Brief Remarks

Diplomacy is key for all nation-to-nation relationships. So why don’t we talk about it hand-in-hand with reconciliation? On this episode of Everyday Reconciliation, host Elin Miller speaks with Deborah Chatsis, former Ambassador to Vietnam and Guatemala, about life in the Canadian foreign service, representing Canada as an Indigenous person, and how we can - and should - approach nation-to-nation relationships within Canada with the same as we do around the globe.

Canada is home to several active nuclear power plants and is the second largest uranium producer in the world. Nuclear energy accounts for roughly 15 percent of the country’s energy production. In Ontario, it meets approximately 60 percent of the province’s energy needs. While the popular image of nuclear power is conditioned by infamous historical events, some climate activists and industry professionals advocate it becoming a larger part of our plan to address climate change. So, we ask: How important is nuclear energy to a low-carbon future?On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Chris Keefer, ER doctor, founder and director of Doctors for Nuclear Energy, and host of the podcast Decouple.

To lighten the mood a little, host Jodi Butts sits down with Awi Sinha for a fun discussion of corporate governance as seen through the looking glass of Season 3 of HBO’s Succession.

Happy New Year! Before we take off on our virtual world tour, let’s take some time to check in on the home front. On this episode of No Second Chances, host Kate Graham talks to Jacqueline O’Neill, Anjum Sultana, and Melanee Thomas to take stock of the past two years in Canadian politics, and how we can - and must - do better.

The biggest shift in our fight against climate change came when we began putting a human face to the crisis. But that fight is far from over, and most people still don’t appreciate the human cost of our climate emergency. On this episode of Everyday Reconciliation, host Elin Miller speaks with Inuit activist Siila Watt-Cloutier on life in the North, her decades-long work tying human rights to climate activism, and using lessons from a traditional upbringing to turn the Arctic into a model of sustainability for the globe.

No Second Chances is back, and we’re taking the show on the road. Well, sort of. Join host Kate Graham for a (virtual) world tour, exploring what’s worked in countries around the world towards getting women into the top political roles. Hear stories and voices that you may not know yet -- but that we should all be paying attention to. Pack your bags. Our journey starts on January 10, 2022.

On this episode of @Risk, Jodi Butts is joined by contributing correspondent for Science magazine, Kai Kupferschmidt, to discuss the latest science on the Omicron variant, vaccine equity and the legacy of Angela Merkel.

In this final installment of Canada 2020’s post-COP26 conversation series, WWF-Canada’s President and CEO, Megan Leslie, and Vice-President of Science, Knowledge and Innovation, James Snider talk about Canada’s first-ever national carbon ecosystem map, the enormous amounts of carbon stored in terrestrial ecosystems throughout our country, and the essential part carbon storage can play in fighting climate change.

In part three of our post- COP26 series, economist and UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance Mark Carney, and Vancity CEO Christine Bergeron talk about reframing the political and economic narrative of climate advocacy, and the challenges of moving towards a net-zero economy. What opportunities exist in the aftermath of COP26? What role must the private sector play in this transition? And what can individuals, organizations, and governments do to champion progress towards essential climate action?

No one ever thinks of law as simple. But too many of us don’t appreciate one particular complexity: there are multiple legal orders that exist across Canada. And most of them are Indigenous. On this episode of Everyday Reconciliation, host Elin Miller speaks with Val Napoleon, an activist, educator, and the interim Dean of Law at University of Victoria, about Indigenous legal frameworks, and how essential they are to self-governance, Indigenous knowledge and culture, and reconciliation.

Everybody loves a trilogy. In March of 2020, host David Moscrop and guest Amanda Watson dug into how folks were managing their lives during the early days of the pandemic. In the spring of 2021, the two checked back to talk about managing anxiety in what was billed, optimistically, as the “late pandemic.” Now, just under two years into this whole thing, the two connect once more to ask: Are we coming undone during the pandemic? On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks once more with Amanda Watson, feminist theorist, lecturer at Simon Fraser University and author of The Juggling Mother: Coming Undone in the Age of Anxiety. After this episode, the show is on break until January 18, 2022. We’ll return in the new year to tackle a handful of pressing issues including nuclear energy, disability rights, big data and the state, and more.  

On this episode of @ Risk, Jodi Butts is joined by Dr Katharine Smart, pediatrician and President of the Canadian Medical Association to discuss whether we are doing enough to protect healthcare workers and to stand-up our healthcare system during this tenacious pandemic.

Colonialism isn’t yet in Canada’s rear-view mirror, especially for the First Nations of this land. Government intervention in First Nations’ governance and administration is a modern reality, and has wide-reaching effects in Indigenous communities. On this episode of Everyday Reconciliation, host Elin Miller speaks with Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, Arlen Dumas, about his experience growing up on-reserve, understanding what it means for communities to be in “co-management”, and his optimism for the future of Indigenous sovereignty.Everyday Reconciliation is presented by Rio Tinto.

In part two of Canada 2020’s post-COP26 series, Parag Khanna (Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, and international bestselling author of the new book MOVE: The Forces Uprooting Us), Warda Shazadi Meighen (Partner at Landings LLP and co-chair of the climate migration working group at the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers) speak with Kate Hammer (Director of Government Relations at Vancity) about the global climate migration crisis, Canada’s responsibility as a member of the international community, the demographic changes we should expect in the face of the climate emergency, and why the time to act is now.

Canada is home to structural racism. As much as some might wish to exempt our provinces, cities, political parties, laws, policies, and institutions from systematic exploitation and discrimination, such practices are routine. They are embedded in the fabric of our social, political, and economic lives. To better understand how these systems work, we look to the very processes by which we are governed and ask: How does structural racism shape our politics? On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Balarama Holness, Quebec politician, recent Montreal mayoral candidate, and former CFL safety. 

On this episode of @Risk, host Jodi Butts is joined by David Huebert, self-styled “dirty nature writer”, educator, and critic from Kjipuktuk (Halifax), to discuss his new book of short stories, Chemical Valley.

In the wake of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, what does the fight for climate justice look like? In the first of our four-part post-COP26 series, former Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna, and climate scientist and author Katharine Hayhoe talk about the outcomes of COP26, the future of climate advocacy, and Hayhoe’s new book, Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.

Indigenous women and men have signed up to serve and defend Canada in impressive numbers throughout history, an act that has often come at a very high price. On this episode of Everyday Reconciliation, host Elin Miller speaks to Sergeant (Sgt) (Ret'd) Derek Montour about what it means to serve your country and protect your community, and the difficulty of those two things being at odds with one another.Everyday Reconciliation is presented by Rio Tinto.

Climate change is real, it is caused by human beings, and it is an existential threat to humankind. Politicians and industry leaders now claim to be taking it seriously. Their performances often fall short of their promises. Theoretical physicist and author Steven Koonin, however, extends climate critique to scientists and the media, arguing that while climate change is real, the consensus conclusions we have reached are overstated, the science is often miscommunicated or misinterpreted, and our policies are headed in the wrong direction. At Open to Debate, we disagree with Dr. Koonin’s thesis, but we ask nonetheless: What is to be done about climate policy?On this episode of Open to Debate, David Moscrop talks with Steven Koonin, University Professor at New York University and Director of the Center for Urban Science and Progress, former Undersecretary for Science at the U.S. Department of Energy under President Obama, and author of Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matter

The greatest risk to us is us. On this episode of @ Risk, Jodi Butts is joined by Stanley McChrystal, four star U.S. Army General (retired), lecturer at Yale University and corporate board director, to discuss his new book, Risk: A User’s Guide, and why we are our greatest risk.