Front Burner

Hours-long lines, polling place closures, and voter roll purges are just a few of the ways that this upcoming U.S election is challenging voting rights in the country.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is also an unprecedented demand for mail-in ballots, adding many logistical challenges and complications to vote counting. Many voters are also concerned about the effectiveness of the post office.

Today on Front Burner, we explain voter suppression in this U.S election with CBC Washington correspondent Alex Panetta and CBC New York correspondent Steven D’Souza, and who is disproportionately affected by it.

On Tuesday, after the painful victim impact statements of 15 people, disgraced NXIVM self-help guru Keith Raniere was sentenced to what amounts to life in prison. Today, reporter Josh Bloch tells Jayme how the trial unfolded.

Sacha Baron Cohen's new satire, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, uses the same kind of pranks and antics as his first Borat film to tackle sexism, anti-Semitism, conspiracy theories and politics. But a lot has changed in the world since the original movie came out in 2006. And thanks to social media and the current U.S. political climate, the satire in this new movie hits very differently.

Alissa Wilkinson, a film critic and culture reporter for Vox, joins us to talk about the mirror the new movie holds up to U.S. society.

Hicham Alasbachi is a Syrian refugee who lives in a one bedroom, first-floor apartment on Weston Road in North York, Ontario. He’s been there for a couple years now, but he’s not sure how much longer he’ll be able to stay. Alasbachi’s had problems paying his rent for a long time, and now, seven months into the pandemic, he’s facing the possibility of eviction. As part of Year K, our ongoing series exploring how the pandemic could make Canada a less equal place, today we’re focused on evictions and why the COVID economic downturn is hitting renters so hard.

With election day less than two weeks away, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden debated for the second and final time on Thursday. CBC Washington correspondent Susan Ormiston discusses what happened and what it could mean for election day.

This Saturday, British Columbians head to the polls in a snap provincial election. According to NDP Leader John Horgan, the intent is to maintain political stability in the next year as the province continues to deal with the threat of COVID-19. Today on Front Burner, CBC provincial affairs reporter Tanya Fletcher, who covers the B.C. Legislature, walks us through the issues and controversies that are capturing attention during the short but eventful campaign.

The prospect of a snap election has been looming over Ottawa, all because of a fight over the most unlikely of controversies: a new committee.

Vassy Kapelos, host of the CBC’s Power and Politics, joins us to talk about how we got here, the latest on the WE affair, and what might happen next.

After 36 years, an infamous cold case involving the rape and mutilation of a little girl has finally been solved. The horrific mystery surrounding the abduction and murder of Christine Jessop captured the attention of the nation in the '80s and led to the wrongful conviction of an innocent man. Today, former CBC investigative journalist Linden MacIntyre has come out of retirement to explain why it took nearly four decades to uncover Jessop’s killer and what haunting questions still remain.

Opposition to the launch of a Mi’kmaw lobster fishery in Nova Scotia last month has grown increasingly violent. Over the past week, two facilities storing Mi’kmaw catches were targeted and vandalized by several hundred non-Indigenous commercial fishermen and their supporters, one facility was burned to the ground and a man has been charged with assaulting the chief of Sipekne'katik First Nation.

But this is just the latest chapter in a dispute that stretches back at least two decades. APTN reporters Angel Moore and Trina Roache discuss the latest developments and explain the complex history behind this conflict.

This week, the Alberta government detailed cuts to the province’s health service, including up to 11,000 layoffs. While all of Canada’s provinces have taken an economic hit because of COVID, Alberta in particular has been clobbered. Oil and gas revenues have tanked. Liquor sales are projected to bring in more than bitumen royalties from the oil sands this fiscal year. Support for United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney is down, too. According to a late summer poll, he’s got the second lowest approval rating of all the premiers in the country.

Today, CBC’s Carolyn Dunn in Calgary on how Alberta’s faring, and how Jason Kenney plans to bounce the province back.