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Chaos in the Saint John Police Force | A Few Bad Apples
Jun 25, 2026
14m 33s
Inside Canada’s Billionaire Sexual Assault Trial
Jun 17, 2026
1h 13m 34s
The RCMP’s War on Dissent | A Few Bad Apples
Jun 11, 2026
12m 03s
The Killing of Nooran Rezayi | A Few Bad Apples
Jun 5, 2026
47m 17s
Inside Canada's Shadow Financial System
May 14, 2026
9m 39s
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| Date | Episode | Topics | Guests | Brands | Places | Keywords | Sponsor | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6/25/26 | ![]() Chaos in the Saint John Police Force | A Few Bad Apples | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.comThere’s an unfortunate tendency to talk about the cops as some kind of a monolith.And don’t worry, I’m not about to go on some lecture about how not all police officers are bad. I just mean that we often miss that police forces are complex, political institutions with competing centres of power.There are the police boards that are supposed to govern these forces and maintain civilian rule over the cops; the police chief and upper management that run the force and oversee the day-to-day operations; the rank-and-file cops who actually do the police work; and the union that represents them.Even in relatively well-run police forces, there’s inevitably going to be tension between these different levels. But it’s not uncommon for those tensions to turn into outright infighting and backstabbing, which can have profound implications everyday people.That’s one way to think about what’s been happening in Saint John, New Brunswick.The city’s police chief Robert Bruce has been in his position since 2021.And over the last year, tensions that had been building between him and everyday officers have spilled out into the open in dramatic fashion. A police union rep was dragged out of a city council meeting by force. Numerous harassment complaints have been filed against the chief by the officers working directly with him.And you have a police force where one out of every five officers is on leave, putting a major drain on the city’s resources.But the chief claims that at the heart of all of this is simply the police union playing dirty, and refusing to go along with the change that is necessary to modernize the Saint John police force and make it more accountable.So what is actually going on here? And who’s in the right?Andrew Bates, a reporter from The Telegraph-Journal, joined us in The Hatchet studios in Toronto to help us make sense of this mess.To Learn More:"Chief said wounded officer 'had it coming to him,' lawsuit alleges" by Andrew Bates in The Telegraph-Journal"Chief says he faced 'resistance' to change from union" by Andrew Bates in The Telegraph-Journal"Saint John police union rep forcibly removed from council chambers" by Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon in CBC News "Saint John police Chief Robert Bruce announces retirement amid conduct complaints" by Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon in CBC News | 14m 33s | ||||||
| 6/17/26 | ![]() Inside Canada’s Billionaire Sexual Assault Trial | For the last few years, it’s become almost a cliché to talk about how we’re in the middle of a new era of accountability when it comes to sexual violence. Whether it’s the prosecution of Harvey Weinstein or the ongoing revelations from the Epstein Files, the rich, famous and powerful appear to be having their crimes exposed and, on occasion, even punished. Here in Canada it’s been no different. There have been numerous media exposes on the prevalence of sexual violence in arenas as varied as media, sports, business, politics, the service industry and so many others.But when it comes to actually prosecuting these alleged crimes in the legal system, Canada’s track record has been much more mixed. The Jian Ghomeshi trial, which kicked off Canada’s #MeToo movement years before The New York Times expose on Harvey Weinstein, ended with an acquittal. On the other hand, billionaire fashion mogul Peter Nygard is now serving eleven years in prison for sexually assaulting four women in Toronto at the height of his fame and power. Quebec technology billionaire Robert Miller was arrested and faced two dozens charged, including sexually assaulting minors. But last year he was found unfit to face trial due to advanced Parkinson’s disease.And last year’s Hockey Canada trial, maybe the most high-profile case of them all, ended without any guilty verdicts.If there’s one takeaway that I have from all of these trials and the way that they’ve been covered, it’s this — each trial comes to represent the whole in the public’s mind. Each individual case became a litmus test on whether or not #MeToo has gone too far or not far enough. And the trial of Frank Stronach has been no different.Stronach is one of the most recognizable and influential billionaires in Canadian history. The founder of Magna International, an auto parts manufacturer, he has long been considered to be a leading light of Canadian industry. And he never shied away from the spotlight, making himself a near-constant public figure in the worlds of thoroughbred horse-racing and politics, both in Canada and in his birth country of Austria. But two years ago, he was arrested and eventually charged with eighteen alleged sexual crimes involving thirteen women, from a period that spanned from 1977 to 2024. And when the stories first broke, it was hard not to see just how remarkably similar most of the accounts from the alleged victims were. From the outside, it seemed like these charges would lead to a successful prosecution and significant jail time.But today, that no longer appears nearly as certain. Stronach is facing two separate trials, the first of which wrapped up in April. And that trial has been an unmitigated disaster for the Crown.During the course of the trial, it was revealed that the police hadn’t even tried to verify whether or not Frank Stronach was in the country for one of the alleged assaults. Prosecutors were upbraided by the judge for allowing an accuser to knowingly lie on the stand. And the Crown was forced to drop charges related to three of the seven accusers, putting into question the entire course of the prosecution. The judge is expected to deliver her verdict as early as this week.So what happened here? And is any of this indicative of a broader trend or a larger point?Stronach’s defence team certainly thinks so. Here’s what defence lawyer Leora Shemesh said in her closing arguments.“I say with the greatest respect that the pendulum has swung so far the other way that we’ve really lost our ability to balance and respect our constitutional norms. This “Believe all Women” and the “#MeToo” movement and political platforms of not challenging women or testing their complaints really have no place in our criminal justice system.”So is she right? Is this a case of #MeToo gone too far?I’m not so sure. Part of me suspects that if this trial is indicative of anything, it’s about broader failures of police and prosecutors to take their jobs as seriously as they should. That it might be part of a pattern of procedural laziness that has doomed so many other high-profile cases in Canada.Here to talk about it all is Joseph Brean, a reporter for The National Post, who has been covering the trial from inside the court room. We go in-depth about what actually happened during the trial, whether or not it represents broader failures in the justice system and if criminal trials can ever bring justice for historical sexual assaults. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 1h 13m 34s | ||||||
| 6/11/26 | ![]() The RCMP’s War on Dissent | A Few Bad Apples✨ | political repressionRCMP history+4 | — | RCMPCBC News+1 | CanadaWorld War One+6 | RCMPpolitical repression+4 | — | 12m 03s | |
| 6/5/26 | ![]() The Killing of Nooran Rezayi | A Few Bad Apples✨ | police misconductCanadian policing+4 | Ted Rutland | — | CanadaToronto+6 | Nooran Rezayipolice misconduct+6 | — | 47m 17s | |
| 5/14/26 | ![]() Inside Canada's Shadow Financial System✨ | organized crimemoney laundering+4 | Emma McIntosh | The Toronto Star | Canada | cryptocurrencymoney laundering+5 | — | 9m 39s | |
| 5/1/26 | ![]() British Columbia Can’t Outrun the Past✨ | Indigenous rightsBC politics+3 | Adam Olsen | Hatchet Media | British Columbia | British ColumbiaIndigenous rights+5 | — | 9m 46s | |
| 4/24/26 | ![]() Canada's Monopolies Are Marching On (w/ Peter Nowak & Vass Bednar)✨ | media industryjournalism+4 | Peter NowakVass Bednar | Do Not Pass GoBuzzFeed+2 | — | Canadamedia+7 | — | 21m 46s | |
| 4/23/26 | ![]() Fishy Business on the Island (w/ Stu Neatby)✨ | corruption scandalpolitics+3 | Stu Neatby | The GuardianRCMP | Prince Edward Island | corruptionPrince Edward Island+5 | — | 9m 09s | |
| 4/14/26 | ![]() The Promise and Peril of Avi Lewis (w/ Nora Loreto)✨ | Avi LewisNDP leadership+3 | Nora Loreto | NDPHatchet Media+8 | — | Avi LewisNDP+5 | — | 51m 35s | |
| 2/14/26 | ![]() The Toronto Police Has Been a Rogue Agency for Too Long. Rein Them In.✨ | police misconductdrug trafficking+5 | — | Toronto Police Service | TorontoCanada | Toronto Policedrug trafficking+7 | — | 29m 25s | |
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| 2/6/26 | ![]() Separation Anxiety (w/ Paul Wells)✨ | federal politicsCanadian political journalism+3 | Paul Wells | Hatchet MediaThe Hatchet | Canada | federal politicsCanada+3 | — | 6m 05s | |
| 1/20/26 | ![]() The Green Party is a Natural Disaster✨ | Green PartyCanadian politics+4 | Mark Lerien-Young | Green Party of CanadaHatchet Media+1 | — | Green PartyCanada+5 | — | 6m 03s | |
| 1/9/26 | ![]() The Dark Prince of Bay Street | Brookfield | Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.comIn 1978, a South African accountant orchestrated one of the most audacious and ruthless hostile takeovers in the history of Canadian business.His name was Jack Cockwell. And over the next decade, he would build a corporate empire unlike anything Canada had ever seen.This is the third episode in our series examining the history of Brookfield. In our first two episodes, we traced the company’s lineage through Brazilian Traction, the neo-colonial monopoly that dominated South America, and through the Bronfmans, the bootlegging dynasty that supplied liquor to American gangsters during Prohibition.But those were just the origin stories. This episode is about what happened when those two worlds collided.Edper-Brascan controlled over 500 companies. The beer you drank, the team you watched, the mall you shopped at, the house you lived in — all of it could be traced back to this sprawling conglomerate. At its height, it was worth more than $120 billion.All of this was Jack Cockwell’s domain. Immigrant, corporate philosopher, ruthless operator, Cockwell single-handedly imposed his will on Canada’s business establishment and dominated the 1980s like no one else.But by the end of the decade, people on Bay Street began to whisper.Something was rotten at the heart of Cockwell’s empire. They said that the whole thing was a mirage. A lie. A house of card waiting to fall over.They all turned out to be right.To learn more:The Brass Ring: Power, Influence and the Brascan Empire by Patricia Best & Ann ShortellEdper by Keith Dalrymple“The Edper Puzzle” by Kimberly Noble in The Globe and Mail“The Second Coming” by Rod McQueen in The Financial Post“Fears for a Leveraged Leviathan” by Clyde Farnsworth in The New York Times“He was a titan of Bay Street and a senator. But J. Trevor Eyton died owing millions in taxes and on the verge of bankruptcy” by David Bruser & Jesse McLean in The Toronto Star This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 1h 07m 18s | ||||||
| 1/7/26 | ![]() The House of Bronfman | Brookfield | Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThis is the second episode in our series about Brookfield, the Canadian financial giant. In our first episode, we told you about one half of the company’s corporate lineage — Brascan, the Canadian monopoly that dominated Brazil for half-a-century.But Brookfield has another parent — the Bronfman family. And their story is even more remarkable.It begins in the dusty prairie towns of Saskatchewan at the turn-of-the-century, where Jewish cowboys and American gangsters came together to create one of the great fortunes in world history.And behind every great fortune, there is a great crime. And the crimes of the Bronfmans were numerous. But they were able to get away with it all, thanks to bribery, destruction of evidence and the intimidation of witnesses.For decades, the Bronfmans were able to write their own history of how their wealth was acquired. But the truth can only stay buried for so long.The Bronfman dynasty is one of the greatest dynasties that the Americas have ever seen. But like so many dynasties, they would fall apart into ignominy.And at the centre of all of this was the most powerful businessman in Canadian history, the kingpin himself — Sam Bronfman.Featured in this episode: Stephen Maher, Jordan CornishTo learn moreThe Bronfman Dynasty: The Rothschilds of the New World by Peter C. Newman“The ties that bind the Liberals and the Bronfmans” by Stephen Maher in Maclean’sThe Brass Ring: Power, Influence, and the Brascan Empire by Patricia Best & Ann ShortellThe Bronfmans: The Rise and Fall of the House of Seagram by Nicholas FaithMavericks: Canadian Rebels, Renegades and Anti-Heroes by Peter C. NewmanMusic“Throne of the Soul” by Nihilore. Adapted. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"Magic Escape Room"Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 56m 40s | ||||||
| 1/6/26 | ![]() The Canadian Octopus | Brookfield | This episode was first published on April 12th, 2025. Happy New Year, Hatchet listeners!The chance to put out good journalism is its own reward, but to everyone who has listened, shared, or supported us over the last year—thank you. We wanted to kick off the year by updating you on our series on Brookfield. It’s been a long road, but we’ll be publishing the next two new episodes this week, with more to come later in the month.We can’t wait for you to hear it.But before you do, we wanted to re-publish the first episode in the series. It’s an important primer for an increasingly complicated story.Brookfield has been in the news constantly over recent months. The Conservatives attacked the company for moving the headquarters of one of their subsidiaries to New York City. The NDP have accused it of avoiding taxes through offshore havens. And Prime Minister Mark Carney, the former chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, has found himself on the defensive because of his association with the company.But what these political attacks miss is a far more important story. It’s a story of a company that has been central to Canada’s history and economy for more than a century.So what exactly is Brookfield? That’s a question that we here at The Hatchet have set out to answer.What we found was a company that almost defies description.Brookfield has been a financial universe unto itself, operating by a different set of cosmic laws and fundamental forces than other corporations.It’s a company that’s shown an almost unparalleled talent for reinvention. Over its 125-year-history, it’s morphed from a neo-colonial experiment to Canada’s most ruthless corporate raider to a seemingly boring storehouse of our collective pension earnings.Now it is one of a tiny handful of financial entities that sit at the very centre of the global economy.And so that’s why we’ll be spending this series focusing exclusively on this incredibly important and yet rarely understood company.We’ll be digging into its epic history, its contentious present and what the continued domination of firms like Brookfield could mean for everyday people.In this first episode, we shine a light on it’s first incarnation — Brazilian Traction, Light and Power — and how it managed to dominate the people of South America’s biggest nation for most of the 20th century.Featured in this episode: Tyler ShipleyTo learn moreCanada In The World: Settler Capitalism and the Colonial Imagination by Tyler ShipleyThe Brass Ring: Power, Influence and the Brascan Empire by Patricia Best & Ann ShortellLet Us Prey: The Practices and Profits of Canadian Corporations and Businessmen edited by Robert Chodos & Ray MurphyThe Light: Brazilian Traction, Light, and Power Company Limited, 1899-1945 by Duncan McDowallSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 29m 18s | ||||||
| 12/3/25 | ![]() What the mainstream media won't tell you about Jeffrey Epstein | I’ve had a hard time knowing what to make of the still-unfolding saga around Jeffrey Epstein.Like basically everyone else in the world, I’ve been following the story with interest for years.Even before the Miami Herald’s explosive 2018 investigation into the extend of his sexual abuse and how he had been able to get away with it, I had a vague understanding of a man named Jeffrey Epstein who abused girls and hobnobbed with powerful men like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates.And since then we’ve learned so much more. There have been so many journalistic investigations into Epstein’s connections with the elite, into his finances and into the circumstances around his death.Of course, we’re still left with more questions than answers. Which has allowed Epstein to become this sort of Ur-conspiracy theory that people online obsess over. Was he a CIA asset or a Mossad agent? Was he collecting blackmail on the rich and powerful? Did he really kill himself?But somehow, there was a part of me that felt like these were the wrong questions to ask. That they didn’t explain exactly who this guy was and why he was able to get away with what he did for so long. And didn’t really get at the heart of why this story has global importance.And then just the other week, I read a piece by Canadian journalist Jeet Heer in The Nation that made it all make sense to me.Heer argues that the Epstein was — alongside many other things — a warlord.He was basing this assessment on a number of articles that have been coming out of publications like Drop Site News and Reason that examine troves of email correspondence that Epstein had that the mainstream media is so far refusing to report on.And the case he makes is compelling. So I decided to give Jeet a call and ask him all about it.Featured in this episode: Jeet HeerTo learn more"Jeffrey Epstein Was a Warlord. We Have to Talk About It." by Jeet Heer in The Nation"Jeffrey Epstein and the Mossad: How The Sex-Trafficker Helped Israel Build a Backchannel to Russia Amid Syrian Civil War" by Murtaza Hussain & Ryan Grim in Drop Site News"Inside Jeffrey Epstein's Spy Industry Connections" by Matthew Petti in ReasonSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 28m 49s | ||||||
| 11/11/25 | ![]() Guns and Splutter: Breaking Down the Budget | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.comThe much anticipated budget is finally here and it promises to make "Canada Strong."Between the eye-popping promise to enable $1 trillion dollars in investments over the next five years and the $78.3 billion deficit, there’s a lot to take in.And that’s before we get into the really critical stuff… like maybe Canada will try to join Eurovision for some reason? (We don't talk about Eurovision at all).Today on The Hatchet, Jordan sits down with Arshy to break down the budget and try to make sense of what this all means for Canada.Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque | 3m 48s | ||||||
| 11/3/25 | ![]() Wild, Wild (Rose) Country | So last week, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith used the notwithstanding clause to force Alberta teachers back to work.It’s the first time the notwithstanding clause has ever been used in this kind of a manner to end a labour action. And that’s led to some softening of support for Danielle Smith.But here’s the truth. The latest polls show that if an election were held today, Danielle Smith’s United Conservative Party would still easily come out on top.Why is that? How is Smith’s appeal so resilient? And why the hell can’t Naheed Nenshi and the Alberta NDP get their s**t together?Well, luckily for us, Jeremy Appel from The Orchard is here to answer those questions and many more.A few months ago we had a great discussion with Jen Gerson about the unique political figure that is Danielle Smith and her relationship with Alberta’s nascent sovereignty movement. You can think of this conversation with Jeremy as a bit of a sequel to that one.We talk about some of the underlying reasons behind the teacher’s strike, Smith’s continued flirtation with separatism, how she holds her coalition together with culture wars, the return of pipeline politics and of course, the many failures of Alberta’s NDP.Now just for context, this was recorded before Smith invoked the notwithstanding clause, but the discussion is still just as relevant today.Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 44m 38s | ||||||
| 10/31/25 | ![]() Killing Canada Post | In 1965, Canada’s postal workers did something so radical, so unprecedented, that it shook our country’s political establishment to the core.They went on strike.It was radical and unprecedented because up until then public employees had no right to walk off the job. But for two weeks, postal workers conducted an illegal wildcat action which, by the end of it, saw them winning the right to strike for almost all government workers.Over the next few decades, you’d see the same pattern time and time again. In the 1970s, union leaders were jailed for defying back-to-work legislation. And in 1981, the union won the right for paid-maternity leave, a first for the public sector, and a right that would gradually expand to many other workers.In other words, you can attribute many of our labour rights, and even key planks of the welfare state, to the resolve of posties past.But the age of the noble postal worker appears to be coming to an end. The Liberal government announced major cuts to Canada Post’s core services last months.And I know what you’re thinking.This was all inevitable, wasn’t it?After all, who sends letters nowadays? Maybe once-upon-a-time Canada needed a public mail service, but those days are long behind us. And sure, we’re all sad for the thousands of those people at Canada Post who will be laid off, but that’s just the way of the world.That’s the narrative that you’re hearing regurgitated in comment sections across the internet and in quotes from business professors to the mainstream press.But the ongoing labour dispute between Canada Post and its workers is far more complicated, and far more important, than that simplistic story.Instead this is a story about the hollowing out of the Canadian state. About the gigification of work. About how the managerial class places their need to control workers over the viability of the actual businesses that they run.So to talk about it all, we’re bringing on Adam D.K. King, a labour studies professor at the University of Manitoba and a labour columnist for The Maple, who has been following this story for years.Featured in this episode: Adam D.K. KingTo learn more"Canada Post’s Moment Of Reckoning May Finally Be Here" by Adam D.K. King in The Maple"Return to Sender: As Canada Post evades bankruptcy, workers push back on a future where efficiency trumps the collective" by Stephan Boissonneault in Maisonneuve"Liberal government instructs Canada Post to end home delivery, close some post offices" Peter Zimonjic in CBC NewsSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 55m 05s | ||||||
| 10/24/25 | ![]() Election Shock on the Rock | I think it’s kind of funny how we talk about election campaigns while they’re in progress. Between the polling and the poll aggregators, there’s often a feeling of inevitability to the result.But it also makes those times when the result is unexpected, when the actual will of the voters turns out to be very different from what the polls and the pundits predicted, to stand out in stark relief.We got one of those last week.The polls that were conducted in Newfoundland and Labrador’s provincial election campaign showed that the incumbent Liberals were set to handily win another majority, which would have been their fourth victory in a row. The only question seemed to be how big their victory would be.But it was not to be.The Progressive Conservatives, led by the mild-mannered Tony Wakeham, prevailed, rendering John Hogan a half-year premier.But really, all of this has just been a capper to an incredibly strange year in Newfoundland and Labrador politics.It started when Premier Andrew Furey announced that he and Quebec premier François Legault had created a framework for a new deal around Churchill Falls. Since 1969, Newfoundland and Labrador has provided unbelievably cheap energy to Quebec from Churchill Falls. The lopsided arrangement has been a thorn-in-the-side for the province ever since.We talked about this all in-depth earlier this year in an episode about Churchill Falls.But not long after announcing this new deal, Furey resigned. With no explanation.The PC’s election victory has put the Churchill Falls deal, which was the centrepiece of the Liberal campaign, into question.So what does all of this mean for Newfoundland and Labrador, for Churchill Falls and for the country during a testy time for Confederation?I decided to call up friend of The Hatchet Ed Hollett, one of the keenest political observers on the Rock, to talk about it all.Featured in this episode: Edward Hollett (Bond Papers)To learn moreThe Hundred Years' War between Newfoundland and Quebec from The Hatchet"Easy grift and hard graft" by Edward Hollet in Bond Papers"Red Team. Blue Team." by Edward Hollet in Bond PapersSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 36m 25s | ||||||
| 10/8/25 | ![]() The Decline and Fall of the Canadian State (w/ Nora Loreto) | Why can’t the government do stuff?I’m not being facetious here. I think most Canadians — in fact, most people who live in western democracies — have a feeling that their governments are incapable of actually delivering on projects or providing services.But it wasn’t always this way. There was an era, not so far back in the future, when the Canadian governments turned petrochemicals into plastics, dug uranium out of the ground, operated airlines and railroads and so much more.But today, governments seem to be focused exclusively on two things: handing out money to big businesses and overseeing an increasingly fraying social safety net.So how exactly did we get here?Nora Loreto has part of the answer. Earlier this year, she released the second book in her Canada in Decline series called Corporate Control.In it, she details the policy decisions that hollowed out the Canadian government and makes it next-to-impossible to actually get anything done.In our conversation, we cover a lot of ground, from free trade to the Chrétien/Martin austerity budgets, the rise and fall of Crown corporations and why governments don’t care about Canadian culture.I think it’s really one of the most interesting discussions we’ve had on this show so far, so I’m excited for you all to give it a listen.Featured in this episode: Nora LoretoTo Learn MoreCorporate Control by Nora Loreto"What Canadian nationalism?" by Nora Loreto on SubstackThe Social Safety Net by Nora LoretoSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 1h 06m 01s | ||||||
| 10/4/25 | ![]() Monopoly Man (w/ Peter Nowak) | Back a few years ago, there was this moment where it felt like there was a movement building against monopolies.It started in the United States with academics like Lena Khan and Tim Wu and journalists like Matt Stoller speaking out about the creeping corporate concentration that was infecting so much of American life.Eventually that movement found purchase in the Biden administration, which put antitrust at the centre of their agenda.And because Canada is always a little bit behind the United States, we got our own version of that movement. And in a weird way, Jordan and I were both a part of that, when in 2022 and 2023 we put out our series on Monopolies on Canadaland COMMONS. It really felt like momentum was building and that everyday people were getting more and more upset about the domination of the big banks and the big telcos and the big grocery chains.But recently, it’s felt like that momentum has kind of….gone away. And there’s still plenty of people working on this issues here, but at least in terms of journalism, the trade war and the Trump administration and a million other things seem to have distracted away from what I still believe is such an essential issue.And that’s why I was so excited to get an email from Peter Nowak a few months ago. He said he had an idea and wanted to talk.Now for those of you don’t know Peter, he’s a longtime journalist who has done some amazing work over the years.When I was getting interested in business reporting more than a decade ago, Peter was one of the best out there. His main focus was the telecom industry. And that was a really interesting time for the telecoms. The Harper government was actually putting some pressure on them and had appointed an aggressive CRTC commissioner instead of just the usual corporate toady. And Peter was a dogged reporters covering all of this and was honestly a bit of an inspiration for me. He was the kind of journalist that I one day wanted to be. But he’d gone off to work at tech savvy, a small internet service provider, a few years back, so I thought he was out of the game.So I was really excited when he told me that not only did he want to get back into journalism, but that he saw our Monopoly series on COMMONS as his primary inspiration.You know, when you hear that kind of thing from someone you really admire, it’s pretty damn flattering. But more than that, I just think it’s so important, so necessary right now to have dedicated journalists on the monopoly beat.This week, Peter has finally launched his own Substack called Do Not Pass Go, the first two episodes are out already, and you should absolutely go subscribe and give it a listen.And we wanted to sit down to talk to him about reporting on monopolies, what he has in store and why he always forces himself to drive to another city just to watch a movie.Featured in this episode: Peter NowakTo Learn MoreDo Not Pass Go: The Debut Episode The Great Awakening: Competition Commissioner Matthew BoswellSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe | 36m 44s | ||||||
| 9/26/25 | ![]() Visions of Vancouver (w/ Justin McElroy) | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.comVancouver is a funny place.It’s without a doubt the most beautiful city in the country, probably also the continent and maybe even the world — at least when the sun’s shining. The rainy season, which lasts around eight months of the year, can turn it into a dreary, inescapable limbo.It’s a place filled luxury car dealerships, high-end watch stores and other markers of flamboyant wealth. But also absolutely heart-wrenching displays of visible poverty.Vancouverites are simultaneously proud of their city, and often deeply insecure about how it compares to other metropolises.It’s also, I’d argue, deeply misunderstood by the rest of the country.Strangely enough, Vancouver, and British Columbia more broadly, are left out of the national conversation, despite its population, economic importance and unique political culture.There’s this conversation I always have with my journalism friends from BC about how whatever’s happening in Vancouver eventually ends up becoming the rest of the country’s problem. You’ve seen that over and over again, whether it’s about the housing crisis or debates around drug use or crime.And so I figured, why not just bring one of those friends on to have that discussion right here on The Hatchet.Last week I was at a wedding in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where I was able to corner my old friend and CBC Vancouver’s municipal reporter Justin McElroy, and bully him into being on the show.For the British Columbians in the audience, Justin really needs no introduction. He is by almost any measure one of the best-known journalists in the province. And he’s gained this enormous cult following, not just through his reporting or his penchant for ranking things, but because he has an almost uncanny ability to make people care about the things that he cares about.And in addition to being one of my oldest friends, Justin is also the man who taught me how to be a journalist more than fifteen years ago.In this conversation, we talk a little bit about Justin’s erstwhile fame, and then give listeners a full political education in all things Vancouver and why the rest of the country should be paying for attention.And after that, for our paid supporters, we have a little something extra. Justin and I do some reminiscing about the good old days, when we worked together at The Ubyssey, UBC’s student newspaper. So if you want to hear about how I forced Justin to resign as editor of the newspaper, whether or not I was a decent roommate or the time we were in an honest-to-god zombie apocalypse, make sure to become a paid supporter today.Featured in this episode: Justin McElroyTo Learn More:"B.C. government says more oversight coming for dysfunctional municipalities" by Justin McElroy in CBC News"Vancouver's byelection a story of big lines, big passion, and ABC coping with a big loss" by Justin McElroy in CBC NewsThe Four Pillars Revisited by Sam Fenn and Gordon Katic in The TyeeSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque | 58m 16s | ||||||
| 9/5/25 | ![]() Northern Apocalypse | The Canadian Pacific | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.comThis episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Canadian Pacific created a nation. But it also destroyed nations in the process.This is our third and final episode in our series about the building of the CPR and the foundation of Canada. And at the heart of this story is an unescapable question — what did it cost to create this country? And who paid that terrible price?In the years after Confederation, Canada signed treaties with numerous Indigenous nations on the plains, promising aid in the event of a famine. But when the buffalo were slaughtered into extinction, the Canadian government was unable — or unwilling — to fulfill its treaty obligations.At the same time, the CPR was facing financial ruin. And if it fell, Canada as an independent political entity would almost certainly cease to exist.Famine, disease, economic collapse — all of these calamities came to a head in 1885, the single most significant year in Canadian history. Which is when Louis Riel rose up once again. Featured in this episode: Stephen BownTo Learn More:Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen BownThe Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, David McIlwraith & Wanda Joy HoeThe North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean TeilletThe National DreamSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque | 30m 13s | ||||||
| 9/4/25 | ![]() Blood on the Tracks | The Canadian Pacific | This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.comThis episode is available immediately to paid supporters. For unpaid supporters, we're providing a short preview. Please consider supporting us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThere’s a story we like to tell ourselves about how Canada was built. It’s about John A. Macdonald’s fearless vision and how Canadians across the continent came together in a noble quest to create a nation.And then there’s what actually happened.This is the second instalment in our series on the Canadian Pacific Railroad and the founding of Canada. Paid supporters can listen to it immediately. And if you aren’t already supporting us, please consider joining The Hatchet family, it’s only $11 a month.In this episode, we're looking at what happens when the most powerful politician in the land gets into bed with the richest man in the country. And how the workers caught in the wake of their machinations end up paying the price. Prime Minister John A. Macdonald promised to build a railroad that would unite Canada, and went so far as to rig an election to get his way. But the robber barons who financed his corruption ended up turning on him. They blackmailed Canada’s first prime minister and plunged the country into a crisis. And after the rich and powerful were done destroying each other, thousands of workers risked life and limb to build an industrial marvel that would benefit everyone except them. Many of the men who crossed an ocean to do this work wouldn’t make it home alive. And even those who survived saw their rights stripped away, year after year.This is the story of how Canada was really built — political corruption, exploitation and a willingness to sacrifice everyday people at the altar of the progress.Sound familiar?The final episode in our series will be available to paid supporters tomorrow.Featured in this episode: Stephen BownTo Learn More:Dominion: The Railway and the Rise of Canada by Stephen BownThe Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain by Dukesang Wong, David McIlwraith & Wanda Joy HoeThe North-West Is Our Mother: The Story of Louis Riel's People, the Métis Nation by Jean TeilletThe National DreamSupport us at hatchetmedia.substack.comThe Hatchet is a podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. We deliver important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works.Music: I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque | 40m 12s | ||||||
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