Front Burner

This March, a Boeing 737 Max 8 plane crashed in Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board. 18 of them were Canadian, and several more were permanent residents. Now, six families from Canada who lost relatives are suing Boeing for alleged negligence in the Ethiopia Airlines crash. The CBC’s Susan Ormiston spoke to three of them, and brings us their reflections and lingering questions about what happened.

There has been renewed attention on the treatment of migrant children at the U.S.-Mexico border over the last two weeks. First, accounts of inadequate food, water and sanitation at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities where unaccompanied children are held awaiting shelter space sparked outrage. Then, a horrible photograph of the drowned bodies of a father and his young daughter in the Rio Grande river offered a stark reminder of the perils of crossing into the United States. Today on Front Burner, Bob Moore has reported on immigration and the border from El Paso, Texas for more than 30 years. He walks us through what kids go through on their way to the border and how they’re treated once they get into the country: “These are human beings who are paying the price of all this political failure.”

Today on Front Burner, we speak to Toronto Liberal MP Adam Vaughan, who says he disagrees with his party’s stance to rule against a handgun ban. Is the fight to ban handguns in Canada over?

The death of 30 horses at the famed Santa Anita racetrack in California this season has sparked a public outcry over animal welfare. The facility is owned by The Stronach Group, a wealthy Canadian company. Today on Front Burner, L.A. Times contributor John Cherwa explains what it all means for the future of horse racing, and the Stronach family business.

After 18 months of consultation, Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has released its master draft proposal to develop a portion of Toronto’s waterfront. The proposal includes everything from an affordable housing plan, to sensored pneumatic garbage shoots, to a data privacy framework in the form of an independent urban data trust. Today on Front Burner, we talk to The Logic’s editor-in-chief David Skok about what’s in the report, and what questions we need to ask ourselves when we consider building smart cities.

With the House of Commons adjourned and the federal election just months away, summertime hours mean Members of Parliament and hopeful candidates will be out campaigning on the BBQ circuit. The writ drop is expected for September and voting day is slated for on or before October 21. So what issues are shaping the election so far? Today on Front Burner, CBC’s Power and Politics host Vassy Kapelos joins us to explain.

According to a new report from the Canada Revenue Agency, in just one year - 2014 - Canadian corporations did not pay up to $11-billion in taxes. That amount is part of the “tax gap”. It’s the difference between the taxes Canada knows it's owed and the taxes that are actually collected. Today on Front Burner, Toronto Star investigative reporter Marco Chown Oved explains how corporations get away with this, and why it’s such a persistent issue.

This week, Facebook announced it will launch a cryptocurrency in 2020. A new global currency, available to billions of people - is something like that legal? Or a good idea? Jon Porter from The Verge breaks it down.

The federal Liberal government has now approved the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline for the second time.This is a key step for the much-delayed pipeline project that’s meant to carry nearly a million barrels of oil from Alberta to B.C each day. But will approval actually mean construction? CBC Vancouver reporter Angela Sterritt and CBC Calgary business reporter Tony Seskus explain.

The Canadian government has already admitted that it probably won’t be able to meet its Paris climate targets, the international agreement Canada signed promising to significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. As part of a new CBC News project called In Our Backyard, reporter Connie Walker has been using climate modelling to investigate different policy options to find out what it would actually take for Canada to meet its goals. Today on Front Burner, she shares her findings.