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PODCAST

This Matters

The world is changing every day. Now, more than ever, these questions matter. What"s happening? And why should you care? This Matters, a daily news podcast from the Toronto Star, aims to answer those questions, on important stories and ideas, every day, Monday to Friday. Hosts Saba Eitizaz and Ed Keenan talk to their fellow journalists, experts and newsmakers about the social, cultural, political and economic stories that shape your life.

news documentary

All Episodes

42:41

In a Greenbelt hole, Ford keeps digging, plus other...

This Matters ·

2023/09/08

Guests: Edward Keenan and Emma Teitel, columnists In this episode, hosts Edward Keenan and Emma Teitel discuss the fiasco “inside a clown show wrapped in a dumpster fire” that is the Premier Doug Ford Greenbelt scandal, Toronto city council talks on new taxes and new public housing, how the education minister’s lose talk could lead to kids becoming homeless and other assorted news that caught Ed’s and Emma’s attention through the first week after the summer vacation. This episode was produced by

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20:41

Digital generation struggling with facts vs....

This Matters ·

2023/09/07

Guest: Alex Boyd, staff reporter If you’re a parent, you might believe your child can teach you a thing or two about the internet. You wouldn’t be wrong but did you know teens are more susceptible to online conspiracy theories and disinformation than you? Research shows that young people are increasingly exposed to disinformation and misinformation, and struggling to separate facts from fake news. It seems like the “online generation” is also the most vulnerable to the pitfalls of the online world

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18:08

The bee catastrophe we should be worried about

This Matters ·

2023/09/06

Picture this: A swarm of bees, millions of them, unleashed and spilling out onto a highway. Sound like the plot of a horror movie? This happened recently in Burlington, Ont. when a truck carrying five million bees spilled its cargo. The incident caused quite a buzz, but experts are saying we’re buzzing about the wrong disaster. The real one is the rapidly declining populations of these bees and how our future might be depending on their fate. This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz, Paulo Marques

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17:38

Mission impossible: Real estate

This Matters ·

2023/08/31

Guest: Clarrie Feinstein, real estate reporter Real estate is becoming mission impossible in Canada. With interest rates holding high, there is less demand for properties on the market and an increasing number of mortgages are going into default. Property investors aren’t making money and struggling to sell as homebuilders are cancelling projects. Something has to give. As the Star’s real estate reporter Clarrie Feinstein shares, all eyes are on the Bank of Canada to cut rates in 2024. This episode

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18:45

Is the American dream more attainable than Canada’s?

This Matters ·

2023/08/30

Guest: Jeremy Nuttall, reporter at the Toronto Star In May 2014 the New York Times published an opinion piece that generated much buzz, claiming that Canada might have stolen the famous “American Dream” when it came to median, after-tax income, quality of education and economic equality. Less than ten years and a pandemic later, the “Canadian Dream" might be turning into a nightmare with a spiraling housing, healthcare and economic crisis and the U.S. is once again pulling ahead of Canada when it

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20:07

Policing wellness checks

This Matters ·

2023/08/29

Guest: Wendy Gillis, reporter at the Toronto Star Imagine someone going through a serious mental health crisis — and calls for help to prevent hurting themselves — and is then seriously hurt by those who responded to the distress call. It happened to a man called Brent Langille in an example of police on the frontlines of mental health calls. But shrinking budgets for mental health programs has led to the police becoming de-facto front-line mental health workers. We take a look at how this recent

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01:01:59

Summer ends early at City Hall

This Matters ·

2023/08/25

Guest: Edward Keenan and Emma Teitel, columnists Mayor Olivia Chow’s executive committee met this week for the first time to tackle new tax and revenue options and get something started on affordable housing. The only question is whether the provincial and federal governments will join them. Plus: the Ontario Place spa redesign, the final closure of the Scarborough RT and the thrilling siren song of the Polar Express (and the images painted on it). This episode was produced by Edward Keenan, Sean

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16:35

A homebuyer, seller, tenant dispute that could happen...

This Matters ·

2023/08/24

Guest: Kate McCullough, reporter at The Hamilton Spectator It is a story out of East Hamilton that has made headlines, but could happen to anyone. A couple who own a home as an investment property have sold, told their tenants to leave because the buyers intend to live there, but the tenants say they can’t leave because they find a home in their price range in the costly rental market. The situation has now gone to the backlogged Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), effectively putting a stop on

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15:32

COVID booster shots and the next pandemic wave

This Matters ·

2023/08/23

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, health reporter Health professionals are warning of an earlier than expected fourth wave of COVID-19 and the emergence of yet more fast-transmitting variants. While nothing has changed in terms of how we live with COVID, experts are saying this fourth pandemic autumn will be different from previous waves. This time around Canadians have tools to tackle the virus with high levels of immunity from a combination of vaccination and previous infection, and there are new,

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19:49

Ford persists that Greenbelt is needed for housing....

This Matters ·

2023/08/22

Guest: Matti Siemiatycki, director on University of Toronto’s Infrastructure Institute Earlier this month, a scathing report from Ontario’s auditor general revealed that Premier Doug Ford’s decision to open up land for development in the protected Greenbelt area might have been influenced by well-connected developers who stand to make billions of dollars. In the aftermath of growing calls for resignation and political pressure, the Ford government seems undeterred in its plans for development on

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20:40

Trump’s tangled legal web

This Matters ·

2023/08/18

Guest: Melissa Haussman, professor of political science at Carleton University Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s legal web is more tangled than ever after his fourth indictment was handed down in Georgia as he ramps up another run for the White House. Trump has 91 criminal charges against him between Georgia, Florida, New York and the District of Columbia and the stakes could not be higher for him and for American democracy. On “This Matters,” we take a look at the political impact of Trump’s

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22:04

Class-action lawsuit against police ‘carding’...

This Matters ·

2023/08/17

Guest: Jim Rankin and Wendy Gillis, crime and justice reporters Ayaan Farah, a Black woman, was stopped and questioned by the police in 2011. The documentation of that interaction changed her life, as she was suspended without pay from a job she held for years despite having no criminal record. She’s now the face of a class-action lawsuit over “carding,” a historically controversial and racially skewed police practice of stopping, interrogating and documenting people. Although it’s now outlawed,

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25:11

Style vs. substance: How Trudeau, Poilievre and...

This Matters ·

2023/08/14

Guest: Stephanie Levitz, Ottawa Bureau From cabinet appointments to personal style, our federal political leaders are changing and shaking up how they lead as our Canadian perceptions of them are increasingly divided. As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals mark the lowest approval rating since they formed government, Trudeau shook up the front bench (while also making news in his personal life). On the other side of the aisle, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is shaking up his personal

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47:21

Olivia Chow's one-month performance review

This Matters ·

2023/08/11

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel featuring Matt Elliott, Shawn Micallef and host Edward Keenan On Saturday, Olivia Chow marks one month in the job as mayor, and this week, she appointed her team by selecting the committee Some would-be rivals seemed to get plum jobs, and at least one committee will have an odd couple at the helm. Plus: why a fire alarm during the meeting may be an appropriate sound effect for the occasion. This episode was produced by Ed Keendan, Julia De

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41:34

Does Toronto need to nip tree problems in the bud?

This Matters ·

2023/08/10

Guests: Todd Irvine, arborist and founder of City Forest When a woman was killed by a falling tree branch in Trinity Bellwoods park recently, it struck many as an unforseeable freak accident. But the danger was foreseen by at least one man, and his warnings went unheeded as the Star reported this week. Arborist Todd Irvine has also been warning the city that its maintenance of trees is often making them more dangerous, and joins host Edward Keenan to explain how and why the city needs to improve

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21:13

On class divisions, and why not everyone’s stories...

This Matters ·

2023/08/04

Guest: Deborah Dundas, books editor for the Toronto Star A recent Statistics Canada survey found 1 in 4 Canadians would not be able to cover an unexpected expense of $500 if they had to. Almost half were deeply concerned about their ability to afford rent or housing. It’s an important time to talk about class divisions in Canada. And Deborah Dundas wants to do that through her new book “On Class.” She’s on the podcast today to talk about why we need to talk about class, and what not talking about it

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20:41

Cruel summer: Devastating wildfires, flash floods and...

This Matters ·

2023/08/02

Guest: Kate Allen, Climate change reporter for the Toronto Star The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has dubbed it a “cruel summer." A blistering heatwave is sweeping across North America and Europe with record high temperatures triggering other travesties like devastating wildfires and flash floods with July being declared the world’s hottest month on record. Climate change has been explicitly blamed for some of what we’ve seen recently, and scientists are saying this is a

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17:54

The COVID papers: What Canada's top doctors say about...

This Matters ·

2023/08/01

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, heath reporter for the Toronto Star More than three years after the COVID-19 pandemic that took tens of thousands of Canadian lives, a group of the country’s top medical experts have published a scathing indictment of Canada’s COVID response. In a sweeping set of research papers and editorials published in the British Medical Journal, these experts are calling on the government for a national inquiry into its COVID response — something that’s already happening in other

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22:10

The story of mass murder in a GTA condo tower

This Matters ·

2023/07/28

WARNING: This story includes sensitive subject matter, including discussion of gun violence, gender-based violence and intimate partner violence, that could be triggering for some listeners. Guest: Michele Henry, staff reporter It was an unthinkable act of violence: a lone gunman, seemingly angry at fellow residents in his Vaughan condo building, unleashed a torrent of bullets that left five people dead and others injured. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the GTA’s recent history and now, we

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22:07

Justin Trudeau just overhauled his cabinet. What now?

This Matters ·

2023/07/27

Guest: Susan Delacourt, national columnist Wednesday’s oath-taking ceremony at Rideau Hall marked one of the most significant cabinet shuffles of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s eight-year tenure, a move that’s being framed as a game changer ahead of a pivotal moment. Seven newcomers were welcomed to the front bench, seven were dropped and almost 30 out of 38 ministries saw big changes. The Liberals have positioned it as a crucial reboot of a team that will lead them to their fourth re-election

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1,105 results

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