Wednesday, April 12th 2023

For months now, Canada’s unemployment rate has been hovering around 5 per cent – a near historic low. It’s a number that economists are watching closely because they expect it to rise now that the Bank of Canada has hiked interest rates.

But it hasn’t. And businesses are still complaining about a shortage of workers. So what’s going on? Economics reporter Matt Lundy explains.

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Tuesday, April 11th 2023

On April 4, the body of Linda Mary Beardy, a woman from Lake St. Martin First Nation, was discovered at a Winnipeg landfill. It’s the same landfill where, less than a year ago, the victim of an alleged serial killer was found. Police say Ms. Beardy’s death is not being considered a homicide, but it has brought renewed attention and outrage over the deaths of First Nations women in the area.

In the last year, the remains of four First Nations women, believed to be victims of a serial killer, have been discovered or are believed to be in Winnipeg landfills. The outrage from the women’s communities is not just over their deaths, but also over what they say is failure and inaction from Winnipeg Police.

The Globe’s crime and justice reporter Molly Hayes joins The Decibel to discuss why police have refused to search one of the landfills and the renewed fight for answers from the families and friends of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

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Monday, April 10th 2023

Adrial and Adiah Nadarajah are the youngest twins ever born to survive to their first birthday – they were born at just 22 weeks, about half of a full term pregnancy. If they had been born just two hours earlier, medical staff would not have tried to resuscitate them. They would have been considered too young to live.

Their story is part of the medical and moral challenges that arise when babies are born dangerously early. Kelly Grant spoke with the parents and doctors of the babies – and attended the twins’ first birthday party.

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Sunday, April 9th 2023

The smart city movement — driven by the idea that we can leverage data and technology to optimize life in our cities — is attractive for many reasons. But critics say that smart cities may not be so wise, and in some cases, they’ve proven to be dangerous for democracy. In the first episode of season three, we’re doing a deep dive into this very concept: What are smart cities, and who are they for? Where has smart-city technology helped, and when does it start to wade into surveillance-capitalism territory ? Adrian speaks to John Lorinc, an urban affairs journalist and the author of Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias, about how the perception of smart cities has shifted over the years, and how smart city technology can both improve and disrupt our lives. Plus, Globe and Mail reporter Josh O’Kane shares his reporting from his new book, SIDEWAYS: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, which looks at Alphabet’s failed attempt to build a smart city in Toronto and what that high-profile example tells us about citizen engagement and good governance around the world. 

Thursday, April 6th 2023

Insomnia, dizziness, hallucinations – these are just a few of the life-changing symptoms that dozens of people have reported having in New Brunswick. After several years and a provincial investigation, patients are still left wondering what is going on. They want the federal government to step in and examine their situations further.

The Globe’s health reporter Wency Leung joins the podcast to explain the fight patients have on their hands to get answers.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at [email protected]