Front Burner CBC News & Politics

In 2014, a U.S. brainwave scientist claimed he could increase people’s creativity and cure their traumas. And he got permission to experiment on Indigenous children in Canada, offering an all-expenses-paid trip to Victoria, B.C.

But a decade later, some study participants say the testing they went through — which included staff attaching electrodes to their heads and being asked to talk about the most traumatic moments of their lives — wasn’t what they signed up for and may have left side-effects.

We hear from CBC’s Geoff Leo about what his investigation turned up and why critics are demanding more accountability and transparency over how the study was approved in the first place.

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Everyone knows who Céline Dion is. You can’t forget her incredible power ballads, her iconic outfits at the Met Gala or her quirky conversations with journalists and fellow singers alike.

But what fans didn’t know for years was Céline was suffering from stiff-person syndrome. It was causing her body to tense up and spasm, making it hard to use her famous vocal chords. She went public with the diagnosis a year and a half ago, and then stepped away from showbiz and the public eye.

Now, she’s opening up about her story and how stiff-person syndrome has affected her life in a new documentary. Ahead of its release, we hear from CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault, who got an exclusive interview with Céline and tells us what she learned about Celine’s life and her plans to sing in the future.

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Over the past few months attacks that hit Jewish schools, community centres and synagogues have shaken Canada’s Jewish community.

For some Jewish-Canadian parents, there is now a question of whether it’s safe to send their children to Jewish schools.

“Right now, it's a bit fraught to be very Jewish out in the broader world,” says Kim Werker, a Jewish-Canadian mother with a 13-year-old son. 

We speak to Werker and another Jewish-Canadian mother about these concerns, how they’ve been coping and how challenging it has been to talk to their children about the war in Gaza and antisemitism in Canada.

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We dive into the wild story behind The Epoch Times, a fringe conservative newspaper turned right-wing propaganda machine with ties to a mysterious dissident Chinese meditation movement. 

What are its aims? How did it become one of the biggest pro-Trump ad spenders and a destination for the likes of Candace Owens and Conrad Black?

And what will happen now that its CFO is charged in a $67-million money laundering scandal.

NBC disinfo reporter Brandy Zadrozny explains.

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A new report accuses parliamentarians of aiding foreign governments to interfere in Canadian politics, which some national security experts say would amount to ‘traitors’ at the heart of our democracy.  

Will we ever get the names of the MPs in question?

How has it already created a chill between parliamentarians and their colleagues?

And if the primary goal of interference is to destabilize Canada, is this report just another success for foreign actors?

CBC’s chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton returns to explain.

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An interest rate cut of a quarter of a percent might not sound like much. But as the first cut in four years following the COVID-19 pandemic and all the economic upheaval that followed, it's a big deal. And it could be the first of several in the months ahead.

But what does that mean for you? How does that affect your ability to afford things like a mortgage, a car, groceries, or growing your business? And after a rocky couple of years, do people even have faith in the Bank of Canada's ability to keep things under control anymore?

CBC senior business correspondent Peter Armstrong breaks it all down, including insights from an exclusive interview with BoC governor Tiff Macklem.

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