The defence at the murder trial of former Officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd rested its case Thursday, without putting Chauvin on the stand. Presenting a total of two days of testimony to the prosecution's two weeks.

Closing arguments are set to begin Monday morning.

Chauvin, 45, informed the court on the 14th day of trial that he would not testify, saying he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to take the stand. It would have been the first time Chauvin publicly told his side of the story.

GUEST: Thane Rosenbaum, CBS Radio Legal Analyst

The Bill Kelly Show Podcast:

The leader of Ontario’s NDP has formally requested that the auditor general review how the province designated certain areas as COVID-19 “hot spots” for prioritization in the vaccine rollout.

The call came from NDP leader Andrea Horwath, who says she's concerned the vaccine rollout has become "political" and shes concerned that the Ford government’s designations were “inequitable” and do not target the areas with the highest rates of infection.

GUEST: Andrea Horwath, Leader of the Official Opposition, Ontario NDP

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Essential workers who can’t stay home, need vaccination access and paid sick days to protect workers, their families and their communities from COVID-19.

Unifor is calling on provincial governments to expedite vaccination of all frontline workers who must attend their jobs in person.

Paid time off is also urgently needed for  workers who need to receive their shots during working hours.

GUEST: Jerry Dias, Unifor National President

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Nearly nine in 10 (88 per cent) small business owners say they hope the upcoming federal budget does not bring new tax increases or additional costs, as they lose ground on economic recovery amid growing uncertainty and a third wave of the pandemic, says the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB). Business owners also want to see the government articulate a plan for reopening the economy (72 per cent), payroll tax relief (65 per cent) and extended and expanded COVID-19 relief for small businesses (61 per cent).

The latest results on CFIB’s Small Business Recovery Dashboard show that:

GUEST: Corinne Pohlmann, Senior VP of National Affairs for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business

GUEST: Dave Scholz, Executive VP of Leger

The Ontario government, in partnership with the federal government, is launching the StaySafe™ COVID-19 Rapid Screening Pilot in the Waterloo Region.

The StaySafe program will provide free rapid antigen point-of-care tests for employees of small- and medium-sized businesses, with a target of 3,000 rapid tests conducted each week in the region. The program will help detect cases of COVID-19 in the workplace that might otherwise be missed, helping to keep workers and their families safe.

GUEST: Ian McLean, President of the Waterloo Chamber of Commerce