White Coat, Black Art

In 2009, Kay Carter asks her daughter to help her die. Assisted suicide is illegal in Canada, and 89-year-old Kay has spinal stenoisis — a painful degenerative disease. So she and her daughter, Lee Carter, covertly plan a trip to Switzerland, where Kay takes a lethal barbiturate, followed by a square of chocolate, and says goodbye. It’s a good death, and Lee decides it can leave a legacy. So despite the risk of prosecution, she goes public with Kay’s story, triggering a court battle to make doctor-assisted death legal in Canada.

See You in Court host Falen Johnson and journalist Clare Bonnyman tell the story of Carter vs. Canada, and the family who found themselves at the centre of a national debate about who decides when life is worth living.

This episode is part one. Part two can be found here: https://link.mgln.ai/SYICS2xWCBAxEP2

The stories behind the legal battles that changed Canada — and the unlikely people who made it happen. Some were sh*t disturbers, some were convicts, and some were just regular folks dragged into a fight.

Each week on See You in Court, host Falen Johnson teams up with a journalist to dig into a case that challenged the status quo, and asks: what kind of person takes on the law? What are the costs? And what would our lives look like if these cases never happened? Because let's be real, just because a case is closed doesn't mean the story’s over. More episodes of See You in Court are available here: https://link.mgln.ai/SYICS2xWCBA

Alberta has a new law allowing eligible surgeons and anesthesiologists to perform publicly funded and private-pay surgeries. This dual practice is a first for Canada. Alberta politicians believe it will reduce wait times for elective surgeries like hip or knee replacements. Critics say there isn’t enough staff to go around, and those waiting in the public system for surgery will wait longer.

Wendy Wittenberg’s son, Ebel, completely changed after a brief illness. He went from being a confident 10-year-old who loved school, to having separation anxiety, mood swings, and OCD symptoms. Wendy is confident he has PANS/PANDAS. The challenge is that it’s a diagnosis that some doctors still don’t know about or believe in, says pediatrician Dr. Wendy Edwards.

​Ask any Islander and they'll likely tell you that heavy alcohol use on PEI is ingrained. "It's a reality of our culture and our socializing," says Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Heather Morrison. But she's determined to change that. Working with fellow Islanders like Brenda Simmons of MADD, whose son Jacob was killed on his bike by a driver who'd had 13 drinks, Dr. Morrison has released a sweeping provincial alcohol strategy that other parts of Canada may want to study.

Pope Leo XIV, who isn’t known to be a smoker, has been diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma. In this episode, Toronto father Winhan Wong shares his journey with that same disease. He was diagnosed nine years ago and was also a non-smoker. In Canada, one in four cases of lung cancer now occur in people who have never smoked. Thoracic surgeon Dr. Christian Finley explains why these cases are rising, the stigma patients face, and efforts to develop a national plan.

Dr. Michael Antil left North Carolina in mid‑2023 with his wife and kids, driven out by an increasingly conservative political climate and COVID-era hostility toward doctors. He’s now a family physician to over 2,000 patients in Toronto. He was repeatedly denied permanent residency in Canada, lost in a maze of paperwork and immigration red tape. In this encore episode, we have an exciting update to Dr. Antil’s battle with bureaucracy.

For Black women in Nova Scotia, getting basic health care can be a real struggle – so the Nova Scotia Sisterhood, a primary care clinic in Dartmouth, takes a different approach. Detailed intakes lead to everything from cancer screening to mental health care, delivered by a Black female team that understands the community. And there are Pap parties, too.

Farley Yuras, 74, traveled to Poland to have both knees replaced after the wait in Edmonton became unbearable. He and his wife say that because of long delays, Alberta should reimburse people who leave the country for medically necessary surgery. Steven Lewis, an adjunct professor of health policy at UBC, says the wait for elective surgeries in many provinces is “chaos and anarchy,” and needs fixing.

Dr. Erin Norris used to hide her multiple sclerosis to preserve her career as a rheumatologist. She was following an unspoken rule in medicine: either you practice at 100%, or you can’t practice at all. Yet one in five Canadian MDs self-identifies as having a disability. Now, Dr. Norris has rebuilt a career that works for her – all while challenging an ableist medical culture that pushes doctors with disabilities out the door.

Minnesota nurse Shane Tyson was frustrated by patients going without care because they couldn’t afford medication, and shaken by an ICE arrest at his hospital. Meanwhile, Canada needs nurses – and when Tyson saw B.C. was recruiting, he made the move to Nanaimo. Local volunteers Tod and Jocelyn Maffin have built an online community helping health-care workers like Shane move to Canada.

Gurleen Kaur Chahal is one of the inaugural students at Toronto Metropolitan University’s new Peel Region medical school, designed to serve the area’s diverse population. In this encore episode, she shares her determination to be part of the solution for the kinds of struggles her multigenerational Punjabi household has faced accessing care.

After 25+ years as a family physician, Dr. Fan-Wah Mang closed her practice because she burned out. Now, she’s at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, teaching the next generation of family doctors how to avoid the pitfalls that made her leave. In this encore episode, two of her residents also share what they’ll need to be a family physician long term, and it may surprise you.

When Ned Bell’s wife was recovering from cancer surgery at Vancouver General Hospital, the unappetizing food she was served left a bad taste in his mouth. So the five-star chef teamed up with her surgeon to rethink patient meals. In this encore episode, Dr. Brian Goldman visits Chef Bell to see how the “Planetary Health Menu” is improving patient health while reducing the carbon footprint of hospital food.

Allan Brooks tumbled down a ChatGPT rabbit hole after an innocuous question about pi. Three weeks and 7,000 prompts later, he emerged from a 300-hour spiral. In this encore episode, psychiatrist Dr. Keith Sakata, who examines the phenomenon dubbed "AI psychosis," says the built-in sycophancy of chatbots needs to change before more harm is done.

When he's not working in the ER, Dr. Nicholas Sparrow spends his spare time in a surprising way. He responds to critical threat-to-life calls over the vast landscape of B.C.’s southeast corner as a volunteer through the Kootenay Emergency Response Physicians Association (KERPA), a charity he created. In this encore episode, Dr. Brian Goldman rides along on one of Dr. Sparrow's shifts to learn how - and why - he does it.

How much would you pay to get your knee or hip replaced? Calgarian Linda Slater's knee pain became unbearable during her two-year wait to see an orthopedic surgeon. In this encore episode, we learn how she drained her retirement savings to pay $30,000 for a new knee at a private Toronto clinic. Dr. Rick Zarnett, an orthopedic surgeon who works out of both a private clinic and public hospital, says the system needs to improve so patients can get surgery sooner.

When Kyle Brymer went to the ER with altered speech, facial drooping, severe headaches and confusion, the doctor blamed his symptoms on his post-grad academic workload and even his partner Kirstie. In a few days, Kyle went back to the ER – and this time, the stroke was unmistakable. We’re re-airing this episode from last season, as strokes in young people are on the rise in Canada, with one in 20 affecting someone under the age of 45.

IDEAS, hosted by Nahlah Ayed is a daily podcast that explores how ideas over place and time shape our world.

In the days before her medically-assisted death, journalist Elaine Dewar made it her mission to finish writing her book revealing ignored Canadian history. For more than three years, the author investigated how Canada's health care system cruelly mistreated Indigenous people — including forcing them to use segregated hospitals. Dewar's extensive research uncovers not only a shameful past. It also reveals that our collective obliviousness to it was deliberately manufactured.

You can find more episodes of IDEAS wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/IDEASxWCBA

Dr. Tara Kiran knows primary care in Canada can be better. That's why the Toronto-based family physician and researcher went to the Netherlands, a world leader in health, to see what we can take away. What she found is a system that provides around-the-clock care and primary care teams who can see patients when they need it most. In this encore episode, Dr. Kiran and Brian chat about what the Netherlands is getting right.

When sportscaster Scott Oake isn't rinkside at NHL games, he's often hanging out at a substance use treatment centre in Winnipeg. He's there to be close to his late son. An urn with Bruce's ashes greets everyone who walks through the doors of the Bruce Oake Recovery Centre. We’re re-airing this 2025 Mindset Award-winning episode for reporting on addiction, taking you inside the centre to learn about its effective recovery approach.