The Decibel

Canadian counter-intelligence military officer Matthew Robar, is facing charges of espionage. The veteran military officer is accused of sharing information with Ukraine in its war against Russia, according to a source for The Globe and Mail. Robar was arrested last week, and charged with multiple offences related to passing highly sensitive government secrets to a foreign entity.

Steven Chase, a senior parliamentary reporter for Th...

This travel season, Canadians might be headed away for something other than a vacation.

More Canadians are participating in medical tourism, travelling to another country to receive medical treatment, though some question its safety and the threats this poses to Canada’s public health care system.

Sarah Bartnicka, a freelance writer for The Globe, explains the costs, the risks and what Canadians can keep in mind for best practices wh...

The attack on Jewish Australians at Bondi Beach in Sydney has sent shockwaves around the world. To many in Jewish communities, it mirrors previous antisemitic attacks seen in countries around the world over the past several years. 

Globe columnist and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette executive editor David Shribman joins The Decibel. He covered the Tree of Life shooting in 2018, where 11 Jewish people were killed in their synagogue in Pittsb...

Loyalty reward programs are everywhere we shop. They’re at coffee shops, retailers, airports and grocery stores. Many of us are connected to our points, but the rewards no longer seem to go as far as they used to.

Vass Bednar, the managing director of the Canadian SHIELD Institute, explains the changes to Canadian loyalty rewards programs, what we are giving up when we hand companies our data in exchange for points – and if it’s eve...

The heirs to Canada’s multi-billion dollar frozen food empire are fighting. New Brunswick’s McCain Foods is the world’s largest French fry maker, and is privately owned by the McCain family. Recently, one of its heirs, Eleanor McCain, requested to be bought out of her stake in the company – but her relatives are refusing to.

Globe business columnist, Andrew Willis, has been reporting on the showdown inside one of Canada’s wealthiest...

Mark Carney’s federal government has introduced its second tough-on-crime bill this fall. The new bill, Bill C-16, focuses on violence against women and children, changes to mandatory minimum sentences and the growing problem of court delays.

The Globe’s justice reporter, David Ebner, explains the specific changes to the Criminal Code that this bill wants to make and what advocates and critics are saying about it.

Questions? Comments...

Late-stage prostate cancer diagnoses are on the rise in Canada. According to a recent study, between 2010 and 2021, rates of prostate cancer discovered at Stage 4 increased by about 50 per cent in men aged 50 to 74. In men over the age of 75, rates were up over 65 per cent.

There is a simple blood test that can screen for early signs of prostate cancer, called a prostate specific antigen, or PSA test; however, in 2014, Canada recomm...

Hours before a strike deadline, Air Transat and the union representing airline pilots reached a tentative agreement. For customers, it comes as relief in the middle of a busy holiday travel season. And in a year already wracked by airline work stoppages, the threat of disruption and lengthy customer reimbursement periods continue to loom.

Mariya Postelnyak, The Globe’s Consumer Affairs reporter, speaks about what you need to know as...

The Canadian manufacturing sector has been having a hard time, which has been made worse by U.S. tariffs. The impact of these tariffs varies company to company. So a team of Report on Business journalists from The Globe spoke to several manufacturers to see how they’ve fared this past year.

Matt Lundy, The Globe’s Economics Editor, speaks about how badly these companies have been hurt, what they’re doing to try to cope and whether f...

For families, the tragedy of opioids is beyond measure. The opioid epidemic has claimed tens of thousands of lives in Canada and has been recognized as a public health crisis, but it’s also an economic one – and it disproportionately affects workers in key sectors like construction and the trades. As Ottawa ramps up its push to build major projects fast, could the ongoing toxic drug crisis slow it down?

Today, Globe reporter Jason K...

Canada is in the midst of reframing its approach to military spending. The reasons for this are twofold; a commitment to fulfilling NATO spending as part of GDP, and the push to diversify spending away from the U.S. To that end, Prime Minister Mark Carney has recently signed a deal joining the EU’s military procurement fund, granting Canada access to both selling and purchasing defence materiel.

Steven Chase, The Globe’s senior parl...

It’s not unusual for business owners to forge ties with governments, but there are rules around conflicts of interest when it comes to procurement. In February, 2025, an Alberta senior public servant stepped forward with allegations of political interference in the awarding of large health contracts. These allegations prompted investigators, auditors and opposition politicians to look closely at the ties between Premier Danielle Sm...

With the holidays right around the corner, households are getting ready for company and deep cleans are underway. Even the idea of letting family and friends see a clutter-strewn home can be anxiety-inducing, and images of perfectly-clean celebrity homes on social media don’t help. But what are we actually losing when we prioritize the act of cleaning over the people we do it for?

Zosia Bielski, The Globe’s Time Use reporter, digs i...

Across Canada, highways and rural roads are studded with cellular ‘dead zones’. In some provinces, coverage gaps span over 30 per cent of major roads. In some cases, you can’t receive calls and texts for more than 100 kilometres. So when something goes wrong, what do people do?

Today, the Globe’s telecoms reporter Irene Galea and national news reporter Jill Mahoney have been investigating how many of the country’s major roads and hi...

Ontario just passed Bill 60, officially named the “Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act.” It’s a big omnibus bill, but it’s garnered the most attention for reforms to Ontario’s rental system. Doug Ford’s government walked back the most controversial part of the bill, but critics are concerned that what remains will still lead to more evictions and worsen the homelessness crisis.

Today, Shane Dingman, the Globe’s real estate reporter...

Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have signed an agreement that sets the framework for building a new pipeline, carrying bitumen to the west coast. The deal commits to simultaneously making Canada a “global energy superpower” and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. Indigenous co-ownership is a requirement for development, as is consultation with British Columbia.

In response, Liberal mi...

The Canadian consensus on immigration cratered last year. In the fall of 2024, an Environics poll found that for the first time in a quarter century most Canadians felt there was too much immigration. Under former prime minister Justin Trudeau, the country experienced one of the biggest periods of immigration growth in its history, but after the shift in public opinion, the Liberal government reversed course. Despite big reductions...

Some of the world’s largest tech companies, like OpenAI, Google and Meta, have invested hundreds of billions of dollars into artificial intelligence as they try to build the data centres they need. And right now, a lot of the stock market’s growth is based on AI companies. But what if it’s all a big financial bubble? And if it is, what are the signs it’s about to pop?

Globe business reporter Joe Castaldo, who covers AI, explains why...

Last week, the FBI and the RCMP announced 10 new arrests in connection with a $1-billion drug-trafficking ring allegedly run by Canadian former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding. The charges, which haven’t been tested in court, include drug trafficking, conspiracy to retaliate against a witness and murder. Wedding, who’s been in hiding since 2015, is now one of the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives.

Eric Andrew-Gee is The Globe’s Quebec...