The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

Police in Hamilton have arrested and charged a man from Cambridge in what they're calling an incident of hate crime against Muslims.  Police say a mother and daughter were walking through a plaza parking lot Monday night when a vehicle pulling out of a parking spot almost struck one of them.

Investigators say the interaction escalated, with the suspect uttering threats towards the victims while using racial slurs targeting the Muslim community.

This is the second attack against Muslims in a month. 

What concrete action is being done to fight Islamophobia?

GUEST: Fatema Abdalla, National Council of Canadian Muslims

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France, which has opened its borders to Canadian tourists, is eager to see Canada reopen to the French.

The Canadian border remains closed to foreigners, with a few exceptions, and will be until at least July 21. Ottawa has extended the closure, month after month, since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020.

At the French embassy in Ottawa Tuesday, the representative of President Emmanuel Macron’s government argued the Canadian border should be reopened to the French as soon as possible. Otherwise, the relationship between the two countries will suffer, Ambassador Kareen Rispal warned.

At Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent news conferences, he has said he understands everyone’s impatience but has noted, again and again, that the pandemic isn’t over.

GUEST: Sam Fazeli, Director of Research with Bloomberg Intelligence

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Ontario is lifting mandatory COVID--19 testing for fully vaccinated visitors, caregivers and staff at long-term care homes even as some facilities continue to battle outbreaks of the virus.

The new policy will take effect on Friday, the same day the province will lift public heath restrictions on other sectors as it moves to the third phase of its reopening plan.

Partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people will still need to be tested for COVID-19 before entering the homes.

GUEST: Dr. Amit Arya, Co-Founder of Doctors For Justice in Long Term Care and Palliative Care Physician

According to a study by the Ontario NonProfit Network, the sector is facing a financial crunch like never before. Even after taking into account existing relief programs, one-third of nonprofits were projecting pandemic-related losses in 2020-21 to exceed $100,000, with five per cent projecting losses to exceed $500,000. 

GUEST: Cathy Taylor, Executive Director of the Ontario NonProfit Network

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

More than half — 56 per cent — of Ontario would-be homeowners have given up or are pessimistic that they will ever own a home. A quarter of prospective buyers, who remain optimistic, are increasingly worried about their prospects.

An online poll of 2,000 Ontario residents for the Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) shows 45 per cent of potential buyers 18 to 29 years old have considered moving out of the province in search of more affordable housing. In the Toronto region, 26 per cent of all the residents polled have thought about moving in the last year.

Among Ontarians under age 45, 46 per cent of nonhomeowners and 34 per cent of homeowners have thought about relocating.

GUEST: Tim Hudak, CEO of OREA and former Conservative Party leader of Ontario

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Ottawa will continue sending humanitarian and development assistance to Afghanistan after the United States completes its troop withdrawal from the country next month, International Development Minister Karina Gould says.

U.S. President Joe Biden said last week the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan will end Aug. 31, nearly 20 years after the United States and its allies took down the Taliban government in Kabul.

On Friday, the Taliban claimed it now controls 85 per cent of Afghanistan's territory amid a surge in wins on the ground as American troops continue their pullout from the country.

The Taliban promised not to attack provincial capitals or seize them by force, and expressed hopes for a "political resolution" with Kabul.

Gould said she is concerned about the rise in attacks on humanitarian workers and the civilian population recently.

GUEST: Aurel Braun, Professor of International Relations and Political Science and Senior Member of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.

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A B.C. First Nation in the Southern Gulf Islands says more than 160 undocumented and unmarked graves have been found on the site of a former residential school within their territory.

The Penelakut Tribe issued a letter on Thursday saying the graves were found on the grounds of the former Kuper Island Indian Industrial School, which was located on what is now known as Penelakut Island between Vancouver Island and mainland B.C.

This school has been referred by survivors as “Canada’s Alcatraz”.

To date, the number of remains reported to be found across the country totals well over 1,000.

GUEST: Dr. Ken Coates, Senior Fellow of Aboriginal and Northern Canadian Issues with the Macdonald Laurier Institute