On May 1st the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion will begin commercial operations. 

It marks the end of a 12 year saga that included protests, legal challenges and the purchase of the pipeline itself by the federal government. 

When Ottawa stepped in to buy TMX six years ago, it had an estimated price tag of $7.4 billion dollars. Today the cost has grown to $34 billion dollars. 

As the polarizing project nears the finish line, CBC producer Allison Dempster visits communities along the pipeline route, from Edson, Alberta to Burnaby, B.C. She meets people who worked on the project, people who campaigned against it and Indigenous leaders who one day hope to own it. 

In the second half of the show, we join Anna Maria Tremonti on a road trip she took along the route back in 2019. She hears from Western Canadians deeply divided on the pipeline project. 

As you’ll hear, the expansion is almost complete, but the debate over its legacy is far from over.

Reported by Allison Dempster. Produced by Jennifer Chevalier.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit 

Mary Kajumba needed money to make a better life for her daughter. So, with the help of a placement agency she left her home in Uganda, and went to Iraq where she got a job as a restaurant cleaner. It wasn’t long after she realised she was in trouble. Mary says she found herself working 18 hour days, sharing cramped accommodation with 30 other workers and never getting paid. 

But then, help came from an unexpected place. Voice memos, from a man in Vancouver who was working for an anti trafficking organisation. 

This week on Storylines freelance journalist Jazzmin Jiwa brings us Mary’s story. We follow Mary as she tries to break free from the shackles of human trafficking and forced labour with the help of an NGO. 

Stories like Mary’s can be found across the Middle East, where workers from sub-Saharan Africa are trafficked, transported, threatened and forced to work for little to no wages. They find themselves working as cleaners and domestic servants, after landing jobs through recruitment agencies that don’t ask many questions about working conditions.

Reported by Jazzmin Jiwa. Produced by John Chipman. Story Editing by Julia Pagel and Liz Hoath. This documentary was supported by the Pulitzer Center.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

Over the past near-century, Academy Award categories have come and gone. In the silent film era there was an award for Best Title Writing. You know, the written cards that summarized the “dialogue”? Oscar worthy. 

This year’s 96th Academy Awards broadcast saw Oscars handed out in a whopping 23 different categories, from the big wins like Best Picture, to awards for behind-the-scenes expertise in costuming and score. But one group of people thinks there should be yet another added to that list: best stunts. 

Stunt actors are real life action heroes behind the biggest movies, but it’s unlikely we know their names and faces, at least not if they’re doing their jobs right. They risk life and limb to bring films to life. The chariot race in Ben-Hur? The entire Fast and Furious franchise? None of them would be possible without stunt coordinators and performers. 

On this week's Storylines, Joan Webber tells the story of a decades-long effort to get stunt workers their Oscar due.

Produced by Joan Webber. Story editing by Julia Pagel. 

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

On October 23rd, 2023 Bob Hallaert, a man with a history of intimate partner violence, shot and killed Angie Sweeney days after she broke up with him. They’d been together for about three years. 

What happened that day didn’t just shatter the Sweeney family, it shattered Sault Ste Marie. And many believe what happened to Angie could have been stopped. 

Intimate Partner Violence is at a record high in Canada. On average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every six days in this country. After a man killed three women in Renfrew County, Ontario in 2015, a month-long inquest made 86 recommendations to end intimate partner violence. 

The recommendations spanned everything from ways to improve the justice system, the criminal code, early interventions for victims and perpetrators, more and better resources for those in danger, and better police and public education.

The first recommendation was to declare IPV an epidemic, which so far the Ontario and Federal governments have refused to do. 

On this week's Storylines, journalist Katie Nicholson heads to Sault Ste Marie where Angie’s friends, family, and community have come together to grieve, but also to act.    

Reported by Katie Nicholson. Produced by Acey Rowe. Story editing by Julia Pagel and Liz Hoath. 

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

Public washrooms are few and far between in Canada. When nature calls, it’s often a scramble to find a coffee shop or mall restroom that's accessible. In Montreal this is certainly the case, but it wasn’t always so. The city used to boast a decent network of public washrooms, constructed before the Second World War. Where did they go? And why, to this day, do we have so few public washrooms in Canada? On this week's Storylines, CBC Montreal's Ainslie MacLellan uncovers the answers.

This episode is from the CBC Podcast Good Question, Montreal where every week Ainslie MacLellan takes a question about Montreal from a Montrealer, and then does whatever it takes to answer the question. 

Reported by Ainslie MacLellan. Produced by Sara Dubreuil. Story Editing by Craig Desson

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

In 2014, Shams Erfan was pulled off a bus by members of the Taliban who accused him of being a traitor. A bystander intervened, saving his life, but Shams knew he was no longer safe in Afghanistan. 

This threat set Shams on a treacherous 8-year journey. He hoped to find a safe haven in Indonesia. Instead, he spent years stuck in a refugee prison camp. When he finally reached Canada, Shams vowed to help bring others like himself to safety—and he found the people who could help him do it. 

On this week's Storylines, Alisa Siegel follows three strangers from vastly different worlds, united in a single mission: to rescue refugees trapped in Indonesia and help them begin new lives. 

Produced by Alisa Siegel. Story editing by Liz Hoath. Storylines is produced by Acey Rowe. 

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit. 

When Russia invaded Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put out a call to foreigners with combat experience to come and help. Paul Hughes, a former marksman and paratrooper with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, went. 

Paul has been in Ukraine ever since, where he founded HUGS: Helping Ukraine, Grass Roots Support.

Run out of a garage through donations and volunteers, HUGS mostly helps fix army vehicles and distribute food and supplies to Ukrainians. But when Paul got a call asking him to cross Russian lines to rescue a six-year-old Ukrainian who’d been separated from her mother, he knew he had to accept the mission. 

On this week’s Storylines, CBC reporter Danny Kerslake, an old army buddy of Paul’s, catches up with his friend to hear the story of how Paul risked his own life to save another’s.

Produced by Danny Kerslake. Story editing by John Chipman. Storylines is produced by Acey Rowe.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit

24 Sussex Drive. That Ottawa address has been the official residence for the prime minister since the 1950s, but Canada’s current one doesn’t live there because the house is in disrepair. 

Workers have already removed  asbestos, mould and rodents, but it’s estimated it will cost millions more to make the building habitable—and secure. Critics call the languishing home an “embarrassment” to a G7 nation. And so far, no politician has been willing to make the decision to either fix it or tear it down. 

On this week’s Storylines, Jennifer Chevalier dives into the history of 24 Sussex Drive: from the lumber baron who built it as a pre-confederation wedding present, to the man who fought against its expropriation, to the political families who have called it home, asking how politics are getting in the way of a decision on what should be done about Canada’s most famous heritage home.

Produced by Jennifer Chevalier. Story editing and mixing by Acey Rowe.

Storylines is part of the CBC Audio Doc Unit.

It’s been 12 years since Widlene has seen her son. She had to leave the little boy in Haiti with family after she was targeted by gang members. The plan was to get out, find somewhere safe, make a home there, and have her son join her. So when she was granted asylum in Canada, Widlene believed her fight would be over. 

Instead, it was only just beginning. Asylum seekers are supposed to be able to bring their dependent children to Canada once their claim has been approved. But critics say some of the most vulnerable family members are facing the longest delays. 

This week on Storylines, Craig Desson follows Widlene as she and her lawyer navigate a complicated immigration bureaucracy that’s processing a record number of applications. All while Widlene tries to keep her son safe from a world away. 

You might associate sommeliers (wine experts) with fancy restaurants and snooty attitudes, but Canada’s Best Sommelier is as likely to be found traipsing the backwoods in steel toed boots and a cowboy hat, as in a MICHELIN starred restaurant in a three piece suit. 

It all depends on what he’s up to: is he harvesting maple syrup at the sugar shack he runs with his family? Or is he representing Canada as he competes for the title of World’s Best Sommelier in Paris? 

This week on Storylines, Acey Rowe follows Pier-Alexis Souliere as he does both.

We’re heading from Pier's home town in rural Quebec where he learned about wine and service at his mother’s knee, to the international capital of wine (Pairs!) where he’s determined to champion Canada on the world stage—and prove himself.

But this competition has left him conflicted. Where wine and home were once entwined, Pier’s heart may now be asking him to choose.  

The Great Bear Rainforest on BC’s coast is a spectacular place. Rugged mountains and old growth forests stretch all the way to Alaska. It was here that nearly a decade ago a group of coastal First Nations decided to halt most of the logging in their territories. And in the areas where they did log, they would do it differently. But ten years on the plan hasn’t gone quite as expected… And it’s left the First Nations with a difficult question: can they sustain sustainable logging?