The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Canada will not send any official representatives to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February as part of a growing diplomatic boycott by allies over China’s record of human rights abuses.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on Wednesday after facing several days of questions over whether Canada would stand with allies that have already announced similar plans.

What took them so long and how is Beijing going to retaliate?

GUEST: Stephanie Carvin, Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University

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Joe Biden's big summit this week is not going to save the world for democracy.

But it will offer a glimpse into just how much the current government in the United States — and even Canada — is spooked by the real prospect of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Once upon a time, a U.S.-led summit on democracy would revolve around ways to export American-style values to shakier, less democratic nations abroad. But that was before the siege on Capitol Hill, which vividly demonstrated that democracy denial is now a real, ongoing domestic problem for the United States

Events since then, even with a new president in the White House, have only heightened worries about the health of the U.S. democracy. Over the past month, alarm bells have been sounding more regularly in the U.S. media about all the efforts under way to align the electoral system and voting rights for a Trump victory in 2024.

Read the full article HERE

GUEST: Susan Delacourt, National Columnist with The Toronto Star

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Canada's central bank has sent a warning that increases in the cost of living would continue into next year, but signalled it wasn't yet prepared to pull its key lever to rein in inflation.

The annual pace of inflation in October rose to 4.7 per cent, a pandemic-era high and the fastest year-over-year gain in the consumer price index in 18 years.

The Bank of Canada said high inflation rates will continue through the first half of next year, but should by the second half of 2022 fall back to its comfort zone of between one and three per cent.

GUEST: Moshe Lander, Senior Economics Lecturer with Concordia University

President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that the West would impose “strong economic and other measures” on Russia if it invades Ukraine, while Putin demanded guarantees that NATO would not expand farther eastward.

The two leaders held two hours of virtual talks on Ukraine and other disputes in a video call about U.S.-Russian relations, which have sunk to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War more than three decades ago, as Russia masses tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine’s border.

GUEST: Brian J. Karem, Political Commentator for CNN, Columnist for Salon.Com and The Washington Diplomat, and Host of the podcast "Just Ask the Question",

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Ontario’s COVID-19 science advisory table has released new projections that indicate cases are rising substantially, even without Omicron, and that vaccinating young children and increased public health measures are key to flattening the curve.

Vaccinations and reduced contacts are needed to keep pressure off the province’s hospitals. But so far, is not recommending any provincewide restrictions.

What do we know about the Omicron variant?

ALSO: Do we need more access to testing?

GUEST:  Dr. Peter Juni, Director of Ontario’s Science Table and a Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Toronto

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As Canada's spy agency warns that China's efforts to distort the news and influence media outlets in Canada "have become normalized," critics are renewing calls for Ottawa to take a far tougher approach to foreign media interference.

The warning is contained in briefing documents drafted for Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director David Vigneault in preparation for a meeting he had with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this year.

That meeting focused on the rise of foreign interference in Canada — something CSIS says has become "more sophisticated, frequent, and insidious."

GUEST: Phil Gurski, President of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting, Director of the University of Ottawa’s Security program, and former CSIS analyst

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If you see your favourite bottle of New Year’s bubbly or that special single malt you’ve been eyeing for your uncle for Christmas on the shelves, you might want to grab it now.

The LCBO, like almost every other retailer, says it’s been affected by supply chain woes caused by the global pandemic.

Those liquor shortages have been driving sales to local wineries.

GUEST: Aaron Dobbin, President of the Wine Growers of Ontario