Tuesday, October 18th 2022

Guest: Edward Keenan, city columnist

As municipal elections across Ontario enter their final week, the Toronto election has been bereft of interest. Sure, housing and affordability are big issues, but those will require all levels of government working together to tackle. There are a lot of small things that add up to big quality of life improvements when living in a city, and it’s some of those where it feels like the city is dropping the ball. The Star has been exploring these issues in the “Can’t We Do Better” series.

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Audio source: CARP

Monday, October 17th 2022

Guest: Nora Jenkins Townson, founder of Bright and Early

After two and a half years of lockdowns and working from home for millions of Canadians, many employers are expecting workers to return to the office. But according to a recent survey, four out of five Canadians would prefer to continue working from home and human resource experts are warning companies to remain flexible with their back-to-office demands or risk losing employees. Is it even possible to go back to a pre-pandemic work practices and culture or do employers need to find ways to adapt to a new reality? Nora Jenkins Townson, founder of Bright and Early, a modern HR consultancy focusing on designing human-centred, inclusive workplaces joins “This Matters.”

This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz, Paulo Marques and Brian Bradley

Friday, October 14th 2022

Guest: Philip Cross, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Many of the country’s top economists are predicting that a recession is coming, and it will hit harder and last longer than previously forecast. The Canadian housing market has been pegged as being one of the most distorted in the world and, while interest rates are rising in order to combat inflation, that has often led to a recession. What would a recession look like now and is it inevitable? Philip Cross, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and former chief economic analyst at Statistics Canada, joins “This Matters” to break down the indicators for us

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Audio source: Bloomberg

Thursday, October 13th 2022

Guest: Judy Dempsey, senior fellow at Carnegie Europe and editor-in-chief of Strategic Europe

As Russia rains rockets down on a devastated Ukraine in retaliation for land victories in the Kherson region and for attacking the bridge to Crimea, the war trudged past its eight month with no real sign of diplomatic efforts to come to a peaceful conclusion. As allies try to send more weapons and support to Ukraine, Russia is trying to rally and reinforce its troops by calling up more civilians to join the fight. How does this conflict end?

This episode was produced by Alexis Green, Paul Marques and Raju Mudhar.

Audio sources: CBC, BBC, CPAC, PBS and CNN

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Wednesday, October 12th 2022

Guest: Jon Festinger, adjunct professor at the Allard School of Law

The federal government is changing how the internet is regulated in Canada. Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, is new legislation that will give the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) the task of regulating companies like Netflix, YouTube and TikTok, similar to what it does with radio and television broadcasting. Many critics point out that internet streaming is very different and question if a similar approach is the right idea. There are also concerns about where user-generated content fits in. Jon Festinger, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia’s Peter A. Allard School of Law and a faculty member in the Centre for Digital Media, joins “This Matters” to discuss.

This episode was produced by Brian Bradley, Paulo Marques and Raju Mudhar.