TIFF turns 50 with celebs, controversy, and Carney suggesting that we’re the John Candy of global trade.

As the Toronto International Film Festival struggles to find its way in a changing film landscape, it leans into Canadiana with buzzy premieres from Canadian directors.

But with its mishandling of controversial documentaries the last two years, can TIFF meet the moment?

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: James Nicholson (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking) tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Jan Wong

Further reading on our website.

Sponsors:

Douglas: Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today. Visit douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer

BetterHelp: Visit BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While Donald Trump is bent on achieving and maintaining “unquestioned and unchallenged global technological dominance”, we’re just starting to gear up for the race. There are only about 300 data centres across Canada. And about HALF of them are run by American tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Host Noor Azrieh sits down with Don Lenihan and Vass Bednar and asks whether we can control our digital sovereignty.

Host: Noor Azrieh

Credits: Aviva Lessard (Senior Producer), Sam Konnert (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Host/Producer), Caleb Thompson (Post Production), Max Collins (Director of Audio) Jesse Brown (Editor), Tony Wang (Artwork)

Guests: Don Lenihan, Vass Bednar

Further Reading On Our Website

Sponsors:

Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit ARTICLE.COM/canadaland and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Can't get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

Canadaland Politics is recording a LIVE podcast and Q&A from Calgary on September 22nd, 2025 at 7:30PM MT hosted by Mount Royal University. Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here: https://forms.gle/LoxvdZ8LFfubFpGeA

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark Carney recently made noises about the future possibility of Canadian boots on the ground as part of an international “coalition of the willing” to help guarantee security in Ukraine. In the 1990s Canada had up to 3,000 peacekeepers around the world at any given time. Today we have less than 30. That’s one per cent of what we used to be able to do.

So how would Carney get us back in the game? Is it a game we want to play? Or are even capable of playing anymore?

Lloyd Axworthy thinks so. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs at the height of our peacekeeping commitments in the late 1990s. But his vision today goes far beyond blue helmets.

Credits:

Host: Jesse Brown

Caleb Thompson (Post Production), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Fact checking by Julian Abraham

Additional music by Audio Network

Sponsors:

oxio: Head over to canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free!

Squarespace: Check out Squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

BetterHelp: Visit https://BetterHelp.com/canadaland today to get 10% off your first month.

Further Reading:

Hints at Canada’s Return to Peacekeeping - The Globe & Mail

Lloyd Axworthy Substack

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

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Can't get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

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The race to succeed Jagmeet Singh has begun, but most of the NDP’s big names are steering clear. Post-election, vibes within the party have been bleak, mired with handwringing, infighting, and no clear guiding vision.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that any new leader needs to build a big tent. Bring back the labour vote. With Trump playing tariff bingo, there’s a real opportunity to speak — and to listen — to workers. Are the leadership hopefuls ready to take it?

Taylor Noakes joins Jesse Brown to discuss.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Jules Bugiel (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking), tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Taylor Noakes

Further reading on our website.

Canadaland Politics is recording a LIVE podcast and Q&A from Calgary on September 22nd, 2025 at 7:30PM MT hosted by Mount Royal University. Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here.

Sponsors:

oxio: Head over to canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free

Douglas: Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today. Visit douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer

The Oat Company: Head over to oatcompany.com and use code CANADALAND20 for 20% off your order. They ship across Canada so you can enjoy them anywhere.

Car Gurus: Buy your next car today with CarGurus at https://www.cargurus.ca/

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hudson’s Bay Company is dead.

While the Canadian media obsesses over the sale of The Bay’s retail properties, thousands of historical artefacts and artworks — including the original copy of the Royal Charter — sit concealed in the cockles of the company’s dustiest vault. Now, Canada’s oldest retailer is hemming and hawing over donating these culturally-significant artefacts to Indigenous communities requesting them, or selling the artefacts for cold, hard cash… all-the-while refusing to share what’s in their inventory.

Taylor Noakes chats with Jesse about why the Bay’s obfuscation of their collection is more important than a document — even one the king signed.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Jules Bugiel (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking), tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Taylor Noakes

This episode uses generative AI for the following purposes: Voice cloning of Canadaland’s editor and publisher Jesse Brown.

NOTE: A previous version of this episode included a shorter version of Ruby Liu's email to Justice Peter Osborne. The new version includes more of the email.

Further reading:

• Despite requests from Indigenous leaders, HBC artifacts will not be returned - Ricochet
• Billionaire David Thomson wants to buy Hudson's Bay charter, donate it to Manitoba Archives - CBC
• B.C. billionaire wanting Bay leases doesn't have cash to launch new chain: landlord - The Canadian Press
• Liberal MPs call for action against antisemitism after stabbing of Jewish woman in Ottawa - The Globe and Mail

Canadaland Politics is recording a LIVE podcast and Q&A from Calgary on September 22nd, 2025 at 7:30PM MT hosted by Mount Royal University. Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here.

Sponsors:

oxio: Head over to canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free!

The Oat Company: Head over to oatcompany.com and use code CANADALAND20 for 20% off your order. They ship across Canada so you can enjoy them anywhere.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Right now, a hulking Soviet-era Russian cargo plane is just parked at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. And Canada is trying to do something nobody has ever done before…pull off a legal heist. Host Noor sits down with IJF reporter Zak Vescera to talk about why that plane matters, and how far we’re willing to go to keep it.

And the latest on US accusations of lawfare from the International Criminal Court, coupled with a sanction on Judge Kimberly Prost, who sits on the ICC. And, newly released data on the dramatic immigration turnaround.

Host: Noor Azrieh

Credits: Aviva Lessard (Senior Producer), Sam Konnert (Producer), Noor Azrieh (Host/Producer), Caleb Thompson (Audio Editor and Technical Producer), Max Collins (Director of Audio) Jesse Brown (Editor), Tony Wang (Artwork)

Guests: Zak Vescera

Background reading:

• Inside Canada’s legal fight over grounded Russian plane – Investigative Journalism Foundation
• In Kyiv, Carney not ruling out Canadian troops in Ukraine if a peace deal reached – Canada’s National Observer
• Canadian judge among four ICC officials sanctioned by U.S. – The Globe and Mail
• Canada’s latest immigration data revealed: Here’s what happened after a year of seismic changes – Toronto Star

Sponsors:

Head over to canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free!

Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more! To claim, visit ARTICLE.COM/canadaland and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout

If you value this podcast, Support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Can't get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

Canadaland Politics is recording a LIVE podcast and Q&A from Calgary on September 22nd, 2025 at 7:30PM MT hosted by Mount Royal University. Let us know you’re coming by RSVPing here: https://forms.gle/LoxvdZ8LFfubFpGeA

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Three years before the first episode of SNL. Four years before the first episode of SCTV. Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner. Andrea Martin and later Dave Thomas, co-starred in a legendary production of a musical called Godspell at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto.

The show that launched the careers of a whole generation of comedians is now the subject of a new doc at TIFF. Appropriately titled, You Had to Be There: How The Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love and Overalls, and Created a Community that Changed the World (In a Canadian Kind of Way).

Today we speak with someone who had a front row seat to it all. Paul Shaffer, of Letterman fame, but who back in the days of Godspell was just a kid from Thunder Bay gigging in strip clubs on Younge Street. That is, until he landed the job of musical director for the play that would change the comedy world as we know it.

Caleb Thompson (Audio Editor), Bruce Thorson (Senior Producer), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor and Publisher)

Reported by Ilana Gordon

Fact checking by Julian Abraham

Additional music by Audio Network

Further Reading:

You Had to Be There at TIFF

You Had To Be There - IMDB

You Had To Be There - Trailer

Sponsors:

Squarespace: Check out Squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Douglas: Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today. Visit douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer.

oxio: Head over to canadaland.oxio.ca and use code CANADALAND for your first month free!

Article: Article is offering our listeners $50 off your first purchase of $100 or more. To claim, visit article.com/canadaland and the discount will be automatically applied at checkout.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

Can't get enough Canadaland? Follow @Canadaland_Podcasts on Instagram for clips, announcements, explainers and more.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doug Ford, Danielle Smith, and Pierre Poilievre all seem to want to make sure we have the right to beat people up in our homes. Only if they aren’t invited, of course.

Following a case out of Lindsay, Ontario, the media is all abuzz with talk about the right to self-defence in the case of home invasions. But we have a right, within reason. So what’s the big deal? And are we avoiding talking about systemic problems?

Harrison Lowman from The Hub, breaks it all down with Jesse.

Host: Jesse Brown

Credits: Tristan Capacchione (Producer), Lucie Laumonier (Associate Producer and Fact Checking), tom sayers (Audio Editor), max collins (Director of Audio), Jesse Brown (Editor)

Guest: Harrison Lowman

Additional music by Audio Network

Further reading:

• Jamie Sarkonak: Home invasion is serious. The law of self-defence should reflect that — The National Post
• ‘You can’t just get mad’: Lawyer explains limits of self-defence in Canada - CTV News
• Toronto Police Service - Public Safety Data Portal
• J.D.M. Stewart: No more burying our history—The statues of Canada’s prime ministers are out of hiding and back on display - The Hub
• Police Called Over A.I. Protest Against Bell's Booth At FanExpo Canada - Bleeding Cool News

Sponsors:

Squarespace: Check out Squarespace.com/canadaland for a free trial, and when you’re ready to launch use code canadaland to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.

Douglas: Douglas is giving our listeners a FREE Sleep Bundle with each mattress purchase. Get the sheets, pillows, mattress and pillow protectors FREE with your Douglas purchase today. Visit douglas.ca/canadaland to claim this offer.

Car Gurus: Buy your next car today with CarGurus.

If you value this podcast, support us! You’ll get premium access to all our shows ad free, including early releases and bonus content. You’ll also get our exclusive newsletter, discounts on merch at our store, tickets to our live and virtual events, and more than anything, you’ll be a part of the solution to Canada’s journalism crisis, you’ll be keeping our work free and accessible to everybody.

You can listen ad-free on Amazon Music—included with Prime.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.