Front Burner

Death threats, hotel rooms left empty for supposed visits by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hours upon hours of the song Rasputin by Boney M. These are the conditions former followers say they endured on a cross-country RV tour with Romana Didulo, the self-proclaimed “Queen of Canada." Didulo became a well-known QAnon conspiracy figure, with claims she was the rightful ruler of Canada, but she originally didn’t appear in public. Now, she’s touring the country with supporters in RVs, including a stop in Peterborough, Ont., last month where her followers tried to arrest the city’s police. Vice World News reporter Mack Lamoureux spoke to former tour “staff” members, including some that Didulo reportedly abandoned in the middle of Newfoundland. Today, what they allege about the abuse they suffered, and why both Lamoureux and some experts increasingly believe the group has the makings of a cult.

On Wednesday night, Serena Williams won her second round match against no. 2 ranked Anett Kontaveit, to advance in what could be the last pro tournament of her career. Earlier this month, Williams hinted that it might be time to say farewell to her illustrious tennis career. For two decades, the star has dominated the sport, winning 23 grand slam singles titles, 14 women's doubles and two mixed doubles slams. Cecil Harris, sports journalist and the author of 2020's Different Strokes: Serena, Venus and the Unfinished Black Tennis Revolution and the host of podcast All-American: Venus and Serena, explains why many say Williams is “the greatest of all time” in the tennis world.

On Friday, a man in Grande Prairie, Alta., accosted Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and swore at her repeatedly as she entered the city hall building. A video of the incident, posted online, shows the man yelling at Freeland, calling her a "f--king bitch" and a traitor, and following her in close proximity as she boards an elevator. RCMP say they are investigating the altercation, which has provoked widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum. And it’s also sparked broader conversations about the increasing sense of danger many politicians are feeling of late when interacting with the public — particularly in an era when the spread of conspiracy theories and disinformation are on the rise. It’s also raising questions about the line between when yelling at a politician is a dangerous or destructive act — and when it’s an expression of a healthy democracy. Today, we break it all down with Aaron Wherry, a senior writer with CBC’s Parliament Hill bureau.

Devastating flash floods in Pakistan have submerged one-third of the country, according to its climate minister. Officials say more than 1,100 people have died since monsoon season began in June and an estimated 33 million people have been affected. BBC correspondent Farhat Javed recently visited Manoor Valley in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where locals tossed her a handwritten note asking for help: "We need supplies, we need medicine and please rebuild the bridge, we are left with nothing now." Manoor Valley is just one of many remote regions hit by torrential rain and cut off from the main roads — making it difficult for rescue teams to reach. Millions of people are now waiting for food, shelter and clean drinking water. Today on Front Burner, Javed tells us more about what she saw and about the disaster unfolding in a country already dealing with political and economic instability.

It’s been just over a year since the last Canadian plane airlifting people out of Afghanistan left Kabul in the wake of the Taliban takeover. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, this country has successfully resettled more than 17,600 Afghans since August 2021 – and the government has committed to resettle 40,000. But many who helped Canadians during the war are still stuck there. Today, two Afghans explain the dangers they now find themselves in because of their previous work with Canadians, and their frustrations in trying to come to Canada. Plus, a Canadian veteran on his efforts to help Afghans through the complicated process.

On Saturday, a car bomb killed pro-war Russian commentator Darya Dugina on the outskirts of Moscow. Dugina was the daughter of ultranationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin, whose influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely debated — leading to speculation the bomb was meant for Dugin himself. Today on Front Burner, The Guardian's Moscow correspondent Andrew Roth explains who Dugin is, the competing theories for who was responsible for the car bombing, and what impact the attack could have on how the war in Ukraine is fought.

This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz visited Canada as part of his mission to shore up alternative sources of energy to reduce Germany's dependence on Russian natural gas. Scholz finished the trip in Newfoundland, where he and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau agreed to form what Trudeau called the “Canada-Germany hydrogen alliance.” Meanwhile, Scholz also said he wanted more liquified natural gas from Canada. Today, CBC’s Peter Cowan and J.P. Tasker explain what happened during this trip and what it means for the future of Canadian energy.

Many employers continue to struggle to fill vacant positions, despite the end of most pandemic restrictions — and the underlying explanations for this vary depending on who you ask. A common notion is that people just don’t want to work anymore. But when Canada’s unemployment rate is at its lowest level in decades, does the data really bear that out? Today on Front Burner, economist and Atkinson Fellow Armine Yalnizyan debunks common myths and explains how the current labour crunch has roots stretching back well before the pandemic — and what to expect moving forward.

It's a perennial debate: what role should the private sector have in Canada's public health-care system? The fact is, it's already part of the ecosystem. Now, Doug Ford's government in Ontario is mulling the use of more private surgery clinics to alleviate pressures facing the public system. The move is receiving praise by some, while others raise concerns over how an expanded role of for-profit health care could have negative effects downstream. Today, Dr. Danyaal Raza explains those concerns. He's the former board chair of Canadian Doctors for Medicare, an assistant professor with the department of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto and a family physician.

The pandemic-era work-from-home experiment has gone on for over two years now and for some, it’s proven to be effective. For others, the isolation that comes with remote work hasn’t been easy. As some employers ask their workers to finally return, we dive into the debate around working from home — and what a successful hybrid model could look like. We’re talking to writer Anne Helen Petersen, co-author of Out of Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working from Home.