Our guest today has taken a long look at an out-of-fashion principle in higher learning – institutional neutrality. Basically it’s the importance of letting students and faculty say what they want, and not have the administration put its thumb on the scale. In that he sees a whole world of problems facing post-secondary education today, from public and political support to an ongoing court case.Simon Lewsen is a magazine journalist who teaches part-time at the University of Toronto. His new story in Maclean’s is called “The Battle for the Soul of the University”. For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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21:12
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21:12
Will the U.S. invade Venezuela?
Over the weekend, Donald Trump declared on Truth Social that the airspace around Venezuela should be considered closed. Venezuela’s foreign ministry responded by calling the comments "another extravagant, illegal and unjustified aggression against the Venezuelan people".Late last week, Trump also said that land action against alleged drug trafficking networks in the country could start very soon.All of this is happening amidst a serious military buildup in the Caribbean and escalating threats to remove Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro from power.Is this the buildup to an invasion? And is it really about drugs? Or do Venezuela's massive oil reserves have something to do with it?Jon Lee Anderson is our guest. He’s a staff writer with The New Yorker, and has written extensively about U.S.-Venezuela relations and U.S. interference in Latin America.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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29:41
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29:41
Ukraine peace plan,or Russian ‘wish list’?
In a somber speech last week Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned his people that their country was on the brink of a critical choice: either lose their dignity or risk alienating a key partner, America. His speech came after Donald Trump set a deadline demanding the war-torn country accept a unilateral American peace proposal.That proposal has been internationally panned and called a Russian “wish-list”.The dire situation Zelenskyy warned of however, did not come to pass, at least not yet.Zelenskyy says he is now ready to move forward with an American led peace process, but as Trump’s key negotiator plans to head to Moscow the question remains, are the Russians?To help us understand whether this is the beginning of the end of this war, or just another false start we’re speaking with reporter from The Kyiv Independent Francis Farrell.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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26:18
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26:18
In Chad, inside camps for Sudan’s refugees
Sudan’s civil war is now the worst displacement crisis in the world, with more than 12 million people currently displaced from their homes. Earlier this year, the outgoing Biden administration designated the war a genocide. This war includes countless proxies fighting over billions of dollars in natural resources, access to key shipping routes along the Red Sea, and control of one of the oldest countries in the world. Longtime journalist Michelle Shephard has just arrived from a 10 day reporting trip to the Sudan-Chad border, for The Walrus magazine. There she met families fleeing massacres, and women who crossed the desert on foot to escape sexual violence. She returns with a rare look inside a crisis the world has turned away from.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts
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30:58
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30:58
Hatchet buried? The politics of an Alberta energy deal
On Thursday Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith are set to announce the outlines of a plan that could set Alberta and B.C. on a collision course.It’s a potential energy deal that would give Alberta special exemptions from federal environmental laws and offer political support for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, among other things.That is, if Alberta can get through the significant hurdles of opposition from First Nations and B.C. where Premier David Eby was completely cut out of the talks.Today we discuss the politics of all this with the CBC’s chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton and Jason Markusoff from our Calgary bureau.For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcriptsCorrection: An earlier version of this episode misidentified B.C. Liberal MP Will Greaves. He represents the constituency of Victoria.
Front Burner is a daily news podcast that takes you deep into the stories shaping Canada and the world. Each morning, from Monday to Friday, host Jayme Poisson talks with the smartest people covering the biggest stories to help you understand what’s going on.
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