The Decibel

Vancouver and Toronto are getting ready to host FIFA World Cup matches in June and July, and the demands FIFA makes tend to be costly. Requirements from FIFA go from stadium renovations to branding enforcement, transportation and even tax exemptions. All three levels of government have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars in preparation.    

Contracts between FIFA and host cities aren’t usually public, but Greg Mercer, The Globe’s investigative reporter, managed to get access to them. He’s on the show to explain what he learned and how FIFA manages to make all these expensive and exorbitant demands on host cities. 

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Canada has been pushing to increase its defence efforts. Earlier this year, Canada reached their NATO defence spending target of two per cent of GDP. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced plans to obtain new early warning aircraft technology. And, the Canadian military is seeing an increase in enlistment rates.

Janice Dickson is The Globe’s international affairs reporter. Earlier this month, she visited a military recruitment booth at a job fair. She’s on the show to talk about what is drawing potential recruits to enlist and what is behind this surge in enlistment. 

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Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation near Kamloops, B.C. was the site of a national reckoning over the legacy of residential schools. On May 27, 2021, the First Nation announced it had discovered 215 probable unmarked graves on the ground of a former residential school, using ground-penetrating radar technology. The number was later revised to around 200 probable graves. 

Since that revelation, leaders of the First Nation have been reluctant to provide more information and have not yet conducted an archeological dig of the former residential school grounds.  Five years on and with few concrete answers, a loud contingent of skeptics and denialists have grown. 

Globe reporters Willow Fiddler and Patrick White join The Decibel to report on what they have learned since, the impact of the initial announcement, the complexities of working on a site like this, and what is planned for the investigation going forward.

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Political tensions are rising in Alberta. Last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the province will hold a referendum on whether to hold a subsequent referendum on secession from Canada. Division and debate has been stirred up between federalists and separatists. And those who want to leave argue that Alberta will be better off, more economically successful and have full control over its natural resources. 

The Globe’s editorial board did a reality check on some of the arguments for separatism. Oliver Moore, a member of The Globe’s editorial board, is on the show to talk about why separatists want to leave Canada and to help us sift through the legal myths and realities around Alberta separatism.

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Getting paid for plasma – the yellow-gold liquid part of blood – in Canada is still pretty new. It’s full of protein and antibodies and can be used to make medicine for immunodefficient people. But following the deaths of two plasma donors, the practice is facing criticism and concerns are being raised about its safety.

Chris Hannay is a business of healthcare reporter for The Globe. He’s on the show today to discuss how plasma collection works in Canada, what he’s learned from his experience donating, and how the growing practice of paid plasma is regulated.

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