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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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. 

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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

It was another really busy week in Canadian politics.

It began with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s trip to Mar-a-Lago to talk tariffs and Canadian oil with Trump and his team, and it rolled into a meeting between Canada’s premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, where Smith did not get onside with her colleagues.

The Liberal leadership race narrowed further, and on Thursday, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney threw his hat into the ring.

Catherine Cullen is the host of CBC's The House. Jason Markusoff is a producer and writer with CBC Calgary. They join host Jayme Poisson to talk about it all.

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

Politics! Mark Carney’s running, tariff fight gets messy

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