The Decibel

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new cabinet was sworn in. Canada now has 28 ministers and 10 secretaries of state, with representation from every province – including the north.

Campbell Clark is The Globe and Mail’s chief political writer. He joins the show today to explain who’s who in Carney’s cabinet, and what this means for the new federal government.

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After several tense weeks of escalating military action across the de facto border in Kashmir, India and Pakistan have agreed to a fragile ceasefire. For the last week there have been reports of gunfire, drone attacks, and missile strikes in the region. This current conflict started after an April 22 terrorist attack left 26 people dead at a Kashmir tourist resort. 

But this isn’t the first time these two countries have been at odds. 

Dr. Reeta Tremblay is the former provost at the University of Victoria and a political scientist and expert on the Kashmir region. She’s on the show today to give us insight into the decades-long fight between India and Pakistan, and what needs to happen in order for the two countries to have lasting peace. 

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Measles is spreading at an unprecedented rate in Canada. It was considered eliminated in Canada in 1998, but last week, Ontario reported 1,440 cases of the disease, Alberta reported 313 cases, and Saskatchewan reported 27. There are also cases in British Columbia, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. In April, New York State issued a travel advisory for people coming to Ontario, warning “measles is just a car ride away.”

Vaccination rates are also on the decline. In Ontario, only about 70 per cent of children under the age of 7 have been fully vaccinated against measles. 

André Picard is a health columnist for The Globe and Mail. He’s on the show to explain how significant it is that we’re seeing these kinds of measles numbers, and how he thinks public health officials need to address this moment. 

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While the Liberal Party celebrated winning its fourth mandate in a row in the latest federal election, thousands of Albertans spent the night calling for a referendum on separatism. This week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith addressed growing frustrations in her province and shared her demands of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new federal government.

This isn’t the first time separatism has been considered in Western Canada. But now, Alberta may soon get to vote on the question of separation.

The Globe’s Carrie Tait joins the show from Edmonton. She’ll make sense of ongoing Western discontent, how Danielle Smith is responding and where the movement may be headed.

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Five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team are currently on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room seven years ago. Each of the accused players has pleaded not guilty.

The complainant – publicly known as E.M. – has told the jury her version of events and now is under cross-examination by the players’ defence lawyers.

Globe reporter Robyn Doolittle has been reporting from the courthouse from London, Ont. She recaps what the jury has been told so far.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney met with U.S. President Donald Trump face-to-face in Washington, D.C. for the first time on Tuesday. Tensions between the two leaders’ nations are at a historic high: a trade war, escalating tariffs and threats against Canada’s sovereignty have all been major issues since Trump’s re-election. For many Canadians, the central question in the recent federal election was how the next prime minister would handle U.S. aggression. Carney is now facing that reality.

Doug Saunders, The Globe’s international affairs columnist, joins The Decibel to analyze the Carney-Trump meeting and what it signals about the Canada–U.S. relationship now.

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The U.S. government is ramping up its efforts to deport immigrants. On Monday, the Trump administration announced a new policy offering anyone illegally in the U.S. $1,000 and a flight to leave the country. And on Sunday, President Donald Trump didn’t commit to upholding the right to due process for citizens and non-citizens alike.

Sara Mojtehedzadeh is an investigative reporter with The Globe, and she’s been covering Trump’s crackdown on immigration. She’ll explain the rise in detentions along the Canada–U.S. border, the impact of the Trump administration’s policies on asylum claims, and what it could mean for immigration into Canada.

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Problem gambling is a real issue in Canada – where reporting shows young people having even higher rates than adults. The increasing monetization of games, especially online, often uses similar mechanics to gambling, despite it being illegal for youth to gamble in Canada. And some experts say these apps and games are reinforcing feelings of risk and reward.

Dr. Loredana Marchica is a pediatric psychologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital and at Pathways Psychology Clinic. Her research focuses on gambling among young people. She’ll tell us how the line between gaming and gambling is becoming blurred – and how to tell it’s become a problem.

Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly described Dr. Loredana Marchica as a pediatric psychologist and psychiatrist. She is a pediatric psychologist.

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At 18 years old, Andean Medjedovic was a math prodigy, finishing his master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Waterloo before most young Canadians can legally drink. Medjedovic was involved in cryptocurrency trading – and according to the U.S. Department of Justice – engaged in “cryptocurrency hacking schemes” that allegedly netted him US$65-million in digital tokens. Now, he’s on the lam.

Alexandra Posadzki, The Globe’s financial and cybercrime reporter, is on the show to talk about how Medjedovic allegedly pulled off the trades, the cases against him, and how the controversial philosophy of “Code is Law” in the world of decentralized finance plays into his story.

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Now that the election is over, we’re bringing you another edition of Campaign Call, The Decibel’s weekly election panel that makes sense of the major issues.

Where does Pierre Poilievre go from here without a seat in the House of Commons? What kind of Prime Minister will Mark Carney be and how will he actually handle Trump? How do the NDP rebuild?

Globe columnists Robyn Urback, Andrew Coyne and Gary Mason are on the show to discuss the path ahead for the leaders and their parties.

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