The Decibel

The Russian mercenary group accused of atrocities in Ukraine

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Several of the atrocities happening in the Ukraine war are being linked to a mercenary organization called the Wagner Group. The Kremlin-linked mercen...

One year of The Decibel: Updates on our biggest stories

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The podcast turns one year old today! And in our first year, a lot happened: Russia started a war in Ukraine, thousands of unmarked graves were found ...

What’s causing the massive delays at Canada’s international airports?

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Canada’s international airports have experienced major delays getting passengers on and off their flights, as people begin returning to air travel i...

Mark MacKinnon isn’t celebrating his ban from Russia

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A couple weeks ago, The Globe and Mail’s senior foreign correspondent Mark MacKinnon found out he’s now banned from entering Russia. He joins a lo...

How getting an abortion in Canada differs from the U.S.

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has drafted a ruling that would reverse Roe v. Wade, effectively ending safe and legal abortion in...

Buck-a-ride, new highways and other Ontario election promises

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Ontario provincial election campaign is officially underway and election day is June 2nd. The campaign promises have been coming in thick: $1 per ...

The carbon footprint of an electric vehicle’s battery

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

One billion dollars was promised towards building electric vehicles in Ontario on Monday – just the latest investment from government into the indus...

The toll shooting war takes on photojournalists

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Making a career out of holding a camera lens up to the frontlines of conflict, photojournalists can find themselves in tough - if not precarious - sit...

A family flees Kabul, then Kyiv

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jawed Haqmal risked his life for the Canadian military. Now, he is waiting for the Canadian government to let him know if he can move to the country h...

Canada’s first count of trans and non-binary people

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

New data from the 2021 census has been released. For the first time, the Census has counted Canada’s transgender and non-binary populations after ma...

Elon Musk is set to own our ‘digital town square’

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elon Musk has agreed to buy Twitter, the social media platform for US$44-billion on Monday, just a week after the company’s board tried to block the...

The mixed emotions of going back to the office

26 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It may be time to dust off your dress shoes and button-down shirts. Canadians are slowly returning to the office after two years working from dining t...

Buying a $50-million trip to space

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The age of private space travel is upon us. For a paltry few tens of millions, you could buy your own ticket to visit the International Space Station....

Trouble is brewing in the craft beer world

22 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There’s no shortage of craft breweries in Canada. Over the past decade, they grew at an explosive rate, from just a few hundred breweries in 2008 to...

How Edmonton hopes to get mosquitos to buzz off

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Warmer weather means summer, picnics, camping … and mosquitoes. Edmonton is particularly famous for their mosquito season. But with a focus on envir...

If you didn’t get a big raise, you probably got a pay cut

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With inflation eating into people’s bank accounts, some people are starting to wonder: Hey, is my paycheque shrinking? And according to a new report...

Pierre Poilievre’s populist appeal

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pierre Poilievre has been known as the federal Conservative’s attack dog. He’s often hyper partisan in Parliament, not afraid to pander to the bas...

Baking a birthday cake in a war zone

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When your country is invaded, how do you keep your family’s spirits up? In besieged Kharkiv, Ukraine, Natalie Slyusar focused on trying to give her ...

The pandemic surge in sexually transmitted infections

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sexual health testing took a nose dive during the pandemic, as health care workers and resources were diverted towards the fight against COVID-19. And...

Separatism’s new shape in Quebec

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, a by-election in a Montreal suburb ended in defeat for the Parti Quebecois, the province’s champion of separatism for the last fifty year...

Why Canadians aren’t getting their COVID booster

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer Kieran Moore gave a COVID-19 update after being silent for almost a month. The province will expand PCR t...

What scares Sarah Polley?

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Most people want to shy away from life’s hard moments. But not Canadian actor and filmmaker Sarah Polley. In her first book, Run Towards the Danger,...

Inside the federal budget lockup

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The federal government has laid out a budget with $56-billion in new spending over six years. On the day the budget is released, journalists get to se...

In Bucha and Chernihiv after Russia withdraws

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, Ukraine took back some key areas in the northern part of the country from Russian troops – including the cities of Bucha and Chernihiv. W...

The myth of universal health care in Canada

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As we enter the sixth wave of COVID-19, hospitals are bracing for yet another surge. After two years of weathering wave after wave, doctors, nurses, a...

Wastewater is filling the COVID-19 data gap

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

COVID-19′s sixth wave is here. Quebec’s institute of public health says the sixth wave began in mid-March. On Monday, Ontario premier Doug Ford sa...

This Métis elder spoke directly to the Pope. Here’s her story

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Pope Francis has apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in the residential school system – an apology long awaited by Indigenous Peoples in Can...

What the latest climate plan means for Canada’s oil and gas sector

01 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The federal government has released yet another climate change plan oriented toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What’s different this time? T...

Canada’s tech sector has a brain drain problem

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Employment is growing across Canada’s economy, but nowhere near the rate of the tech sector. Jobs in STEM jumped nearly 200,000 since the pandemic. ...

What’s next for making $10-a-day child care a reality in Canada?

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On March 28, it was announced that Ontario had finally signed onto the federal child-care deal. With all provinces and territories now signed on, fami...

Kamal Al-Solaylee on the war we chose to forget

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The UN has called it the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Yemen’s now seven-year-long war has killed almost 400,000 people, mostly children youn...

What students think about the end of masking

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Almost every province in Canada has now removed its mask mandates in public schools. But many are questioning if now is the right time, and some are e...

Hate crimes in Canada are up. What’s being done to stop them

25 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hate crimes in Canada are up. Recent data out from Statistics Canada showed that in the first year of the pandemic, incidents reported to police incre...

The dangers women and children face after fleeing Ukraine

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Women and children make up the vast majority of people who have fled the invasion of Ukraine – now over 3.5 million. And while they are no longer at...

What the Liberal-NDP deal means for Canadian democracy

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Liberals and NDP have set aside their differences and come to a partnership agreement – a pledge from the Liberals to act on major NDP policy is...

Why Muslim women are being turned away from school in India

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Videos showing Muslim students begging to be let into a school while wearing hijabs has gone viral in India, sparking protests. Several of the student...

The case for fighting Russia in court

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An international court has ordered Russia to stop the war in Ukraine, but the attacks carry on. So what was the point of this case? What impact does t...

Putting a name to the hidden pattern behind domestic abuse

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Every six days, a woman in Canada is killed by an intimate partner, and yet the topic of intimate partner violence (IPV) – more commonly referred to...

The conflict in Ukraine puts Joe Biden to the test

17 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a stirring speech via video to U.S. Congress on Wednesday, once again calling on the U.S. to impose a...

To the moon? Where GameStop and other meme stocks landed

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been a year since companies like GameStop and AMC were making headlines for their eye-popping stock price spikes. And while the heights of the ...

Three Ukrainian families find refuge in a Polish home

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Poland’s capital, Warsaw is struggling to cope with the huge number of people fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Of the more than 2.6 million ...

What ‘no-fly zone’ really means

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a plea that has been heard around the world: Ukraine wants its allies to set up a no-fly zone in its airspace. They believe it would give them ...

1.4 million refugees arrived in Poland. What happens now?

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In two weeks, more than 2.3 million refugees have fled Ukraine because of the ongoing war. It is the fastest exodus since the Second World War. Poland...

The early favourites in the Conservative leadership race

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The race to become the next federal leader of the Conservative Party of Canada is kicking off, not long after the ousting of Erin O’Toole.Chief poli...

This doctor wants to write prescriptions for housing

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

According to Statistics Canada, more than 235,000 people experience homelessness in any given year, with 25,000-35,000 people experiencing homelessnes...

Unpacking Putin’s end game

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has shocked the world with his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But many within Russia don’t know what’s going ...

1.7 million warned they may have to pay back CERB relief

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Three million people lost their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic. In response, the federal government introduced the Canada Emergency Response Be...

Canada's pushback against Putin

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Canada is not a big player on the international stage. But as a medium-sized power, it has been working with the EU, the U.S. and the U.K. to deliver ...

On the ground in Ukraine as the war takes a turn

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Russia is gaining ground in its invasion of Ukraine. On day 7 of the war, Russia occupied Kherson, a key city in the southern part of Ukraine. Russia ...

As missiles fall around her, this Kharkiv citizen fights disinformation

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Maria Avdeeva is the research director of the European Expert Association, which analyzes Russian disinformation. With the sound of Russia’s attack ...

Ukrainian refugees find help in tiny neighbouring Moldova

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As fighting rages on in Ukraine, hundreds of thousands are seeking refuge in a number of neighbouring countries. On Feb. 28, the head of a UN agency s...

Behind the food fight over rising grocery prices

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, Frito-Lay, which makes Lays potato chips, but also others like Miss Vickies and Doritos, stopped sending their chips to any of the stores o...

How Black porters made Canada a fairer place

25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From the late 19th century up until the 1960s, travelling by sleeping car train was the height of luxury. Porters tended to a passenger’s every need...

An inquiry into Canada’s worst mass shooting

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

 It’s been almost two years since the mass shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia, that killed 22 people. An inquiry into the tragedy that will make r...

Russia makes its move in Ukraine

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After a fiery speech on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops across the border into Ukraine’s breakaway regions that make up...

One Black man’s quest for parole after 30 years in prison

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Renford Farrier was given a life sentence for killing a man, he believed he’d be out on parole after 10 years. Thirty years later, he’s still...

Dr. Bonnie Henry on what B.C. did differently during the COVID-19 pandemic

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

British Columbia’s health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, announced on Feb. 15 that the province would be easing COVID-19 restrictions. This includes rem...

The new expanded powers banks have under the Emergencies Act

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A big part of the federal government’s plan to end the convoy protests and blockades includes targeting the flow of money to them. Banks were grante...

Canada vs. U.S.: Inside women’s hockey’s greatest rivalry

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Canada’s women’s hockey team is going for gold at the Beijing Olympics. They’ll face off against their rivals: Team USA. It’s the sixth time t...

What Trudeau, Ford are doing to end the convoy protests

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Three weeks into the convoy protests, political leaders on all levels of government are looking at what levers they can pull. On Monday, Prime Ministe...

How Colombia makes Valentine’s Day bloom in Canada

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Valentine’s Day and red roses go hand-in-hand, and for those of us heading to local shops across Canada to pick up a bouquet, you might be surprised...

Meet the 21-year-old who silenced the Ottawa truckers’ horns

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Life for Zexi Li has been a bit of a roller coaster these last few weeks. The Ottawa resident lives just a few blocks away from Parliament Hill, which...

The top leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” protest

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The occupation of streets in downtown Ottawa and blockades at two border crossings to the US, including our busiest in Windsor, Ont. continues.Reporte...

The secrets behind a medal-contending ice dance performance

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Canadians fell in love with the Olympic sport of ice dancing after Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir won gold at both the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and...

Court orders honking halted in Ottawa

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday afternoon, a judge granted a temporary injunction to stop the incessant honking in downtown Ottawa by protestors dubbed the “Freedom Convo...

How the James Webb Space Telescope will take us back in time

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It has taken billions of dollars and more than two decades to build, but the successor to the Hubble Telescope is in space and waking up. Thanks to it...

Beijing Olympics: sports, politics and a cocktail-making robot

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The 2022 Winter Olympics are on in Beijing. It’s the first city in the world to host both a winter and summer Games (the latter of which happened ba...

Where the Conservative Party of Canada goes from here

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The vote was 73 to 45. And with that, Erin O’Toole’s leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada is over. This dismissal comes after months of ...

How Boris Johnson might survive his boozy scandal

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is on a whirlwind trip to Ukraine as his political fate is being fought in the country’s Parliament and in its pre...

Trudeau’s tough line, O’Toole’s ‘changing message’ on protesting truckers

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over the weekend, Ottawa’s Parliament Hill and downtown area saw thousands of protestors arrive as part of the “Freedom Convoy,” originally spar...

Setting the stage for an arts comeback

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The arts industry has been decimated by COVID-19 lockdowns. Performance arts like theatre, ballet and live music have been particularly hard hit. Acco...

The promises and limitations of the new COVID-19 pill

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There’s a new treatment for COVID-19 in Canada. If taken at the right time during the infection, it can help keep people who have caught the virus o...

The Bank of Canada’s plan to cool inflation

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a surprising twist, at least in Bank of Canada news, the central bank decided on Wednesday to keep its key interest rate at a record low of 0.25 pe...

Why protesting truck drivers are heading for Ottawa

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Truckers are now subject to the same rules as other travellers at the border, which means they can be refused entry or required to quarantine if they ...

Why some Nunavut elders spend their final years alone in Ottawa

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sending a loved one to an assisted-living home is never an easy choice. For the people of Nunavut, the majority of whom are Inuit, it’s even harder....

Move over 'Let It Go,' we're talking about Bruno

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are two kinds of people in this world: those who have “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” stuck in their head, and those who don’t … yet. The ...

Hot desks are not cool with office workers

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the Before Times, millions of white collar workers would get up every weekday morning, get dressed, commute into the office and work at their desk ...

Russia and Ukraine at the brink of war

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Senior international correspondent Mark MacKinnon is back in Ukraine, as officials from Canada and the U.S. — as well as military equipment from Bri...

Who betrayed Anne Frank?

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Diary of Anne Frank is one of the most widely read first-person accounts of the Holocaust. The question of how Anne and her family were discovered...

Why last year’s hottest stocks are cooling off

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The pandemic promised a gold mine for companies like Zoom, Shopify, and Peloton. And at first, these companies did see a boost in their stock value. B...

Canada's 'Bitcoin Widow' finally speaks

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Gerald Cotten died suddenly in 2018, he was only 30 years old, but fabulously wealthy thanks to founding Quadriga, one of the first cryptocurrenc...

Thinking through Quebec’s unvaxxed tax

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Quebec is the first jurisdiction in Canada to propose a ‘health contribution’ tax for people who choose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Th...

Facing the challenges of kids, school and Omicron

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With kids heading back to classrooms and daycares after the holiday break, there’s plenty of anxiety in the air. Omicron has proven to be highly tra...

Giving new life to a dying language in Canada

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There are only nine students but the kids of Taigh Sgoile na Drochaide – or the Bridge Schoolhouse in English – represent the future of Gaelic flu...

Novak Djokovic’s Australian saga

11 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic is known for being among the best male tennis players in the world. Off the court, he’s known for his anti-vaccin...

Omicron’s toll on workers

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Between infection, isolation and layoffs because of restrictions, staff shortages are hitting workers and business hard right now thanks to this Omicr...

Harry Potter and the controversial author

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The world of Harry Potter – which now extends from books to movies, theme parks, spin-offs, merchandise, and a vast amount of fan-generated content ...

How a Dry January might help your COVID anxiety

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s easy to not be mindful about drinking alcohol. A glass of wine with dinner or a beer after work can quickly become a habit with little thought....

Cracking the coronavirus code

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Omicron is a variant of the novel coronavirus that was discovered back in 2019. The data we’ve collected suggests it’s less virulent, but more con...

Eating disorders jeopardizing Olympic athletes' lives and careers

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elite athletes’ every move are subjected to scrutiny, rewound and played in slow-motion. And while we often discuss the physical stress this kind of...

Stress Test: From investing to housing, personal finance experts share their predictions for 2022

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For the end of 2021, we're bringing you an episode of Stress Test, a podcast about personal finance from The Globe and Mail, hosted by Rob Carrick and...

City Space: Who are public spaces – like parks or transit systems – designed for?

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Today we're bringing you an episode of City Space, a Globe and Mail podcast about how to make our cities better, hosted by Adrian Lee.Public spaces ar...

Small acts of kindness

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A stranger helps a woman keep her new Christmas tradition alive. People come together to make sure their community fridges are full. A group of neighb...

A new way to eliminate 40% of poverty

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Al Etmanski has spent his life working to help improve life for Canadians with disabilities. Now, the federal government is considering establishing a...

Esi Edugyan on the Black stories Canada forgot

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Esi Edugyan is known for her books of fiction. She’s a two-time winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novels Half-Blood Blues and Washington...

How Omicron is different

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The holidays are here and so is the Omicron variant of COVID-19.Science reporter Ivan Semeniuk on what the latest science says about how Omicron is di...

It’s been a great year (for books)

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the perfect time to escape into a book. Arts editor Judith Pereira and Western Arts Correspondent Marsha Lederman on the book trends this year,...

A quieter ‘patriots only’ election in Hong Kong

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This weekend, Hong Kongers head to the polls to elect their government. Well, to elect 20 of the 90 seats in their Legislative Council – and from a ...

Why this doctor is trying to find you rapid tests

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Case counts are rising in many parts of the country as Omicron becomes the dominant variant of COVID-19. As some regions reintroduce public health res...

An Ethiopian journalist reports on the ‘secretive war’

14 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. But for over a year now, a civil war has raged in Ethiopia between th...