The Big Story

A UN envoy said last week that the temporary foreign worker program was a breeding ground for just those conditions. And that's amid a rapid recent expansion of the program, which used to focus heavily on agriculture but now funnels workers into the service and construction industries and the health care sector.

Why has the program expanded so quickly? How much merit is there to the UN's criticism? Are there really no Canadians to do all these jobs? Or is this a program exploited by employers to hire workers with few rights and hold wages down?

GUEST: Ghada Alsharif, work and wealth reporter, the Toronto Star

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In 2008, an experimental treatment led to the first documented case of someone being effectively cured of HIV. The man, who was called 'The Berlin Patient,' greatly advanced our understanding of the disease, and sparked hope among the millions of HIV-positive people around the world. 

While treatments and prognoses for the illness have improved dramatically since then, an actual cure has proved elusive. But now, the case of a person being called 'The Next Berlin Patient,' is leading to renewed hope that HIV could go from a chronic to curable condition. 

So what's different about this case compared to the other handful of people who have seen their HIV go into remission? And how do scientists take it from a case-study to a mass-producible treatment? 

Guest: Dr. Christian Gaebler, Physician scientist and immunologist at the Charité Hospital in Berlin

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If you listened to last week's Fixing Canada series (which you should check out if you haven't!), you may have noticed one key issue was conspicuously absent: housing. 

A big reason for that is we recently talked at length about potential housing solutions with journalist, Gregor Craigie. And there was little we could say that wasn't already discussed during that conversation. So today we're revisiting that episode for your listening pleasure. 

Enjoy! 

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Canada is not the only country in the world experiencing skyrocketing costs and a shortage of available housing options. Across the world nations are coming up with creative solutions to deal with their own housing crises.

There’s no silver bullet for fixing the Canadian housing market, and addressing the issue will require a whole slough of short and long-term strategies to alleviate the current crunch, and accommodate future population growth. It does seem as though most governments at all levels are waking up (albeit, slowly) to the fact that real action is needed to address our housing woes, but we’re in desperate need of ideas.

So how are other countries coping? And what can Canada learn from them?

GUEST: Gregor Craigie, host of CBC's On The Island and author of Our Crumbling Foundation: How We Solve the Housing Crisis

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[You've probably heard—from politicians, experts or even just friends and family—that "Canada is broken". Everyone can draw their own conclusions about that, but there's no denying some key aspects of the country aren't working well for many of us. And complaining about that is easy, it's fixing it that's the tough part. This week, The Big Story is trying to do that with Fixing Canada—a five-part series featuring deep dives into five issues that touch every Canadian, looking to experts to diagnose the problem—but most importantly, to prescribe the cure.]

Today, the final episode of our  series, our polarized political climate. If you want to know why it's so hard to make real progress on the issues we've discuss for the past four days, this is a big part of that answer.

How did we get this way? Can we just blame the internet or do we have to look in the mirror, too? What can years of research into our growing polarization show us that actually works?

GUEST: Justin Ling, investigative journalist, author of the Bug-Eyed and Shameless newsletter

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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[You've probably heard—from politicians, experts or even just friends and family—that "Canada is broken". Everyone can draw their own conclusions about that, but there's no denying some key aspects of the country aren't working well for many of us. And complaining about that is easy, it's fixing it that's the tough part. This week, The Big Story is trying to do that with Fixing Canada—a five-part series featuring deep dives into five issues that touch every Canadian, looking to experts to diagnose the problem—but most importantly, to prescribe the cure.]

For part four of our series, we’re talking about health care. Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have heard constantly about our crumbling system. But the cracks didn't just start four years ago. 

Many health care workers have said the system may soon be pushed past the point of repair - or already has been. So can we spend our way out of this? Or do we need to reimagine the entire thing?

GUEST: Dr. Alika Lafontaine, physician, former president of the Canadian Medical Association, and the first Indigenous doctor listed in Medical Post's 50 Most Powerful Doctors

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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[You've probably heard—from politicians, experts or even just friends and family—that "Canada is broken". Everyone can draw their own conclusions about that, but there's no denying some key aspects of the country aren't working well for many of us. And complaining about that is easy, it's fixing it that's the tough part. This week, The Big Story is trying to do that with Fixing Canada—a five-part series featuring deep dives into five issues that touch every Canadian, looking to experts to diagnose the problem—but most importantly, to prescribe the cure.]

For part three of our series, we’re talking about immigration. An issue as politically charged as it is a problem that needs solving. You can be as far left or right as you like and still think our approach to immigration is seriously flawed.

So what we need to do somehow, is find a way to thread the needle. And there are ways to do that, if we want to get serious about it.

GUEST: Rupa Banerjee, associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada Research Chair in Economic Inclusion, Employment and Entrepreneurship of Canada's Immigrants

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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You've probably heard—from politicians, experts or even just friends and family—that "Canada is broken". Everyone can draw their own conclusions about that, but there's no denying some key aspects of the country aren't working well for many of us. And complaining about that is easy, it's fixing it that's the tough part. This week, The Big Story is trying to do that with Fixing Canada—a five-part series featuring deep dives into five issues that touch every Canadian, looking to experts to diagnose the problem—but most importantly, to prescribe the cure.

Today we’re talking about transportation. A system that you only notice when it breaks and your 20 minute commute turns into an hour.

Is Canada's transit -- both public networks inside of cities and larger routes between them—truly as bad as it sometimes seems? And how could we do better?

GUEST: Reece Martin, creator of the RM Transit YouTube channel and substack.

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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You've probably heard—from politicians, experts or even just friends and family—that "Canada is broken". Everyone can draw their own conclusions about that, but there's no denying some key aspects of the country aren't working well for many of us. And complaining about that is easy, it's fixing it that's the tough part. This week, The Big Story is trying to do that with Fixing Canada—a five-part series featuring deep dives into five issues that touch every Canadian, looking to experts to diagnose the problem—but most importantly, to prescribe the cure.

Today we're talking about competition. Or rather, Canada's lack of it. You may have noticed consolidation in high-profile sectors like groceries or telecommunications. But the problem goes well beyond that. Right now competition is vanishing in sectors like medical technology, funeral services and even veterinary care. How do we get it back? 

Guests: Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn, authors of The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, available for pre-order here

We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:

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Canadians love our toonies. And that might explain why a story about bogus ones became our most listened to episodes of all time. 

So on one of the last remaining summer weekends, enjoy this trip inside the shadowy world of Canadian coin counterfeiting, and make sure to take a look in your own change bowl to see if you've been carrying around any fakes. 

Enjoy! 

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They call it the "camel-toe toonie", and you will understand why as soon as you look at the front right paw of the polar bear on it. Since they were first discovered in circulation in 2020, estimates range from at least tens of thousands to likely millions of them reaching circulation.

But who is behind it? How do you counterfeit toonies at scale and get them into the banking system? And ... why toonies?

GUEST: Brent Mackie, creator of cameltoetoonies.ca, numismatist, treasurer of Waterloo Coin Society

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We've all done it. Life is hard, the week is long and rather than force yourself to be out and about on a Friday night, you just need to unwind. All by yourself. Maybe do a little online shopping or pamper yourself however you please... so you turn down the invite, sit down on the couch and practice a little "self-care".

There's nothing inherently wrong with this. We all need breaks! But you should be aware that it's not that simple. There are trillions of dollars to be made from self-care practices and products, and the industry is only growing as we become more isolated and lonely. So next time you feel like backing out of something to stay inside alone, maybe ask yourself: Why am I doing this? Is it just because it's easier?

GUEST: Allie Volpe, senior reporter at Vox

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