What we learned in the final days of the 2025 election campaign
Guest: Ottawa bureau chief Tonda MacCharles We’re heading into the final stretch of a charged federal election campaign that’s shaped not just by a critical point in affordability, housing and healthcare but also by global events and Trump’s looming shadow. With election results just around the corner, on Monday; the political mood seems restless.The Star’s Ottawa bureau chief Tonda MacCharles unpacks the political climate, key turning points shaping this campaign and what might come next as the results roll in. Produced by Saba Eitizaz, Paulo Marques and Sean Pattendon
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19:17
How not to get digitally duped this election
Guest: Toronto Star reporter Alex Boyd As Canada heads toward a federal election, the online information landscape is getting messier, more manipulated, and harder to recognize in real time. From repurposed Facebook groups to shady digital operations selling conspiracy-laced content and merch, these tactics are designed to grab attention and slowly shift public opinion. We talk about the strange case of the local buy and sell group in Hamilton, that morphed, almost overnight, into a far-right pro-Trump hub. Produced by Saba Eitizaz, Paulo Marques and Sean Pattendon
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17:34
Two years later Canada's biggest gold heist is still unsolved
Guest: Toronto Star crime reporter Peter Edwards It’s like a Netflix show in real life. A truck driving off with $24 million in gold and cash, stolen from a hangar outside Pearson International Airport in a crime so smooth it left everyone stunned. Now, two years later the investigation trail spreads across four countries from Canada to the U.S. to Dubai and India. Some of the suspects have fled and it doesn’t like they’re coming back. Neither is the gold. On its two-year anniversary we unpack what’s happened with the infamous Toronto gold heist, the key players and whether there’s any hope left for the case. Produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques
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20:28
A screening room of our own
Guests: Jack Blum and Sharon Corder, co-founders of National Canadian Film Day Over the past few months, the president of the United States has done more to solidify a sense of Canadian identity than anyone in the past few decades.Suddenly Canadians are examining grocery labels to see what’s made here, looking at their investment portfolios to see if their dollars are working here, and an entire election has turned into a celebration of Canadian patriotism. But perhaps nowhere has U.S. domination been bigger than in the entertainment industry — our TV screens and (especially) our movie screens are dominated by Hollywood. National Canadian Film Day this week is a chance to break out of that American mindset, offering 1,800 free screenings of Canadian movies in cinemas, concert theaters, libraries, malls, legion halls and anywhere else people can fit a screen. Founders Jack Blum and Sharon Corder of Reel Canada talk about why they started on a mission to show people great Canadian movies, and why that mission seems especially appropriate at this moment. Plus some highlights of movies being shown Wednesday in and around Toronto, where “I guarantee there’s a screening within a few blocks of you, wherever you are.” PLUS: Some picks for the best onscreen moments of Canadian patriotism. This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Ed Keenan & Paulo Marques
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29:59
We can, sort of, bring back the woolly mammoth. But should we?
Guest: Kate Allen, Toronto Star climate change reporter When the movie Jurassic Park was made in 1993, the technology at the heart of its plot — bringing ancient giant animals back from extinction — was in the same category as time travel and warp drives: science fiction. This week it seems it may be closer to being just plain science. After a company named Colossal Biosciences stunned the world by announcing it had overseen the birth of three dire wolves, a species of oversized white wolf known to fans of Game of Thrones, but one that has been extinct in reality for over 10,000 years. They have plans to bring the woolly mammoth back to the northern tundra, and revive the dodo bird, too. Even before this week’s surprise news, executives at the Toronto Zoo have been wrestling with the ethics of “de-extinction” and the mammoth question, and Toronto Star reporter Kate Allen has been reporting on the issues that they and other zookeepers around the world, and conservation experts, see with the sudden application of this technology. Allen joins This Matters to explain just what Colossal is doing and why it chooses pop-culture celebrity “charismatic” species to revive. And she outlines the ethical, technical and practical questions, and the massive amounts of money and scientific expertise, that this startup company has suddenly brought to the field of animal conservation. PLUS: Did they really bring back dire wolves, or are these animals something else entirely? This episode was produced by Julia De Laurentiis Johnston, Ed Keenan & Paulo Marques
The world is changing every day. Now, more than ever, these questions matter. What’s happening? And why should you care? This Matters, a daily news podcast from the Toronto Star, aims to answer those questions, on important stories and ideas, every day, Monday to Friday. Hosts Saba Eitizaz and Ed Keenan talk to their fellow journalists, experts and newsmakers about the social, cultural, political and economic stories that shape your life.
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