- What Biden and Harris winning means for Canada and the world
Monday, November 9th 2020
Edward Keenan, Toronto Star’s Washington bureau chief, returns to ‘This Matters’ to talk about the election win, the fallout for the US and what a Biden presidency means for the Canada-US relationship, for the next four years.
- Hindsight 2020 Rebroadcast: What if Trump won't leave?
Saturday, November 7th 2020
EDITOR'S NOTE: This version was originally broadcast on September 24, but much of what Geoffrey Skelley, of FiveThirtyEight, predicted could happen, happened. The presidency is settled. But Skelley discusses what could come next.
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Joe Biden is the President-Elect, capturing more than 270 electoral college votes, with more than 4 million votes cast in his favour over Donald Trump. But like so much of his one-term presidency, Trump isn’t following convention. Before, and now after the election, he has claimed voter fraud, with no evidence. He claimed he won on election night, even though he didn’t. He and his campaign refuse to concede the presidency. Does that refusal mean anything?
Geoffrey Skelley, elections analyst for FiveThirtyEight, breaks down how Trump can dispute the results, why it could turn into an ugly fight at the Supreme Court level and what the legal checks and balances are to ensure the election winner serves as president.
- How psychedelic drugs are being used to help mental health and the terminally ill
Friday, November 6th 2020
This week in the U.S. Electoral vote, in Washington, D.C., and Oregon, voters chose to get on the path to decriminalize psilocybin for therapeutic use. This past August in Canada, four terminally ill cancer patients were given approval to use psilocybin as part of their end of life treatment. Psilocybin is the main psychoactive ingredient in “magic mushrooms.” Mushrooms and other psychedelic drugs have long been considered party drugs, but movements are afoot to study and use them for therapeutic purposes. Omar Mosleh is an Edmonton-based Star Reporter who joins This Matters to discusses the latest in research and attempts to find new uses for certain mood altering substances.
- Two years after the Toronto van attack, the trial is set to begin
Thursday, November 5th 2020
April 23, 2018, marks one of the darkest days in Toronto’s history. On a sunny afternoon, 25-year-old Alek Minassian drove a full-size van down Yonge Street and onto the sidewalk, hitting pedestrians. 10 people were killed and another 16 people were seriously injured in the attack. Toronto fell into a state of mourning, struggling to understand the violence. Minassian told police officers that his motivation stemmed from the so-called ‘incel’ subculture. More than two years after the incident, Minassian will be on trial next week, by judge only and done entirely over Zoom. He has admitted to planning and carrying out the attack in a court of law and the Crown says it believes he acted alone in the attack. Whether he committed the act isn’t up for legal debate. Alyshah Hasham, Toronto Star’s courts and justice reporter, breaks down what the trial will focus on, what Minassian is being tried for, and the complexity of handling a difficult court case over video conferencing.
- States of flux: What we know, what we don’t know, as 'election night' continues
Wednesday, November 4th 2020
Joe Biden told his supporters, “it ain’t over until every vote is counted.” But incumbent Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the election and with no evidence, claimed electoral fraud was afoot. In a year like no other, an election like no other, in a haze of disinformation and bogus claims, ‘This Matters’ parses through the facts of the US election. Edward Keenan, Toronto Star’s Washington bureau chief, joins Adrian Cheung to break down what we know after election night, what we’re still waiting to find out, the fallibility of the polls, and what Canadians should make of an election they have no hand in.
