This Matters – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Guests: Toronto Star journalists Ben Mussett and Omar Mosleh

A Toronto Star investigation uncovered a troubling loophole inside Meta's advertising system. Reporters Ben Mussett and Omar Mosleh found illegal drugs being advertised and sold to Canadians through paid Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram. With one click, the Star was linked to online shops offering cocaine, Oxycodone, MDMA, Xanax, ketamine and more, and discovered how easily these drugs could be ordered and shipped.

The investigation raises urgent questions about Meta's ad moderation, platform safety and how drug traffickers are exploiting automated tools to reach users.

Meta, the tech giant that owns Facebook and Instagram, says it has "zero tolerance" for the ads and works to find and remove the illegal drug posts.

In this episode, we unpack what happened when Star journalists tested the system themselves, why Meta's detection tools aren't stopping illicit drug ads, and who these ads are targeting the most.

This episode is produced by Sean Pattendon 

Guest: Megan Ogilvie, Toronto Star health reporter

A new study has found that over a million Ontarians — that's more than one in ten people with a family doctor — live far outside their physician's region, often more than 30 kilometres away. Some are driving hours just to get a check-up. Others may be skipping care altogether because of the logistics. And it's leading to worsening health outcomes; more ER visits, missed diagnoses, and care that falls through the cracks. It's a hidden layer of Ontario's primary care crisis, and one we don't talk about enough.

This episode was mixed by Paulo Marques 

Guest: Mike Wilner, baseball columnist & host of Deep Left Field baseball podcast

For the first time in 32 years, the Blue Jays have a shot at winning the World Series, with Game 1 against the LA Dodgers happening tonight. It's been a long road to get here: waiting for conditions to be just right; to have the right players in place; for hard work and alchemy to strike that optimal balance.

Whether you've been paying attention to this team for years or just since the start of this crucial round of October playoff baseball, this episode has all the colourful context and fascinating anecdotes you'll need to get up to speed for the big game and the big series ahead.

Mike Wilner, former Blue Jays broadcaster, Toronto Star baseball columnist and host of baseball podcast Deep Left Field, is the guest on the show today to give you all that inside baseball knowledge before you tune in.

PLUS: Hero of the moment George Springer has an unsavoury baseball past - do you know about it? Mike Wilner weighs in.

Produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston & Sean Pattendon

Guest: Olivia Chow, mayor of Toronto

One year ago, Olivia Chow was elected mayor of Toronto in a victory that signalled optimism in a city where that seemed in short supply. As we approach the annual Pride parade and the Canada Day long weekend (and after a marathon city council meeting), Chow reflects on what she's proudest of and what has been most challenging so far. She also talks about the difficulty of moving people faster, why she thinks she's been misunderstood on whether workers should come back to the office, the controversy over Sankofa Square, and what the city can and cannot do regarding the fate of the Ontario Science Centre. Plus, Chow discusses why she thinks the rental housing measures passed this week are kind of a big deal.

What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

The belief that schools are the safest place for kids is not the lived reality for many students who faced problems even before the pandemic. Dr. Tyler Black, child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia, talks to Adrian Cheung on the mental stress of reopening schools and why the pandemic is the moment to reshape and rethink how education works in Canada.

York University researchers published a study reporting that while the Chinese diaspora in Canada faced incidents of harassment, they often ahead of the curve in responses to the pandemic, even compared to the advice of public health officials at the time. Adrian Cheung and Star reporter May Warren talk about the reporting of the new study, what early reporting on racial incidents missed out on and what lessons we can learn from our own communities during the pandemic.

The Star's Queen's Park Bureau reporter Kristin Rushowy joins Saba Eitizaz to try to answer some of the most burning questions that parents have about how to navigate a back to school season while still battling a public health crisis.

Advocates are raising the alarm as more than 20 percent of Toronto's homeless population is made up of children — nearly doubled in number from just four years ago. There are currently thousands of children living in shelters across Toronto, and nearly 70 percent of them are younger than ten. The Star's Affordable Housing Reporter Victoria Gibson spent time with some families in the system to understand the realities of child and family homelessness at a time when the city battles a pandemic.

Adrian Cheung and Toronto Star reporter Angelyn Francis break down the intricacies of the law, backed by the advice of employment lawyers, the changing societal acceptance of protests, and the cross-section of exercising your rights while potentially putting your job on the line.

You probably can't stop checking your phone for another news article, another video, another chart to help you make sense of what's happening. And there's a (relatively) new word for it: 'Doomscrolling.' Navneet Alang, technology columnist for the Toronto Star, and This Matters host, Adrian Cheung, talk about their terrible doomscrolling habits, why we're all doing it and maybe, just maybe, how we can stop.