See You in Court

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.

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 of two. The second part will come out on November 3, 2026.

After his conviction for spreading false news with his pamphlet Did Six Million Really Die?, Ernst Zundel is granted an appeal and the chance to go to court a second time. His witnesses include a rogue researcher who chisels rocks from the walls of Auschwitz to prove it wasn’t a gas chamber and other self-proclaimed experts. And every day in court, Holocaust survivors are there to bear witness. In the end, Zundel is convicted again, but this time he has a new legal tool to use in his appeal — the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Howard Goldenthal dive into the legal battles that led R. vs. Zundel all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and how the court's decision to strike down Canada’s “false news” law set in motion a debate about free speech that continues today.

This episode is part two of two. Find part one here: https://link.mgln.ai/DMEsr3

Ernst Zundel is a Holocaust denier, using his “bunker” in Toronto to publish pamphlets like Did Six Million Really Die? Sabina Citron is an Auschwitz survivor who’s determined to stop his lies. In 1985, her push to stop Zundel sparks a fierce battle over false news, with the trial becoming a nightmare for Jewish survivors who are forced to prove the Nazi death camps really happened. And while Zundel loses this first court battle, he wins the spotlight he craves and a chance to appeal his conviction.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Howard Goldenthal recount the tension and the questions behind the trials to convict Zundel: Is a court case the best way to stop him, or does it give his Holocaust denialism the wider platform he desperately wants?

This episode is part one of two. The second part is available here: https://link.mgln.ai/GghwhH

Sixteen-year-old Alex is a Canadian kid living the American dream. A house with his parents in a leafy suburb, family trips, good schools, and champagne on his brother’s birthday. But when the FBI comes knocking on his door, the high schooler’s world is shattered. His parents are arrested for being Russian secret agents, and the person he thought he was turns out to be a lie.

After winding up in Russia, where he’s never been, and being given the surname Vavilov, which he can’t pronounce, he longs to return to Canada, sparking a legal battle over whether his parents’ role as spies should be grounds for cancelling his Canadian citizenship.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Catherine Rolfsen tell the story of Canada vs. Vavilov — the family that inspired the FX series The Americans — and how the ensuing court battle over their son’s Canadian citizenship forever changed how administrative government decisions are made.

Willie Blackwater’s abuser is in jail, but for him, justice hasn’t been served. Twenty-eight of Arthur Henry Plint’s victims — including Willie — launch a civil suit to seek damages from the federal government and the United Church of Canada. The trial to hold these authorities vicariously liable for the horrors of residential schools is brutal and explosive, and not everyone makes it out alive.

Host Falen Johnson and journalist Jackie McKay trace Willie’s quest for justice as Blackwater vs. Plint heads to the B.C. Supreme Court — a trial that exposes the widespread damage done by residential schools, and sets in motion the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This episode is part two of two. Find part one here.