The Decibel

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from the public eye after accusing the former vice-premier of China of sexually assaulting her. The accusation was wiped from her Weibo account within an hour.Nothing much happened until tennis stars like Naomi Osaka and Billie Jean King, along with international media and the Women’s Tennis Association, began asking where Peng went a few weeks later. Then a message allegedly from Peng appeared, followed by a video purportedly showing her safely out at dinner. This didn’t convince everyone of her safety or that her allegations were being taken seriously by Chinese authorities.But, as Globe sports columnist Cathal Kelly argues, it was enough to kill the news story and to quiet calls for boycotting the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gender-based violence often doesn’t get reported to authorities, and the signs that someone might need help are easily missed by friends, family and even the person experiencing the abuse. But a hand signal created for people to silently ask for help recently went viral on Tik Tok – and was used by a missing teen who ended up getting rescued in Kentucky.Elizabeth Renzetti is a columnist and feature writer at The Globe who often covers issues around gender-based violence. She explains how the hand signal came to be, why it matters that it went viral on Tik Tok and what we need to know about the more subtle signs of abuse that often go overlooked. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A border between Poland and Belarus which has been at the centre of a geopolitical conflict is now quiet. Thousands of asylum-seekers, many of them fleeing conflict zones in the Middle East, were trapped in Belarus hoping to cross over into Poland. On Thursday, Belarussian authorities cleared the main camps, but it’s not known what will happen to the people still trying to cross into the EU.Mark MacKinnon is The Globe’s senior international correspondent. He was recently in Poland and explains why the situation is widely considered a manufactured crisis motivated by revenge, what the geopolitical implications are and how the people seeking refuge are caught in the middle. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It has been five years since the North American leaders have gathered together for one of their so-called Three Amigos Summits. And while U.S. President Joe Biden is a familiar face to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some of the current U.S. policies are not so nice to Canada.The Globe and Mail’s Washington, D.C. correspondent, Adrian Morrow, is on the show to discuss what Trudeau will likely be pushing Biden on, especially around some protectionist trade issues, and what the U.S. and Mexico may want from Canada in return. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Record rainfall has caused flooding and mudslides in several parts of Vancouver Island and southern mainland B.C. Hundreds were trapped in their cars by mudslides, with at least one person killed and thousands evacuated from communities devastated by flooding.Globe environment reporter Kathryn Blaze Baum explains what caused the rainstorm that wreaked havoc on the province and how this summer’s wildfires and heat dome are related. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lee Maracle’s career inspired a generation of Indigenous writers to write about their own experience. The author, poet and activist died last week at 71 years old.Maracle’s friend, the playwright, author and frequent Globe columnist Drew Hayden Taylor, remembers Maracle and her legacy.You can listen to Maracle’s Margaret Laurence Lecture from the Writers’ Trust of Canada here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A recent Ontario Court of Appeal ruling found that the Crown violated two treaties signed in 1850. The agreements cover a vast part of Northern Ontario, and were originally about sharing the wealth of the land. But the government has been paying the Anishinaabe descendants of that land just $4 per person per year.Sara Mainville is an Anishinaabe lawyer and partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend in Toronto. She explains to guest host Willow Fiddler how over 100 years later these agreements are still being interpreted literally by governments in Canada, and why treaty agreements should be handled differently. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Humans make a lot of noise – in our streets, in the skies and in our seas. All this anthropogenic clamour is not just annoying, it can be detrimental to the health of both humans and animals. But scientists have never really had a chance to study just how much noise we produce and what would happen if we stopped producing it … until the COVID-19 global pandemic sent most of the world into a lockdown in early 2020.This temporary silencing of a lot of human activity was a silver lining to the pandemic as it provided scientists with conditions to conduct experiments and learn about the natural world. Today on the show we speak to three Canadian researchers who all listened and learned during the Great Quieting of early 2020.Thanks to Dr. Nicola Koper, Dr. William Minarik and Dr. David Barclay. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Retired Corporal Robin Rickards did three tours of duty with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan, and he kept in touch with Afghans who worked in support roles that he met there. Since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan this August after the US and coalition forces withdrew, he’s been fielding calls for help fleeing the country.One interpreter Rickards worked with, Abdul Jamy Kohistany, did make it to Canada with his immediate family, but had to leave other family members behind in Afghanistan. Rickards tells us about how Kohistany is settling in Thunder Bay, why he considers him and other Afghans veterans, and why veterans are still working to bring others to safety. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The price of Canadian dairy products might be jumping early next year and that’s because of the Canadian Dairy Commission. Recently, they announced an unprecedented 8.4% increase for the price farmers are paid for milk, and a 12.4% increase for the price of butter. And those price hikes might well be passed along to you at the supermarket.Sylvain Charlebois is a professor of food distribution and policy and the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University. He explains how the cost of dairy gets set every year, why Canada still has a supply-management system for dairy and whether or not it’s actually beneficial to farmers and Canadians. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.