Front Burner

On Wednesday, 16 people — including Romana Didulo, the cult leader known as the “Queen of Canada” — were arrested in the tiny Saskatchewan village of Richmound. RCMP released them the following day, but then re-arrested two unidentified individuals.

Didulo and her followers have been holed up in a decommissioned school there for two years. Their presence has been a source of ire for many locals, and ratcheted up divisions between the townspeople.

Today: What happens when a cult comes to town — especially in a time of such intense societal polarization? 

Our guest is Rachel Browne, an investigative journalist and documentary maker who is currently working on a podcast for CBC about the impact that the “Queen of Canada” has had on this tiny village.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Late last week - a list of over 200 books, set to be removed from Edmonton school libraries by October made the rounds online. It was in response to an order set out by Alberta’s education ministry in July to take books with sexually explicit content from the shelves.

This applied from kindergarten to Grade 12.

On that list? Award-winning works like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Intense criticism from writers, educators, civil liberties groups followed and on Tuesday the Alberta government paused the order and announced that they’re reworking it.

The Investigative Journalism Foundation’s Brett McKay has been covering this push to remove sexually explicit content from school libraries in Alberta. He’s here to talk about the politics behind it, the uproar that ensued and how all this mirrors similar efforts to ban books in the U.S.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Today on the show, James Elder is here. James is UNICEF’s global spokesperson, and he has made five trips to Gaza since the October attacks documenting what UNICEF has called a “war on children.”  

He joins us less than two weeks after a UN backed body officially designated the hunger crisis in Gaza a famine, one that the UN’s relief chief Tom Fletcher says is man-made, and the result of what he calls “systematic obstruction by Israel”. 

Elder has also reported from Darfur, Yemen, Afghanistan and more. But he says Gaza is unlike anything he’s seen. We’re going to talk about his experiences on the ground and the responsibility of a witness in a time of war.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a trial entering its final phase, former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro stands accused of attempting to stage a coup, leading an armed criminal organisation, and plotting to have the country’s current president and a Supreme Court justice killed. 

In response Bolsonaro ally U.S. President Donald Trump slapped Brazil with steep 50% tariffs and sanctioned the Supreme Court justice presiding over the case. 

Will America’s interventions help Bolsonaro and his far-right movement or backfire? And what’s at stake for the future of Brazil as the verdict nears? Gustavo Ribeiro, founder and editor in chief of the Brazilian Report, joins us. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

NATO’s secretary general has warned Russia could launch an attack on the alliance within the next five years. Talk to NATO’s two newest members, Finland and Sweden, and they’ll tell you preparation involves a lot more than just boosting military spending. As Canada seeks to strengthen ties with both countries, what can we learn from our newest NATO allies about preparing for the worst? Supported by the R. James Travers Foreign Corresponding Fellowship, CBC’s The House producer Emma Godmere travelled to the two Nordic countries to visit bomb shelters, the Russian border and military training grounds north of the Arctic Circle to see and hear how Finns and Swedes are steeling themselves for whatever the future may bring.

Every Saturday, listen to The House for in-depth explorations of the biggest issues facing Canada. You can find it wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxTTND 

Last week, the U.S. released another round of sanctions against officials at the International Criminal Court, including a Canadian judge. They’re the latest in a string of attacks from the Trump administration this year, after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

The sanctions come at a difficult time for the ICC as it operates without a chief prosecutor and is under increasing pressure to address the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. But what is really under the ICC’s jurisdiction and is it equipped to hold some of the most powerful leaders in the world to account? 

Kenneth Roth is the former director of Human Rights Watch and author of “Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Frontlines of Battling Abusive Governments”.

He’s here to parse through the Trump administration’s sanctions, and the history and efficacy of the International Criminal Court.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

American history has always been contested, but recent decisions by U.S. President Donald Trump to reshape the way it’s taught and remembered have put museums, schools, and memorials squarely in the crosshairs. 

Earlier this year, Trump passed an executive order that called for the removal of what he referred to as “divisive, race-centered ideology” from the nation’s museums. He’s targeted the Smithsonian Museum in particular, calling it “out of control” and “woke”, criticizing it for focusing too much on teaching the history of slavery. 

What does it mean to discourage the teaching of slavery and Jim Crow laws in a country that practiced chattel slavery for nearly 250 years, and had been led by at least 12 Presidents who themselves owned slaves?

Bryan Stevenson is a civil rights lawyer, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, author of the New York Times bestselling memoir ‘Just Mercy', and creator of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. He joins the show to talk about Trump’s attacks on American history, and the enduring legacy of slavery, lynching, and racial terror in the United States.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Prime Minister Mark Carney campaigned on big promises and bold action to save a country in crisis. It's now been more than 100 days since his cabinet was sworn in, but details and tangible results are still thin on the ground. How much of a runway does he have to start delivering on his promises on things like national infrastructure, housing, and a trade deal with the United States?

Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre has regained his seat in the House of Commons in a summer byelection. Will we see a new approach from Poilievre and the Conservatives, or will they stick with the strategy that brought them within striking distance of forming government in the spring?

CBC senior parliamentary reporter Aaron Wherry is here with a report card on the Carney cabinet’s first 100 days, and a look at the political opposition he'll be facing from Poilievre when parliament resumes next month. 

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The unemployment rate for Canadians between 15 and 24 is at 15 percent, the highest it's been since 2010, not including the pandemic.

Why can't young people find a job? And how do these numbers fit into the wider health of our economy at the moment?

Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers Armine Yalnizyan is on the show to talk about these numbers, why they stand out and what could be done to prepare and protect the economy from a world of near-constant uncertainty.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Airstrikes and tanks continued pounding the outskirts of Gaza City over the weekend, as Israel’s plans to seize the strip’s largest urban centre continued. A much bigger operation, widely condemned by the international community, could begin within days or weeks.

This is all happening as the world’s leading authority on food crises is saying that Gaza City and surrounding areas — currently home to half of the territory’s population — is now gripped by famine, and that it’s likely to spread across the rest of the strip unless a ceasefire is negotiated.

Meanwhile, Israel recently approved a major settlement plan which would functionally divide the West Bank in two, blunting hopes for a future Palestinian state.

Given all this — what’s the latest on ceasefire negotiations, and is there any sense that Western states have plans to step up pressure on Israel over either Gaza or the West Bank?

Today, Gregg Carlstrom, the Economist’s longtime Middle East correspondent, is back on the show to discuss all of this.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts