The Big Story

Good morning. It’s Monday. It’s January. It’s cold. It’s dark. There’s a pandemic. If you have been following public health guidelines in many parts of the country, you probably went, roughly, nowhere this weekend. And saw nobody. And now it’s back to work. What responsibility do employers have for helping their employees with their mental health? What's the business case for taking it seriously? How can we all help our friends and coworkers make it to the spring with their mental health intact? GUEST: Liz Horvath, Manager, Workplace Mental Health at the Mental Health Commission of Canada You can find the mini-guide on MHCC’s COVID-19 Resource Hub. 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

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden cancelled a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, keeping a campaign promise to Americans but bitterly disappointing Albertans and many Canadian politicians. It may be a relief to have a more stable US President in charge, but Biden wasn't elected to help Canadians. What does the new administration mean for Canada-U.S. relations? For trade? For foreign affairs, especially with China? And for Canada's chances at climbing out of a recession and into a greener economy? GUEST: Cormac Mac Sweeney, Parliament Hill Reporter 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 were no mass arrests, military tribunals or public executions. Donald Trump went to Florida and Joe Biden went to the White House and nothing 'Q' said actually happened. So once Biden was inaugurated, what did the QAnon army do? What happens to a movement when ... nothing happens? Where do the followers, who have thrown away family and friends, credibility and cash, go from here? And should we pity them, or laugh and gloat? GUEST: Justin Ling 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

Joe Biden will be sworn into office today, hopefully without incident. But in the United States, proponents of democracy are analyzing how close their own came to collapsing. When one party, or even just one powerful politician, decides to disregard norms that have always held fair elections together, it creates stress on a system not designed with bad actors in mind. So how safe, by comparison, is our democracy in Canada? What checks and balances exist here that don't exist in the US? How could determined parties or politicians attempt to undermine democracy? And how much depends not on laws but on a collective belief in the democratic process? GUEST: Stewart Prest, political scientist 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

Covid-19 devastated long-term care facilities across the country in the Spring of 2020. But over the summer months, many provinces found ways to reinforce the places that care for our most vulnerable. Ontario, however, did not. What did Quebec and other provinces do to mitigate the impact of the second wave on long-term care residents? Why didn't Ontario follow suit? What's being done now? And will anyone be held accountable for this systemic failure? GUEST: Cynthia Mulligan, CityNews 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

Yes, it's worse in America. But it's not great here, either. The past few years have seen an alarming rise in hate groups in Canada—and there's nothing on the horizon that appears set to slow it down. It's a recipe for the sort of violence we've seen in Washington recently, and have seen on our own soil more frequently in recent years. So what does defuse the growth of white supremacy? What can governments do to curtail the kind of polarizing anger that leads to reactionary violence? And what can we do, each of us, when we see people we know who may be taking the first steps down a road that leads to conspiracy theories, hate and violence? GUEST: Shakil Choudhurt, Anima Leadership 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're now 10 months into a global pandemic and solidly into its second wave. And across the country, many workers are still not staying home when they're sick—because they simply can't afford to. Why don't so many businesses offer their employees paid sick days? Why haven't provincial governments mandated that they do? Why do critics say the federal government's attempt at paid sick leave is woefully inadequate? And why are we having this conversation almost a year into this pandemic? GUEST: Stefanie Marotta, 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

Most of us have spent the past year closer to home than ever before. And for a lot of Canadians part of that process has involved realizing just what their neighbourhood does and doesn't have. Maybe it's time to rethink how we create neighbourhoods, in order to maximize livability in our towns and cities. Maybe there's an easy formula we can follow to start doing that right now.... GUEST: Alex Bozikovic, staff columnist and architecture critic, 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

Our host would be fine with never seeing another Donald Trump tweet ever. But is that fair? Is it a slippery slope? Social media companies, and other service providers, have the right to refuse service to anyone breaking the rules they promised to abide by — but not even the most left-wing voters would pretend that Trump is the only politician or person flouting those regulations. Why would Facebook and Twitter finally remove Trump now? Should they have done it years ago? What precedent are they setting? And when we look back at this week in the years to come, will we be able to say it has changed anything about the way politics are done on the Internet? 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

Our parents warned us that the Internet could harm us—from stalkers to kidnappers, pedophiles, the dangers of too much screen time and countless other things—but did they heed their own lessons? Boomers lead the pack as the generation most likely to share disinformation, and over the past few months we've seen some of the results play out in real time. How can those of us who grew up online help the people we love who didn't learn the nuances of the way algorithms try to seduce them? Help them tell the difference between reliable and sketchy news reports? Help them understand exactly how and why social media wants them to be so angry? Can we help our parents stay safe online the way they once tried to do for us? GUEST: Bonnie Kristian, The Week 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