Closer Look

It’s been 10 days since Barrie mayor Alex Nuttall declared a state of emergency over homeless encampments in his city — and communities across the province are watching closely to see how the situation unfolds.

“The mayors I'm hearing from are asking: ‘How's it going? How did you do it? What effect is it having?’ Nuttall said today, during an appearance on our Closer Look podcast. “The response has been very supportive...I think you'll continue to see more and more municipalities take the same approach that we are."

Along with declaring a state of emergency, Nuttall also sent open letters this week to Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Mark Carney, requesting provincial and federal help to tackle the “real and urgent” crisis facing his city.

On the podcast, Nuttall answered a wide range of questions about why the state of emergency was necessary, what it allows the city to do that it couldn’t do before, and what his team is specifically doing to help vulnerable people being evicted as encampments are dismantled.

“I've been very clear: if you want help and support in the city of Barrie, we want to provide it to you,” he said. “If you want to live in addictions and you want to live in encampments, we need you to find somewhere that accepts that, because we don't.”

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

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If you bought a loaf of bread sometime over the past 20 years — and really, who didn’t? — you’re entitled to some dough.

Claim forms are now open for the $500-million class-action settlement over the alleged price-fixing of bread products in Canada. 

Any Canadian resident who purchased packaged bread for personal use between Jan. 1, 2001 and Dec. 31, 2021 — including buns, rolls, bagels, naan bread, English muffins, wraps, pita and tortilla — is eligible for compensation. No proof of purchase is required.

Claims must be submitted before Dec. 12 at www.canadianbreadsettlement.ca.

How did we reach this point? Which grocery giants participated in this elaborate conspiracy to inflate prices and gouge customers? And how much money will you actually receive if you sign up?

Jay Strosberg has all those answers, and many more, on tonight’s episode of Closer Look. A Windsor-based lawyer at the firm Strosberg Wingfield Sasso, he launched the class-action lawsuit that ultimately led to the half-billion-dollar settlement with Loblaw Companies Ltd. and George Weston.

As Strosberg tells us, this is one of those shocking court cases worthy of a movie script.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

By every measure, our population of senior citizens is about to get a whole lot bigger.

According to Statistics Canada, the number of people aged 85 and older is expected to triple by 2073 — to as many as 4.3 million.

Not surprisingly, experts say the spike in elderly Canadians will put increasing pressure on many aspects of society, including the labour market and healthcare systems.

Joining us on Closer Look to break down all the data is Doug Norris, one of Canada’s leading experts on demographics.

Norris spent nearly 30 years with Statistics Canada — where he earned the nickname “Mr. Census” — and is now Senior Vice President and Chief Demographer at Environics Analytics.

He describes the expected surge in Canada’s senior population as “a bit of a sleeper issue that hasn’t received the attention we’re going to need to pay to it.”

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

Pete Hoekstra, the United States Ambassador to Canada, joined our Closer Look podcast last week for a wide-ranging discussion about trade, Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump’s musings about a 51st state, and a whole lot more. In case you missed it, the full interview is HERE.

Hoekstra defended the Trump Administration’s global tariff push, saying it’s a necessary step after some “not-so-bright decisions” that have contributed to America’s ever-growing deficit.

“It would have been negligent on the part of American leadership to not address the problems that we faced,” Hoekstra said on the podcast. “We had a long-term issue in terms of ensuring prosperity for the American people, a long-term issue with security and safety. And if the Canadians want to be mad about us addressing the internal issues that we had, they can do that.”

Despite the negative impact of Trump's new tariffs, Hoekstra was adamant that Canada still has the “best trade deal of any country in the world right now with the United States of America.”

“Everybody wants to blame everything on the tariffs,” he said. “The effective tariff rate of Canadian goods going into the U.S. — again, as outlined by your government, not the U.S. claiming something — is around 5.5 per cent. That's not a huge number. We had to do the stuff on steel, aluminum, copper and some of these types of things because the President wants our country to be secure, and we need the capability to produce those kinds of products in the United States.”

Hoekstra was asked about Canadian travellers who are choosing not to visit the U.S.

“I sometimes have a little bit of a hard time understanding this,” he said. “You have the best trade relationship of anybody in the world — the best trade tariff rate of anybody in the world — and in the coming days we're going to see that the process is going to evolve to reviewing the USMCA. Banning American alcohol? Does that help? ‘You know, we're not going to America.’ Does that help? Hey, those are decisions for Canadians on an individual basis to make. We're doing everything we can to strengthen this relationship, to grow this relationship.”

The full interview is HERE.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

Pete Hoekstra is Donald Trump’s U.S. Ambassador to Canada, which means he spends a lot of time answering questions about the pressing issue of the day on this side of the border: tariffs.

The President's musings about Canada becoming the 51st state? He’s had to answer for those comments, too — but Hoekstra insists that’s all behind us.

“I've told people I don't talk about it, so I'm not really going to talk about it with you either,” the Ambassador said during a wide-ranging interview on our Closer Look podcast. “I ask myself the question: ‘If we're talking about the 51st state, am I improving the prosperity of Americans or Canadians? Am I improving the safety or security of either one of our countries?' The answer is no.”

That topic aside, Hoekstra was very candid about a lot of other issues — including the close bond between our two countries, his relationships with Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and why the Trump Administration is all-in on tariffs.

“We had to do the stuff on steel, aluminum, copper and some of these types of things because the President wants our country to be secure, and we need the capability to produce those kinds of products in the United States,” Hoekstra said.

“You continue to still have a better tariff deal than any of these countries in the world today,” he continued. “Is there uncertainty? Yes, but it would have been negligent on the part of American leadership to not address the problems that we faced. We had a long-term issue in terms of ensuring prosperity for the American people, a long-term issue with security and safety. And if the Canadians want to be mad about us addressing the internal issues that we had, they can do that.”

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

Judgment day looms for Bonnie Crombie.

The Ontario Liberal leader faces a mandatory leadership review at the party’s annual general meeting this weekend, and it’s certainly not certain which way the vote will go.

Although Crombie has admitted to being caught off guard by Doug Ford’s snap election call — and faced criticism for making health care the centrepiece of her party’s platform — the Liberals did win enough seats to regain official party status.

We’ll know by Sunday night if the party faithful still have faith.

SEE: Should she stay or should she go? Liberals split on Bonnie Crombie ahead of vote

Joining us on tonight’s Closer Look podcast are two journalists from The Trillium who will be covering this weekend's Liberal get-together: Editor-in-Chief Jessica Smith Cross and reporter Steve Cornwell.

In case you missed it, tonight’s show also includes snippets from our recent interviews with both Crombie and Nate Erskine-Smith, a former leadership rival who has been very vocal about the need for a new voice at the top of the party.

VIDEO: Nate Erskine-Smith tells us why Bonnie Crombie needs to go

VIDEO: ‘I’m not going anywhere’: Bonnie Crombie tells us why she should keep her job

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

Here’s a sure bet: If you watch a sporting event tonight, you’re going to see a gambling ad. They’ve become ubiquitous ever since the Ontario government legalized sports betting across the province in 2022.

But doctors are sounding the alarm, warning parents that all those gambling commercials pose a major risk to children and teens.

“Such advertising insidiously normalizes a harmful activity, and children are being exposed, to their detriment,” reads an editorial in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. “Canadian jurisdictions should act to eliminate all commercials that promote sports betting during broadcasts where minors are likely to see them.”

Joining us on tonight’s episode of Closer Look is Dr. Shannon Charlebois, a family physician and editor who co-authored the editorial.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, and produced by Derek Turner, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

By every measure, violence is skyrocketing inside Ontario schools.

According to a survey released earlier this year by the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), nearly 75 per cent of education workers experience violent or disruptive incidents in their work area, with more than a third facing these incidents daily. 

Among educational assistants and child and youth workers, the numbers are even more alarming: 95.8 per cent — nearly every single one — say they experience violence at work.

Data recently released to Global News under freedom of information legislation was equally shocking: the level of violence reported by school boards to the Ministry of Education has risen by 77 per cent since Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives took office, with more than 4,400 incidents reported in the 2023-24 year alone.

This exclusive story from Sudbury.com, published just a few hours ago, is even more evidence of the crisis facing school boards across the province.

On tonight’s episode of Closer Look, we speak to two experts who understand the problem as well as anyone: Joe Tigani, the president OSBCU, and Darby Mallory, co-author of a University of Ottawa report titled ‘Running on Fumes: Violence, Austerity, and Institutional Neglect in Ontario Schools.’

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

Forty years later, it remains one of Canada’s most perplexing unsolved mysteries: What happened to Nicole Morin?

On July 30, 1985, the eight-year-old girl left her penthouse apartment in west-end Toronto to meet a friend for a swim. She was never seen again — and not a single piece of physical evidence linked to her disappearance has ever been found.

Earlier this summer, the Toronto Police Service marked the 40th anniversary of Nicole’s case by announcing a $50,000 reward for new information that leads to her location.

Police also released a new forensic age-progression sketch that shows what Morin could possibly look like today, at 48 years old. 

“This case is not closed,” Det.-Sgt. Steve Smith told reporters, standing outside Morin’s former building on the day of the anniversary. “It has never been forgotten, and it only takes one piece of new information to make that difference.”

On tonight’s episode of Closer Look, we are joined by two people who continue to hold out hope that someone will come forward with the elusive clue that will crack the case: Melissa Elaschuk, a childhood friend of Nicole who went on to become a police officer, and Amanda Pick, CEO of the Missing Children Society of Canada.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

Fresh episodes drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. right in your local news feed — and on the show’s dedicated website: closerlookpodcast.ca. Of course, you can also find us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

Want to be the first to know when a new episode lands? Sign up for our free nightly newsletter, which delivers the latest Closer Look straight to your email inbox. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? Please reach out. Our email address is [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott

Tonight on Village Media's 'Closer Look' podcast: One of the greatest curlers of all time stops by our house for a sweeping conversation about her legendary career and new autobiography.

One of the greatest curlers of all time is in our house tonight.

Jennifer Jones — six-time national champ, two-time world champ, Olympic gold medallist — is set to release an autobiography that promises to leave no stone unturned about her legendary career.

The book is called Rock Star: My Life On and Off the Ice, and it hits store shelves Aug. 26.

In advance of the book launch, Jones was kind enough to sweep aside some time in her busy schedule and chat with the hacks who host our Closer Look podcast.

If you’re a fan of Jennifer Jones, you’ll definitely want to hit the button on this video.

Hosted by Village Media’s Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith, Closer Look is a new daily podcast that goes way beyond the headlines with insightful, in-depth conversations featuring our reporters and editors, leading experts, key stakeholders and big newsmakers.

New episodes of Closer Look drop every Monday to Friday at 7 p.m. across the Village Media network, or wherever you find your favourite podcasts. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel or follow us on X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have something to say? You can reach us at [email protected].

Reach out to Frisco and Scott