The Decibel

Haiti is in crisis, after months of cholera outbreaks, a fuel and energy crisis, and violence. The UN estimates that 500 people have died in gang violence incidents this year alone. And Canada is facing pressure – largely from the US – to intervene.

Michaëlle Jean is the former governor-general of Canada, and the former UNESCO Special Envoy to Haiti, where she’s from. Today, she tells us what led Haiti to this crisis, and what role ...

Canada has committed to going net-zero by 2050 and a big part of making that goal a reality is by transitioning the economy from being fossil fuel dependent to a cleaner and low-carbon one. Canada’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland calls the change the most “significant economic transformation since the Industrial Revolution”.

So what will a ‘green economy’ look like for Canada? And how can it establish i...

Allegations of academic misconduct at Canadian universities have risen sharply in the 2020 to 2021 school year as more and more students turn to hiring people to complete assignments and tests for them. The consequences for the student are clear: a permanent blemish on their academic careers and possible impact on their job prospects if they are caught.

But the wider trend is also a concern for Canadian universities as a whole, as t...

The Globe and Mail has been reporting extensively on China’s interference in Canadian elections. This information came to light, in part, because of a whistleblower who wrote an Opinion piece in The Globe this weekend.

The Globe rarely publishes Opinion pieces by confidential sources. Today, David Walmsley, The Globe’s Editor in Chief, explains why he decided to publish this piece, and how he feels it contributes to the broader conv...

As revelations about China’s interference continue, so do calls for a foreign agent registry. The U.S. and Australia have registries like this, where anyone acting on behalf of a foreign entity has to disclose it. But the idea has its detractors.

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, has been advocating for a foreign agent registry for years. He explains how it might work in Canada, why it’s controversial and how th...

Oversized pucks clanging as they’re shot across the ice, the constant tapping of hockey sticks as players weave through oversized pylons. These are some of the sights and sounds of blind hockey.

Canadian Blind Hockey began in 2009 and now has 14 programs across the country. Canada’s winter game adapted for the visually impaired is an auditory experience and so The Decibel hit the ice to find out more about it.

The Globe’s sports repo...

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank came swiftly after a panicked run on deposits. Despite the U.S. government enacting safeguards, there is anxiety in the markets wondering which bank might fall next.

But how safe are Canadian banks? Report on Business columnist Tim Kiladze is on the show to explain the fallout and what Canadian regulations are in place to try and contain it.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thedecibel@globea...

Since the Bank of Canada started hiking its benchmark interest rate just over a year ago, there’s a growing number of mortgage-holders with monthly payments that no longer cover the principal or even the interest portion of their loan.

Rachelle Younglai covers real estate for The Globe and she recently reported that at CIBC, 20 per cent of mortgage-holders are seeing their loan balances grow instead of shrink. This represents $52-bi...

We often think of health as an individual action – drink more water, exercise, eat well. During the pandemic, we thought more about the health of people around us as well – with social distancing, masking and vaccinations. But there’s a lot more that goes into our health.

Today, we’re talking to the Globe’s health reporter Wency Leung about why it’s so important to expand our understanding of health beyond our bodies. Then we talk t...

Could the rising price of groceries be chalked up to corporate greed? That was the question at a House of Commons committee last week when the executives of Canada’s three biggest grocers testified. Loblaw Cos. Ltd. president Galen Weston, CEO of Empire Co. Michael Medline and CEO of Metro Inc. Eric La Flèche all refuted claims that they were gouging customers under the guise of inflation.

Food economist Michael von Massow says blam...

Netflix is facing a backlash after announcing it’s cracking down on password sharing in Canada, among other countries. The company says 100 million of its customers worldwide share passwords, which Netflix claims is cutting into its revenue.

Kean Birch, director of the Institute for Technoscience and Society at York University, says that Netflix’s business model was bound to run into problems like this, as competition from other str...

British Columbia revealed its 2023 budget on Feb. 28. It introduced a host of new spending measures including a first in Canada: A plan to make contraception universally available in the province free of charge.

Globe health reporter, Carly Weeks explains why reproductive health experts are celebrating the move and what this could mean for funding contraception in the rest of the country.

Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at thede...

After weeks of resisting pressure from all sides, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has ordered two probes into Chinese election interference. This follows The Globe and Mail reporting on secret and top secret CSIS documents alleging a sophisticated strategy by China to disrupt the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

But criticism is still mounting on Trudeau around how transparent and public these probes will actually be. The Globe’s Otta...

The ground and water near Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation in northern Alberta has become a toxic mess. A nearby oil sands site, run by Imperial Oil, has leaked industrial waste into the hunting and fishing grounds of the Indigenous community.

But the First Nation alleges Imperial Oil and the provincial regulators tasked with keeping the companies in line, hid the seriousness of the leak. Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is only now...

Right now, one in 25 Canadians who use Google can’t find some news sites through its search bar. That’s because the tech giant has purposely blocked these searches in response to legislation put forward by the federal government.

The Globe’s Deputy Ottawa bureau chief Bill Curry is on the show to explain the bill taking the fight to Google and other big tech companies and what the government is trying to accomplish with this legisla...

For years, a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis has often meant an early death for patients. This week, Cystic Fibrosis Canada released its annual data report this week for 2021. A new drug, Trikafta, is keeping patients out of hospitals and off of transplant lists.

The Globe’s health reporter Kelly Grant explains why doctors are now talking about cystic fibrosis as a disease in transition and the hope of a new future for thousands of pat...

Canada has a high rate of police killings compared to similar countries like England, Germany and Japan. Officers are rarely charged when they kill someone, and they don’t even have to participate in the investigations into their conduct.

The Globe’s Nancy Macdonald spent months looking into hundreds of investigations into police officers, how often officers co-operate and the consequences of their silence.

Questions? Comments? Ideas...

On February 8, Indigo’s website went down and customers couldn’t buy products in-store either. After scrambling to launch a new website with limited e-commerce abilities, the company announced a major breach of personal and financial information of employees.

The Globe and Mail’s technology reporter, Temur Durrani, has been speaking to employees about the life-long impacts of this breach, what is being done about it and why ransomwa...

Artificial Intelligence and chatbots are having a mainstream moment. In November, the public was introduced to ChatGPT – a chatbot that can have seemingly human-like conversations with users. And after a “creepy” conversation between a New York Times tech columnist and Microsoft’s new Bing chatbot (which called itself “Sydney”) the debate around AI sentience has re-ignited.

But, behind all the awe, argues AI researcher, author and d...