Full Comment

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Full Comment is Canada’s podcast for compelling interviews, controversial opinions and fascinating discussions. Hosted by Brian Lilley. Published by Postmedia, new episodes are released each Monday.

3 days ago

Inside the mainstream media meltdown

Trust in legacy journalism is plummeting, and after years working inside the CBC, Tara Henley has a good idea why. The author of the new book, The Trust Spiral: Why the Media Needs Objectivity, discusses with Brian how broad-mindedness in newsrooms was ruined by the emergence of an urban and elite class of group-thinking journalists combined with a revenue crisis that discouraged the risk of nonconformist perspectives. Making things worse, Henley argues, is that government subsidies have corrupted market signals that could force badly needed discipline on media owners. But the answer isn’t internet outlets that are even more one-sided, she explains: media need to relearn the tools they once used to keep themselves more honest. (Recorded July 10, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
17 Aug

A Canadian history of drinking, fighting and puking in Parliament

Detractors like to say that House of Commons decorum has never been worse than it is today, but don’t be so sure. Charlie Feldman is author of the new book, Unparliamentary: Tales from Canada’s Colourful Unparliamentary Past. He joins Brian to recount stories of foul-mouthed, rowdy, drunken and altogether misbehaving MPs and senators from all the way back to Confederation right up to Justin Trudeau’s “elbowgate” that make today’s cohort seem tame by comparison. Along the way, Feldman explodes some fabled stories as myth, surveys a surprising scarcity of sex scandals, and uncovers some things we might have preferred not to know, from the story of the salmon hidden inside an MP’s pants and why feces were once thrown in the House. (Recorded July 14, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10 Aug

Canada’s ‘suicidal empathy’ hits its terminal stage

Civilizations die from suicide, not murder, as a famous historian once said. And Canada’s in the process of administering MAID on itself, says author and professor Gad Saad. He discusses his new bestselling book, Suicidal Empathy: Dying to Be Kind, with Brian. And he explains the fatal flaw of excessive empathy — and how Canada is rapidly succumbing to it. Radical values imposed by our institutions, embodied in the extreme by the last prime minister, frame our history as shameful. They have led us to embrace immigrants who reject us. And they have made us tolerate the intolerant. It’s why Saad says he’s moving out of Canada, although he explains how our government isn’t making it easy for him to leave. (Originally recorded for a Toronto Sun video, June 26, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
3 Aug

Why U.K. conservatives need to imitate Canada

British politics has become a farce, with Andy Burnham now the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister in a decade. And no one knows what he really stands for or if he’ll even outlast the last six, as Daniel Hannan, head of the Institute of Economic Affairs and independent member of the House of Lords, tells Brian. They discuss the reason why so many prime ministers keep falling, and what the new Labour leader’s chances look like. They also get into the fates of Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, and why Hannan thinks they both need to take an important lesson from Canada’s Conservative party to beat Labour and start cleaning things up in Britain. (Recorded July 23, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
27 Jul

A veteran cop explains what’s really happening inside Canadian policing

As unit commander in the largest homicide squad in the country, Hank Idsinga has seen more than most people would ever want to. He discusses with Brian what it’s really like in blue, the many things that are done right, and the many things done wrong, including the recent exposé of corruption by some Toronto officers. The author of the new book The High Road: Confessions of a Homicide Cop, Idsinga reveals the vitriolic antisemitism he saw on the force, and discusses the “abysmal” handling of anti-Israel demonstrators in Toronto. He also busts myths about purported low crime rates and politically popular gun bans, and explains how real policing is nothing like those shows on TV. (Recorded July 23, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
20 Jul

Hate has corrupted the world’s biggest charities

The Red Cross, Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF and more — they’re treated by governments and the media as neutral humanitarians working for everyone’s rights and welfare. But as Danielle Haas tells Brian, a new investigation by her organization EiGHT found them rife with bias, particularly against Jews and Israel. It uncovered charities refusing to acknowledge atrocities committed by Hamas, while ostracizing and even dismissing workers who dared speak up about human rights violations and blatant antisemitism, including within the organizations themselves. EiGHT, made up of former NGO leaders, is calling for transparency and oversight for charities whose discrimination goes largely unscrutinized, despite raking in billions of dollars in donations and funding. (Recorded July 17, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
13 Jul

Look what happens in Alberta when we let it do stuff

Two new pipeline plans and an enormous $13-billion Meta data centre have been announced for Alberta in just the last few days. Brett Wilson, the veteran Calgary-based investor, joins Brian to explain the potential of the province to boom after just a slight loosening of the anti-development chokehold Ottawa had Alberta in for a decade with Justin Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault running the Liberals. Several other major projects are coming, too, Wilson says, and the customary controversies, protests and complaints just aren’t happening like they used to. But he says there are too many obstructive Trudeau policies still on the books that Prime Minister Mark Carney needs to undo for Alberta, and Canada, to reach their full potential. (Recorded July 9, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
6 Jul

Canada waited too long to rein in dangerous Big Tech platforms

Balancing protection for kids online while ensuring free speech and privacy for everyone else isn’t easy, which is why Ottawa has muffed it so many times, leaving Canada decades behind other countries in monitoring the harmful excesses of social media algorithms. With Bill C-34, the new Safe Social Media Act, the government just maybe has something workable, as Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in cybersecurity law at the University of Calgary, tells Brian. She explains the strengths and potential weaknesses of the legislation, how far it will go in protecting people from harm, concerns about the new “digital regulator,” and whether the government is now going to force us all to scan our IDs and carefully watch what we say online. (Recorded June 25, 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Trailer

Introducing Full Comment

Host Anthony Furey introduces Full Comment, Postmedia's new podcast for compelling interviews, controversial opinions and fascinating discussions. We'll go where other media outlets won't, ask the tough questions, and feature the colourful opinions you have come to expect from us. We're not worried about pushing buttons. We'll be bringing you interesting opinions and compelling ideas, even if they are a little bit controversial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Full Comment is Canada’s podcast for compelling interviews, controversial opinions and fascinating discussions. Hosted by Brian Lilley. Published by Postmedia, new episodes are released each Monday.