Episode description

Friday Focus provides listeners with a focused, half-hour masterclass on the big issues, events and trends driving the news and current events. The show features Janice Gross Stein, the founding director of the Munk School of Global Affairs and bestselling author, in conversation with Rudyard Griffiths, Chair and moderator of the Munk Debates.

On this week’s edition of the Friday Focus podcast, Janice and Rudyard start the show with a discussion of the ongoing political fallout around former Governor General David Johnston’s report on Chinese interference in Canadian democracy and his recommendation not to hold a public inquiry. With Parliament’s censure this week of Johnston, are his days as the Prime Minister’s “special rapporteur” numbered? What are the implications for Canada’s democratic institutions, including the office of the Governor General, if he continues in his role? The second half of the program looks at the economic news that has dominated headlines the last week. New inflation numbers suggest higher prices are persisting despite interest rate hikes. Is it time for central banks to come off their self-declared “pause” and push forward with more rate increases? And, if they don’t, what are the risks that we are repeating the inflation-fighting missteps of the 1970s?

This podcast is a project of the Munk Debates, a Canadian charitable organization dedicated to fostering civil and substantive public dialogue.

More information at www.munkdebates.com.