numbers show that women do indeed gamble, nearly as much as men in some cases. And they may even develop gambling problems faster than men do. But a...
Mar 18, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Not too long ago, cigarettes were everywhere. Lighting up in a restaurant, on a flight, or even in a doctor’s office was just part of the smoky fabric of Canadian life. Until it wasn’t. Now smartphones are the constant thing we carry. We can’t seem to put them down. Will we ever? What does our culture’s current addiction to smartphones have in common with cigarettes? GUEST: Richard Warnica, business reporter and opinions writer for the Toronto Star We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as s...
Mar 17, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cody wants to find a new job, in a new industry, but doesn't have the qualifications listed on the job postings he's seeing. Alan feels trapped in his current job by an unstable and unpredictable market. They both want to know if now is a good time to change careers, and how they should go about the transition. To find out, Jordan reaches Alan Kearns, founder of CareerJoy, a firm that helps guide people through career transitions. Together they outline the costs that need to be considered when p...
Mar 16, 2024•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast If you've tried to use Google to research a purchase recently, you've probably encountered—right at the top of the rankings—a whole lot of extremely similar Best Of lists published by familiar brands, even trusted names like Forbes, Popular Science or even Rolling Stone. Big names...but unlikely to have suddenly started thoroughly product testing things like air purifiers or humidifiers. What's happening here is a tangled story of a collapsing media industry, affiliate marketing gone mad and an ...
Mar 15, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast On March 6th, six people, including four children, were killed in their home in Barrhaven ,O.N., a suburb of Ottawa. The man accused of committing the alleged mass murder shared a home with the family. The killing has left their community and the public at large with many questions. So who was the family, and what did they mean to their community? Who stands accused? And what do we know about what happened inside that house, and why? GUEST: Marlo Glass, reporter, The Ottawa Citizen We love feedb...
Mar 14, 2024•16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Officially known as Catherine, Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton has not been seen in months, aside from a quick glimpse in a dark car. Officially, she's recovering after undergoing abdominal surgery. Unofficially, if you follow the conspiracy theories, she's somewhere between divorced and dead. On Sunday, a picture she posted showing her with her children on the UK's Mother's Day, was killed by wire services, diagnosed as a "manipulated" image. Obviously, that hasn't done much to quell speculat...
Mar 13, 2024•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, Juste Pour Rire announced that it would not hold Just For Laughs festivals in Montreal and Toronto in 2024, and that it was entering creditor protection. Toronto has already seen the cancellation of its Taste of The Danforth food festival, as well as scaled down versions of the Fringe and Luminato festivals. Hot Docs is struggling to survive and other major festivals like Shaw are facing record deficits. Meanwhile, government help for arts institutions during the pandemic era is all b...
Mar 12, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Canada is not the only country in the world experiencing skyrocketing costs and a shortage of available housing options. Across the world nations are coming up with creative solutions to deal with their own housing crises. There’s no silver bullet for fixing the Canadian housing market, and addressing the issue will require a whole slough of short and long-term strategies to alleviate the current crunch, and accommodate future population growth. It does seem as though most governments at all lev...
Mar 11, 2024•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Olivia is going through a divorce. And while it has been amicable, splitting assets feels impossible, especially when it comes to the home they share. Jordan talks to Eva Sachs, the financial expert at The Modern Divorce, a Toronto company that helps couples reach divorce settlements without going to court. 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...
Mar 09, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast There’s a chance that one day, we humans could have a conversation with whales. Seriously. Scientists are working on a way to make it happen. If technology does eventually allow us to talk to these majestic mammals, what should we say? And what message will they send back? Ross Andersen, a staff writer at The Atlantic, is exploring those questions by reaching out to experts who specialize in paleontology, philosophy, animal-rights law, and beyond for their take.Now, he’s sharing his intriguing f...
Mar 08, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Haiti is in the grip of a deepening crisis. Armed gangs are expanding their control of the Caribbean nation through increasingly violent attacks. A state of emergency was declared on Sunday after gangs raided two prisons, freeing thousands of inmates. Hours later, they launched an assault on the country’s main airport.One gang leader is warning of a “civil war that will end in genocide” if Haiti’s Prime Minister remains in power. Will a planned Kenya-led security mission bring calm to Haiti? Or ...
Mar 07, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast In some parts of Canada, carbon pricing is a four-letter word. Now, one province is taking a dramatic stand against the federal government’s carbon levy. Saskatchewan’s government says it’s refusing to remit carbon tax funds to Ottawa. “This is a decision that we do not take lightly and we recognize that it may come with consequences,” SaskEnergy Minister Dustin Duncan said in video posted to social media announcing the move last week. What consequences could Saskatchewan face? Will other provin...
Mar 06, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Lynx Air is no more. The ultralow-cost airline abruptly announced its exit from Canadian skies just ahead of busy March Break travel. Customers were left scrambling to make new – and likely more expensive – bookings. The company now joins a growing list of failed discount airlines in the country. Why can’t they seem to stick around for the long haul? Are Canadians just doomed to always pay more for our air travel? GUEST: Jonah Prousky, Management consultant and freelance writer who focuses on bu...
Mar 05, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, it came out that Wendy’s was considering using dynamic pricing, which sparked concern that would mean increased prices during peak hours. Immediately, the company was met with a deluge of criticism and they reversed their decision. While dynamic pricing is off Wendy’s menu for now, the practice is still common in everything from ride hailing services to air fare and even concert tickets. What does the heated backlash reveal about what customers will accept? And where could dynamic pri...
Mar 04, 2024•20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Matt is struggling to keep up with the cost of heating his home. And he's not alone, Canadians are reporting higher energy consumption costs across the country. Jordan calls Violet Kopperson, a registered energy advisor from the Windfall Ecology Centre, to find out how Canadians can pay less to heat and cool their homes. 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...
Mar 02, 2024•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just 20 years ago, Canadian cities were seeing a few dozen bed bug infestation reports a year. Now they get thousands—and in Toronto, tens of thousands. In Canada and around the world, the terrifying creatures are back, and they're getting stronger. (Seriously, they're becoming harder to kill, we told you this was stuff you "never wanted to know".) How did bed bugs come back to become such a huge problem? What works against them and what doesn't? How can you recognize them, prevent infestations ...
Mar 01, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Usually when both sides are mad, it's a sign of a good political compromise. But when your new housing law manages to anger both tenants and landlords over completely different parts of the same bill, that's less of a compromise and more of a mess. But Quebec's housing minister maintains the new legislation will help ease the province's growing rental and housing crisis. What's in this bill? Why do tenant advocates think it will send rents skyrocketing? Why do landlords say it will cost them mon...
Feb 29, 2024•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Whatever we've been taught, it seems like the lessons aren't sticking these days. And the most obvious result is the dramatic resurgence of a sexually transmitted infection that was once rare in this country: Syphilis. It's not the only STI with rates on the rise, but it is the most troubling—especially cases of congenital syphilis, in which a pregnant mother transfers the infection to her unborn baby. Why have syphilis and other STIs returned with a vengeance? Is it a matter of education and pr...
Feb 28, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Elizabeth Payne is a longtime health reporter. She knows the ins and outs of Canada's healthcare system—its triumphs and tragedies. At least, intellectually. But when her father suffered a fall that brought him first to the emergency room, and then deeper and deeper into an overcrowded, short-staffed system that failed him even as it tried its best, she got a different kind of look at what's wrong, and what it means for every senior who might suffer an extremely common accident. GUEST: Elizabeth...
Feb 27, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Recent reports have seen Russian forces make some of their biggest gains into Ukrainian territory in recent weeks, while aid for Ukraine from western allies has become harder and harder to come by. Does that mean a Russian victory is inevitable? Or does it merely signal a new phase of a conflict that will continue for some time? If Ukraine can't get help from its allies as it has since Russia's invasion, what happens to its forces? And what happens to NATO and other allies if Russia is able to s...
Feb 26, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the longtime CBC news anchor began his career as a reporter in the early 1970's, giving people the news was among the most trusted and important occupations in the country. When he retired in 2017, it was the era of "fake news", as trust in the media was at an all-time low. Seven years later, it's even lower than that. So what happened? Did the media lose people's trust? Did the internet do it for them? How does a legendary face of Canadian news grapple with the fact that, if he were in the...
Feb 23, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Most people would support the concept of preventing children from accessing online pornography. But the devil is in the details. How exactly do you do that? And what level of privacy will you ask adults to give up to make it happen. A bill currently sitting in committee has this very goal, but no details yet to go with it. It may involve asking sites like industry leader PornHub to take access users' identification. It may even require facial recognition software. Nobody knows. PornHub, meanwhil...
Feb 22, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast In early February, a man was stabbed at what was believed to be an illegal rooming house in Toronto. A few weeks earlier, a fire at another left one person dead. The city says it can't count the number of illegal rooming houses that exist right now. And the people who live in them often pay a lot of money for a small room and what can be unsafe living conditions. And they don't have a lot of options if something goes wrong -- which it often does. The city plans to tackle the problem by allowing ...
Feb 21, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Every criminal case up for trial needs a judge. But in Canada, not every case gets one. Recent years have seen a severe and growing shortage of judges across many levels of the justice system—in some cases this means cases that have waited years for a trial must be thrown out. Not only does this mean people accused of serious crimes simply walk free, it means that potentially innocent people are spending years waiting for a trial that never comes. How did we end up in this mess? Why hasn't the g...
Feb 20, 2024•22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Welcome to the first feedback episode of The Big Story. Today lead producer Joe Fish and host Jordan Heath-Rawlings go through your comments, questions and concerns to shed a little light on TBS listeners, how we make the show and what you think of some of our topics and guests. 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...
Feb 19, 2024•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jennie has been searching for a one-bedroom condo in Vancouver for over two years. Despite having money for a downpayment, her search has been largely unsuccessful. Now, she's wondering if home ownership is really the best option. Jordan calls Dr. Tom Davidoff, housing economist and real estate development expert, to find out if buying a condo is a good investment in today's market. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us: Through email at h...
Feb 17, 2024•35 min•Transcript available on Metacast It can -- but the better question might be: Is it something that could be used against you? The technology does exist to use a sample to create a sketch of a person's face, but there are doubts about its accuracy, and how much value it provides. But that hasn't stopped police from taking these sketches and running them through facial recognition software. Searching for ... someone who looks like the a drawing a computer made when it was given your DNA? Welcome to the next level of investigative ...
Feb 16, 2024•19 min•Transcript available on Metacast When Toronto's mayor presented her budget on Wednesday, the city's police services got everything they had asked for, with Olivia Chow retreating from her original plans to fund a smaller increase. Across Canada, police budgets continue to increase by millions of dollars per year, as the associations representing the police effectively lobby politicians and the public—often with vague warnings about rising crime and public safety. So let's look at the numbers. What is the correlation between pol...
Feb 15, 2024•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
