Guest: Steve Teekens, Executive Director, Na-Me-Res, a Toronto-based Indigenous-run non-profit that provides temporary, transitional and permanent housing

Indigenous people make up less than one per cent of Toronto’s population, but about 15 percent of the city’s homeless. Nationally, they are around 5 percent of the population yet account for more than a third of those without homes. These numbers reflect the ongoing legacy of residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, and systems that continue to fail Indigenous communities. For Indigenous men especially, homelessness is closely tied to untreated mental illness and addiction. Advocates say ending Indigenous homelessness isn’t just policy; it’s a part of reconciliation.

Na-Me-Res, an Indigenous-led organization in Toronto, has been working on shelters, transitional programs, and affordable housing. On this National day for Truth and Reconciliation, we speak to the organization’s Executive Director Steve Teekens —to talk about the crisis — and to share his own family’s story as the grandson of residential school survivors and the son of a Sixties Scoop survivor.

The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available 24-hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of a residential school experience. Support is available at 1-866-925-4419.

This episode was mixed by Paulo Marques

Guest: Ava Smithing, advocacy director at the Young People's Alliance

Young people today have been raised with the most powerful tools in human history at their fingertips. Entire childhoods have played out online, with algorithms acting as babysitter, therapist, and mirror through which they see themselves. And now, we’re seeing what happens when the first generation raised on smart phones comes of age; shaped by platforms designed to manipulate attention and monetize minds.

Ava Smithing was just 12 when she spiraled into a social media rabbit hole that nearly took her life. Years later, she walked the halls of Congress to warn lawmakers about the harms of Big Tech.

Now, she’s the host of the Toronto Star’s new podcast series Left to Their Own Devices that takes a hard look at what happens when kids are left to figure it out alone. She joins This Matters to talk about what led her here.

Produced by Paulo Marques and Sean Pattendon

Guests: Star journalists Ben Spurr and Mahdis Habibinia

The Star’s City Hall bureau has been digging deep into the garbage with its Waste Not, Want Not series, examining how Toronto handles its trash and how the choices we make shape our city. In this episode, City Hall Bureau Chief Ben Spurr explains where most of our garbage actually ends up and what options the city has next, with its main landfill nearing capacity in just over a decade. Then, reporter Mahdis Habibinia shares what she learned from Torontonians trying to live a zero-waste lifestyle, and offers some practical advice on how the rest of us can start cutting down on trash at home.

Produced by Paulo Marques