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'COVID is bigger than the Olympics': Athletes question certainty of Tokyo Games
Some Canadian athletes training for this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games say they’re worried about whether the events will — or even should — go ahead, as the pandemic continues to plague much of the world.
Victims of military sexual assault once stayed silent. That's changing, says survivor Leah West
Leah West was sexually assaulted during her time serving in the Canadian military. She's now speaking out about the need to confront sexual misconduct in Canada's Armed Forces.
The Current for May 7, 2021
Today on The Current: Growing local opposition to the Tokyo Olympics as Japan battles fourth wave; Peter Hotez on how cheaper vaccines could help conquer COVID-19 globally; and how Kainai First Nation is overcoming the opioid crisis through harm reduction.
Canadian innovator Bruce Mau says we need to redesign our world
Humans need to redesign "practically everything," because we’ve created a world full of waste, pollution and "degraded life," says a Canadian designer.
The Current for May 6, 2021
Today on The Current: Leah West on the need to confront sexual misconduct in Canada's Armed Forces; new podcast Do You Know Mordechai? explores friendship, lies and love; Health Canada approves COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 12 to 15; and new documentary explores stories of women who married ISIS fighters.
'The system failed the people of Brampton': How COVID-19 is taking a toll in hard-hit city
Brampton’s COVID-19 test positivity rate was more than double the rate for Ontario near the end of April. And residents and health experts say the government hasn’t done enough to protect people living in the Peel Region.
Alberta protests against COVID measures a 'slap in the face' to health-care workers: doctor
Hundreds attended anti-lockdown protests in Alberta in recent days, even as the province's per-capita COVID-19 case count became the highest in North America, and Premier Jason Kenney announced new restrictions.
The Current for May 5, 2021
Today on The Current: New restrictions, growing frustration as COVID-19 cases soar in Alberta; Bruce Mau on how good design can save the world; clearing up confusion around the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's “preferred” vaccines comments; and Ethiopia's Tigrayans face atrocities.
Stewart Brand on his remarkable career, creating the Whole Earth Catalog, and bringing back the woolly mammoth
Stewart Brand is considered a key figure in the creation of the 1960s counter-culture, as well as an influence on the environmental movement and the rise of personal computing. Brand tells us about a new documentary about his work — We Are As Gods — and one of his new projects: to bring back the woolly mammoth.
The Current for May 4, 2021
Today on The Current: How the third wave of COVID-19 is battering Brampton, Ont.; and Stewart Brand on his remarkable career, and bringing back the woolly mammoth.
Author charts how greed and deceit fuelled the rise of OxyContin and an addiction crisis
The makers of OxyContin may not have set out to get people addicted to the drug, but “their heads were in the sand” when it came to thinking through its “colossal downsides,” says an American journalist.
This moment in pandemic is 'the darkness before the dawn,' says WHO adviser Peter Singer
As the first wave began to wane a year ago, Canadian physician Peter Singer told The Current that the worst of the pandemic may yet be to come. Where does he think we are now? Singer, the special advisor to the director general of the World Health Organization, talks to Matt Galloway about the COVID-19 crisis in India, the third wave in Canada and whether vaccines can keep up with a constantly evolving virus.
The Current for May 3, 2021
Today on The Current: Physician Peter Singer on Canada’s third wave and global vaccine inequity; writer Patrick Radden Keefe on the Sackler family’s role in the opioid crisis; and Alessandro Rossellini on his famous, film-making family, and his role in it.
Solving the problems in Canada's long-term care sector
The pandemic exposed serious problems in long-term care in Canada, but what change is needed, and what creative solutions can be applied? We talk to Isobel Mackenzie, the seniors advocate for B.C.; Dr. Jocelyn Charles, medical director of the Veterans Centre at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre; and Alex Mihailidis, scientific director of Age Well.
How the #MeToo movement could shape the new review of military sexual misconduct
Six years after a review into sexual misconduct in the military, the federal government has appointed former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour to lead another. Emma Phillips says a lot has changed since she worked on the review in 2015, and that creates an opportunity.
The Current for April 30, 2021
Today on The Current: Solving the problems in Canada’s long-term care sector; Biden faces immigration challenges at southern border; and Louise Arbour on leading a fresh external review into military sexual misconduct.
Sharks have been long misunderstood, says conservationist who filmed scenes for Jaws
An Australian filmmaker and conservationist who shot some of the underwater scenes for the 1975 thriller Jaws says she’s seen the health of our oceans deteriorate significantly since the early days of her career.
This couple 'adopted' their elder friend, and now they live as a family
When Marike Finlay and her partner, Karin Cope, decided to move from Quebec to the Maritimes 20 years ago, they asked their older friend, Elisabeth Bigras: "Why don't you come?"
Murray Sinclair remembers Canadian legal pioneer Thomas Berger
Canadian legal pioneer Thomas Berger died Wednesday, at the age of 88. Retired senator Murray Sinclair joins us to remember his friend.
The Current for April 29, 2021
Today on The Current: Why ‘adopting an elder’ was life-changing for this Canadian household; Biden's United States at 100 days, from COVID-19 to race relations; Valerie Taylor on a career spent swimming with sharks; and Murray Sinclair remembers Canadian legal pioneer Thomas Berger.
Patents for COVID-19 vaccines slow global supply, raise risk of new variants, advocates say
India and South Africa are leading a proposal for the World Trade Organization to waive patents on COVID-19 vaccines temporarily, in order to boost production and fix a low supply problem for poorer countries.
Barring transgender women, girls from female sports teams 'fundamentally unfair,' says Canadian athlete
A Canadian transgender athlete says it’s “reprehensible” that some U.S. states are trying to ban trans women and girls from playing for female sports teams.
The Current for April 28, 2021
Today on The Current: National affairs panel discusses the third wave’s impact on provincial politics; harvesting locusts to turn a pest into a seasonal crop in Kenya; and calls for patents on COVID-19 vaccines to be lifted.
Denmark is telling Syrian refugees it's safe to go home — but advocates disagree
Officials in Denmark have revoked residence permits of at least 189 refugees since last summer, telling them it's safe to return to Damascus.
Turn pandemic anger into a catalyst that 'trends towards peace,' says ER doctor James Maskalyk
The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians is calling for a change to licensing rules that make it harder for health-care workers to operate across provincial borders. Dr. James Maskalyk, a Toronto ER physician, joins Matt Galloway to discuss those barriers and what he's seeing on the front lines of the fight against the virus.
