The Big Story

It's only been a few days since the world learned of a new variant of Covid-19. There is a ton of data we don't have yet. But when the world's leading epidemiologists look at what we do know, they see some worrying signs. How worried should we be? That still depends. What can we do to stop it? We already know that, and there is one thing we still haven't really done in Canada that could make a huge difference...Have our public health officials tell Canadians clearly that Covid-19 is airborne, and adapt our public health guidelines right now to reflect that, even if it means admitting we've been wrong. Scientists have known this for 18 months. Our federal government reluctantly admitted it, just barely, a month ago. Why?GUEST: David Fisman, epidemiologist, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, 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

Since the initial storm that caused severe flooding, mudslides, evacuations and forced the province to call in the armed forces, things haven't improved much in British Columbia. Yesterday, the third major storm in the past two weeks dumped a new round of heavy rain onto much of the province, raising fears that rivers already above their banks could overwhelm dikes. Meanwhile, gas is being rationed and highways are open for essential use only.A state of emergency will last at least two more weeks, and nobody knows when life could hope to return to normal. Is the rest of Canada paying enough attention to what's happening on the West Coast right now?GUEST: Monika Gul, morning reporter, CityNews1130 Vancouver 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

For centuries Quebec saw few, if any, immigrants from France. Over the past several decades that trend began to change, and in the past few years, it's been accelerating rapidly. So why are French ex-pats settling in the province en masse? What do they find when they get there? And from housing, to the workforce, to the currently booming economy: how might this influx change Quebec? GUEST: Eric Andrew Gee, Quebec correspondent, 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

In 70 days, the Winter Olympics will open in China. Probably, everything will proceed as though it's a normal games. But maybe not. For the first time, many athletes have been speaking out against China for silencing—or even disappearing—tennis player Peng Shuai after she made an allegation of sexual assault against a prominent Chinese politician. Meanwhile, the NHL is grappling with the fallout of a sex abuse scandal of its own. The NFL is confronting what appears to be years of racism and sexism from one of its most prominent coaches, and anti-vax rhetoric from its reigning MVP. Fans might still enjoy the spectacle, but it's clear the ugly underbelly of the games are increasingly on full display. The question is, will anyone do anything about it? Or does money still talk too loudly?GUEST: Donnovan Bennett, Sportsnet 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

A few years ago, the world was dotted with proposals for utopian Smart Cities, like Toronto's Sidewalk Labs. One by one, those ambitious dreams were scaled down or, in the case of Toronto, canceled altogether. But the technology behind them hasn't gone away—it's still being adopted in cities around the world. Only instead of being a part of a complex urban renewal project aimed at sustainability, it's mostly used for surveillance, by police and other organizations.What happened to the dream of the smart city—and what are we willing to trade for a little more convenience?GUEST: Anna Artyushina, research fellow in data governance; Ph.D. Candidate, Science and Technology Studies, York University 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

In January of 2020 one of Canada's senior military men warned that domestic deployments in response to weather events were stretching the military too thin to properly prepare for exercises or deployments. Since then we've had a pandemic, a deadly heat wave, massive forest fires and a devastating flood. The  military has been called upon repeatedly and they've done all they can.But it's becoming clear that these crises aren't slowing down. And we're running out of personnel and equipment to properly respond to them. Why is Canada's military so poorly funded and equipped? How did we end up in this situation? And are the compounding catastrophes of the climate era waking us up to the need for more resources?GUEST: Matt Gurney, reporter and columnist (Read Matt's piece in The Line 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

There are dozens, if not hundreds, of projects underway to get plastic out of the ocean. They range from hands-on cleanups of beaches (Canada's effort here is one of the best) to incredibly complex solutions involving fleets of plastic scoopers working in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. None of them are perfect, all of them will miss a lot, but every one is vital.As we try to save the world's oceans over the next decades, there is still a place for both old-fashioned hard work, and daring dreams. But the resources we devote to each project will determine what gets done. So...what has the best chance of actually working?GUEST: Ryan Stuart, writing for Hakai magazine 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

In September's election, the federal Liberals won the right to govern with the support of less than a third of voters, a record low for a ruling party. They achieved this by hyper-targeting ridings they knew could change the result, and ignoring ones that couldn't. With the example of the past two elections to go on, other parties are following suit in aiming for maximum vote efficiency.What happens when the best strategy to win involves ignoring most of the population? Is this a natural outcome of a longstanding strategy, or a warning that our governments are getting less representative every time we go to the polls?GUEST: Stephen Maher, journalist and writer 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

Everyone knows that in order to save the planet, electric vehicles need to replace internal combustion engines. And it's happening, at a more rapid pace than we might have expected. But something else is happening, too: As companies race to grab market share in the EV space, they are replicating recent trends that have made fuel-powered cars more dangerous to everyone not inside them. And since EVs are even heavier than traditional vehicles, that could be very bad news for pedestrians.What if the car of the future ends up just as bad as the cars of the present? Or worse?GUEST: Tim Querengesser, journalist and writer, CityHack 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

A little more than a century ago, Abbotsford's Sumas Prairie was actually Sumas Lake. It might be about to return to that state, as massive storms, lake overflows and a pumping station threaten to fill the plains once again, covering homes, fields, crops, cattle and any humans who failed to heed the evacuation order.Why did Sumas Lake become Sumas Prairie in the first place? How did the complex conditions around Abbotsford combine to create a potentially lethal danger? How has it (so far) been averted? And what is it like living in and reporting on British Columbia, a province that is quickly becoming the front line of the climate crisis?GUEST: Tyler Olsen, Managing Editor, Fraser Valley Current 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