The Big Story

Do you remember the Ikea Monkey? That's just the tip of the iceberg. A lack of provincial laws around exotic animals in Ontario means that there's nothing preventing you or I from owning just about any kind of dangerous animal. To illustrate how this works today: The story of some lions who are in Ontario, were once a part of a roadside zoo and are now ... well, we don't know exactly where they are now. Really.GUEST: Grant LaFleche, investigative team The Toronto Star (Read Grant and reporter Sarah Crookall's investigation right here.) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Quick, name a signature, unique, statement building opened in Canada in the past couple of decades! Your choices are few and far between. And aside from some of the oldest buildings in the entire country, Canada is known by enthusiasts around the world for having ... not much, when it comes to beautiful public buildings and spaces.There are reasons for that. And it's possible to change our approach. But will we? Do we care enough? Do our leaders? Or will Canada remain a country of mostly grey boxes, forever?GUEST: Tracey Lindeman, writer and author, writing in the Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

It's a tricky phrase—but these days you are as likely to hear it from a government official or public health officer as you are from someone who is just sick of vaccine passports. As the Omicron wave subsides and governments across the country ease or eliminate restrictions, a growing number of Canadians are in favour of a future where we no longer tailor our lives to the virus.But is that possible? If it is, what would that look like? Who will thrive in this future and who will suffer? And is there a way, with proper planning and enough commitment, to have the best of both worlds? A world where we can protect the vulnerable and let everyone get "back to normal"?GUEST: Timothy Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

You might assume that millions of crowdfunded dollars are behind the scenes on the streets of Ottawa and at border crossings across the country. But very little of the money raised on GoFundMe or GiveSendGo has been released, and what was released was mostly frozen. So where is the money to support these lengthy protests coming from? How is it getting into the hands and bank accounts of organizers? And what does it tell us about the future of fundraising and foreign influence in Canadian affairs?GUEST: Jessica Davis, president and principal consultant at Insight Threat Intelligence We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

This Olympics will make history for an uncomfortable reason: It will be the first winter games where basically all the snow used will be man-made. Past Olympics have needed snow machines to varying degrees, but never before to make all the snow. It's a sign of the times as a warming planet makes snowfall less reliable—but what does it mean for the future of the Olympics, and winter sports in general?GUEST: Kathryn Blaze Baum, environment reporter, The Globe and Mail We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Some people deserve to have awful Google results. But a lot more people don't, and end up with them thanks to a vendetta, a soured relationship, or a targeted harassment campaign. Regardless of whether or not the reputation is deserved, there's basically one way to fix it — online reputation rehab, companies that take your money to fix your Google results.Some of these companies are totally above board, but others can trap victims in cycles of endless payment to remove new results. And there's not much stopping them.GUEST: Paul Gallant, Toronto-based reporter, writing for The Walrus We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

It might not look like it, but when you walk among them it becomes clear there's more than one group in Ottawa. If you want to find evidence that the protesters are peaceful, ordinary, frustrated Canadians who came to Ottawa to make their displeasure known, you can find those folks. And if you want evidence that the protesters are angry, racist, far-right agitators here to attempt to overthrow the government, you can find that, too.This is what makes the scene on the street so difficult to capture in a 60-second news report, or a short video stream. So we called in someone who has spent a couple of days attempting to blend in with both kinds of protesters, to tell us what he's seen and heard.GUEST: Matt Gurney, writer and commentator, co-founder of The Line (You can read Matt's dispatches from Ottawa right here.) We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Or is Vladimir Putin bluffing to gain the world's attention? The history of Russia-Ukraine conflict dates back decades and can only be properly understood by looking at what has come before.But right now, Canadian citizens are being warned it's time to come home, there are massive amounts of troops on the border and the world is worried diplomacy might not work. So ... what happens next?GUEST: Seva Gunitsky, associate professor of political science, the University of Toronto. We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

If you want to know which kids are least likely to get vaccinated, there’s a decent way to tell — they're the ones attending an alternative school. Even before covid, with traditional vaccines that were proven safe over decades, the opt-out rate among alternative school kids was many times higher than kids in traditional classrooms.Why is that? Where does the hesitancy come from? And what can we learn about the factors parents weigh when they make these decisions by studying the philosophies of the schools they choose?GUEST: Inori Roy, investigative journalist, writing in The Local We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter

Amid the current rhetoric around protests across Canada, it's worth examining what successful, peaceful protest looks like, and what we can learn from it. It took more than half a decade, work by Indigenous women and leaders and non-Indigenous allies. It took a deep understanding of treaties and laws and relentless positive commitment. And in the end, an oil and gas company simply gave up, and left a beautiful river system alone. This is the story of how it happened.GUEST: Cheryl Maloney, protest leader, Mi'kmaq woman, former national environment coordinator for the Native Women’s Association of Canada We love feedback at The Big Story, as well as suggestions for future episodes. You can find us:Through email at hello@thebigstorypodcast.ca Or @thebigstoryfpn on Twitter