Front Burner

In 2015, as governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney's ‘Tragedy of the Horizons' speech made waves in the global climate community. It was seen as a landmark call for the financial sector to recognize the costs of climate breakdown.But fast forward 10 years and a fierce debate is swirling around whether Carney is living up to that warning. Since becoming Prime Minister, he's scrapped the consumer carbon tax, froze EV mandates and paved the way for a potential new pipeline to the B.C. coast.With a Trudeau-era environment minister resigning from Carney's cabinet in protest, we're asking the question: has Mark Carney betrayed the climate movement? Or is he playing a strategic long game that aims for an environmental win?Two writers from Canada's National Observer, Ottawa Bureau Chief John Woodside and Calgary-based lead columnist Max Fawcett, join the show to take up that debate.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The U.S. Supreme Court is soon expected to rule on the legality of President Donald Trump's sweeping worldwide tariffs. The court will rule on whether his use of a 1970s national security law violates the U.S. constitution, which clearly states that only Congress has the authority to implement taxes — of which tariffs are a type.But regardless of which way the court rules, Trump and his administration have made it clear that tariffs will continue to be a central pillar of both their economic and foreign policy. And, just over a year after they were first announced, those tariffs have had perhaps no bigger impact than here in Canada. They've reshaped not just our economic relationship with our closest trading partner, but they've fractured the political relationship too.Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, explains what's at stake in the Supreme Court's ruling, and breaks down the impact of a year of Trump tariffs.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Last week, two National Guard soldiers were shot in Washington, D.C. after they were ambushed by a lone shooter near the airport. One was killed and the other remains in serious condition. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was shot and is still in hospital facing murder charges. The picture emerging of Lakanwal is of an isolated, deeply troubled man struggling to support his wife and five kids. Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan-national who had served as part of an elite CIA-trained and backed paramilitary group known as the Zero Units. Tasked with carrying out some of the most dangerous missions in the war on terror, the Zero Units have also been accused by rights groups of war crimes in their notorious night raids.Kevin Maurer is a best-selling author and longtime reporter who spent many years covering the war in Afghanistan. He talks about how this shooting fits into the broader legacy of the war on terrorism and the ripple effects it's had abroad and closer to home. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Our guest today has taken a long look at an out-of-fashion principle in higher learning – institutional neutrality. Basically it's the importance of letting students and faculty say what they want, and not have the administration put its thumb on the scale. In that he sees a whole world of problems facing post-secondary education today, from public and political support to an ongoing court case.Simon Lewsen is a magazine journalist who teaches part-time at the University of Toronto. His new story in Maclean's is called “The Battle for the Soul of the University”. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over the weekend, Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that the airspace around Venezuela should be considered closed. Venezuela's foreign ministry responded by calling the comments "another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people".Late last week, Trump also said that land action against alleged drug trafficking networks in the country could start very soon.All of this is happening amidst a serious military buildup in the Caribbean and escalating threats to remove Venezuela's president Nicolas Maduro from power.Is this the buildup to an invasion? And is it really about drugs? Or do Venezuela's massive oil reserves have something to do with it?Jon Lee Anderson is our guest. He's a staff writer with The New Yorker, and has written extensively about U.S.-Venezuela relations and U.S. interference in Latin America.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a somber speech last week Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his people that their country was on the brink of a critical choice: either lose their dignity or risk alienating a key partner, America. His speech came after Donald Trump set a deadline demanding the war-torn country accept a unilateral American peace proposal.That proposal has been internationally panned and called a Russian “wish-list”.The dire situation Zelenskyy warned of however, did not come to pass, at least not yet.Zelenskyy says he is now ready to move forward with an American led peace process, but as Trump's key negotiator plans to head to Moscow the question remains, are the Russians?To help us understand whether this is the beginning of the end of this war, or just another false start we're speaking with reporter from The Kyiv Independent Francis Farrell.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Sudan's civil war is now the worst displacement crisis in the world, with more than 12 million people currently displaced from their homes. Earlier this year, the outgoing Biden administration designated the war a genocide. This war includes countless proxies fighting over billions of dollars in natural resources, access to key shipping routes along the Red Sea, and control of one of the oldest countries in the world. Longtime journalist Michelle Shephard has just arrived from a 10 day reporting trip to the Sudan-Chad border, for The Walrus magazine. There she met families fleeing massacres, and women who crossed the desert on foot to escape sexual violence. She returns with a rare look inside a crisis the world has turned away from.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

On Thursday Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are set to announce the outlines of a plan that could set Alberta and B.C. on a collision course.It's a potential energy deal that would give Alberta special exemptions from federal environmental laws and offer political support for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, among other things.That is, if Alberta can get through the significant hurdles of opposition from First Nations and B.C. where Premier David Eby was completely cut out of the talks.Today we discuss the politics of all this with the CBC's chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton and Jason Markusoff from our Calgary bureau.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsCorrection: An earlier version of this episode misidentified B.C. Liberal MP Will Greaves. He represents the constituency of Victoria.

After meeting on the sidelines of the G20 in South Africa, Prime Minister Mark Carney and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have announced they would restart trade talks.It's a long way from where the two countries have been for the last several years. Relations blew up in 2023 after former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused agents of India's government of being involved in the murder of a Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.Then, last year, the RCMP publicly accused such agents of being involved in a campaign of homicides, extortions and threats targeting the South Asian community on Canadian soil. Recently, the director of CSIS suggested that the problem hasn't gone away.In B.C.'s Lower Mainland, over 100 reports of extortion were made in the last year.Two CBC reporters who have been covering this issue give us a closer look at what exactly has been happening on the ground in Canada, particularly when it comes to extortion, who might be behind it, and how this all connects to the larger context of a thawing relationship with India.Baneet Braich is based out of Abbotsford, B.C. And Evan Dyer is with CBC's Parliamentary bureau.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

At a press conference last week U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi laid out fresh allegations against Ryan Wedding, a 44-year-old Canadian and former Olympian who has been on the FBI's most wanted list since March.Wedding is already accused of orchestrating multiple murders, and these new charges add to the drug and conspiracy allegations he's facing.We speak to Calvi Leon, a reporter at the Toronto Star who's been covering this case extensively.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Section 33 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms — the so-called "notwithstanding clause" — allows governments, both provincial and federal, to override sweeping sections of the other rights the Charter grants. It was intended as a last resort to prevent federal and judicial overreach, leaving power with elected officials, accountable to voters. A compromise demanded by premiers like Alberta's Peter Lougheed, the constitution almost certainly wouldn't exist without it.Since enacted in 1982, the clause has been very rarely used outside of Quebec. But in recent years, politicians have been using it — or promising to — more and more. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has now used it twice in less than month to preempt court challenges on controversial labour and transgender youth laws.University of Alberta political science professor Jared Wesley explains why governments are increasingly invoking this supposed last resort to achieve their goals, and the tensions it exposes in Canadian democracy.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

For decades there have been allegations that wealthy foreigners traveled into the Bosnian war, during the siege of Sarajevo, to shoot at besieged civilians for sport. That accusation is now the subject of an investigation by the public prosecutor's office in Milan, Italy.Today, we're joined by Janine di Giovanni who covered the Bosnian war as a reporter for the Times of London, and lived through the siege of Sarajevo. She's the author of two books on the war, and has covered 18 wars across her 35 years in journalism. She joins us to talk about ‘sniper tourism', and the legacy of a defining European conflict. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Mark Carney's Liberals survived a confidence vote on their first budget Monday night. It was a strange vote, with four members of the Conservatives and the NDP abstaining, as well as some voting chaos from two of the most powerful members of the Conservative Party.CBC's senior Parliamentary writer Aaron Wherry breaks down how the vote went, what it tells us about Parliament right now, and whether the budget itself signals a new era of Liberal politics. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Over 75 years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was established and signed by the newly formed United Nations after the atrocities of the Second World War to create a roadmap that establishes that every single person, regardless of who they are or where they're from, has inalienable, inherent rights that the world must protect. But if you've been paying attention to the news at all lately, reality couldn't seem further from that idea. Alex Neve is an international human rights lawyer and the former secretary general of Amnesty International Canada. He's delivering this year's Massey Lecture, broken into five parts, titled Universal: Renewing Human Rights in a Fractured World. In it he goes through the massive challenges we face today and the things he's learned from talking to people and bearing witness to human rights abuses from around the world. He also explores why the rights of some seem to take precedence over others. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

With the absolutely massive amounts of money tied up in the AI data centre boom, it's not hard to see why people fear a bubble. That worry has come into sharper focus in recent weeks, following comments from OpenAI and some big moves on the stock market.This recent round of bubble fear isn't about the tech itself. Rather, it's a growing realization that the boom is being funded in a way that's starting to resemble some historically devastating bubbles of the past.Paul Kedrosky is a partner at the venture capital firm SK Ventures and a research fellow at MIT's Initiative for the Digital Economy. He explains why changes in the AI boom's financing are renewing fears of a bubble bursting, and the massive potential impacts if it does.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It started with U.S. President Donald Trump's 'quips' about Canada becoming the 51st state. Nearly a year later, the Canada-U.S. relationship has weathered a barrage of tariffs, trade threats and taunts. CBC's Washington bureau — Paul Hunter, Katie Simpson and Willy Lowry — weigh in on the past year of Canada-U.S. relations under Trump, the current trade stalemate and whether the country that's been known as Canada's ally is even still a friend.

This week, thousands of pages of documents were released from the estate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Some suggest Donald Trump knew more about Epstein's crimes than the President has let on –– though the White House has called it a smear job.These 23-thousand pages also tell a story that goes much further than the White House, giving insight into just how enmeshed Epstein was with global power-players and events.Murtaza Hussain, a national security and foreign affairs reporter for Drop Site News, joins the show to discuss all of this and to share what his reporting has uncovered about the link between Epstein, Israeli intelligence officials and more.

The decisions of one Conservative MP to cross the floor, and another to resign have sparked a wider conversation about whether Pierre Poilievre should remain leader of the party.Those moves also forced the Conservatives into their version of damage control, given the stories of intense pressure campaigns and disputed accounts of office screaming sessions.Two conservatives joined host Jayme Poisson with their take on how Poilievre and his supporters are managing this latest crisis.Fred DeLorey is the chair of Northstar Public Affairs. He was also former Conservative leader Erin O'Toole's national campaign director in 2021. Kate Harrison is the vice-chair for Summa Strategies, a public affairs firm that specializes in government relations.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Former prime minister Justin Trudeau is dating the American pop star Katy Perry. He's been spotted with her on her yacht, singing along at her concerts, and globetrotting with her hand in hand.It's not the kind of post-political life Canadians are used to witnessing. So today, a look at the lives of Canadian Prime Ministers once they've left office and the post-electoral endeavors of American presidents. Are they extensions of who they were as leaders or breaks from the past? Susan Delacourt is a longtime political journalist with the Toronto Star, and Gil Troy is a historian of American history and professor at McGill University. They join us to talk about the second acts of many of our most notable leaders.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Nick Fuentes and his followers - Groypers - are working to push American conservatism and the MAGA movement into even more dangerous and reactionary territory. He started to gain a following in 2017 after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. On his show, America First, Fuentes openly praises Adolf Hitler and pushes white supremacist, Christian nationalist and antisemitic ideas. Fuentes, and his ideas moved one step closer to the mainstream last week when he sat down with Tucker Carlson, one of the most prominent right wing talk show hosts in the U.S.So we're talking about this mainstreaming of his beliefs with Ali Breland, staff writer at The Atlantic, and Ben Lorber, senior research analyst at the social justice think tank Political Research Associates. Lorber is also the author of Safety through Solidarity: A Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The Conservative party is reeling from a pair of resignations that happened during budget week.First, Nova Scotia MP Chris d'Entremont crossed the floor to the Liberals, citing disagreement with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's approach to politics.Two days later, Edmonton MP Matt Jeneroux resigned from his position, citing the need for more time with his family. According to a senior Liberal source who spoke to the CBC, Jeneroux was in talks with Prime Minister Carney about defecting.Longtime federal politics reporter Stephen Maher walks us through the high stakes political drama. Maher is also the author of “The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau”.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

One year after Trump's election, the U.S. looks very different than it did in 2024. PM Mark Carney has dubbed Trump “transformative”, and there's no indication the president is shifting gears. CBC's Washington correspondents – Paul Hunter, Katie Simpson and Louis Blouin – take stock of the last year, talking to Americans about whether they still stand by their votes, and assessing what's ahead for Canada.

Writer George Orwell has had a major impact on the way we talk about and view the world. His book 1984 introduced us to words and phrases like “thoughtcrime,” “doublespeak” and “Big Brother,” which have become common parts of our vocabulary. Seventy five years after his death, his ideas around mass surveillance and propaganda continue to resonate in a world of Big Tech, challenges to democracy, and distrust of institutions.The new documentary Orwell: 2+2=5 by filmmaker Raoul Peck explores the origin of Orwell's ideas, and how they connect to political events like the January 6th insurrection, the persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar, and the invasion of Ukraine.Raoul Peck joins guest host Daemon Fairless to talk about Orwell's life, his words, and the ideological battle over his ideas.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

In a huge win for the Democrats, Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor of New York City. He ran on an explicitly leftist platform, focused on affordability and the working class — but many of his own party's top leaders have been reluctant to endorse him. Some still haven't.A rift is growing between the party's centrist establishment, keen on partisan opposition to Trump and appeasing wealthy donors, and the progressive wing of the party newly energized by Mamdani, who promises to tax the rich and fight what he sees as a growing oligarchy.Joshua A. Cohen is the author of the American politics newsletter Ettingermentum. He breaks down the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.

Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberal government have unveiled a budget that calls for $141-billion of new spending in the next five years to prop up an economy grappling with major economic disruptions. It also proposes $51.2-billion in cuts and savings, including the slashing of tens of thousands of public service jobs.From billions of investment in infrastructure and defence, to new details about the government's climate and immigration targets, we'll break it all down with Aaron Wherry and David Coletto.Aaron is a senior writer with CBC's parliamentary bureau, and David is the CEO and founder of Abacus Data.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

It's been two and a half years since a civil war broke out in Sudan after a brutal struggle for power between its army and a powerful paramilitary group - the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF. The UN has called it the world's largest humanitarian catastrophe. Over 150,000 people have been killed, and over 12-million displaced.Last week, the war saw a grim turning point when the northern city of El Fasher came under control of the RSF, which now controls all urban centres in Darfur. For over a year hundreds of thousands of people, many displaced and vulnerable, have been sheltering under siege in El Fasher with little to no access to food or medicine.Dallia Abdelmoniem is a Sudanese political analyst. She's here to help us understand what's been happening in El Fasher, the unrelenting war in Sudan more broadly, and the forces - including foreign powers - behind it. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

On Tuesday, Canada's Minister of Finance will announce his much anticipated budget.It's Mark Carney's first as Prime Minister, and comes at a time of instability and uncertainty for the country. Trade negotiations with the U.S. are on hiatus, and the pressure's on to spark economic growth while trimming spending and making life more affordable for Canadians.Carney's minority government also needs support from other parties for the budget to pass. And if it doesn't, we could be looking at another election.Our guest is Rosemary Barton, CBC's chief political correspondent.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Earlier this week Danielle Smith's UCP government forced teachers back to work after a a three week strike using the notwithstanding clause. This prevents the Alberta Teachers' Association from challenging the legislation in court.In response, the Alberta Federation of Labour announced that the wheels are in motion for a possible general strike by the province's unions.Provincial affairs reporter for CBC Edmonton, Janet French, walks us through how these negotiations got to this point, what's at stake for teachers, students and the government and where this fight could be headed.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Why has U.S. President Donald Trump suspended trade talks with Canada? Why did the U.S. ambassador to Canada level an expletive-laced tirade at Ontario's trade representative, in front of more than 200 people? Why is Trump's treasury secretary accusing the Ontario government of running a psy-op?Because of a 60-second ad, featuring clips of former president Ronald Reagan explaining why he thinks tariffs — Trump's self-professed "favourite word" — are bad economic policy.Rick Perlstein has written extensively about the history of American conservative politics, including the book Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980. He breaks down what Reagan actually believed about tariffs and free trade, and why bringing up the spectre of Reagan — one of the most sacred figures in American conservatism — has caused so much chaos.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

As Donald Trump ends trade talks with Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney is in Asia this week, meeting with leaders, and pitching Canada as a reliable partner in a moment of geopolitical realignment. On the trip, Carney has talked about Canada's search for new reliable partners “who honour their commitments, who are there in tough times, and who engage collaboratively to fix something that isn't working.” So, with Carney in Asia in search of new partners, where does this leave Canada? Our guest is Vina Nadjibulla, Vice-President of Research and Strategy with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Since the 1960s, Israel has been building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank — settlements deemed illegal under international law, and condemned by the Canadian government. With the settlements has also come many documented cases of violence from Israeli settlers against the Palestinians whose homes are being bulldozed to build those settlements.Now, a new investigation by CBC's the fifth estate has found that Canadian charities have been indirectly funding organizations, including the Israeli military, that support the ever-expanding settlements. That includes issuing tax receipts on those donations — despite them running afoul of the rules governing registered Canadian charities.Cohost Ioanna Roumeliotis breaks down her team's reporting, and why critics say these donations are perpetuating violence that threatens the possibility of peace and a Palestinian state.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

After an anti-tariff ad commissioned by the Ontario government ran during the World Series, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the plug on negotiations between his office and the federal government. It comes as Stellantis and General Motors announced they were moving some production to the U.S., affecting thousands of jobs on this side of the border. So we're talking to historian Dimitry Anastakis about the importance of the Canadian auto industry, how it became so intertwined with America and what options the government has.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

In the years since their consecutive World Series wins in the early ‘90s, the Toronto Blue Jays have had their ups, downs and bat flips. And heading into this season, the team wasn't exactly slated for a deep playoff run.But now, the Jays are headed into game one of the World Series as underdogs against the richest team in baseball. And facing off against Shohei Ohtani, who might be the best player in the history of the game.We're joined by Blake Murphy, the host of Sportsnet's Blue Jays podcast Jays Talk Plus to talk about this historic run, the players who are endearing the nation and whether the Jays can win it all.This episode mistakenly used a fake clip of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. talking about the New York Yankees. It has been removed.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

Through the 1960s, the U.S. government waged a war on Black activism, and activism writ large. It was led by the FBI and its longtime director, J. Edgar Hoover.It was called COINTELPRO and was the FBI's counterintelligence program created to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize” its targets.With the Trump administration's crackdown on the American left through law enforcement campaigns and new directives, it raises the question: is a version of the FBI's counterintelligence program back today? Beverly Gage, an historian and the author of G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, joins the show to talk about COINTELPRO, the man who made it possible, and the ways the program continues to loom over American life today.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

Stephen Maher, a longtime federal politics reporter, is here to talk about Pierre Poilievre's recent comments that the RCMP covered up for Justin Trudeau so he could avoid criminal charges and whether or not this will hurt or help his upcoming leadership review.Plus, fallout from carmaker Stellantis's plan to move a plant from Brampton to Illinois and what it says about the state of trade talks with the U.S.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts.

Former FBI James Comey. Former national security advisor John Bolton. New York attorney general Letitia James. What do they have in common? All are now facing legal action from the U.S. government.Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of the U.S. nonprofit publication Lawfare, breaks down the Trump White House's campaign of legal revenge against the president's rivals and critics, and where it could be headed next.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

Over the last 10 days Israel and Hamas have observed a ceasefire that saw the return of hostages and prisoners to Israel, Gaza and the West Bank as well as deliveries of much needed aid to famine-struck Gaza since the deal was reached. However, the ceasefire has remained shaky and the possibility of a permanent end to the war is still uncertain. Israel carried out airstrikes throughout southern Gaza after it said Hamas militants fired at IDF troops in Rafah. Hamas has denied this. To parse through the events that led to those developments, we talked to William Christou, freelance journalist based in Jerusalem for The Guardian. We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

This year, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado.In the announcement last week, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado had earned the prize for her “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy". The award comes at a time when the U.S. has taken an increasingly belligerent stance against Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro.So today we're talking about Machado, the legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize, its controversial winners, who wins it and who doesn't.Jay Nordlinger, the author of Peace They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, and a writer with the Next Move, a publication of the Renew Democracy Initiative, joins the show.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Marie-Philippe Bouchard has been in her role as President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada for a little under a year.Since her appointment, we've had a federal election that has spared the public broadcaster from defunding threats for now, but certainly not from a broad sentiment that the CBC needs change and evolution. This week, Bouchard unveiled her own five-year vision. Today, she joins the show to discuss the relationship Canadians have with the CBC, and what changes she thinks the public broadcaster needs to make.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

At its peak, Marineland was the second most popular tourist destination in Ontario's Niagara region after the falls. Visitors could get up close and personal with beluga whales, dolphins and orcas, and watch them perform in elaborate shows. Throw in a side of rollercoasters and other exhibits and you had a family friendly attraction built to last.But for years, the park has been mired in controversy and allegations of animal abuse. Business has declined to the point that the park is now closed to the public. However, several animals including 30 beluga whales remain trapped there. Marineland says it needs money or a new home for the whales, or else they might have to kill them.Liam Casey of the Canadian Press has been covering this story for years. He lays out what could happen to the whales, and what it all means for other parks like Marineland.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

Canada's first ever minister of artificial intelligence, Evan Solomon, is spearheading what he's calling a "30-day sprint" to nail down Canada's AI strategy. The plan? To figure out a government approach to the technology in order to boost the Canadian economy.Today, we wanted to take stock of the state of the industry in Canada, and a closer look at the Liberal government's strategy. What could it all mean for our jobs, our economy, society, and environment?Murad Hemmadi, a reporter with The Logic, joins the show.We'd love to hear from you! Complete our listener survey here.

Where did Elon Musk's epic ambitions begin? In search of clues we return to his sheltered youth in apartheid South Africa, a world engineered for white supremacy. Along the way, we connect the dots between a bizarre White House ambush of South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to teenage Elon's ego-powered quests in video games. Finally, was his “draft dodge” from military service a moral act or an opportunist's exit? Know more, now. Understood is an anthology podcast from the CBC that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. You can find Understood wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/FBxMoM