The Big Story

Western has always been known as a party school, and with that comes a culture that can lead to sexual violence. But this year's freshman orientation week ("O-week" as the school calls it) was horrifying even by that standard. Multiple accounts of sexual assault and violence are being investigated both by the school and the police. A fed-up student body led a 12,000-person walk out. And the administration has promised to take action and change the culture.How? What happened two weeks ago on campus? How inevitable was something like this? And did an influx of young students, who had spent most of the past 18 months in lockdown only to emerge on their own for the first time, lacking support, make this even worse?GUEST: Rebekah Rodrigues, news editor at the Western Gazette (You can read the Gazette's coverage 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

The province is suffering from an absolutely devastating fourth wave of Covid. Premier Jason Kenney was absent until it was too late to prevent the worst of it. Now, as hospitals blow past their capacity, Kenney is shuffling his cabinet and hoping vaccine passports can help right the ship. How did it come to this? What could have been done to prevent it? And will this cost the premier his job?GUEST: Jason Markusoff, Maclean's 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 Liberal minority government. Likely within a few seats of where we started, 37 days ago. Did this election matter? What did it reveal about Canada's political mood? About the health of our electoral system? And about the future of the two leaders who went head to head for the past six weeks? Turns out, more than you might think. GUEST: David Moscrop 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 was the shortest possible election Canada could have had — so why did it feel so long? Maybe because nobody really wanted it. As Canadians (at least those who haven't voted in advance) head to the polls today, we offer you a rapid recap of the highs and (mostly) lows of this campaign. If you have mercifully had other things to do all day, this will give you everything you need to know. If you have been paying attention this whole time, you will marvel at how long ago the beginning of a very short election feels...GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney 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

We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, the climate crisis. This was our listeners' top issue, and it wasn't particularly close.For the first time in a federal election, every major party has a legitimate plan to deal with the climate crisis. But those plans are wildly different. Which plan is ambitious enough to be effective, but rational enough to be achievable? What do we know about the climate now that we didn't know in 2019? How much time do we have left to act, and where do our targets need to be to make a difference?GUEST: Fatima Syed, climate and environment reporter, The Narwhal Ontario 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

We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, truth and reconciliation. A few months ago, when news of hundreds of unmarked graves at residential schools was horrifying Canadians, it seemed unimaginable that dealing with Canada's legacy of racism and implementing meaningful reconciliation would not be a leading issue in the next election. Now here we are and ... is it?Every party has a plan to tackle the darkest element of Canada's history and culture — but what are those plans, and how do they sound to Indigenous people who have been promised so many things, and let down so many times? And speaking of that: How many boil-water advisories are still in effect, and why should any party that has held power in the past four decades be taken seriously on this issue while they remain?GUEST: Jaida Beaudin, Indigenous journalist, currently at the Waniska Research Centre 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

We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, the economy. How far back from pre-COVID levels has Canada's economy come? What do the parties propose to take us the rest of the way? In a world as rapidly changing and volatile is the current one, should we worry about balancing the budget? Is childcare the most important economic investment? And who is best suited to watch over an economy in transition?GUEST: Ben Dachis, Director of Public Affairs for the C.D. Howe Institute 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

We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, health care. The pandemic has exposed what we thought were cracks in our health care system for the wide gaps they really are—does any party have a reasonable plan to fix it? What kind of leadership role can the federal government take in improving a system under massive pressure? Where does provincial jurisdiction end and how could a Prime Minister get around it—if they were committed to taking action?GUEST: Dr. Katharine Smart, President, Canadian Medical Association 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

We asked our listeners what their key issues were in this election, and this week we'll tackle the top five. Every day we'll go deep on the major party platforms with an expert immersed in that field. Today, the housing crisis. By now it's more than a bubble, and the lack of affordable of housing has spread from cities to small towns and everywhere in between. Each of the parties claims they can solve this. Can they? How do they propose to do it? And does anyone have a real solution?GUEST: Mike Moffat, Senior Director, Smart Prosperity; Assistant Professor, Ivey Business School 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

Hate crimes have risen. Racialized Canadians have been attacked and killed. Angry protests follow the Prime Minister around the country and have come close to turning violent. Protesters scream at healthcare workers outside hospitals and, as if to quantify this anecdotal evidence, Maxime Bernier's People's Party rises in the polls—with one recent survey putting the PPC at nine percent support.Where did this anger and hate come from? How has it grown? And what is there in the platforms of the major parties that could do something about it?GUEST: Evan Balgord, investigative journalist, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network 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