The Decibel

Canada’s immigration system is overwhelmed. Cases are backlogged and little information is being communicated to applicants. This has led to a surge of access to information requests, which has created another backlog, and has left people trying to settle in Canada in the dark.Tom Cardoso, an investigative reporter with The Globe, explains why people started using this workaround to get information on their immigration cases in the first place, and why things are likely going to get worse.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Chocolate may be sweet, but it comes at a steep cost. Labels that claim your favourite treat are sustainable can hide harsh realities for farmers. Millions of cocoa farmers in Africa and Latin America live in hunger and poverty because big corporations refuse to pay a fair price for their cocoa.In the face of this increasingly aggressive price war, some cocoa farmers have joined fair-trade, farmer-owned co-operatives. Together they are pooling their resources to better their communities and futures.Today, The Globe and Mail’s U.S. correspondent Adrian Morrow joins us to explain what he and the Globe’s Africa Bureau Chief Geoffrey York learned about the cost of chocolate.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Canada’s household debt is really high. In fact, we outrank France, Italy, the UK and even the U.S. And while, the debt load is high for Canadians of every age group, one particular generation stands by owing over $600,000 on average.Rob Carrick is The Globe and Mail’s personal finance columnist. He’s on the show to explain why Canadians owe so much and how over-indebted Canadians should be thinking about their finances.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

In late May, the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed one of the world’s harshest anti-homosexuality bills into law. It authorizes the death penalty in certain circumstances and a 20-year prison sentence for anyone who “promotes” or “normalizes” homosexuality. The situation was already bad for queer people in Uganda, but this new law makes things much worse.Kimahli Powell is the CEO of Rainbow Railroad, a non-profit organization that helps at-risk LGBTQ people get to safety around the world. He’s on the show to explain what it’s like for LGTBQ people in Uganda right now and what his organization is doing to help them.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

David Johnston resigned as the special rapporteur on Friday after looking into foreign interference in Canadian elections. The former Governor General’s decision to step down came days after he appeared at a parliamentary committee on his work and was grilled by MPs from opposition parties.Steven Chase is The Globe’s Senior Parliamentary Reporter and he has been leading the foreign interference reporting with colleague Robert Fife. Steven joins the podcast to discuss where the investigation in China’s efforts to meddle in Canadian politics goes from here.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

When Canada first passed legislation to create its access-to-information system, it was seen as a world leader in terms of transparency. But fast forward 40 years and that same system is sluggish, overwhelmed and preventing Canadians from their right to government information.Globe and Mail investigative reporters Robyn Doolittle and Tom Cardoso spent more than a year reporting on the state of the system and what’s behind all the bottlenecks. The Globe has also built a website that lets you explore more than 300,000 FOI summaries to help you navigate the system.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.comYou can access The Globe’s Secret Canada project here: https://www.secretcanada.com/

The 2007-2008 financial crisis hit countries around the world hard. But, Greece’s economy really faltered. At the peak of Greece’s crisis, unemployment hit 28 per cent, a figure higher than unemployment during the U.S.’ Great Depression. Greece required three hefty bailouts from the European Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund which totalled almost €300-billion. The Greek population suffered under strict austerity measures which cut salaries and closed hospitals.Fast forward to today and the economy is showing remarkable signs of a bounceback. Eric Reguly is The Globe’s European bureau chief. He’s on the show to explain what went wrong in Greece, how they’re turning things around and what other countries can learn from Europe’s surprising comeback kid.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

A lot of Canada is on fire right now – fires are burning in nearly every province and territory and the federal government says this season could see the most land burned since we started keeping records.Today, The Globe’s Lindsay Jones joins us from Halifax to talk about the biggest wildfire the province has ever seen, and why fires are so bad there this year. Then, The Globe’s Mike Hager tells us about the wildfires burning across Canada and how prepared the country is to deal with it.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Canadians have been dealing with high inflation for two years now. But, as consumers, we keep spending. However, the picture of where we spend our money and how much of it is a messy one.The Globe’s retailing reporter Susan Krashinsky Robertson explains why some stores are seeing a drop in some areas of spending, even as Canadians are spending at an extremely high rate.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

The Toronto District School Board – the largest school board in the country – recently reported that more than 300 kids were involved in violent incidents this year. In March, Quebec’s education minister announced he was preparing a strategy to deal with increasing violence in schools. These are just two examples of the more frequent reports of violence in schools across the country, particularly among teenagers.Dr. Tracy Vaillancourt is a professor at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in Children’s Mental Health and Violence Prevention. She’s on the show to explain why violence in schools is on the rise and what research tells us about how to prevent it.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com