This Matters The Star

Guest: Betsy Powell, courts reporter
After the death of police Const. Jeffrey Northrup, the trial of Umar Zameer for first degree murder galvanized attention (and political rage) in the Toronto area. Now that he’s been found not guilty, people are left with questions about a prosecution that always seemed to be based on flimsy grounds. Reporter Betsy Powell covered the case for the Star from its beginnings to its conclusion, and spoke one-on-one with Zameer following the verdict. Now on “This Matters,” she shares her overview of the case, how the judge had expressed skepticism all along and the rare apology that judge issued to the defendant. We also share Zameer’s own reflections on the trial from Powell’s interview.
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Guest: Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Even before Sophie Grégoire Trudeau married Prime Minister Justin Trudeau she was an advocate for mental health, openly sharing her personal struggles with eating disorders. She discusses her new book. She shares those struggles afresh, along with tales of her parents, her schooling, her relationships, in her new book, “Closer Together: Knowing Ourselves, Loving Each Other,” which she describes as a personal journey toward empowerment.

 
We asked three published, award-winning Toronto poets to weigh in on Swift’s literary merit at a listening party on the album’s release day. The assignment: dissect three new songs as though Swift were a writer workshopping new pieces.
Guests: Sanna Wani, a poet and poetry editor whose latest book, “My Grief The Sun,” was released in 2022; Jody Chan’s most recent volume of poems, “impact statement,” came out earlier this year and they are an artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s Queer and Trans Research Lab; Adam Dickinson, an author of four books of poetry and a professor in the Department of English language at Brock University.

Guests: Leena Usman, Pino Buffone and Kris Rushowy
In what could be a landmark lawsuit in Canada, at least five major Ontario school boards are taking some of the largest social media companies to court over their platforms like Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, alleging they have been designed in a way that’s almost “rewiring” the way children behave. The allegations have yet to be proven in court, and there is no set date for when they will be heard, but they are now joining a wave of U.S. school districts doing the same. We find out more about this lawsuit and examine the implications for online safety, digital responsibility and the future of social media regulation. Plus, Gen-Zer Leena Usman shares her lived experience of what it's like on the social media front lines. 
This episode was produced by Saba Eitizaz and Paulo Marques.

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Guest: Salman Rushdie, author
It has been almost two years since celebrated author Salman Rushdie was attacked on a stage in Erie, New York as he was about to deliver a lecture. In an assault that lasted 27 seconds, a knife went through his right eye and optical nerve, while wounds to his tongue, neck and hand left him a changed man. Salman shares details of the attack — and his recovery — in his new memoir, “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.” As interviews for the book are in full swing, Salman tells The Star that any fears of being onstage had long faded.
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Guest: Anuradha Dugal, Vice President Community Initiatives at the Canadian Women's Foundation
Equal Pay Day is recognized internationally as a day of action, calling on stakeholders to advance women’s economic activity. It symbolizes how much longer women have had to work to catch up to what their male colleagues have earned in the previous year. Showing that women in Canada have worked nearly 16 months to earn what men make in 12. The needle hasn't budged on gender pay inequity in almost three decades. And no one is minding the gender pay gap. We take a look at why, and what it will take to change things.