This Matters

Guest: Alex Boyd, reporter

Health Canada has authorized a new type of COVID shot from Moderna. It is a bivalent vaccine which means it is essentially two vaccines in one, in this case targeting the o…

Guest: Robert Benzie, Queen's Park Bureau chief for The Star

Bill 7, also known as the “More Beds, Better Care” act is now law, and gives the government and medical authorities more power to potentia…

Guest: Syed Hussan, the executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Crowded bunkhouses. Rat-infested food. Verbal abuse and threats of termination. These are among the allegations made …

Guest: David Rider, City Hall Bureau Chief

Municipal elections are coming soon across the province with campaigns just about to get underway. While Toronto Mayor John Tory seems to be safely heading …

The following episode contains graphic language and references to sexual and racial violence. Listener discretion is advised.

Guests: Erica Ifill, The Hill Times columnist, and Rachel Gilmore, Global…

Guest: Amanda Watson, senior lecturer and sociologist at Simon Fraser University

It’s been two weeks since journalist Lisa LaFlamme announced she’d been let go from her job as chief news anchor and s…

Guest: Marco Oved, climate change reporter.

The air travel industry is betting big on sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) to drastically cut the amount of airplane emissions over the next few decades. …

Guest: Diane Therrien, mayor of Peterborough

It was a tweet read across the country that got her city trending on Twitter. Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien called a group of QAnon-linked demonstrato…

Guest: Alex Boyd, Toronto Star journalist

While there are many reasons including equity and access issues that can prevent someone from getting a vaccine, some have chosen not to because of the myth …

Guests: Rob Hickey and Erin Sheldon, parents of Maggie Hickey

The government has given the Hickey family an awful choice. Maggie Hickey has Angelman syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes significa…

Guest: Allan Woods, a Montreal-based reporter for The Star

Quebec’s controversial Bill 21 has been law for three years now, and what’s known as the secularism law continues to cause controversies. Th…

Guest: David Rider, City Hall Bureau Chief

Ontario has brought in new legislation to give “strong-mayor” powers to the mayors of Toronto and Ottawa. As it turns out, there are some strings attached. …

Guests: Star reporters Jennifer Yang and Sara Mojtehedzadeh, as well as Anna Seto, a hospital nurse who joined a temp agency during the pandemic

A Star investigation has revealed that the use and cos…

Guest: Kristin Rushowy, Queen’s Park reporter

As children prepare to return to classrooms in the fall, the Ontario government seems to be pushing for some kind of pre-pandemic “normal.” Mask mandates…

Guest: Abi Bond, Executive director of Toronto’s Housing Secretariat

Rents are rising at record rates across the country. While the pandemic brought rent costs down and created higher vacancies, now …

Guest: Noor Javed, staff reporter

Controversial politicians in Brampton, Richmond Hill and Mississauga have caused several issues for the municipal governments in those communities recently. While th…

Guest: Dr. Makini McGuire-Brown, chair of International Physicians of Ontario

With emergency rooms closing due to staff shortages and a critical lack of family doctors across the country, many intern…

Guest: Ben Spurr, City Hall reporter at The Star.

There’s a bike fight brewing in High Park. After some park users complained too many cyclists are speeding through the park, police kicked off ticket…

Guest: Kayla Bailey, project manager Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen

Many women working in the trades sector like construction, say they have faced hostility, sexism and harassment on t…

Guest: Matthew Ball, author of “The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything”

Many of the world’s biggest companies are investing heavily in, and betting big on, the metaverse. There are d…