The Decibel

Electronic monitoring of employees has been going on for years, but it’s seen a serious boost during the pandemic. It can consist of tracking anything from location, online activity status, keyboard and mouse movements, URLs – some even take photos of employees from their computer cameras and take screenshots to ensure they are working. Ontario has legislation that now makes it mandatory for companies with more than 25 people to tell employees how they’re monitoring them and why.Nita Chhinzer, professor in the department of management at the University of Guelph, explains the extent of this kind of monitoring in Canada, and how this Ontario law might change things.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

New census data from Statistics Canada shows that immigrants now represent 23 per cent of the Canadian population, a new high. But these numbers only tell half the story. The challenges that immigrants face in getting into the country are numerous and complex.Dakshana Bascaramurty digs into the new numbers and explains why some people will risk their lives to move to North America.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Bank of Canada announced a 0.5 percentage point rate hike on Wednesday. It’s the sixth consecutive increase in the past year alone. These increases have made borrowing more expensive and saving more difficult for Canadians.With all this economic uncertainty, The Decibel hosted a conversation live on Twitter with three personal finance experts to talk about how young people should prepare to weather this storm. Rob Carrick, Erica Alina and Melissa Leong talk mortgages, savings and their key piece of personal finance advice for young people who may be feeling anxious.You can listen to the full Twitter space conversation here.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Indigenous people are over-represented in Canada’s federal prisons. One in three men in federal prisons identify as Indigenous, and the number is 50 per cent for women prisoners.Officials have long said that healing lodges – minimum-security rehabilitation centres for Indigenous people – work, but there are only 10 in Canada. And while politicians pledge to build more, they haven’t in recent years. Reporter Patrick White discusses what’s behind the delay.Join host Menaka Raman-Wilms for a conversation live on Twitter this Wednesday, October 26th, at 2pm ET. She’ll be chatting with the Globe’s personal finance reporter Erica Alini, Globe columnist Rob Carrick and money expert Melissa Leong about the latest interest rate hike from the Bank of Canada and what it means for young people’s money. We’ll cover rent, saving, debt and investing with practical tips you can use.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rishi Sunak is set to become the UK’s next Prime Minister. This comes after Liz Truss resigned from the job after a tumultuous six weeks. Truss is the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history. Now, Sunak must try to repair the very shaky economic situation that the country currently finds itself in.Tom Rachman is a novelist and contributing columnist for The Globe based in London. He tells us why he thinks the problems in the UK all stem back to Brexit, about the mess Rishi Sunak is set to take on and what he could possibly do to fix the British economy.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It’s been a month since post-tropical storm Fiona slammed into Atlantic Canada, causing huge amounts of devastation. In Prince Edward Island, thousands of trees came down, houses were destroyed, and people remained without power for weeks. Amidst a labour shortage, recovery efforts in the province are moving slowly.The Globe’s Greg Mercer visited PEI recently and spoke to people picking up the pieces after Fiona about what comes next.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

An anti-loitering noise device under a bridge in the small city of Oshawa, Ontario was put there by municipal officials to dissuade unhoused people from setting up camp. It’s raised questions about how cities should be dealing with homelessness at a time when housing is more out of reach than ever.With municipal voting day coming on Monday across Ontario, Marcus Gee discusses the politics of addressing homelessness.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The public inquiry into whether the use of the Emergencies Act to stop protests in Ottawa this past winter was justified is under way. On Wednesday, we learned that the city of Ottawa and police were warned in advance that the trucker convoy protest was well-resourced and determined to remain on site until COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. But Ottawa police reportedly didn’t receive these warnings from the provincial police.Parliamentary reporter Marieke Walsh joins us to tell us what else we’ve learned in the first week of hearings.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In the span of two weeks, Russia has launched two major drone attacks on Ukraine. Scores of so-called “kamikaze drones,” purchased from Iran, have been attacking Ukrainian civilians and devastating power and water infrastructure.Dr. Stacie Pettyjohn is a senior fellow and director of the defence program at the Center for a New American Security. She’s back on the show to tell us how these drones work and what air defence systems from allies might do to help Ukraine.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Finding a suspect based on their DNA alone used to be almost impossible: police could only search DNA databases of people who’d already committed crimes and been convicted. But the increase in popularity of online genealogy and DNA databases are changing what’s possible.The Globe’s Colin Freeze has spoken to Canadian detectives who are using the same technique that caught the Golden State Killer to solve cold case crimes here in Canada.Questions? Comments? Ideas? E-mail us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.