The Decibel

There are a lot of serious storms these days, and those storms are causing more and more damage, as residents of California are seeing this week in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Hilary.The storms we are seeing in Canada are changing – but not how you might expect. David Sills, a severe storms specialist and executive director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University, explains what changes he’s seeing in storms, how prepared we are to handle the damage from them, and the connection one of these storms has to a producer here at The Decibel.This episode originally aired on September 14, 2022.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Back in July, a former RCMP officer was charged with conducting foreign interference on behalf of China. We now know more about what the RCMP is accusing this officer of doing. And it involves a real estate tycoon, a “hired gun”, and a campaign called Operation Fox Hunt.Steven Chase, senior parliamentary reporter for the Globe, explains.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Canada needs a lot of housing – and the Liberal government is making this a priority at their cabinet retreat this week. But there are concerns that if we keep building new homes using current materials and practices, it could lead to a spike in our greenhouse gas emissions.Luigi Ferrara is the chair and CEO of the Brookfield Sustainability Institute, which looked into this issue. Today, he tells us why current building practices cause high emissions, and how homes could be built differently – and retrofitted – to become more sustainable.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

As wildfires rage on across the country, more than 50,000 people have been forced out of their homes in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories and West Kelowna in British Columbia within the past week. And each one of those people have had to make life-changing decisions: Should you leave your home? What do you take with you? What might you never see again?Today, we hear those stories from Canadians on the move from fire-afflicted communities, told to the Globe’s reporters, including Alanna Smith, Mark Rendell and Mike Hager.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Fears of a recession have been looming since the worst days of the pandemic. And as inflation continues its slow but steady ascent, central banks around the world have tried to increase interest rates to cool things down. It’s easy to think that all of this means we might actually have avoided the worst.But Report on Business columnist and reporter Tim Kiladze says it’s too early to declare victory: we may not actually have achieved that mythical “soft landing” after all. He’s watching a few warning signs that could spell economic trouble for us later.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Journalist Connie Walker has been reporting on Indigenous stories for most of her career. From missing and murdered women to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she has covered on some of the biggest stories in Canada in the last few decades. But it wasn’t until last year that she decided to look into her own family’s past. The urge to dig into her deceased father’s past appeared after her brother shared a story in the wake of the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C. Connie talks about the importance of healing through sharing the truths, what she found out about her own family’s secrets and her new podcast, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s.This episode originally aired on May 24, 2022.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Elective egg freezing is on the rise in Canada. Fertility clinics pitch it as a kind of insurance policy: put your eggs in the bank now, and you can come back for them later, when you’re ready to have a baby. But the procedure is invasive, expensive, and doesn’t guarantee a successful pregnancy later on.Alison Motluk, freelance journalist and writer of the newsletter, Hey Reprotech, is on the show to talk about what’s really involved in egg freezing. Read more about why she’s sounding a note of caution around the procedure here.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

In the early hours of July 22, chaos was erupting in Nova Scotia. Rain was pouring down, causing intense flooding. People were panicked about whether to stay or leave their homes. Emergency crews were overwhelmed. In the end, four people died in the floods.A series of radio calls made between one volunteer fire department and the emergency dispatch provide a glimpse into when and how things unfolded that night. They also raise questions as to why it took officials almost two hours to issue an emergency alert with instructions to shelter in place.Lindsay Jones is the Globe’s Atlantic Canada reporter, based in Halifax. She has gone from covering wildfires to floods and is on the show to go through what we’ve learned in the weeks since the fatal flooding.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

It has been five years since the legalization of cannabis in Canada but we still know very little about health impacts from cannabis smoke. Almost no research has been done, despite government promises, so scientists and experts say we need more data so consumers can make an informed decision.Jameson Berkow is a reporter for the Globe who has covered the cannabis industry extensively. He’s on the show today to explain why this knowledge gap exists and how we can close it.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

On Wednesday, Ontario’s Auditor-General, Bonnie Lysyk released an investigative report into the province’s decision to open up 3,000 hectares of its protected Greenbelt area for development. The Ford government claims this will be beneficial for the housing crisis but her report found that they have a different agenda.Jeff Gray is a Queen’s Park reporter for The Globe and Mail and he will be talking to us about the problems around the Greenbelt plan and where the Ford government went wrong.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com