- Today’s lesson: Why Ontario decided to reopen schools
Tuesday, January 11th 2022
Guest: Kris Rushowy, Queen's Park Reporter at the Star
With the Omicron variant raging throughout the province, the government has decided to hold firm and reopen schools on Jan. 17. The decision has split many parents. Some are happy schools are going to reopen quickly, while others are concerned they may not be safe. The government says it is taking measures to ensure safety for kids, but outbreaks and staff shortages are likely with the Omicron variant's increased transmissibility. Are open schools better than the homebound alternative? That's the question every parent of school age children in the province is wrestling with.
- Code Orange: What Ontario's nursing shortage looks like in ICUs
Monday, January 10th 2022
Guest: Birgit Umaigba, an ICU/ER nurse based in Toronto
The ongoing wave of the Omicron variant is straining Ontario’s hospitals to a breaking point. At least two hospitals in the GTA do not enough nurses to take care of sick patients and recently declared a Code Orange, a rare move that means hard choices for health care workers about who gets care and who does not. The nursing shortage has been inching its way into hospitals across Canada for years, and now COVID-19-related burnout and nurses walking off the job are adding to it. Toronto-based ICU nurse Birgit Umaigba joins “This Matters” to give us a glimpse of the challenges inside the profession.
- Mental health support tailored to Indigenous culture remains out of reach
Friday, January 7th 2022
Guest: Robert Cribb, investigative reporter for the Star
A joint investigation by the Toronto Star and the Investigative Journalism Bureau has done an analysis of key mental health indicators for First Nations youth, including antidepressant prescriptions, suicide attempts, self-reported disorders and access to support, revealing a strained system of care failing to meet the needs of desperate young people. As Indigenous youth in Canada suffer from some of the highest rates of suicide in the world, culturally relevant counselling and community healing practises are few and hard to access. Star reporter Robert Cribb headed the Toronto Star series Generation Distress and joins “This Matters” to explain how mental health support tailored to Indigenous culture remains out of reach for youth in crisis and how the system is failing them.
- Voter rights and fights: How Jan. 6 changed American politics
Thursday, January 6th 2022
Guest: Ed Keenan, The Star's Washington Bureau Chief
It has been one year since the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol building by rioters who felt the 2020 election was stolen from former president Donald Trump. Despite the attack failing, the event cast a long shadow over the American political system, as many Republicans continue to push what some call "The Big Lie." As U.S. President Joe Biden gets ready to tackle his voting rights agenda, many experts feel the spirit of U.S. democracy could be at stake.
- The Omicron wave: What numbers to watch
Wednesday, January 5th 2022
Guest: Ed Tubb, assignment editor focused on COVID-19 data
The recent surge of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has broken the province's testing regime, rendered contact tracing useless and made an already high case count almost impossible to calculate. With warnings about our health care system in danger of being overwhelmed, there is still a lot we can learn by paying attention to the data. The focus needs to be on things like hospitalizations or people in the ICUs to get an accurate picture of how this highly transmissible variant is affecting Ontario.
