On April 11th, World Parkinson's Day at 10:00 am, the Petrie Family is going head-to-head in a Push-Up challenge on Facebook Live to raise funds for Parkinson's Disease. The family will be divided and led by Personal Trainers.

Tune in and donate money for a good cause and support one of the teams!

Click HERE to go to the website! 

GUEST: Kim Petrie, Organizer of Let’s Shake

In the wake of rapidly rising cases of COVID-19 in the Peel Region, Peel Public Health has shuttered schools for two weeks. However, data shows that this won’t necessarily reduce virus transmission in Peel. 

Unlike other areas, which were largely able to transition to remote work, Peel, particularly the workplaces surrounding Toronto Pearson Airport, is the heart of the Toronto region’s manufacturing and distribution sector, made up of essential warehouses and factories that have kept food on our tables and delivered goods to our doors throughout the pandemic. 

In fact, data from new research by the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s Economic Blueprint Institute, shows that the Peel Region has one of the lowest capacity for remote work in the entire Toronto Region with 53% of the 608,000 workers in that region needing to be on-site for work. The reality is that the people of Peel have taken on a disproportionate share of the risk of COVID-19 exposure, because the Peel region is where many of our essential workers live and work. 

GUEST: Marcy Burchfield, Vice President of the Economic Blueprint Institute

Thousands of federal Liberals gathered online Thursday night for the start of a three-day national convention that promises to be downright dull compared to similar events held by the Conservative and New Democratic parties.

And that suits Liberals just fine.

They hope Canadians will see a governing party focused on the serious policy issues of the day -- the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, climate change, the social safety net, systemic racism -- without any of the infighting or controversy that beset the Conservatives' convention last month and that threatens to similarly dominate the NDP's convention this weekend.

Priority policy resolutions up for debate and votes at the Liberal gathering include calls for a universal basic income, enforceable national standards for long-term care homes and a green economic recovery.

GUEST: Bradley Metlin, Consultant with Upstream Strategy Group

The Bill Kelly Sghow Podcast:

Ontario physicians have been urged to ration one of only two drugs known to reduce mortality in critically ill COVID-19 patients, a harbinger of what lies ahead for other provinces if the third wave keeps rising and Canada cannot secure more of the medication.

A shortage of the anti-inflammatory drug tocilizumab is just one of the challenges Canadian hospitals face as faster-spreading and more dangerous variants overtake older versions of the coronavirus. British Columbia, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Ontario all have more COVID-19 patients in their intensive care units than at any other time during the pandemic.

GUEST: Kelly Grant, Health Reporter for The Globe & Mail

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COVID-19 hospitalizations are climbing, younger patients are filling up intensive care units, and health care staff are in short supply. Jeff Semple reports from the front lines at Toronto’s Humber River Hospital, where variants of concerns are pushing facilities to the brink.

GUEST: Jeff Semple, Senior Correspondent for Global National

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Vaccine passports are already being used in other parts of the world. In Israel, a “Green Pass” that confirms vaccination status has become an essential passe-partout for daily life, allowing access to gyms, movie theatres, restaurants and other public spaces. Europe, which has fallen behind Canada in the race to vaccinate its population, is a testing ground for myriad new technologies that could be applied in much the same way.

Whether we like it or not, experts say, Canada will be pressured into coming up with a system to verify that Canadian travellers have gotten their shots. After decades of government failures in nationalizing and digitizing health data, the development of that system is all but guaranteed to be a logistical nightmare. Its potential applications in a broader post-pandemic world are ethically fraught. And we are already falling behind.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed Canada is among the countries considering a vaccination requirement for international travellers, as of early April. His health minister, Patty Hajdu, has called it a “very live” issue among G7 nations, and said there will need to be “some consistency and some collaboration” among the countries.

GUEST: Scott Gilmore, Editor-At-Large for Macleans and a Senior Fellow with the Munk School Of Global Affairs And Public Policy at the University of Toronto

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Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh and husband to Queen Elizabeth II, died at the age of 99 on Friday.

Philip was a pivotal figure in the British royal family. He was the longest-serving consort to a monarch in British history, having been in the role for more than 60 years.

GUEST: Redmond Shannon, Europe Correspondent for Global News

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A new survey suggests Canadians aren't very confident in the Canadian military's ability to change its workplace culture following reports of sexual misconduct and discrimination within the forces.

According to the latest survey from Nanos Research, just 13 per cent of Canadians are confident the Canadian Armed Forces can “change its workplace to be welcoming to everyone,” while 29 per cent are “somewhat confident” and 56 per cent are either not confident or somewhat not confident.

ALSO: Contradictions pile up in the federal government's approach to military misconduct.

GUEST: Christian Leuprecht, Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University Fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute