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Front Burner is a daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Each morning, from Monday to Friday, host Jayme Poisson talks with the smartest people covering the biggest stories to help you understand what’s going on.

Front Burner

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.

What’s fuelling the war in Sudan?

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

Mark Carney’s high-stakes first budget

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

Is Alberta headed for a general strike?

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

What did Reagan really believe about tariffs?

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

In Asia, Canada hopes to fill a Trump-sized void

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.

How Canadian charities fund illegal West Bank settlements

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.

Can Canada’s auto industry survive Trump?

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.

Blue Jays bandwagon 101

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.

Is the FBI’s secret war on American activists back?

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.

Politics! Poilievre calls out RCMP, auto woes

On his first night back in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump signed a series of sweeping executive orders that effectively dismantle federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and revoke a landmark Civil Rights-era anti-discrimination rule.

 

This comes as major American companies, from McDonald’s to Walmart to Meta, have been rolling back their own diversity policies, which have recently faced growing legal and cultural backlash.

Does this spell the end of DEI? And what could that mean, in the US and beyond?

Today Washington Post business reporter Julian Mark joins us to break it all down.

For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

The end of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

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