Al Etmanski has spent his life working to help improve life for Canadians with disabilities. Now, the federal government is considering establishing a fund to help top-up disability benefits that are offered by the provinces and territories. If established, around one million people could be lifted out of poverty.

Globe and Mail feature writer Ian Brown speaks with Al about the proposed fund, why poverty among disabled people has been ignored for so long, and Al’s long career as a parent activist for people with disabilities.

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Esi Edugyan is known for her books of fiction. She’s a two-time winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novels Half-Blood Blues and Washington Black. In her most recent book, she’s turned to the world of non-fiction. Out of the Sun: On Race and Storytelling is a collection of essays drawn from her 2021 CBC Massey Lectures, devoted to bringing a richer context to black histories and other stories about race that often go untold.

Decibel producer Sherrill Sutherland sat down with Esi to find out why this moment felt like the right time to write this book, why ghost stories and race are important and why in Canada we still have trouble discussing our true relationship to slavery.

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The holidays are here and so is the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Science reporter Ivan Semeniuk on what the latest science says about how Omicron is different from other variants like Delta, in three important ways: its transmissibility, how well it can escape the vaccines we have now, and how sick it can make us.

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It’s the perfect time to escape into a book. Arts editor Judith Pereira and Western Arts Correspondent Marsha Lederman on the book trends this year, the silver lining of the pandemic’s effect on independent booksellers, and what you should cozy up and read.

All the books mentioned in this episode (in order):

Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doer

Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

Fight Night by Miriam Toews

The Strangers by Katherena Vermette

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout

All’s Well by Mona Awad

Matrix by Lauren Groff

We Want What We Want by Alix Ohlin

Bewilderment by Richard Powers

Astra by Cedar Bowers

Care Of by Ivan Coyote

Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen

What Strange Paradise by Omar el Akkad

Return of the Trickster by Eden Robinson

Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

On Animals by Susan Orlean

Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

Middlemarch by George Elliot

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This weekend, Hong Kongers head to the polls to elect their government. Well, to elect 20 of the 90 seats in their Legislative Council – and from a roster of candidates carefully vetted by the Communist Party of China in Beijing.

The Globe’s Asia correspondent James Griffiths tells us how Hong Kong’s normally boisterous election has been quieted by the new national security law, and why it’s still going ahead despite critics calling it a sham.

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Case counts are rising in many parts of the country as Omicron becomes the dominant variant of COVID-19. As some regions reintroduce public health restrictions, there’s a growing call to make rapid tests (also called rapid antigen tests) more widely available. The availability and cost of these tests varies across the country – anyone can buy them online, but at a fairly steep price compared to the free ones available at libraries across Nova Scotia.

Dr. Dalia Hasan started COVID Test Finders to share information about finding rapid tests, to raise money for those who can’t afford them and to advocate for more equitable access to rapid testing.

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Two years ago, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But for over a year now, a civil war has raged in Ethiopia between the federal government and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front.

Throughout the conflict, reports emerged of violence against civilians being committed by all sides, including horrific sexual assault. Lucy Kassa is an Ethiopian freelance journalist investigating these attacks, speaking to women and girls victimized by soldiers on both sides of the conflict – even after she fled the country after being threatened by men who broke into her home and interrogated her about her journalism.

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What is the price of a wetland? A forest? A river? How can you even go about assessing the value of natural habitats? How do you factor in the watershed’s ability to mitigate flooding? What’s the price of all that carbon a forest sucks up?

Governments in Canada are starting to grapple with these questions, especially in face of climate change and increasing extreme weather events. Environment reporter Kathryn Blaze Baum explores the nascent world of eco-assets, or natural assets, and looks at the complex issues around how values are ascribed to natural landscapes and why some people are worried about the consequences of this shift in thinking.

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In 1957, a lone Mountie in northern B.C. heard rumours about sexual abuse of boys who attended the Lower Post residential school.

The Mountie and a group of Kaska Dena children brought the sexual predator to trial, but intimidation of witnesses derailed the case. Fast forward decades later, to mark Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Lower Post Nation burned the former residential school to the ground.

The Globe’s Patrick White was there to watch the flames. While investigating how justice was thwarted more than 60 years ago, he discovers the cover-up that allowed the abuse of children to continue.

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Ukraine and U.S. intelligence officials, as well as online sleuthers, have noticed a buildup of Russian troops along most of the border separating the former Soviet country from Russia. It has sparked worries that an invasion may be imminent and we could see a repeat of 2014, when Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula.

Senior International Correspondent Mark MacKinnon recently travelled to Kyiv to talk to Ukraine’s defence minister and get a sense of how concerned people are of the possibility of Russian aggression. Meanwhile, Russia says these fears are overblown and President Vladimir Putin recently held a call with U.S. President Joe Biden to discuss the situation. But was it enough to diffuse the tensions?

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