Front Burner

A landslide caused by a heap leach failure at the Eagle mine site in the Yukon has been called a “disaster” by some local residents.

Hundreds of workers are currently laid-off and there’s a chance that it has leaked cyanide and/or other heavy metals into the river, endangering the nearby environment and wildlife. Meanwhile, Victoria Gold, the company that owns and operates the mine, is facing charges and their stock has tanked, raising concerns the mine could close for good.

Cali McTavish and Julien Greene from CBC Whitehorse join us to talk about how the incident fits into a long, troubling history with mining in the Yukon. 

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

A little over three years ago, a roaring, rapidly spreading wildfire burned through Lytton, a B.C. town of around 200 residents. It essentially burned to the ground. And even though at least $239 million dollars have been promised or poured into the recovery – rebuilding has been slow, and people are frustrated.

CBC Vancouver reporter Yvette Brend just returned from Lytton. She tells us about the town’s delayed recovery, and how it might be a cautionary tale of climate disaster recovery.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It was the biggest gold discovery in history...until it wasn’t. In 1995, Canadian mining company Bre-X announced to the world it had found a significant amount of gold deep in the jungles of Indonesia. Stock prices soared as investors worldwide fought to stake their claim. But when Bre-X’s chief geologist mysteriously fell from a helicopter over the jungle, the story of the billion dollar discovery began to unravel. Nearly three decades later, no one has ever been held accountable. In the new podcast, The Six Billion Dollar Gold Scam, host Suzanne Wilton takes you from the jungles of Indonesia to small town Alberta, Canada, to investigate what really happened and find out more about the man behind the biggest goldmine fraud of all time. Produced for the BBC World Service and CBC by BBC Scotland Productions. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Duo5eihh

It was déjà vu all over again in Atlanta, Ga., on Thursday night as Donald Trump and Joe Biden squared off in the first presidential debate of the 2024 campaign. Biden will be looking to secure a second term in November, while Trump will be looking to take the office back for a second term of his own. And indeed, much of the debate focused on rehashing both men's records in office — to varying degrees of veracity and coherence.

The CBC's Washington correspondent Katie Simpson breaks down both candidates' performances, the debate's biggest moments, and what it could all mean for the campaign ahead.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

When Alex Cyr was growing up on Prince Edward Island in the early aughts, the capital Charlottetown was a pretty quaint and homogeneous place.

But in 2024, the city looks very different. In the last few years, the provincial government has made it easier for immigrants to flock there – and they have, more than any other city in the country.

The city is younger and more diverse, and it’s solved a lot of the problems caused by its aging workforce. But housing prices have gone up, and the healthcare system is stretched.

These challenges that Charlottetown faces now are familiar to so many cities across the country. Journalist Alex Cyr wrote about the city’s immigration growth for Maclean’s. His piece is called: “How Charlottetown Became an Immigration Boom Town”.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The last time a Conservative won a federal vote in the riding of Toronto-St. Paul’s, it was 1988. The Soviet Union was still together. Brian Mulroney was Prime Minister. The territory of Nunavut wouldn’t be created for more than a decade.

But on Monday, in a by-election in the riding, the Conservatives took the Liberal stronghold riding back for the first time in over thirty years. 

Does this spell electoral doom for the Liberals? Where does the party go from here? And despite his insistence that he’ll stay on, can Justin Trudeau really remain the party leader? 

John Paul Tasker is a senior reporter with CBC’s parliamentary bureau.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Canada announced last week that it has added Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its list of terrorist organizations under the criminal code. It now joins the United States as the only Western countries to do so. 

Unlike most groups on Canada’s terror list, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is an official arm of the Iranian government. The designation is something some Iranian Canadians and Conservative MPs have been calling for many years. So who are the IRGC? And, why now?

Kaveh Shahrooz, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and activist, joins us to explain what the IRGC is and why he’s been pushing for this move.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

After going down three games to zero against the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final, the Edmonton Oilers won the next three games in a row to tie the series.

It’s a feat that’s only been accomplished twice, and both times were in the 1940s.

Can the Oilers complete one of the greatest comebacks in pro sports in game seven tonight?

After a long cup drought for both Edmonton and Canada, what would the win mean for the city and the country?

And what would a ring for Connor McDavid’s status among the best players ever?

Daniel Nugent-Bowman is the Oilers reporter for the Athletic. Mark Connolly is the host of CBC’s Edmonton AM. 

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Calgarians are still rationing water more than two weeks after a catastrophic pipe break — and the city says they’ve got at least two more weeks to go before it’s fixed.

There’s still much we don’t know about why this pipe broke down, but what experts do know is that other Canadian cities should be gearing up for similar crises. Huge amounts of their infrastructure — from roads to subway cars to schools and community centres — hasn’t been properly maintained for decades, and it’s nearing the end of its life span.

Matti Siemiatycki, the Director of the Infrastructure Institute at the University of Toronto.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Simone and Malcolm Collins are pronatalists: they believe many countries are headed toward a catastrophe of shrinking population, and that we need to have more babies to save them. Other supporters of the movement include Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

By choosing embryos with the genetic traits they want, are they practicing eugenics?

Is their push to boost babies in rich countries really different from racist conspiracy theories about immigrants?

Jenny Kleeman is a journalist and broadcaster, as well as the author of books including The Price of Life: In Search of What We're Worth and Who Decides. She recently visited the Collins’ home in Pennsylvania.

For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts