10/3: Canada Covered

An airplane crash in Iran that killed 176 people including 63 Canadians was likely brought down by a "surface to air" missile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says.

Dave is joined by Edmonton Journal reporter Dylan Short who has been covering the story. Edmonton was hit particularly hard by the crash with 27 of the dead coming from the city.

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How easy is it to get basic information from your local government?

According to an investigation by the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, not as easy as you might think.

The papers asked for what should be readily available information from more than 700 municipalities, and the results were somewhat lacking.

Andrea Hill joins Dave to talk about the project, what kind of information they were seeking, what roadblocks they hit, and why this matters.

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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney believes the future of conservatism lies in parties like Canada’s Tories moving away from promoting laissez-faire capitalism and instead embracing the growing “reform conservatism” movement in the U.S., which sees a role for government in addressing the challenges of people who have failed to get ahead even as the economy grows.

Dave is joined by National Post politics reporter Stuart Thomson.

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A former high-profile Vice Media music editor who recruited young musicians, models and a former Vice intern to smuggle huge loads of cocaine — hidden in their luggage — on flights to Australia was sentenced to nine years in prison, Tuesday.

Dave is joined by National Post crime writer Adrian Humphreys.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders were caught on video apparently making fun of U.S. President Donal Trump. 

Trudeau explained he had been talking to Princess Anne, French President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands about Trump’s announcement Tuesday that the next G7 summit in June would be held at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, rather than the Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami.

Trump called Trudeau "two-faced" in response.

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More than 200 former inmates have filed civil claims in court alleging they were sexually abused by retired B.C. jail guard Roderic David MacDougall over his 21-year career when they were teenagers or young men incarcerated for relatively minor crimes.

The plaintiffs claim the attacks left them angry and confused, often compounding pre-existing drug and crime problems, and spiralling them into even more difficult lives.

MacDougall has maintained his innocence.

Guest host Dharm Makwana is joined by Vancouver Sun reporters Lori Culbert and Dan Fumano.

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Alberta's United Conservative Party party government is facing growing discontent from public sector worker over the potential loss of thousands of jobs.

That is on top of blowback over a bill to fire Alberta's election commissioner who was investigating the UCP.

But premier Jason Kenney appears to be riding high after a party convention on the weekend.

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A man dumped a bucket of what police believe was liquefied waste — whether animal or human they aren’t yet sure — on a woman just after she left a U of T building on the south edge of campus, Monday.

It was the third feces attack on a Toronto campus in four days, all pulled off, police believe, by the same man.

Dave is joined by National Post reporter Richard Warnica.

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An undercover officer known only as "UCO Joe" infiltrated a circle of Canadian drug smugglers in 2013.

Eventually, the clues led "Joe" all the way to Mexico and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman, who in July 2019 would be sentenced to life by a Brooklyn judge for running a $14 billion empire, in the process becoming one of the world’s most notorious drug kingpins.

The RCMP noticed, too, that Canadians who entered El Chapo’s orbit kept ending up dead.

Brian Fitzpatrick wrote about the RCMP investigation for the National Post. He joins guest host Emily Jackson.

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In October 2016, a University of Toronto psychology professor named Jordan Peterson gave an impassioned speech to student protesters in front of Sidney Smith Hall. The events surrounding Peterson at the time would spark a larger discussion about free speech on university campuses across Canada that continues to this day.

It’s now a widely held belief that campus free speech is under threat from student protesters, campus organizations, and even university officials.

Josephine Mathias produced a documentary investigation into free speech on universities. She joins Dave to talk about what she found.

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