Discussion Board | the fifth estate

Larger Than Life

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 22:56:29 -0500

His name is Peter Nygard. His fashion business that clothes millions of women around the world has made him one of the richest people in Canada. That success has given him a lavish lifestyle, including a palatial tropical estate in the Bahamas where he has played host to royalty and Hollywood stars and has been featured on shows like "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous". Nygard has a carefully crafted public image as a philanthropist as well as awards declaring him to be an exemplary Canadian. That's all part of the Nygard brand. In Larger Than Life, the fifth estate's Bob McKeown investigates the controversial man behind that image.

Hannah's Heart

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:23:06 -0500

Hannah Jones has spent most of her life in hospitals. At age four, she was diagnosed with leukemia, but the chemotherapy that saved her life also damaged her heart. Now 13 years old, Hannah's heart is failing and her only chance to keep on living rests with a risky heart transplant. In Hannah's Heart, the fifth estate's Bob McKeown presents this moving story, prepared by the BBC, about the British girl whose heart is weak but whose spirit is strong. Hannah tells her family that she's had enough of hospitals and doctors and refuses the operation even though the medical prognosis is clear: Hannah is dying. Her parents, Kirsty and Andrew, bravely support their daughter's right to choose, even though it leaves them with their own kind of heartbreak, and then, makes them objects of public criticism when Hannah's decision comes to dominate newspaper headlines in the U.K.

Cougar 491

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:55:30 -0500

For those who work on Newfoundland's remote offshore oil patch, danger was always thought to be in the work itself. But, on the morning of March 12, 2009, the most dangerous place for a group of oil riggers to be was on a helicopter bringing them to work. With little warning, Cougar flight 491 plunged into the frigid Atlantic. Of the 18 on board, only one man survived. Now, one year to the day after that tragedy, a fifth estate investigation reveals new details about events leading up to the crash and tells a story of hope and hubris - the hope of ordinary working people trying to make a living, and the hubris of professionals who boasted that they had designed and built the safest helicopter in the world. Linden MacIntyre reports.

The Wrong Man

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:35:22 -0500

It's the skeleton in the closet of Canada's legal system: that despite the presumption of innocence, the right to a vigorous defence and a fair trial, there are still cases in which innocent people are convicted, most disturbingly, of murder. Some of the names are well-known: Milgaard, Marshall, Truscott, Sophonow. In The Wrong Man, Bob McKeown introduces you to someone else who's seen wrongful murder conviction from the inside. The prosecutor who's presided over more of them than anyone else.

21st Century

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 14:55:44 -0500

In a three-part series, the fifth estate looks back on a remarkable time -- the tumultuous first decade of the 21st Century. In those 10 years, the program has investigated, uncovered, illuminated, aggravated and even entertained its viewers with nearly 200 stories. the fifth estate's award-winning hosts will reflect on some of the significant issues and personalities they covered in that time.

Earl Jones: In Trust

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:49:52 -0500

He was charming, generous and, when it came to suggesting that friends and family invest with him, he was totally convincing. So convincing, that for more than two decades Earl Jones managed to run a Ponzi scheme that swindled 158 investors out of $50 million. How was he able to get away with the scam for so long, and all the time maintaining a luxurious lifestyle for himself? Hana Gartner talks to the forensic accountant whose task it is to follow the money trail left by Jones. And she talks to two of Jones' victims: one a widow who regarded Jones as a virtual family member, the other, one of Jones' own brothers.

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:53:30 -0500

On Christmas Day 2009, a 23-year-old Nigerian man boarded a U.S.-bound plane and tried to detonate a bomb he had hidden in his underwear. The bomb failed to detonate and he was arrested, but, once again, we were left questioning the effectiveness of airport security in the post-9/11 world. In 2005, the fifth estate addressed that very issue in a documentary called "Fasten Your Seatbelts". With the help of Steve Elson, a U.S. Navy-trained covert operations and security expert, we evaluated airport security at Canada's busiest airports and found it wanting. The fifth estate will re-broadcast "Fasten Your Seatbelts", including a new interview with security expert Steve Elson. If you're hoping that body scanners will make flying safe, Steve Elson has some news you'll want to hear.

House of Cards

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:02:17 -0500

When Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, heralding the onset of the latest recession, the focus was on the greed and vanity of the Americans who ran the doomed investment giant. But the fifth estate has uncovered the Canadian connection to that collapse, in House of Cards.

His name: Brian Chisick. A Grade 10 dropout from Vancouver who moved to California, Chisick pioneered a predatory type of lending there. He made his first fortune preying on borrowers with hidden upfront fees and sky-high interest rates. Wall Street behemoths like Lehman Brothers bankrolled Chisick and learned that they could sell bad loans to millions of people. This inspired a pandemic of self-delusion and excess that brought on an economic crisis unmatched since the Great Depression, 80 years ago.

Out of Control

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:37:34 -0500

She was a teenager, troubled, an in trouble with the law. But, why did Ashley Smith die on the floor of her prison cell?

The Unofficial Story

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:22:56 -0500

Eight years after the events of September 11th, opinion polls show that a majority of Americans believe the Bush administration had advance knowledge of those attacks and in one way or another allowed them to happen. And polls show that one Canadian in three believes that, too. Bob McKeown interviews some of the leading proponents of conspiracy theories to try to understand some of the unresolved issues and to ask: why?

Over The Edge

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:12:40 -0500

On February 23, 2009, 24-year-old Sam Brown of British Columbia was arrested by U.S. authorities in Washington State as he landed a helicopter he had piloted across the border. Sam's crime: he was attempting to smuggle almost 200 kilograms of marijuana, "B.C. Bud" into the United States. Only a few days after his arrest, Sam hanged himself in his jail cell. In Over The Edge, Linden MacIntyre takes us into the world of drug smuggling in B.C.'s lucrative and pervasive drug industry and the role in it of young thrill-seekers like Sam Brown.

Bus 1170

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:21:44 -0500

On a peaceful summer's night in July 2008, along a stretch of the Trans Canada Highway in Manitoba, the unthinkable happened. What started as just another Prairie bus ride became a nightmare when the lives of two passengers intersected tragically and resulted in the murder of Tim McLean. In Bus 1170, Bob McKeown takes us inside what happened on Greyhound 1170 through the eyes of the surviving passengers and other witnesses.

Broken Heroes

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 20:24:46 -0500

We send them off to war as heroes, the men and women of the Canadian armed forces, to serve in places like Afghanistan. Now, more and more of them are returning from their tour of duty with invisible injuries. PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, has probably been with us as long as there have been soldiers and war, b...ut until recently it was barely acknowledged and little has been done in this country to deal with its effects. Gillian Findlay meets three recently returned veterans of Afghanistan to hear their stories of flashbacks, depression, grief, guilt, even suicide attempts.

The Fall and Rise of Theo Fleury

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:27:45 -0500

At five foot six and one forty-five pounds, he was an unlikely NHL superstar. But, any player who underestimated Theo Fleury did so at his peril. He tore up the ice, electrified crowds, and set himself on the path to the Hockey Hall of Fame. All the while, he was pursued by personal demons--a hardscrabble childhood, a sexually abusive hockey coach would lead to later addictions of all kinds and those addictions eventually lead to his suspension from the NHL. Somehow, Theo Fleury survived it all and now has written, in candid detail, the story of his life. Bob McKeown interviews Theo Fleury.

Death Online

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:00:00 -0500

She was young, beautiful, with a promising future. But, Nadia Kajouji's suicide stunned her parents and friends. What begins as a devastating personal tragedy becomes an international hunt for an online predator when a retired English schoolteacher discovers a grim online world of suicide chatrooms and one person, in particular, who is pushing vulnerable, depressed people, all around the world, to kill themselves. It was that same person, a middle-aged father of two in Minnesota, who was Nadia Kajouji's secret online friend and pushing her to her tragic death.