This Matters

This episode originally aired April 21, 2023. 

Two years ago, Cowessess First Nation announced the discovery of 715 unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school. The news shocked the world and ignited a national conversation on Canada’s colonial history. At the centre was  Chief Cadmus Delorme, a young and vibrant leader, who came to office wanting to show that an Indigenous world view could work with, and even improve, Western-style development. Delorme had no idea that he would become the centre of a national reckoning on residential schools. He joins the podcast to discuss what it means to lead a modern first nation and why he’s stepping down after seven years.

Audio sources: CBC, CPAC, Global News

This episode was produced by Alex Boyd, Alexis Green and Paolo Marques.

This episode was originally broadcast April 18, 2023.

Guest: Jeremy Hansen, Canadian Space Agency astronaut

Col. Jeremy Hansen, a CAF fighter pilot and Canadian Space Agency astronaut, has been named to NASA’s Artemis II mission, the first scheduled crewed mission of the Space Launch System with the Orion spacecraft. It will leave Earth’s orbit and perform a lunar flyby, the first time people have travelled by the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972 and the first time a Canadian has reached deep space. It’s an ambitious flight, an assignment he says he is still getting his head around as he pulls from all of his experiences to prepare. Why should this mission get Canada’s attention and why is it important? What is Canada doing in space? The rookie space flyer explains.

This episode was produced by Raju Mudhar, Brian Bradley and Paulo Marques.

Audio sources: NASA

Guest: Raisa Patel, Ottawa Bureau

Google has announced plans to block all Canadian news content from its platforms and the ramifications are huge. The move is in response to the just-passed Online News Act, which would force platforms to strike deals with Canadian media publishers for sharing, previewing and directing users to online content. Some news organizations, including Torstar, lobbied Ottawa in favour of the legislation and have had deals in place with Google and Meta (who have said they will also block access to news on Facebook and Instagram), but Google’s move is a game changer with major implications.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Brian Bradley.

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel, featuring columnists Emma Teitel, Shawn Micallef, Matt Elliott and guest host Edward Keenan

Now that the election is done, our panel of columnists gathers one last time to assess what the heck happened and discuss Olivia Chow’s mandate, what her winning Scarborough means, what Ontario Premier Doug Ford (and others) lost by going against her and the hard work that lies ahead.

This episode was produced by Paolo Marques and Edward Keenan.

Guest: Michael Oscars, talent agent and theatre producer

Drag is increasingly a target of hate and criticism across the world, looped into far-right hysteria, “freedom” convoy protesting and narratives about child safety. It is an unusual turn of perspective when drag has always been part of our popular culture, including our local popular culture and arts scene in Toronto. Drag performers have also been part of causes for good, including activism and fundraising. Drag does have a place in the bar scene but it has also long-been in some of our most mainstream television, film and theatre productions. Michael Oscars, a Canadian talent agent and theatre producer, joins “This Matters” to share what the art form is about and some of its history.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Brian Bradley.

Audio Sources: CBC, USA Today, SuchisLifeVideos/YouTube, Soundstripe

Guests: Toronto Star columnists and guest hosts Emma Teitel and Edward Keenan

When Olivia Chow won the mayoral election Monday night, she ended 12 years of Conservative rule at city hall, bringing a message of hope, harnessing hunger for change and riding a bicycle festooned with flowers. Ed and Emma recap how she won the election, discuss Ana Bailão’s last-minute surge, discuss the performance and prospects of some of the other candidates, and try to assess the difficulty Chow faces now that she’s taking office.

This episode was produced by Paolo Marques and Edward Keenan

Guest: Tracy Morley, executive director at Camp Awakening, and Joshua Chong, staff reporter

The Toronto Star’s Fresh Air Fund has provided thousands of children and teens with a memorable summer holiday since 1901. Begun by former publisher Joseph Atkinson, the fund provides grants to camp organizations to subsidize fees for financially or medically vulnerable youth who otherwise couldn’t have the experience. Our readers and listeners have a large part in this, funding the effort with generous donations. To learn more about what The Star and our readers are part of, we welcome an executive director of a camp organization that has been the recipient of Fresh Air Fund funding and a Toronto Star staff reporter who had a life changing experience at camp after arriving in Canada from Singapore.

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With your gift, the Fresh Air Fund can help send thousands of kids to camp. These children will get to take part in a camp experience they will cherish for a lifetime.

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This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Brian Bradley.

Guests: Toronto Star City Hall Bureau Chief David Rider, and reporters Alyshah Hasham and Ben Spurr, join guest host Edward Keenan

Just before the final weekend of the Toronto mayoral campaign, Premier Doug Ford and former Mayor John Tory told us who they’re voting for. The fact that they did it at all was a bigger surprise than the names they came up with. How much difference can it make at this late stage? Our panellists look back on the campaign that was, the post-election prospects for councillors and the unknowns they’ll be looking at on an election day where the question might be “who and what is Toronto for?”

This episode was produced by Ed Keenan and Crawford Blair.

Guest: Katharine Lake Berz, freelance journalist

Are criminals using laced drugs to target and murder people? With overdose deaths more than quadrupling from 2016 to 2021 in the Niagara region and investigations ongoing, some say that some of the once-believed accidental deaths may have actually been caused by ingestion of “hot shots” (a recreational drug intentionally laced with a lethal substance, like fentanyl). Homicides disguised as an overdose are hard to prove. There’s no set threshold for authorities to investigate an overdose death that might be suspicious and these cases are incredibly hard to prove.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Guest: Matthew Van Dongen, transportation reporter at The Hamilton Spectator

Light rail transit has long been considered a cheaper public transit option, especially when compared to building subways, but many projects are skyrocketing in costs. In Toronto, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been bogged down in all kinds of problems and, as we have learned, its problems are not isolated. Other transit development projects in Hamilton and Waterloo are bogged down with their own issues as they continue to get more expensive to build.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Raju Mudhar.

Guest: Nicholas Keung, immigration reporter

While Canada is in the process of welcoming nearly 1.5 million permanent residents by the end of 2025, Statistics Canada data raises the question whether the country is doing an equally good job of keeping them here. A conservative estimate of 15 to 20 per cent of immigrants leave the country within 10 years. As many new Canadians struggle with systemic barriers, finding the right jobs and the increasingly-high cost of living, how many will make the difficult decision to give up on their Canadian dream and leave for greener pastures? How do we retain them in a country striving to grow its population and economy?

This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques.

Guests: Toronto Star City Hall Bureau Chief David Rider, and reporters Alyshah Hasham and Ben Spurr, join guest host Edward Keenan

One week before election day, undecided Toronto voters are wrestling with the choice of who to vote for as the city’s next mayor. To help, we’ve assembled the reporters of the Toronto Star’s city hall bureau, who have been covering the campaign. Together they go over the latest poll results that show Olivia Chow with a more commanding lead than ever and tackle questions from readers on provincial relations, public space, budget issues, who gets to keep their job while they run, who gets coverage and other issues.

This episode was produced by Ed Keenan and Paulo Marques.

Guests: Denise Balkissoon, Ontario Bureau Chief for The Narwhal, speaks with guest host Edward Keenan

In the final weeks of the mayoral election campaign, journalist Denise Balkissoon wrote a piece for The Local looking at the environmental platforms of the major mayoral candidates and mostly found them wanting. She joins Edward Keenan to walk through the promises and approaches of front-runners including Olivia Chow, Mark Saunders, Josh Matlow and Mitzie Hunter, and talks about a sense of resignation not just about the issue but about quality of life in Toronto.

This episode was produced by Ed Keenan and Sean Pattendon.

Guest: Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier

When Edith Lemay and Sebastien Pelletier learned three of their four children have a genetic disorder and will lose their sight, they turned their devastation into an opportunity and found joy in travel around the world. They have travelled everywhere from Zambia and Tanzania to Mongolia and Nepal, exploring and finding new experiences to help their kids build a visual memory. They join “This Matters” to share their journey and the life lessons they have made along the way, all through the eyes their children.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Sean Pattendon and Brian Bradley.

Audio sources: Edith Lemay

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel, featuring columnists Emma Teitel, Shawn Micallef, Matt Elliott and guest host Edward Keenan

With less than two weeks to go before the election, candidates are making their closing pitches to voters and in this campaign, a surprising number of those involve claims to be the only candidate to beat Olivia Chow. Our Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel talks about some of claims and assesses their credibility, including a comical trip into Mark Saunders’ website FAQ. The panel also discusses the potential for surprises, which losing candidate might still come out ahead in the long run and a range of other ballot-box issues.

This episode was produced by Ed Keenan and Sean Pattendon.

Guest: Tony Doob, professor emeritus, University of Toronto Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies

News that Paul Bernardo, one of Canada’s most notorious killers, has been moved from a maximum security penitentiary to a medium-security institution touched a raw nerve that hasn’t healed three decades after his crimes. How could one believed to be so evil have his experience in incarceration softened? Why was the reason shrouded in secrecy? Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) is undergoing a review of their decision but, as a criminologist tells us, Canadian law does not say we should hold our worst offenders indefinitely in maximum security because they are notorious to us.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Brian Bradley.

Audio Sources: CHCH News, CPAC

Guests: The Toronto Star All-Star Opinionator Panel, featuring columnists Emma Teitel, Shawn Micallef, Matt Elliott and guest host Edward Keenan

Signs are blooming on lawns across the city. The advanced polls are open, which can only mean that the election is nearing. With just over two and a half weeks left before the city goes to the polls, it’s time to reconvene our Toronto Star All Star Opinionator panel.

This episode was produced by Ed Keenan and Crawford Blair.

Guest: Patrick O’Rourke, editor-in-chief of MobileSyrup.com

Apple has launched what it hopes is it’s next game changing computing device. The Vision Pro is a headset the company calls an augmented reality platform, that it says may change change the way people interact with the digital world. The device has long been rumoured to be coming from the company, and while it very expensive, Apple believes this is an important step toward its vision of computing’s future.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Audio Sources: Apple

Guests: Jennifer Keesmaat, former Chief Planner of Toronto, 2018 candidate for mayor and partner with Markee Developments speaks with guest host Edward Keenan

We all know that fundraising is a key part of running a mayoral campaign, and that the rich and well connected have a leg up. But how? Former candidate and former top city planner Jennifer Keesmaat talks about her first-hand experience of trying to fund a campaign for mayor of Toronto and how she thinks grassroots candidates should try to overcome those challenges. She also dishes about her first-hand experience with the current crop of candidates, her assessment of the race so far and why she thinks it may be turning into a wire-to-wire walk to the finish line for one candidate.