The Big Story

It began as a strange conspiracy theory in American politics. It's since become much strange, much more widespread and much more dangerous. QAnon has spread around the world and driven real-life events that put lives in danger, including here in Canada. How did this happen? What's behind QAnon's rapid spread and how can we try to convince believers that none of it is true? And what happens if we simply can't stop it and something awful happens? GUEST: Marc-André Argentino, Concordia 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

Last summer, long before a pandemic was on the horizon, the biggest story was a teenage manhunt. After discovering the bodies of Lucas Fowler and Chynna Deese at one location and Leonard Dyck at another, the RCMP named an 18 and a 19-year-old as their main suspects. And they were on the run. After a nationwide sweep that involved the military and tons of media coverage, police found the killers' bodies in the brush of northern Manitoba. In a video found on site, Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky confessed to the murders and voiced their plans to end it all with a murder suicide. Now, a year later, the RCMP are preparing to close the case for good. But one major question remains: Why did they do it? GUEST: Alex McKeen, Vancouver bureau reporter for the Toronto Star, who, with colleague Douglas Quan, recently wrote about the anniversary. 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

As the nation yawns awake following a months-long shutdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, restaurants are welcoming diners again. This once fully relaxing experience is now riddled with reminders to be vigilant: Sign-in sheets to allow for contact tracing. Strict rules about wearing face masks indoors. Tables positioned six feet apart. This is a whole new world — unfamiliar to diners, for sure, but also nearly unrecognizable to restaurant staff who’ve gone from being out of work to being frontline workers. And the tips? Let’s just say they’ve been better. As the restaurant industry adjusts to this new reality, there may well be an opportunity for fundamental change — and some advocates have put the practice of tipping on the chopping block. What’s so bad about the gratuity system? And what would a world without tipping look like? Guest: Hassel Aviles, co-founder of Not9to5, a Canadian nonprofit that empowers hospitality workers by connecting them with resources on mental health and substance use. 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 an iconic image of Canada: A Mountie, donning a red serge, Stetson hat, combat boots, standing on guard for thee, which is usually taken to mean “all of us.” But this image, as mighty as it seems, is attached to what critics call a massive, dysfunctional, paramilitary institution that can’t seem to ever hold itself accountable. Its relationship with Indigenous peoples is as strained as ever and there is quaking within its ranks, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars spent on inquiries and settlements. While the residents of Portapique, Nova Scotia took to the streets this week demanding a public inquiry into the RCMP’s response the day 22 of its residents died at the hands of a gunman, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission found the Mounties’ “command and control” approach to policing has led to “unreasonable" use of force in their response to mental health and wellbeing calls. It doesn’t help that their top official can’t answer a basic question on whether systemic racism exists in the force. Can the RCMP be truly and meaningfully reformed? Does it need to be? GUEST: Jane Gerster, a national features reporter for Global News, who has done in-depth investigative reporting on the RCMP. GUEST HOST: Sarah Boesveld 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

Radiyah Chowdhury first thought about leaving the media business when she was still in journalism school. Back in her first year classes, sitting amongst a sea of white peers, she remembers getting an introduction to the idea of “objectivity” and feeling awash in anxiety. “Objectivity, as it was presented to us seemed to be tailored for a specific type of person, one whose capacity to be dispassionate about certain issues came from a place of privilege that was unfamiliar to me,” she wrote in an essay that won this year’s Dalton Camp Award. The industry, as it is, poses a next to impossible ask for journalists of colour, wrote the assistant editor at Chatelaine. These storytellers have been tokenized and largely shut out of an industry dominated by white people. Now that the news business is being taken to task for systemic racism, will we finally see meaningful change? Or will the media cycle churn on? GUEST: Radiyah Chowdhury, assistant editor at Chatelaine and winner of the 2020 Dalton Camp Award 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

Matthew McKnight was a fixture in the Edmonton bar scene, known for partying in colourful animal themed jumpsuits and sometimes only his underwear. He’d buy rounds of drinks, distributing them to pretty young women enjoying a night on the town. In April 2016 the first — a 17-year-old girl — would report to police that she had been sexually assaulted by McKnight. Many other women soon came forward with their own experiences of assault at the hands of a man whose exploits had been an “open secret” for far too long. This past fall, Matthew McKnight pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of sexual assault against 13 different women. In January, a jury found him guilty of five of them. Now, as he awaits sentencing, the case is being scrutinized as one of Canada’s first legal reckonings of the MeToo era — a test of how the court handled a rare case of multiple charges of assault against one serial sexual predator. Can justice really be served? Guest: Jana Pruden, crime and feature writer with The Globe and Mail. You can read her feature about the McKnight case 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

By now we've become at least semi-acquainted with the idea that advertisers and social media companies scrape and use our personal information in ways we can't even begin to comprehend. But a new analysis of the ways LGBTQ people are targeted, surveilled and censored online reveals a disturbing and disheartening tool international governments are using to persecute the queer community: Data from dating apps. In a report released last week, cybersecurity company Recorded Future found dating apps like OKCupid, Grindr and Tinder collected user data, including users' exact location, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, political beliefs, drug use and more, and shared it with at least 135 third party entities. The company observed multiple cybersecurity attacks traced back to Russia and other Eastern European countries as well as cases all over the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Africa. Sometimes, people were entrapped, beaten and tortured. What implications does this data collection and dissemination have for queer peoples' safety online — and what can be done to protect them? GUEST: Jane Lytvynenko, senior reporter with Buzzfeed News, who wrote about the Recorded Future report. GUEST HOST: Sarah Boesveld 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

Last week, Harper’s magazine published an open letter, speaking out against a culture of “intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency to dissolve complex policy issues in a blinding moral certainty.” The letter was signed by 150 people. Among them, prominent figures like J.K. Rowling, Margaret Atwood, and Salman Rushdie. Once published, it created a wave of backlash, and at least two people withdrew their names when they saw who else had signed it. Today, a discussion with one of the letter’s signatories about flawed democracies, and why she felt it was important to sign the letter. GUEST: Anne Applebaum, author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism 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

Last week the Canadian Association of the Chiefs of Police announced their support for decriminalizing the personal possession of illicit drugs. Drug use and addiction, they said, is a public health issue. And simple possession should be treated with health and social service resources, rather than through the criminal justice system. It’s an idea researchers and people who work in addiction have hammered away at for decades. But it's still a shocking position for the association representing police chiefs across the country. So why now? And what does this mean for drug policy in Canada? GUEST: Justin Ling, investigative reporter. GUEST HOST: Sarmishta Subramanian 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 can joke as much as we want about it, but the reality is that we all go to the bathroom, every single day. It’s a basic human need. Yet many cities are failing at providing accessible public toilets for everyone. What will it take for politicians and city planners to take the issue seriously and address the underlying discrimination and inequality? Which cities are doing it right? How has the pandemic highlighted the need for accessible public washrooms? Could this be a turning point? GUEST: Lezlie Lowe, author of No Place to Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs GUEST HOST: Sarmishta Subramanian 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