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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.

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All Episodes

22:26

Why emergency departments are overwhelmed

This Matters ·

2022/07/15

Guest: Dr. Katharine Smart, president of the Canadian Medical Association Despite spending much of the pandemic trying to ensure that hospitals were not overwhelmed, incredibly long waits at emergency departments at hospitals across the country are becoming the norm. In Ontario, the average wait time for an ER visit is 20 hours and anecdotal stories of patients waiting hours and even days for treatment keep adding up. There are several reasons for this, from pandemic burn out-caused staff

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14:34

To boost or not to boost? Ontario expands fourth...

This Matters ·

2022/07/14

Guest: May Warren, Toronto Star reporter Fourth COVID-19 vaccine doses are now open to all Ontarians older than 18 years of age. Ontario’s chief medical officer of health Dr. Kieran Moore made the much awaited announcement to expand eligibility on Wednesday, but the tone of the announcement left many confused. Dr. Moore said that healthy, currently vaccinated people continue to have significant protection against the worst effects of COVID, and can, if they want, wait for a new vaccine in the fall

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23:49

The Right Stuff: What’s next for the Conservative...

This Matters ·

2022/07/13

Guest: Stephanie Levitz, politics reporter for the Star With just under two months left in the Conservative party leadership race, it’s been a wild week that still hasn’t been settled. Disqualified leadership candidate Patrick Brown is using legal means to see if he can remain in the race, but also throwing his support behind leadership candidate Jean Charest. He and Pierre Poilievre are the front-runners for the top job in an important contest where things like traditional conservative values are

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19:15

Network effect: Rogers’ outage and how the government...

This Matters ·

2022/07/12

Guest: Christine Dobby, business reporter at the Star, joins us to talk Rogers fallout and the new requirement for telecom companies to help each other during outages. The Rogers network outage affected Canadians, businesses and services across the country, and now the federal government wants to make sure it never happens again, mandating that the country’s telecommunications companies come up with formal agreements to help each other — and consumers — when one is experiencing a serious network

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20:07

Contempt of the Supreme Court: The judiciary and...

This Matters ·

2022/07/11

Guest: Edward Keenan, Washington Bureau Chief for the Toronto Star Last month, as Ketanji Brown Jackson made history as the first Black woman to be sworn in as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, the moment was almost overshadowed by a series of decisions by America’s top court that will change the very shape of the future. One after the other, the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights, rolled back gun restrictions in New York and severely curtailed the powers of the U.S. Environmental Protection

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18:05

How Canada’s new crime bill will wipe out drug...

This Matters ·

2022/07/08

Guest: Jacques Gallant, politics reporter As Bill C-5 moves through the legislative process, Canadians who have been convicted of simple possession of drugs could see their records disappear in the next few years. Although it won’t be an amnesty, the government is using a system called sequestration that would effectively hide the records. It’s another sign of the changing way authorities are dealing with illegal drugs and how people are punished for having them. This episode was produced by Sean

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18:30

Why are nurses quitting their jobs for temp agencies?

This Matters ·

2022/07/07

Guest: Armine Yalnizyan, Economist & Atkinson Fellow Throughout the pandemic, nurses worked long hours with fewer resources and made major sacrifices to keep us safe. For some, perks that made the job appealing like stable income and a pension are wearing off as other issues remain unaddressed. This includes Ontario’s Bill 124, wage cap legislation as the cost of living and inflation continues to rise. As burnt out and exhausted nurses are leaving the profession in large numbers, a growing number of

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20:16

Can an Ontario breakthrough help long COVID sufferers?

This Matters ·

2022/07/06

Guests: Dr. Grace Parraga, Tier 1 Canada research chair in lung imaging at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, and Dr. Michael Nicholson, a respirologist with the post-acute COVID-19 program at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, Ont. An estimated one in ten COVID survivors suffer from long COVID. The cause of the condition has puzzled doctors and long COVID sufferers are frustrated by the lack of knowledge and support. With an estimated 200 symptoms associated with long

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17:22

Down by The Bay: Inside the retailer's reinvention

This Matters ·

2022/07/05

Guest: Rosa Saba, business reporter at the Star The Bay is spending millions on reinventing itself to appeal to Canadians. With a history that predates Canada, the company has a long tradition that in some ways hampers it, as young people think of it as their grandparents’ store. The company is updating its product offerings in-store and its automation for its online operations, which has plans to offer same-day delivery across much of Canada. Are they making the right moves? Or is it too little,

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21:13

A prescription for healthy food? New program tackles...

This Matters ·

2022/07/04

Guest: Dr. Andrew Boozary, physician and executive director of UHN’s Gattuso Centre for Social Medicine A pilot project called Food Rx, run in collaboration with the University Health Network (UHN) and the non-profit FoodShare, is aiming to tackle growing food insecurity in Toronto with a “doctor’s prescription” for regular home delivery of fresh fruit and vegetables. Nearly one in five Toronto households have inadequate or insecure access to food due to lack of money, and it has become a serious

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17:23

Is a ‘Freedom Convoy’ sequel on the way to Ottawa for...

This Matters ·

2022/06/30

Guest: Alex Ballingall, politics reporter for The Star As Ottawa prepares for a larger and less COVID dampened Canada Day, protesters are making their way to the city to protest vaccine mandates, health restrictions and other freedoms they feel have been curtailed. Thinking back to some organizers who were involved with this past winter’s “Freedom Convoy,” which occupied the city for weeks, some of the city’s residents are worried about this being a sequel. The organizers are promising peaceful

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18:38

What life is like on ODSP

This Matters ·

2022/06/29

Guests: Trevor Manson, co-chair ODSP Action Coalition, and Anne Jensen, mental health and disability advocate Ontario’s Disability Support Program (ODSP), which provides income and employment support to people with disabilities, has been criticized by advocates for being out of touch with economic realities. The most a single person can receive through ODSP is $1,169 per month, or $14,028 annually. That’s about 30 per cent below the province’s poverty line of roughly $20,000. The Ford

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20:13

Office Politics: Vaccination status and the workplace

This Matters ·

2022/06/28

Guest: Jacob Lorinc, Business Reporter at The Star. The message early in the pandemic was simple from many employers: Get vaccinated. Now, as vaccine mandates are being lifted, some employees who were suspended or laid off for choosing not to get vaccinated are fighting back, often through their unions or civil lawsuits. The other issue is the vast majority of employees are vaccinated, many of whom are in favour of some type of rules in the office, so that they feel safer about heading back. Some

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28:52

Roe v. Wade has been overturned. What happens now?

This Matters ·

2022/06/27

Guest: Rosemary Westwood, reproductive health reporter The U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — a nearly 50-year-old constitutional right for a woman to end a pregnancy — will lead to bans on abortion in more than half of U.S states. That means abortion clinics will be forced to close in large swathes of the country. According to Planned Parenthood, more than 36 million people could lose abortion access. Rosemary Westwood, reproductive health reporter and host of the podcast

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19:59

Sanctions, censorship and war: What it’s like living...

This Matters ·

2022/06/24

Guest: Allan Woods, global and national affairs reporter for the Toronto Star As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its fourth long month, you may wonder, what’s it like in Russia? In a country slipping into further isolation and sanctions, where information is tightly guarded, do Russians support this war or are they living in fear of government surveillance and censorship at home? According to Star reporter Allan Woods, the answer is as complicated as the country. Like many journalists, Allan

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20:58

Tracking down one of Canada’s most notorious hit men

This Matters ·

2022/06/23

Guest: Jon Wells, feature writer for the Hamilton Spectator Hamilton has a long history of organized crime. One of the biggest events in its history was the killing of Johnny “The Enforcer” Papalia in broad daylight on May 31, 1997. Ken Murdock was the man who pulled the trigger. Jon Wells, a feature writer at the Hamilton Spectator, tracked down one of Canada’s most notorious hit men and joins “This Matters” to talk about what it was like speaking to a killer in search of a story. This episode was

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19:29

Explaining the cryptocurrency crash

This Matters ·

2022/06/22

Guest: Erica Pimentel, assistant professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University Cryptocurrencies have been spiralling downward for the past two months after bitcoin’s value fell below $20,000 U.S., several exchanges halted trading and one company announced layoffs of their workforce. It’s a fast turnaround for a sector that is otherwise known for making people incredibly rich. Many are asking if this is just a bump in the road or the beginning of fundamental change,

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17:31

400 displaced people in social housing. Few answers....

This Matters ·

2022/06/21

Guest: Victoria Gibson, affordable housing reporter Hundreds of tenants of Swansea Mews, a beleaguered west Toronto community housing complex, have been thrown into turmoil after a ceiling collapsed and the complex was later deemed structurally unsafe. Residents have now been told they would need to relocate to motel rooms and dorms. There is no timeline for how long they will be displaced. What will the future look like when community housing in the city has been in dire straits for years? Toronto

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15:31

Flight Risk: Will relaxing vaccine mandates tackle...

This Matters ·

2022/06/20

Guest: Raisa Patel, Toronto Star reporter As of June 20, Ottawa scrapped “proof of vaccination” requirements for air passengers on domestic or outbound international flights, as well as for rail travellers, and federal bureaucrats and federally-regulated workers like airline employees or those who process passports. The move comes as passengers have been expressing frustration over long delays, cancelled flights and endless queues at the airport. Ottawa-based reporter Raisa Patel explains what the

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27:58

Does Canada need legislation against Black and...

This Matters ·

2022/06/17

Guests: Angelyn Francis and Annette Ejiofor, Toronto Star journalists After decades of systemic racism and discrimination have punished Black Americans at school and at work because of their natural hair, at least eight U.S. states have made race-based hair discrimination illegal and now CROWN (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act is awaiting Senate approval. Canada also has a long history of hair discrimination against Black and Indigenous people. Is it time for Canada to make

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1,105 results

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