There was a lot of optimism about Justin Trudeau in 2015, and not least among Canada's Indigenous communities. Trudeau's Liberals had made a lot of ambitious and overdue promises. Four years later? Well, the optimism has vanished—but what have the Liberals actually done?

A thorough document released by the Assembly of First Nations chronicles the Liberals successes and failures over the past four years and lays out the work still to be done. Is Trudeau the man to do it? If the optimism is gone, what pragmatic choices are there in this election for those who expected more? And how much Truth and Reconciliation has actually taken place?

GUEST: Todd Lamirande, APTN

Trudeau made promises to Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Did he keep them?

An in-depth look at the issues, culture and personalities shaping Canada today.

News

Politics

News Commentary

Daily News

After an announcement at a Honda plant in Alliston, Ontario that will bring billions in new electric vehicle investment, the Prime Minister sat down with The Big Story to chat in-depth about the climate crisis, the future of electric vehicles and his government’s efforts to find opportunity amid a world on fire.

A conversation with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Recently the department of defence announced a plan to pour billions of dollars into Northern security. And there's no doubt that in a changing world the Arctic region has become more important, for Canada and our allies, as well as for our adversaries.

But what does 'security' or sovereignty even mean when we're discussing a huge swath of land, sparsely populated and lacking the infrastructure to change that? What does the DoD plan to use that money for, exactly? And how will it work with the Indigenous people who live in the region?

GUEST: Andrea Charron, professor and the Director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

How secure is Canada's Arctic?

Most of us had a virtual health care appointment sometime during the pandemic. Those of us that didn't have almost certainly encountered virtual care of some form or another—whether that's a follow-up phone call from your doctor, or post-surgery instructions emailed to you.

As we enter the post-pandemic era, there is a push in some quarters for more virtual care—it can improve access, speed things up and give people more control over their own care and medical records. But will it also simply create more visits, encourage unnecessary appointments and further burden an overtaxed system? There's a line we need to walk here—can we do it?

GUEST: Dr. Tara Kiran, Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation at the University of Toronto; family doctor and scientist at St. Michael's Hospital, Unity Health Toronto

Can virtual health care save a collapsing system?

Today, evacuation alerts for several communities in BC and Alberta are in effect. You may not have noticed, because there are always evacuation alerts in effect now, and there are always fires burning, some of them out of control. When the whole country takes notice is when the skies over entire provinces go dark, the air turns bad or a blaze like the Fort McMurray fire in 2016 blitzes through a city.

All of that will probably happen this year. The conditions are ripe for it, and there's not much we can do to prevent a devastating fire when it comes. But we can evolve our strategies as the fires get bigger. We can adapt. But...will we?

GUEST: John Vaillant, author, Fire Weather: The making of a beast

These days, something's always burning: A fire season preview

In 2022, the Doug Ford government opened parts of Ontario’s protected Greenbelt for housing development, touching off a massive political scandal. But long before that, tensions over the green space outside of Toronto had been quietly simmering for nearly two decades. 

What is the Greenbelt? How did it end up becoming such a flashpoint for fights over the housing crisis and the climate crisis? And who stood to benefit when the Ford government tore it up after 20 years?

Trudeau made promises to Canada’s Indigenous peoples. Did he keep them?

Download our free app to listen on your phone