Hour One

Kim's Convenience

Playwright Ins Choi said he wrote Kim's Convenience as a love letter to his parents and all the first-generation immigrants who call Canada their home. It is the story of a corner store in Regent Park, a poor neighbourhood in downtown Toronto. A developer is itching to buy out Mr. Kim, the store's Korean owner, as the neighbourhood gentrifies. Therein lies the conundrum: Mr. Kim would like one of his children to take over the store, but they have other plans. The play was a runaway success at the Toronto Fringe Festival last year and currently at the city's Soulpepper Theatre. It will be returning to Soulpepper this spring.

Michael spoke with Ins Choi, who also stars in the play, and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, who plays Mr. Kim.

Related links:

• Kim's Convenience at Soulpepper Theatre

Is there still power in a Union?

If there was going to be a War of 2012 in North America, the two sides might be employers and organized labour. Union membership has been in decline for decades, and those who remain find themselves under siege due to lockouts, globalization and back-to-work legislation. Just ask the workers at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant in London, Ontario. They were asked to take a 50 per cent pay cut, along with drastic cuts to pensions and benefits. That offer is now off the table, and the plant is closing. Meanwhile, Electro-Motive Diesel's parent company, Caterpillar, posted record-breaking profits of almost five billion dollars last year. Pradeep Kumar is a professor emeritus in the School of Policy Studies at Queen's University, and a specialist in the union movement, collective bargaining and workplace change.

Related links:

• A Moment of Truth for Canadian Unions
• Locked-out Electro-Motive Plant to Close
• More Lockouts as Companies Battle Unions

Music in this Hour:

• Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor, by Dave Young/Cyrus Chestnut, from Two by Two, Vol. 2
• Helpless, by Sisters Euclid, from Run Neil Run
• The Bear, by Joe Sealy/Paul Novotny, from Songs
• Song of Hope, by Joe Sealy, from Africville Suite

Hour Two

Documentary: The Accountant's Dilemma

Krishnan Balakrishnan has to make a choice. The aviation executive from India moved to Canada three years ago to help an old friend grow a Canadian helicopter business. But his family was stuck in Mumbai, denied entry into Canada because his 11-year-old daughter has autism. His value as a wealthy, educated, employable immigrant wasn't enough to offset government concerns about the potential costs to the system of raising his daughter. Krishnan Balakrishnan can continue the lengthy immigration process, while leading a Canadian business. Or he can give up on Canada and go home. The Accountant's Dilemma was produced by John Chipman.

Margaret MacMillan on Barbara Tuchman

Barbara Tuchman was a titan among historians, a woman who made history by writing it. She gave the past a new future by telling accessible stories about complex times, stories that were gobbled up by millions. One of them was a young student who herself went on to become a great historian, Margaret MacMillan. This week marks the centenary of Tuchman's birth, and this year half a century since the publication of her most famous book, The Guns of August. Margaret MacMillan joined Michael to explore the life and legacy of Barbara Tuchman.

Related links:

• Margaret MacMillan
• Barbara Tuchman: Obituary, New York Times

Two Hundred Years of Charles Dickens

His novels and characters are imbedded in popular culture. Who can imagine a world without Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities, without Ebeneezer Scrooge and Miss Havisham? It will be 200 years this week since the birth of Charles Dickens. His books have never gone out of print, nor out of favour. And his characters are as alive today as when they first appeared. To celebrate the anniversary, The Sunday Edition put together a pop-cultural history of Charles Dickens. Click on "Read More" to find out what we used.

Music in this Hour:

• 1ere Partie: Allegro, by the Dave Young Quintet, from Aspects of Oscar
• Flowers, by Oliver Schroer/Nuala Kennedy, from Enthralled
• One Too Many Mornings, by Johnny Cash, from Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan
• Improvisations on First Movement of Haydn's Opus 76, by Duane Andrews, from Crocus

Clips used in The Sunday Edition's Charles Dickens montage.

1) Charles Dickens Animation by Poetry Reincarnations, YouTube
2) A Tale of Two Cities (TV, 1980)
3) Great Expectations (1946)
4) Oliver Twist (1948)
5) You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two, from Oliver (1968)
6) Dr. Who - The Wedding of River Song (2011)
7) Dr. Who - The Unquiet Dead (2005)
8) A Christmas Carol (1951)
9) Dr. Who - The Unquiet Dead (2005)
10) Rich Little's Christmas Carol (TV 1978)
11) Minolta copier commercial (1980's)
12) Bugs Bunny's A Christmas Carol (TV 1979)
13) A Christmas Carol (1951)
14) Bugs Bunny's A Christmas Carol (TV 1979)
15) A Christmas Carol (1951)
16) Mr. Magoo's A Christmas Carol (TV 1962)
17) Nyquil commercial (date unknown)
18) Oliver Twist (1948)
19) A Tale of Two Cities (1958)
20) Dr. Who - The Unquiet Dead (2005)
21) Great Expectations (1946)
22) Dr. Who - The Unquiet Dead (2005)
23) Music - Roger Coverley from Vaughan Williams: Christmas Music by the City of London Sinfonia