Front Burner

On Friday, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre published an op-ed criticizing Canadian businesses’ use of lobbyists. He’s also called out the Liberals for high-priced fundraisers and "undue handouts” to the business lobby.

But since Poilievre became leader, dozens of federal lobbyists have also paid to attend the roughly 50 private fundraising events he’s spoken at.

So despite all the critiques of big money and lobbying in politics, why do they still seem to be everywhere? How has lobbying shifted power in our democracy? And if parties are concerned, why haven’t any of them made bigger efforts to reform it? 

Duff Conacher has been pushing for MPs to close lobbying loopholes for almost three decades. He’s a co-founder of Democracy Watch, a non-profit advocating for government accountability. 

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

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

In June of 2023, Sikh activist and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., after evening prayers. Three men have now been arrested and charged with his murder, and all three are affiliated with a gang with ties to Punjab. But sources close to the investigation believe these men were just hired guns, acting on orders from the top levels of the Indian government's intelligence service.

CBC senior reporter Evan Dyer breaks down his exclusive reporting on this story and the increasingly blurring lines between organized crime and Indian foreign policy.

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

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Unless it was dismantled last night after we put this podcast to bed, the pro-Palestinian encampment at McGill University is now entering into its 11th day. It's just one of several across Canada, and one of many more across North America.

So last Tuesday, we headed to Montreal to check out the McGill encampment for ourselves. 

We went to speak to students there about their central demand: divestment. We wanted to learn more about what it means, why the students are calling for it, and why the broader push that “divestment” is part of — the movement known as BDS — is so controversial.

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

Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

On May 1st, the people behind a subreddit called r/loblawsisoutofcontrol launched a nationwide boycott of Loblaw-owned stores for the month.

The very same day the boycott began, Loblaw Companies Limited released its first quarter earnings numbers. Its profits went up by almost 10%, and its revenue by over $13-billion.

Today on Front Burner, why did Loblaw become the primary target of Canadians’ grocery anger? Can something like a boycott or more competition really keep it in check? And should we think of Loblaw less like a retailer, and more like Amazon?

Vass Bednar is our guest. She's the executive director of McMaster University's Master of Public Policy and Digital Society program.

A long-simmering feud between Toronto's Drake and Compton's Kendrick Lamar has finally erupted into open lyrical warfare. The bars being traded on diss tracks like "Push Ups" and "Euphoria" bring to mind some of the most iconic rap beefs in history — and it's far from the first time the 6 God has found himself in the crosshairs.

Shadrach Kabango — you may know him as the rapper Shad — weighs in on the feud, and the role of big-name beefs in hip hop culture.

In April, a hospital memo was released by the British Columbia’s official opposition party. It was from July 2023, a few months after the possession of small amounts of certain hard drugs were decriminalized in the province under a three-year pilot project.

And it advised nurses to not impede patients using illicit drugs within the hospital.

The province said the advice in the memo had been walked back. But it became another example used by the plan’s critics for why progressive drug policies were failing.

Then, last week, B.C. Premier David Eby asked Health Canada to recriminalize the use of hard drugs in public spaces, such as hospitals and restaurants.

So how did growing backlash from residents, health-care workers, police and conservative politicians end a key component of decriminalization?

Today, we unpack those questions with CBC British Columbia reporter Moira Wyton.

In early April, after Israeli troops withdrew from the area surrounding the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Palestinian recovery teams were able to assess the destruction. And just last week, mass graves were uncovered on the hospital grounds. There’s been similar reports at Al-Shifa hospital in Northern Gaza as well.

United Nations officials are calling for independent investigations into the matter. A statement by the Israeli Defence Forces has said accusations that they had buried the bodies were "baseless and unfounded".

Freelance journalist Akram Al-Sattari has been reporting from the grounds of the Nasser Medical Complex. He spoke to Front Burner about what he witnessed.

When Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre visited a convoy camp on the border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia last week, he was filmed in front of a “F--k Trudeau” flag.

It was another moment of visibility for a slogan that’s encroached on the mainstream, appearing on bumper stickers and flags scattered across the country.

So when did this visible hate for the Prime Minister start? What’s the relationship between extremist groups and mainstream anger? And is there any way for Justin Trudeau – or his opposition – to heal the divisions?

Journalist Justin Ling has spent many hours listening to groups who profess hatred for Trudeau. He’s the author of Bug-Eyed and Shameless on Substack, and he recently spoke to the Prime Minister about these divisions.

 On April 17th, pro-Palestinian protesters set up an encampment on the lawn of Columbia University in New York, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and for their administration to divest from ties to Israel. The next day, their university’s president called on the NYPD to clear the encampment. They arrested more than 100 students. That event caused an eruption of solidarity encampments, protests, and faculty walk-outs at colleges and universities across the U.S. 

Now, the encampments and solidarity protests have spread even further — including at McGill University in Montreal, and universities in Europe and Australia.

Today, we’re going to talk about why students in multiple countries feel compelled to face arrest or suspension for this movement — and why others feel the protests are creating a dangerous climate that is fueling antisemitism.

Our guest is Arielle Angel, editor-in-chief of the magazine Jewish Currents.

The controversial reality TV show known as ‘Kid Nation’, which borrowed its premise from Lord of the Flies, was cancelled shortly after its 2007 debut. Producers took 40 kids into a makeshift desert town to fend for themselves and create their own society. Was the series an opportunity to discover what kids are capable of? Or simply a ploy for ratings? With access to former ‘Kid Nation’ contestants, their families, and the show’s creators, culture journalist Josh Gwynn uncovers how this cult TV show became a lightning rod for an ongoing debate about the ethics of reality TV. Welcome to Split Screen, an examination of the utterly captivating, sometimes unsettling world of entertainment and pop culture. From reality TV gone awry, to the cult of celebrity, each season of Split Screen takes listeners on an evocative journey inside the world of showbiz. Ex-contestants, producers, and cultural critics uncover complicated truths behind TV’s carefully curated facades, and question what our entertainment reveals about us. Split Screen: sometimes reality is twisted. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/-vGm-quA