The Decibel

As we learn more about Canada’s worst mass shooting, the families of the people killed are so frustrated with how the inquiry’s going that they’ve started to boycott the proceedings. Senior RCMP officers have been spared cross-examination as they detail the series of missteps they made in April, 2020.The Globe’s Greg Mercer has been following the inquiry, and he tells us how the RCMP didn’t believe the reports they received from the public, lacked training in their own communications systems, and gave commands after having several drinks. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You may know Rollie Pemberton by his stage name, Cadence Weapon. He’s the Edmonton-born rapper, who won the Polaris Music Prize in 2021, is known for his music with a political bent. Though he’s long been a writer of poetry – he was Edmonton’s poet laureate in 2009 – he’s now adding a new title to his list of accomplishments: non-fiction writer.In his new book, Bedroom Rapper: Cadence Weapon on Hip-Hop, Resistance and Surviving the Music Industry, Pemberton charts his path through the music industry. He joins Globe Associate Arts editor Aruna Dutt for a conversation on creativity in the pandemic and emerging with a new album – and now a book – to live audiences. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Canada abolished the death penalty in 1976. Now, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state to jail someone for life with no reasonable hope for parole. That includes mass murderers, like the man who pled guilty to killing six worshippers at Quebec City mosque in 2017.The recent ruling has raised questions about where the rights of prisoners and victims’ families begin and end. Sean Fine, the Globe’s justice writer, discusses the court’s reasoning behind its unanimous – yet controversial – decision to strike down a 2011 tough-on-crime law brought forward under Stephen Harper’s government. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On Wednesday, a jury sided with actor, Johnny Depp in his defamation case against his ex-wife, Amber Heard. The verdict follows a six week-long trial (which aired live on Court TV) that captured the public’s attention. It spawned hashtags with billions of views on TikTok, memes and even a skit on Saturday Night Live.During the trial, intimate and often ugly allegations about Heard and Depp’s relationship were on full display. That included allegations of abuse – which both accused the other of doing.While this case became a media spectacle involving two celebrities, it also brought to light the very real issue of intimate partner violence. The Globe’s Robyn Doolittle has reported on sexual violence and gender discrimination since 2015 and she’s also written a book on #MeToo. She is joined by Nicole Bedera, a sociologist who researches sexual violence and how it relates to our society and culture. They discuss the implications of the case and what it means to the broader conversation about #MeToo and the issue of intimate partner violence. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On May 26, Canada’s Minister of Employment, work force Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough said the Liberal government plans to retable the Canada Disability Benefit before the end of June.Disability advocates had been calling on the federal government to table this bill since it was introduced last summer. The legislation would help support people living with disabilities and dealing with poverty. According to Statistics Canada, one in every four people with a disability are low income.Michelle Hewitt, the co-chair of Disability without Poverty, explains what supports are currently available to disabled Canadians, why this benefit is needed now, and the importance of including disabled voices in its creation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Netflix recently reported their first loss of subscribers in over a decade. In the first quarter of 2022, 200,000 accounts left the company. That was just in the first quarter of this year – they’re forecasting a drop of 2-million more subscribers in the second quarter. Netflix is not alone. While streaming services and subscription services more broadly (like fitness apps, grocery delivery, and meal kits) saw a surge of consumers at the beginning of the pandemic, there are now signs of subscription fatigue.Mahdis Habibinia reported on the story for The Globe’s Report on Business. She explains why this fatigue is setting in, what companies are doing about it and why, even though many of us are overwhelmed with the amount of choice, subscription-based services are likely here to not only stay, but actually increase in number. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today we decided to take a bit of a reprieve and head down to a park, very early in the morning, to hear the dawn chorus – the symphony of birdsong that happens at daybreak. Since the pandemic started, more and more people have taken up birding as a way to escape the day-to-day and engage with the natural world.Globe columnist Marcus Gee found that he too has been enjoying the relaxation that birding provides more since the pandemic started. He has also been honing his skills at identifying birds by song. This led him to ask: Why do birds sing at all? 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 one year since Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc First Nation announced they had found 215 unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.Dr. Kisha Supernant is one of the people at the forefront of the effort to look for unmarked graves. She’s a Métis archaeologist and chair of Unmarked Graves Working Group with the Canadian Archaeological Association. She explains how she does this work, what happens after potential graves are found, and what needs to happen next. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The United States is grappling with another mass shooting. At least 19 children and two adults were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. This marks the 27th school shooting and the 213th mass shooting this year in the U.S. The tragedy has set off another round of partisan arguments with each side blaming the other, leaving many with a sense of despair that these events will just keep on happening.Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Shribman tell us how America has come to find itself stuck in this intolerable position that has led to guns being the number one killer of Americans under the age of 20. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A new report from Human Rights Watch found that some online learning platforms are tracking children in ways they say actively or passively infringe on a child’s privacy rights. The trackers buried in a website or an app can monitor a kid’s keystrokes, searches and doodles, as well as their physical location using GPS.Hye Jung Han is a children’s rights and technology researcher, an advocate with Human Rights Watch, and lead researcher on this report. She’ll explain how the report on 164 online learning platforms endorsed or used by governments in 49 countries found out what data is being collected from kids in online learning platforms, and how it’s being used. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.