Front Burner

As we approach the deadline set by dissenting members of Liberal caucus for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resign, we look back at the last time there was a mutiny against a once popular Liberal Prime Minister.

It’s the year 2002 and after successfully winning three majority governments, Jean Chrétien has several members of his party come out and urge him to resign, throwing their support behind his recently fired finance minister, Paul Martin. In the backroom, pulling the strings for Martin were political strategists, David Herle and Scott Reid.

Herle and Reid join us to talk about how they did it, what’s changed about party politics since then and why taking Trudeau down might be much more difficult. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Right-wing radio finds their greatest foe in Barack Obama: As they try to take him down at every turn, they find the perfect formula to manufacture outrage.

This is episode 5 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. 

More episodes are available here.

Céline Dion is having a moment. It’s not her first. And millions of fans are hoping it won’t be her last. While Céline’s international stardom seems obvious now, it was all so unlikely. This is the first episode of the four-part series from Understood, the anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Hosted by Thomas Leblanc. 

Listen to episode 2 here.

Follow Understood here.

Justin Trudeau is facing arguably his biggest political crisis. Some two dozen of his own MPs have signed a letter calling on him to step down as leader of the Liberal Party. After a three-hour caucus meeting in Ottawa on Wednesday, Trudeau said his party is "strong and united" — words echoed by other Liberals throughout the day.

But are they? Political reporter and author Stephen Maher breaks down the growing tensions within the Liberal Party over Trudeau's leadership and just how numbered his days as party leader might be.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As you’re probably well aware, traffic in cities across Canada is mind-numbingly bad. The geolocation firm TomTom recently ranked Toronto as having the worst traffic in North America with Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal also in the top ten. 

And as the debates about how to fix it rage on, it’s only seeming to get worse. 

That issue is being brought into sharp relief in Ontario right now, where a new bill would force municipalities across the province to get permission before installing any new bike lanes.

So here’s a conversation with Jennifer Keesmaat. She’s the former chief planner of Toronto and one of Canada’s most renowned voices on urban issues.

We’re going to talk about the solutions to traffic that don’t work and the ones that do.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the last few months, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump has appeared on shows with huge audiences of young men. He’s been doing interviews with people like influencer Logan Paul, comedian Theo Von, video game streamer Adin Ross…all people outside the usual political media, and all with millions of followers.

These appearances are just part of a deluge of efforts to court Gen Z men, in what some have called the bro or frat vote in the upcoming U.S election.

Polls show that an enormous gulf has opened up between young men and women this election season - with young men way more likely to support Donald Trump.

The Guardian U.S.’ senior features writer Sam Wolfson on why and how young men have shifted to Trump, and how this shift to the right is part of a global trend.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The allegations from the RCMP and the federal government last week are nothing short of explosive: That agents of the Indian government had been involved in “widespread violence” against Canadians on Canadian soil.

But these kinds of allegations aren’t just coming out of Canada. High-level agents within the Indian government have allegedly been linked to assassination attempts, surveillance and harassment in the US, Pakistan, Germany, the UK and Australia. Many of the targets are Sikh activists in the Indian diaspora, who had sought exile abroad.

We’re joined by Greg Miller an investigative foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, and Gerry Shih, the Washington Post’s India bureau chief, to talk about what their reporting into India’s campaign of “transnational repression” has revealed.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The terror attacks of September 11th have Americans turning the dial to talk radio, where a whole new generation of broadcasters are eager to capitalize on anxiety and fear.

This is episode 4 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. Hosted by Justin Ling. 

More episodes are available here.

Tomorrow, British Columbians head to the polls in a provincial election that’s seen plenty of twists and turns.

There was the collapse of the B.C. United party, formerly the B.C Liberal party, which really opened the door for the further rise of the B.C. Conservative Party, and its leader John Rustad.

Rustad, who’s running to be premier of B.C., is in a tight race with sitting B.C. NDP premier David Eby. Controversial and conspiracy-laden comments by Rustad himself, and a number of his candidates have taken up a lot of oxygen.

CBC’s B.C. provincial affairs reporter Katie Derosa joins host Jayme Poisson to sort through all the political drama.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Republicans have already filed over 100 lawsuits in US courts, in what critics say is an attempt to overturn the upcoming election. Ari Berman, national voting rights correspondent with Mother Jones, brings us the latest on how the 2020 Stop the Steal movement shaped the 2024 election.

He also talks about the fifteen years he’s spent reporting on this topic.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Thanksgiving long weekend ended with a bombshell from the RCMP and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: Accusations that agents from the Indian government are linked to, and helped orchestrate criminal acts in Canada. These allegations include acts like murder and extortion against members of the country’s Sikh community.

It’s the latest development in an ongoing row between Canada and India that started last year. Now as diplomats are expelled from both countries, the fallout has just begun.

Meanwhile, there is a growing movement within the federal Liberal caucus to oust Trudeau as leader, involving a secret document being passed around. 

Catherine Cullen, CBC senior parliamentary reporter and host of CBC Radio’s The House, joins us to talk about how everything is playing out on Parliament Hill and beyond. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud is currently based in Deir al Balah, in central Gaza. He’s spent the last year reporting on Israel’s war against Hamas in the territory.

Hani has told the stories of families displaced by the war, struggling to access food and water, and grieving relatives who have been killed, while living those hardships himself.

One year into Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, more than 42,000 people have been killed, according to local health authorities. It’s estimated that another 10,000 may be buried under the rubble.

Today, father and reporter Hani Mahmoud shares his family’s story of surviving this past year.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A TV crew offers 12 ordinary people the chance to take part in the adventure of a lifetime. But there’s a catch. The audience knows everything but the contestants are kept in the dark. As the cameras roll, no questions are allowed. Split Screen: Thrill Seekers is a new 6 part series that exposes how a TV show left contestants struggling to trust what’s actually real.

Host Nick van der Kolk (Love + Radio) asks: does reality TV only succeed when it exploits those involved? He talks to the set designers, crew, and the contestants themselves to learn what it took to permanently distort their sense of reality.

Welcome to Split Screen, an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling world of entertainment and pop culture. From reality TV gone awry, to the cult of celebrity, each season of Split Screen takes listeners on an evocative journey inside the world of showbiz. Ex-contestants, producers, and cultural critics uncover complicated truths behind TV’s carefully curated facades, and question what our entertainment reveals about us. Split Screen: sometimes reality is twisted.

More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/ztducTr-

Welcome to the world of conspiracy and paranoia. A horrifying act of domestic terrorism brings right wing radio some unwanted attention, which pushes one fan of the supernatural away from politics, while a pair of anti-government broadcasters dig their heels in.

This is episode 3 of The Flamethrowers, the story of how radio energized and then radicalized a conservative base. This series was originally produced in 2021. Hosted by Justin Ling. 

More episodes are available here.

'The Apprentice' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received an eight minute ovation. The film follows a young, awkward, ambitious Donald Trump during his bid for respect among New York City's elite, and his formative relationship with notorious NYC lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn.

But in the time since its Cannes debut, team Trump has unleashed a pressure campaign to keep the film from the public.

Dan Bekerman is a producer of 'The Apprentice', and joins us for a discussion about the film's complicated journey to theatres, and the challenges of making art about powerful people.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada’s fertility rate just hit a record low: 1.3 babies per woman, placing us among some of the lowest birth rates globally. 

While discourse around declining birth rates has been dominated by the likes of Elon Musk and Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance, it’s not just tech billionaires and social conservatives paying attention to this issue. Governments around the world have tried to enact policies to encourage their citizens to have more children, in most cases to no avail. So why is the world’s population shrinking and what can be done about it?

Jennifer Sciubba, a political scientist and demographer from the Population Reference Bureau, joins us to talk about the myriad of factors behind the global trend and the dangers of politicizing the issue of reproduction. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Floridians are packing up and evacuating their homes as Hurricane Milton, one of the biggest hurricanes ever recorded, bears down on Tampa Bay. A major hurricane hasn't hit the region in more than 100 years, during which time the city has grown massively in population and built up significant residential developments along the waterfront — all as climate change has made hurricanes bigger, stronger and more frequent.

Thomas Mantz, president and CEO of Feeding Tampa Bay, tells us what's happening on the ground in preparation for Wednesday night's anticipated landfall. Then, meteorologist and climate journalist Eric Holthaus explains why the Tampa area is uniquely vulnerable to a hurricane of this size, and the scale of what could happen in the days and weeks ahead.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

NOTE: In yesterday’s episode, we promised to bring you a conversation with a man who’s spent the last year in Gaza, both living through and reporting on Israel’s military campaign there. We were logistically unable to bring you that today, but we will do so as soon as we possibly can.

For decades, the Darién Gap, a jungle crossing straddling the Colombia and Panama border, was considered impossible to cross.

Today, it’s a path that many migrants take, risking their lives, to try and make it to the United States. Eight hundred thousand people are expected to use it this year, nearly 200,000 of them are children.

This is all happening at a time when immigration is among the most pressing issues for voters in the upcoming U.S election, with presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

The Atlantic’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Caitlin Dickerson recently took three trips to the Darién Gap over the course of five months.

She spoke to host Jayme Poisson about her report, Seventy miles in hell, which focuses the experiences of those caught in the middle of this ongoing immigration debate.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

‘Time stopped on October 7th.’

Jonathan Dekel-Chen was a longtime resident of Nir Oz, an Israeli kibbutz near the Gaza border. Nearly a quarter of the residents there were either killed or taken hostage on October 7th, 2023, when members of Hamas and other armed groups killed around 1200 people, and took 251 Israelis and foreigners hostage.

That set off Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza, which has now killed an estimated 41,500 people, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Jonathan’s son Sagui was taken hostage on October 7th, and he’s believed to still be in Gaza today. He speaks to host Jayme Poisson about the attack on his kibbutz, the challenges he’s faced in trying to get his son home, and the escalating conflict in the Middle East.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the second episode of The Flamethrowers, host Justin Ling explores how President Ronald Reagan takes the shackles off right-wing radio and inaugurates a golden era of conservative politics. And Rush Limbaugh — almost by accident — becomes a kingmaker in the Republican party and changes radio forever.

The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

The war in Afghanistan is the longest in both Canadian and American history. The U.S.' withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, signaled not only the end of a 20-year war, but it also marked the re-introduction of a familiar era in the country's history: the return of the Taliban, and the widespread subjugation of women. 

Three years into Taliban rule, CBC News chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault brings us inside a secret mission, led by a group of Canadian MPs, to rescue Afghanistan's last female politicians, and bring them to safety in Canada.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

China’s economy has changed drastically in the last four decades. When China started to open up to the world in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, it went from one of the world’s poorest countries, to one of the world’s fastest growing major economies.

But now, that same economy is struggling. Home prices are in freefall, retail sales are slowing down, unemployment is up. Things have gotten so rough that last week the Chinese government announced a set of stimulus measures that are meant to give the economy a big boost.

Jonathan Cheng is the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief. He walks us through what these economic challenges mean for China, its citizens, and the global economy.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In most American elections, the vice presidential debates are almost an afterthought — but this has not been a typical election. Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz are relative newcomers on the national stage, both making headlines since their selection, and this will likely be the only time they face off in a one-on-one debate.

CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta breaks down the debate's biggest moments, and what it can tell us about the parties' strategies for the final month of the campaign.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Last Friday, Lebanon-based militant group, Hezbollah, confirmed that their secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut. 

As a significant political and cultural leader in the region, the death of Nasrallah poses a number of questions. 

Where does this leave the “Axis of Resistance”, the Iran-led coalition of militias united against Israel, of which Hezbollah is a crucial part? Does this open the door for an Israeli ground invasion in Lebanon? And what does it all mean for the fate of the Palestinians as the war in Gaza rages on?

Kareem Shaheen, the Middle East editor of New Lines Magazine, joins us to unpack the significance of Nasrallah’s death its potential ripple effects throughout the region. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

While the Liberals survived the first non-confidence vote tabled last week, the Conservatives are already trying again. 

The Bloc Quebecois have issued an ultimatum to the Liberals for their party’s support. The Prime Minister has accused Conservative MP Garnett Genuis of making a homophobic comment during question period. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh confronts Pierre Poilievre after repeated accusations of selling out. And Pierre Poilievre goes after Bell Canada and CTV News over the editing of a clip of him in a recent news item.

CBC’s J.P. Tasker joins us from the Parliamentary bureau to go over a rollercoaster week in Canadian politics.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Award-winning reporter Justin Ling tracks the rise of right wing radio in the U.S. from fringe preachers and conspiracy peddlers of the 1930s to the political firestorm that rages today. Our story begins with Canadian priest Charles Coughlin — a populist crusader who winds up espousing conspiracy and hate. Right-wing radio flexes its muscle with a boycott of Polish Ham. And the Kennedy government almost wipes right-wing talk off the map. 

The Flamethrowers was originally produced in 2021. More episodes of The Flamethrowers are available here.

Over the next two years, baby boomers will pass a reported 1 trillion dollars down to their heirs, who, in most cases, are their millennial children. This intergenerational transfer of wealth is expected to be the largest in Canadian history. 

The nature of homeownership in Canada has changed many times over in the last half century, and these changes have contributed to widening gulfs in wealth and prosperity. Baby boomers came into their adult years through an economic golden age, in which many were able to invest in homeownership well before prices became prohibitive. And as many now enter older age, they are sitting on homes worth many times more than what they paid for them. 

Katrina Onstad is a freelance reporter and producer for the Globe and Mail’s tech business podcast, Lately. And she’s just written a cover story for Maclean’s about inheritance, and an incoming millennial windfall that she calls the ‘Jackpot generation.’

On Wednesday afternoon, the Israel Defense Forces released a video of their top commander telling troops on the northern border to prepare for a ground invasion of Lebanon. 

The mid-week Lebanese death toll, following Israel’s air strikes that began Monday, is more than 600 people. Hezbollah on Wednesday also shot a ballistic missile towards Tel Aviv for the first time, although it was intercepted and caused no injuries.

The Israel-Hezbollah conflict is escalating in a serious way.

Today, we’re speaking to Tasnim Chaaban. She is a reporter for L’Orient Today, Lebanon’s long-running English-language newspaper, and she and her family made a harrowing journey to Beirut this week from an area of southern Lebanon under heavy bombardment.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

 A recent rise in hateful online posts directed towards South Asian immigrants in Canada and cases of South Asians being harassed and attacked in public has many in the community raising the alarm.

Jaspreet Dhaliwal, a recent international student turned post-graduate work permit holder, talks about a concerning encounter at a local park. Press Progress reporter, Rumneek Johal, takes us through more examples of hateful online content about South Asians and recent cases of real-life harassment.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

B.C Premier David Eby says that, if re-elected, he would expand involuntary care for those with severe addiction and mental health issues. 

The announcement came just a few weeks after a couple of unprovoked, violent attacks in downtown Vancouver where one man died, and another was severely injured. Many Vancouverites were shaken by what happened, and Premier Eby cited the attacks when he spoke about the need for more involuntary care in the province.

But many public health experts and civil liberties advocates question whether this is the best approach to dealing with public safety concerns and a drug poisoning crisis.

Journalist and writer Anna Mehler Paperny has done a lot of reporting on Canada’s mental health care system. She helps us navigate the complex debate.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Last week, telecomms giant Rogers Communications became a majority owner of Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, putting them at the helm of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors. The historic deal ensures a huge chunk of Canada’s sports star power is now all in Rogers’ hands.

It’s the latest in a series of major acquisitions after a dramatic family struggle left Edward Rogers at the the helm of the company his father founded. Today, Christine Dobby with Bloomberg Canada talks to guest host Catherine Cullen about the Succession-like manouvering that’s led to Rogers becoming an ever powerful force in Canadian business. 

Wake up to what's going on in Canada and the world. Each morning, World Report will give you a 10-minute dose of the biggest news stories happening now. Our CBC News colleagues will tell you about the political actors trying to make change, the movements catching fire, and the cultural moments going viral. Start your day with the very latest.

More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/nN5xp_ZK 

This week in Lebanon, a series of attacks targeted personal communications devices — like pagers and walkie talkies — belonging to members of the political and paramilitary organization Hezbollah. At least 37 people were killed and more than 3,000 injured, according to the Lebanese health ministry. Among the dead are at least two children.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, referred to the attack as an ‘act of war’ and a ‘major terrorist operation.’ Israeli officials have said the country has entered a ‘new phase of the war.’ 

For a better picture on the ground in Beirut, as well as a sense of how the Israeli intelligence service managed to sabotage thousands of devices in Lebanon we’re joined by two journalists. 

Edmund Bower is in Beirut and has reported for The Guardian, The Times of London and the Atlantic. And Yossi Melman is the co-author of Spies Against Armageddon as well as numerous other books on Israeli intelligence. He’s also an analyst for the newspaper Haaretz.

In this episode, we refer to a previous episode of Front Burner, which you can find below:

What is Hezbollah? 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In November of 2023, R&B singer Cassie sent shockwaves through the hip hop world when she filed a lawsuit against her former boyfriend, producer and mega-mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. She accused him of years of abuse and sexual violence, and since then a further nine lawsuits have been filed along similar lines.

This week, Diddy was arrested in New York City on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering, the latter charge carries a potential life sentence. In the indictment, prosecutors accuse him of decades of abuse — sexual, physical and emotional. And they say he used his status as a titan in the industry — and head of the influential Bad Boy Records empire — to commit these crimes, and to cover them up.

Vanity Fair staff writer Dan Adler breaks down what Diddy has been accused of, and how he built the power and connections that allegedly facilitated it.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Not long ago it seemed like the carbon tax was a fait accompli in Canada. Two elections were fought where this was a major issue, and the Liberals came out on top in both of them.

But now, things are suddenly looking very different. It’s not just Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives hammering the Liberals about “axing the tax,” a growing number of Canadians have negative views of it too. And last week, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh — who has previously voted with the Liberals on their carbon pricing scheme — seemed to cast doubt on it too.

So how did Canadians turn against the carbon tax, a scheme where most people actually get more money back than what they put in?

Today we’re speaking to climate journalist Arno Kopecky about the life, and possible death, of Canada’s carbon tax.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Former U.S. president Donald Trump was golfing on his course in Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday afternoon when the Secret Service say they spotted the barrel of a gun in the bushes. It was what they believe to be the second potential attempt at assassinating Trump in just two months.

The suspect, arrested after a brief pursuit, was Ryan Welsey Routh: a 58-year-old from North Carolina who's been interviewed in the past about trying to recruit Afghan fighters to join the war effort in Ukraine.

Marin Cogan, a senior correspondent for Vox, walks us through what happened, what else we know about the suspect and the tinderbox of a highly polarized and heavily armed America.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The inclusion of ‘Russians at War’ in this year’s Toronto International Film Festival has been met with a firestorm of controversy and backlash, including criticism from the Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

The first person documentary follows Russian Canadian filmmaker, Anastasia Trofimova, as she embeds herself with a group of Russian soldiers fighting on the front lines of the war in Ukraine as they grow increasingly disillusioned with the battle.

But after Freeland and other Ukrainian-Canadians spoke out against the film, accusing it of ‘whitewashing’ Russia’s role in the conflict, TVO, one of the films financial backers, announced it would no longer be screening the film. 

Anastasia Trofimova joins us to talk about the making of the film, the criticism it received and why she thought it was important to give a different perspective on the war in Ukraine.

More than 80 women from around the world have accused the fast-fashion mogul Peter Nygard of rape, sexual assault, and human trafficking in incidents across four decades and at least four countries. 

He has been charged for sex crimes in three Canadian provinces and the state of New York. He denies it all, and has claimed his accusers are lying as part of a vast conspiracy. In his words, the acts he is accused of are things he “would never do.” 

In November 2023, Nygard was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault in a Toronto court after being accused of attacking five women in his downtown Toronto office, and has now been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Nygard had built a sprawling international retail empire over the past 50 years — but his professional achievements are now overshadowed by a sinister personal life, one that has earned him the moniker, ‘Canada’s Jeffrey Epstein’. Listen to more episodes from the podcast Evil by Design at: https://link.chtbl.com/oKSjIkpB

During the presidential debate this week, Donald Trump once again talked about how he didn’t lose the 2020 election.

It’s a false claim that many Americans believe. And some of those believers are getting ready to fight following what they think could be another stolen election in November.

ProPublica’s Joshua Kaplan has been reporting on the American Patriots Three Percent, or AP3, and one of the largest active militia groups in the U.S. Despite a wider crackdown on paramilitary groups after January 6th, AP3 has so far managed to avoid much scrutiny.

Joshua gives host Jayme Poisson an inside view of the militia group, perspective on how much of a threat they are, and what the stakes are ahead of the U.S election.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This week, the Trudeau government announced they’ve brought in a new “special advisor” on economic growth: famed former central banker Mark Carney.

The appointment has kicked the rumour mill into gear, because Carney’s name has often been floated as a potential successor to Justin Trudeau, if the beleaguered Liberal leader ever steps down.

Whether or not there’s any grounding to that speculation, plenty of questions remain: will Carney’s appointment help or hurt the Liberals? And, as the party continues to flail, what’s in this for Carney?

To dig into those questions we’re joined by Catherine Cullen, host of CBC Radio’s The House.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Before tonight, U.S. presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris had never met in real life. But they took the stage in Philadelphia, Penn., last night for their first — and possibly only — televised debate of the campaign.

Keith Boag, a former longtime Washington correspondent for CBC News, breaks down the biggest moments of the debate and what it could mean for the candidates' campaigns going forward.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A group of former international students with soon-to-be expired work permits in Brampton, Ontario are protesting a series of measures by the Canadian government meant to curb the number of temporary residents entering and staying in the country.

We hear their stories and also from Syed Hussan, executive director of Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, talks about how growing anti-immigrant sentiment could be fuelling the government's actions and why linking migrants and international students to housing and jobs might not give the whole picture.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Tenet Media of being financed and influenced by a state-backed Russian news network.

Two Russian employees of RT – the state broadcaster – are alleged of spending $10-million to secretly pay the company to spread pro-Russia propaganda.

According to the indictment, the company never made it clear to its crew of commentators, some of whom are Canadian, about its ties to RT and the Russian government. 

Freelance reporter Justin Ling is here to explain what was in the indictment and what it says about Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. election.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

 Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the street in Israel, demanding a return of all remaining hostages in the custody of Hamas. The demonstrations are the largest seen in the country since the start of the Israel-Gaza war. 

We take a closer look at the changing nature of public opinion currently driving these protests in Israel, and why calls for a ceasefire are complicated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu's war aims. 

Our guest Dahlia Scheindlin is a political analyst, pollster, author, and columnist for Haaretz and The Guardian based in Tel Aviv.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since 2022, Jagmeet Singh's New Democrats have backed Justin Trudeau's minority Liberal government with a confidence and supply agreement where the NDP would support the Liberals on confidence votes in exchange for the Liberals passing some of the NDP's policy priorities, like dental care and paid sick leave.

That deal came to an end on Wednesday with an announcement from Singh, leaving the Liberals in a much more vulnerable position and opening up the possibility of an election as soon as this fall.

Brian Platt, who covers Canadian politics for Bloomberg, explains the NDP's reasons for breaking up with the Liberals, why they've chosen to do it now, and why it could — but doesn't necessarily — mean an election well before September 2025.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As part of Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to dismantle the provincial health authority, Alberta Health Services, the first of four new replacement agencies began operating this week.

Last month, Smith also talked about transferring some hospitals away from AHS to third-party health services. And with a government grant, a private company is developing a business case for a health services “campus” in Airdrie.

So why does Smith want to divide up the health care system when other provinces are struggling to unify theirs? What role does she see for private companies in the system? And is her vision of “competition” in health a solution or threat for Canadian care?

CBC Calgary producer and writer Jason Markusoff is back to explain.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The B.C. United Party has suspended its election campaign and encouraged supporters to join forces with the Conservative Party of B.C., with the aim of bringing together the right-of-centre vote ahead of next month's provincial election.

This is a dramatic turn of events given that the two parties' leaders – Kevin Falcon of B.C. United, and John Rustad of the B.C. Conservative Party – were bitter rivals.

Rob Shaw covers B.C. politics for CHEK news and Glacier Media. He explains the dramatic reversal, how it came to be, and what this shifting political landscape might mean for the upcoming election.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

If you’ve ever been to Newfoundland, you know it’s a place where fog can envelop you so deeply, you don’t know where you’re going or where you came from. When two men, born in the same rural Newfoundland hospital on the same day, discover an unbelievable 52-year-old secret, it changes the way they see themselves forever. But this isn’t the end of the story. Because it turns out these men are not alone. A series of other close calls and near misses have begun to emerge, and not only at Come by Chance hospital. Come By Chance is a story about what it means to belong in a family — and how a twist of fate can upend the life you thought you knew. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/hdwP5zJ3

It's hard to overstate just how big a global phenomenon Oasis were at their peak in the mid '90s, but it wasn't just the music that made them compelling — it was the rock star antics and dramatic love-hate relationship between Liam and Noel Gallagher, the brothers who fronted the band and wrote the songs, respectively.

After years of mini-breakups and potshots at each other in the press (and fistfights in real life), they disbanded seemingly for good in 2009. But now, after 15 years, they've announced they're getting back together for a run of shows in the U.K. and Ireland.

Steven Hyden — culture writer at Uproxx and Oasis superfan — and Paolo Hewitt — music journalist and author of two books on the band, "Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis," and "Forever the People: Six Months on the Road With Oasis" — join guest host Jonathan Montpetit to explain why, when nostalgia reunion tours are a dime a dozen, this particular one is such a big deal.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Wednesday, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was charged in France with a wide range of crimes related to illicit activity on the app. His detainment is part of an ongoing investigation by French authorities into the social media app. 

Telegram, with its more than 900 million users, often offers a window into what’s happening on the ground in countries where state censorship is rampant. At the same time, it can be a haven for hate speech and criminality because of the app’s encryption and lack of content moderation.

Durov’s arrest has already lit up a firestorm of debate on whether tech leaders are accountable for what happens on their platforms. Tech journalist Chris Stokel-Walker looks at what Telegram has come to represent, the scrutiny of its founder, and what this case might tell us about the limits of free speech online.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Robert Land Academy is a “military-style” school in Wellandport, Ontario. Since it opened in the 1970s, it’s used military-like structure and uniforms in a bid to mould struggling boys into confident, capable citizens.

But last week, The Walrus contributing writer Rachel Browne published a piece with former students' allegations that they experienced violence, sexual abuse and racism at the school. The school maintains it has a zero-tolerance policy regarding corporal punishment.

Today, Browne details the promise of Robert Land Academy, the allegations of overlooking abuse she heard from students, and takes a big picture look at how parents struggling for help with their kids has led to a booming ‘troubled teen industry’ in North America.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Liberal ministers are hunkered down in Halifax right now for their annual end-of-summer cabinet retreat. It’s a chance for the party to get together and set the agenda ahead of the fall session of parliament. But this year, a shadow hangs over the retreat, as the party contends with dismal polling numbers, calls for leader Justin Trudeau to step down, and the looming reality of a general election that’s at best a year away.

Today, JP Tasker, a senior reporter with the CBC’s parliamentary bureau, speaks to us about how the Liberals are trying to reverse their fortunes, the changes people are calling for from inside the party, and whether or not they’ve got enough time to turn things around.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Earlier this month, Ottawa mayor Mark Sutcliffe warned the provincial and federal governments that his city was facing a public transit funding crisis. He says that at this rate, the city won’t have enough money to run the light rail lines currently under construction.

From Metro Vancouver to Toronto, we’re seeing similar issues in major cities across Canada.

These cities are dealing with what planning experts call a “transit death spiral”. When ridership drops, they can’t keep up with the costs of the current system that commuters rely on, let alone the big projects that could attract new riders.

David Cooper is the founder and principal of the Canadian transportation planning firm, Leading Mobility. He co-wrote a recent report on the state of transit funding in Canada’s biggest cities.

David talks to guest host Jonathan Montpetit about just how dire the situation is and what solutions are on the table.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Just one month ago, the Democrats were a deeply divided party, caught in a tailspin after President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the first presidential debate. But in the wake of him dropping out and endorsing his vice president Kamala Harris, the party has found new optimism about its chances in the next election.

All that excitement came to a head in Chicago this week at the Democratic National Convention. But excitement aside – is this still an uphill battle for the Democrats? And what can the convention tell us about the future Harris and her running mate Tim Walz have in store if they win? CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta shares his thoughts from the convention floor.

In politics, a “third rail” is an issue that’s so volatile, so dangerous, that politicians are afraid to touch it. 

The firm Abacus Data has just come out with a new poll that looks at the “third rails” of Canadian politics — the issues that would make people vote for or against a political party who promised that idea. And some of their findings — and the way they cut across the political spectrum — are actually pretty surprising.

David Coletto, the founder, chair and CEO of Abacus Data, breaks down those findings and what they may mean about the state of the country.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

 A new federal political party, the Canadian Future Party, is pitching itself as a centrist alternative for voters disillusioned with the Conservatives and Liberals.

It’s already announced candidates for two upcoming byelections.

Front Burner host Jayme Poisson spoke with the party’s interim leader, Dominic Cardy, about why he believes voters are so dissatisfied with the major parties, how he says there’s a “drive towards more and more extremism” among the Liberals and Conservatives, and why he thinks centrism can satisfy Canadians looking for change.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After the events of Sept. 11, sweeping changes were made to U.S intelligence and counterrorism practices as part of the American-led 'war on terror'. Agencies like the CIA started focusing less on traditional forms of espionage, and became more of an organization centred on assassination and hunting non-state actors.

As part of that broader effort, a plan was born: what if the CIA were able to conscript a white American man to infiltrate the inner workings of Al-Qaeda? 

Journalist Zach Dorfman spent years investigating one such deep cover operation — and tells us how the program reached the desk of then President George W Bush, and would chart the secretive intelligence agency on a course that would go on to define its future. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Two and half years after Russia first invaded, Ukraine has launched what might be its boldest counterattack yet: a push into the Kursk region. It's the first military incursion across Russian borders since the Second World War, drawing Russian troops away from key battle zones in eastern Ukraine.

Tim Mak, a Kyiv-based journalist who publishes the newsletter The Counteroffensive, explains why Ukraine is betting big on such a risky strategy, and whether it could change the course of this protracted war.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over the last two weeks, Liberal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault has said he's considering tightening Canada's temporary foreign worker program.

This is amid criticism of its growing use and the conditions facing those who are in it.

Since the Liberals first loosened the rules in response to the pandemic in 2021, the program has played a bigger part in our labour market, including with staff at large food and retail chains.

Some Canadians believe that that’s suppressing wages and taking away jobs from young people. So how valid are those fears? And is the program also exploiting the migrant workers themselves, who so often see their rights violated or ignored? 

Armine Yalnizyan is an economist, a columnist for the Toronto Star, and the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Israeli prisons have been making headlines in recent weeks, after far-right protesters stormed the gates of the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility to protest the arrest of nine soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner. The incident reportedly left the man in life-threatening condition, and it has led to a furious debate within Israeli society, with some defending the use of torture against Palestinian detainees.

But the case is far from isolated, according to investigations by several media outlets, who in recent months have documented numerous incidents of abuse, medical neglect and deaths in Israeli prisons.

Now, a new report by the Jerusalem-based human rights group B’Tselem goes further, accusing the Israeli government of turning its prisons into a “network of torture camps” in the wake of October 7th. B’Tselem interviewed 55 former detainees, the vast majority of whom had not been charged with a crime.

Today, B’Tselem’s executive director, Yuli Novak, speaks to us about their findings.

You can read the report, Welcome to Hell, here.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The arrest of a father and son north of Toronto accused of being in the late stages of planning an attack for the benefit of the Islamic State. A canceled stop in Vienna on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour after the threat of an attack with the main suspect allegedly inspired by ISIS. A deadly attack in March on a Moscow theatre leaving over 100 dead, allegedly committed by members of an ISIS affiliate. 

While the Sunni Muslim militant organization hasn’t been in the headlines regularly since 2018, and was actually declared defeated by former U.S President Donald Trump in 2019, it appears to be having a resurgence. Clara Broekaert, research fellow at The Soufan Center, takes us through what ISIS has been up to in recent years and why they are a growing threat again.

It’s been a year since Meta banned Canadian news on platforms including Facebook and Instagram, punching a significant hole in how audiences engage with outlets online.  

At the same time, the continued descent of the outlets’ revenues has meant mass layoffs and closures, and the rise of news deserts around the country. 

Today, two journalists weigh in on whether Ottawa should further intervene and increase its financial support of news media, or whether it should heed worries about conflicts of interest and let hemorrhaging outlets fail. 

Justin Ling is a contributing columnist for the Toronto Star and the author of Bug-eyed and Shameless on Substack. Paul Wells is also on Substack, and spent decades writing for publications including Macleans and the National Post.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

ChatGPT took the world by storm when it launched in November of 2022, prompting massive investment in generative AI technology as tech companies rushed to capitalize on the hype. But nearly two years and billions of dollars later, the technology seems to be plateauing — and it's still not profitable. After tech stocks took a hit in early August, concerns are growing in both the tech press and on Wall Street that generative AI may be a bubble, and that it may soon burst.

Paris Marx — author of the newsletter Disconnect and host of the podcast Tech Won't Save Us — has been warning about this for a long time. He explains why, and what these recurring hype cycles tell us about a tech industry increasingly focused on value for shareholders over good products for users.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Shortly before Vladimir Putin was re-elected for a fifth term as Russia’s president he eliminated his last possible rival for power, Alexei Navalny, who from all available evidence was murdered in an Arctic labour camp. The deaths of dozens of Putin's opponents, often in mysterious circumstances, have been a hallmark of his time in office. Tortoise’s Giles Whittell sets out to find out why so many of Putin’s enemies have met an early end.This is episode 1 of Putin's Murders from Tortoise. You can listen to episodes 2 and 3 wherever you get your podcasts by searching for The Slow Newscast.

Online rumours and disinformation surrounding the identity of the suspect in a mass stabbing incident that left three little girls dead in a British seaside town led to an explosion of anti-immigrant and anti-migrant riots throughout the U.K. The unrest was led by mostly white far-right groups.

As sudden as the riots came, the festering of resentment towards immigrants and anti-migrant rhetoric has been circulating online and throughout British politics for years. 

Freelance journalist and regular commentator on the politics podcast ‘Oh God, What Now?’, Zoë Grünewald, joins us to talk about the political context of this past week’s violence and what figures like Nigel Farage and Elon Musk have had to do with it. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The condo market in Greater Toronto, whether it’s resale or new, is struggling.

According to a recent CIBC Economics study, sales have “have dived off a cliff” to their lowest level since the late 1990s. Some condos in Toronto are now sitting empty for six to seven months, despite an ongoing housing crisis in the country.

John Pasalis has been looking into why this is happening. He’s the president of Realosophy, a realty brokerage in Toronto. He’ll talk to us about the road that led to this point…and what can be done about it.

By ideas, dollars and in personal connections, Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance is intimately tied to an amorphous ideological movement known as the “New Right.”

Some of its major players, which include billionaires and tech elites, want to gut the US’ institutions and upend democracy in what they see as necessary, radical action to reverse the tyranny of liberalism. 

So what is the New Right? How far would JD Vance be willing to go to advance its ideas in the White House? Or do Vance’s allegiances lie elsewhere? 

Matthew Sitman is a writer based in New York City and co-host of the podcast Know Your Enemy.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week’s boxing match between Italy’s Angela Carini and Algeria’s Imane Khelif lasted just 46 seconds. But it has ignited a firestorm online, and led to a slew of misinformation about Khelif’s sex and gender — leading commentators from Elon Musk to Donald Trump to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to allege that the International Olympic Committee is allowing a man to compete in women’s boxing.

Those claims are not true. Imane Khelif is a cisgender woman, something both she and the IOC have been extremely clear about. 

But these debates around sex and who qualifies for women’s sports are nothing new. In fact, they’ve been going on for nearly a century. Today, we speak to Rose Eveleth, host of the new podcast Tested, from CBC and NPR, about the controversial 100-year history of sex testing in women’s sports, and the many complex questions this story raises.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Tested is a new podcast series from CBC and NPR that asks the question, who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women’s sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women’s category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entirely, or fight. To understand how we got here, we trace the surprising, 100-year history of sex testing. More episodes of Tested are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/xY7QrHco

Olympic FOMO is your daily Olympics recap, in 20 minutes or less hosted by longtime radio duo and media best friends Mark Strong and Jemeni. Together they provide a fresh perspective to the Olympic conversation as they chat with athletes, entertainers and celebrities to get their take on the Games. In this episode, Mark and Jem chat about how Simone Biles battles haters left and right and still manages to score gold, and how a Turkish sharp shooter went viral for his hitman vibes. Mark and Jem also talk with Soca queen and legend Alison Hinds about her favourite Olympic sport. And it continues to be ‘Summer time’ — with McIntosh taking home another gold on August 1st, her third medal of the Games. More episodes of Olympic FOMO are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/j5kfQhRc

Since US President Joe Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the next Democratic nominee, the US election campaign has been awash in memes.

Memes about coconut trees, weirdos, Brat and even intimate relationships with couches.  

But as both U.S. and Canadian political parties are learning, the power of the internet is a double edged sword that can energize campaigns or severely backfire. So when do memes work? Why do they fall flat? And what is the risk of trying to manifest the internet in real life? 

Rebecca Jennings is a senior correspondent at Vox covering internet culture, and Elamin Abdelmahmoud is an author and the host of CBC’s Commotion.

On Tuesday, the leader of Hamas’s political wing, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Iran. The killing is widely believed to have been an Israeli strike, although Israel has not claimed responsibility. 

News of Haniyeh’s death came just hours after Israel announced it had killed a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, Lebanon, which it said was in retaliation for a deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights a few days before.

Now, the two attacks — coupled with Hamas and Hezbollah’s ties to the Iranian government — are stoking fears that a broader regional war could be closer than ever.

Today we’re speaking about all of this with Khaled Elgindy, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, and the author of the book Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After the Bank of Canada hiked interest rates at an unprecedented pace the last couple of years, there’s been a lot of talk about whether we’ll be tipped into a recession. Now, as rates have finally started to come down, a lot of people are struggling. Unemployment’s gone up, people are accumulating debt, and despite inflation cooling, everything still seems really expensive. 

So, it can start to feel like we’re in a recession. But most experts aren’t calling it one. So what is it? BMO Financial Group’s chief economist Doug Porter joins us to talk about the state of the Canadian economy and how to make sense of it.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada's women's soccer team went into the 2024 Olympics with their title as defending gold medalists on the line — but they now find themselves mired in allegations of cheating after a team analyst was caught flying a drone over a New Zealand training session.

Canada is certainly not the first soccer team to be caught spying on rivals' practices.

But why would they try it at such a highly scrutinized tournament?

And what could it mean for the future of the sport in Canada as allegations continue to emerge that this may be something Canada's national teams have been doing for years?

James Sharman, host of the podcast Footy Prime, breaks it all down.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This is the second episode in our two-part series on the past, present and future of the US-Israel ‘special relationship.’ 

In Part 2, we’re going to look at how that relationship affects Americans living in the US — sometimes in surprising ways. 

In this episode, we refer to a few previous episodes of Front Burner, which you can find here:

The US and Israel’s ‘special relationship’ — Part 1 Apple / Spotify

At the McGill encampment: Calls to divest from Israel Apple / Spotify

The growing wave of campus protests Apple / Spotify

Two Jewish parents on recent school attacks Apple / Spotify

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It’s more important than ever to sort out what’s real, what’s relevant and what’s truly new — and Your World Tonight does exactly that every night, seven days a week, with correspondents around the world. Our colleagues at YWT set the bar on the daily news catch up. Every night, they offer context, analysis, surprise — all in about 25 minutes. 

More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/FJTUitZQ

Jasper is a historic resort town in western Alberta's Rocky Mountains, surrounded by towering peaks and vibrant turquoise lakes. But this week, heartbreaking images are emerging from the town and the surrounding national park: buildings turned into charred rubble; trees scorched to the point that they look like matchsticks.

Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis described a "wall of fire" that bore down on the town on Wednesday night, estimated to be up to 100 metres high, with firefighters powerless to stop it.

CBC Edmonton reporter Travis McEwan spoke to host Jayme Poisson about how the fire got so destructive, the challenges of fighting it, and what's next for residents there.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a long-awaited and contentious speech to a special joint session of U.S. Congress. He had been invited by all four top congressional leaders — Democrat and Republican — to speak. 

But not everyone was happy about it. More than 80 Democratic lawmakers skipped the speech, and thousands of people protested outside the Capitol. 

Netanyahu’s visit comes at a moment when the US’s relationship with Israel, and support for the war in Gaza, are facing unprecedented scrutiny. So today we’ve got the first of a two-part series looking at the past, present and future of the ties that bind Israel and the United States.

In part one, the history that built this relationship into what it is today.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Vincent Lam is a Canadian addictions doctor and award-winning author who's written a couple of op-eds in the Globe and Mail on the opioid crisis in recent months, and his most recent novel, On The Ravine, is about the subject. 

Over 44 thousand people in Canada have died since 2016. Some see safer supply, or the prescription of pharmaceutical-grade opioids to drug users, and supervised consumption sites as crucial parts of curbing this crisis. 

Lam talks to host Jayme Poisson about the backlash to those measures, and what he thinks is missing from the conversation about it.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After President Biden announced that he was stepping down from the 2024 presidential race, he and other prominent democrats threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris. 

The former prosecutor and senator is no stranger to the campaign trail but hasn’t generally polled well…until now. Is this finally her moment? 

Vox senior politics reporter, Christian Paz, joins us to talk about Kamala’s track record as a prosecutor and politician, whether she has what it takes to take on Donald Trump and why everyone’s talking about coconuts all of a sudden.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After a disastrous debate performance in June, the chorus of questions and doubts have been steadily building — is Joe Biden really the man to beat Donald Trump in this Fall's American presidential election? Biden himself has finally answered: no, he's not. On Sunday, he announced he wouldn't be seeking re-election in November, and nominated his vice-president Kamala Harris in his stead.

What's next for the Democrats, and what does it mean for an already chaotic election? Washington Post political reporter Patrick Svitek breaks it all down.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It was a Republican National Convention unlike any other in Milwaukee, Wis., this week, taking place just days after an assassination attempt on the party's now-official nominee for president, Donald Trump — an event that loomed large over the proceedings. But beyond that, the convention also offered a glimpse into what is rapidly solidifying as the party's new identity. In 2016, establishment Republicans may have been split on Trump, but at the 2024 RNC, it's clear that this is now the party of Trump, of MAGA — and now of Trump's newly announced running mate, J.D. Vance.

CBC Washington correspondent Alexander Panetta joins us for his analysis on the convention, and what it tells us about where the party is headed from here.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Nine months into the war, Gaza sees one of its deadliest weeks after Israeli air strikes hit several schools and camps throughout the strip and a ground offensive on Gaza City.

One of the attacks was an air strike on an IDF-designated humanitarian safe zone in Al-Mawasi, targeting a busy tent camp and market where Israel says two top Hamas commanders were located. Freelance journalist Akram Al-Sattari was there as more than 90 people were killed and 300 were wounded, according to the Gaza health ministry.

He takes us through the destruction, the difficult decisions Gazans are making to survive, and how people there are feeling as ceasefire stalks continue to stall.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This is a big year for national elections around the world. More than 80 countries have gone to the polls, or will before 2024 is over. The volley of elections comes as incumbents struggle to remain popular amid economic challenges, high migration rates and surging challengers.

We speak with political scientist, author and commentator Ian Bremmer about what’s at stake with so many elections and what social and economic forces are driving change.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

At this point, it's still unclear what motivated Thomas Matthew Crooks to climb a nearby roof with an AR-15-style rifle and attempt to shoot former U.S. president Donald Trump. But he is far from the first person to make an attempt on the life of an American president. From the high-profile assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy to attempted assassinations of Ronald Reagan and Theodore Roosevelt, acts of politically motivated murder — whether successful or otherwise — are often major turning points in the nation's history.

Centre College associate professor Jonathon L. Earle walks us through the legacy of political violence in the United States, and what that history could teach us about what could happen next.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In the wake of the apparent assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, we look at the potential for an event like this to ratchet up further political violence, and how pivotal this moment could be for a democracy already in crisis.

Vox senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp is our guest. His forthcoming book, The Reactionary Spirit, looks at global challenges to democracy.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit:  https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As the NATO summit wraps up in Washington, D.C., this week, Canada has finally committed to spending two per cent of its GDP on defense, as required by the treaty. But NATO is an alliance forged in a post-WWII world at the dawn of the Cold War. Is it still relevant in a modern, post-Soviet world? Or has Russia's increased aggression in recent years given the alliance a renewed purpose?

Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba, explains how NATO got to this point, what could be next, and Canada's role in it.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In 2022, a convoy of truckers angry with COVID-19 measures staged an 18-day blockade, shutting down a busy border crossing with the U.S. in Coutts, Alberta. It ended with the RCMP arresting 13 protesters and finding a stockpile of guns, ammunition and pipe bombs.

Now, two men are standing trial for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with their involvement with the blockade. The prosecution says the two men believed they were preparing for “war”.

Bill Graveland with the Canadian Press has been covering it from the beginning and takes us through the details of the trial so far, and the lasting impact that the blockade has had on a tiny southern Albertan community.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The late Canadian author Alice Munro remains one of the best-known fiction writers in the English language. She won a Nobel prize for her work, and was celebrated for her intimate portrayals of the lives of women and girls. 

But for decades, Munro hid a dark secret: her husband had sexually abused her youngest daughter when she was a child, and Munro stuck by him — even after her daughter stopped speaking to her, and even after her husband was convicted of sexual assault.

Now, Munro’s daughter, Andrea Robin Skinner, has published an explosive essay in the Toronto Star, detailing the abuse and the ways that her mother — and the rest of the family — kept silent about it. 

Today we’re going to unpack what all of this means with Zoe Whittall, a TV and fiction writer whose books include Wild Failure, The Best Kind of People, The Spectacular, and others.

If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, and you’re looking for support, you can find a list of local sexual assault centres, crisis lines and other resources across Canada at https://endingviolencecanada.org/sexual-assault-centres-crisis-lines-and-support-services/. 

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Canadian men's soccer team is set to take on Lionel Messi and Argentina, the current holders of the World Cup and No.1 ranked team in the world, in the semi finals of the Copa America soccer tournament. 

The game is arguably the biggest match in Canadian soccer history.

James Sharman is a longtime soccer journalist and host of The Footy Prime Podcast. He'll share how this marks the culmination of a years-long project which has taken the Canadian program from relative obscurity to legitimacy.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Friday, in an exclusive interview with ABC news anchor George Stephanopoulos, U.S. president Joe Biden insisted that only the “Lord Almighty” could get him to quit. But as calls for him to step down grow following a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump, how long can he hold on — and what might it do to the Democratic party?

CBC Washington correspondent Paul Hunter joins us to talk about what’s next for Biden, and if there is any way for his party to stanch the bleeding.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. Supreme Court’s latest ruling grants presidents the ability to break the law without fear of criminal prosecution as long as it counts as an “official” act. It’s the latest in a string of wide-ranging decisions, from abortion to corporate deregulation, that critics say are reshaping America.

We take a look at some of those cases with University of Michigan law professor and co-host of Crooked Media’s Strict Scrutiny, Leah Litman, and break down what motivates this majority conservative court, and how these decisions will impact the lives of Americans now and for years to come.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After his centrist coalition suffered a humiliating loss to the far right in European elections early last month, French President Emanuelle Macron called snap elections for France’s own Parliament in hopes of pushing back.

Instead, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally continued their momentum and won the first round of voting last Sunday.

So will Macron’s election gamble backfire? Why are the far right surging? And what would it mean for Europe and the world if they took power in the final round of voting this weekend?

Don Murray is a freelance journalist currently in Southern France. For years, he covered Europe for CBC as a reporter and documentary maker.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A landslide caused by a heap leach failure at the Eagle mine site in the Yukon has been called a “disaster” by some local residents.

Hundreds of workers are currently laid-off and there’s a chance that it has leaked cyanide and/or other heavy metals into the river, endangering the nearby environment and wildlife. Meanwhile, Victoria Gold, the company that owns and operates the mine, is facing charges and their stock has tanked, raising concerns the mine could close for good.

Cali McTavish and Julien Greene from CBC Whitehorse join us to talk about how the incident fits into a long, troubling history with mining in the Yukon. 

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A little over three years ago, a roaring, rapidly spreading wildfire burned through Lytton, a B.C. town of around 200 residents. It essentially burned to the ground. And even though at least $239 million dollars have been promised or poured into the recovery – rebuilding has been slow, and people are frustrated.

CBC Vancouver reporter Yvette Brend just returned from Lytton. She tells us about the town’s delayed recovery, and how it might be a cautionary tale of climate disaster recovery.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It was the biggest gold discovery in history...until it wasn’t. In 1995, Canadian mining company Bre-X announced to the world it had found a significant amount of gold deep in the jungles of Indonesia. Stock prices soared as investors worldwide fought to stake their claim. But when Bre-X’s chief geologist mysteriously fell from a helicopter over the jungle, the story of the billion dollar discovery began to unravel. Nearly three decades later, no one has ever been held accountable. In the new podcast, The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam, host Suzanne Wilton takes you from the jungles of Indonesia to small town Alberta, Canada, to investigate what really happened and find out more about the man behind the biggest goldmine fraud of all time. Produced for the BBC World Service and CBC by BBC Scotland Productions. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Duo5eihh

It was déjà vu all over again in Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday night as Donald Trump and Joe Biden squared off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. Biden will be looking to secure a second term in November, while Trump will be looking to take the office back for a second term of his own. And indeed, much of the debate focused on rehashing both men's records in office — to varying degrees of veracity and coherence.

The CBC's Washington correspondent Katie Simpson breaks down both candidates' performances, the debate's biggest moments, and what it could all mean for the campaign ahead.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When Alex Cyr was growing up on Prince Edward Island in the early aughts, the capital Charlottetown was a pretty quaint and homogeneous place.

But in 2024, the city looks very different. In the last few years, the provincial government has made it easier for immigrants to flock there – and they have, more than any other city in the country.

The city is younger and more diverse, and it’s solved a lot of the problems caused by its aging workforce. But housing prices have gone up, and the healthcare system is stretched.

These challenges that Charlottetown faces now are familiar to so many cities across the country. Journalist Alex Cyr wrote about the city’s immigration growth for Maclean’s. His piece is called: “How Charlottetown Became an Immigration Boom Town”.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The last time a Conservative won a federal vote in the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s, it was 1988. The Soviet Union was still together. Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister. The territory of Nunavut wouldn’t be created for more than a decade.

But on Monday, in a by-election in the riding, the Conservatives took the Liberal stronghold riding back for the first time in over thirty years. 

Does this spell electoral doom for the Liberals? Where does the party go from here? And despite his insistence that he’ll stay on, can Justin Trudeau really remain the party leader? 

John Paul Tasker is a senior reporter with CBC’s parliamentary bureau.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts