- A life spent undercover with terrorists trying to incite a race war
Thursday, March 27th 2025
Guest: Michelle Shephard, former Toronto Star reporter and co-author of “Code Name: Pale Horse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America’s Nazis”
Scott Payne spent his career deep undercover in the drug trade, criminal networks and among racist terrorists — and despite some harrowing close calls that saw him stripped naked and almost exposed, he lived to tell the tale.
The woman he told it to — former Star reporter Michelle Shephard, who co-wrote a new book with Payne — sits down with This Matters to talk about what he went through and what he learned. This includes a time when he found himself in a field in the American south under a literal burning cross at a KKK rally, and how he learned that famous racist organization is now “your grandfather’s white supremacists” given the threat posed by The Base, a newer racist terrorist group bent on spurring a race war to bring about the collapse of society. Shephard discusses how Payne tried to stay safe while putting criminals in jail, and the toll it took on his mental health and family life.
PLUS: the time Payne had a hood pulled off his head and found himself being unexpectedly “knighted” into the Ku Klux Klan.
This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Ed Keenan and Paulo Marques.
- Why a retired college president’s $1M payout is causing controversy
Tuesday, March 25th 2025
Guest: Toronto Star journalist Janet Hurley
Ontario’s colleges and universities are facing a financial crisis. Millions in deficits, staff layoffs, and program cuts have become the norm. In the midst of all this, at George Brown College, one expense is fuelling controversy. A former president receiving over a million dollars in retirement payouts while the college suspends programs and tightens its budget. It has renewed a bigger conversation about administrative growth, executive compensation, priorities and the future of post-secondary education in the province.
This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques.
- In conversation with Amira Elghawaby on the rise of Islamophobia in Canada and fighting hate
Friday, March 21st 2025
Guest: Amira Elghawaby,Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia
Islamophobia and hate is on the rise in Canada. Political rhetoric is growing more divisive. Statistics show a surge in reported hate crimes against visible minorities. And in the middle of it all is Amira Elghawaby, Canada’s Special Representative on Combatting Islamophobia. Since taking on the role, she has faced relentless pushback and personal attacks. In early March, her office has released a new guide on tackling Islamophobia at a time when tensions appear to escalating in the country. With growing concerns that rising hate and anti-Muslim sentiment from a U.S. under Trump, could spill over here, Elghawaby's job is cut out for her. In a candid conversation with This Matters, she unpacks all of this, the need for her newly released guide and the future of her role and work in an increasingly polarized political climate.
This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz, Paulo Marques and Sean Pattendon.
- They have a league of their own, should they play in it?
Thursday, March 20th 2025
Guest: Toronto Star columnist Dave Feschuck
Between the professional hockey leagues, a new professional soccer league and the new franchise in the professional basketball league, women’s sports is flourishing in Toronto. Girls sports too — especially hockey, where enrolment of young girls is single-handedly driving growth in the sport. Today’s girls, at the elite level, face future prospects their grandmothers could only have dreamed of, but that also means they face a choice: should they continue to play on teams with boys, in leagues dominated by boys? Or should they take advantage of the many girls leagues Ontario has to offer.
Dave Feschuk and Kerry Gillespie recently wrote about that issue for the Star, and Feschuk joins host Edward Keenan (coach of a girls hockey team) to discuss the factors involved in making that choice, including where the strongest competition is, the potential value of playing with body contact, the social dimensions of the sport, and the avenues that exist to national or college teams.
PLUS: Special guest Irene Keenan, the host’s 16-year-old daughter, talks about her own experience playing alongside boys and in all-girls environments as both a hockey and baseball player.
This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Ed Keenan and Paulo Marques.
- “These guys just looked at the crowd and opened fire”
Friday, March 14th 2025
Guest: Toronto Star reporter Abby O'Brien
On Friday, March 7 — opening night at the Piper Arms pub in the historic Old Scott House building in Scarborough — three assailants with guns opened fire on a crowd indiscriminately, shooting seven people and injuring 12. What’s certain at this point, is that it was a horrifying scene and that, as a police investigator said, “it’s simply incredible nobody was killed.”
As the city reels and speculation about motives swirl, firm information beyond that is difficult to pin down. So far, no suspects have been identified, nor descriptions of suspects issued. Though police have yet to confirm any link, there is plenty of speculation about a possible connection to a recent wave of violence related to the tow truck industry — and on Thursday, the Star’s Abby O’Brien reported on two arrests from Saturday that appear to have some connections to the pub and to the towing industry. She talks us through the week’s events and what happens next.
PLUS: Just what the heck is happening with tow trucks and violence?
This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Ed Keenan and Paulo Marques.
