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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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

Politics! Poilievre calls out RCMP, auto woes

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.

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Trump's campaign of legal revenge

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

The precarity of Gaza’s ceasefire

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.

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

Who gets to win the Nobel Peace Prize?

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.

CBC President Marie-Philippe Bouchard

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.

Marineland’s scandalous decline

Israel and Hamas signed a deal for a ceasefire set to begin Sunday January 19th that will see the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israel and the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The news was met with celebrations in Gaza where Palestinians have been suffering under a brutal Israel offensive since the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Tens of thousands are dead, more than a million displaced and much of the strip is destroyed. 

Ceasefire negotiations have dragged on in Qatar between Israel, Hamas, the U.S. and other countries for months. So why has an agreement finally been reached now? Chaim Levinson, senior diplomatic correspondent at Ha’aretz, joins us to parse through the details of the deal, how it was reached and what could happen next.

What’s behind the Israel-Hamas ceasefire?

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