Kids at heart: ‘Kidults’ help toys reach sales records

Guest: Anuradha Dugal, Vice President Community Initiatives at the Canadian Women's Foundation Equal Pay Day is recognized internationally as a day of action, calling on stakeholders to advance women’s economic activity. It symbolizes how much longer women have had to work to catch up to what their male colleagues have earned in the previous year. Showing that women in Canada have worked nearly 16 months to earn what men make in 12. The needle hasn't budged on gender pay inequity in almost three decades. And no one is minding the gender pay gap. We take a look at why, and what it will take to change things.

Guest: Olivia Chow, mayor News over the last couple of weeks around city hall has been heavy on tax worries and mix-ups — thousands of bills sent out for vacant home taxes for occupied properties and concerns about a proposed stormwater fee. Mayor Olivia Chow explains what she thinks went wrong and how she plans to fix it (and “start from scratch” on the vacant home system). She also discusses her plan to deal with the growing number of homeless encampments in parks that have spread around the city, recent Toronto Police Association criticism of her about a letter some councillors signed, provincial and federal announcements on housing, and what the city should be doing about dangerous dogs. Plus, Chow shares how she herself had to appeal a vacant home tax bill on her own house. What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

Thousands of property owners across the city got bills this week for vacant home taxes applying to homes they live in. Today, hosts Ed Keenan and Emma Teitel try to understand the comprehensive fiasco in the implementation of the policy. They also talk about the much-feared “rain tax” that will now go back for further study, about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s attempts to announce his way out of his problems and what to do about dangerous dogs in Toronto. Plus, it is IIHF World Women’s Championship time! What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

Guest: Nicholas Keung, immigration reporter  The federal government is scaling back on the number of temporary residents and foreign workers in Canada while trying to boost access to permanent residence for those already here. Earlier, similar curbing measures were introduced for international students as well. While the government is framing these new, more restrictive immigration measures as a solution to a burgeoning housing and affordability crisis and to rein in population growth, there are also some concerns that immigrants have become scapegoats for domestic problems. So what are the new rules for foreign workers in Canada and what will they mean for Canadians and prospective Canadians?  This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques. What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

Guests: Sheila Wang and Morgan Sevareid-Bocknek, investigative reporters They're called ”lunch hour facelifts,” cosmetic touch-ups without the surgery. But if you are rethinking your lunch plans, you might want to think again. A recent Star investigation found a lot of these procedures are not as advertised. Across Canada, spas and medical clinics are offering the popular medical procedure marketed as a safe, minimally invasive treatment. But as service providers compete for customers on TikTok and Instagram, showing supposedly incredible results, some of them are making misleading claims about the quality and effectiveness of the threads they use on patients and soft-peddling the potential risks.  This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques. What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

Guest: Toronto Star climate reporter Kate Allen Canada is the leader in maple syrup production and Quebec’s maple syrup producers maintain a strategic reserve stockpile that in recent years held over 100 million pounds of the sweet stuff, but levels have this year dwindled to less than 7 million pounds. Star reporter Kate Allen wrote a feature on this topic and explains how the explanation has something (surprisingly) to do with the pandemic, something (interestingly) to do with successful marketing, and something (maybe) to do with larger climate trends. And she answers the question on all of our minds: Are we going to run out anytime soon? 

Guest: Richard Warnica, staff reporter The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was a massive component of the port city's entire transportation network, and in a matter of moments this week, it collapsed after being struck by a container ship. The Star’s Richard Warnica reports from the scene, explaining his reflections on standing next to the bridge that used to be there and just isn’t any more, and the massive wreckage of the ship. It’s an event that has massive implications for the city in the immediate aftermath and the longer term, and raises questions across the continent about the vulnerability of our infrastructure. It also makes us reflect on the impermanence of even the most solid features of our urban landscapes. What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

Guest: Noor Javed, staff reporter When Bonnie Crombie was elected leader of the Ontario Liberals, she left the mayor’s chair in Mississauga vacant. That means that for the first time since the 1970s, no one is certain who will lead the city next. An election with real choice comes at an interesting time for a municipality that, fifty years after it was created, has grown into a big city and a big economy, one that the Star’s Noor Javed explains is wrestling with questions of what it should become and how it should evolve. We discuss the leading candidates in the byelection coming in June and look at recent polling on the race. This episode was produced by Paolo Marques and Edward Keenan. What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

Guest: Brendan Kennedy, investigative reporter  The evidence is overwhelming and it’s the government’s own research. Getting any education while incarcerated reduces the rate of recidivism by as much as 30 per cent. It’s more than double that for inmates who get a post-secondary education. Government officials confirm that at least some education beyond the high school level is key to a successful reintegration into society. Yet taking university or college courses inside Canadian prisons has become extremely difficult, and in some cases impossible, because the federal government does not allow prisoners access to the internet, in an education ecosystem that’s now almost completely online. It is a Catch-22 situation and one that other countries have navigated successfully. Then why does Canada lag behind in providing adequate higher education opportunities for its incarcerated population?  This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques. What would you like to hear on Toronto Star podcasts? Let us know in this survey and you can enter to win a $100 gift card.

This Matters is pleased to publish episodes of the Toronto Star's podcast, "Road Trip: Electric Avenues," every Saturday. This week, we are proud to share the final episode in the series: When we started this podcast, we really wanted to visit each step of the EV production process to show a complete picture of the supply chain, but in the end, we couldn’t seal the deal. First off, the cam and cathode production isn’t coming to Ontario. Right now, it’s all being built in Bécancour, Quebec. And while there are plans to retool auto assembly plants to make EVs, there’s currently only one that’s operational — the GM electric delivery van plant in Ingersoll — and when we asked to visit, we found out it had been shut down due to supply chain snags. So instead, our final stop is North Bay where they are making specialty EVs for the mining industry. Toronto Star photographer Steve Russell and climate change reporter Marco Chown Oved went on a road trip through northern Ontario in the dead of winter. It was cold, blizzarding and icy. They travelled 2,300 km during the coldest week of the year. And they did it in an electric vehicle (EV).