Monday, November 15th 2021

Try to walk just a few blocks in the downtown core without passing a cannabis retailer. Good luck! You'll probably pass at least two. Since the lottery process ended and applications for retailers were opened up, hundreds of stores have flocked to...basically the same neighbourhoods. Obviously it's not optimal business strategy to open a store next to two or more other stores selling exactly the same thing, so what's going on here? Is this a bubble ready to burst? Is there an endgame for the companies and entrepreneurs still opening stores right now? What happens next?

GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, Toronto Star

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Friday, November 12th 2021

We've known for some time that we're due for a massive earthquake—but it could happen tomorrow or 20 years from now. In geological terms that's roughly the same. But it's not for us—if the Big One happened tomorrow, Canada's west coast would be devastated. We know what we need to do to prepare for it. We even have the blueprints for how to reinforce our structures. We could prepare properly anytime ... so why don't we? And what happens if we're not ready when the day arrives?

GUEST: Gregor Craigie, author of On Borrowed Time: North America's Next Big Quake

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Thursday, November 11th 2021

Almost one million American children under 12 have been vaccinated against Covid-19 since the FDA approved the shot more than a week ago. The Canadian total is still zero, and parents are getting angry. When can we expect approval? How will the shots get into those little arms? What concerns do hesitant parents have and how can public health ease their minds?

And finally, for adults who are still contracting the disease every day, what are the new oral Covid-19 treatments? And why do medical professionals call them the game-changer that could be our ticket out of the pandemic?

GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller

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Wednesday, November 10th 2021

More than a decade ago, a Canadian researcher tracked local media coverage given to cases of missing Indigenous and missing white women. You can probably guess what that revealed. Since then, however, Canada and other countries have spent time discussing racial bias, and attempting to correct it. Canada even had an entire national inquiry dedicated to the travesty of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Yet in late summer, when a pretty young white woman named Gabby Petito disappeared, none of that mattered. The media was flooded with a continent-wide search for Petito while Indigenous and Black women who had vanished just as recently were barely mentioned. Why is this phenomenon so pervasive and how has seemingly nothing aside from words changed in a decade?

GUEST: Kristen Gilchrist-Salles, researcher

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Tuesday, November 9th 2021

It's been more than a year and a half since Canadians could freely drive across the border to the United States — to visit friends and family, to see a game or do some shopping. But maybe "freely" isn't the most accurate way to put it, since the crossing process will be more regulated and restricted than pre-pandemic times.

So what do you need to cross? What arrangements do you have to make? How much might it cost? What about kids? And what else do you need to know before finally heading south again?

GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill reporter

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