Send us a text A rare chance to draw back the curtain this week on Inside the Village as Frisco and Scott go one-on-one with retired Ontario judge Norm Douglas. After years as a respected prosecutor who then served on the bench, Douglas has penned his first book: You Be The Judge. Inspired by the visits he used to make to high school classes, the book recounts the details of 24 cases from his career — and asks the reader to decide. In a wide-ranging interview, Douglas shares his thoughts on n...
Send us a text Remember when measles were pretty much eradicated? So much for that. The number of confirmed cases in Canada has now reached 40 — more than three times the number in 2023. Why the resurgence? A growing number of kids simply aren’t getting vaccinated like they used to. The spike in cases comes just as public health agencies across the province are cracking down on elementary and high school students whose immunizations are not up to date, including shots for mumps, measles and r...
Send us a text When it comes to fighting homelessness, no idea is a bad idea. But this one is pretty good: building affordable housing — “on stilts” — over city-owned parking lots. Simply put, a municipality can lease a lot to a developer but still keep the parking spaces. Cambridge councillor Scott Hamilton put forward the novel concept at a recent meeting, and although it was voted down by a 5-4 margin, the idea has spread to other municipalities in Ontario. Hamilton joins Scott and Frisco ...
Send us a text This week on Inside the Village, we dedicate another episode to a controversial subject that continues to generate plenty of headlines: international students. The federal government is determined to slash the number of student visas handed out every year — including by up to 50 per cent in Ontario. But for many cash-strapped colleges, the cap itself isn’t the worst news. Here to explain the devil in the details is David Orazietti, the president of Sault College — and a former ...
Send us a text On this week's episode of Inside the Village, Frisco and Scott sit down for an in-depth conversation with former NHL coach of the year, Memorial Cup Champion — and now author — Ted Nolan. His new book, Life in Two Worlds: A Coach’s Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back, is a brutally honest recollection of his life at the highest levels of our national game, and the racism he endured at points along the way. At a time when the country is grappling with the concept of tru...
Send us a text It’s the kick off to season three of Inside the Village with Michael Friscolanti and Scott Sexsmith. With winter late out of the gate this year it has dramatically impacted outdoor sports and recreational activities, particularly snowmobiling. Lisa Stackhouse from OFSC stops by for some trail talk and also some tips as we celebrate Snowmobile Safety week in Ontario. Also on the show a new site launch is in the very near future and political junkies take note, Trillium Talk is h...
Send us a text Welcome back to Inside the Village - and Part 2 of our Year in Review. This week we take a look at the lighter side of the news from Hockey Night in Canada’s Ron MacLean to Gurdeep Pandher, the Bangra dancer from the Yukon who spread joy, hope and positivity around the world during the pandemic, to the 18 year old lottery winner from Sault Ste. Marie who gave us 48 million reasons to love her story. Join us for the last show of the season and be sure to check out the premiere o...
Send us a text Welcome back to Inside the Village, a one-of-a-kind podcast where all news is local - and no topic is off-limits. In the latest episode, Frisco and Scott take a stroll down memory lane in Part 1 of our year end show. Looking back, we covered a lot of ground in 2023. From the birth of the Trillium to the passing of Gordon Lightfoot, the economy and inflation to one of the greatest tragedies of the year and of course Bill C-18.
Send us a text This week on Inside the Village, there’s a “seismic shift” on the horizon for alcohol sales in Ontario and it will likely start with The Beer Store. Dan Malleck, a Brock University professor and leading expert on drug and alcohol regulation, joins Frisco and Scott to talk about the 2018 campaign promise Doug Ford made regarding booze sales, and what the impacts — positive and negative — could be. Spoiler alert: we talk a lot about empties. Also on the show, Village Media shines...
Send us a text By 2030, one million Canadians will suffer from dementia. By 2050, that number is expected to triple. Here’s another scary stat: In 2020, care partners (including family members, friends and neighbours) spent 26 hours per week assisting older Canadians living with dementia — the equivalent to 235,000 full-time jobs, or $7.3 billion annually. Bottom line: this disease is taking a devastating toll on Canadians and the people who love them. On this week’s episode of Inside the Vil...
Send us a text The state of the economy has been a hot button issue for some time now and a new study from Dalhousie University has some alarming data from the restaurant industry. Over 50% of restaurants nationwide are operating in the red and almost 10% of respondents are no longer eating out. Frisco and Scott get the goods on the survey from Dr. Sylvain Charlebois on everything from the effects of inflation to shrinkflation on eating out. Sit back, relax and enjoy another full serving of I...
Send us a text After a couple weeks off, Inside the Village is back in a big way. The Prime Minister paid a recent visit to Sault Ste. Marie, where he toured the local power utility, met with veterans at the Legion — and sat down with Frisco for a one-on-one interview. At the heart of their conversation was Bill C-18, the Liberal legislation that prompted Facebook to block all news content from the feeds of Canadian users. Considering that the Sault is home to Village Media, the largest onlin...
Send us a text Every week, Scott and Frisco bring you this podcast from Village Media’s headquarters in downtown Sault Ste. Marie. This week, their northern Ontario city was propelled into the national news for all the wrong reasons: a mass murder-suicide that claimed the lives of three innocent children and a 41-year-old woman. In this special episode of Inside the Village, they explore what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to help the community somehow recover. Their guest is...
Send us a text The unionized staff at TVO, the province's public broadcaster, have been on strike for almost two months. Steve Paikin, the veteran host of The Agenda, is part of the bargaining team and isn’t holding out much hope that the labour impasse will end anytime soon. In the meantime, he has joined Village Media’s The Trillium — our Queen’s Park news site — as a guest columnist. We couldn’t be happier to have him. On the latest episode of Inside the Village, Paikin talks about the sta...
Send us a text Welcome back to Inside the Village, a podcast where all news is local — and no topic is off-limits. On this week's episode: Doug Ford does a complete 180. After losing two cabinet ministers, two senior staffers, and untold points in the polls, the Premier announced last Thursday that his government would walk back its Greenbelt land removals. Insisting he was “very, very sorry,” Ford also promised once again to not touch the protected area — the same pledge he broke in 2018 tha...
Send us a text The overdose epidemic has hit Northern Ontario harder than any other region in the province, with fatal drug poisonings consistently higher year after year. Yet it’s in the north where two safe consumption sites — one in Sudbury, the other in Timmins — are under threat of imminent closure because the Ford government can’t seem to decide whether to fund them. Amber Fritz, who manages “The Spot” in Sudbury, joins Scott and Frisco to talk about the critical services her team provi...
Send us a text After a couple weeks of holidays, Frisco and Scott return to the studio to answer a controversial question: When is the right time to give your kid a smartphone? (Spoiler alert: postpone the inevitable for as long as you can.) Our guest this week is journalist, author, and mother of three Katherine Martinko, whose new book is titled: Childhood Unplugged: Practical Advice to Get Kids Off Screens and Find Balance. Martinko explains why her 14-year-old son still doesn’t have a cel...
Send us a text This week on Inside the Village, Scott and Frisco unpack the recent bombshell report from Ontario’s auditor-general, who found that Doug Ford’s government gave “preferential treatment” to prominent developers during last year’s controversial Greenbelt changes. Bonnie Lysyk’s report reads like a hidden camera, explaining how certain developers used their “direct access” to a senior political staffer to push for their plots of land to be removed from the Greenbelt. Here to...
Send us a text His online dancing videos have garnered more than 100 million views around the world. This week, Gurdeep Pandher spreads his message of joy, hope and positivity with Scott and Frisco on Inside the Village. From his remote cabin in the Yukon, Pandher Bhangra-danced his way through the pandemic for everyone to see, and now he’s on a coast to coast tour to spread his uplifting message of love and cultural diversity. What are the keys to happiness? How does he find joy? Tune...
Send us a text This week on Inside the Village — the weekly podcast where all news is local and no topic is off-limits — Frisco and Scott tell the story of Barrie native Mike Haggith: the guitar player whose musical skills went viral for all the wrong reasons. A WestJet pilot by day, the musician was playing a concert in Sault Ste. Marie when he fell to the stage in pain, seemingly from a broken leg. Did he skip a beat? Absolutely not. The video of him finishing out the song on his back is no...