Shows / The Big Story
The Big Story
An in-depth look at the issues, culture and personalities shaping Canada today.
Episodes
- The Big Story
Be curious, not judgemental: Ted Lasso and TV's pivot to kindness
In the pandemic's darkest months, millions of us were looking for comfort and solace. And we found it in an unlikely comedy about an American football coach…
- The Big Story
As election looms, CSIS warns of foreign security threats
When Canada's intelligence agency warns about threats from foreign powers in the expected fall election, it's easy to assume they're referring to the kind of…
- The Big Story
Can Toronto police itself out of a homelessness crisis?
Over the past few weeks, Toronto police have stormed into at least three park encampments where homeless people have been living. They've been met with…
- The Big Story
Nurses are quitting by the thousands. What happens if we can't recruit more?
Since the early days of the pandemic, experts have been warning about the stress constant emergency work places on medical professionals. And after more than a…
The Big StoryWill we still use masks when all the mandates expire?
Masking has become second nature to most of us during the pandemic. But with the end cautiously in sight, how many of us will still cover up once we're no…
The Big StoryHow the Blue Jays finally came home
Their last game in Toronto was in September of 2019. Since then, the Blue Jays have been on one of sports' longest odysseys—playing home games as the road…
The Big StoryCan the Conservative Party reinvent itself in time to avoid disaster?
Recent polls from across the spectrum show the Conservative Party of Canada struggling to mount a meaningful challenge to the Liberals in the next…
The Big StoryHow ‘best before’ dates waste tons of Canadian food
You’ve probably thrown something out when it was past the date on the package—even if it didn’t really seem like it had gone bad. Better safe than sorry, or as…
The Big StoryCoyotes have taken over Stanley Park. And it doesn’t stop there.
The public is currently being told to venture into the crown jewel of Vancouver’s park system “at their own risk” as dozens of people, including a two-year-old…
The Big StoryInside Canada’s broken military justice system
Last week, retired general Jonathan Vance, former chief of the defence staff, was charged with obstruction of justice related to an investigation into…
The Big StoryFamily doctors want to come off the bench for the “last mile” of vaccinations
Most vaccines in Canada are administered by family doctors, so when Covid-19 vaccinations began to receive approval late in 2020, those physicians got ready to…
The Big StoryAs Ontario tentatively reopens, Alberta is in full swing
On Friday Canada’s largest province enters stage three of reopening—by far the biggest move since early this year, before the third wave of Covid-19 hit. Other…
The Big StoryWhat happened to Nathaniel McLellan?
And why were the police so focused on the 15-month old’s parents in the wake of his death? Nathaniel died in 2015, after sustaining a severe brain injury. And…
The Big StoryOnce we decide to rename something, what happens next?
Right now, across Canada, there are questions around the names of places, institutions and even streets. The debate about whether or not we should rename…
The Big StoryTicks are everywhere this summer. Here’s what you need to know.
If you spent time outdoors this weekend, we hope you did a thorough tick check when you got back inside. The creatures have been on the rise in Canada for…
The Big StoryCanadian veterans push for help for Afghan interpreters
As the United States winds down its involvement in Afghanistan, things are becoming more and more dangerous for Afghan citizens who have aided soldiers over…
The Big StoryLytton, B.C. is Canada’s face-to-face encounter with the future of climate
Two people are dead, a town is all but destroyed and more than a thousand people have essentially become climate refugees. And that is the toll of just one of…
The Big StoryWhat’s the fight over returning to the office really about?
The heated discussion over a full return to business as usual versus an embrace of remote, flexible work is often couched in language of productivity…
The Big StoryVaccine FAQ: mixing and matching, kids under 12 and are we slowing down?
Now that vaccines are widely available to almost any Canadian who wants one, the focus turns to convincing people who haven't had one yet to get their needle…
The Big StoryMeet the invasive species rampaging through Ontario forests
Traditionally, Ontario (and parts of Quebec) would see outbreaks of the creature known as the Gypsy Moth every decade or more. But the past two years have seen…
The Big StoryWhat stories should we tell on Canada Day?
A lot of us are lucky enough that we've never thought of Canada Day as anything but a day off to enjoy all the country has to offer, and to celebrate the story…
The Big StoryIs the “heat dome” in B.C. a sign of summers to come?
First of all, what is a heat dome? How rare is it? How deadly? Are the all-time high temperatures the Pacific Northwest experienced this week an anomaly, or a…
The Big StoryWhat does the future of money look like?
Right now, the Bank of Canada is working on a "digital loonie" that will replace cash at some point in the future. Governments around the world are either…
The Big StoryWhen a developer becomes a landlord to thousands of Canadians, what happens?
Last week, Core Development Group announced its intention to spend a billion dollars buying family homes in hot markets across Canada and converting them to…
The Big StoryQAnon’s “Queen of Canada” is organizing harassment on streets across the country
Her real name is Romana Didulo, and over the past few months her following has grown to tens of thousands. And she's putting them to use in real life—handing…
The Big StoryAre you ready for a late summer federal election?
Too bad, you're likely getting one anyway! Over the past few weeks there have been unmistakeable signs that the governing Liberals as well as opposition…
The Big StoryWhat do you do when you’ve been blamed for a Covid outbreak?
One year after being singled out—first by Premier Blaine Higgs, then by members of his own community—as "Patient Zero" for a New Brunswick Covid-19 outbreak…
The Big StoryWhat happens when police won’t ID a murder suspect?
Usually, when someone is charged with murder, their name is all over police statements, and then all over the media. But when police neglect to release that…
The Big StoryHere’s the thing about vaccine lotteries: They work.
When Alberta announced last week it would join several U.S. states in offering the chance of life-changing prizes to citizens who get their Covid-19 vaccine…
The Big StoryHow Medicine Hat became Canada’s first certified ‘zero homeless’ city
Across Canada, in every municipality, there are people experiencing homelessness. It happens everyday. But what really matters is what happens to those people…
The Big StoryB.C. has a blueprint to save its oldest forests. Will it use it?
The months-long blockade at Fairy Creek is something of a tipping point for the province's NDP government's attempt to balance its environmentalism and its…
The Big StoryHow close is America to the end of democracy?
That's not hyperbole. Many Americans (and Canadians, and citizens around the world) hoped that once Donald Trump was out of office, and Joe Biden became…
The Big StoryWhat does Bill 96 mean for Quebec? And for the rest of Canada?
It's a gigantic update to Quebec's language laws, which have been part of the cultural fabric of the province for 50 years—and the proposal even goes so far as…
The Big StoryWhen will the border reopen? What will it look like when it does?
Last week the federal government announced a tentative plan to announce a less-tentative plan for a July border reopening in the coming weeks. What we do know…
The Big StoryHas TV reached the end of the ‘binge watch’ era?
When Disney+ launched its newest Marvel show, Loki, this week, it came with a marketing campaign: "Wednesdays (when new episodes of Loki will be released) are…
The Big StoryIslamophobia in Canada is getting worse. Will Canadians confront it?
This week, Canada's reckoning with its racist history was interrupted by its racist present. A terrorist attack in London, ON killed four members of a Muslim…
The Big StoryWhy hiring Canadians with disabilities is a competitive advantage
Lots of people, when applying for jobs, hope the people doing the hiring can see them as people, instead of as assets that can deliver value for the company…
The Big StoryIf Canada’s residential schools reckoning is real this time, what happens next?
There have been promises in the past. And committees, and commitments and commissions and no shortage of apologies. But in the wake of the 215 children found…
The Big StoryTrudeau’s Liberals promised to end the blood ban. Now they say it’s “complicated”.
The promise was pretty clear: During his first successful campaign as Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau told LGBT voters that we would end Canada’s longstanding…
The Big StoryWhat happens when the media fights back in a battle with the RCMP?
Every time there’s a protest, or dispute, or anything else newsworthy in rural Canada, the media shows up to cover it. And runs into the RCMP. Sometimes…
The Big StoryOur pandemic’s ending here. And almost nowhere else.
Less than one percent of the 1.8-billion Covid-19 vaccines used so far have gone to low-income countries. And in those countries new variants are emerging that…
The Big StoryWill the Olympics go ahead as planned? Should they?
Less than two months from now, unless something changes, the postponed 2020 Olympics will begin in Tokyo, Japan. Unless the country’s government listens to…
The Big StoryWhat does Pride look like in small-town Canada?
Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal … Canada truly has some of the world’s biggest and most beautiful Pride celebrations. But it also has some of the smallest. In…
The Big StoryWhy doesn’t Canadian health care include dental coverage?
It’s always been this way but … why? When it comes to everything from routine cleaning appointments and checkups to more complicated procedures like abscesses…
The Big StoryBONUS: What’s next? Results from our listener survey
We asked a whole bunch of questions, and hundreds of The Big Story’s listeners responded. We’re here for a special episode to share some of the most…
The Big StoryWhy online conspiracies aren’t just a QAnon problem
This is the story of a Jeopardy! contestant who made a white supremacist gesture on the program. Only he didn’t. But that didn’t stop thousands of people…
The Big StoryIs Greyhound’s exit a tragedy or an opportunity?
After nearly a century of moving Canadians between rural towns and big cities, Greyhound Canada announced last week it would end all Canadian routes. This is a…
The Big StoryA terrifying medical mystery in New Brunswick
When people started presenting with symptoms, local doctors and scientists wondered if the mysterious neurological disorder might be Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease…
The Big StoryWhat happens when a sex assault is reported to a dating app?
Hope and optimism are the reasons we sign up for dating apps — even if we know we'll end up in the muck when we get there. We expect some bad dates and…
The Big StoryMontreal’s Taxi Sheriff and a one-man war against Uber
When Uber first arrived in Montreal, it wasn't legal—but that didn't stop it. And cabbies were angry, but little was being done at the government level, and…
The Big StoryDoes your home have dangerous levels of radon?
A comprehensive, Canada-wide study found that Canada has some of the highest levels of radon in homes in the world. Roughly half the homes tested failed to…
The Big StoryInside Canada’s hottest hotspot: Why did it take so long to help Peel?
About 40 percent of the Amazon packages delivered to Canada come through Ontario's Peel Region. It manufactures almost everything. It's where trucks get loaded…
The Big StoryWhat happened to the wage subsidies the government gave to businesses?
Thousands of small businesses used the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to keep afloat and avoid laying off their staff. But they weren't the only type of…
The Big StoryA mountie has been on paid leave for 16 years. He’s not alone.
It began with allegations of sexual misconduct, but it went beyond that into a bureaucratic tangle that left the alleged victim's parents without justice, the…
The Big StoryFrom the UK, a glimpse of Canada’s future
Shopping! Parties! Beer! Reunions! As the United Kingdom moves into phase three of its reopening on Monday, even phase two seems far beyond what Canada can…
The Big StoryYour complete vaccine rollout FAQ
When Ontario and Alberta decided they would stop giving the AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose, part of the reasoning was an abundant supply of other…
The Big StoryWhy public health communications are an utter disaster
We are in the home stretch of this pandemic, even if you wouldn't know it from anything Canadian officials tell you. Vaccines work, and hundreds of thousands…
The Big StoryCalgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi talks power, pandemics and partisanship
He ran for mayor, and won three times, on a platform of bipartisanship, even as political squabbles were getting nastier by the day. He used social media to…
The Big StoryHow will babies born during the pandemic meet the world?
There are tens of thousands of infant Canadians who have never been held by anyone but their moms and dads; who have never played with another real live child…
The Big StoryForest vs. Highway: The eternal Canadian battle
The forest in question this time is a piece of land known as the Greenbelt. The highway, if it's built, would be known as Hwy. 413. If you think this is just a…