The Big Story

Bill C-21 would change Canada's approach to gun control. A little bit. But an amendment to Bill C-21 would radically alter it, and it seems that the party pushing the legislation may not even realize it. In theory, the bill is intended to ban "assault-style" weapons. In practice it could ban hundreds of guns that have been legal to own for decades.As you might imagine, this is not going over well with military gun owners, hunters and others who have used firearms safely and legally for many years. And the Liberals may now walk back to proposed amendment. But the big question here is this: How did a party that has made a ton of political hay on gun policy walk right into this mess with its eyes closed?GUEST: Matt Gurney, print and broadcast journalist, co-founder of The Line 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

Has anyone in your family ever gotten away with murder? Are you sure? Because a new investigative DNA technique allows police to search a database for DNA linked to samples obtained in cold case investigations. Companies like 23andMe won't share your DNA with police, but many people who use those services choose to upload their results to other databases, in hopes of finding a match, or medical information, or many other things ... and they either allow, or forget to opt out of, police searching that data.Recently Toronto Police cracked two decades-old cold cases this way, and the process is gaining popularity with police forces everywhere. So how does it work? Is it legal, or ethical? And are we about to see a flood of cold cases coming off the books, thanks to curious but innocent people who don't realize there's a killer in their family tree?GUEST: Jennifer Pagliaro, crime reporter, Toronto Star 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, sports betting has technically been around for a long time in this country. But it's only been a little more than a year since single-game sports betting arrived to change the landscape completely. Now it's difficult to watch any kind of sporting event without commercials urging viewers to get in on the action. What does that mean for the industry, for viewers and, perhaps most importantly, people who struggle with problem gambling? How does sports betting compare to other forms of legal gambling? Will we eventually see betting commercials and content recede as the industry establishes itself? And ... from the government's point of view, is this another legal cannabis fiasco?GUEST: Mark Hill, reporter and editor at Inverse 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, a judge in Ontario ruled that Iran's Revolutionary Guard was in fact a "terrorist entity". This is a move that politicians on all sides have advocated for, as well as human rights groups and ordinary Iranian and Jewish Canadians. So why was a judge making the call and not the federal government, who has so far declined to do so?What makes the IRGC a terrorist organization, by our standards? Who should be making that call, and what does it mean for the groups that meet the definition? And what's the story behind this unique ruling?GUEST: Stewart Bell, National Online journalist, Global News 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

Canadians are using credit cards to pay for purchases more than ever before.Why wouldn't they? Cash has been on the decline and rewards programs are better than ever. But small businesses say these programs are killing them, and it has become almost impossible to understand the complex system of fees that go into these payments. Right now, Ottawa is asking card companies and retailers to come to an agreement, before it has to step in and regulate. But why? How does the system work? Who pays for what? And what do you need to know the next time you whip out a card and chase the points during your holiday shopping?GUEST: Susan Krashinsky Robertson covers the retail industry for the Globe and Mail's Report on Business 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

Anytime any government misplaces taxpayer money, it's a bad thing—whether that's wasteful spending, overpaying, mismanaging the budget or losing track in a spreadsheet. But when the government in question presides over a small municipality in rural Manitoba where a) $500,000 is an awful lot of money and b) the government is comprised of neighbours and business owners, friends and enemies, and everyone knows everyone, it can bring all kinds of long-simmering tensions and resentments to the surface.Here's what happened in Westlake-Gladstone when the money vanished.GUEST: J.R. Patterson, writing 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

There has been no shortage of political mudslinging regarding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's testimony at the Emergencies Act Inquiry last week—but perhaps the most important thing was that he took the stand at all. Beyond the Prime Minister answering questions, Canadians also got looks at emails, text messages, phone calls and all sorts of communications between governments and police services, different levels of leadership, different departments and more. It's important to understand how rare this is—because once we understand that, we can ask the inevitable follow-up questions: Why is it rare? Why should it be rare to see how our governments work behind closed doors? GUEST: David Moscrop, political writer and commentator; author and podcaster 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 the "Death Dilemma". When someone we love is at the end of their life, unresponsive in the ICU, our natural instinct when doctors ask us is to tell them to "do everything" to save them. But should it be?How has our changing relationship with the end of life altered the medical system? Do we prioritize quantity of life over quality? Are we costing both our loved ones and the medical system added pain by not just letting them go? And how do we balance that with the desperate need to keep them with us?GUEST: Dr. Blair Bigham, ER physician, author of Death Interrupted 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

Right now, Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board is barely functional. The backlog of eviction challenges, both legal and illegal, is miles long, and currently the board is focused on rent increases. Meanwhile, in landlord Facebook groups, some are asking about penalties for illegal evictions, perhaps planning to simply do that and pay for it later. While tenants, tossed by the hundreds for potentially dubious reasons since the eviction moratorium lifted, have nowhere to go—both literally, and with regards to their challenges.How did it get this bad? What, if anything, is being done to fix it? And what do both renters and landlords need to know about the situation?GUEST: Jack Hauen, reporter, QP Briefing 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

Depending on who you ask it will either help Canadian creators level the online playing field, or wreck their business model. The bill is intended to apply Canadian Content rules to online streaming—but it's incredibly complex and difficult to judge how it will work in practice. So what's in the bill? Why are some independent creators critical of it? What does it do in an ideal world, and will it actually work as intended? And what does it mean for the average Canadian who loves to surf YouTube or TikTok?GUEST: Vass Bednar, executive director of the Masters of Public Policy in Digital Society program at McMaster University, author of the Regs 2 Riches newsletter 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