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.

Investigative reporter David Bruser speaks to Saba Eitizaz about thousands of undocumented Torontonians who were brought here as children, grew up here and call Canada home and are being shut out of their own future and a higher education due to restrictive tuition and student loan policies.

These are Canada's dreamers, living in the shadows of the only home that they have ever known — and they might have even less support than their American counterparts who have been under legal assault by the Trump administration.

"We have an opportunity to create a different reputation."

This episode is a rebroadcast from Thursday,  July 23, where Mahesh Prajapat, Chief Operating Officer of CAS Toronto, tells Saba Eitizaz it's time for CAS to stop trying to bring children in to the child welfare system — and focus on supporting the family instead. Since that episode ran, the Ontario government has announced initiatives towards over-hauling children's aid to focus more on prevention and keeping families together — and to address the over representation of Black and Indigenous youth in the child welfare system. 

According to Toronto Children's Aid Society, Black Torontonians only represent 9 percent of the city's population while Black children represent the highest percentage of children in their care. The most recent data shows 42 percent of children and youth in CAS-T's care identify as Black, reflecting a number that hasn't changed much in the last few years. Toronto's Children's Aid Society admits systemic racism is a problem, along with pre-conceived ideas about a parent's ability to care for their child. So how do we fix this? 

Doug Smith, Toronto Raptors beat writer for the Toronto Star talks to Raju Mudhar about the NBA's return, the Orlando bubble and the Raptors chances of winning another NBA Championship.

Who gets priority access to a vaccine? Should the first vaccines go to the most vulnerable and elderly populations? How do we define these terms? Who gets to decide? 'This Matters' talks to Daniel Ashlock, mathematics professor at the University of Guelph, about the artificial intelligence program being developed by his team, spread across three Canadian universities, that could help public health officials decide who needs the vaccine most — and how it should be used.

Guest: Cait Alexander, artist and social activist

In 2022, 184 women were killed violently in Canada. That's one woman killed every 48 hours. More than four million women, 30 per cent of all women aged 15 and older, report that they have experienced sexual assault. It's costing Canada almost $8 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone. Is a country that in the past was considered a global champion of human rights, failing to effectively protect women at home? In 2022, the federal government launched a National Action Plan to end gender-based violence. The resultant agreement with several provinces will be seeing $162 million distributed over four years in Ontario alone. But advocates say they're frustrated by the pace of change, if two important pieces of legislation for women currently pending in Ontario is any indication. Over two episodes, we discuss them both.

In today's episode: Bill 173 is the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, and it calls for intimate partner violence to declared an epidemic in the province. It took a year, but the Ontario government has finally shown its support towards the bill, introduced by the NDP. The bill received a rare standing ovation from all parties in the house after being introduced in April. Last year, similar calls from an inquest into the deaths of three women at the hands of their former partner was rejected by the Ford government.

Our guest today, Cait Alexander, was nearly murdered by her partner. Yet he walks free, and she had to leave Canada. The criminal case for her ex-boyfriend, accused of trying to kill her in 2021, was rescheduled twice before it was ultimately dropped due to the Jordan ceiling under the Criminal Code, that ensures everyone charged with an offence has the right to trial within a limited time-frame. 

If you are a victim of intimate partner violence, there is help. The Star has compiled a list of resources here.

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Saba Eitizaz

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.

Landlord/tenant lawyer Caryma Sa'd and Star reporter Victoria Gibson talk to Saba Eitizaz about the many questions surrounding the recently legislated Bill 184 and why many tenants are fearfully referring to it as the "eviction Bill."

Who was Pat Musitano? The Star's Peter Edwards first ran into him in the early '90s and has been writing about him and the Musitano family ever since. The Star's organized crime expert takes us through everything we need to know about the life and violent death of Pat Musitano.

Gun violence in the GTA has grown at an exponential pace and does not appear to be slowing. Wendy Gillis, who covers crime and policing for the Star, joins us to discuss the alarming numbers and what might be done to fix the problem.

Jennifer Pagliaro, city hall reporter for the Toronto Star, talks to Adrian Cheung about the rules and forces that shape our living in a city, during a most uncertain time. During the pandemic, bylaws have been front and centre in regulating new standard of living: how to enforce mask wearing inside stores and businesses, social distancing regulations and proper re-opening protocols. Are they fair? What rules are being enforced? What and who is being left behind, as enforcement focuses on COVID-19 related calls?

According to Toronto Children's Aid Society, Black Torontonians only represent 9 percent of the city's population while Black children represent the highest percentage of children in their care. The most recent data shows 42 percent of children and youth in CAS-T's care identify as Black, reflecting a number that hasn't changed much in the last few years. Toronto's Children's Aid Society admits systemic racism is a problem, along with pre-conceived ideas about a parent's ability to care for their child. So how do we fix this? Mahesh Prajapat, Chief Operating Officer of CAS Toronto, tells Saba Eitizaz it's time for CAS to stop trying to bring children in to the child welfare system — and focus on supporting the family instead.

Robert Benzie, Toronto Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and David Rider, Toronto Star's City Hall bureau chief joins This Matters to talk about the future of Ontario Place, the false starts and new hope for the waterfront, and the battle between the province and the city over a Toronto institution.

The Toronto Star exclusively reported this week that major bids from Canadian and international firms are being collected to redevelop the current grounds of Ontario Place on Toronto's lakeshore.

Karon Liu, culture reporter at the Star and a former food writer joins This Matters to discuss how bars and restaurants are reopening in Ontario.

With questions at how every level of education may safely return, Kris Rushowy, a Queen's Park Bureau reporter for the Star, who also spent many years as an education reporter, joins This Matters to explain where we stand right now and what a return to school might look like. We are almost at the middle of summer vacation, and parents and students from all levels of education are wondering what a return to school will look like in September.

All options are on the table, with a full return, full-time remote teaching, or some kind of hybrid model all being discussed by the Provincial government and the various school boards.

Andrew Clark, director of the Humber School of Comedy joins This Matters to talk about TV comedy's racial reckoning, as several sitcoms have excised episodes featuring blackface on streaming platforms. This is a part of larger racial reckoning in comedy which has also seen several white actors step down from voicing people of colour on animated series.

Months after testing negative, thousands of patients around the world — known as 'long haulers — continue to face serious and often mysterious symptoms: skin rashes, short-term memory loss, shortness of breath and the loss of smell and taste. Two patients with long-haul symptoms, Hannah Wei and Hannah Davis, join Adrian Cheung to talk about their experiences with COVID-19 and why they're pushing for more research into a virus with wide-ranging and unknown long-term effects.

Guest: Andrea Gunraj, vice president public engagement, Canadian Women's Foundation

In 2022, 184 women were killed violently in Canada. That's one woman killed every 48 hours. More than four million women, 30 per cent of all women aged 15 and older, report that they have experienced sexual assault. It's costing Canada almost $8 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone. Is a country that in the past was considered a global champion of human rights, failing to effectively protect women at home? In 2022, the federal government launched a National Action Plan to end gender-based violence. The resultant agreement with several provinces will be seeing $162 million distributed over four years in Ontario alone. But advocates say they're frustrated by the pace of change, if two important pieces of legislation for women currently pending in Ontario is any indication. Over two episodes, we will discuss them both.

In today's episode: With more than a thousand cases of sexual assault withdrawn or stayed before trial in 2023, sexual assault survivors are often re-traumatized and victimized by a frustrating reporting process and court system. Seeking to bring more accountability and transparency in the handling of these cases in Ontario, NDP MPP Catherine Fife introduced Bill 180, or Lydia's Law, in the Ontario legislature. But the process hit a snag before summer break when the Ford government sent it back to a committee without debate. The legislation still lingers there now. On "This Matters," we discuss how it could help women experiencing harassment, especially at their workplaces. 

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Saba Eitizaz

Saba Eitizaz talks to Sara Mojtehedzadeh, The Star's Work and Wealth Reporter, about a new report on occupational cancer in Ontario which looks at why sick workers or their surviving families might be left to suffer for years, often struggle to seek compensation and also prevent exposure in the first place.

Susan Delacourt, national political columnist for the Toronto Star, talks to Adrian Cheung about Trudeau's ethics violations, why he continues to find himself in the middle of controversies and what this means for his ongoing legacy as prime minister.

Full transcription available here (thanks to Access Now for transcribing).

A lot of us haven't thought about the fact that the way we're experiencing the world in the midst of a deadly virus, might actually just be every day in the life of a disabled person, even before a pandemic. Maayan Ziv, disability rights activist and the founder and CEO of AccessNow, a digital accessibility platform for the disabled, talks about the struggles and rights of Canada's disabled community – and what we need to do to make inclusive and safe spaces for everyone in our collective experience. 

Edward Keenan, the Toronto Star's Washington bureau chief, talks to Adrian Cheung on the Canada/US border issue, what the timeline of reopening could look like, and how the US — through the policies of its administration — is isolating itself from the rest of the world.

The good ol' hockey game is about to come back, with the NHL set to confirm its choices of Toronto and Edmonton as its two hub cities where it will house players, teams and staff as it gets set to resume the season and hold the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It actually took a lot for the NHL to get here, and to discuss that, Raju Mudhar is joined by Kevin McGran, who covers the Leafs and The NHL for the Toronto Star. He's here to tell us everything we need to know about the NHL's hub cities plan.

Pizza Pizza has been voluntarily serving up customer information to the police without a warrant. The Star has learned multiple police investigators obtained phone numbers and then went to a contact at Pizza Pizza to search their data for information. This Matters is joined by Jim Rankin, a Crimes, Courts and Justice reporter at the Toronto Star, who broke this story.

Toronto's Associate Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vinita Dubey talks to Saba Eitizaz about the new mandatory mask policy, what we need to do to protect ourselves and others, and why there is such confusion and contention regarding this issue.

How do we travel now? What are the ways that are safest? Travel bubbles, a road-trip renaissance, camping, RVing, longer and more meaningful trips, visiting friends and family. Sarah Khan, travel writer, talks to Adrian Cheung about what the future of travel looks like and why this could be the great re-set on how we see the world. The way we travel has changed, perhaps forever. 

John Sewell, former Toronto Mayor and member of Toronto Police Accountability Coalition, speaks to Saba Eitizaz about why the police are on the mental health frontlines and what can be done to avoid these tragic outcomes. One of the questions being raised is why are police the first responders to mental health emergencies and why are "wellness checks" being conducted with the help of guns and body armour?

Facebook's current relationship status with advertisers: It's complicated. Steven Levy, tech journalist at Wired and author of Facebook: The Inside Story, discusses the Facebook advertising boycott campaign. The #StopHateforProfit campaign has picked up support from hundreds of companies, including Unilever, Microsoft, Coca Cola, Starbucks and all of Canada's 'Big 5' banks, to pressure the social media company to combat hate speech, fight misinformation and deal with threats of violence on the platform.

Guest: Mary Simon, governor general of Canada 

Gov. Gen. Mary Simon was appointed to her role in 2021, and made history as the first Indigenous person to hold that office. She used her social media to share updates about her work until last year, when the online hate came for her. Her team was forced to close her social media account's comment section because the incoming hate became vile, racist and relentless. Yet in a powerful move, Gov. Gen. Simon took back her story and publicly shared those very comments to shine a light on the rising tide of abuse and online bullying in Canada. In an exclusive virtual conversation with "This Matters," the governor general talks about reconciliation, respect and the fight against online hate. 

This episode was produced by Sean Pattenden and Saba Eitizaz

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.

For Toronto's cyclists, many of their dreams have come true, as the city has aggressively and quickly added a number of new bike lanes on several thoroughfares to provide more space for those travelling on two wheels. Toronto has added 40 kilometres of bike lanes to the city this spring. To discuss this, This Matters invited two Star columnists who have opined on this issue. Norris McDonald is a columnist in the paper's Wheels section, while Matt Elliott writes about city affairs and municipal politics.

Wendy Gillis, Toronto Star's crime reporter, breaks down the details of the Theriault trial verdict with Adrian Cheung. And they discuss how this case is playing into larger questions of community trust in policing and what justice looks like in Canada's judicial system.

Some say the "extreme intoxication" defence sends the wrong message on sexual assault, and takes society back to a time when judges found ways to excuse violence against women. In today's episode, Saba Eitizaz talks to criminal lawyer and social justice advocate Caryma Sa'd for her legal opinion the debate – and finds out what all of this could actually mean in a court room.

Three Canadian journalists discuss anti-Chinese racism. The Toronto Star's digital producer, Evy Kwong, audio engineer/producer, Sean Pattendon, and host/producer, Adrian Cheung, are in conversation about their experiences as Chinese-Canadians during the pandemic. Then, an interview with Justin Kong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council on how the organization is collecting data on racial incidents and the work that is being done within Asian-Canadian communities to dispel the 'model minority myth.'

This Matters is joined by Travis M. Andrews, an internet culture reporter at the Washington Post, to discuss Kpop stans' and TikTok teens' efforts to flex their online muscle and embrace a new kind of political activism.

Paul Burns is the managing director of Twitter Canada and he discusses why his company is letting employees choose if they want to come back to an office. We are also joined by Kennedy Gordon, managing editor of the Peterborough Examiner, which has announced it is leaving its office spaces and becoming a completely virtual newsroom. 

This Matters will broadcast the Toronto Star's six-part podcast Hustled each Monday. In the final episode of Hustled, Foodora couriers in Toronto are buoyed by a recent win. They want to create a gold standard for gig workers. We look to the Golden State.

EPISODE 6: Golden State

With a win under their belt, Foodora couriers in Toronto want to create a gold standard for gig work. In this final episode, we take a trip to California, the birthplace of the gig economy, to explore what the future could look like closer to home.

Hal Johnson, of 'BodyBreak,' talks to Adrian Cheung about the racism he faced in Canada's media industry, how those incidents drove their will to make the famous show, and why systemic and structural racism continues to be a big problem today.

'BodyBreak', the popular mini-episodes on health, fitness and wellness is something many Canadians remember from the 1980s and '90s. But Johnson's admission this week — that their main motivation was to fight back against racism — has added to a larger conversation about racism, anti-Blackness and diversity in Canada's media industry.

Charlton McIlwain (@cmcilwain), Vice Provost of NYU and author of the book Black Software: The Internet and Racial Justice, from the Afronet to Black Lives Matter, talks to Saba Eitizaz about whether technology is out there to liberate and empower or to control people. 

Guests: John Degen, novelist, and Peter Gorman, Deputy People's Warden at St. Anne's

On June 9, a catastrophic four-alarm fire destroyed St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood. The flames turned valuable paintings that were embedded into the very structure to ashes, including the only know religious artwork made by Canada's famed Group of Seven. With the loss of St. Anne's, Canada has lost a historic site, but the community that built its life around the church has also lost its emotional and spiritual sanctuary. In this episode, two men deeply connected with St. Anne's church talk about what was lost; not just from a historical and cultural perspective but a deeply human one.

Audio sources: Global News

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Saba Eitizaz

Andrew Lochhead started a petition to have the Dundas Street renamed, with over 10,000 signatures and City Hall looking int it. He and Melanie Newton, an associate professor of history of the Caribbean and the Atlantic World at the University of Toronto, join Raju Mudhar, to discuss the problematic past of the namesake and how a history of colonization and its monuments can harm.

This Matters will broadcast the Toronto Star's six-part podcast Hustled each Monday, where the Star's labour reporter Sara Mojtehedzadeh takes us behind the scenes of a David vs. Goliath battle between a scrappy group of Toronto food couriers and the app company they work for.

EPISODE 5: Groundhog Day

An abrupt announcement from Foodora amid a global pandemic rattles couriers and raises questions about the company's past. When a new player enters the scene, couriers wonder about the future of their jobs — and what they've fought for.

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