The Sunday Editionwith Michael Enright

When the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic hit Canada, hotels were converted to hospitals and doctors came out of retirement to work on the front lines, much like what's happening today with COVID-19. Heather MacDougall, a history professor at the University of Waterloo, discusses the parallels between two pandemics.

Janitorial work is vital for the public's protection, and it's full of risk these days. And yet, janitorial workers have for years been among the lowest-paid in Canada. Deena Ladd is the executive director of the Workers' Action Centre, an organization in Toronto that works with people in low-wage and unstable employment.

Fifteen years ago, Windsor, Ontario’s Dan Wells took a flyer and started a bookstore and publishing house called Biblioasis. It became one of North America’s most successful small presses, in terms of sales, awards and critical success. Michael interviewed Wells in early March. But it was quite a different story this week when they had a followup conversation. Biblioasis has been completely sideswiped by the pandemic.

Our music guru, Robert Harris takes us on a cultural journey through music. In conversation with Michael Enright, Robert explains why this song (idiosyncratically chosen by Robert himself) made such an impact on the hearts and minds of listeners.

Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.

“Time can weigh heavily. In a prior life, time governed everything. Now with staying at home without times or deadlines, time can be a fearsome stranger or a kindly friend. Time is the common currency of confinement.”

The Sunday Edition’s go-to sage on geopolitics, U.K. security expert and peace studies professor Paul Rogers, returns to the program to talk about COVID-19’s impact on the world’s geopolitical hotspots and how well Europe’s leadership has dealt with the pandemic crisis.

The demands and conditions that Canada's hospitals and health care providers are going to face in the weeks and months ahead will be entirely new territory, according to Halifax physician Dr. Sundeep Chohan. Dr. Chohan has many years of experience in the field of catastrophe medicine, having worked in conflict zones and natural disasters. He argues that the medical response to COVID-19 will call for the skills and approach required in a war zone or humanitarian crisis rather than in conventional modern medicine.

More than 60 per cent of Indigenous people in Canada live off-reserve. Many urban Indigenous organizations worry the people they serve are particularly vulnerable to COVID-1, and could fall through the cracks. Leslie Varley, the executive director of the B.C. Association of Aboriginal Friendship Centres, discusses her concerns about the impact COVID-19 will have on Indigenous people in Canadian cities.

Hugh Segal has been advocating for a guaranteed annual income for decades, in part because of his own experience growing up poor in Canada. In his latest book, Boot Straps Need Boots: One Tory’s Lonely Fight to End Poverty in Canada, he puts his campaign into historical perspective.

We bring you dispatches from two of Canada’s top novelists — two-time-Giller-winner Esi Edugyan and Giller-nominated Anakana Schofield — about what they’re reading during this time of isolation.

A few years ago, a man calling himself Brian Bilston scribbled a short poem and posted it on Twitter. He hadn't thought of himself as a poet, but three books and almost 70,000 followers later, he's become known as the unofficial poet laureate of Twitter and the Banksy of poetry. His poems are whimsical, serious, poignant, funny and, sometimes, visual. In these trying times, Bilston shows us that it is possible to find poetry for any occasion, including a pandemic.

Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.

“We are living through extraordinary times. Most of us are experiencing something we have never seen before. Everything is upended. We can no longer take for granted all those activities we never thought twice about … What was ordinary has become a challenge.”

Dr. Sandy Buchman is keeping a watchful eye on how well Canada's healthcare policy is protecting both patients and the healthcare workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19.

Right now, there are three times as many Indigenous children in care as there were at the height of the residential school system. Justine Kennedy is determined that her brothers won't add to those numbers. 

We asked some lovers of literature — Toronto poet laureate A. F. Moritz, literature professor Rohan Maitzen, graduate student Ariel Leutheusser, novelist Sharon Bala and non-fiction writer Robert Macfarlane — what they're reading during our springtime of isolation and unease.

Author Rebecca Solnit has an enduring fascination with what happens to communities in times of crisis, and what disasters reveal about human nature. With the global spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and its radical impact on our lives here in Canada, Solnit’s research on disasters becomes even more resonant.

“We must do what we can with what we have, respecting, of course, the requirement for self-isolation. I don’t have much, but I do have this balcony, and I am going to stand upon it, to lift up those who are proximate to the highly scenic parking lot over which I look.”

Listen to this week's episode with host Michael Enright.

“Closure is a commanding word. Schools in this country are closing. The cities, towns and churches of Italy are closed. In fact the entire country is closed. Arenas, baseball parks, community centres — all closed. Broadway is dark. We are facing a silent spring. One that none of us has seen before.”