- A discussion on Canada’s foreign farm workers’ rights
Friday, November 17th 2023
Guest: Ghada Alsharif, business reporter
Concerns of worker exploitation, especially on farms, are escalating as Canada significantly increases its foreign workforce in order to race towards an ambitious $100-billion food export target. In the momentum to win this race, is enough being done to secure the rights and protections of those migrants who arrive under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers program?
This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Kevin Sexton and Saba Eitizaz.
- 'We are not doing that well': Mayor Olivia Chow on kids in the city
Thursday, November 16th 2023
In our series, “The Kids Aren’t All Right,” the Star has been highlighting the many ways in which children are struggling in Toronto. Mayor Olivia Chow joins “This Matters” to talk about why she thinks a lot of these areas stem from housing affordability and about her plan to try to break the logjam on that file. She also discusses her history of advocating for children at the city and what inspired it, and gives some concrete steps she plans to take in the next year or two to try to make things easier for families and children.
- Nearly 30,000 Ontario kids are trapped on mental-health waiting lists
Tuesday, November 14th 2023
Guest: Dr. Amy Gajaria, psychiatrist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
Wait times of up to two years. There are not enough publicly funded therapists. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed by children in crisis. Ontario’s child and youth mental health system is at a breaking point. The Mental Health Commission of Canada reports that mental illness affects more than one million children and youth in the country. And while the provincial government has stood up and started to take notice with new funding announcements this year, there remain simply not enough resources to help young people suffering from mental illness. As part of “The Kids Aren’t All Right“ series, reporter Kenyon Wallace – who wrote on mental health and children – speaks with Dr. Amy Gajaria.
Audio Sources: CBC News
This episode was produced by Paolo Marques, Brian Bradley and Kenyon Wallace.
- New prescribing powers for Ontario’s nurses
Monday, November 13th 2023
Guest: Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Professor in the School of Sociological and Anthropological Studies at the University of Ottawa
Ontario’s registered nurses will now be able to independently prescribe some medications such as vaccines, medicines to quit smoking and for pain relief or wound care. The government sees this as an effort to tackle Ontario’s acute health care crisis, where more than two million people currently lacking a family doctor. This is the latest in a series of recent moves to expand the role of some health professionals to try and fill the gap, including pharmacists and midwives. We explore what this means for health care.
This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.
- Ford’s fast-track MZOs sped up nothing
Thursday, November 9th 2023
Guest: Noor Javed, city news reporter
At the peak of the pandemic, the Ford government turned to Minister’s Zoning Orders (known as MZOs) as the speediest solution to the housing crisis and direly needed construction of long-term-care facilities. Former housing minister Steve Clark issued more than 100 MZOs between 2019 and 2023. But in the wake of the Greenbelt scandal, scrutiny is now shifting to these MZOs and if they have actually fast-tracked development efforts. The Star did its own analysis and found little progress in the past four years to support that claim.
Audio sources: Ontario Nature, CHCH News
This episode was produced by Paulo Marques, Brian Bradley and Saba Eitizaz.
