lower case truth

so weed is legal, now what? the war on drugs has had devastating impacts, especially on black and indigenous communities that have been over-policed, charged and incarcerated for drug possession offenses despite similar rates of use across racial groups. upwards of 500,000 canadians still have criminal records for cannabis possession even though it is now legal. in this episode, maggie speaks with criminologist akwasi owusu-bempah about why we need to expunge those records and make amends for some of the injustices of the war on drugs.

what's the deal with snc lavalin? is it really a scandal? three women have resigned from justin trudeau's caucus in the wake of allegations that he pressured then justice minister and attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to pursue a deferred prosecution agreement for snc lavalin who have been involved in all sorts of corruption and bribery scandals around the world. Trudeau denies pressuring JWR and claims that he was doing his job to stand up for canadian jobs and canadian workers. is he full of shit? is it fair to create an ultimatum between jobs and law and order? is he not the woke feminist we thought he was? in this episode of lower case truth, maggie speaks to historian and political commentator Christo Aivalis about the snc lavalin debacle, the upcoming federal election and how we get out of a lesser of two evils politics. as the conservatives, ndp, liberals, and green party try to differentiate themselves in the wake of this scandal and gear up for the election, how do we tell who is genuine and who isn't? don't all politicians lie? 

in this episode of lower case truth, maggie speaks with journalist and professor Henry Giroux about higher education and threats to democracy in post truth times. henry calls bs on jordan peterson (and others) who claim that the university has been taken over by the left. he argues that democratic public spheres and public goods are disintegrating and being replaced by a culture that promotes alienation, competitiveness and hyper-individualism. he says that people are dying for some sense of community and that the right has done a good job of filling in that narrative. but this is changing as we speak. 

hi! i'm maggie reid and this is a podcast about truth in a post truth world. is free speech dead on university campuses? has higher education been hijacked by marxists? lower case truth takes a critical look at some of the truths and alternative facts that have been produced about higher education in recent years. we’ll be speaking to experts to get to the bottom of Capital T Truth, lower case truth, and all the truthiness in between. if we can’t find truth, we’ll settle for nuance.