This Matters

Guest: Calvi Leon, Staff Reporter

In 2002, Ryan Wedding represented Canada an Olympic snowboarder. Today, the FBI describes him as a modern-day Pablo Escobar. Alleged to be the mastermind behind a massive, violent drug trafficking empire, Wedding is now the target of a global manhunt with a $15 million bounty on his head.

Star reporter Calvi Leon has been reporting on this case for years, likely longer than any other reporter. In this episode, she takes us through the chilling transformation of an elite athlete into "El Jefe."; from allegedly engineering narco-terrorism programs to orchestrating targeted murders and moving record-breaking amounts of cocaine into Canada. Calvi also brings us up to speed on the latest news of the case.

Plus: We've been sitting on a secret. At the end of this episode, we can finally let you in on it.

Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston and Sean Pattendon

Guests: Toronto Star journalists Sheila Wang and Emma McIntosh

A major joint investigation involving the Toronto Star, CBC/Radio-Canada, La Presse and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has uncovered more than 100 crypto-to-cash operations running across Canada, with many of them unregistered, unregulated, and openly violating anti–money laundering laws. As part of this collaboration, Star reporters went undercover to see just how easy it is to turn anonymous cryptocurrency into hard cash with no ID and no record of the transaction.

In this episode, we break down how these crypto-to-cash services actually work, why experts say they pose a serious risk for money laundering, organized crime and other illicit activity, and why Canadian regulators have struggled to stop a parallel financial system that's operating in plain sight.

This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Sean Pattendon.

Guest: Ghada Alsharif, immigration and work reporter

Canada's immigration system is often praised for attracting top global talent, but a new report shows the country is losing many of the highly skilled workers it says it needs most. One in five immigrants are leaving within 25 years of arriving, with the highest exit rates among those with PhDs and professional backgrounds in health care, science, and senior management.

Today on This Matters, immigration and work reporter Ghada Alsharif unpacks the findings of a major new study by the Institute for Canadian Citizenship and the Conference Board of Canada and what it reveals about a growing crisis Canada isn't fully reckoning with: why the people we worked hardest to bring here are now walking away.

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon

Guests: Toronto Star journalists Ben Mussett and Omar Mosleh

A Toronto Star investigation uncovered a troubling loophole inside Meta's advertising system. Reporters Ben Mussett and Omar Mosleh found illegal drugs being advertised and sold to Canadians through paid Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram. With one click, the Star was linked to online shops offering cocaine, Oxycodone, MDMA, Xanax, ketamine and more, and discovered how easily these drugs could be ordered and shipped.

The investigation raises urgent questions about Meta's ad moderation, platform safety and how drug traffickers are exploiting automated tools to reach users.

Meta, the tech giant that owns Facebook and Instagram, says it has "zero tolerance" for the ads and works to find and remove the illegal drug posts.

In this episode, we unpack what happened when Star journalists tested the system themselves, why Meta's detection tools aren't stopping illicit drug ads, and who these ads are targeting the most.

This episode is produced by Sean Pattendon

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, Toronto Star health reporter

A new study has found that over a million Ontarians — that's more than one in ten people with a family doctor — live far outside their physician's region, often more than 30 kilometres away. Some are driving hours just to get a check-up. Others may be skipping care altogether because of the logistics. And it's leading to worsening health outcomes; more ER visits, missed diagnoses, and care that falls through the cracks. It's a hidden layer of Ontario's primary care crisis, and one we don't talk about enough.

This episode was mixed by Paulo Marques

Guest: Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star columnist

In a high-stakes war games exercise held in Toronto, top military officials, health-care leaders, and government representatives gathered behind closed doors to game out a scenario few Canadians can ever imagine; war arriving on our doorstep.

The exercise, called Canada Paratus, was a joint initiative led by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with the Canadian Armed Forces, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, St. Michael's Hospital, and other military-focused organizations.

This wasn't about battlefield tactics, but about what happens when Canada's fragile health-care system is pushed to the brink. From mass casualties to logistical chaos, the simulation revealed uncomfortable truths about just how unprepared we are and what it could mean if Canada were drawn into a global conflict where hospitals, not just troops, have to hold the line.

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon

Guest: Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa bureau chief Canada avoided a snap election Monday night as the Liberal government pushed its federal budget through by a two-vote margin, 170 to 168. Support from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and two NDP abstentions proved decisive after intense pressure and last-minute talks. The close call raises new questions about the stability of the Liberal minority and what might be ahead in the coming months as the government brings forward the budget implementatin bill and faces further confidence tests in the House of Commons. We take a closer look at what happened behind the scenes in Ottawa. This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Sean Pattendon

Guest: Richard Warnica, Senior Opinion Writer

In this episode, we explore Richard's recent visit to Texas as a vivid microcosm of Trump's current America. He reports on cratering trust in vaccines, increasingly aggressive ICE arrests that are cleaving families apart, and the dismantling of public media meant to help citizens understand their world. His conversations with advocates, lawyers, and local leaders highlight a landscape shaped by disease, cruelty, and deliberate ignorance — all unfolding alongside climate-driven disasters like the recent deadly flood at Camp Mystic girls summer camp, where grief still lingers in the air.

PLUS: Hear Texas House Representative Nicole Collier speak about how Republican action inspired her to sleep two nights on the Capitol floor, in protest.

Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Paulo Marques and Sean Pattendon

Guest: Ed Keenan, Toronto Star city columnist

Toronto has always been a contradiction; a city people fall in love with and get fed up with, often at the same time.

This year, the Toronto Star explored those many shades in our Toronto the Better series, digging into the cracks, complexities, and questions around how to actually make the city better.

Now we want you to join the conversation.

We're launching One Great Idea — a project asking for your bold, beautiful, or just plain weird ideas to help fix Toronto.

If you could change one thing about this city, what would it be?

And what kind of ideas could actually turn Toronto into the place you want it to be?

In this episode, city columnist Ed Keenan talks about the project, the city's identity crisis, and why even the most frustrated Torontonians show up to cry and cheer together during a Blue Jays playoff run.

Have a great idea of your own?

Send it to [email protected] in under 200 words or drop it in the comments below. We'll be publishing a selection soon and letting readers choose which ones are worth championing.

Audio sources: Youtube, CP24

This episode was produced by Sean Pattendon

Guests: Sean Menard, Toronto-based filmmaker and director of 'Run Terry Run' and Kirsten Fox, a director at the Terry Fox Foundation and Terry Fox's niece.

Terry Fox is a Canadian institution.

His crown of thick brown spirals, heathergrey 2.5 inch shorts, 'Marathon of Hope' shirt and prosthetic walking leg he fashioned to support athletic capacity are legendary markers of a truly extraordinary human being.

But there's so much more to Fox than just these instantly recognizable symbols.

Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope is an incredible feat that has captivated Canadians young and old for decades, but who was he really when the media vans dispersed and the crowds went home? Sean Menard's newest documentary 'Run Terry Run' aims to show viewers the human behind the hero using 45-year-old footage that hitherto sat unseen in a Fox family storage locker.

Today on This Matters, we speak with Toronto-based filmmaker and a director at the Terry Fox Foundation, Sean Menard as well as Terry Fox's niece, Kirsten Fox, to discuss Terry's prevailing legacy, the tech-primitive world of the 1980s and what 'Run Terry Run' taught Kirsten about her late uncle.

This episode was mixed by Paulo Marques