35 Burst results for "Jordan Heath"
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"A <hes> you know how much that plays into the campaign how much this will Affect people's votes remains to be seen. It's voting day and we'll find out the results either tonight or maybe tomorrow or the next day because there are a lot of mail in ballots to go through as well. That could delay the results of this election. Last question really quickly. It's too late now to vote by mail or to head to an advanced poll. it's election day. Is there anything different because of the pandemic then previous election days that people should know before they go to their usual neighborhood polling station And where a masking cast their vote. Yes few things you need to know one. Pack your patience There is expected to be long lineups and delays as a result of new cova protocols There's gonna be a lot of cleaning a lot of sanitize ation that happens in the polling stations <hes> and elections canada's asking people to just be patient Wanting to know though as long as you're in the lineup before the cutoff time in your Whatever voting area region that. You're in the country. As long as you're in that lineup you will be allowed to vote. They'll have a staff member at the end of that lineup. Saying nobody after this point so they will allow everybody who showed up to vote to vote at that time Wear a mask That's a big thing. Because if you're in a jurisdiction where there's a mask mandate and most of canada is under mass mandates right now you have to wear a mask indoors to go vote. I know i've seen some arguments that this is an infringement on charter rights elections candidates has no that is not the case. We gave you the option if you didn't want to vote With a mask. We gave the option of mail in ballots. You had a choice If you're going to a polling station we have to abide by local public health guidelines So you might not be allowed in if you refuse to wear a mask and you don't have a medical exemption. If you have a medical exemption they will still allow you into vote But the most important thing is to get out and vote. Make your voice be heard. There's only one way to make sure your opinion matters in that is to cast your ballot for the party. That you think is best to lead this country whether you like this election or not were in it and an election is happening and you know you get to have a say by casting your ballot cormac as always thank you for this. That was perfect. Anytime cormac mcsweeney. Our parliament hill reporter. That was the big story for more from us including a last minute. Cram session on any policy issue. You could imagine head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. You can find us on twitter. You can find me especially on our twitter account tonight. Apparently live tweeting this election. Really just hoping. I don't say something to get myself. We're at the big story f. Pin and of course you can email us the big story. Podcast all one word. All lower case at rci dot rogers dot com. As i said at the beginning if you haven't voted yet get out and do it. It's literally the only thing about this mess you can control. I'm jordan heath rawlings. Thanks for listening. We'll talk tomorrow.
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Thirty six days in one episode. Think of it like you record it again. And now you're going to catch up at triple speed. I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Cormac mcsweeney our man on parliament hill. Hello cormac it's almost over elo. We're trying to take everybody through this election as fast as we can especially for people who are lucky enough to not have to follow every single moment of it. So i wanted to ask you to start with the mood. I guess in ottawa and around the country as the election was called. You know justin trudeau got up in front of the podium. And he made a case that this election is about letting canadians choose what the next four years will look like..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Dr catherine smart is the president of the canadian medical association. Hello dr smart pillow. I wanna start by asking you. You know as we're talking. There are protests going on outside hospitals around canada. Did you ever imagine you'd see that happening. I certainly did not you know. It's a real low point. I think right now for everybody in healthcare in canada. We've gone from you know heroes and people out supporting us chanting for us and now we're facing protests harassment bullying It's a really really.
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Want them to spend it so the bottom line here isn't The province so much. There's a lot of things that the province could do and it would ontario. I would love to see all the parties have a fairly robust housing platforms in the next election. The bottleneck is more municipalities and municipal rules. And i think that's that's going to be an issue for all the parties so when you look at the end ep. And they're affordable housing plan. You know we've had issues across the country where we we've had funds allocated to affordable housing their plans for affordable housing and then it gets caught up in a variety of municipal rules. This has been a big issue in vancouver Where the city of vancouver is trying to build affordable housing and actually getting caught up by the city of vancouver's planning rules There was an issue. There was a story in toronto that the something similar And same with the you know. The conservative and the liberal approach around the of carrots and sticks are designed to get municipalities. Change their way but but absolutely that's going to be a big barrier if if of these regulatory levers are left in place that make it impossible to build new housing. There's really not much. The federal government can do so. It's gotta find a way to get the municipalities to to to change some of their planning processes. How much of that change in municipalities has to come from the grassroots level again. I'm speaking of toronto. Because that's where i live. But i know it's not uncommon every place in canada when you propose to build more affordable housing. You run into people who don't want built in their neighborhood. Yeah so. I think there's a couple of things that that first one there are the sort of zoning variances that it would help if you know local neighbors would sort for this a yeah you know what we actually do want this in our neighborhood. You know right now. That doesn't happen You get this sort of local opposition to projects but another thing that needs to happen is just a change in the rules that we have when you build. Something new or renovate something you know. Sometimes it has to go through these processes and sometimes a dozen. so i'm in ottawa. Right now if i wanted to tear down my house to moro and build an absolute monstrosity of a house. That doesn't fit in with the neighbors. at all. i can do that. Nobody can stop me so long as it's a single family single detached home that that meets regulatory requirements. If instead i wanted to build a duplex to allow to families to be in the same property. No matter how. I design the house. It has to go through all of these approval process using all of my neighbors in the neighborhood. Get a say about whether or not that that happened. So those are the kinds of things where you know. Sometimes we require You know all of the to jump through all these hoops and sometimes we don't. Those are the rules that need to change. So you're not you know you're not allowing a populations to be able to veto certain projects that brings me to a question that maybe you just answered. But i want to ask it anyway. Which is is there. Anything obvious that governments could do right now that we haven't done for whatever reason because there's not the political will for it. Maybe so so. Part of it's political. Will one thing i would have loved to see from all the federal parties that unfortunately didn't make any of their platforms Was a building student residences at colleges and universities. I think why they didn't go. There is traditionally. That's that's more of a a perve provincial. Led process of the federal government has given funding to those before. And when i say that is a lot of our population increases particularly in ontario and british columbia are coming from students often international students. And what happens is and they're great for the community you know they're really having such talented twentysomethings from all over the world is making our communities better but we're not building the places for them to live so what's happening is a lot of single family. Homes are getting turned into student rentals and not being occupied by family. So what we could be doing what we're but we're not is working with provinces and colleges and universities you know maybe with a third third third type funding models to get more student residences built Which would take some of the pressure off of Off of our single family homes and actually be able to get more families into homes. Lastly not asking you to pick a winner or pick someone for whom our listeners should vote but as you look at these platforms given what we see. Now what's your take on no matter who wins where we're likely to be in a couple of years like is there anything here that really would curb this or is this. It's a natural progression. That's going to be really hard to stop. i think it is going to be a natural progression. You know one of the ways to look really foolish is to make realistic. You know three or five year real estate predictions because a lot can happen over the next few years you know. Interest rates could spike up. International students might decide that. They don't wanna come to canada anymore. For whatever reason so there you know. The market could go all kinds of places. But i'm not seeing anything in these platforms as really transformative. I think it would help. I think they'll help. Take the pressure off. I think they will get more people into homes. But i think overall they're they're not the types of deep transformative change. We're going to need to solve this issue. Thank you for the analysis. Mike is always great to talk to you. Thank you for having me. Mike moffitt of smart prosperity and the business school. That was the big story for more from us including all of our episodes related to this election featuring lots of policy lots of detail. Lots of things to help you make a choice head you the big story. Podcast dot ca. We have a whole separate page with just election stuff. You can also talk to us at the big story f. b. n. You can write to us the big story. Podcast all one word at our ci dot rogers dot com and you can find us in any podcast player. You pick you choose will be there. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"That. what's different there. Well there are a couple of things Many european cities sort of started way ahead of north american cities Outside of a handful of north american cities in terms of already being relatively dense walkable having good transit and so forth so the idea of adding additional dense development is sort of. It's not that big a leap culturally or politically from what they're already doing. they also have much smarter. Regulations and government support for developing these kinds of areas And finally there's a there's a sense of common purpose that really seems to be lacking in a lot of north american cities. You know a lot of people in north american cities because of the way we set up you know home ownership and other things Their first concern is like how does this affect my property values. Parking availability right not. Is this building the city. My kids are going to need to have to live in to survive and thrive in an in an era of unprecedented ecological upheaval. What could we do here to change that. You know this is going to take a massive amount of money and in particular investment from levels of government and you know we've discussed the polarization in america on the show but even up here in canada it can be really difficult to get governments to commit to long term projects like this because they're going to be out of power in four years and becoming up for reelection and all of a sudden they've spent hundreds of billions of dollars on this and it has nothing to show for it yet. It's a tough question. And one of the challenges is that we really have to understand the idea of strategic return. Right we have to understand that what we're trying to do is create large scale benefit for a lot of people right and that's simply not what government has been very good at doing in the urban form for a few decades now right There are few cities that have really that have done quite a lot but by and large. I mean you hear a lot. The idea that like cities are built out right like there's nowhere to build. There's nothing to do now. You know the existing forms here and we just have to work with it. And i think we have to be seeing these changes as ways of creating advantage for a large number of people you know in order to get the political support that it takes to do this stuff and and we don't have that politics right now. What we need is a politics. That is fast right. That sees the both the ecological necessity of sustainability and and ecological necessity of rugged ization as top priorities in his things that that are best done as quickly as possible where the the return the future we get is how fast we go right. The return we get is based on how quickly we act in how far we can get before the real trouble set in. And that's just not the politics we have right now. On part of it is again that we continue to sort of prioritize. The idea that the government in general is just here to provide services is not here to provide leadership And we need you know. We need a world where government is leading. That would really help us a lot. And where that isn't present we need You know to look for the scales at which government can lead and that might be sitting. it might be. Some cities really do a lot of work in mobilized the resources they need to to to recognize on on a big scale and a lot of cities. Don't unfortunately i think that's the most likely outcome here. Is this something that people in cities that have so far been mostly untouched by natural disasters will have to experience before they're willing to sacrifice what they think of as the normal operations of their city. You know. I'm thinking here people in toronto. Obviously but you know also chicago all sorts of cities that have not been impacted the way that ida can impact the gulf coast or that. Wildfires can impact california. Is this something they won't realize until they're in it well. This is the the core idea of my book. The snap four and of the newsletter that i right is that we are already in the time when we should be realizing this that that that when we understand what is already true right. What has already happened We understand that we are behind the clock right. There were not yet ready for what has already happened and that we undergo a process of understanding. We need to snap forward right that we need to change our understandings of the world. Very quickly to be in a realistic relationship with what's already true and the problem is that that's a difficult process. It has a bunch of of barriers. Not least of which is that. We we all like to think we know what's going on. We don't like to change our our ideas. Very few of us are are happy to challenge our own core beliefs right But also we have to go through a process of compressed comprehension. Where we we understand that. There's been you know thirty forty fifty years of change happening that we've only somewhat maybe a little paid attention to that. We haven't fundamentally been tracking and now we need to suddenly catch up and that is a very That's disorienting process in part because if the world isn't what we thought it was anymore right if the world itself has changed then our lives the lives we built within that world are themselves also changed right. We no longer are living the lives. We thought we lived. And that's a you know. That's that's psychologically challenging. It's challenging to wake up one morning and realize that you live on a world that demands massive action from you and your community and your city and your government in order to get the benefits that you took for granted before. I hope we all snap forward very soon. Thank you so much for this. Alex thank you. You can subscribe to alex stephens excellent newsletter at the nearly now dot com. That was the big story for more from us head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. Find us on twitter at the big story f. p. n. Talk to us by email. Be big story podcast. All one word at our rci dot rogers dot com follow us subscribed to us. Whatever it is they tell you to do when your podcast player. Do it and rate and review and tell your friends. Stephanie phillips is the lead producer of the big story ryan clark and joseph fish or our associate producers. I'm jordan heath rawlings. Thanks for listening. Have a safe weekend. We'll talk to you after labor day on tuesday..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Don't have that kind of money and what are they supposed to do and finally this was a while ago. It sounds like you're still doing really well. Do we know how long this elast is it. Kind of wait and see if it begins to fade. Keep doing regular check ins. Yeah this is one of the other Big unknowns about ketamine as an antidepressant because Yeah as you say. I finished my treatment about six months ago now I have been feeling consistently good since then. And i actually track this empirically because i use this I have a little mood tracker app that i've been using for a couple of years now in overtime it'll sort of show your moods on a line graph to show you how you've been doing over Of course a few months or even on different days of the week if you look at my graph before i did the treatment it's like peaks valleys peaks. Valleys up down up down like my mood was all over the place and since then it's been like a flat line at good. I've just been feeling good which is incredible but we just don't have enough research now and frankly. This hasn't been used as an antidepressant for long enough for us to know what the long term implications are We don't know how long it lasts. We don't know what the implications are for example if someone were to do this once a year for the rest of their life like would that have any kind of impact on them. We don't know Some people find that this works for them for a few weeks or a month and then they need to do it again. Others are able to do one session and feel like they've had their lives totally changed. And i mean yeah i feel great. I don't feel like my mental health has really declined at all since finishing being able to go back to work Things are going pretty well for me personally. So i'm hopeful but Yeah i mean there's part of me that does worry that maybe not depression will come back because it always has before But at least this time. I feel like i much better equipped to deal with it. Your feeling better which is awesome people around you. Your loved ones noticed a difference. Absolutely the the biggest difference is probably seen by my wife Obviously she had a front row seat to my the depths of my depression and it was really hard on her To to watch me go through that and especially during kovic. We're all feeling isolated. And she didn't really feel like she had that much support while i was going through that And now i feel good. And that's made her life so much easier She says. I'm like a different person which i feel like a different person. Obviously my parents. They've also definitely noticed a huge change. They similarly describe it in in superlative terms like that. My mom said she was gobsmacked. And actually even my therapist my regular therapists seeing for several years She's she says she's never seen this. This drastic or and fast of a transformation in somebody from being so depressed to being just fully functional and in fact I had an appointment earlier today and she said you know. I don't think you need me anymore. I think you're i think you're good and that was a pretty big moment because you i've i've been in therapy for for years now. I can't remember how long it's been a long time since since i've had a therapist. Tell me. I didn't need therapies. So i think that's a good sign. I'm so glad you're feeling better. And thank you for sharing this with us today and it'll be really interesting to see what we learn about this over the coming years. Thanks for having that was julian. Ucla and that was the big story for more from us. Head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. Find us on twitter at the big story f. pin and email us anytime v. Big story podcast. That's all one word at our c. I. dot rogers dot com. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"That. The case is so strong. Why try to make it stronger. You know you talk to criminal lawyers and they will tell you well the pope the often the police aren't that smart. But that's the kind of thing lawyers say 'cause criminal lawyers. Aren't they fans of police. What i ultimately found about this case it was that it was just quite depressing for the people of ontario because nothing gets nothing gets exposed right. You know the the crown and the police didn't get to the bottom of it. There's no real justice done Will we get to the bottom of the alleged police corruption. who knows. that seems. That's still in play. But it seems unlikely. I thought it was sort of sad as a journalist. Because you want wanna find out the truth as a whole lot of nothing to come out of a great big flashy bust leah. Thank you so much for taking us through it and for your work I guess writing the story twice by now. Thank you yes it was. It was a pleasure. Pleasure to chat leah mclaren wrote about project and game for toronto life. That was the big story for more head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. You can find all of our other episodes there. I told you we wouldn't do politics today. You can also talk to us on twitter at the big story f. p. n. you can email us at the big story. Podcast all one word all lower case at our cia dot rogers dot com and as always. We're in your favorite podcast players. Every last one of them. Stephanie phillips the lead producer of the big story ryan clark and joseph fish or our associate producers. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. Have a safe and happy weekend and we will talk monday..
The Big Story
How Canada and the Western World Failed Afghanistan
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Stephen save holds the patterson chair and international affairs at carleton university. Among the books he's written is adapting in the dust. Lessons learned from canada's war in afghanistan. And he also co hosts a podcast about canada's national security called the battle rhythm hasty. Hello i'm doing all right like many canadians. I kind of spent the weekend. seeing progressively more and more disturbing images coming out of afghanistan especially kabul and. I'm i'm wondering if you could maybe describe what we're actually seeing and hearing about in afghanistan right now. Well it's the collapse of the government that we've been trying to build for the past twenty years The taliban were kicked out of the country by american forces and then in two thousand and two There developed a un effort that became a nato effort called isaf the international security assistance force along with a variety of other international partners to try to build a self sustaining afghan government. And then two thousand fourteen. Nato largely pulled out three years. After canada pulled out of combat and for the past seven years there was a nato effort to train the afghan army and last year. Donald trump Negotiated deal the taliban that would vote the remaining few americans that were left in afghanistan out before this summer there about two thousand five hundred americans soldiers mostly doing training and doing coordination type stuff and So that was Trump's decision last year and then when it became president there was a question about whether he would live by the deal which had a deadline of may fifth at all. Americans are supposed to be out by may fifth and the by racial thought. That would be too fast. That that we would be able to get our stuff in our people out in his In his mind and so they sent the data september eleventh and over the course of the summer The taliban made a series of deals with a variety of actors within afghanistan that led to the collapse of the afghan national army forces that were guarding a variety of places around the country until the only thing that was left was couple which fell this weekend.
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Attitudes and philosophies where you know. If something's not working they change it right so i've noticed a lot of technical that i've had interactions with in the last month or two a lot marching. Yes i think that's a reflection of the place. We are in the attitude that people have in another place Where tradition is a little bit more Ingrained more part of the culture may be wall street beating tokyo. The in you know what are deteriorate. It could be harder for people to change and they might not might not go back to to To shaking so with an esquire we are. We don't have a hard and fast rule about a personal contact shake hands. But i went back to new york a couple of weeks ago. Anatomic boss a michael. Sebastian is the editor in chief of esquire. We had seen each other over year in person and we didn't shake hands but we were so happy with each other. We both sort of rate each other and we were status each other. But we weren't quite ready to have personal contact yet so I think it goes back to reading situation. It'll be so interesting to see how this evolves and to see where we end up. Thanks daniel for doing this. Thank you so much jordan. I wish i was in the studio right now so we could not shake hands. Daniel demoss editor at large with esquire. That was the big story for more from us head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. Find us on twitter at the big story f. p. n. Email us anytime you want to be big story podcast. All one word all lower case at rci dot rogers dot com. I did all that fast. Because i wanted to see if i could still remember it. After all this time off as always you can find us in your favorite podcast players in apples and googles and stitchers specifies and every other one you like don't forget to rate and review. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
How the IPCC Report Is About More Than Just Climate Change
"I'm fatma fitting in for jordan heath. rawlings this is the big story. Brick smith is the president of the canadian institute for climate choice. Herrick thanks for being here. It's pleasure so what was your first reaction when you read the report while i mean. Let's let's just acknowledge that this thing is massive minutes thousands of pages. Hundreds of scientists around the world have been working on this thing for the last many months of fourteen. Thousand studies were incorporated and summarized and synthesized in this reports enormous amount of information. This is the most significant update to what we know about climate in in many years over half a decade. There's a lot of stuff now does not surprising me for anybody. That's been keeping track of climate change science and the the notion that warming is getting is happening more quickly than expected. would not be news. I think one of the more significant aspects of the report is the unequivocal linkage. Based on the best available science that recent extreme weather events are being driven by climate change in the idc has never been that explicit before. And of course there's this whole new discipline called attribution science that's That's quite new. This new kind of science is makes it possible for us to say yeah. This particular heatwave is being driven by climate change that is a. That's a very new Development in the climate change debate. And i think very powerful because long story short what this report does is. It brings climate change home for people. Climate change is a health concern.
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"I'm sitting in for jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Emmett mcfarland is a political scientist at the university of waterloo whose research focuses on the relationship between rights governance and public policy. Thanks for being here for having me soup. There's a lot of chatter right now about the rights of canadians as we talk about making vaccines mandatory through passports or documents or whatever. We're going to end up calling them. And i wanted to start by asking you a really dumb question do vaccine passports infringe on the rights of.
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"You're listening to a frequency. Podcast network production eighty nine cents. That's approximately how much canadian women earn for. Every dollar earned by a man for black and indigenous women and women of color that shortfall is even more severe. it may shock you to learn that canada's gender. Pay gap has only decreased by over a dollar in the last twenty years. But that's about to chain. Maybe the government of canada has released new pay equity legislation that goes into effect on august. Thirty first it might help identify and possibly closed the gender pay gap in a few federally regulated sector. But there's a whole female workforce to think about a female workforce that has been hit very hard during the pandemic from working mothers too young freshly graduated. Women we've even got a name for this concerning phenomenon. This she session. It is outrageous to think that in twenty twenty one employers are still not paying women the same as men for equal work. Technically this is illegal. It has been for the last forty years under the canadian. Human rights act but he culture of pay secrecy and a lack of due process in. Our workplaces has made accountability in this matter. Very difficult candidate is trying to seriously help. This female workforce for the very first time with this new pay equity legislation and a landmark childcare policy. We've been waiting for all of this for fifty years while most countries have already taken proactive measures to force companies to report and correct the gender pay gap. So is this a turning point and will we finally succeed. I'm fought must be sitting in for jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story andrea gun. Rich is the vice president of public engagement at the canadian women's foundation. Hi andrea. thanks for being here i. Thanks for having me sue. I want to understand more. I mean we're both women who who work. And i think we've seen the pay gap in various different ways but from a data perspective. Can you can you walk us through. Why it's significant end problematic at the same time that canadian women make eighty nine cents for every dollar. A man earns well. There's a lot of issues with that first of all. I'll talk about the measures. So eighty nine. Cents is one way of measuring it. But you know work can be measured in different ways you can think about it in terms of part time versus full time You can think about it in terms of the kinds of work that women tend to do the kinds of work that men tend to do in how that measures up in terms of what is what people are valued for In how they're paid for that so the measure that i tend to look at his actually the annual earnings of fulltime workers Women workers at canada earned actually an average of seventy six point. Eight cents for every dollar earned by men and of course That's you know looking at it in terms of both fulltime workers Looking at the annual average earning. And that's a twenty nineteenth statistic but of course we know in the pandemic that things have changed all the more and that women's access to work and good paid work has been impacted and i think the equal pay coalition in ontario. Really gives some good insight as to why you have to look at it in terms of not just dollars and cents and what people are making but you have to look at people's access to work and what's stopping them so a lot of things about the gender pay gap has to do with women's situation. Women tend to do unpaid work. Unpaid care responsibilities And that impacts their ability and their time for paid work and that's also related to the fact that women tend to do work that is undervalued. The kind of work that might get less pay per hour less benefits less union protection. That's things like work that is in retail work in the service industry Work that Really seen as less important but again in the pandemic context of particular. We've seen how these jobs that we tend to. Undervalue have been so important to our daily wellbeing and of course we have to look at the gender pay gap when it comes to different women experiencing this gap differently depending on their identities. The pay gap is much worse for women with disabilities for instance. It's worse for black women. It's worse for indigenous women. It's worse for young women so we can look at it as just one whole kind of analysis we have to split it up and look at how different people are impacted differently depending on their identity depending on the racial lies ation their gender identity their sexuality where they live in the country where their axes to jobs. It's a really complicated pitcher and what we found of course is that it's definitely has to do with people what choices are available to them and which is our cut off but also it has to do with just straight up discrimination as well too that we see that women are getting paid differently. There's a certain amount that you can explain away based on Sexism based on the way that women live their lives in this world and the way the world is setup for them or not but it's also just straight up that there's an element of it where women are just not getting valued because of their identity because of their sexuality and all the interrelated sexuality gender identity their race all the interrelated things that play into it so this is a long answer but it certainly a very complicated pitcher and it's not just a straight matter. Equal pay for equal work and this gender pay gap has existed over several decades. Isn't that right. Like i was reading the statistics canada report and it seemed like this has persisted since at least the nineteen eighties. Oh yes and before that for sure and one of the things that i think is really important to look at the gender pay gap is seeming to decrease over time in a large scale way but again in the pandemic context it remains to be seen if that actually is the case because we know women's access to work has shifted significantly given the fact primarily that they've had to lose job hours and lose access to job opportunities because they have to take care of unpaid responsibilities at home. That's a big chunk of what we're seeing So i think that we might vary will see reversals. As we've seen reverses on so many measures of gender equality since the beginning of the pandemic what it really shows us is that first of all paid gender pay gaps do change but they change at a glacial pace changed for the better at a very clear show pace It means that we can't just allow it to happen by nature by by osmosis and the second thing.
The Big Story
How to Talk About the End of the World
"In for jordan heath. rawlings this is the big story. alex steffen award winning environmental writer and climate futurist. Who has spent the last thirty years or so exploring the growing planetary crisis and what lies ahead for humanity. His newsletter is called the snap forward which is also the title of his forthcoming book. He joins us from the san francisco. Bay area hey. Alex thanks for being here so this this may sound like a very basic question to start but in light of everything that's happening in the world pertaining to the climate crisis. How are you doing. are you coping. Okay how has news been hitting you lately. Well i mean there's so there's a there's upside downside for having covered the apocalypse speed for thirty years you know The downside is i've covered the apocalypse. Beat for thirty years. The upside is that. I have you know a little bit of a harder skin. Perhaps than some. But i've also learned to set of skills for coping with the bad news and the farther i go into understanding. What's going on around us now. Actually the more enthusiastic and optimistic. I i i feel. I think there are lots of reasons to feel like the best is yet potentially to come right. It's not too late and the best future. We can still win is better than what we have now. So it's a mixed bag. I guess you know are alternating between apocalyptic despair and enthusiasm for the new. I'm excited for
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Can Toronto Police Itself out of a Homelessness Crisis?
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Leilani fara is a former un special reporter on the right to housing. She is currently the global director of the shift which is a movement to secure the right to housing. So the perfect person to talk about what's going on in toronto recently. Hello alani hi there. Thank you for taking the time. Maybe we could just start for people outside of toronto and people who haven't been following it. Tell me about how the city has been handling encampments of an housed people that have formerly at least existed in parks across the city. Yes so with. The pandemic came actually a significant increase in the number of people living in parks across the city of toronto actually across canada. But we're talking about toronto. So i'll keep. I'll keep my comments there. And there are a number of reasons for that but one of them was of course the downsizing of shelters because of the social distancing rules that were part of the prescription to Try to curb the pandemic and so you know. Big shelters became smaller shelters. So let's say there were thirty beds. It might have gone down to fifteen beds. Hundred beds might have gone down to thirty beds and with nowhere to go. A lot of people ended up in parks. There are other reasons as well. As the pandemic ruled on it became increasingly clear that congregate or you know settings where a lot of people reside were becoming Hotbeds of Spread of covert and so a lot of people. Were thinking wait. I think i'm better off even though as really tough living. It's actually some of the living in parks. I actually might survive in a park. Whereas i may not in a shelter and of course we all know. Shelters are really hard places to live at the best of times so so toronto. The city of toronto saw this steep increase in the number of people living in parks and many parks park cats and bigger parks across the city.
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"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"To do something in a way you know in in the face of the people won't to know what to do and musk kind of gifts in the very simple strategy for people. Very simple way of doing something than by doing it. You feel if you are in control of the situation so that that's what what what. We call risk ritual. If that's one of the reasons that people do it and you know some of the other reasons are just to feel better about yourself to feel like you're protecting others. Why has it in the west. Become such a cultural flashpoint digital of spanish food undertake. 'cause i read some of the historical document saying in in the us for example during the time in some cities them strong religious tons of protests from southern group of people. Arguing the monetary. Musk wearing is something against civil liberty. I think we we see the debate here in the in europe on the four even stronger in in america somehow coveting part. Obea face become politicized some some somehow kind of connected to people value orientation their liability feels like you know the face symbolize something very important in something almost fundamental people's cut buddy in the west almost like in a couple of your face. You know symbolized sensible operation you know and that i can see kind of division the political line in the west in general i think in in the in the useful part i i don't live in the us. So i don't have fast kind of hunt experience. As far as i see through the media feels liking boy in the left pre sensory election. Musk become a symbol of different ideologies. The big story will be back in. Just a minute as this. Pandemic drags on Until like a year and a half now and it looks like in many parts of the world. it's going to continue for at least a a good deal longer. Until vaccination gets everywhere are masks becoming more normalized to the point. Where and this is one of the reasons we wanted to talk to you and have this discussion to the point where they will remain as part of the culture if not worn all the time like are are we getting used to them and what will it take for them to just become a part of lives. The way they are in japan. I think it the loan dependent prolong I think that is more likely to stay. Musk willink in the western culture. But for example now in you know in england mark wedding if no monday three it's not required by the law but little people think still willing to keep winning it especially in the local businesses you know won't customer to wear inside the building public transport so i think still because of the fear of inflation. Inflation rate is still high on increasing. People are still willing to wear frontally. But i don't know how long stays on when pandemic ends. I think because the musk wedding. It's almost like a symbol of restriction kind of not wearing must may symbolize end of the pandemic people may feel you know Keeping that way but yeah this. This is difficult to predict. But because in the history. Musk wedding quickly disappeared after spanish flu pandemic i think he made disappear but i think he may be a slowly if the pandemic continue longer from a sociological perspective. If we here in the west wanted mask wearing to stick around you know out on transit or during flu season and that kind of thing if we wanted to make it less of a culture war issue and more of just a common thing. How would we do that. What kind of messaging would work. I think he'd have to miss it have to come from you know scientists. 'cause i think one of the reason you know. The government in the western countries started to encourage people do must despondent is actually changing. Scientific convinces. there are probably the more likely food in the western countries. You know maybe each national government may inc encourage musk wearing in public spaces or you know the public transport in the next flu season. Something because now scientific community after the saying must eat effective to prevent you know a split of flu like disease. So yeah the last question. What do people in japan. Think of the way masks of become so politicized in especially the united states but also in other western countries like it must seem a little bit absurd to them Many people after they didn't know in musk wedding wasn't comb in the west in fee by speak to you know who they were surprised. Or you know why why people the wedding muskie the west. They didn't know must wasn't worn in the west. For then that makes sense why the infection rates are for high. You know in england or you know other countries and the many many of my friends independent kind of keep tend to say. Oh you know. In england in the uk eventually so high. Maybe they should be mask. Festival thinks so in a way once they knew musk wedding wasn't practice in the west and those countries are high impatient. Many of my japanese friends tend to think all device doing better because we are wearing masks kind must became a reason of a japanese puzzle. Success will i envy the places where it is not a big deal and everybody just wears it a. Nobody has to talk about professor horry. Thank you so much for this conversation. Well my doctor mitsukoshi horry shumate university. That was the big story for more head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. Talk to us on twitter at the big story f. p. n. Send us lengthy thoughtful emails at the big story. Podcast all one word at our doc. Rogers dot com and of course. Download this podcast. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow this podcast. Like this podcast rate. It and review it and your favorite podcast player. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
Will We Still Use Masks When All the Mandates Expire?
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Dr mitsukoshi hori is a professor of schumann university in japan. He's currently working at its overseas campus chaucer college and canterbury in the uk. He has a phd in sociology and has studied the history of mask wearing in japan. Hello professor horry. Hello hi before. We talk about eastern versus western views on the practice of mask-wearing. Maybe you could just go way back and explain. When did public mask wearing for health reasons originate. Yes three shows. It's only tonight's in the west. The practice of muscle building was by the carey out in the especially medical institutions across the west also in japan. I think the musk willing was popularized during the spanish flu onto make then i think public. Musk willing encouraged in the west Both in europe on the north america in the case was a ban it was introduced to the japanese authorities during the time at the practice commodity carried out in the in the west. Then his authority impetus Japan so that was kind of the footage of mosque wearing and after that pandemic past. Where did the practice remain in. Where did it vanish. It remained in japan. But somehow it's disappeared in north america and europe and i stood on though why disappears. So that's the kind of you know the big mystery. Probably we need further research on will and that's
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"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Good enough job. That's a great answer and may be Lastly just to ask you to put your reporting to the side and focus on what you just said. Why do you think that hasn't happened yet. Why do you think this has never really made an impact in terms of the average canadian voter demanding better from their military. Well i think you know. The military has often appeared to act. Right you look at operation honor as much as it didn't seem to work. It looked like the military was doing something. And so i think it sort of brought attention back away from it another thing that i would say and you told me to sort of set my reporting aside but but something that i learned through the process of trying to understand all this Extremely extraordinarily complicated. It's really complex. It's a really hard to understand system because it's parallel to the civilian system in so many ways but there are key differences that that proved to be really Really consequential in terms of the confidence people have in it and to understand the differences to understand what needs to happen to change it. It's it's no small feat. And i think that it can be difficult for the public to latch onto some of this kind of more systemic stuff as an issue like i say it's possible to decide to be interested in this but you have to do quite a bit of work to understand it and i guess that's where my pessimism comes from well. I hope this conversation helps. Some people understand it. It certainly helped me. Thank you so much daniel. Thank you marie. Danielle smith of mcclain's. That was the big story. You can find more at the big story. Podcast dot ca. You can find us. Tweeting away at the big story f. Pin you can email us if you're sad or mad or happy or whatever where league story podcast all one word at dodgers dot com. You can also find us in your favorite podcast player. Literally all of them. We're there you can find us in your smart speaker as well just asked to play. The big story podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Here is how much of the population is going to get vaccinated the big story. We'll be back in just a minute in terms of what happens next as the restrictions. Hopefully stay on the case numbers. Hopefully stay low. Do we know if there are any plans in place for dealing with a potential spike has premier. Kenny talked at all about what he'll do. And what restrictions. He's prepared to put back in place if any If they become necessary. I haven't heard much kenny. In that regard i know the city of edmonton itself. Where i'm where i'm from has said that. They're ready to implement masks again. If cases start shooting up they're ready to take some of their own action. But i think a lot of people are are banking on the fact that vaccines are gonna are gonna take us out of this. What about individual businesses. I know you can't obviously speak to all of them. But one of the things that is currently on the agenda as we move into stage three of reopening in ontario is which businesses will require proof of vaccination which businesses will continue to demand masks. Be worn even after a provincial mandate goes away and those kind of questions What does that look like. Alberda there is a a discussion. I think just publicly about the idea of vaccine passports. I mean i haven't heard anything official from any any business or anything like that when it comes to masks. It's more of a a societal thing i mean. It's i did a story last week. Where i went to a mall just on a tuesday afternoon and just counted. How many people were wearing masks and honest semi busy mauled on a tuesday afternoon. About three quarters of the people about seventy seventy five percent of the people. I would say we're wearing masks. Even though they weren't legally required to so. I think i think society there's still this pressure on folks to still maybe wear their masks a little bit especially if they're in indoors in a smaller smaller business. Tell me what it was like. Just to be in a crowded mall again For that amount of time. I think lots of us have probably had dreams either positive. Dreams are anxiety dreams about what it would be like to be in a public space like that again. it was a little nerve wracking. I'll admit i wore my mask when i was in there just because i feel almost naked without a now and To be in a mall with a with a lot of people around you do you are a little nervous just knowing obviously the pandemic is still out there in some form or another but on the other hand. It's it's nice to see folks back out in public again. It shows you that Life is slowly but surely returning to some kind of old normal. I want to ask you about the psychology of mask. Wearing you. know when it's not mandated. Some people still are. You said you would feel naked without. That's a really interesting thought. Explore that a little bit. It's like your keys. I mean when you leave the home you kind of pat down your pockets to make sure you have your keys and your wallet and your phone and the mask has just become one more thing for me. Now that i remember. I keep it on my door handle on my front door to so i never forget it when i when i walk out the door and that's after sixteen over sixteen months. That's been ingrained in my brain to like instinctually grabbed my mask as soon as i leave the door and now that i don't need it it's it's weird to forget it you know. Do you think it'll be something of a cultural issue as we go forward in terms of people who proudly refuse to do it and people who are and i've heard other people say this you know i do it as a sign to the people around me that you know i care about them and i'm protecting them 'cause i don't know if they're vaccinated. What's that dynamic gonna be like In alberta which is especially in the cities which are an equal split of conservatives and liberals i think as the years weeks months and years go on. I think that it'll just become less and less and less than a won't be such a political statement to wear or not wear a mask i mean. Obviously we're still kobina still in the front of our minds and so i think it'll take maybe a year or two before masks aren't really a part of society. I know myself included in some other people. I've spoken to just in my personal life have said things like. I don't like wearing a mask in the summer but in the wintertime. I probably will wear one because it's cold and be because that's flu and cold season normally as the wintertime. What are the stories that you'll be looking to cover over the next few weeks as you know hopefully alberta's just alberta again and not under restrictions. Well i'm excited. To see live shows comeback. I know the fringe festival here. In edmonton which is one of our most popular and largest festivals. The fringe theatre festival has announced. They'll be back near the end of august. It'll be a different looking festival smaller. But again it's sign that life is returning back to edmonton. So i think i'm looking forward to openly covering edmonton as a summer city because that is the best time to be in the city in terms of events and weather and stuff. That's going on dorsey. Thank you so much for this as a pleasure to talk to you. It's nice to hear from a place that has dropped her restrictions. And i'm knocking on wood for you but it's been two weeks. Things are still looking. God i hope i hope they continue to trend downward and this is over sooner than later. Darcy rob china city news edmonton. That was the big story for more from us. Head to the big story. Podcasts dot ca. Talk to us on twitter at the big story f. p. n. or email us the big story podcast one word all lower case at rci dot rogers dot com. And make your way to your favorite podcast player. You're actually probably already there. You probably already do follow or subscribe or whatever to this podcast but we wanna make sure you help other people do it to thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Sort of let the afghanistan story drift off the map as a canada's involvement and it and i had not thought about the people who worked with us that were left behind at all. While i think a lot of us are are in that same boat. Because quite honestly i wasn't in the forefront of my mind but i will tell you that as recently as as yesterday i've had my fellow veterans ratio to me and say. Hey we saw your piece on c. tv news Interpreters sent me an email. He's still stuck in kansas city How how can we help these people out so from grassroots level from my former soldiers that i've worked together with Former supervisors my peers has been Strongly supportive has anybody in government aside from your mp who initially reached out to you engaged. On this. i don't think so from my perspective. I got a message by email from my own member of parliament in Just a a message of support For for my efforts to help my The most recent that. I was hoping but other than that. No not that i've seen and lastly just asking you to speak only for yourself again. Why do you think we've left these people behind. It doesn't seem to mesh with the talk. We talk. I guess about canada's involvement overseas. And what we do over there. Well i think we kind of from an institutional standpoint just viewed interpreters may be a bit as a as a as a resource We were in afghanistan. We use the interpreters. And i think because not a lot of our public understands exactly what we were doing in afghanistan or exactly how earned has helped us Didn't seem like a big issue during during the war For a while. That was quite a lot of support. Red fridays everything. Like this and then that sort of waned as people got into other things and forgot about it and because the interpreters really only ever You know interacted with us. Who were there. And then we came back and from the government in population perspective. What we're back. We're safe a great survived. The war but We as a military folks and including those still serving the commanders of the missions. I guess it never considered it as part of the plan to exit afghanistan. And i really think we to the detriment of people that gave a lot for us. We overlook them institutionally mark. Thank you for this. And i hope your campaign starts getting subtraction. I hope so happy to have folks like you supporting it and getting the word out so that our public understands some what happened over there lieutenant. Colonel mark popoff. That was the big story for more head to the big story. Podcast dot ca. Find us on twitter at the big story. Fbn talk to us anytime you want by email. The big story. Podcast all one word at rci dot rogers dot com. And of course every podcast player has our show in it. You can like us. You can follow us. You can subscribe to us. You can listen to the podcast actually and you can tell a friend because that's what helps this show grow. Thanks for listening. I'm jordan heath railings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"The weather story How do you feel about that It's i think we're kind of reaching these temperatures that you know. It's really not light anymore. I mean forty nine point five is just really hard to fathom and you know initially when blatant broke on earlier record a few days before that i think it was sort of mid forties So you know it's kind of like all right. We're getting into hot territory crazy but see i once he kinda hit that forty nine point five. I think you know there is that seriousness to it. You know that's it's crazy to imagine and that sort of life threatening temperatures really. I mean here in vancouver We had a heatwave and we're learning that seniors who lived alone without air conditioning passed away because of that. So i think it's a big wake up call that you know hot temperature is Really no joke especially when we're reaching these temperatures that are record breaking is just a wakeup call almost Yeah it's no joke. Monica thanks so much for your reporting on this end sharing it with us. Thank you thank you for having me. Monica google city news and news eleven thirty. That was the big story for more from us including the episode. I mentioned about the heat wave. You can go to the big story podcasts. Dot ca you can find us on twitter at the big story f. pin and you can email us the big story podcast all one word all lower case oral upper case doesn't really matter at rci dot rogers dot com. Find us in your favorite podcast player like us. Follow us subscribed to us. Whatever your favorite podcast player wants you to do and remember if you really liked this podcast. Tell a friend. That's how we grow. Thanks for listening. On jordan heath rawlings. We'll talk tomorrow..
The Big Story
Meet the Invasive Species Rampaging Through Ontario Forests
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story david. Uk vetch is the entomology technician at the invasive species center. Hey david fellow. Can you start just for the folks like me who haven't really thought about this problem until it reached a critical mass. I guess what are these. Moths that we're talking about today. Well they're a moth that has been in ontario for a number of years now almost forty years now however a lot of people don't really recognize them more or see them too often until they get to these larger outbreak status. We have had about three or four Sort of larger outbreaks since nineteen eighty five nine hundred ninety one as well as in two thousand and two. They were all outbreaks over One hundred thousand hectares of defoliation to put some of that into perspective. One hectare is equal to about the same size as the soccer field. So that's a large area That has been defoliated by these gypsy moth species. It's a type of lep adopter or a type of moth and butterfly and this moth has come over from. Europe was brought over by a french scientist and he was basically trying to mate are native silkworms species With this gypsy moth in order to try and create a new species that can produce silk. So that's really what how the moth got here. And why became a problem is because that scientists at the moth got away from him and started many issues in the massachusetts area and is slowly expanded from there
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"Were celebrating. Canada day. you know. i've i've been. I've been doing a lot of googling and researching and actively trying to read and i. I looked up the history of canada day. And it's sort of was shaped and reshaped around indigenous inclusion immigrant inclusion. You know governments leaders time and time again wanted to create this beautiful day of celebration of all the very different facets of canadian community and by doing so they inadvertently. And i can't say whether they did this consciously on income or unconsciously but they suppressed history you know. They didn't talk about genocide. They didn't talk about displacement. They didn't talk about Injustices that that this country has also done to the very communities. A candidate was designed to celebrate. And i wanted to bring this. It's not just indigenous communities right. The part of the problem is there's so much i recently learned that july first is also the the chinese exclusion act was passed in canada in nineteen twenty three and this was the act that prevented families from being reunited while fathers and husbands slaved and died on the railroad indigenous communities. Were the ones that took these chinese workers in and healed them and gave them community indigenous. People have have been sort of supporting all the communities behind the scenes. And we don't know it. Not a single person is named citizenship. Guide or in our school textbooks. So i i'm not seeing. Don't be a proud canadian. I'm saying being proud. Canadian means recognising that. Unfortunately we live in a land that is inherently flawed. The entire founding of it was flawed. Its entire history was flawed and we don't even know the half of it. That was fatima site before that. We heard from donovan bennett and i. We heard from either jewel. Whose an associate fellow at the yellow head institute and initial lakeway from dash kenzi bing chippewas of the thames first nation. That was the big story. Thank you for listening to those stories. I hope you think about them today. And every candidate from now on you can find us as always in your favorite podcast player. You can talk to us anytime on twitter at the big story f. p. n. Thank you for listening. I'm jordan heath rawlings the big story. We'll be back on monday..
The Big Story
"jordan heath" Discussed on The Big Story
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story i today. We welcome either. Ju an associate fellow at the yellow head institute. Eva is initially bakeware from desch. Kenzi chippewas of the thames. First nation. you've let's just start with this. What if anything has candida day historically meant to you well. It's always been a day of celebration for a settler colonial state that has never included me or my community or indigenous peoples more. Broadly and i've never celebrated canada day. So i was raised by my parents as inish knob. A on. my mother's side in an ongoing way on my father's side and my dad was very adamant that we are not citizens of the state but in fact were members of our pre existing nations and so things can today was not really in our family celebrations. And it actually wasn't until nineteen fifty that first nations people were even granted canadian citizenship. So candidate hasn't really ever been Something that i don't think anyway in my immediate family and circle has been celebrated and canadian citizenship by need to remind folks is not actually something that our leaders even desired at the time. It was something that was a. It was an involuntary enfranchisement to the state because our leaders had always asserted that we are nations. So what does the tone of canada day celebrations feel like to you. Then as you've them in years past. I've always thought as kind of a celebration of you know a country that i guess it does do a lot of narration that it's a great country that it's a human rights leader on the international stage that it's this great country of freedom in multi-culturalism and i see that folks celebrate that of course but of course as we know in as we are coming to know these past few weeks that canada has been very good at hiding the truth of its genesis. Do you think that there is enough reflecting going on amongst canadians that that the day might be different this year. Or you know. Is there too much momentum behind to use your excellent way to put it the narration of what we are as a country for it to change. I hope canadians are using this time to deeply reflect on the true origins of this country. And what it took to clear out the land and make waiver. The so-called canada and the truth isn't took the genocide of indigenous nations to create the country. That folks are enjoying celebrating today. And i do see that there are some canadians. Who are taking the day to either wear orange shirts or reflect on meaningfully on on what indigenous peoples are currently grieving in mourning. There are also a faction of canadians. Who are very aggressively going. Forward and celebrating it and and maintaining that nothing has been nothing wrong happened in that all of this was in the ancient past or the people who enacted the genocides are were of their time or that. They are not directly responsible for it. So why should they cause on. While we mourn and i think for those canadians who are moving forward and celebrating it. Is those canadians. Whose apathy that. The canadian government actually uses to leverage their inaction on many of them meaningful changes that indigenous peoples are calling for. So i think it's all a part of the design of canada is to have loyal citizens to to be not particularly affected by our genocide in our trauma. What could we do to use this date to really look in the eye. Everything that we've realized are everything. Some people i guess have realized about this country over the past few months. Is there a way to mark the day With respect and soro and an eye to a better candidate if that doesn't sound too preposterously hopeful. I think canadians who are attentive to the tragedies The ongoing violence are still going to gather. Because it's a day off right and of course they have a heart and they can read a room and they might not be celebrating with canadian flags and they may be wearing warned. You're wearing black. And if that's you there are many things that you can do to make it a meaningful day of gathering. You can just at least talk about the fact that over a thousand digits. Children's graves have been located in the last month. So just talking about it in a moment when we shouldn't be silent about it is meaningful as well but there's also a space where you can move to where there's action. Perhaps that day is thinking about contacting your mp or drafting a letter choosing a particular call to action. That you think is important in asking your mp to act on it or tacked on all of them you can just think about. How do you benefit from indigenous erasure in west your role in in canada today. What does the future like. Where indigenous peoples have equity jurisdiction. What does the future look like when we can actually celebrate such a day and it's been pointed out recently that canadians spend an average of ninety one dollars a year on fireworks for candidate. And if you're not purchasing fireworks maybe you can donate the ninety one dollars two in indigenous. 'cause one i think is really important right. Now as indigenous are sort of the indian residential school survivors society you can donate to your local indigenous organization of relies on oftentimes government funding or For seeks donations. So there's.
The Big Story
What Stories Should We Tell on Canada Day?
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story i today. We welcome either. Ju an associate fellow at the yellow head institute. Eva is initially bakeware from desch. Kenzi chippewas of the thames. First nation. you've let's just start with this. What if anything has candida day historically meant to you well. It's always been a day of celebration for a settler colonial state that has never included me or my community or indigenous peoples more. Broadly and i've never celebrated canada day. So i was raised by my parents as inish knob. A on. my mother's side in an ongoing way on my father's side and my dad was very adamant that we are not citizens of the state but in fact were members of our pre existing nations and so things can today was not really in our family celebrations. And it actually wasn't until nineteen fifty that first nations people were even granted canadian citizenship. So candidate hasn't really ever been Something that i don't think anyway in my immediate family and circle has been celebrated and canadian citizenship by need to remind folks is not actually something that our leaders even desired at the time. It was something that was a. It was an involuntary enfranchisement to the state because our leaders had always asserted that we are nations.
The Big Story
What Does the Future of Money Look Like?
"Jordan. Heath rawlings is the big story. Michael doyle is a freelance reporter and journalist based in toronto who examined the future of money in canada for the globe in mail. Hi michael jordan. Can you start us off. Just because it's such a useful way to think about this. At least i found it useful by telling us the story of money on the island of yap certainly Yup is a tiny island. That is now part of micronesia in the south pacific and for hundreds of years. They had a very unusual form of currency and that was these gigantic limestone rocks and the bigger they were the more valuable they were and also of course the bigger they were the more difficult they were to actually physically exchange with each other so over time they Just left the rocks where they were and In order for them to figure out who owned which rock which note of currency for lack of better term. They created basically a form of a ledger. And in the form of an oral history of who owned each rock and how the rocks transacted from person to person on the island and so that's how they effectively did business. That's how they exchanged Goods and services for hundreds of years. Now tell me how that relates to wear. Our use of money is heading certainly It's actually a really great analogy. Because in one example it sort of captures a snapshot of what money has been for hundreds if not thousands of years since the since we came up with the idea of money however long ago that was And at the same time it also short sort of shows us where technology is going to change money in the near future so the question of what money is a really weird thing. it's kind of like a philosophical rabbit hole. You go down but at it. Sort of core form money is
The Big Story
B.C. Has a Blueprint to Save Its Oldest Forests
"Jordan heath. This is the big story. Sarah fox is the bbc investigative reporter for our friends at the narwhal. Sarah hi how are you doing. I'm doing really well. how about you. i'm well thanks ya do. You want to explain as we get started for people who don't live anywhere near bc. And i've never seen it. What is old growth forest. Exactly and What does it look like sure. So old growth forest. There's kind of the the official definition. And then there's a y you think of when you hear the words old growth for us so the official definition is that on the coast where where the growing season is longer in tends to be wetter. That trees that are older than two hundred and fifty years are considered to be old growth in other parts of the province. It's trees that are one hundred and forty years old. But i think when when people think of old growth imagine those kind of icon ick photographs of these enormous cedar. Douglas fir trees that are as tall. Skyscrapers in is wide as a boss. The the old growth forest because the trees are so large the kind of the light filters through them in a different way they're draped in mosses and lichens and just kind of fallen logs. Over centuries have become nurse logs for for other trees but the the will growth force are much more than the trees. Of course there. Hot spots for bio-diversity their home to all kinds of species including a species at risk of extinction that to depend on these forests on the interior of b. species like a caribou on the south west mainland part of bc. We've got the spotted owl here on the island and other areas. We've got the marbled murrelet bird and of course these old forests are huge stores of carbon and they filter water. They have many many environmental
The Big Story
Why Hiring Canadians With Disabilities Is a Competitive Advantage
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Katie lafferty as a producer on employable maecenas season. Four of which launches today wednesday. June ninth at eight pm eastern on tv. Hey katie hi there. Thanks for joining us. Why don't you start on. Because i am kind of ashamed to admit. I didn't know the show existed until i learned about season four and and i've watched a couple episodes now and it's really insightful. And i just i guess. I'm glad that it's a hit now. But i want to know where the idea came from at the beginning and what you guys were trying to achieve absolutely so. I think it was fine years ago that we started in development on this series. And it's actually a bbc format series that we brought over to canada with a m. I and so you know. I think the main focus of the series Were were following people with disabilities and neurological conditions. Who are trying to enter the workforce all of our job seekers have unique talent and abilities but have had a really hard time getting their foot in the door and so the real purpose of this series is to educate employers in the general public on. What is a very untapped job market of of people who could bring so much to the workforce can you give me some examples of how Underappreciated and underemployed employed people who are neuro divergent or people with disabilities are absolutely. I mean i think. I noticed it the most when i started casting for this show. It was one of those situations where i thought okay. Let's let's see if we can pass this show. who knows. It's a really really interesting and important concept but are we going to be able to find job seekers who really fit the description
The Big Story
Trudeaus Liberals Promised to End the Blood Ban
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Justin length is an investigative reporter. The canadian journalist who has been covering the blood banned for how long now just Like six years. Maybe longer many many enough years too many years i think. Why don't we just start at the beginning For people who heard this of like a talking point in a political fight over the last decade or so. How old is the blood band. And where did it come from right so you you go back about four decades in and you've fair confronted with the really disquieting reality of the blood of the tainted blood scandal right. You had cases the hundreds of cases across the country Where folks received blood transfusions that were not adequately screened that ultimately led to sero conversion for hiv that ultimately impacted them With other new hepatitis diseases as well as other infectious diseases And it was a national scandal. It was absolutely shattered. People's illusions about the blood system a better health system right it. It it fundamentally you know weakened trust in a meal what governments ought to be doing to ensure the health and safety of people who rely on government services so you go back to that point and you realize the sort of risks inherent in what protecting the blood supply you know actually means and unfortunately from that you know there was a good thing came from that. Which was we actually had a conversation about what Ensuring safety of the blood supply actually means but on the flip side you also started to see This really sort of reactionary and knee-jerk blame placed on the queer community in canada. Who of course have historically faced higher hiv rates of that other
The Big Story
What Does Pride Look Like in Small-Town Canada?
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Sheltering is the co director producer and editor of a new dock from extra called small town fried facial jordan. Before we get into the details. Maybe just tell me. Which small towns did you guys go to absolutely so we went to taber alberta Which has a population of about nine thousand people We also visited annapolis royal in nova scotia and they have a population of about five hundred people and Our last location was in norman wells in the northwest territories and they have a population of about eight hundred people. This documentary is fascinating And i love the idea behind it and we're going to get into the specifics of where you went and what you saw. But can you just start by explaining in general what is so fascinating and meaningful about pride in small town. Canada so My partner of twelve years Grew up as a closeted queer teen in the mid nineties. Much like myself Only she grew up in a small town nestled in the also in the ottawa valley This would have been in the mid nineties when You know the internet and gsa's and all of that good stuff. wasn't readily available to us and In two thousand eighteen her small town Called smiths falls celebrated their first Pride event. I think it was about fifty. People may be that what walked down their main street with their rainbow. Flags and Her mom was there and she got very emotional. And i asked her if she was okay and she said i just never thought i would see this happen. here in my small town
The Big Story
Does Your Home Have Dangerous Levels of Radon?
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Declan keogh is a reporter at the investigative journalism bureau which combined with toronto star on this investigation. Hey declan hi how are you. I'm great. thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Why don't you start with some basic science and explain what is right on Rate on a naturally occurring gas The comes from the breakdown of uranium in soil. Its presence across the globe when it's outside it just kind of dissipates into the air and when it's in your house it gets trapped inside. How does it end up in homes in the first place. It comes from the ground often through the foundation whether it's cracks in the foundation or newer foundations. It just it just comes up out of the ground. We'll get into the details of this in just a second. But what does it do to somebody Living a house over you know decades or a life span With high levels of radon. I think it depends But but the general consensus is. It is the second leading cause of lung cancer in canada. it gets in your lungs it. It messes with your dna and If you're unlucky it can turn an lung cancer which is of course the deadliest form of cancer. So that's the main thing It it levels. And and the length of time all play into it lifestyle but there's estimates that for an increase of one hundred. Becquerels per meter cubed which is the unit they measure the in It can increase your your risk of lung cancer by sixteen percent. wow how did this story start For you guys. I guess it started with the data. You got your hand you want to sort of. Tell me the process here. Yes so I work at the investigative journalism bureau. And we're a pretty new nonprofit newsroom and were based at the school of public health at the university of toronto
The Big Story
What Happened to the Wage Subsidies the Government Gave Businesses?
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Patrick breath our is the tax and fiscal policy reporter at the mail and he along with several of his colleagues worked on this investigation. Hey patrick jordan. I for those who didn't encounter it during the pandemic. Can you just explain what the emergency wage subsidy is. It's the candida emergency wage. Subsidy is one of the big programs. In fact the biggest program that auto was rolling out to about this time last year to help a businesses as the pandemic release sent the economy into a tailspin. And the idea was rather than you know. Pay money to people after they had lost their job to try and keep them from losing their job in the first place by subsidizing their employers and the deal was if you keep people on staff the government will subsidize up to seventy five percent of their salary in order to avoid layoffs which businesses qualified for. That was kind of anybody who could apply pretty much. Everybody i mean the were. You know there's sort of were. Businesses added along the way So the very first duration of this was a very small subsidy only for small business that lasted about a week before an uproar pushed the government to lodge the the candidate emergency wage subsidy so any company then that could show that it had a thirty percent revenue. Loss for comparable period could qualify. And then once you've qualified you could get as they set up to seventy five percent of wages subsidized. Not just for employs. You might have laid off before in the company.
The Big Story
From the UK, a Glimpse of Canadas Future
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story ebony. Renee baker is a freelance canadian journalist. Living luckily for her she in london. England ebony rene joined in how you doing. I'm doing okay. But i bet given the news. I'm seeing coming out of london that you were doing better. Yeah i constantly. I'm feeling a bit ask. What's the word guilty. When i talked to my canadian friends and family because we definitely somehow at the beginning of the pandemic we were not in the best place but somehow we have ended up where we are actually going out and kind of enjoying life right now. So it's been good. Well that's what we're talking to you about today. Because i feel like we're about six weeks or so behind you so the real thing that i i wanna know is just. What's the first thing that you did upon a lockdown lifting. I mean the thing is. It's been such a and it's been the same in canada as well. Such a staggered approach to lockdown lifting don. I'm kind of like when did things open again. Like it was kind of like one role in lockdown. But i guess as of march things started to reopen slowly but surely honestly. I think the first thing i did was. Walk around to find a walk-in stay said an outdoor patio and find a spot. I wasn't really like i wasn't too optimistic. I wasn't booking tables because a lot of people were doing that ahead of the announcement that was meant to be made last month. So i wasn't optimistic and then i kind of credit so the first day things open so that was april twelfth. I found myself and my roommate just walking to find anywhere that would serve me alcohol much more expensive price that i have been drinking at home so i think that was definitely the first thing upon actually finding a place it was just like. Wow have not done this for like what. Maybe six months may be more.
The Big Story
Why Public Health Communications Are an Utter Disaster
"I'm jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Matt gurney is a columnist with tv ontario and with the national post he writes a newsletter called code. Forty seven which you can find on sub stack. Hey matt hey good here. thank you so much. if. I had to ask you to describe canada's public health communication during this pandemic in one word. What would you come up with bad. And if you allowed me more words and if this was not family friendly podcast i could add at least one qualifier before bed but for our purposes now bad will do what are the hallmarks of again just for everybody listening. Who who didn't get it from the insurer. We're not talking about specific policy today. We're talking about how that policy's been communicated To the public what makes for bad public communication. I think maybe it's easier to answer the question in the reverse what what makes for good bubba communication which is Clarity accessible language free of jargon are strong communicators. Whoever your chosen person is doesn't have to be the policymaker doesn't have to be the expert but there needs to be someone who's actually communicating the policy in a way that they are comfortable with it. I mean even if they're not themselves an expert there are. There are many good communication professionals in this country who who are not originally either by by workplace experience or education actually experts in the topic but they they learn they mastered so. I would say it's clarity. It's simple language. It is consistency. There are complications. Are come into it because we were. We live in a big diverse country right. And then you kind of have to figure out okay. Having communicated effectively english and french then we gotta go out and start getting these Messages out to people who are new canadians and speak other languages. But even in in the core official languages we have not been clear. We have not been consistent. We have not had effective communicators. Actually doing the job of the communication
The Big Story
How Will Babies Born During the Pandemic Meet the World?
"Jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Dr sherri madigan associate professor psychology. Department of the university of calgary she holds a candidate research chair in determinants of child development. Hello dr megan. thanks for having me. You are most welcome i will tell you. We got the idea for this episode. from a listener. Who wrote us with a question. Can i begin by asking you that question. Yes sounds great. So this is a listener unnamed. Diana who wrote that. I've had a baby during the pandemic and he is about to start daycare. He has not been held by anyone. Outside of our household no other adults have ever cared for him although my parents would have loved to help travel restrictions during the pandemic prevented them from visiting. I'm worried for what this means for his socialization. So should she worried. Well it's a really good question actually a common one so this has been a topic. I've been asked to actually speak on a few times. Because i know that parents are thinking a lot about this and worried i guess what i would say is that it is going to be a little bit difficult for kids to transition into a daycare environment. Because it's going to be so new and novel to them now. The reality is that kids always find it hard transition into a daycare environment because it's new and novel to them so that's not different than how life was pre pandemic but i think the big difference now when kids are are doing that switch over into day care is that they haven't had a lot of interaction with other people and they're going to be thrusted into an environment where everything is really really knew and the interactions are really new.
The Big Story
Canadas Vaccine Hunters Have Tips for Booking Shots
"On jordan heath rawlings. This is the big story. Josh calvin is a software engineer. But that's not why you know him. He is one of the people who developed the vaccine hunters twitter account and discord server and anything else. Josh facebook page facebook page. Where did this all start. Why and when and how. Yeah so vaccine hunters candidate started our creator. His name is andrew and originally he was just looking for to get his parents like a vaccine appointment and he was able to eventually do that but he realized that like this was really challenging to do and he's pretty computer savvy being a software developer so he found vaccine hunter dot org which is a website in the states and was doing a lot of vaccine awareness. They did a lot of like leftover vaccine things but he he founded. That would probably be something. We could use in canada regardless of how or vaccine rolex going or anything like that so he created vaccine hunters dot ca and also created the twitter account back centers can and created a discord servers. Well which is for those. That don't know what that is. It's kind of like a chatting tool similar to like an instant messenger. You might have at work with different chatrooms and things like that and that's how it really got started In the focus was on real time information Mainly around vaccine awareness where people could book appointments how they could book appointments and helping people book appointments. We do not hang around outside vaccine clinics or s health workers. We have zero tolerance for any of that behavior Looking for leftovers. Were trying to just help. Fill every possible slot with a vaccine. How long ago was that. That andrew started this He started at church so it hasn't really been that long. It's only been really maybe a month. Maybe just over a month at this point.