The Decibel

The floods in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley have left much of the area in ruin. One community that has been particularly hard hit is farmers. Damage to farms in the area – which supply about half of B.C.’s eggs, dairy and poultry – has been catastrophic. Thousands of animals have died and many of the properties remain underwater.The Globe’s Andrea Woo describes her experience on the ground in Abbotsford, B.C. Then Ann Hui, The Globe’s national food reporter, explains what impact this will have on the food supply and why it could take a long time before these farms are back up and running. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Pretty much as soon as the election was over, murmurs began, questioning how much longer Conservative leader Erin O’Toole would lead. Now there’s a new session of Parliament and O’Toole can’t seem to get away from questions about strife within his own party, from issues like the vaccine status of his caucus members to petitions being launched about the timing of his next leadership review.Ian Bailey is a reporter with the Globe’s Ottawa bureau and author of the Politics Briefing newsletter, and he’ll explain the tumult from the last few weeks inside the party and what it means in terms of how the Conservatives will be able to function as the Official Opposition in this minority government. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from the public eye after accusing the former vice-premier of China of sexually assaulting her. The accusation was wiped from her Weibo account within an hour.Nothing much happened until tennis stars like Naomi Osaka and Billie Jean King, along with international media and the Women’s Tennis Association, began asking where Peng went a few weeks later. Then a message allegedly from Peng appeared, followed by a video purportedly showing her safely out at dinner. This didn’t convince everyone of her safety or that her allegations were being taken seriously by Chinese authorities.But, as Globe sports columnist Cathal Kelly argues, it was enough to kill the news story and to quiet calls for boycotting the upcoming Beijing Olympics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Gender-based violence often doesn’t get reported to authorities, and the signs that someone might need help are easily missed by friends, family and even the person experiencing the abuse. But a hand signal created for people to silently ask for help recently went viral on Tik Tok – and was used by a missing teen who ended up getting rescued in Kentucky.Elizabeth Renzetti is a columnist and feature writer at The Globe who often covers issues around gender-based violence. She explains how the hand signal came to be, why it matters that it went viral on Tik Tok and what we need to know about the more subtle signs of abuse that often go overlooked. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A border between Poland and Belarus which has been at the centre of a geopolitical conflict is now quiet. Thousands of asylum-seekers, many of them fleeing conflict zones in the Middle East, were trapped in Belarus hoping to cross over into Poland. On Thursday, Belarussian authorities cleared the main camps, but it’s not known what will happen to the people still trying to cross into the EU.Mark MacKinnon is The Globe’s senior international correspondent. He was recently in Poland and explains why the situation is widely considered a manufactured crisis motivated by revenge, what the geopolitical implications are and how the people seeking refuge are caught in the middle. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It has been five years since the North American leaders have gathered together for one of their so-called Three Amigos Summits. And while U.S. President Joe Biden is a familiar face to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, some of the current U.S. policies are not so nice to Canada.The Globe and Mail’s Washington, D.C. correspondent, Adrian Morrow, is on the show to discuss what Trudeau will likely be pushing Biden on, especially around some protectionist trade issues, and what the U.S. and Mexico may want from Canada in return. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Record rainfall has caused flooding and mudslides in several parts of Vancouver Island and southern mainland B.C. Hundreds were trapped in their cars by mudslides, with at least one person killed and thousands evacuated from communities devastated by flooding.Globe environment reporter Kathryn Blaze Baum explains what caused the rainstorm that wreaked havoc on the province and how this summer’s wildfires and heat dome are related. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lee Maracle’s career inspired a generation of Indigenous writers to write about their own experience. The author, poet and activist died last week at 71 years old.Maracle’s friend, the playwright, author and frequent Globe columnist Drew Hayden Taylor, remembers Maracle and her legacy.You can listen to Maracle’s Margaret Laurence Lecture from the Writers’ Trust of Canada here. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A recent Ontario Court of Appeal ruling found that the Crown violated two treaties signed in 1850. The agreements cover a vast part of Northern Ontario, and were originally about sharing the wealth of the land. But the government has been paying the Anishinaabe descendants of that land just $4 per person per year.Sara Mainville is an Anishinaabe lawyer and partner at Olthuis Kleer Townshend in Toronto. She explains to guest host Willow Fiddler how over 100 years later these agreements are still being interpreted literally by governments in Canada, and why treaty agreements should be handled differently. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Humans make a lot of noise – in our streets, in the skies and in our seas. All this anthropogenic clamour is not just annoying, it can be detrimental to the health of both humans and animals. But scientists have never really had a chance to study just how much noise we produce and what would happen if we stopped producing it … until the COVID-19 global pandemic sent most of the world into a lockdown in early 2020.This temporary silencing of a lot of human activity was a silver lining to the pandemic as it provided scientists with conditions to conduct experiments and learn about the natural world. Today on the show we speak to three Canadian researchers who all listened and learned during the Great Quieting of early 2020.Thanks to Dr. Nicola Koper, Dr. William Minarik and Dr. David Barclay. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.