The Big Story

Thousands of small businesses used the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy to keep afloat and avoid laying off their staff. But they weren't the only type of business to qualify for and receive the CEWS. Among some of the companies that took government money are companies that bounced back after a bad month, companies who fared well during the pandemic and publicly-traded companies who were even able to payout dividends to shareholders in the same year they accessed this emergency funding. All these companies qualified, so they can't be blamed for taking the funds. Should the policy have been clearer? Should the amounts and recipients be public? What could have been done to make this program more targeted and efficient? GUEST: Patrick Brethour, Tax and Fiscal Policy 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

It began with allegations of sexual misconduct, but it went beyond that into a bureaucratic tangle that left the alleged victim's parents without justice, the RCMP spending hundreds of thousands to keep a constable on leave and an embarrassing look into an organization that badly needs to fix its policies. What went wrong in the case of Const. Justin Harris? And how systemic are the problems in the RCMP discipline process? GUEST: Jane Gerster, investigative journalist 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

Shopping! Parties! Beer! Reunions! As the United Kingdom moves into phase three of its reopening on Monday, even phase two seems far beyond what Canada can expect. But it's not. As our country struggles through what will hopefully be our last lockdown, it's worth hearing about what happens next from the places in the world that most closely resemble where we've been. This isn't a fever dream, it's just hard to believe right now. But it's happening. GUEST: Ebony-Renee Baker, Canadian journalist reporting from London, UK 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

When Ontario and Alberta decided they would stop giving the AstraZeneca vaccine as a first dose, part of the reasoning was an abundant supply of other vaccines. But that feels like cold comfort to Canadians who eagerly lined up because "the best shot you can get is the one in your arm" and now might be feeling scared or ripped off. What options do those Canadians have? Another vaccine for a second dose? To wait and see? What can those of us who have one dose of any vaccine do in between our shots? Could any of this have been avoided, or is it just a case of the science changing? GUEST: Sabina Vohra-Miller, clinical pharmacologist 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 are in the home stretch of this pandemic, even if you wouldn't know it from anything Canadian officials tell you. Vaccines work, and hundreds of thousands of Canadians are getting theirs every day. We can look to the United Kingdom right now to see what happens when enough people get their shots. We know a lot more than we ever have about what's safe and what's not, how to protect ourselves and still find activities worth doing. So why don't communications from public health reflect that? Why can't politicians and doctors give us hope, or at least a few carrots mixed in with the constant sticks? Do they not trust us with optimism? Worry we'll start breaking the rules early? Or is treating Canadians like obedient robots doing more harm than good? GUEST: Matt Gurney, columnist with TVO and the National Post 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

He ran for mayor, and won three times, on a platform of bipartisanship, even as political squabbles were getting nastier by the day. He used social media to drive his campaign before 'going viral' became the goal of a comms staff. He took over the job of running a city that had never declared a state of emergency, then had to do it three times in his decade in charge. Naheed Nenshi is leaving office after 10 years of being one of the most interesting politicians in the country. And no -- we didn't ask him what he wants his legacy to be. This isn't that kind of exit interview. GUEST: Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary 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 tens of thousands of infant Canadians who have never been held by anyone but their moms and dads; who have never played with another real live child or spent a second in daycare or with a babysitter. Sometime soon, when restrictions are lifted, all that will change. What do we know about how a year without socialization will impact these infants? How can parents help them enter a world they've never met? And what will we learn about how babies adapt from this unexpected global experiment? GUEST: Dr. Sheri Madigan, University of Calgary, Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development 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 forest in question this time is a piece of land known as the Greenbelt. The highway, if it's built, would be known as Hwy. 413. If you think this is just a story about Toronto—you're wrong. The fight over Hwy. 413 has arrived at the federal government's level. And how the government chooses to use the powers it has in this situation will decide the project's fate. And quite possibly the fate of the next big highway vs. forest battle. GUEST: Emma McIntosh, National Observer 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 know something's gone wrong when the government is promising to amend their changes to the broadcasting act to make sure it doesn't apply to, say, your personal Twitter feed. But that's what the federal government had to do this week after public outcry surrounding Bill C-10. That is just one of the more obvious examples of the problems with this bill, which has been trounced by experts on both sides of the aisle. So what's in the actual bill? What did the government get wrong? And how can they fix it? GUEST: Jesse Hirsh, metaviews.ca 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

How many strangers have you chatted with recently? Probably not a lot. And while your immediate reaction to that might be, "Great, I hate talking to strangers about nothing"—the research doesn't back you up. Casual small talk plays a larger role in our well-being than we assume it does, and most of us are doing much, much less of it these days. What does that mean for our happiness? And for our pathetic attempts at chit-chat once we emerge back into a world full of random social interactions? GUEST: Hannah Seo (You can read Hannah's piece 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