This Matters

Guests: Star reporters Noor Javed and Brendan Kennedy and Emma McIntosh from The Narwhal

The Ontario government has decided to change its position and build on the Greenbelt, a series of protected la…

Guest: Tess Kalinowski, real estate reporter

The Ontario government’s new housing bill is a massive piece of legislation that changes many of the rules and established practices for development in th…

Guest: Matt Elliott, contributing columnist

The City of Toronto is facing a $2.3 billion budget shortfall for this and next year’s budget. Mayor John Tory has been sounding the alarm, asking both the…

Guest: David Rider, City Hall Bureau Chief

With an eye to an ambitious Ford government housing plan, Toronto Mayor John Tory asked for and received even stronger mayoral powers than he already had be…

Guest: Jennifer Pagliaro, crime reporter

There have been several violent incidents, including stabbings and gun-related incidents, around many GTA schools in recent weeks. An 18-year-old was shot and…

Guest: Todd Coleman, epidemiologist and assistant professor of health sciences at Wilfred Laurier University

The president and CEO of SickKids begged people last week to wear a mask as pediatric ICU…

Guest: Allan Woods, global and national affairs reporter

While facing federal investigations for trying to overthrow the 2020 U.S. election results and inspiring a riot at Capitol Hill, former presid…

Guest: Bruce Arthur, sports columnist

World Cup fever is hot! So is Qatar. Sweltering temperatures and how the authorities plan to treat exuberant, international football fans are two of the big ques…

Guest: Lex Harvey, staff reporter

The Arctic town Svalbard is about as remote as you can get. It’s an archipelago located on top of the world. Residents carry guns and live alongside polar bears, the…

Guest: Robert Cribb, investigative reporter

A joint investigation between the Toronto Star and the Investigative Journalism Bureau followed the life — and death — of Michael Fraser to offer a glimpse…

Guest: Noor Javed, staff reporter

Building on Ontario’s Greenbelt has long been a hot-button political issue in this province, and one that many politicians have stayed away from. Now, citing the nee…

Guest: Julia Levin, national climate program manager for Environmental Defence

The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — or COP27 — is underway…

Guest: Dr. Dan Flanders, a pediatrician

COVID-19, cold and flu season, and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) are combining to create a three-headed monster that is making a lot of kids sick and overw…

Guest: Karim Bardeesy, Toronto Metropolitan University

As many Canadians moved from the office to work remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an increase in electronic surveillance by emplo…

Guest: Moira Welsh, investigative reporter

The devastation faced by Ontario’s long-term care residents during the pandemic may have fuelled a reckoning and a collective question: how do you want to s…

Guest: Sara Mojtehedzadeh, investigative reporter, Toronto Star

Never-before-seen fatality reports filed to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board from the start of the pandemic’s to the end of 20…

Guest: Deborah Dundas, Toronto Star books editor

Once again, it’s award season for books in Canada and also a great time to curl up cozily with your favorite book or audiobook over the upcoming holid…

Guest: Kris Rushowy, Queen's Park reporter for the Star.

This week has seen some unprecedented action in the labour dispute between CUPE and the provincial government. Ontario is passing back-to-work…

Guest: Eris Nyx, cofounder of the Drug User Liberation Front

Death from drugs has become an epidemic in Vancouver, so the Drug User Liberation Front is a group that has decided to buy, test, package …

Guests: Dreddz, a community worker and an advocate for homeless issues who is currently in the shelter system; A.J. Withers, who is the Ruth Wynn Woodward Junior Chair in Gender, Sexuality and Women’…