PressProgress Sources – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Mark Carney is billing his first budget as an "investment budget," but with plans to eliminate 40,000 jobs in the federal public service and cut $60 billion in program spending, is this really an "investment budget" or is it an austerity budget?

The 2025 federal budget gives Canadians a first look at the details behind Carney's plans to have federal departments cut 15% in spending, reduce the federal workforce by 10% and spend tens of billions of dollars on so-called "nation-building projects."

On this episode of Sources, Canadian Labour Congress Senior Economist DT Cochrane joins PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun live inside the federal budget media lock-up to share his first impressions on the Carney government's first budget.

Support the show

An ostrich farm in rural British Columbia keeps making national and international headlines.

It's the subject of a federal cull order, after 69 birds were found dead from an H5N1 or avian flu outbreak — routine procedure to stamp out further spread. But that's not entirely why they've caught the attention of U.S. politicians.

On this episode of Sources, virologist and University of Saskatchewan professor Dr. Angela Rasmussen joins PressProgress health reporter Brishti Basu to talk about the very real health risks of zoonotic diseases and the political circus surrounding this particular flock of ostriches.

Support the show

As education workers in Ontario experience unprecedented levels of violence in the workplace, staff shortages and burnout, experts say education is in crisis under Doug Ford.

Educational assistants, custodians, secretaries, lunch supervisors, maintenance staff overwhelmingly agree there is not enough personnel in schools to do jobs properly and many now find themselves doing the work of multiple staff members.

But there could be a simple solution to the compounding issues affecting education in Ontario: Funding education properly.

On this episode of Sources, Joe Tigani, president of the Ontario School Board Council of Unions, joins PressProgress‘ Ontario Reporter Eric Wickham to talk about the compounding crises in Ontario’s education system.

Discussed on this episode

Ford government’s chronic underfunding of education is creating compounding issues for staff and students

Doug Ford Claims He’s Made the Biggest Healthcare Investments in the ‘History of the Country’. Nurses Say That’s ‘Misleading’.

Support the show

Canada and the United States walked back from the brink of a full-blown trade war after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada.

While Trump has granted Canada a temporary 30-day "pause" on his threatened trade war, if he makes good on his threats, Canada's economy could be facing an apocalyptic scenario with food and gas prices skyrocketing, hundreds of thousands of job losses and communities across Canada getting hollowed out as key industries shut down.

On this episode of Sources, DT Cochrane, Senior Economist with the Canadian Labour Congress, joins PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun to explain how serious Trump's tariff threats would be on Canadian workers and why Canadian labour unions are calling on Canada to stand its ground and "hit back hard."

Support the show

While Ontario is gearing up for Doug Ford’s early election, many Ontarians are struggling to make ends meet.

With one-in-three residents struggling to put food on their table, Kingston, Ontario just declared a food insecurity emergency — the third city in Ontario to recently declare this kind of emergency, following Toronto and Mississauga.

In their announcements, all three cities asked the provincial government to increase the amount of money the province gives recipients of social assistance. These calls were echoed in separate motions in Hamilton, Waterloo, Goderich, Owen Sound and Orangeville over the last two years.

On this episode of Sources, Tim Li, the Research Program Coordinator at PROOF, a group of academic researchers that investigate policy solutions to reduce food insecurity in Canada, talks to PressProgress Ontario Reporter Eric Wickham about Ontario’s growing food insecurity problem.

Support the show

Duncan Kinney is an Edmonton-based journalist and editor of a digital publication focused on Alberta politics called The Progress Report.

From scrutinizing police budgets, shining a light on how police handle the city's unhoused population or drug poisoning crisis and exposing partisan connections between senior officers and Alberta's governing United Conservative Party, it's undeniable Kinney plays a role as a critical watchdog of Edmonton Police.

But Kinney has also been a thorn in the side of Edmonton Police Chief Dale McFee. In recent years, McFee has publicly butted heads with Kinney and Kinney accuses Edmonton Police of "arbitrarily" revoking his media accreditation.

Then in 2022, following a massive police surveillance operation involving over a dozen officers watching him and his family for seven months, Kinney was criminally charged with vandalizing a “monument to honour persons who were killed or died in consequence of a war” after the words "actual Nazi" were found spray painted on a statue honouring World War Two Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych.

Kinney, who pleads not guilty to the charges, could face up to 10 years in prison if an Alberta court convicts him of vandalizing a statue honouring a leader of a military unit that massacred Jews in Ukraine.

On this episode of Sources, Stephen Magusiak speaks with Progress Report Editor Duncan Kinney (not to be confused with PressProgress, which is a separate news organization) to explain his ongoing saga with Edmonton Police.

Kinney is currently raising funds for his legal defence.

Support the show

Residents of Jasper Alberta are finally returning to the town that made international headlines after it was devastated by a monster wildfire in July.

Nearly a third of the town was damaged or destroyed, and the spot is currently closed to tourists for the foreseeable future.

How do we prevent climate change disasters in the future? It’s complicated, according former Alberta Firefighter Matt Rieger, who spent years on the front lines battling blazes while stationed at bases across the province.

Rieger joins host Stephen Magusiak to talk about the cost, the manpower problems, and the scale of effort it would take to meaningfully mitigate the risk as these fires get worse and more frequent.

We also discuss misconceptions online about the causes and the response effort following the disaster.

Support the show

Canada’s expert on the rising costs at the grocery store (no, not that one) joins host Stephen Magusiak to discuss his latest project, the Grocery Tracker, which monitors the price of food staples

Eric Wickham is a data journalist for the Toronto-based Hoser. He co-hosts and produces the Big Shiny Takes podcast.

Wickham recently wrote about the Loblaws boycott. He also produces Sources.

Support the show

The foreign interference commission published its preliminary report — but the Sikh community in Canada says the inquiry largely overlooked India despite their role as a major threat of foreign interference in Canada. 

In the foreign interference commission’s final report it was revealed that "India directed foreign interference activities related to the 2019 & 2021 general elections.”

The commission also revealed that CSIS considered India a “clear second to (China) in terms of the level of (foreign interference) threat” and that Indian foreign interference was an “area of focus for more than one regional office.”

Following the arrests of Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killers and the release of the report, we speak with lawyer Prabjot Singh, legal counsel for the Sikh coalition, about what questions still need answers.

Prabjot Singh is a lawyer and the Founding Editor of the Panth-Punjab Project. His articles on Sikh political theory, public policy, and law have been published in a number of platforms including The Guardian, Baaz News, and the Manitoba Law Journal. He is participating in Canada's Foreign Interference Commission as Legal Counsel for a coalition of Sikh organizations.

Support the show

Canada has been seeing an unusual wave of anti-LGBTQ+ protests over the last year. These rallies and marches targeted drag storytime events at libraries, they targeted local school board meetings – in fact, they even targeted high schools and elementary schools in residential neighborhoods.

This organized wave of hate climaxed with a so-called “one million march for children” which took place in cities across Canada last September.

Now the pendulum is swinging the other way, and 2SLGBTQIA community groups are getting organized. Along with labour unions and civil society groups, they’re planning their own marches to protest against this recent wave of hate targeting queer and trans Canadians.

On this episode of Sources, Fae Johnstone, Executive Director of the Society of Queer Momentum, talks with PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun about why she is organizing a Rainbow Week of Action across Canada this week.

For the full list of rallies and events taking during the Rainbow Week of Action, visit their website for more information: RainbowEquality.ca

Support the show