2004 - 2005 Season
Wednesday, March 24, 2005
DARK CRYSTAL
Sweeping across the towns and cities of western Canada and headed eastward at an alarming pace is the drug known as crystal meth. It's more addictive than heroin or cocaine at a fraction of the cost and the high it gives can last for days. And, unlike heroin or cocaine, it can be cooked up in an kitchen or basement lab using a recipe posted on internet sites and with ingredients found on the shelves at the local pharmacy.
Gillian Findlay investigates how two towns in British Columbia's interior are dealing with a crystal meth epidemic among their young people.
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Wednesday, March 9, 2005
WEB OF DECEIT
When PEI native Melissa Friedrich was arrested in Florida and charged with exploitation of the elderly in January 2005, her past revealed a long and complex criminal history that began in the Maritimes and included a conviction for manslaughter in the death of one husband. Another husband died under what his family believes are suspicious circumstances and what finally landed her in a Tampa jail was enough evidence to convince authorities that yet another man might be at risk. Linden MacIntyre investigates the story of the woman who has been called a "black widow".
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Wednesday February 23, 2005
THE BIG BREAK
Where do the great ships go to die? When these behemoths are no longer fit to sail safely on the seas, they're dismantled piece by piece and sold for scrap.
Most end up in third world countries, where thousand of workers risk their lives for mere pennies a day dismantling the world's ships, including Canada's. It's some of the most dangerous work in the world, done in the name of profit for shipping companies, where it's cheaper than a certified facility in our own backyard.
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Wednesday February 16, 2005
FIRST, DO NO HARM
Almost everyone has the same feeling: there may be a few bad doctors out there, doctors who harm their patients, but not MY doctor. My doctor's terrific. But, what if that wasn't the case? What would happen then?
Gillian Findlay investigates the case of one doctor, Errol Wai-Ping, a gynecologist accused of mistreating, misdiagnosing and botching the surgeries of dozens of women. And yet, complaints from patients to medical authorities went unheeded for more than a decade
.
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Wednesday February 9, 2005
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
In the course of producing our stories for
the fifth estate we meet some remarkable people. Life doesn't stop for them after our television cameras go away, so we like to check back in and find out what happened next. If there's a theme in this group of stories then it's that everyone you'll meet is a fighter of some kind. Hana Gartner has two stories--the first, a young woman in Medicine Hat, Alberta named Melanie Serr, who has fought the odds against a terrible disease. The other, Margaret Sidoroff, we first met as a female World boxing champion, a real-life Million Dollar Baby. Linden MacIntyre re-visits Jeffrey Wigand, a man who fought the powerful tobacco industry and became a whistleblower immortalized in the Hollywood movie
The Insider. And Bob McKeown tells us about Luben Boykov and Elena Popova. When we first met the young Bulgarian couple they had fled Communist repression and were fighting to be able to stay and create a new life in Newfoundland. Find out what happened next.
Wednesday, February 2, 2005
BLOOD BROTHERS
Imagine if your child had a life threatening illness. There is a potential cure, but it's risky and controversial. What would you do?
Last season we brought you the story of Jason and Michelle Whittaker's extraordinary battle to provide a cure for their desperately ill son, Charlie, by creating Britain's first designer baby. They created a life to save a life. The news of the Whittaker's decision created a ferocious debate with accusations of creating a "spare parts" baby, something the Whittakers vehemently refuted.
In the concluding chapter of this story, Charlie receives the stem cell transplant from his baby brother, Jamie. It's the hardest decision of the Whittakers' life. What hangs on their decision is Charlie's life.
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Wednesday, January 26, 2005
STICKS AND STONES
The United States is in the midst of a very un-civil war. It's a war of words that's pitting conservative against liberal, that's already divided the country into red and blue. The new gladiators are commentators like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter and their forum is the television studios of networks like Fox. It's loud, it's raucous, but does it have anything to do with the truth?
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Wednesday January 19, 2005
THE PILOT
In the days following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the world struggled to find answers. Who were the 19 men who hijacked the planes and committed mass murder and what could compel them to become martyrs to their cause?
One of the most enigmatic of the hijackers was Ziad Samir Jarrah. The fifth estate investigated Jarrah's story and less than a month after 9/11, broadcast the groundbreaking documentary of the young, educated man from a respected family in Lebanon who ended his life at the controls of UA Flight 93. Now, with new and important information about Jarrah, the fifth estate adds to the dramatic story of The Pilot.
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Wednesday January 12, 2005
THE CANADIAN
How does a Canadian, born and raised in our nation's capital, end up on a list of international terrorists? Hana Gartner reports on the federal government employee who went to work on an otherwise ordinary Tuesday morning last March 29, unaware the RCMP was watching his every move.
Hours later, he was led away in handcuffs as part of a global anti-terrorist sweep, involving Canadian security, American intelligence and British secret service. Anonymous computer whiz Momin Khawaja instantly became notorious as the first person to be charged under Canada's new anti-terrorist law.
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Wednesday December 1
WAR WITHOUT BORDERS
On March 11, 2004 bombs ripped apart commuter trains arriving at Madrid's Atocha Station. Nearly 200 people died, more than 1400 were injured. The day became known in Spain as 3/11. The moment marked a new battlefront in al-Qaeda's war against the West, a war in which the enemy is invisible, in which the objective is mass murder.
The Emmy-awarding winning team of reporter Linden MacIntyre and producer Neil Docherty are joined by the New York Times and PBS' Frontline, in an investigation of al-Qaeda's war without borders.
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Wednesday, November 17
YOU BET YOUR LIFE
We gamble for the fun of it, the thrill of it; we gamble to win. No one gambles to get hooked. But, that's what's happening more and more to Canadians who push the buttons on a VLT machine at the neighbourhood bar.
The rate of gambling addiction is at an all-time high in this country. And, more troubling, is the growing link between gamblers and suicides. What are our provincial governments doing to stop this explosion of addiction? Not enough, critics argue. In fact, they say, governments themselves have become addicted; addicted to the money, the tens of millions of dollars every year, that they reap from gambling revenues.
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Wednesday November 11
MISTER NOBODY
Five years ago, a young man walked into a downtown Toronto hospital, bloodied, beaten and robbed he claimed of any identification. He could not recall anything about his life before that day. The doctors diagnosed amnesia and the story of the man without a past quickly attracted national headlines. But, instead of solving the puzzle of his identity, the mystery surrounding him only deepened with time. During these five years, he adopted and then dropped a few names and now seems less interested in finding out his real identity than he once claimed to be. the fifth estate's Linden MacIntyre goes in search of the real Mr. Nobody.
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Wednesday November 3
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?
Benny Hinn may be the most popular personality in the Christian world today. Thousands pack arenas to see him heal the sick and the afflicted. Tens of thousands more watch his television program. Millions of dollars are donated every year to his ministry, none of which he says goes to him personally. But, what about those miracles? And where does all that money go? Bob McKeown investigates.
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Wednesday October 27
THE GIRL IN THE SUITCASE
A young woman from a well-to-do Montreal family follows her dream of an international singing career to London. Yet, one day, instead of heading home to Montreal, her body ends up stuffed into a suitcase. Despite overwhelming evidence, the prime suspect in her murder is allowed to slip through the nets of one of the most vaunted police agencies in the world, Scotland Yard.
What happened, who did it, and why couldn't Scotland Yard seal the case? After all, they had plenty of evidence on videotape.
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Wednesday October 20
THE STEVEN TRUSCOTT STORY
Forty-five years ago, Steven Truscott was sentenced to hang for the murder of 12 year-old Lynn Harper. He was just 14, Canada's youngest death row inmate and his trial was one of the most famous and controversial in Canadian history. His sentence was commuted and after spending 10 years behind bars he disappeared to live an anonymous life in southern Ontario. the fifth estate uncovered evidence that showed the case against Truscott was dubious, at best.
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Wednesday October 13
BECOMING AYDEN
Changing sex. Not simple, not well understood, not consistently regulated, but here to stay and getting complicated. One Canadian clinic is carrying out 250 sex reassignments per year. Women and men, some still in their teens, believe that identity is not as simple as what kind of genitalia they happen to be born with. In order to find their true identity, they're prepared to undergo major surgery-which can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and is most often irreversible.
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Wednesday October 6
THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF DICK CHENEY
American Vice-President Dick Cheney has walked the corridors of world power for three decades. His use of intelligence and his access to the key players in government and industry have made him one of the most powerful men in the world. This is the story of Dick Cheney's vision of America. But he has selective vision.
Cheney's remarkable life story involves the relentless accumulation of power in every form. He's been uniquely involved in a large share of U.S. policy and strategy over the past two decades, and regardless of the outcome of this fall's election, he will continue to be one of the most powerful and well-connected men in the world. the fifth estate will show how he accomplished this, what it involved in terms of costs for others, and what history's judgment could be.
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