It was just four short years ago when the Toronto Raptors - and 1 million of their closest friends - celebrated their NBA championship with a parade for the ages.
It all seems like part of the team's distant past. This year, they didn't even make the playoffs. It's led to big changes in the organization, on and off the court. What's needed to it get the team moving in a more winning direction? We ask freelance basketball journalist, Katie Heindl, the creator behind the "Basketball Feelings" podcast and newsletter; and Vivek Jacob, freelance sports journalist and staff writer for Raptors.com.

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Next month, Tamils around the world will remember the 40th anniversary of Black July. In July 1983, anti-Tamil pogroms erupted in Sri Lanka's capital of Colombo and across the country, lasting a week and plunging the country into a 26-year-long civil war. As the conflict raged on, tens of thousands of people were killed, and it forced thousands more into exile including here in Ontario - home to one of the largest Tamil diasporas in the world. Host Jeyan Jeganathan speaks with members of the Tamil diaspora and looks back at the horrific events and how it has shaped future generations.

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The summer season in Ontario brings with it rainstorms - and flooding. One common afterthought is the effect on our sewage systems, which can overflow and become a multi-thousand dollar problem. Steve Paikin talks to Barbara Robinson, better known as ,the sewer lady,, about how to reduce flooding and the costs associated with it.

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For the past two decades, farmers in the Niagara Region have taken the issue of water scarcity into their own hands. Even though the region is surrounded by Lake Ontario, the Welland Canal, Niagara River and Lake Erie, getting water to tender fruit and grapes has always been a challenge and climate change is only exacerbating the problem. The Niagara Peninsula produces over 90 per cent of Ontario's tender fruit and according to local farmers and politicians, that could be at risk if investments in irrigation infrastructure are not taken seriously. Field reporter Jeyan Jeganathan takes a look at the race to irrigate Niagara.

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In 2022 weather events accounted for $3.1 billion of insured losses in Canada. That's up from just $40 million in 2008. And in the last three years, house insurance prices in Canada have gone up 14 per cent. Is Canada becoming uninsurable? Do we need to change how we build homes and even where we build them? And what does this mean for the housing crisis? The Agenda examines the growing climate risk in this country.

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Contemplating whether there's such a thing as a Canadian identity, and what it might be, has been a national pastime probably for as long as Canada has existed. And there's no way to talk about Canada or Canadian politics without taking regionalism into account. None of this is new, but amid pressures or circumstances, such as extreme polarization, could that malleable idea of Canada become too weak to hold it all together? We consider that with guests: Margaret MacMillan, author and emerita professor of International History at the University of Oxford, and University of Toronto; Ken Coates, Canada Research Chair in Regional Innovation at the University of Saskatchewan; Paul Wells, author of "An Emergency in Ottawa: The Story of the Convoy Commission;" Akaash Maharaj, Ambassador-at-Large for the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption, and a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto; Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship; and Lydia Petrovic, author of "Lost in Canada; An Immigrant's Second Thoughts."

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Olivia Chow is Toronto's new mayor. Steve Paikin talks to Saeed Selvam, managing director of New West Public Affairs, and Sabrina Maddeaux, political columnist for the National Post, about what the newly elected mayor means for the Toronto, the issues that decided election, factors that contributed to the outcome, voter turnout, and more.

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What governments know about each of us, what they do with that data, and how they make decisions based on it, is supposed to be available to citizens. It's a fundamental principle of democratic accountability. But as a recent series in The Globe and Mail demonstrated, that's not quite how it all works. The series is called ,Secret Canada,, and it raises many questions about how freedom of information works in this country, or more likely, how it doesn't work. For insight, we welcome Brooks Fallis, critical care & internal medicine physician; Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Patricia Kosseim; and the investigative reporters behind The Globe and Mail's series, Secret Canada: Robyn Doolittle and Tom Cardoso.

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When Canadians talk about free trade, they're usually referring to the international context. Maybe that's because it's easier to figure out, than the Gordian knot of domestic trade barriers that have gone up over the decades. Lawyer Ryan Manucha makes a heroic effort to untangle it all, in his book, "Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dustups: Canada's Quest for Interprovincial Free Trade." The book won this year's Donner Prize for the best public policy thinking, writing, and research by a Canadian.

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Recapping our week we look at whether Ontario cities need a night mayor to manage nightlife activities and revenues. Then, are Canadians living longer? And if they do, how can their quality of life be even better?

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