The Decibel

For more than a month, the government has not been able to pass any legislation. The House of Commons has been at a standstill, as they debate whether the Liberal government breached Parliamentary privilege.The Globe’s senior politics reporter Marieke Walsh talks about why the House has been unable to put this debate to rest, and why that’s leading to no movement in the House. She also catches us up on the latest news around Trudeau’s leadership of the Liberal Party and what the Bloc Québecois ending its support for the Liberals means for our chances of an election.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Dr. Farouq Samim cried as the Taliban swept back into power in 2021. While he was safe in Ottawa, many members of his family were stranded – and at risk of death – back in Afghanistan. Determined to do something, he paired up with two lawyers he didn’t know to launch a secret mission: Operation Abraham.The Globe’s International Affairs reporter, Janice Dickson, got inside access on how this rescue effort ended up saving over 1,500 people over three years despite bureaucratic hurdles and increasing threats.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

In 2019, Nova Scotia’s then-Liberal government passed the Coastal Protection Act — legislation that would have brought in regulations around building near the coast. In 2021, the Conservatives were voted into power, and it sounded like they were keen to keep the Act in place.But in February 2024, Nova Scotia’s government announced that they wouldn’t. Instead, the responsibility for regulating coastal development would be downloaded onto municipalities, and in some cases, even homeowners.Matthew McClearn is a data journalist for the Globe’s energy and environment team. He’s on the show to talk about what Nova Scotia’s abandonment of the Coastal Protection Act tells us about their approach to climate adaptation, and what happens when a province makes climate change an issue of personal responsibility.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

On October 14, the RCMP shared explosive allegations linking Indian government officials to homicides, extortions and coercion committed against Canadians, on Canadian soil. The RCMP said 30 people had been charged so far, and Ottawa announced it was expelling 6 Indian diplomats.  Since the escalation, The Globe has learned the lengths Ottawa and the RCMP went to, to avoid worsening tensions between the countries. The Globe’s Ottawa Bureau Chief, Robert Fife, takes us inside the behind-the-scenes meetings that led to Canada’s escalation, how far up this goes in the Indian government, and what this all means for the future of Canada and India’s relationship. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

The U.S. election is a week away, and tensions are running high. Polls show Harris and Trump as more or less deadlocked. America’s Electoral College means the presidency is won one state at a time — and in a country that vast, it’s hard to capture the nuances of the race in the snapshot of a poll.That’s why the Globe’s feature writer, Ian Brown, got on a Greyhound bus in downtown Los Angeles, and headed east for New York City. He and photographer Barbara Davidson traveled from the deserts of the Southwest to the dairy farms of Wisconsin to try to understand what people were thinking about the election. Ian’s on the show to talk about how taking the bus shaped his thinking about American politics, and he shares some excerpts from his feature on the trip.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a major reduction in the number of permanent residents the country will admit over the next three years, saying his government had not gotten the balance between labour needs and population growth “quite right.”In 2025 and 2026, the government had initially planned to bring in 500,000 permanent residents – now, they’ve set a target of 395,000 and 380,000, respectively. In 2027, that target is 365,000 permanent residents. This signifies a major policy reversal for the Trudeau government – and would mean that Canada’s net population is projected to decline by 0.2 per cent per year over the next two years.Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, joins us to discuss why the government is cutting Canada’s immigration targets, and why he says Canadians should trust the Liberals to fix the problem.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

14 years ago, a young woman disappeared in Edmonton... two years later, police released a chilling recording from the final moments of her life. Ever since she heard it, The Globe’s Jana Pruden hasn’t been able to shake the voices of Amber Tuccaro and the man suspected of killing her, so she took a trip to Amber’s home community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta to look into the case.Jana joins the show to share how and why she made the second season of In Her Defence: 50th Street, and what she learned reporting on Amber’s unsolved murder.You can listen to season two of In Her Defence wherever you get your podcasts.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said he will impose 10 to 20 per cent tariffs on everything the U.S. imports. This would include, it seems, all of the goods and resources Canada sells to its biggest trading partner. And that kind of tariff wall could have serious effects across the Canadian economy.Adrian Morrow is the U.S. correspondent based in Washington, D.C., for The Globe and Mail. He looked at exactly which parts of the Canadian economy would be hit the hardest, how much each Canadian could stand to lose on average and what Canada is doing to prepare for this possible scenario.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Last week, the Assembly of First Nations voted to reject a $47.8-billion child welfare deal with the federal government. The agreement would have funded long-term reforms to child welfare for First Nations children on reserve. Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, the AFN National Chief, urged the chiefs to pass the deal so that it would be in place before the next federal election.Dr. Cindy Blackstock is a member of the Gitxsan First Nation and the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. She’s on the show to talk about how this deal was more than a decade in the making and why she and others say it fell short.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

On October 22, 2014, a man named Michael Zehaf-Bibeau entered Parliament Hill, killing Canadian soldier Nathan Cirillo and catching security off guard.On the 10th anniversary of what was later deemed a terror attack — and with security risks for politicians only growing — the Globe’s national affairs reporter, Kristy Kirkup, joins The Decibel to revisit the events of that day, sharing stories of responders, and explaining how Parliament Hill changed because of it.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Ivan Semeniuk is The Globe’s science reporter and today on the show he takes us on a tour of our solar system – and beyond! We start with the news of the Europa Clipper and its search for the conditions of life on a watery moon around Jupiter. Then we talk about Earth’s new mini moon, before catching up with those stranded astronauts on the International Space Station. We end by talking about what the James Webb Space Telescope has taught us about the origins of the universe, before zooming back in on a very special space rock with a familiar name. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

The hearings for the public inquiry into foreign interference led by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue wrapped up earlier this week with testimony from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The Prime Minister said he had the names of Conservative parliamentarians who were engaged in or at high risk of being targeted for foreign interference. Trudeau’s testimony came just two days after the RCMP announced they had evidence of Indian officials’ involvement in homicides, extortion and violent crime on Canadian soil, which led to Canada expelling six Indian diplomats, and India expelling six Canadian diplomats in retaliation. Steven Chase is the Globe’s senior parliamentary reporter. He’s on the show to break down Trudeau’s testimony, what else we learned from this round of the inquiry into foreign interference, and how the new revelations about India played into all of this.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

British Columbia heads to the polls this Saturday, October 19th. It’s been an election campaign full of surprises — from the collapse of one established party, to the meteoric rise of a nearly defunct one. With the ongoing challenges of housing, affordability, healthcare and the toxic drug crisis, polling has BC Conservatives and the incumbent BC NDP in a dead heat.  The Globe’s B.C. politics reporter, Justine Hunter, walks us through the province’s unpredictable election, what both the campaign and the result could tell us about the forthcoming federal election.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Emergency rooms across Canada are in a dire state. Wait times in many ERs remain stubbornly high. And in some provinces, the full understanding of how bad the situation has become isn’t even clear – with inconsistent or little data to rely on. For many Canadians, that lack of clarity in emergency situations is a life or death matter. Globe investigative reporter Tu Thanh Ha joins The Decibel to break down the details he and data editor Yang Sun dug up and what story the numbers tell about the reality of emergency care. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com 

If you were to spend an afternoon wandering around an art museum, you’d see hundreds of pieces, if not thousands. But the reality is, what you see on display is only a small percentage of a museum’s holdings. Depending on the institution, anywhere from 95 to 99 per cent of the artwork it owns is in storage – and according to a 2019 report, many of those storage spaces are so full that experts say the artworks may be at risk. Kate Taylor is the Globe’s visual arts critic. She’s on the show to explain how Canadian art museums ended up with such large collections, and how tax breaks are what drives collectors to donate their pieces.  Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

Amber Tuccaro was 20 years old when she disappeared in Edmonton in August 2010. She was never seen alive again. But she left an important clue: a chilling recording of what appears to be the final moments of her life, and the voice of the man who may be her killer.Hosted by The Globe and Mail’s Jana Pruden, ‘In Her Defence: 50th Street’ retraces the final days of Amber’s life, explore her home, the Indigenous community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta and asks serious questions of the police investigation of her unsolved murder.More episodes of ‘In Her Defence: 50th Street’ can be found here and other platforms where podcasts are available.Support for families impacted by Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls is available through the Indian Residential School Survivors Society at irsss.caIndividuals impacted by the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls can contact the MMIWG Crisis Line toll-free at 1-844-413-6649.The Indian Residential School Survivors Society also offers 24-hour support through the Lamathut crisis line toll-free at 1-800-721-0066.

What does it mean to be connected in the world today? Gen Z – the cohort born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s – has been inundated by social media and smartphones, but they’ve also been hampered by years of social distancing in the pandemic. So, what effect has that had on them in terms of their social connections? The Decibel spoke to several Gen Zers, including Globe reporter Pippa Norman on what life is like – their hopes, anxieties and the way they want to push back against stereotypes. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

At all but a handful of publications, restaurant critics are a relic of bygone days. In their place, the food influencer has risen up in popularity. Seen mostly on platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok, influencers take their audience along for the ride at all sorts of restaurants, from high-end to casual dining… but unlike old school critics, they don’t necessarily adhere to standards like paying for their meal or remaining anonymous, which helped critics paint a full – and sometimes critical – picture of an establishment. Dakshana Bascaramurty is the Globe’s food culture reporter. She’s on the show to talk about how food influencers are changing the attention economy for restaurants and how good they are at helping us decide where to go for dinner.  Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

This is the second part of a two-episode special looking at the rippling effects of a year of war in Israel, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. In this episode, Mark MacKinnon, The Globe and Mail’s senior international correspondent, talks about the scale of destruction in Gaza, how people are surviving there and what future Palestinians see for themselves. Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com

The Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, killed nearly 1,200 Israelis and saw 250 people kidnapped. It also sparked one of the largest wars in the Middle East in a generation. A year of Israel’s ground attack and air strikes on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, causing mass displacement as fears of a wider war continue to develop.In the first of a two-episode feature on this sombre anniversary, the Globe’s senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon captures the feelings of Israelis, sharing the stories of survivors from the attacks and analyzes whether the possibility of a ceasefire remains.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globeandmail.com