CANADALAND

#1068 Dental Plan (Lisa Needs Braces)

December 2, 2024

Are dentists defrauding the Canadian government?

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Was the Y2K Bug Really a Hoax?

November 28, 2024

The Millenium Bug was supposed to bring the world to a halt, but governments claimed they squashed the problem. Was it all a panic over nothing?

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#1063 Black Market Babies

November 25, 2024

“My job is to smuggle black market babies out of Canada and into the US. I’ve been at it off and on for the past 5 years. Maybe there’s an easier way to make a bankroll, but I don’t know it.” - Eugene Moyneur (ex-wrestler, ex-bodybuilder, baby-smuggler)

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#1059 Substack’s Founder on News, Money, and Musk

November 18, 2024

“Elon flipped out. He saw Substack as sort of like the number one competitor to X at the time. He banned discussion of the word Substack. And to this day, there's a lot of people who when they want to talk about Substack on Twitter, they write like, S star star B, like, like we're Voldemort or something.” - Chris Best, Substack co-founder and CEO

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#1055 The Copernic Affair: Chapter One

November 11, 2024

Is he a terrorist? Or a scapegoat?

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#1051 This is How the Airlines Screwed Us During the Pandemic

November 4, 2024

Documents reveal how Canada’s airline watchdog was pressured to bend the rules and leave Canadians holding the bag.

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#1047 What Comes After Woke?

October 28, 2024

“In an effort to put everything into question, we run the danger of losing any kind of firm footing on which to build a more just and equitable society. So the logical end game of a certain project of questioning is total bafflement or the destruction of everything.” - Professor Mark Kingwell

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I work at Canadaland.

October 21, 2024

Support us now at canadaland.com/join

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#1042 The City that Gets its News from a Dumpster Company

October 21, 2024

How did a garbage company become the “best” source for news in this major Canadian city?

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#1038 Even A.I.’s Creators don’t Understand how it Works

October 14, 2024

“Artificial intelligence was considered the realm of lunatics and wackos and eccentrics. So they couldn't get hired at really elite universities in the United States. [The] University of Toronto hired them, and then it turned out they were really right and all the elite people were really wrong.” - Stephen Marche, author of “Was Linguistic A.I. Created by Accident?”

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#1035 Israel: the Canadaland Interview

October 7, 2024

Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, Iddo Moed, sits down with Jesse for a candid and intense discussion about how Israel’s actions during the war are impacting Canadians.

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#1031 The Biggest Art Fraud Ring in History

September 30, 2024

It was the largest art fraud in history. The sheer volume of rip-offs numbering in the thousands. And the scheme that shocked the art world sprang from, of all places, Thunder Bay. How did the fraudsters hatch such a plan from such an unlikely place? And what part did a cold case murder play in finally exposing their cultural crime?

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#1030 Rebel Rebel, Your QCJO Status is a Mess

September 27, 2024

Cue the sad trombone sounds for Rebel Media, who just lost an appeal to qualify for federal journalism tax credits. Where will they get funding from now?

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#1029 Trudeau to Canadians in Lebanon: Good Luck, Babe!

September 25, 2024

Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, Norman Spector, joins to unpack the narratives and larger geopolitical context of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

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#1028 The Canadian Plan to Dig a Goldmine in the Amazon

September 23, 2024

A small Canadian firm wants to build the largest goldmine in Brazil. But there’s no shortage of questions, allegations, investigations and legal battles swirling around the proposed project. Are local subsistence miners making false claims to drive Canadian competition off their land? Are Canadian mining executives violating human rights for an estimated $8 billion payout? Why is the UN investigating? What should the role of the Canadian government be in all this?

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#1025 The Case for NIMBYism

September 16, 2024

“...they finally found budget for security on July 7th of 2023, within a couple of hours of a local mother in our neighborhood being shot and killed during a dispute between three drug dealers outside of the injection site. That's when they got security. They found the budget after the shooting.” - Derek Finkle

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#1022 The Painful Truth About IUDs

September 9, 2024

“The pain was like… my body knew that something was wrong.”

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#1020 Jesse Brown Brings You The Worst Podcast

September 2, 2024

How bad could it be?

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#1018 Why Are Thousands of Gazans Still Waiting to Come to Canada?

August 26, 2024

Canada’s official visa process has not helped a single person leave Gaza.

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#1014 Can You be Allergic to Music?

August 12, 2024

The songs stuck in Anya’s head turned out to be a mystery disease, but for years, doctors were at a loss to cure her.

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#1012 The Astonishing Failure of Trudeau’s Media Bailout

August 5, 2024

Justin Ling has kind of had it. 

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#1010 The Menswear Guy Ranks Trudeau, Poilievre, and Singh

July 29, 2024

He’s given Donald Trump tips on removing makeup stains from his suit collars, advised Boris Johnson on how to not dress like a schlub, and now The Menswear Guy sets out to rank the sartorial splendor, or lack thereof, of Trudeau, Poilievre and Singh.

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#1008 How to Beat the Airline that Screwed You

July 22, 2024

Airlines suck. But you don’t have to take it lying down.

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Introducing Inside Kabul

July 17, 2024

We’re bringing you a special sneak preview of Inside Kabul, an Award Winning podcast from Radio France.. Canadaland is proud to premiere the English-language adaptation of this urgent and intimate podcast

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#1006 The Last Ambulance

July 15, 2024

“I can look up online and track snow plows in real time, but I don't know which ambulance is in service. I don't know what the paramedic staffing level for Montreal is, but I can tell you where the snow plows are. There is something seriously skewed.” - ex-paramedic Hal Newman

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#1002 Brain Disease ‘Mystery’ Still Unsolved, Scientists Say

July 1, 2024

Email leaks from medical experts throw new light on mysterious neurological disease in New Brunswick.

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#1000 How They Crushed Wikileaks

June 24, 2024

Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, TOR, you’ve heard the names before. But why won’t anyone talk about Jacob Appelbaum?

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#998 Nature is SO Gay

June 17, 2024

25 years ago, one Canadian scientist wrote a book that detailed the history and science of gay animals: Biological Exuberance. And then he disappeared…

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Dear Taliban: Part One

June 10, 2024

Investigative reporter Molly Thomas was hell-bent on not letting the plight of women in Afghanistan fall from the headlines. But the battle to tell that story wasn’t where she first thought it was.

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#994 Inside Winnipeg’s MMIWG Murder Trial

June 3, 2024

This story started out like every other Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women case. But something happened that would change the trajectory of the case, the people, and even political leaders in Manitoba.

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#992 Culture Collapse

May 27, 2024

Hot Docs, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Just for Laughs, just the latest cultural institutions to join a long list of Canadian arts groups facing existential threats. Why is this all happening now?

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#990 Who Trolled Amber: Canadaland recommends

May 20, 2024

Reporter Alexi Mostrous will tell you all about how a Canadian private intelligence practitioner and investigator, set him off on a quest to find out who trolled Amber Heard.

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#988 The Pretendian Crisis

May 13, 2024

What happens if pretendians start to outnumber actual Indigenous people?

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#986 Voice Of The Common Man

May 6, 2024

It’s the biggest media success story you’ve (maybe) never heard of.

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#984 In the Shadow of the Shadow War

April 29, 2024

As the conflict in the Middle East continues to heat up, many Canadian diaspora communities have been affected and talked about in recent months. But as Iran starts to take a more central role, what is the temperature around the dinner table of Iranian-Canadians?

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#982 Thunder Bay Police Chaos

April 22, 2024

A former police chief was arrested in Thunder Bay on April 12, 2024. But there’s more to this story than meets the eye.

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#980 Slash and Burn: How Cheap Debt Killed the News

April 15, 2024

Has journalism been left holding the bag for Big Media’s bad bet? 

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#978 Should Gaza Compel a Return to Canadian Peacekeeping?

April 8, 2024

What is behind the near complete collapse of Canada’s role in peacekeeping around the world?

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#976 An Oral History Of Just For Laughs Gags

April 1, 2024

The story that no one asked for, but must be told. The story of one of Canada’s most popular entertainment exports ever. An oral history of the hit show, Just For Laughs Gags.

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#974 We Spied on the Spies Who Spy on Activists

March 25, 2024

Of all the private intelligence firms in the English-language world, there appears to be just one whose speciality is tracking activists. And it has a branch office in Calgary.

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#972 The Witch Trials Of Andy Mills

March 18, 2024

Andy Mills’ podcasting work for The New York Times won a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize citation. Then he lost it all.

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#970 How Work Got So Sh*tty

March 11, 2024

Twenty years of school gets you what… An unpaid internship? An e-bike to deliver ramen? And some sort of side hustle? How did we get here? Today we look at work in Canada.

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#968 The Conservative Decade Ahead

March 4, 2024

If the polls are anywhere near correct Pierre Poilievre is on track to be our next Prime Minister. And he may be in that job for a long time. So today we’re going to dare to speculate: what would years of Conservative rule look like?

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#966 State of Emergency in Pikwakanagan

February 26, 2024

When an Opioid Crisis hits a First Nation it’s different than in a city. In the city the addicted are mostly strangers. But in Pikwakanagan, if you see somebody behaving strangely on the reserve, you know them. You know your neighbor's business. You are your brother's keeper. So addiction is not just about the pain of losing somebody you love. It's about desperately hoping to save someone you love or protect someone you love.

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#964 A Long Shot For Gaza

February 19, 2024

In Sherbrooke, Quebec, a doctor watches the war in Gaza unfold through photos and videos from his family on the ground.

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#962 Can Porn’s Business Model Save The News Industry?

February 12, 2024

In part two of his interview with former Big Tobacco lawyer, Max Krangle, Jesse asks if porn's business model can save the news industry?

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#960 Tent Cities, Karaoke And Birthday Cake

February 5, 2024

Tent cities are becoming a common sight in city centres across the country. Is this just the new normal?

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#956 Why Government Is Addicted to Cigarettes

January 22, 2024

The Canadian government doesn't want anyone to smoke. Or do they?

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#954 The Dangers Of Dumb AI

January 15, 2024

What happens when an AI says someone else, is you?

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#950 Yukon’s Path to Indigenous Self-Governance

January 1, 2024

Often underreported or ignored by national media, the unique and complex issues facing the people who call Yukon home rarely get the attention they deserve.

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#948 Christmas In The Newsroom

December 25, 2023

Stories of big news breaking when everyone else is on vacation

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#946 Drunk Uncle Holiday Argument Simulator

December 18, 2023

We asked people to call Jesse and argue about… whatever, in the true spirit of this festive season.

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#944 The Journalists’ Psychiatrist

December 11, 2023

What was the mystery illness that sent a young woman into Dr. Anthony Feinstein’s treatment room? How did her stroke-like symptoms lead to a whole new field of psychiatric study? What does it have to do with journalists working in conflict zones?

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#942 How Canada Became An International Joke

December 4, 2023

What is going on with Canada’s international relations? With all the recent stories about India and the Two Michaels time in China coming to the front again, reporter Sam Cooper helps break it all down.

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Is Jesse a Zionist? (editorial)

November 29, 2023

Canadaland publisher Jesse Brown has been asked to stop talking about antisemitism.

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#940 How Flacks Spin Hacks

November 27, 2023

Journalists report the news. They hear about a story, write it up, verify the facts, and then hit “publish”. Except for the times when they publish someone else’s story…

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#938 Thunder Bay: Post-Mortem, Part 2

November 20, 2023

Nine sudden death cases of Indigenous people in Thunder Bay, Ontario were investigated so poorly that they had to be reinvestigated. But were they able to get it right this time?

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#936 Thunder Bay: Post-Mortem, Part 1

November 13, 2023

For over five years, Canadaland has been investigating Thunder Bay, Ontario. Specifically, we have been trying to figure out why there were so many unanswered questions around the deaths of Indigenous people in this one Ontario town.

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#934 The Aquanaut

November 6, 2023

It’s easy to imagine medical science and research being done from the safety of a lab with all the proper controls in place. But sometimes, it all starts with one person, going underwater, and exploring caves for unique and mysterious sea creatures.

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The Newfoundlander: Chapter 1

October 30, 2023

While at a production of the hit Broadway musical Come From Away in 2019, reporter Justin Brake is confronted with an old story about his family’s history, a story that challenges his sense of identity. He decides to find out what was true in that story, and what was false.

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#930 Alive At Ten

October 23, 2023

Canadaland’s official tenth anniversary celebration took place last Thursday at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema, as part of the Hot Docs Podcast Festival. Today we bring you a condensed version of that event. Featuring appearances from all of the Canadaland hosts you know and love. Oh, and Jan Wong interviews Jesse for once… wait for it.

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#928 How Connie Walker Won

October 16, 2023

The CBC once produced a podcast series that was an international hit. The broadcaster-turned-podcaster who made it, Connie Walker, recently won a Pulitzer Prize and a Peabody award for her work. Except she won those awards NOT for the CBC, but for Gimlet and Spotify. What happened?

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#926 Who’s Behind A Fake Trudeau Sex Scandal?

October 10, 2023

There’s a really popular Canadian politics YouTube channel with hundreds of anti-Trudeau videos. Something seemed a little fishy though. Jesse, Jonathan, and Karyn start pulling at a thread that ultimately takes their search to the other side of the world.

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#924 Radical Reconciliation

October 2, 2023

A radical form of reconciliation is emerging in Saskatchewan.

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#922 Foreign Influence: How Castro and a Belgian Brought Violent Revolution to Quebec

September 25, 2023

What connects Fidel Castro and a stocky Belgian named Georges to the worst campaign of political violence in modern Canadian history?

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#920 A Wine Critic Spills All

September 18, 2023

Have the business practices of one of the world's biggest liquor monopolies damaged wine writing? And, is the environment created by this vacuum in the world of journalism being abused by some high profile writers?

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#918 How To Save Canada

September 11, 2023

When some Canadians look south of the border, sometimes all they can think is: thank god I’m Canadian. But can a Coffee Crisp, or the pronunciation of the letter Z, really save us from the rise of fascism?

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#916 Chantal Hébert

September 4, 2023

It’s possible that Chantal Hébert’s journalism once held Canada together. She joins Jesse for a discussion about what’s appropriate in political news coverage, and what (if anything) needs to change.

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#914 Stock Buybacks: How Grocers Eat Themselves

August 28, 2023

Canada’s biggest grocery chains spent nearly 2 billion last year buying up their own stocks.

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#912 Is The Foreign Interference Scandal Overblown?

August 21, 2023

Foreign Interference by the Chinese government into Canadian politics is probably the biggest news story of the year, and yet we know so little about it. What was the interference? Why did it occur? Did it work? Who was involved?

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#910 Podcasting In Cubaland

August 14, 2023

What’s it like to podcast in a country where freedom of expression can land you in jail?

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#908 The Interrogation Of Jesse Brown

August 7, 2023

Jesse Brown might think himself quite the question master, but today the tables have turned and our guest host, Jonathan Torrens, investigates the inner workings of this show's host.

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#906 Refugee Crisis On A Street Corner

July 31, 2023

What does Toronto’s response to the refugee crisis actually look like? We follow asylum seekers at 129 Peter Street as they search for a place to spend the night.

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#904 The Truth About Polkaroo

July 24, 2023

From Mr. Rogers to Mr. Dressup to Degrassi, some of the most iconic names in children’s television got their start in Canada, so why don’t we remember just how good we were at being first and being best in children’s television?

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#902 The CANADALAND Guide To Navigator

July 17, 2023

When Canada’s elite feel threatened, there’s one company they turn to.

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#900 Ukraine vs Press Freedom

July 10, 2023

Canada stands with Ukraine. Ukraine is our friend and ally. Ukraine is like us, they are a democracy, fighting for their sovereignty and their freedoms - including freedom of the press - from a hostile, despotic invader who respects none of those liberties. And as Ukraine fights Russia for those freedoms, Canada is sending over money, weapons, and….journalists. But Ukraine tried to send one back.

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#898 WTF, Marc Maron Is Moving To Canada?

July 3, 2023

Marc joins Jesse for a conversation about his plans to emigrate to Vancouver and the differences between Canada and the U.S. when it comes to fascism, comedy, and Jews.

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#896 A House Divided, Again: BC’s Housing Scandal

June 26, 2023

For years, there were concerns that two people at the centre of subsidized housing in Vancouver were married. For years, the province brushed it off. Until now.

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#894 Mystery Brain Disease Cases Quadruple, Says New Brunswick Doctor

June 19, 2023

Mystery disease patient count exceeds 200, says New Brunswick doctor. CANADALAND gains an exclusive interview with Dr. Alier Marrero, the doctor at the heart of the mysterious neurological disease investigation.

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#892 The Rise and Fall of BuzzFeed News

June 12, 2023

In the mid-2010s, BuzzFeed News seemed like the most exciting place in media: an almost cloyingly whimsical carnival of abundance where journalists were actually happy. At a time when everything else appeared to be crumbling, it burst with hope and possibility. Last month, after just a few years of layoffs and withering, it shut down for good.

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#890 Crime Pays, If You’re A Journalist

June 5, 2023

This week Jesse cross-examines poet turned investigative journalist, Michael Lista, on the business, craft, and morality of the true crime beat.

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#888 How To Save News Media From Our Tech Overlords

May 29, 2023

The ad tech giants, Meta, Google, and their ilk, are, well, giants. Is Cory Doctorow the David to this Goliath? Will his plan to take down the giants work?

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#886 News Tropes And Moral Panic

May 22, 2023

The newspapers of the past looked very different than they do today: openly partisan stories were published alongside reports about Martians and the diseases caused by jazz music. It was a different time - or was it?

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#882 Blackberry The Phone The Podcast

May 8, 2023

For nearly a decade, Research in Motion was the global leader in smartphones with its iconic QWERTY-keyboard-having Blackberry. Through a mix of guerilla marketing and an unexpected boost in sales after 9/11, the rather simplistic email device was transferring some of the world’s most closely guarded secrets, from government officials, business leaders, and celebrities through some servers in Waterloo, Ontario. What was the cause of its demise? The iPhone? Google? Hubris?

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#880 Terry O’Reilly’s Had It With Ads

May 1, 2023

Who started the first successful podcast network in Canada? What do 1950s TV and Radio have to do with podcasting? Jesse Brown sits down with Terry O’Reilly, host of Under the Influence, to talk about all things podcasting and advertising.

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#878 Escaping America

April 24, 2023

Canada’s recent decision to close unofficial border crossings, such as Roxham Road, doubles down on the idea that migrants seeking asylum are just as safe in the US as they are in Canada. But there’s a body of evidence saying it’s not — and that’s been clear for decades.

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#874 Cursed Rabbits

April 10, 2023

Today’s episode is about dead bunnies.

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#872 How To Catch Your Online Tormentor

April 3, 2023

We have laws against criminal harassment, but police rarely enforce them against Internet abusers. This is the story of one journalist who refused to let her harasser go…

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#870 The Plan To Block All Canadian News

March 27, 2023

How Bill C-18, the Online News Act, will make news less available.

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#868 The Senator Fighting Bill C-11

March 20, 2023

Senator Paula Simons fears that the Online Streaming Act will make Canada a “cultural backwater.” A key amendment she proposed was rejected by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. Will the Senate take on the Trudeau government and defeat the bill?

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#864 Scams And Slime: C-11 And The Future Of CanCon

March 6, 2023

Do people watch Canadian film and television? What even is CanCon? Will Bill C-11 fix any of that?

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#862 Donors To BIPOC Retreat Feel It Was A “Scam”

February 27, 2023

There aren’t a lot of dedicated spaces for Black, Indigenous and People of Colour in Nova Scotia. One community group wanted to change that — but instead were betrayed.

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#860 Why We Need Guns

February 20, 2023

Ian Runkle, firearms lawyer, makes the pro-gun case to Jesse, following a political victory for gun rights advocates. 

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#858 One Rich Man Won’t Save Journalism

February 13, 2023

They said they’d found a way to save journalism. They did not.

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#854 Big Trouble with Meddling China

January 30, 2023

The Chinese state has infiltrated Canadian democracy at all levels, according to a bombshell report from investigative reporter Sam Cooper of Global News. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has issued a stern denial, throwing cold water on the story. Who's telling the truth? And exactly what is Beijing up to in Canada? Sam Cooper explains his work. 

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#852 Medical Lies From The Maritimes

January 23, 2023

CANADALAND has obtained thousands and thousands of pages of internal documents that take us behind the scenes of that investigation that once caught the attention of the nation, before being dropped like a hot potato.

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#850 WTF, Marc Maron Is Moving To Canada?

January 16, 2023

Marc joins Jesse for a conversation about his plans to emigrate to Vancouver and the differences between Canada and the U.S. when it comes to fascism, comedy, and Jews. 

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#848 Black Celebs vs “Jewish Media”

January 9, 2023

Kanye West, Dave Chappelle and Kyrie Irving have breathed new life into the antisemitic trope that Jews control the media. Is Jew-hatred from Black cultural icons more dangerous than the usual bigotry? And why is it so difficult for Jewish and Black communities to hear each other when it comes to racism? Emilie Nicolas joins Jesse to lay out a framework for better conversations.

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#844 Sarah Polley’s Secret Life

December 26, 2022

Sarah Polley has come forward with memories of a violent sexual encounter with Jian Ghomeshi when she was 16. But why is the press tongue-tied about describing the alleged violence? Sarah sits down with Jesse to discuss how to safely run towards danger, and whether it’s even possible to ethically use child labour in the production of TV and film.

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#842 Christmas In The Newsroom

December 19, 2022

Stories of big news breaking when everyone else is on vacation.

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#840 The Taking of Wood Buffalo

December 12, 2022

The largest National Park in Canada is Wood Buffalo, currently celebrating its 100th anniversary. But the people who inhabited it for thousands of years before that want it back. Brandi Morin travels to Wood Buffalo (and to Fort MacMurray and to Fort Chipewyan) to tell the real story of the Dene, the Cree, and the land they were expelled from to make way for Wood Buffalo National Park. 

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#838 The Food Bank Industrial Complex

December 5, 2022

It’s the holidays, and on your TV or radio you’re inevitably hit with ads telling you that this is the season of giving - it’s time to donate to a food drive. Conservative politicians, Liberal politicians, banks, broadcasters, grocery stores: they all are united in this message. With the promotion of food banks from virtually every institution and elected official in the country, you might conclude that they are the best solution to food insecurity. Except - they’re not. Food bank use in Canada is at an all-time high, and experts, community organizers, even staff at food banks say that the growing need just shows how our government has failed to address poverty and hold corporations to account.

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#836 Cops, Lies, And Videotape

November 28, 2022

*A note to listeners: Today’s episode deals with sexual violence inflicted on minors and won’t be suitable for all listeners. In 2006, RCMP Const. Joseph Kohut kicked down the door to his ex’s home in Prince George, B.C., and left with certain belongings. His ex said that one of the things Kohut took was a videotape showing him sexually harassing an underage Indigenous girl. Kohut had already been investigated for sexual misconduct after a local judge pled guilty to sexually assaulting several Indigenous minors. Kohut’s ex, also a Mountie, reported the alleged theft of evidence. So what happened next? Reporter Jessica McDiarmid tells the story of 16-years of entropy and indifference within the RCMP.

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#832 Ratfucker Chapter Three: The Trojan Horse

November 14, 2022

Thanks to David Wallace and Richard Marsh, the Klondike Papers blew up online - and nothing garnered more attention than Wallace’s claim that there was a plot to get rid of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Could it be true? Cherise and Jesse try to get to the bottom of what actually happened, and in doing so discover a complex network of Brethren business with extensive political connections around the globe.

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#830 Ratfucker Chapter Two: The Brethren

November 7, 2022

Richard Marsh was born into the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. He got out of the group he calls a cult and has made it his mission to expose the Brethren for their alleged abuses.  Now he’s on the run from Brethren members who’ve been searching for him for years. The man hired to hunt Marsh down? David Wallace. 

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#828 Ratfucker

October 31, 2022

Meet David Wallace, political fixer and dirty tricks operative. After a career in the shadows, he’s turned whistleblower, leaking his files and sparking a conspiracy theory. But why? And can he be trusted?

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#824 Hark! A Migrant (Worker)

October 17, 2022

Kate Beaton has written the best book about the oil sands, ever. It's a nonfiction comic book called Ducks, and it's about class in Canada as much as it's about anything. She talks with Jesse about what it's like to be a migrant worker in your own country.

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#822 Salvaging The Beachcombers

October 10, 2022

The Beachcombers was a wildly long-running series, by any measure. With 387 episodes, the CBC dramedy had more installments than CSI, and five times as many as Schitt’s Creek. For nearly two decades, it was just always there — until one day it wasn’t. Since the last episode aired in 1990, The Beachcombers has largely been forgotten, its title reduced to a punchline. But there’s one place that can’t forget. Producer Sophie Woodrooffe pays a visit to Gibsons, BC, the town that takes The Beachcombers more than a little seriously.

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#820 Crimes Against Nature

October 3, 2022

Every year, hundreds, possibly thousands, of crimes are happening in the woods of British Columbia. Sometimes the law catches them, but more often than not, they don’t. So, what exactly is happening in BC’s forests?

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#818 CTV Workers On Workplace Abuse

September 26, 2022

Lisa LaFlamme was but one CTV News employee. Dozens more speak to us about a toxic workplace where abuse, bullying, and burnout have allegedly been normal. This culture comes from a deliberate corporate plan. In one case, the consequences may have been fatal.

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#816 The True Story Of Sasquatch

September 19, 2022

Every pop culture reference to Sasquatch or Bigfoot can be traced to one Macleans Magazine article from 1929, written by Indian Agent J.W. Burns, who stole the story of Sas’qets, a core part of Sto:lo cultural identity for thousands of years. Robert Jago is a Sto:lo writer and Sasquatch enthusiast who set out to take Sasquatch back. But the process of cultural appropriation turns out to be more complicated than passing a physical object back and forth, and Jago tells a unique story of how the Sts’ailes people kept their culture alive in the face of genocide, by appropriating appropriation.

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#814 The McAfee Virus

September 12, 2022

 A new Netflix documentary documents the violent life and death of John McAfee, a silicon valley magnate who became a murder suspect and the target of an international manhunt.

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#812 Bruce McCulloch

September 5, 2022

This week we revisit our interview with Kid In The Hall, Bruce McCulloch.

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#810 Updates On Nuclear Waste, A Bond Villain, And Starbucks Unions

August 29, 2022

After we turn off our microphones, here at CANADALAND, the story keeps going. Here are updates on three stories we told you over the last year and a half.

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#808 Is New Brunswick Covering Up A Deadly Brain Disease?

August 22, 2022

This week, we revisit a mystery plaguing New Brunswick. Early on-set dementia, muscle atrophy, hallucinations -- in a word, a nightmare. But a mystery that still has yielded few answers.

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#806 Sh*tty Cities

August 15, 2022

Governments all over Canada keep building infrastructure that is innately harmful to Canadians and the climate. What might better, more sustainable cities look (and sound) like?

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#804 The Interrogation Of Jesse Brown

August 8, 2022

Jesse Brown might think himself quite the question master, but today the tables have turned and our guest host, the Jonathan Torrens, investigates the inner workings of this show's host.

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#802 Jody Porter And A Complicated Legacy

August 1, 2022

Jody Porter was a reporting powerhouse at the CBC and advocated for human rights and Indigenous rights in Northwestern Ontario for decades. But she had complicated feelings about her work toward the end of her life. Jody passed away on July 19, 2022 and we are re-airing a conversation where she talked about these complicated feelings she had about her legacy. This interview originally aired in 2020.

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#800 Cindy Blackstock’s Long Game

July 25, 2022

Cindy Blackstock was always aware that Indigenous children in Canada were treated differently, that their mistreatment and deaths were accepted as the status quo. This is the story of what she did about it.

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#798 Pardon My French

July 18, 2022

What's in a word? Especially when that word carries with it the pain of hundreds of years of racism? This week we talk about how the controversy over the public use of the N-word plays out differently in French and English in this country.

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#796 CPC F*ckery

July 11, 2022

Patrick Brown was disqualified from the Conservative's leadership race. But what does that mean? And why are these internal politics always so... stabby?

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#794 Enormous Fires Everywhere

July 4, 2022

Raging wildfires are now a normal part of summertime in Canada. Climate change comes at you fast, but the impact of these fires is far from equal across different regions. Those most likely to have to flee their homes are Indigenous people, and this disproportionate risk is only growing. The number of evacuees from First Nation reserves doubled over the last decade. Producer Sarah Lawrynuik travels to a remote Manitoba community to look at what fire has done to one community, and examines the implications for tens of thousands of other people in the years to come.

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#792 Education: What Is It Good For?

June 27, 2022

Funding cuts, tuition increases and staff layoffs. What's going on with post-secondary institutions in Alberta?

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#790 The Dubious Botanist

June 20, 2022

Steven Newmaster, a botany professor, once shone a light on the nutritional supplement industry and called them frauds. Now, the light is being shone on him by his colleagues. And boy, buckle up because this story is a wild ride.

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#788 The Baristas Vs. Starbucks

June 13, 2022

A wave of retail and service sector workers are unionizing their workplaces, pushing back against anti-union practices. Why is this happening now? And can workers win in the long run?

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#786 Digging For Doubt

June 6, 2022

Ostensibly the idea was to do media criticism. That is what the article, The Year Of The Graves, in the National Post set out to do: correct errors in how the discovery of unmarked graves was reported. But that was not its impact.

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#784 Sea Wolves, Oil Snakes

May 30, 2022

A field report from coast Salish territory on the irreconcilable conflict between the Tsleil-Waututh Nation and the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project. There are 73 remaining Southern Resident Killer Whales in existence. The Tsleil-Waututh Nation consider the survival of these orcas and the survival of their people to be the same thing. The government insists a compromise can be met. The Tsleil-Waututh reject this notion, and many are prepared to die in defense of their "wolves of the sea". Brandi Morin reports.

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#782 The Weird History Of Vancouver’s Italian Press

May 23, 2022

A look at the wonderfully bizarre history of Vancouver’s warring Italian-language newspapers.

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#780 Medusa

May 16, 2022

Operation Medusa has become the most celebrated battle in recent Canadian history. It was hailed as a stroke of military genius that may have vanquished the Taliban once and for all. But that was never the whole story.

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#778 Abortion Rights In Canada Didn’t Come Easy

May 9, 2022

With the seemingly imminent repeal of Roe v. Wade in the United States, it's time to refamiliarize ourselves with Canada's long-fought history for abortion access.

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#776 Prairie Poop Bots, Floods And Water Shortages

May 2, 2022

Canada might be a water-rich country, but that doesn't mean we don't have problems with water security. This week, we look at water issues in the most arid part of Canada, the Prairies, and see how climate change and city planning are both exacerbating the problem.

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#774 The Ad Money Fuelling Fake News

April 25, 2022

What do the war in Ukraine, toilet cleaner, and the dying news industry have in common? In short: online ads.

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#772 Landback, Then What?

April 18, 2022

Is it Indigenous stewardship ownership or is it becoming just another holographic bumper sticker? What does landback mean to you, and to your nations and homelands? And is there room for settlers in this movement? This is the first episode of a new 6-episode podcast called Canadalandback!  In it, we talk about what landback means, we host our first roundtable discussion and take you inside a land-based education program. 

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#770 Google And Facebook To The Rescue: Canadian News Gets On Big Tech’s Payroll

April 11, 2022

Canada is two years into its news media bailout. How the policy has had both good, bad and unintended consequences.

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#768 “We Are Not The Journalism Police” – An Interview With The Journalism Police

April 4, 2022

Canada is two years into its news media bailout. Transparency was promised, instead we got secrecy.

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#766 #MeToo On Trial

March 28, 2022

How much trouble can one tweet cause? It turns out if it's about sexual assault, or even about someone else who's talking about sexual assault, it can land you stuck in court proceedings... for years.

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#764 Nasty Dumps And The Success Of BlogTO

March 21, 2022

So many journalists would look down their noses and sneer at the likes of BlogTO, Narcity or MTL Blog. But while hard news is struggling to find a funding model that works, BlogTO just sold for $15 million.

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#762 Sarah Polley’s Secret Life

March 14, 2022

Sarah Polley has come forward with memories of a violent sexual encounter with Jian Ghomeshi when she was 16. But why is the press tongue-tied about describing the alleged violence?

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#760 Russia’s Weapons Of Mass Deception

March 7, 2022

Before there was an invasion in Ukraine, there was an information war. A deep-dive into the inner workings of Russia's information chaos machine.

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#758 Ottawa Cops: Rapes, Lies, And A Lawsuit Against The Press

February 28, 2022

The Ottawa Police Service has been plagued by officer misconduct. Now a leaked video shows that there may have been concerns about the former chief’s behavior before he was hired by the force.

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#756 “How I Ended Up Supporting The Convoy”

February 21, 2022

There's a lot of chaos and division in Canada right now. In this episode, it's back to the basics: having conversations.

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#754 Will You Be My Ex? Canada’s Broken Divorce System

February 14, 2022

What's the word for the scrooge of Valentine's Day? CANADALAND, I guess. Today's episode looks at four stories that show how broken the divorce process is.

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#752 Inside Thunder Bay’s Police

February 7, 2022

CANADALAND has spent a lot of time in Thunder Bay and the events of the last month have forced us to once again turn our focus back on the city as the police force is said to be "on the brink of collapse."

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#750 Dead Willies

January 31, 2022

It’s a story about deception, coverups, and some say, about murder. This is a story about Groundhog Day. The true story of Wiarton Willie.

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#748 The Plan To Turn My Hometown Into A Nuclear Waste Dump

January 24, 2022

Canada has a nuclear problem... a nuclear waste problem. The hunt for a place to park radioactive waste has been ongoing in one form or another since 1978, but by 2023 it seems a solution will be within reach.

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#746 Is New Brunswick Covering Up A Deadly Brain Disease?

January 17, 2022

There's a mystery disease that's plaguing people in New Brunswick. People as young as 18 are seeing the results of full-blown dementia. Desperation is taking hold for families that feel answers are still a long way away.

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#744 Is The CBC So Woke It’s Broke?

January 10, 2022

A CBC employee resigned from the public broadcaster because she says it's become too woke. The article she wrote about her departure has caused quite the buzz since it dropped. But who is Tara Henley? And is it all warranted?

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#742 Updates On Pretendians, Porn, And Being Priced Out Of Life

January 3, 2022

After we turn off our microphones, here at CANADALAND, the story keeps going. Here are updates on three stories we originally brought you in 2021.

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#258 Christmas In The Newsroom

December 27, 2021

People might take holidays, but the news doesn't. The best, worst, and funniest stories from reporters working Christmas in the newsroom.

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#739 The Duty To Sh*t Disturb

December 20, 2021

He's the academic expert people love to hate. But he considers stirring the pot his moral duty. This week, CANADALAND brings you a profile of Amir Attaran.

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#737 The Tyranny Of Convenience

December 13, 2021

March 16, the day the restaurants died. Or did they? Food industry writer, Corey Mintz, dissects what COVID-19 and the rise of third-party delivery apps have meant for the industry and our culture surrounding food.

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#735 Jailed for Journalism: Amber & Michael Speak Out

December 6, 2021

Amber Bracken and Michael Toledano are freelance journalists who were arrested by RCMP officers on the morning of Nov. 19, 2021 while they were covering the demonstrations of Wet'suwet'en people and hereditary chiefs against the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline. 

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#733 The Rise Of 6ixBuzz And The Death Of Debby Parkway

November 29, 2021

Did an Instagram account kill a vulnerable teenager? 6ixBuzz has unparalleled clout in Toronto with young audiences and it used that influence to make "Debby Gang" or "Debby Parkway" (real name Alexis Matos) a certain brand of local celebrity — the kind that is repeatedly filmed when spotted on the street, and is then is the subject of mockery and scorn.

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#731 Deep Rot in the RCMP

November 22, 2021

Failure to protect hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women. Violent arrests at Wet'suwet'en and Fairy Creek. And now, Portapique. In recent years, controversy has hounded Canada’s storied national police force.

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#729 The Most Monotonous Emergency, Ever

November 15, 2021

On the heels of COP26, Jesse heads back to school as he and his new senior producer, Sarah Lawrynuik, duke it out over whether climate change is either a) boring or b) the most exciting story ever told. Sarah takes Jesse through the psychological factors at play, the history, the politics and the morality of the climate crisis, while making her case for the latter. Will Canadaland move forward with stories about climate change? Listen to find out.

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#727 Millennial Mobsters

November 8, 2021

A new breed of hyper-connected, steroid-abusing, gender-bending, "entitled" thugs are changing the landscape of organized crime in Canada, according to veteran crime reporters Peter Edwards and Luis Najera. Also, the Mexican Cartels are here with them. 

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#725 The Rogers Family Compact

November 1, 2021

Who are the Rogers family? How did they get so powerful? Why have they turned against one another? And what does it matter?  We've spent a week immersed in Rogers history to bring you this unofficial narrative of Canada's telecom overlords. 

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#723 The High Cost Of Living

October 25, 2021

Madeline, a BC woman who describes herself as being on a “death clock”, is one of many Canadians facing that choice. And legislators are now pushing for a further expansion of MAiD - while disability supports remain unchanged.

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#721 Enormous Fires Everywhere

October 18, 2021

Raging wildfires are now a normal part of summertime in Canada. Climate change comes at you fast, but the impact of these fires is far from equal across different regions. Those most likely to have to flee their homes are Indigenous people, and this disproportionate risk is only growing. The number of evacuees from First Nation reserves doubled over the last decade. Producer Sarah Lawrynuik travels to a remote Manitoba community to look at what fire has done to one community, and examines the implications for tens of thousands of other people in the years to come.

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#719 Mommy, Where Does COVID Come From, Part Two

October 11, 2021

Virologist Angela Rasmussen listened to a recent Canadaland about the origins of COVID-19 and says we had it all wrong. Today she walks Jesse through the science and explains why the lab-leak theory remains highly improbable, what she feels previous guest Elaine Dewar got wrong, and how journalists should cover science during a pandemic and otherwise. 

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#717 Is the PPC racist?

October 4, 2021

It’s a question that has dogged the PPC since its inception. A question that leader Maxime Bernier blasted journalists for even coming close to asking.

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#715 Mommy, Where Does COVID Come From?

September 27, 2021

The lab-leak theory has more evidence supporting it than ever before. Journalist Elaine Dewar has written a new book documenting little-known scientific evidence and acts of deception and obfuscation from Chinese, American, and Canadian officials. So what exactly were they all trying to hide?

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#713 Violence At Fairy Creek

September 20, 2021

Is it possible to police the police at Fairy Creek? 

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#711 Gagged By Law

September 13, 2021

Non-disclosure agreements are incredibly common. But they protect abusers, and block journalism. They are also, as it turns out, often unenforceable. Zelda Perkins, who blew the whistle on Harvey Weinstein, has joined forces with law professor Julie Macfarlane to launch a global campaign against NDAs, called Can't Buy My Silence. 

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#709 Canadian Politics Don’t Have To Suck

September 6, 2021

With the election coming in two weeks, Jesse sits down for an interview with Tiffany Lam, producer of The Backbench, to discuss what kind of politics show her and Fatima are making and how a politics show can be fun, accessible and nutritious. The interview is followed by the most recent episode of The Backbench. Subscribe to The Backbench to be informed about the important issues of this election.

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#707 Canada’s International Cash Cows

August 30, 2021

Last year there were 540,000 international students in Canada according to Immigrations Refugees and Citizenship Canada, IRCC. Many of these students came to Canada with one goal - permanent residency. 

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#705 The White Saviors

August 23, 2021

Craig Kielburger was the Greta Thunberg of the 90s – a 12 year-old kid from the suburbs who dreamed of freeing the world’s children from slavery. His activism made him famous, and he was endorsed by Oprah, the Pope, the Queen, and the Clintons. His campaign became a global movement and a powerful brand. But right from the start, there were uncomfortable questions about money and exploitation. Decades later, it all came crashing down. But the seeds of WE’s self-destruction were planted right from the start…

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#297 Shad’s Hip-Hop Evolution

August 16, 2021

Shad's Hip-Hop Evolution is an incredible piece of journalism that nobody is talking about.

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#702 Foreign Agents Are Active In Canada

August 9, 2021

In late 2020, FBI agents showed up at the New York home of activist and journalist Masih Alinejad, and told her that agents of the Iranian regime were plotting to kidnap her. Months later, an indictment from the US Department of Justice revealed details of the plot - including surveillance of her home and family, and a plan to take her to Venezuela by boat. But it also mentioned three people in Canada were also targets.

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#700 I Remember John Furlong

August 2, 2021

Teachers accused of abusing Indigenous children at Catholic schools are among us. John Furlong is quoted regularly in the press as the man leading a possible Vancouver bid for the 2030 Olympics. It's as if the people accusing him of physical and sexual abuse don't exist. Today we hear Jesse's original 2014 conversation with journalist Laura Robinson, who broke the Furlong story, and an update about all that has happened since, and why the upcoming tribunal on the case may be different.

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#698 Journalism Schools Are Revolting

July 26, 2021

Ryerson University (aka X University) has a Journalism department in turmoil over student grievances. As similar reckonings sweep Canada's other J-Schools, Jesse sits down with departing Ryerson Prof Karyn Pugliese and former Undergraduate Director Lisa Taylor to discuss why they both left their posts. Then, reporter Cherise Seucharan talks to Ryerson alum Sarah Krichel and student Reah Singh, an organizer of the open letter that became national news.

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#696 Are Taxis Finished?

July 19, 2021

Travel Writer and Journalist, Marcello Di Cintio talks to Jesse about his one year journey around Canada, in search of the secret stories etched in the minds of Canadian taxi drivers.

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#694 War On Porn

July 12, 2021

Pornhub is a massive Canadian website that few talked about until the New York Times called it out for profiting from the exploitation of children and rape victims. Now government is rushing to regulate all online pornography. But the NY Times piece has its origins in an anti-porn crusade from an anti-gay, racist evangelic church. Sandra Wesley, executive director of the sex worker advocacy group Stella, says that bad laws will harm sex workers, and that the "moral panic" over porn could even kill them. 

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#376 What Is Black Press, And Did Victoria Police Re-Write Its News Story?

July 5, 2021

News stories are frequently updated, clarified or corrected online, after they've been published. But when there's no disclosure that a story has been changed, something's usually up. 

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#375 That Time China Bought A Vancouver Newspaper

June 28, 2021

As reports of Chinese government influence in Canadian media gain traction, South China Morning Post reporter Ian Young reveals an incredible tale from the past.

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#374 “Pretendians” On Campus?

June 21, 2021

Queen's University quickly rejected the findings of an anonymous report accusing six people associated with the school of misrepresenting their Indigenous identities. That prompt dismissal has raised questions about the non-status Ardoch Algonquin group, and the controversial academic from the U.S. who co-founded it.

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#373 Another NXIVM Podcast

June 14, 2021

"Coercive control" is how cults like NXIVM entrap followers and how abusive partners dominate their victims.

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#372 The RCMP’s Portapique Narrative Is Falling Apart

June 7, 2021

Frank Magazine publisher Andrew Douglas and reporter Paul Palango discuss their bombshell story, and what the RCMP may still be hiding about Gabriel Wortman.

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#371 What Police Are Hiding At Fairy Creek

May 31, 2021

There have been dozens of arrests at Fairy Creek... but not much footage to show for it.

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#59 The Family That Owns New Brunswick

May 24, 2021

A repost of one of the most popular Canadaland episodes ever, from way back in 2014. 

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#370 Why Can’t the Military Stop Sexual Assault?

May 17, 2021

The Canadian Armed Forces has known that they have a problem with sexual misconduct for over two decades. Why can't they figure out how to stop it?

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#369 Stranded Servants: Nannies And Cleaners During Lockdown

May 10, 2021

Farm workers aren't the only temporary foreign workers who have been largely forgotten and failed during the pandemic.

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#368 The Marijuana Experiment

May 3, 2021

In 1972, the government funded an absurd study to measure the impact of cannabis on productivity.

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#367 Is Canada’s Vaccine Rollout Reverse-Racist?

April 26, 2021

Ever since the Canadian government announced recommendations that adults from Indigenous and racialized communities should be given priority for a COVID-19 vaccination, accusations of reverse racism have filled comment sections and social media posts. Now, racial minorities with vaccine priority are facing racism and other structural barriers to getting the jab.

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#366 Embedded With The Racist Right

April 18, 2021

Filmmaker Daniel Lombroso spent four years following Lauren Southern, Richard Spencer, and Mike Cernovich with a camera, as their stars rose and the bigotry and xenophobia they championed went mainstream.

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#365 An App For Landlords To Blacklist Tenants

April 11, 2021

The Landlord Credit Bureau lets landlords review their tenants and report their payment habits.

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#341 Food Will Find A Way

April 4, 2021

Restaurants have struggled badly during the pandemic.

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#364 Fake News From Fish Farms

March 28, 2021

SeaWestNews calls Alexandra Morton “BC’s loudest anti-salmon farming activist,” and her writing “rambling” and “conspiracy-laden.”

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#217 The CANADALAND Guide To Jordan B. Peterson

March 21, 2021

The culture war icon is back with a new bestseller.

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#363 Interview With A Real Life Bond Villain

March 14, 2021

Israeli-Canadian lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe's latest gig is working for Myanmar's military junta.

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#362 The Millionaires Of Haiti

March 7, 2021

A Haitian senator’s wife paid $4.25 million—all money down—for a house in Laval, Quebec. Meanwhile in Haiti, people have been protesting against corruption, kidnapping, and a president who they say is over-staying his term in office. How do we talk about Haiti without reproducing unhelpful tropes and stereotypes?

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#361 Will Government Media Rules Strangle Canadaland?

February 28, 2021

In Australia, the news disappeared from Facebook. And Jesse got very worried about the future.

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#360 How An Extreme Catholic News Site Went Full QAnon

February 21, 2021

LifeSiteNews may be the biggest Canadian news outlet you’ve never heard of — a kind of Breitbart for traditionalist Catholics.

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#359 The Convenient “Pretendian”

February 14, 2021

Michelle Latimer was the buzziest Canadian director and showrunner of 2020. But it all came crashing down in December when a CBC investigation called into question her Indigenous identity claims.

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#358 How India Blames Canada (And Rihanna) For The Farmers Protest

February 7, 2021

The Indian government doesn’t take criticism lightly, whether it’s from Prime Minister Trudeau... or Rihanna. 

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#357 Califail

January 31, 2021

The New York Times’ wildly popular podcast Caliphate came into question after its central character, a Canadian man who claimed he’d joined ISIS and committed executions, was charged with perpetrating a terrorist hoax.

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#356 Joe Sacco

January 24, 2021

Comics journalist Joe Sacco tells Jesse about how he draws stories out of people— then draws them onto the page.

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#355 The Open Source Hunt For The Capitol Rioters

January 18, 2021

Many people who broke into the Capitol broadcast their crimes across social media. Twitter, Facebook and other platforms responded by deleting accounts, but other people rushed to preserve and organize all their posts from the assault on the Capitol, as well as photos and videos from journalists present.

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#354 This Virus Is Rampant Because We Abandoned Workers

January 10, 2021

With COVID-19 cases in Canada on the rise, what about the people who can’t stay home?

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#353 Dinosaur Internet

January 3, 2021

The pandemic has widened the digital divide, leaving people from Iqaluit to rural Alberta and Ontario fuming at ISPs like Xplornet.

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Crackdown: Cut Off

December 30, 2020

Here's an episode of the podcast Crackdown, hosted by Garth Mullins.

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COMMONS: The Police – Dirty Tricks

December 27, 2020

A teenage boy and his friends start robbing banks in Toronto. A future Prime Minister is deported from Montreal. A Black Panther in Baltimore goes to prison for four decades.

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#352 Drunk Uncle Holiday Argument Simulator

December 20, 2020

The holidays, as we know them, are cancelled.

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#351 A Uyghur Family Separated By China-Canada Politics

December 14, 2020

A man imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for years was released over a decade ago, after the U.S. decided he wasn’t an “enemy combatant” after all.

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#350 Loblaws Will Eat Us All

December 6, 2020

The Westons might be Canada’s Jeff Bezos, argues Vass Bednar, and not just because they’re very rich.

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#349 #MeToo And The Iranian Diaspora

November 29, 2020

When artist Aydin Aghdashloo was accused of sexual misconduct, the Iranian-Canadian community's response was divided.

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#99 Christie Blatchford

November 22, 2020

A conversation with the late National Post columnist and court reporter.

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#348 Is Canada Ready To Give Land Back?

November 15, 2020

Karl Dockstader and Sean Vanderklis update us on the 1492 Land Back Lane occupation and explore why federal government inaction just makes things worse.

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#347 The Brayden Bushby Trial And Pity Porn

November 8, 2020

The CBC's Jody Porter discusses covering the trial, and what she's learned about telling other people's stories.

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#346 We’re Getting Sued

November 1, 2020

Rebel News personality Keean Bexte is suing Canadaland for defamation.

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#345 Ali Velshi Says The U.S. Election Will Be Closer Than You Think

October 25, 2020

MSNBC host and journalist Ali Velshi has been traveling to U.S. swing states talking to voters in the lead-up to the presidential election.

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#344 WE Charity: In Desperation There Is Opportunity

October 19, 2020

A reporter was offered money to kill this story. 

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#281 Trolling Jonathan Torrens

October 11, 2020

Jonathan Torrens talks about the CBC, what really happened on Trailer Park Boys, and about that one song you love to hate.

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#343 The New Solitudes

October 4, 2020

Quebec's distinct culture reacts differently to global movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter.

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#342 Corporate Psychopaths Still Run The World

September 27, 2020

The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel calls corporate social responsibility’s bluff.

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#341 Food Will Find A Way

September 20, 2020

Restaurants have suffered huge losses during the pandemic.

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#340 Dethroning The Arts-Grant Elite

September 13, 2020

There’s a broad undertaking to shake up who gets arts funding, and who governs it.

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Bonus AMA: Canadaland’s Money

September 6, 2020

You asked about our money, Jesse answers.

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#339 Shree Paradkar

August 30, 2020

The Toronto Star’s new internal ombud tells us what the job is, discusses power and race in the newsroom, and responds to that reply all email.

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#338 What The Hell Is The Epoch Times?

August 23, 2020

The Epoch Times’ COVID-19 special edition raised controversy when it landed in mailboxes across Canada in April. The paper was accused of spreading misinformation and fomenting anti-Chinese racism.

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#337 1492 Land Back Lane

August 16, 2020

This week marks a month since the start of a land occupation to block a residential development at the edge of Caledonia, Ontario — and the Six Nations of the Grand River Reserve.

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#272 The Best New(ish) Podcast In Canada Is About The Opioid Crisis

August 10, 2020

Crackdown covers the war on drugs from the trenches, and these war correspondents are drug users. 

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#313 Nardwuar: An Oral History

August 5, 2020

The history of Canada’s weirdest and most prolific interviewer

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#336 Let No Good Deed

August 2, 2020

Last week’s House Finance Committee hearings into the WE Charity scandal yielded few new insights into why the government awarded it a massive sole-source contract or how the organization itself operates. Thankfully, the press has continued to turn up information that MPs have not.

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#335 Why It’s Illegal to Protest In Alberta

July 27, 2020

A new law in Alberta is Jason Kenney’s latest front in the oil war.

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#334 A Dodgy Paternity Test And The War On The Reporter Who Exposed It

July 19, 2020

Peter Aldhous reported a decade ago that a Canadian lab’s prenatal paternity test was “unreliable."

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#333 Could The WE Scandal Take Down Justin Trudeau?

July 13, 2020

It’s a scandal that could—but probably won’t—take down Justin Trudeau. 

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#332 WE Charity: Lawyers, Guns and Money

July 6, 2020

We really didn’t expect to find ourselves writing about the WE organization again. But then it became part of the biggest politics story in the country, and we obtained a recording of a strange conversation between one of its founders and a person who was then a senior employee in the group’s Kenyan operations.

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#331 The RCMP Exists to Control Indigenous People

June 29, 2020

The history of policing back to John A. Macdonald, the killing of Dudley George at Ipperwash in 1995, and its impact on two Indigenous journalists

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#330 A CBC News Anchor On Systemic Racism At Work

June 22, 2020

Adrian Harewood is a news anchor at CBC Ottawa News and the host of weekly current affairs show, Our Ottawa.

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#329 The Tyrant’s Spin Doctor

June 15, 2020

Lord Tim Bell worked for a rogues' gallery of international clients, and co-founded one of the most powerful PR companies in history.

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#279 A Forgotten News Lab Predicted Journalism’s Online Future in 1991

June 10, 2020

InfoLab imagined newspapers' transition from print to digital, creating multimedia digital news in the basement of The Hamilton Spectator back in the early '90s.

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#296 Two Centuries of Blackface in Canada

June 7, 2020

"In the psyche of the white Canadian is this same desire to see Black people in positions of either service or as comedic foils"

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#328 Should Big Tech Bail Out The News?

May 31, 2020

The pandemic could be an "extinction event" for American newspapers and so their publishers want their own government bailout. Meanwhile Canadian papers want money from Google and Facebook, too.

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Isolation Interview: The Right Honourable Kim Campbell

May 29, 2020

“My biggest fear is that not enough will change, and not enough lessons will be learned.”

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Isolation Interview: Kaie Kellough

May 27, 2020

"I had a confrontation with someone in the line up for a grocery store... and that moment of slow honeyed ease was totally interrupted."

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Isolation Interview: Xanthe Vallentin

May 26, 2020

“I’m going to be very careful about how much I leave my property until there’s a vaccine.”

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#327 A Crime Reporter Exposes The Child Welfare System

May 24, 2020

The child welfare system is failing Indigenous children, and APTN's Kenneth Jackson can't stop covering it.

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Isolation Interview: Mumilaaq Qaqqaq

May 22, 2020

"After this pandemic, we can create a new normal that's better for everyone."

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Isolation Interview: Omar El Akkad

May 20, 2020

“The job of fiction is to intrude on reality and instead we’re living in a situation where reality is intruding on the fictional.”

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Isolation Interview: Martha Wainwright

May 19, 2020

“In the silence you start to wonder…how are we going to find each other again?”

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#326 While We Weren’t Looking

May 17, 2020

In the face of a global pandemic, it’s hard to focus on anything else.

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Isolation Interview: Jesse Brown

May 15, 2020

"The wild oscillations of feeling are abnormal for me."

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Isolation Interview: Brooke Manning

May 13, 2020

“I never believe in going down without a fight…I’m a triple fire sign.”

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Isolation Interview: Weyni Mengesha

May 12, 2020

“Hugs feel like they’re going to be euphoric.”

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#325 Should We Stop Naming Killers?

May 11, 2020

Prime Minister Trudeau said naming the Nova Scotia mass shooter was giving him "the gift of infamy"

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Isolation Interview: John Semley

May 8, 2020

"I fucking hate Zooming... and having to look at my own face."

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Isolation Interview: Jaren Kerr

May 6, 2020

"I guess like a positive abnormal and unusual thing I did was propose to my girlfriend, which was pretty cool."

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Isolation Interview: Martin Lukacs

May 5, 2020

"I think I may have had coronavirus"

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#324 Kenny vs. Kenny

May 4, 2020

A conversation with Kenny Hotz, a man at odds with his industry, his audience, and himself.

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Isolation Interview: Kai Cheng Thom

May 1, 2020

“Pushing for a world where we accept the risks of having a body… That’s where we need to go.”

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Isolation Interview: BJ Snowden

April 29, 2020

"I want my friends and family to be safe from this"

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Isolation Interview: André Picard

April 28, 2020

"The chances of getting infected by somebody walking or running by you outside— they're virtually nil"

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#323 Industry Pandemic

April 27, 2020

Journalists across Canada tell us how Covid-19 has changed how they bring us the news.

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Isolation Interview: Chris Locke

April 24, 2020

"It'll probably be like a mega-hedonistic orgy after this."

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Isolation Interview: Tanya Talaga

April 22, 2020

"This virus is a bitch, for sure."

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Isolation Interview: Surinder Mann

April 21, 2020

"I’m helping other people to be safe."

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#322 Why Life Without Fear Is Miserable

April 19, 2020

When journalist Eva Holland lost her mom, she went on a quest to understand the science behind her phobias, and conquer them.

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Isolation Interview: Severn Cullis-Suzuki

April 16, 2020

"My ten-year old got his first octopus all by himself"

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Isolation Interview: Club Quarantine

April 15, 2020

"If we are looking like we are one of the girls just dancing having fun, it's probably performative"

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Isolation Interview: Kate Beaton

April 14, 2020

"I do participate in society."

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#321 Did Covid-19 Kill The Alt-Right?

April 12, 2020

The Deplorables that surrounded the Trump presidential campaign have all but disappeared from the mainstream web.

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Isolation Interview: Matt Huether

April 8, 2020

"I got scolded by the deputy mayor of Los Angeles for not including Funyuns in my tweet"

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Isolation Interview: Elizabeth May

April 7, 2020

"This is the death of neoliberalism."

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#320 Coronavirus Is In Our Prisons And Trudeau Is Doing Nothing

April 6, 2020

Reporter Justin Ling speaks with prisoners across Canada terrified of COVID-19 sweeping through the prison population. 

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Isolation Interview: David Sax

April 3, 2020

“When this is all over, I never want to Zoom again.” David Sax’s new book is coming out in the midst of a pandemic.

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Isolation Interview: Robert Jago

April 1, 2020

“I have been obsessed with virtual reality”

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Isolation Interview: Shad

March 31, 2020

"I've been watching old NBA games and breaking them down on Instagram Live."

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#319 Cross Country COVID Checkup

March 29, 2020

Our first ever call-in show.

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Isolation Interview: Sarah Hagi

March 27, 2020

"Put on normal clothes, remember to stretch... That doesn't help. You're still in the prison of your own mind."

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Isolation Interview: Ryan McMahon

March 25, 2020

“If it really goes down, I can always shoot a moose.”

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Isolation Interview: Margaret Atwood

March 23, 2020

"My life is never exactly normal. But it's normal for me."

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#318 The Last Picture Show

March 22, 2020

COVID-19, Cineplex, and the end of moviegoing as we know it

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Isolation Interview: Socalled

March 20, 2020

“So they told us – music is free, so it’s all about the shows now. You gotta make the shows, you gotta sell things at the shows. Now we don’t have shows.” Socalled on Bandcamp (link). *** UPDATE (03/22/20) This episode has been edited because the original version included uncritical talk of grocery shopping and dog-walking during self-quarantine, which goes against public health advice. This content shouldn’t have been included because it arguably normalized potentially dangerous behaviour. We regret the error. *** Mental Health resources for the COVID-19 Pandemic: https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-health-and-covid-19

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Isolation Interview: Jen Agg

March 17, 2020

Restaurauteur Jen Agg just wants to get home.

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Isolation Interview: Robyn Doolittle

March 17, 2020

What feels most weird right now? Doing normal things

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#317 Meditations In An Emergency

March 16, 2020

We are facing an unprecedented shutdown of services and businesses across the country. Health columnist Andre Picard was an early voice calling for Canada to “shut it down” in the pages of the Globe and Mail. He talks to us about how COVID-19 compares to other epidemics he’s covered, the media coverage so far and why he was pushing for social distancing before the government embraced it.

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#316 One News Brand To Rule Them All

March 8, 2020

Does the New York Times' success come at the expense of local news?

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#315 The Cocaine Smuggling Ring At VICE

March 1, 2020

A behind-the-scenes look at our new investigative podcast

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BONUS: Jesse Gets Grilled

February 24, 2020

A bonus AMA episode

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#314 Nardwuar: The Interview

February 23, 2020

Who is the man beneath the tam?

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#313 Nardwuar: An Oral History

February 16, 2020

The history of Canada’s weirdest and most prolific interviewer

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#312 Siege On Wet’suwet’en

February 9, 2020

Unpacking the RCMP’s recent crackdown on journalists covering the conflict on Wet’suwet’en territory

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#18 VICE: An Oral History

February 2, 2020

The origins of VICE told by the people who were there

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#311 Let’s Talk About Bell’s Harmful Prison Phone Contract

January 27, 2020

Every year, Bell shines the spotlight on mental health for Let’s Talk Day. So we’re taking a look at their prison phone contract, which advocates say exacerbate mental health problems for inmates.

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#310 Why Is The CBC So Schitty?

January 19, 2020

How the CBC is losing friends and alienating Canadians

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#309 A War Reporter’s Newsroom Battles

January 12, 2020

Why did the Toronto Star try to stop Paul Watson from reporting on a story?

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#308 The Media War Over The Hong Kong Protests

January 5, 2020

Is Canadian media propagating the Communist Party lines?

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#290 What It’s Like To Want To Die

January 2, 2020

Reporter Anna Mehler Paperny talks about her book, Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person, which covers her search for answers about depression and her personal experiences.

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COMMONS: Dynasties – The Sahotas

December 29, 2019

The Sahotas are Vancouver’s most notorious slumlords. For decades they’ve let their buildings rot, leaving their tenants to live in filth and desolation. But the Sahotas are not like any other dynasty you’ve ever heard of. Their story is far stranger, and far darker, than anything you can imagine.

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#307 NOW and Then

December 22, 2019

The rise and fall of Canada’s alt-weekly magazines.

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#306 The Globe And Mail’s Hidden Campaign For Government Favours

December 15, 2019

Did The Globe And Mail's editor do anything wrong?

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#305 Researchers Just Proved The Media Is Too White

December 9, 2019

Canada's newsrooms are whiter than ever.

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#52 Hark! Kate Beaton

December 1, 2019

A conversation with cartoonist Kate Beaton

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#304 From Nanook To The New York Times: Misrepresentations of the North

November 24, 2019

How the media can fail when covering Indigenous people.

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#303 Jon Ronson

November 17, 2019

A conversation about the similarities between journalism and porn becomes a tense disagreement about online shaming.

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#302 Is The Extreme Right Finished In Canada?

November 11, 2019

Has the rise of the far-right in Canada been exaggerated?

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#301 Interview With A Very Rich Person Who Wants To Abolish Wealth

November 3, 2019

Meghan Bell wants to tax the rich. She's also one of them.

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#300 An Argument With Robyn Doolittle

October 27, 2019

Major announcement about what's next for Canadaland on this episode.

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#299 Today’s Crisis, Tomorrow’s Apology: Indigenous Death In The Child Welfare System

October 20, 2019

102 Indigenous children died in Ontario’s child welfare system because of underfunding and an indefensible inequality of services.

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#80 Chantal Hébert

October 13, 2019

Does political journalism actually enact change?

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#297 Shad’s Hip-Hop Evolution

October 6, 2019

Shad's Hip-Hop Evolution is an incredible piece of journalism that nobody is talking about.

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#296 Two Centuries of Blackface in Canada

September 29, 2019

Cheryl Thompson joins to help walk us through Canada’s history with blackface and why this story is not about race. 

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#295 Big Media’s Plan To Regulate The Internet

September 22, 2019

Are we really considering CanCon for the internet?

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#294 Vagina Empire

September 15, 2019

Why are we so bad at talking about women's bodies?

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#293 Bruce McCulloch

September 8, 2019

Comedian Bruce McCulloch talks about the legacy of Canada’s weirdest sketch show, Lorne Michaels, and the CBC.

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OPPO: Is Jason Kenney Stoking Alberta Separatism?

September 1, 2019

Alberta's premier wants a referendum on ... what exactly? And Justin Ling wants you to calm down about climate change "muzzling." Plus, meet some intriguing candidates to keep an eye on.

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COMMONS: CRUDE – The Apocalypse Is Now

August 28, 2019

Canoe-borne bandits strike an underwater town. A new generation of wealthy lobstermen is minted. An island disappears. And hellfire engulfs a highway jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive. Just another normal day amidst Canada’s climate catastrophe.

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#292 A Medical Horror Story and the Fight to Expose It

August 25, 2019

A respected doctor put women’s health and lives in danger for money and the public almost didn't hear about it.

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#291 Why Are Trans Issues Suddenly Everywhere?

August 18, 2019

Over the past couple of years, a few Canadian media outlets and writers have become obsessed with trans people, painting their campaign for human rights as a menace to society. This coverage has hit a peak with the story of Jessica Yaniv, a trans woman who’s taking multiple beauticians to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal after they refused to wax to her genitals. Where did this obsession come from? And why has this particular story taken off?

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#290 What It’s Like To Want To Die

August 11, 2019

Reporter Anna Mehler Paperny talks about her book "Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person"

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#289 Steven Page

August 4, 2019

Steven Page, former frontman and founding member of Barenaked Ladies, talks about his career, why he chose to leave a beloved and wildly successful band, and the fickle realities of Canadian stardom. 

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#288 Wrongly Convicted Of Murder And The Secret Reasons Why

July 29, 2019

Glen Assoun spent nearly 17 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. But even after his sentence was overturned, the evidence that freed him remained sealed. Reporters fought successfully to have that evidence released. What they found not only raises questions about the investigation, but reveals the outright deletion of evidence pointing to another killer.

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#287 Let’s Get Serious About UFO Journalism

July 21, 2019

Hear about how journalists have failed when covering mysterious things in the sky. 

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#285 – Health News In The Age Of Goop

July 7, 2019

There are countless reporters covering politics in this country, but only one person has spent their career reporting on and analyzing health care.

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#284 A Former WE Employee Speaks Out

June 30, 2019

Twenty-two people spoke to us confidentially about working for WE. But Josh Keenan went on the record.

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#283 Oh Great, A Republican Plot Against Canadaland

June 23, 2019

Something strange has been going on for the last little while and we’re ready to talk about it.

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#282 Lifestyles of the Rich and Fatal

June 16, 2019

Greed, money, and revenge culminate with a gruesome murder on the driveway of a Vancouver mansion.

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#281 Trolling Jonathan Torrens

June 10, 2019

Jonathan Torrens talks about the CBC, what really happened on Trailer Park Boys, and about that one song you love to hate.

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#280 The News Bosses: APTN’s Karyn Pugliese

June 2, 2019

Canada's news bosses are some of the most influential people in the country. They decide what is news and what isn't. We think it's time someone talked to them about that.

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#279 A Forgotten News Lab Predicted Journalism’s Online Future in 1991

May 26, 2019

InfoLab imagined newspapers' transition from print to digital, creating multimedia digital news in the basement of The Hamilton Spectator back in the early '90s.

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#278 Bigotry Punished, Miraculously

May 20, 2019

But will the $2.5 million judgment against the far-right twice-defeated mayoral candidate Kevin J. Johnston actually stop him spreading hate online?

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#277 Quebec’s Narcos Tell All!

May 13, 2019

The new podcast Narcos PQ hands the mic to those who bring Canada its drugs: bikers, drug mules, outlaw chemists.

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#276 – Twenty Years After Napster: Cory Doctorow On What Went Wrong

May 6, 2019

Digital media has been gentrified into a mall, says the digital rights activist and author.

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#275 Sneaking Chinese Propaganda Into The Canadian Media

April 28, 2019

A popular pundit has a curious connection: her company worked for China.

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#274 Is Facebook Worth Fixing?

April 22, 2019

And if so, can government regulation crack down on hate speech and election interference on social media without crushing free speech?

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#273 The Media Baron Dinner Party Where The News Bailout Was Born

April 14, 2019

Former CBC exec Richard Stursberg tells Jesse all about it.

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#272 The Best New Podcast In Canada Is About The Opioid Crisis

April 8, 2019

Crackdown covers the war on drugs from the trenches, and these war correspondents are drug users. 

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#271 Stephen Harper

April 1, 2019

The CANADALAND interview with former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who targeted the press before it was cool.

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#270 The Most Expensive Thing Canada’s Ever Bought

March 24, 2019

When Ottawa Citizen reporter David Pugliese called the government to follow up on a tip, he heard back from the PR arm of Irving Shipbuilding. And then the president of that company called, and threatened to sue him.

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#269 Ruthless Or Toothless? The News Biz Complaints Department

March 18, 2019

Who do you turn to when the news fucks up? It turns out there's a council for that.

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#268 Strombo

March 10, 2019

Canada's most ubiquitous TV host talks about his many, many gigs, from MuchMusic VJ to CNN interviewer -- and why he's turned to YouTube for the latest one.

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#267 Propaganda, Fascism And Murder: An Alternative History Of The Globe And Mail

March 3, 2019

This week marks 175 years of The Globe and Mail. You can read all about its accomplishments elsewhere. Writer Jamie Bradburn takes us through the paper's darker moments.

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#266 A Guide To The Podcast Industry

February 24, 2019

In the past year or so, the podcast industry has seen an explosion --or bubble, depending on who you ask-- with companies like Entertainment One, Corus, and Rogers making big plays in the market. Who are the big players? What are they trying to do? And are their podcasts any good?

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#265 Decoding a Political Scandal

February 17, 2019

There's a lot to learn from what politicians and journalists can and can't tell us, their lowly constituents and readers. We read between the lines of the news coverage of the SNC-Lavalin scandal with BuzzFeed News' Paul McLeod. Then, Macleans columnist Anne Kingston helps translate politicians' passive-aggressive, condescending, or coded messages, passed to us through resignation letters, speeches, and even Twitter likes.

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#264 Quebec’s Fake News Problem

February 10, 2019

In English media, there are whole organizations and departments devoted to debunking fake news. But in Quebec, a lot of the work falls to one guy: Jeff Yates. He talks to guest host Brigitte Noël about the unique challenges of combatting fake news in French and why he thinks it's time to destigmatize sharing bogus stories.

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#263 The Loudmouth Senator

February 4, 2019

Paula Simons did something that makes a lot of journalists cringe. She went into politics. The former Edmonton Journal columnist is now an independent senator. She speaks about crossing over, using social media to pull back the curtain on Canadian politics... and the Senate's secret snack machine.

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#262 Meet Canada’s Pro-Oil, Anti-Immigrant Yellow Vest Movement

January 27, 2019

What do warnings of globalism, support for pipelines and calls to execute Trudeau have in common? They're all part of the rhetoric of the Canadian Yellow Vests. CANADALAND producer David Crosbie investigates how a French working class protest against a fuel tax has inspired a right-wing, populist movement holding recurring rallies across Canada.

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#261 Oh Great, Now China Hates Us

January 20, 2019

Canada's in a bad way with China. Has the media prepared us to deal with the growing superpower?

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#260 Fake-Ass Internet

January 13, 2019

Something like the half of all activity on the internet is fake. Yes, there are bots. But there are also fake websites that cater to bots. And then there are the ways real people adjust their behaviour to try to game the bots. Where does this leave the idyllic internet we were promised?

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#259 The Mud Slinging, Meme Hustling, Rage Baiting Sites You Need To Know Before The Next Election

January 6, 2019

A bunch of new partisan political websites are fighting for the narrative in the run-up to the federal election. Reporter Graeme Gordon is here to tell you which organizations to look out for on your Facebook and Twitter feeds, what their political objectives are, and who's paying for them.

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#258 Christmas In The Newsroom

December 23, 2018

Stories of big news breaking when everyone else is on vacation. 

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#257 How Not To Cover Climate Change

December 17, 2018

Blazing wildfires. Pipeline stand-offs. Unpredictable floods. Men in suits arguing... One of our era's most urgent, high-stakes stories is also the hardest one to get right.

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#256 The Dependent Press

December 10, 2018

The Canadian federal government plans to issue nearly $600M in tax credits and incentives to bolster the country's media industry over the next five years. What will this mean for the independence of the Canadian press? And will CANADALAND be applying for funds?

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#255 The Making Of Finding Cleo And Thunder Bay

December 3, 2018

Thunder Bay podcast host and creator Ryan McMahon reflects on the year-long production process, and he, Jesse and Connie Walker — host of CBC's award-winning podcast Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo —speak at ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival about the challenges that come with telling such sensitive, complex stories through the true crime genre. 

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#254 An Issue Worth Torching Your Job Over

November 25, 2018

After 25 years at the CBC, tech columnist Jesse Hirsh decided to risk it all. During an interview about Facebook, he turned the tables, asking why CBC continues to promote Facebook after we've seen what that company has done to undermine democracy.  CBC refused to post the segment online, raising questions about what you can and cannot say on our public broadcaster. 

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#253 Is The Media Afraid Of The Kielburgers?

November 19, 2018

The Kielburgers' WE Movement has enjoyed more than 20 years of glowing press. They also have partnerships with 38 media organizations and a history of aggressive responses to criticism. Reporter Jaren Kerr speaks with Jesse about his investigation of WE's media relations.

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#252 Is Business News Amoral, Immoral, Or Just Evil?

November 12, 2018

Guest host Karen K. Ho explores how ethical concerns are becoming a core component of many big business stories, and what some reporters are doing to expand business journalism’s audience and sources.

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#251 How True Crime Took Over Podcasting

November 5, 2018

For a long time, CANADALAND was (proudly) the number one podcast in the country — but that's no longer true.

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#250 Canada’s First Smart City Is A Disaster

October 29, 2018

Google's sister company, Sidewalk Labs, has partnered with every level of government to build the first-ever 'smart city' in Toronto — but with several high-profile resignations and mounting privacy concerns, will this project ever break ground?

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#249 Thunder Bay

October 22, 2018

Episode 1 of our new series, hosted by Ryan McMahon.

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#248 The CANADALAND Investigation Of The Kielburgers’ WE Movement

October 15, 2018

Craig Kielburger founded WE when he was 12 to fight child labour. Now, the WE brand is used to promote products made by children.  Reporter Jaren Kerr presents the findings of his 4-month long investigation. 

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#247 The Weed Beat

October 8, 2018

Next week, recreational weed will become legal across Canada. In anticipation, mainstream media has begun taking cannabis coverage seriously. Overnight, nearly every major outlet across the country has hired full-time reporters to cover it — but before we celebrate industry growth, how sustainable is this beat?

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#246 Sheila Heti And Rachel Cusk On Why Memoir Is A Dead End

October 1, 2018

Guest Host Sheila Heti (Motherhood, How Should a Person Be?) speaks with fellow "autofiction" author Rachel Cusk (A Life's Work, Aftermath, et al).

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#245 The Last Labour Reporter

September 24, 2018

Sara Mojtehedzadeh may very well be Canada's only full-time labour reporter.

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#244 Chip Zdarsky On Marvel Money And The Canadian Comics Boom

September 17, 2018

Guest Host Chip Zdarsky (Spectacular Spiderman, Sex Criminals) is joined by Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) co-founder and longtime friend, Chris Butcher. They discuss the state of the Canadian comic book industry, what it’s like to work for Marvel, TCAF’s far-reaching influence, The Beguiling, and the void that Koyama Press’ departure will create in the comic publishing world. Image by Ramon Perez and Chip Zdarsky.  

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#243 What Does ‘Off The Record’ Actually Mean? The Toronto Star And BuzzFeed Explain.

September 10, 2018

Confusion over "off the record" played a pivotal role in global affairs this past week. So — how does this oft-misunderstood agreement actually work, and why do so many powerful people continue to misuse it?

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#242 Live Local News Neither Live Nor Local

August 26, 2018

Paul Tadich compares his time working at Global TV to a "news sweatshop".

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#241 Reporting In Ottawa Vs. Reporting In Washington

August 12, 2018

BuzzFeed’s Paul McLeod has covered politics in both capitals.

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#240 How Marketing Conquered Food

July 30, 2018

Food journalist Corey Mintz speaks with Jesse about how influencers, marketing and Instagram have impacted food writing and eating. 

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#239 Last Chance For Newspapers: Inside La Presse

July 15, 2018

The newspaper business is in rapid decline. Can non-profit status save newspapers in Canada?

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#238 Authors Are Getting Bloody In The Culture Wars

July 1, 2018

The book world has been thrown into turmoil by sexual assault allegations, inter-generational fighting and questions over Indigenous ancestry. Is this inside baseball for a tiny industry, a microcosm of the culture wars or a battle over who gets to tell Canada's story?

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#237 The Legend Of Weed Toque Girl

June 24, 2018

Almost every news story about cannabis is accompanied by a stereotypical stoner pic.

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#236 Jesse Meets WNYC’s On The Media

June 17, 2018

On The Media was one of the main inspirations for CANADALAND. This week, Jesse meets them.

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#235 Taxing Porn (And Everything Else) To Pay For CanCon

June 10, 2018

Canada's broadcast regulator has put forward a proposal to tax everything from porn to podcasts to help pay for CanCon.

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#234 Famous Anonymous: Celebrity Media In Canada

June 3, 2018

How do you cover celebrities in a country that's so bad at making them?

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#233 Journalists Are Done With CBC Stealing Their Scoops

May 27, 2018

Why is CBC so bad at giving credit for stories that other news outlets broke?

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#232 How We Cover Israel

May 20, 2018

Last week, Israeli forces killed over 60 people and injured thousands more at a protest in Gaza. How did Canadian media cover it?

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#231 Robo Reporters and Blockchain Broadcasts

May 13, 2018

While journalists worry about Facebook algorithms and digital advertising, every other industry gets to be excited about technology. So today, we try our hardest to find the positive tech stories for the news industry.

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#230 The Pipeline Approval Was Rigged

May 6, 2018

No outcome other than an approval was ever possible.

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#229 The Manosphere

April 29, 2018

How did an online subculture of lonely men inspire the murders of 10 people in Toronto?

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#228 What’s The New York Times Doing In Canada?

April 23, 2018

More than a year after their expansion into Canada, the New York Times is holding its own against our native media. And they're doing it with only three reporters. But what exactly is their goal here?

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#227 Journalism On Trial

April 15, 2018

We hear from two Canadian journalists currently facing legal consequences for doing their jobs. The outcomes of these cases could set precedents for how the press is allowed to operate.

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#226 The Great Satan Of The CBC

April 8, 2018

Richard Stursberg was the most hated CBC executive in recent history. What advice does he have for Catherine Tait, the CBC's new president? And what does he have to say about his own infamous legacy?

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#225 Satirical News Site Fast-Tracks Reconciliation, Everything Fine Now

April 2, 2018

Tim Fontaine "set fire" to his journalism career last December, when he launched Walking Eagle News.

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#224 How To Un-F**k The Internet

March 26, 2018

"It's the wild west out there right now, and for lots of people that means it's really dangerous and their experience is horrible."

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#223 The Misery Beat

March 19, 2018

Guest host Omar Mouallem speaks with the Globe and Mail’s Jana Pruden about her unique work as a crime reporter. In an age of sensationalized true crime podcasts and Netflix docudramas—and with no end in sight—can long form crime reporting reach beyond morbid fascination? For those journalists who cover crime, what are their responsibilities as reporters interviewing the accused? How do they know if they’re being used by calculated manipulators, and if they are, should they still report it? You can read Jana’s story, Fear On The Family Farm here.

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#222 How To Slander Friends And Libel People

March 12, 2018

Patrick Brown announced last month that he would be suing CTV, after they published a report of his alleged sexual misconduct — but whether or not Brown actually goes through with the lawsuit is yet to be seen. Being threatened with a defamation lawsuit is arguably a rite of passage for journalists. The fear of libel hangs over every newsroom, so this is a risky business — but maybe it’s not as risky as we like to act like it is. Media litigation lawyers Justin Safayeni and Adam Wygodny speak with Jesse about how often people sue for libel, the precedence of the 2009 Grant vs. Torstar ruling, and how ‘anti-SLAPP’ laws in Ontario are helping to protect journalists.

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#221 Indie Journalists On The Government News Bailout

March 5, 2018

"I don't want to be trusted by the government."

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#220 We Need To Talk About Reddit

February 26, 2018

After years of dodging emails about the internal politics of the country's largest subreddit, r/Canada, Jesse finally jumps down the weirdo-message-board rabbit hole.

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#219 Where Is Rock Bottom? Live From Saskatchewan, Before The Trial (Rebroadcast)

February 19, 2018

On February 9, Gerald Stanley — the farmer accused of killing 22-year-old Cree man, Colten Boushie, in Battleford, Saskatchewan — was acquitted of second-degree murder. In the wake of the verdict, Jesse revisits a conversation he had in Saskatoon with Betty Ann Adam (Saskatoon StarPhoenix), Rob Innes (Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan), and Mylan Tootoosis (PhD candidate, University of Saskatchewan). This show was recorded live at Winterruption in Cosmo Seniors Centre on January 20th, 2017. The original airing of this episode was produced by Katie Jensen.   UPDATE (March 26, 2018): This episode has been edited to remove a comment from panelist Betty Ann Adam, who said: “When there’s a comparison made to Rodney King, that is kind of ridiculous, when you consider that 50 people died in those riots that went on for five days, and a billion dollars’ worth of property damage occurred. Thousands of businesses were destroyed. Now, in Canada, Indigenous people don’t do that en masse. As Mylan said, the people here signed treaty, and generally speaking, Indigenous people respond to oppression and racist policy with dignity and forbearance. We have had some fiery orators as leaders, who have spoken truth in fiery language. But it hasn’t led to burning buildings.”  While Adam has since clarified that she meant to reject Pastor Mark Kleiner’s declaration that “Colten Boushie is the Rodney King of Western Canada” because “that comparison invites expectations of violent reprisal, something settler Canadians fear from Indigenous people, but which has no modern basis in fact” — she recognizes that her phrasing could lead listeners to infer that she was “pronouncing a judgement on the response to the Rodney King verdict.…I absolutely did not intend the remarks as a negative comparison with any race.”

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#218 Robert Jago: Decolonizing Canada In His Spare Time

February 12, 2018

After ending the campaigns of several Tory candidates with his muckraking during the 2015 federal election, Macleans dubbed Robert Jago, “the most dangerous blogger in Canada”. The next year, Jago broke the Joseph Boyden scandal, and this past January he exposed Senator Lynn Beyak for publishing racist letters on her website, which resulted in her ousting from the conservative caucus. Jago has quickly risen as an incisive, evocative voice in Canadian media. He’s a regular contributor to The Walrus and CANADALAND — but he says he doesn’t plan on giving up his day job anytime soon. So. Who is this guy? Robert Jago joins Jesse. — This episode of CANADALAND is brought to you by Endy.

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#217 The CANADALAND Guide to Jordan B. Peterson

February 5, 2018

Why did an obscure Canadian psychology prof suddenly become an international media star? It’s a much better question than “is he right or wrong?” — This episode of CANADALAND is brought to you by our newest sponsor Endy and by Freshbooks.

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#216 As If It Never Even Happened

January 29, 2018

One year ago today, a 27-year-old white man, named Alexandre Bissonnette, walked into the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City and opened fire on over 40 worshippers. Azzeddine Soufiane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Ibrahima Barry, and Abdelkrim Hassane were murdered. Five others were badly injured, including Aymen Derbali. A year later, what — if anything — has changed? Many, like activist Syed Hussan, feel it has slipped from our collective conscious. Hussan recently went to the scene of the massacre in Quebec City, and wrote about it, in an effort to combat our country’s “collective forgetting.” We attempt to make sense of a senseless act — and look at how the media played a role before, during, and after the massacre. Hussan and The Imposter‘s Aliya Pabani are urging Canadians to remember and share where they were on January 29, 2017. You can learn more about their #RememberJan29 project here.

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#215 They Asked Me To Join The Militia

January 22, 2018

Conspiracies! They’re out there… and Vice Canada‘s Mack Lamoureux is getting to the bottom of them. You name it, he’s covered it: The Berenst(a)ein Bears. Hollow Earth Theory. Iraq Stargate… But what happens when these twisted narratives stop being just kooky, and start getting scary? As extremist right-wing groups grow their presence in Canada, and around the world, there’s a personal cost to covering conspiracists. Mack’s eight-months-long investigation into Canada’s armed, anti-Islamic “patriot” group — ‘the III%ers’— is alarming: “Connected to the anti-Islam sentiment is a sense of paranoia in the group, one that is reinforced by the sharing of debunked news stories and far-right wing commentary from sites like Rebel Media or Infowars. The members of the group, like their counterparts worldwide, are distrustful of mainstream news and often stray into extreme conspiratorial territory.” Mack Lamoureux joins guest host Omar Mouallem.  For more on extremist right-wing groups in Canada, check out COMMONS’ deep dive from this past July. Photo by Mack Lamoureux. — This episode of CANADALAND is brought to you by PayTM.

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#214 Black Mirror Canada

January 15, 2018

"From mass dissemination of false information, to impersonation, leaking foreign documents in order to influence political and legal outcomes... the possibilities for the types of activities contemplated in [Bill C-59] are limited only by imagination."

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#213 How Facebook Bought-Off Canada For Peanuts

January 8, 2018

Forget taxes and regulations — why scrutinize Facebook when you can partner with them?

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The Imposter – Aliya Tries Comedy

December 31, 2017

This week, we're presenting some of the best work from across our network. In this series of The Imposter, host Aliya Pabani decides that to learn more about comedy, she's going to learn how to be a comedian.

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The Imposter – I Pity The Country Part 1

December 27, 2017

This episode of The Imposter was featured alongside shows like The Heart and Radiolab as Constant Listener's best podcasts of the year.

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COMMONS – Invisible Victims: How Police Botched The Robert Pickton Case

December 24, 2017

Over the holidays, CANADALAND is presenting the best work across our network. Here's a recent episode of COMMONS about Robert Pickton, marginalized communities and police accountability.

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#212 Meet The New Partisan Press

December 17, 2017

PressProgress looks like the news, but it's funded by a leftist think tank. Who are they and what are they trying to do?

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#211 Inside a Right-Wing Meme Machine

December 10, 2017

This Facebook group gets more engagement than the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail combined.

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#210 Why Newspapers Don’t Have to Die

December 3, 2017

And why you can't just blame Google and Facebook for what happened last week.

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#209 The Man Behind The Paradise Papers

November 26, 2017

“I do think that people should be marching in the streets over this,” says ICIJ director Gerard Ryle.

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#208 Ahead Of The Times: Jezebel Reporters On Investigating Louis CK

November 19, 2017

Reporters Anna Merlan and Madeleine Davies were investigating and writing about Louis CK well before the New York Times story came out. And they faced a lot of criticism for it.

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#207 Village Of The Sprawling Phoenix: New Models for Local News

November 13, 2017

Is local media doomed? We speak to three entrepreneurs who are making a go of it with three very different models.

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#206 Jeremy Scahill: Mistrust First, Then Verify

November 6, 2017

“Objectivity for the sake of objectivity often means make sure that the powerful always get their say. And sometimes Caesar shouldn’t have his say. Sometimes the truth is just true.”

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#205 Out Of My Depth With Adam Gopnik

October 30, 2017

Adam Gopnik lived out a certain Canadian fantasy. He left the country and became a prominent New York intellectual.

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#204 Daniel Dale

October 23, 2017

The Toronto Star's Daniel Dale has become one of the most-watched journalists in Washington in part by simply enumerating Donald Trump's lies.

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#203 My Awkward Date With Sarah Polley

October 15, 2017

Sarah Polley talks about how she helped Jesse break a major story. And she discusses domestic abuse, sexual harassment and assault, and the culture that fuels it.

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#202 It’s The End Of CanCon As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

October 9, 2017

Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly had the thankless task of crafting a new culture plan that was sure to disappoint. She is now being viciously attacked by the press.

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#201 Saudi Arabia Is Using Canadian Weapons Against Its Own Citizens And Nobody Seems To Care

October 1, 2017

Over the summer, videos came out that appeared to show Saudi Arabia deploying Canadian combat vehicles against their own citizens. And it barely made a splash in the Canadian media.

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#200 Blame Michael Enright

September 24, 2017

Michael Enright got Jesse his first job in radio. He was also CANADALAND’s first ever guest, drinking bourbon and talking shit about the Canadian media. For our 200th show, he’s back to talk about how the media has changed since that day.

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#199 TIFF Is A Monster That’s Eating Itself

September 17, 2017

Every year, Toronto hosts some of the biggest stars in Hollywood as they debut their new films. But is the Toronto International Film Festival actually good for the city?

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#198 Punching Nazis… With The Law!

September 11, 2017

Who thought we'd have a Nazi problem in 2017? Richard Warman did. Years before the current "Should I punch a Nazi" debate took off, he attacked neo-Nazis with the law. And the media hated him.

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#197 I Don’t Speak Sports

September 5, 2017

Sports journalism is facing many of the same issues as other facets of the industry: declining ad revenues, job insecurities, and too much content vying for too few eyeballs.

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#196 Ezra’s Very Bad Week

August 21, 2017

It's been, to put it mildly, a shit week for Rebel Media's self-styled 'Rebel Commander' Ezra Levant.

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#195 Bleeding Edge Outrage Meme Generators

August 14, 2017

Following the election of Donald Trump, Craig Silverman wrote the defining article on fake news. Now he dives into hyperpartisan media -- websites that blend legitimate reporting with clickbait viral headlines to create a morass where you can't be sure what's real and what isn't.

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#194 Live From New York, It’s CANADALAND

July 31, 2017

In it: should you fuck your Prime Minister?; Why Canadians secretly love climate change; why we love the RCMP; and a peek at the Canada of the not-too-distant future. The stage show for our book, the CANADALAND Guide to Canada.

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#193 Summer Dump

July 24, 2017

New facts about Andrew Potter’s abrupt departure from McGill after his Maclean’s diatribe about Quebec, and what happened after Leah McLaren’s column about attempting to breastfeed Michael Chong’s baby was spiked.

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#192 15 Years Covering Omar Khadr

July 16, 2017

Michelle Shephard has been covering Omar Khadr since the beginning. She talks to guest host Omar Mouallem about what the media keeps getting wrong about the story.

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#191 Revenge Porn

July 9, 2017

Ren Bostelaar posted nude pictures of women to 4chan without their consent. He avoided a criminal record by taking a peace bond. Is revenge porn legal in Canada?

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#190 Queer Media

July 3, 2017

Canada was once home to a small, but mighty collective of gay and lesbian newspapers and magazines that made up a radical alternative media. Over the last few decades now-defunct publications like The Body Politic, Siren and Fab brought LGBTQ+ issues, interests and voices, to the fore. Daily Xtra, now the country’s only remaining national queer news source, ceased print in 2015 but continues publishing online. Despite queer people having more rights than ever before, queer media is all but disappearing. Is this solely a result of Canadian media’s general decline, or is the shift indicative of something more? It’s also been a year since Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) halted the country’s largest Pride parade in protest, with a list of demands in tow. The action sparked a harsh months-long backlash of editorials and hot takes by mostly white, straight columnists and pundits, ruthlessly condemning BLMTO. Has coverage of LGBTQ+ issues and news by legacy media changed or improved since BLMTO’s protest? Joining Jesse to dissect the ever-shrinking queer media and the state of representation in legacy media is Erica Lenti, editor-in-chief of THIS Magazine, Arshy Mann, reporter at Daily Xtra, and investigative crime reporter and Body Politic writer, James Dubro.

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#189 The Great Newspaper Bailout

June 26, 2017

The newspaper industry is pleading for hundred of millions of dollars per year to help prop itself up.

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#188 The Images Are Merciless

June 19, 2017

Iraqi photojournalist Ali Arkady thought he was documenting the “good guys” — the non-sectarian forces fighting Daesh for the preservation of Iraq. Instead, Arkady witnessed abuse, torture, and murder committed by the Emergency Response Division. After fleeing Iraq with his family, Arkady partnered with the Toronto Star and ABC News to have his work see the light. He joins Jesse Brown on the phone from an undisclosed location in Europe alongside Mitch Potter, one of the three Star reporters who helped write this essential exposé.

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#187 We Got Played

June 12, 2017

Or did we play ourselves? This most recent Conservative leadership race highlighted a number of deficiencies in Canadian media. Namely, why did the guy with virtually no chance of ever becoming Prime Minister, who skipped debates and ran much of his campaign from Boston, receive so much more press coverage than the guy who actually won the leadership? Did media just go for the low-hanging fruit, or did we allow ourselves to be manipulated by an expert huckster? CBC.ca’s Opinion Producer Robyn Urback has some opinions of her own and joins us for the episode.

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#185 Travel Journalism’s Dirty Little Secret

May 29, 2017

One cardinal rule of journalism is that reporters never accept incentives, be that meals, gifts, or — God forbid — money, from the subjects on whom they’re reporting. This applies across the board except, we now know, in the travel section. Travel writers used to diligently follow this standard but, as newspapers and magazines were increasingly unable or unwilling to foot expenses, these journalists were forced to find alternative sources to fund their trips. This meant cozying up to hotel chains, airlines, and tourism bureaus. If travel writers are being subsidized by the tourism industry, can the readers trust the stories? Bert Archer is arguably Canada’s most prolific travel writer and teaches the practice and ethics of travel writing at the University of Toronto. He believes journalists can maintain their editorial independence — but must walk a careful line.

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#184 Jason Kenney Is A Charming Man: Inside Alberta’s Weird Conservatism

May 22, 2017

The Texas of the north. Racist rednecks, gun nuts, and pickup truck enthusiasts. That’s the Alberta stereotype portrayed in much of the rest of Canada, but how much of that is accurate and how much is due to lazy media that falls back on clichéd tropes? After all, Alberta gave us the first big-city Muslim mayor, the first provincial cabinet with gender parity, and hell, led the charge for women’s suffragism (okay, that was a century ago, but still…). Despite the province’s increasingly young and multicultural population, some still believe that the only real Albertan is a conservative Albertan. And that extends to the two men – Jason Kenney and Brian Jean – who inked a proposal to merge the Conservative and Wildrose parties last week. Are they, and their policies, reflective of a new, diverse Alberta? Joining Omar to unpack Alberta’s multifaceted conservative history is Calgary journalist and author Sydney Sharpe, whose 2016 book, Notley Nation: How Alberta’s Political Upheaval Swept the Country, documented the historic 2015 provincial election which saw the NDP sweep aside the governing Tories after an unprecedented 40-plus-year run. Also in studio is Duncan Kinney, former journalist and current Executive Director of Progress Alberta.

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#183 Why Your Rap Lyrics Could Land You In Prison

May 15, 2017

When it comes to rap, where does artistic licence end and confession begin? According to prosecutors in at least 30 cases from the last decade, it starts when the artist is charged with a crime and the lyrics are parsed for clues to a case or for proof of bad character. Many of these defendants are convicted of their crimes, but should their music be a permissible tool? What is the threshold? And does the practice intentionally or unintentionally tap into the unconscious biases of jurors with the fate of young black and indigenous men in their hands? This roundtable discussion on the inclusion of rap as criminal evidence brings together three experts: University of California, Irvine criminologist Adam Dunbar, University of Toronto sociologist Jooyoung Lee, and lawyer Hilary Dudding, whose case, R. v. Campbell, could effect future trials in Canada. They join guest host Omar Mouallem for the episode.

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#182 It Was Illegal To Print Their Names: Alberta’s Lost Children

May 8, 2017

Since the late 1990s nearly 800 children in Alberta government care have died. Veteran Edmonton Journal columnist Paula Simons has been shining a light on this crisis since the start. In November 2016, Simons published a story that shocked the province. It was about a four-year-old girl named Serenity. Let down by a wide range of government and non-governmental services, Serenity was the victim of horrific abuse and neglect. Simons’ article, Her name was Serenity. Never forget it. spurred the Notley provincial government to convene an all-party committee to investigate the multiple failings of Alberta’s child welfare system. Her tireless coverage earned Simons honourable mentions from the National Newspaper Awards and the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom. She joins guest host Omar Mouallem for the episode.  

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#181 Desmond Cole: Celebrated and Resented

May 1, 2017

On April 20, Toronto Star columnist and Newstalk 1010 host, Desmond Cole, gave a powerful deputation at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting. He then stood in protest, calling on the board to restrict police access to ‘carding’ data. The meeting eventually adjourned, and Cole was escorted out by police officers. For almost five years now, Cole has been using his platform as a journalist to report on and push back against ‘carding’—which disproportionately affects Black people—by the Toronto Police. Cole—former host of CANADALAND COMMONS—joins Jesse Brown to discuss recent criticism he’s received from fellow journalists and the public, how mainstream media has failed to highlight the damaging effects of carding, his new CBC documentary The Skin We’re In, which explores anti-Black racism in Canada, and the book he’s writing about Black Canadians.

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#180 Who Buys A Newspaper Chain In 2017?

April 24, 2017

…The Chronicle Herald’s Mark Lever, that’s who. After pleading poverty for nearly 16 months while his reporters, editors, and photographers are strike, he came up with the bucks to buy 28 Atlantic Canadian newspapers from the floundering Transcontinental chain. This gives his company an effective monopoly in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. We speak with long-time Nova Scotia journalists (and former Transcontinental reporters) Stephen Kimber and Parker Donham about the rationale behind the purchase and whether this benefits news consumers in Atlantic Canada.

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#179 Post-Postmedia

April 17, 2017

Postmedia, the largest newspaper chain in Canada is in its death throes.

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#178 The Ugly Anglo

April 10, 2017

Is Quebec’s media – like its culture – distinct from the rest of Canada’s? Does national media do a decent job of covering Quebec issues and news? The Globe and Mail’s Montreal bureau chief, Les Perreaux and Laval University’s Centre for Media Studies’ director, Colette Brin, set the record straight on prejudices and assumptions many ‘ugly anglos,’ like Jesse, have about the province’s media culture.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Space Vs. Canada

April 3, 2017

Something special to announce today, new show on Thursday.

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#177 Being Jewish In Public

March 27, 2017

We’re seeing a simultaneous backlash against both the media and the Jewish community. And there’s a place where the two intersect. Is there an over-concentration of Jews in the media? Well, yeah, probably. So? We speak with Yoni Goldstein of the Canadian Jewish News, and Sam Bick and David Zinman of the Treyf podcast about Jewish media in Canada, and what its future looks like.

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#176 The VICE Media Cocaine Caper

March 20, 2017

Last month, the National Post broke a crazy story involving former staffers from Canada’s deepest-pocketed media upstart, up-and-coming members of Toronto’s music and modelling scenes, and an international drug cartel. Adrian Humphreys, crime reporter for the Post, joins us to dig deep into this caper.

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#175 Michael Chong

March 13, 2017

Michael Chong is trying to sell an inclusive, sober conservatism. Are conservatives buying it?

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#174 Is Atlantic Journalism Fucked?

March 6, 2017

The newspaper industry in Atlantic Canada is far less than healthy. The largest-circulation paper, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, is more than 400 days into a crippling strike which sees most of its senior reporters and editors on the picket line while its replacement workers are plugging out disturbingly sub-par journalism. Elsewhere in the area, the rest of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have almost almost all of their daily and weekly newspapers cinched up between two companies: Brunswick News (owned by the Irving family, who employs approximately one-in-five New Brunswickers), and TC Media. Still, there are bright spots. Atlantic Canada is seeing a significant number of start-up journalism enterprises. Might there be a light at the end of the tunnel? Jesse joins Halifax Examiner publisher and editor Tim Bousquet and University of King’s College assistant professor Terra Tailleur to discuss. This live taping was a benefit for CKDU radio in Halifax – who carries CANADALAND every Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. AST.

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#173 Robyn Doolittle On Breaking The Story Of The Year

February 27, 2017

In the months after Robyn Doolittle's groundbreaking series of exposés about the scandal-ridden Toronto mayor Rob Ford, she left the Toronto Star for a new investigative role at the Globe & Mail. Then, mostly, silence. Her lack of bylines belied her hard work behind the scenes as she dug into what would become the story of the year: a 20-month investigation into police departments across Canada and their chronic underreporting of sexual assaults being filed.

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#172 Satan Vampire Zombie Bloodbath: The State Of Canadian Newspapers

February 20, 2017

Late last month the Public Policy Forum released its long-anticipated report on the state of Canadian newspapers. Somewhat unexpectedly, this was a bold and far-reaching document, exploring the changing face of media in this country. The principal author of the paper, former Globe & Mail Editor-In-Chief Ed Greenspon, joins Jesse to dig deep into its findings. Read the entire report (no, seriously, read it) here.

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#171 Don’t Fling Mud At The Scud Stud

February 13, 2017

In 2008, political pundit Don Martin penned a negative screed against former NBC wartime correspondent and - at the time - Alberta provincial electoral candidate Arthur Kent, aka the Scud Stud. Convinced that Martin had violated basic journalistic ethics, Kent took him and the CanWest newspaper chain (later Postmedia) to court for defamation of character.

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#170 Are We Too Mean To CBC Comedy?

February 6, 2017

On this episode, guest host Ashey Csanady and Vicky Mochama look at CBC's recently launched comedy portal and wonders if it's relevant and, you know, funny.

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#169 Down By Law In Yellowknife

January 30, 2017

Yellowknife crime reporter John McFadden has been getting into problems with the local police for a while now. But that won't stop him from doing his job.

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#168 The Killing of Colten Boushie (Live in Saskatoon)

January 23, 2017

In the wake of Colten Boushie's death, Jesse discusses racial tensions in Saskatoon with panelists Betty Ann Adam, Rob Innes, and Mylan Tootoosis. Recorded live at Winterruption in Cosmo Seniors Centre on January 20th, 2017.

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#167 Post-Truth Fact Check

January 16, 2017

When reporters are more relevant as unwilling political props than as chroniclers of facts, what happens to the job of journalism?

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#166 Misha Glouberman

January 9, 2017

Misha Glouberman has been hosting Trampoline Hall, a barroom lecture series created by author Sheila Heti, for 15 years. He and Jesse are almost, but not quite, friends.

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#100 The Best Of The Imposter (So Far) pt.2

December 28, 2016

Featuring the best moments from Canadaland's new arts & culture show, hosted by Aliya Pabani.

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#165 The Best Of The Imposter (So Far) pt.1

December 26, 2016

Featuring the best moments from Canadaland's new arts & culture show, hosted by Aliya Pabani.

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#164 There’s A Hidden VIP Program In The Ontario Health Care System

December 19, 2016

Do politicians and foreign dignitaries have better access to health care than everyone else?

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#163 Edmonton Is Weird

December 12, 2016

Suburbs frozen in the 1950s. Progressives in the middle of oil country. Jesse explores the eccentricities of Edmonton, past and present.

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#162 Do First Nations Have A Free Press?

December 4, 2016

First Nations reporting usually falls into the four D's: drumming, dancing, drinking, and death. Wawmeesh Hamilton is trying to change that.

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#161 How To Save Our CBC

November 28, 2016

The Government is about to change the CBC.

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#160 People Like Fake News Better

November 21, 2016

Fake news sites won the American election. BuzzFeed Canada's Craig Silverman discusses how bogus Facebook stories blew credible news out of the water.

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#159 The Surveillance of Patrick Lagacé

November 14, 2016

La Presse journalist Patrick Lagacé tells all about why the Montreal police spied on him and other journalists, and why the free press is under attack.

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#158 Tabloid!

November 7, 2016

Every day at 12:36pm, Marc Weisblott sends out his "tabloid" newsletter. Is he a cultural critic? A media visionary? Or just a crank?

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#157 The Occupation Of Muskrat Falls

October 31, 2016

Justin Brake caught the nation's attention by broadcasting the peaceful protests of Muskrat Falls. And then he got served with a court injunction.

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#156 The Media Disruptors

October 24, 2016

Is solutions-based journalism the future of Canadian news?

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#155 Guys, We’re Having Some Problems

October 17, 2016

We lost almost half our staff this month. We need to pay better to retain our amazing team. Help us on Patreon and everybody but Jesse will get a raise.

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#154 The BBC & The New York Times Come To Canada

October 10, 2016

The BBC, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Bloomberg: all of them are increasing their presence in Canada at the exact same time that the Canadian media is cutting back like never before. Jessica Murphy, head of the BBC's new Canadian bureau and the New York Times' Canada correspondent Ian Austen discuss the influx.

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#153 Pipeline Antics

October 3, 2016

When Jean Charest was a paid agent of an energy company he had a secret meeting with the government pipeline regulator, who then lied about it.

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#152 Paywall “Blackmail”

September 26, 2016

If you share paywalled content, does that constitute copyright infringement?

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#151 Trained To Ignore: The Media And First Nations

September 19, 2016

Why does indigenous representation in settler media matter?

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#150 The News Is Dead So What Comes Next?

September 11, 2016

The Collapse of the News Business is Irreversible. So what will emerge from the ashes?

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#149 Canadaland At The Movies

September 5, 2016

Last winter, Canadaland invited journalists to The Revue Cinema in Toronto to discuss the films that made them want to become journalists.

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#148 What The Hell Happened At The Toronto Star?

August 28, 2016

Answers to some of the questions about reporter Raveena Aulakh's suicide. How much did the Toronto Star know about its "toxic" workplace and what did they do about it?

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#147 Why Johnny Can’t Innovate: Canada’s Tech Sector

August 15, 2016

Canada's tech sector is hemorrhaging talent. Between tax credits, targeted R&D programs, and Trudeau's cheerleading, can we stop the bleeding?

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#146 Should The Government Bail Out The News Business?

August 8, 2016

The Trudeau government is actually considering it.

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#145 Why You Can’t Set a TV Show in Canada

August 1, 2016

Media scholar Karen Burrows discusses the impact on our power as media consumers.

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#144 Follow Up: John Furlong

July 25, 2016

John Furlong has been accused of abusing dozens of First Nations children when he was a teacher in Burns Lake in the 1960s. Journalist Laura Robinson told this story and ended up on the wrong side of a defamation lawsuit.

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#143 Monica Heisey

July 18, 2016

Baroness Von Sketch, CBC's new sketch show, is funny. What happened? Jesse asks Baroness writer, author, and standup comedian Monica Heisey about what went right and what may be changing in Canadian comedy.

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#142 Kathryn Borel

July 10, 2016

Kathryn Borel reveals new details about the Jian Ghomeshi case.

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#141 The Case For Local Television

July 4, 2016

When disaster strikes, local television matters. But does anyone actually care about small-town daily news coverage anymore?

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#140 Is The Canadian-Chinese Press Controlled By Beijing?

June 26, 2016

Is the Communist Party of China influencing the Canadian-Chinese press? Journalist and paralegal Jonathan Fon joins Jesse for a discussion on the influence of Beijing.

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#139 “It Was A Power Play” – Sexual Harassment Claim At Global News B.C.

June 19, 2016

Global News anchor Chris Gailus is one of British Columbia's most renowned television broadcasters. He's been accused of sexually harassing his former makeup artist, Dawne Koke. Koke speaks to Jesse about her claims and about sexual harassment in the news business.

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#138 How Justin Won

June 12, 2016

How did the Liberals win the election? Author Susan Delacourt knows.

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#137 I Stand With Gawker

June 6, 2016

Gawker is in trouble. Writer Stephen Marche, a frequent target of the gossip site, expands on his defense of the blog that smears him.

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#136 How We Investigate

May 30, 2016

CBC still has a bullying & harassment problem. Jesse and Jane discuss how they investigated it for their recent report, "Bullying & Harassment Claims Emerge at CBC's As It Happens, TV Sports, and HR."

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#134 Failing Up, Pt. 2

May 25, 2016

When it came to Canadian arts administration, Jeff Melanson was the king. Until his messy annulment papers from frozen food heiress Eleanor McCain alleged that he left more than just administrative damage in his wake from the National Ballet School, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Banff Centre for the Arts. Anne Kingston dives deep into the hushed world of Canadian arts institutions.

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#135 Dangerous Cartoonists

May 24, 2016

Live from the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, cartoonists Ted Rall, Chip Zdarsky, and Rokudenashiko talk censorship, the surprisingly subversive power of cartoons, and the dying art of comics journalism.

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#131 Newfoundland Is Screwed

May 24, 2016

In Newfoundland and Labrador, massive numbers of workers are getting laid off. Taxes are skyrocketing. The oil industry is collapsing. Meanwhile, journalist James McLeod has independently published a Sunshine List that exposes just how cosy the province really is.

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#133 First Scandal of the Trudeau Government

May 9, 2016

Justin Trudeau's government told us that selling weapons to Saudi Arabia was a "done deal" of the Conservative government, but reporting by The Globe and Mail's Steven Chase revealed that it was entirely within the Liberals' power to stop it. The Globe called the government hypocrites, the NDP called them liars. What about the public?

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#132 Andrew Loku, Desmond Cole & Black Lives Matter

May 4, 2016

For the past year, Desmond Cole has been the media's go-to guy whenever a story about black Canadians would come up. Now, he discusses what's to come after hosting COMMONS.

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#130 Trial By Media, Media On Trial

April 18, 2016

What happens when three lawyers argue with Jesse Brown?

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#129 Spy Shit

April 10, 2016

Freelance journalist Matt Braga joins Jesse to talk about spy shit - the Panama Papers, CSIS, C-51, and Ben Makuch's ongoing battle with the RCMP.

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#128 The Ethnic Aisle

April 4, 2016

The Ethnic Aisle is a crowdfunded digital magazine tackling issues of multiculturalism, diversity, and race in Toronto and the GTA. Chantal Braganza is the managing editor of The Ethnic Aisle and a digital media producer at TVO. Guest hosted by Scaachi Koul.

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#75 What It Was Like At SUN News TV

March 29, 2016

Adrienne Batra and Alex Pierson were SUN News TV hosts until the network suddenly went dark last month. Now, they join Jesse to come clean about what it was like to work at the most hated TV station in Canada.

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#127 The Imposter

March 27, 2016

NOTE: Since this episode aired, The Imposter was put on hold, and has re-launched with new host Aliya Pabani.

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#126 Failing Up

March 21, 2016

Jeff Melanson was the Canadian arts & culture institution’s golden boy,  a “rock star arts administrator,” feted by the press and given prestigious positions at Canada’s top art institutions. Then he made a mess during his tenure at the Banff Centre, and has since been accused by his estranged wife of all sorts of professional misconduct. What is happening at these institutions, and do we reward failure in Canada? David Silcox was the Globe & Mail’s art critic, president of Sotheby’s Canada, Arts Officer of the Canada Council, and author of several books about Canadian art. CORRECTION: Jesse misstates that Marsha Lederman’s profile of Melanson ran in 2012, when in fact it ran in 2014. 

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#125 House Horny

March 13, 2016

The media is fuelling our real estate obsession and Garth Turner, ex-Conservative MP turned real estate blogger, is pouring cold water on us.

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#124 Second Class Journalists

March 8, 2016

Should journalists have control over what other journalists have access to? Allison Smith is the publisher of Queen's Park Today, a daily news website that reports on Ontario politics. For the last four years, the Queen's Park Press Gallery - a group of journalists - has denied her membership on dubious grounds.

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#123 The Unsolved Murders of Halifax

February 29, 2016

Dozens of women and girls have been murdered in the Halifax area over the past few decades. Tim Bousquet is capturing it all on his independent news site, the Halifax Examiner. 

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#122 The Dismantling of Claude Jutra

February 22, 2016

Is it ok for an anonymous sexual assault allegation to destroy the reputation a beloved cultural hero?

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#70 Journalism vs. Science

February 15, 2016

The Toronto Star's HPV fail reveals a wider problem: the journalists who inform us about science are increasingly scientifically illiterate.

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#121 Glen McGregor

February 14, 2016

Glen McGregor just left the Ottawa Citizen (along with 14 others) after breaking many major political stories of the last few years. So what's next for him, for the Citizen, and for print journalism in Canada's capital?

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#120 Indigenous Media Roundtable

February 9, 2016

Most Canadians don't hear about the stories Indigenous peoples tell within their communities. Mainstream media only covers the most tragic events affecting Indigenous communities — if it chooses to cover them at all. Now, alternative digital platforms have created an opportunity for these stories to travel outside the communities they are about.

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#74 Shad

February 7, 2016

The new host of CBC's Q talks about what he'll change post-Ghomeshi, and what he won't.

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#119 More Trouble at The Walrus

January 31, 2016

When Ken Alexander co-founded the Walrus in 2003, he wanted it to be a left-leaning literary magazine that also functioned as an educational charity. Now he says The Walrus has lost its way, strayed from its editorial mandate, abused its staff and violated its charitable obligations.

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#118 The Collapse Of Postmedia

January 24, 2016

Last week, Postmedia laid off 90 journalists from newsrooms across Canada, months after absorbing the Sun newspaper chain. What if a slow, painful death was the plan all along? The National Observer's Bruce Livesey weighs in on the implosion of Postmedia.

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#66 The Government’s Secret Newswire

January 18, 2016

News Canada (NC) looks like a wire service, but distributes stories produced by the federal government.

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#117 State Of The Unions

January 17, 2016

Do media unions protect journalists at the expense of journalism? Do they make it impossible for struggling news orgs to survive? Do they protect older workers at the expense of the younger generation? Nora Loreto, author and union activist, talks about what place organized labour might have in today's media.

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#116 Is The News Biz a Lost Cause?

January 7, 2016

Do Canada's legacy news orgs have digital strategies? Do they make any sense? Is profitability online even possible?

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#115 The Unbundling

January 3, 2016

It's a brutal time for the Canadian television industry and it's about to get worse.

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#114 CANADALAND Staff Meeting

December 27, 2015

What is CANADALAND doing wrong? What are we getting right? Where should we be headed? Listen in and find out: we recorded our annual staff meeting/staff mixer.

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#113 Everyone Loves Marineland

December 22, 2015

Marineland denies the allegations made in this podcast by Phil Demers, their former animal trainer. They have launched pending legal action against The Toronto Star, Phil Demers and others.

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#101 Anne Kingston

December 17, 2015

How will we know how bad things have gotten when most of the records have been erased? Anne Kingston discusses how Canada has thrown its data in the dumpster and become an international cautionary tale.

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#112 Newsworthy Victims: MMIW and the Media

December 13, 2015

It's taken 40 years for the media to pay attention to the permanent crisis of missing and murdered aboriginal women. Karyn Pugliese, APTN's Director of News and Current Affairs, talks about what has finally changed and why it's taken so long.

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#111 What is Sugar Sammy?

December 6, 2015

Comedian Sugar Sammy might be the most famous Canadian you haven't heard of. He plays to sell-out crowds in Paris, India, South Africa, and night after night in Montreal. He has sold hundreds of thousands of tickets. Yet he has yet to break through in english Canada or in the States. Jesse asks him why, and waxes nostalgic for the time he and Sammy were at the same university.

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#110 VICE

November 30, 2015

Is VICE a cult? Is it a sweatshop? Does their partnership with ROGERS influence their content? VICE Canada's head of content Patrick McGuire and executive vice president of TV Michael Kronish sit down for a tense chat with Jesse.

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#109 News Police

November 23, 2015

Who keeps the media in check? The newly-formed National Newsmedia Council, according to John Fraser and Don McCurdy. Can a bunch of journalists and public members wrangle the entire Canadian journalism industry?

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#108 The Reporter Who Fought City Hall

November 16, 2015

Joey Coleman was often the only reporter at Hamilton Ontario City Hall: a one-man digital newsroom, funded by his audience. His constant presence irritated a city councillor, who lost his temper and got physical. Joey didn't fight back, but he was the one punished: through a series of retaliations he was pushed out of the building and his news coverage became impossible. He joins Jesse to tell his story.

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#107 The Wrong Kind of Black Person

November 8, 2015

What does it really mean to be represented, in the media or in government? Can one kind of minority stand-in for another? What is shadeism? Does the media demand that minorities conform to whiteness in order to get in front of a camera? Is Canada finally, truly ready to deal with race? Septembre Anderson takes it all on.

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#106 Abuse And Ethics At The Walrus

November 2, 2015

The Walrus is in meltdown: stories of office bullying, exploitation and workplace chaos are leaking from "Canada's best magazine". Three of the people at the centre of the controversy speak.

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#105 @Kady

October 26, 2015

Kady O'Malley might be the 1st Canadian journalist who gets paid, primarily, to report the news via Twitter. Ottawa Citizen calls her Canada’s first mobile-focused political journalist. Jesse and Kady discuss social media journalism and the relationship between journalists and politicians.

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#104 Steve Paikin

October 18, 2015

Steve Paikin just might be the best TV host in the country. But who needs TV hosts anymore?

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#103 TPP: Spying, Blocking, and the Internet

October 12, 2015

University of Ottawa's Michael Geist breaks down the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership), a proposed trade agreement that Stephen Harper has been toiling over in secret for the last five years - an agreement that will have huge impacts on Canada's internet freedom and copyright issues.

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#102 John Furlong’s Privilege

October 5, 2015

Laura Robinson has lost her libel suit against John Furlong. The ruling, which could limit the media's willingness to report on abuse allegations, is based on erroneous information. Lawyer William McDowell discusses the possible impact.

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#100 Margaret Atwood

September 21, 2015

Prize-winning author, Twitter enthusiast, and censored columnist Margaret Atwood schools Jesse on technology, dictators, and CanLit.

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#99 Christie Blatchford

September 13, 2015

A difficult interview with the controversial columnist.

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#98 Performance Review

September 6, 2015

Time to check in with CANADALAND's supporters. How are we doing? What are we getting right & wrong?

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#97 Hart Pomerantz

August 30, 2015

Hart Pomerantz was Lorne Michaels's original partner, back when Michaels was still known as Lorne Lipowitz. Their top-rated CBC variety show, The Hart and Lorne Terrific Hour, was a precursor for Saturday Night Live before it was pulled from the airwaves after two short seasons.

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#96 The Ashley Madison Affair

August 21, 2015

The Ashley Madison hack was shitty and evil. But is reporting on it shitty and evil? Fortune Magazine's Mathew Ingram discusses where to draw the line.

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#95 Interview With Anonymous

August 17, 2015

First, the National Post's Adrian Humphreys on working with Anonymous. Then, Jesse interviews #OpAnonDown about their recent leaks on CSIS foreign stations, their John Baird threat, and more.

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#94 Scott Thompson

August 9, 2015

Veteran comedian Scott Thompson on why nothing happened after The Kids In The Hall, the biggest problems with the Canadian film & TV industry, and why gay men still have to be defanged to be accepted.

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#93 Operation Anonymous Down

August 2, 2015

Anthropologist and author Gabriella Coleman on Operation Anon Down and what it's like studying Anonymous from the inside.

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#92 Women and Newspapers

July 27, 2015

Veteran journalist Vivian Smith on institutional sexism, metaphorical pink and blue aisles, why some women choose to leave the profession, and how to fix it.

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#91 Paul Watson

July 19, 2015

Paul Watson discusses his resignation from the Toronto Star, his upcoming article that the Star refused to publish, and his career spent reporting from hot zones.

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#90 Stephen Harper Will Participate In A Photo Opportunity

July 12, 2015

VICE's parliamentary reporter Justin Ling is mad as hell at the PMO, and he's not gonna take it anymore.

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#89 James Dubro, True Crime Writer

July 5, 2015

Crime writer James Dubro discusses the symbiotic relationship between criminals and the press, and the four decades he's spent covering the mob in Canada.

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#88 Dirty Halifax

June 27, 2015

Journalist and Halifax Examiner founder Tim Bousquet talks about corruption, investigative journalism, and conflicts of interest in Halifax media.

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#38 The Tyee

June 22, 2015

The Tyee may be the oldest surviving "digital native" news site in Canada. Who funds it and why has it stuck around for so long while so many others have faded away? Founder David Beers explains.

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#87 CANADIAN MUSIC (is horribly broken) WEEK

June 22, 2015

Musician Paul Lawton discusses FACTOR, NXNE, CMW, the Canadian music industry, and why the current system is broken.

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#37 The Globe And Mail’s Plan To Force Reporters To Write Ads

June 15, 2015

Mathew Ingram, formerly of the Globe, explains why that plan won't work.

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#86 Hongcouver

June 14, 2015

South China Morning Post's Vancouver correspondent Ian Young speaks with Jesse about wealth migration, racism, and immigration schemes.

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#36 Is Video Game Journalism Corrupt?

June 8, 2015

Globe and Mail video game critic Peter Nowak on the "fucking nonsense" of the gaming press.

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#85 The Tim Hortons “Boycott” Fiasco

June 7, 2015

Last week a Conservative strategist fooled the media into thinking there was a popular, grassroots movement to boycott Tim Hortons on behalf of the oil industry. There was not. BuzzFeed Canada's politics editor Paul McLeod revealed the scheme, and talks to Jesse about how reporters get played by people in politics all the time.

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#84 My Socalled Friend

May 31, 2015

Josh Dolgin is one of Canada's most idiosyncratic talents. He is a rapper, a producer, an accordian player, a magician, a cartoonist, a puppeteer, and a cook book author. He is also Jesse's former creative partner, and this conversation should probably have taken place in private, if at all.

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#83 Jay & Jesse Solve Canada

May 25, 2015

Jay Baruchel on the Canadian film & TV racket and how to smash it. Taped before a live audience at the Bloor HotDocs Theatre in Toronto.

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#34 The Linden MacIntyre Interview

May 25, 2015

"I don't have to be nice to them anymore."

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#82 Aboriginal Peoples Television Network

May 18, 2015

Aboriginal people make up over 4% of Canada's population, but less than .5% of Canadian news stories have anything to do with them. What little we do hear from the media about indigenous people is often negative. APTN is the first, and perhaps the only aboriginal TV network in the world. Jesse visits their Winnipeg HQ and speaks to Karyn Pugliese, APTN's Director of News and Current Affairs.

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#33 A Federal Minister Explains why the Government Creeps your Facebook

May 18, 2015

Harper cabinet member Tony Clement describes how government outsources social media monitoring of the public. Is it legal? He's not sure yet.

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#81 Leah McLaren

May 11, 2015

Leah McLaren was telling the world about her private life before we all started doing it. She talks to Jesse about haters, journalism and acts of provocation.

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#32 Jan Wong Isn’t Over It

May 11, 2015

The betrayed reporter is still fighting the Globe and Mail.

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Chantal Hébert

May 3, 2015

It's possible that Chantal Hébert's journalism once held Canada together. She joins Jesse for a discussion about what's appropriate in political news coverage, and what (if anything) needs to change.

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#79 Our Oily Media

April 26, 2015

The energy sector has flooded Canada's media with money, be it in ad dollars, speaking fees, charitable donations or "native content" partnerships. What this has bought, in effect, is a lack of critical mainstream discourse on oil and the environment. The National Observer has launched to counter this reality. Linda Solomon Wood is its founder, and she speaks to Jesse about her effort.

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#78 Duffy Fallout

April 19, 2015

Journalist Mark Bourrie has vowed to sue CANADALAND for an article about his dealings with Senator Mike Duffy. Instead, Mark and Jesse talk it out.

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#77 When Global News Killed A Documentary About The Koch Brothers

April 12, 2015

Veteran investigative reporter Bruce Livesey was fired by Global News after they spiked his report on the billionaire Koch Brothers and their influence in Canada.

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#76 “Michael Bryant Killed My Son”

April 5, 2015

CANADALAND has obtained two eyewitness accounts of the death of Darcy Allan Sheppard. Neither has been publicly released before. They tell a very different tale of the death of Darcy Allan Sheppard than what the media has previously reported. They are followed by an interview with Sheppard's father, Allan Sheppard.

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#73 Video Game Welfare

March 15, 2015

Why does the government fund gaming?

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#72 Why Is The Walrus So Boring?

March 8, 2015

And why is it so white? Editor Jon Kay answers.

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#71 The Last Newspaper Barons (Live From New Brunswick)

February 22, 2015

The Irving Family of New Brunswick own more land than anyone in the world except for royalty and the Pope. How do they use their media monopoly to further their interests? What happens to those who try to compete with them?

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#69 Canada Is Failing Mohamed Fahmy

February 8, 2015

Before he quit his job, Foreign Minister John Baird said journalist Mohamed Fahmy's release was "imminent". Now Fahmy is set to be retried in Egypt after over a year in prison.

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#67 Ezra Levant

January 25, 2015

As few as 5000 people watch Ezra Levant's SUN News TV show, yet Levant himself is a major presence in the Canadian media. Why is that? Jesse asks Ezra to explain his own prominence.

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#65 Live From Hamilton It’s The Collapse Of Local News

January 12, 2015

A CANADALAND live taping from The Hamilton Public Library on the state of news coverage in medium to small markets. Panelists include crowdfunded local journalist Joey Coleman, media researcher Sonya MacDonald and CHCH's Donna Skelly.

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#64 Andrew Coyne

January 4, 2015

Andrew Coyne joins Jesse for a wide-ranging conversation before he begins his new job as editor of the National Post's Opinion and Editorial pages.

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#63 Performance Review

December 28, 2014

CANADALAND is gearing up for a big year. Time to check in with those who listen to it and who pay for it: What should I be covering? How should I handle ads? Who should host the upcoming politics show? More questions, some answers, and an apology.

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#62 President vs. Freelancer

December 21, 2014

The President of Ecuador spent his state TV broadcast decrying a 26 year-old Canadian journalist. Then his operatives bullied her out of the country. Now, Bethany Horne tells her story.

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#61 Laura Robinson

December 7, 2014

45 First Nations people allege experiencing or witnessing abuse by former school teacher John Furlong, President of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Journalist Laura Robinson broke the story.

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#60 The Secret Diary of Ed the Sock

November 30, 2014

Steven Kerzner may be the most famous TV peformer you've never heard of. His hand has insulted some of the biggest pop stars in the world. Crouched just out of frame, he had a worm's eye view of the heyday of CityTV and Muchmusic, and he tells Jesse all.

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#59 The Family That Owns New Brunswick

November 23, 2014

The Irvings are secretive billionaires who have a monopoly on New Brunswick's news media. Journalist Jacques Poitras, author of Irving vs Irving, describes how the family subtly suppresses criticism and destroys competitors.

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#58 An Interview With My Harshest Critic

November 17, 2014

Joe Clark has been aggressively challenging and sometimes attacking my work for years.

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#57 Mark McKinney

November 9, 2014

How on Earth did The Kids in the Hall even happen?

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#56 We All Knew About Jian

November 2, 2014

Roberto Verì used to work for CBC's Q with Jian Ghomeshi. He witnessed harassment that he never reported, until now.

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#55 Glenn Greenwald Knows Things About Canada

October 28, 2014

An on-stage interview with Pultizer-prize winning journalist Glenn Greenwald on his troubled relationship with the Canadian media and what he knows but has yet to report on CSEC spying.

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#54 All I Can Say For Now About Jian

October 27, 2014

Just a few thoughts about my investigation with the Toronto Star.

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#53 Why I Hate Talking About Israel

October 19, 2014

Norman Spector is Canada's former ambassador to Israel. He was also the publisher of the Jerusalem Post. Conversations about Israel-Palestine are invariably bummers, but for Norman, Jesse makes an exception.

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#52 Hark! Kate Beaton

October 12, 2014

Cartoonist Kate Beaton is an exemplary weirdo.

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#51 patreon dot com slash CANADALAND

October 5, 2014

CANADALAND is at a crossroads. The show won't continue without your support. But if each of the show's 10,000 listeners kicks in $1 a month, CANADALAND becomes an independent news org, a podcast network, and a daily news site.

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#50 The Last Music Critic

September 28, 2014

Carl Wilson changed the way music is discussed. His "poptimist" manifesto, Let's Talk About Love, made it okay to talk seriously about bubbly pop, and went pop itself- that rare work of criticism that becomes a bestseller. He rose to a top job in his field, senior critic at SPIN. But he almost instantly lost that job. He explains why, and talks about the rapid decline of music criticism itself.

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#49 The Geritocracy

September 21, 2014

Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation ever while young Canadians are increasingly poor and in debt. Yet the federal government spends four times as much on the average senior citizen each year as it does on the average 24-year-old. Eric Swanson of Generation Squeeze is fighting an uphill battle to even the scales.

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#48 Free Money For Being Old: A Guide To The Netflix Tax

September 14, 2014

The CBC, Ontario and Quebec say they want to tax Netflix to pay for CanCon TV. The Harper government says there will be no Neflix tax as long as they remain in power. They're all full of it. A Netflix tax is impossible. Journalist Steve Faguy explains why.

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#47 Comedy Is A Joke

September 7, 2014

Canadians can be funny, but can funny Canadians make a living? Comedian Rebecca Kohler on the state of stand-up.

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#46 Soknacki

August 31, 2014

David Soknacki is the opposite of Rob Ford: he's skinny, sober and thoughtful. But is the political press too sensationalized for a candidate with substance to get noticed?

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#45 Dan Riskin On Science In The Media

August 24, 2014

How is the press supposed to cover science in a country where the government stifles research that conflicts with its policies?

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#44 Cartoon Sweatshop

August 10, 2014

Canada produces top animation talent but lousy animation content.

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#43 The Score

August 3, 2014

The Score is a digital-first, globally popular Canadian media company that's growing each year. So why did its well-loved feature writing team just get the axe? Former features editor Dustin Parkes explains.

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#42 MuchMusic Isn’t Dead, But We Should Probably Kill It

July 27, 2014

MuchMusic and dozens of other specialty channels collect millions of dollars a year from subscribers who didn't ask for them and don't watch them. Meanwhile, channels are laying off their staffs and producing less meaningful content than ever. Is it time to cut the cord on the protected cable business?

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#41 (A Fate Worse Than) Death Of The Newspaper

July 20, 2014

Veteran journalist John Barber has written a fire-breathing, bridge-burning polemic on the state of Canada's newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, where he spent most of his career. He explains why he had to say it.

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#40 THE GRID: no path to profitability

July 13, 2014

THE GRID may be remembered as the last newspaper ever launched in Canada. The people behind it share their thoughts on whether success was ever even possible.

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Michael Enright (repeat)

July 6, 2014

The veteran CBC broadcaster as you've never heard him before. A candid, combative, and lubricated conversation about the state of journalism, the CBC, Canada in general, and Jesse's life choices in particular.

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#39 The CBC Covers Its Cutbacks In Futuresauce

June 30, 2014

The CBC's new plan is to be a digital content company (that doesn't make content). Jeffrey Dvorkin used to run news at CBC and NPR. He tells Jesse what he would do if he were still in charge.

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#35 Ricochet: Crowdfunding The Next Journalism

June 1, 2014

A people-powered journalism startup from Montreal has quickly earned the support of hundreds of backers. So what is Ricochet and who’s paying for it? Editor Ethan Cox explains.

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#31 Your Telecom Provider is Selling your Information to the Government

May 6, 2014

Internet and wireless companies have supplied private data millions of times.

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#30 Canadian Television Is Doomed

April 28, 2014

The CRTC is unbundling cable channels, but will anyone subscribe to cable TV in 5 years anyhow?

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#29 Why won’t the CBC defend itself?

April 21, 2014

The CBC is being systematically disassembled, but its employees can't or won't speak up for it and make the case for public broadcasting.

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#28 What Only the Press Knows about Rob Ford

April 14, 2014

Robyn Doolittle and Jonathan Goldsbie talk about unreported smells and Rob Ford's mastery of modern media.

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#27 The End of Internships

April 7, 2014

The Labour Ministry cracks down on free labour, starting with the magazine business.

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#26 What is happening at the Globe and Mail?

March 31, 2014

Former Globe editor speaks about the recent shakeup.

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#25 How Canada’s Spies Game the Media

March 24, 2014

CSEC is shadier than the NSA. Nobody really knows what they are doing, including the Ministers who empower them and the judges who grant them warrants.

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#24 The Notorious P.K.P.

March 17, 2014

Media King, Separatist Billionaire

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#23 Why Food Trends are for Idiots

March 10, 2014

Jen Agg on the problems with Canadian restaurants.

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#21 Jonathan Kay Defends Rex Murphy

February 24, 2014

The pundit won't talk, but his National Post editor will.

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#20 Rex Murphy is Paid by the Oil Sands and the CBC Won’t Disclose or Discuss it

February 17, 2014

The CBC's chief conservative commentator has a glaring conflict of interest, reports investigative journalist Andrew Mitrovica.

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#19 Sheila Heti

February 10, 2014

The Author of How Should A Person Be on her own hype, GIRLS, and why she doesn't care about CanLit.

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#18 VICE: An Oral History

February 3, 2014

VICE's Montreal origin, remembered by those who were there.

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#17 Susan Delacourt

January 27, 2014

How did Stephen Harper dodge the Senate scandal? Why did the press let him?

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#16 Exit Interview

January 20, 2014

Laid-off National Post editor Jeremy Barker on newspaper budget cuts.

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#15 Death of the Alt-Weekly

January 13, 2014

Former Montreal Mirror editor Rupert Bottenberg on the end of an era.

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#14 The Truth About Foreign Students

January 6, 2014

Are our Universities exploiting thousands of kids?

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#13 Show Notes

December 30, 2013

So how's it going?

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#12 The Dumbest Medium

December 23, 2013

TV news is reductive, repetitive and usually ridiculous. Was it always like this?

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#11 The Taco Heir of Northern Alberta

December 16, 2013

Graham Wagner wrote for The Office and Portlandia and studied philosophy because of Monty Python.

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#10 Rabid Unicorn

December 9, 2013

Kathryn Borel Jr. is a whole other sort of animal.

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#9 Wireless Wars

December 2, 2013

How Bell, Rogers, and Telus keep competition out of Canada.

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#8 Reality Show

November 25, 2013

Storage Wars Canada showrunner and documentary filmmaker Geoff Siskind on what's real, in life and in work.

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#7 Sex Criminal!

November 18, 2013

Chip Zdarsky is a deranged and celebrated and banned comics artist who is also secretly Steve Murray, a newspaperman at the National Post.

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#6 The Big Three Win Again

November 11, 2013

Tucows CEO Elliot Noss on how Rogers, Telus and Bell are holding Canada back.

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#5 You Can’t Do Political Satire Here

November 4, 2013

Playwright & actor Michael Healey on why Canada's powerful never get what they deserve.

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#4 Fear and Loathing in Canadian Television

October 28, 2013

Actor/writer Matt Watts (The Newsroom, Michael Tuesdays and Thursdays) on "incest" and "hush money" at the CBC, among other problems plaguing our TV industry.

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#3 Intern Trouble

October 21, 2013

Howard Bernstein helped create Ryerson's journalism internship program. Now he thinks it should be abolished.

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#2 Millionaire Ex-girlfriend

October 14, 2013

Ariel Garten is the CEO of Toronto-based startup Interaxon, makers of the thought-controlled computing headband, Muse. She also used to date Jesse.

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#1 Michael Enright

October 5, 2013

The veteran CBC broadcaster as you've never heard him before.

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