February 9, 2026
SHARE
CANADALAND
#1310 Was New Brunswick’s Medical Mystery a “House of Cards”?
“ That is not what we were promised. That's not what our patients expected.” -Dr. Alier Marrero
Julian Abraham
Reporter
Bruce Thorson
Senior Producer
Tristan Capacchione
Senior Production Supervisor
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
max collins
Director of Audio

The government of New Brunswick has released its much-anticipated report on the mysterious neurological illnesses afflicting many in the province. The report doesn’t just aim to identify what’s behind the “cluster” of disease. It’s far more fundamental than that. Its findings raise questions as to whether the disease itself exists. Is it a single disease or a mass misdiagnosis of unrelated illnesses?

The physician at the heart of the controversy for much of the last decade, Dr. Alier Marrero, has blasted the report and labelled it as a “shockwave” to himself and his patients. He joins us today.

 

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Julian Abraham (Reporter), Tristan Capacchione (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Featured Guest: Dr. Allier Marrero

 

Fact checking by Kallan Lyons

Additional music by Audio Network

 

More information:

 

Sponsors: 

MUBI: To stream great cinema at home, you can try MUBI free for 30 days at https://mubi.com/canadaland

Fizz: Visit https://fizz.ca and activate a first plan using the referral code CAN25 to get 25$ off and 10GB of free data.

Article: Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit https://article.com/canadaland and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

BetterHelp:  Visit https://BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

 

Can’t get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

More from this series
“What’s my crime? Journalism? … I get that I piss off a lot of people with my articles.” -David Pugliese
October 5, 2026
 ”These are a group of white men coming to our area saying, "We bring you the gift of nuclear waste.” - Dennis
October 1, 2026
You can't really call Regina a news desert. They still have a newspaper. But if you actually look under the hood you’ll discover that they stopped printing the newspaper in Regina. They stopped editing it in Regina. The editor lives somewhere else. And as far the CBC goes, well, that acronym is now synonymous with layoffs. 
September 28, 2026
1438
I f you don't like what you're hearing, it's because it doesn't agree with your worldview, but you're interviewing an expert, and I'm giving you my expert analysis. -Dr. Peter McCullough
September 21, 2026
 We can surveil you. We can also perhaps even influence you, change the way that the game interacts with you in a way that might kind of subconsciously impact your understanding of the world. - Dr. Vinita Singh, associate professor of law, University of Minnesota
September 14, 2026
“ If they wanna draw Garfield and expose his  genitals,  you know, that's up to the fans.” -Nathen Mazri
September 7, 2026
“Everything changed when I treated it like a 9-5.”
September 3, 2026
“ I was fired because I condemned Hamas by calling them Nazis.” - Paul Finlayson
August 31, 2026
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND