Saturday, March 18th 2023

It's called chlorpyrifos, and it's actually still being used in Canada right now. Despite years of reports on the danger it might pose, it was only last year that the government banned it, and it's using a gradual phase out that won't end until the end of this year.

So what is chlorpyrifos and what's the risk? What kind of foods is it used on? What can exposure do to us? And why was Canada behind both Europe and the United States in getting rid of it?

GUEST: Marc Fawcett-Atkinson, reporter and writer covering food, climate, plastics and the environment for Canada’s National Observer

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Friday, March 17th 2023

We're already in another space race. The question this time is who gets the prize at the end of it. Both China and NASA have committed to plans to put bases on the moon in the next decade or so, and one of the main attractions is its resources.

There are lots of valuable commodities on the moon, and it also makes a great jumping point for further space travel in the future. So the competition to extract the moon's minerals first, in harsh, remote conditions, with the use of space robotics, will give someone a huge advantage. And there just happens to be a country to the north of the United States that is a world leader in all those things...

GUESTS: Alex Ellery, Canada Research Professor in space robotics and space technology at Carleton University;
Heather Exner-Pirot, senior fellow and director of natural resources, energy and environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute

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Thursday, March 16th 2023

Everyone who lived through 2008 as an adult flinched when Silicon Valley Bank failed last week. But was the bank's crash a unique situation, or something that should make us question our own financial institutions? 

What makes Canadian banks different from banks like SVB? What can we learn about the future of the economy from this failure? Why is the US government helping already-rich tech investors? And what do we need to watch for in the coming weeks and months?

GUEST: William O’Connell, PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His research includes global management of financial crises and the regulation of cryptocurrency markets

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Wednesday, March 15th 2023

Over the past couple of decades, five workers have died on the job at Fiera Foods, sparking protests, investigations and allegations of a dangerous workplace. But where did those workers come from? Fiera says they are employed through temp agencies, and they have filed for the tax breaks to prove it. But the CRA says those agencies aren't real, and Fiera workers tell stories of showing up at the factory and being put right out onto the floor.

This legal fight sheds light on just how companies can use temp agencies to reduce liability and save money, even when the jobs can be deadly.

GUEST: Sara Mojtehedzadeh, investigations team, Toronto Star

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Tuesday, March 14th 2023

For the past month, headlines have been dominated by leaked CSIS documents, intelligence sources, fears of foreign interference in Canadian elections and the political fallout of all that. But most Canadians don't know much about how our intelligence community operates. Which agencies do what? Who do they report to? Who can access their information? Why would they release it to the press?

Because this is already shaping up to be the political story of the year in Canada, we wanted to lay out the basics. Here's what you need to know to understand what matters and why.

GUEST: Stephanie Carvin, former national security analyst, Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, author of Stand on Guard: Reassessing threats to Canada's National Security

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