logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2024
22m 20s

What Toronto lost in the St. Anne's fire

TORONTO STAR
About this episode

Guests: John Degen, novelist, and Peter Gorman, Deputy People's Warden at St. Anne's

On June 9, a catastrophic four-alarm fire destroyed St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood. The flames turned valuable paintings that were embedded into the very structure to ashes, including the only know religious artwork made by Canada's famed Group of Seven. With the loss of St. Anne's, Canada has lost a historic site, but the community that built its life around the church has also lost its emotional and spiritual sanctuary. In this episode, two men deeply connected with St. Anne's church talk about what was lost; not just from a historical and cultural perspective but a deeply human one.

Audio sources: Global News

This episode was produced by Paulo Marques and Saba Eitizaz

Up next
Yesterday
The doctor is in, but over a million Ontarians are too far away
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> <a href= "https://www.thestar.com/users/profile/megan-ogilvie/" target= "_blank" rel="noopener">Megan Ogilvie</a>, Toronto Star health reporter</p> <p><a href= "https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/these-patients-have-a-family-doctor-but-theyre-hours-away-t ... Show More
19m 11s
Nov 21
If Canada went to war, could our hospitals cope? A simulation in Toronto revealed alarming gaps
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star columnist</p> <p>In a high-stakes war games exercise held in Toronto, top military officials, health-care leaders, and government representatives gathered behind closed doors to game out a scenario few Canadians can ever imagi ... Show More
29m 36s
Nov 18
Behind the scenes of a narrow budget win for Mark Carney's Liberal government
<p><strong data-stringify-type="bold">Guest</strong>: Tonda MacCharles, Ottawa bureau chief<br aria-hidden="true" />  <br aria-hidden="true" /> Canada avoided a snap election Monday night as the Liberal government pushed its federal budget through by a two-vote margin, 170 to 168 ... Show More
24m 14s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2025
The Vicar of Bray's Daughter
In her early twenties Carol Cairns, the daughter of a priest in Ireland, had a passionate affair with a young bohemian poet called Benedict Ryan. In the Dublin of the 1960s, their improbable partnership burned bright but briefly. Somehow the gap in their backgrounds was too great ... Show More
28m 57s
Jan 2025
Anne Holt: 1,222
A special programme from the largest public literature house in Europe, Litteraturhuset in Oslo. Harriett Gilbert is joined by one of Scandinavia’s most successful crime writers, Anne Holt. Her novel 1,222 is a tense, twisty story set during a snowstorm in an isolated mountain ho ... Show More
49m 8s
Sep 2024
Lost Colony of Roanoke: Mystery of England's First American Settlers
<p>The colonists of Roanoke Island in the 1580's were the very first English people to try to establish a permanent settlement in America. They completely disappeared. The only clue was the word 'CROATOAN' carved into a tree where they had been. What happened?</p><br><p>Maddy Pel ... Show More
40m 32s
Aug 13
A Crime With No Motive : Episode 456
This week, we head to the Yorkshire city of Doncaster, where 19 year old Rebecca Stephenson was struggling with drug addiction and leading a very chaotic lifestyle when she vanished. Tragically, her body was soon discovered not far from where she had disappeared by a man walking ... Show More
27m 48s
Oct 2023
What’s Buried on Oak Island?! Is It Cursed?
Oak Island is a small island off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. It’s most well known for different theories of buried treasure being somewhere on the island, and what happens to the people who go there in attempts to find what’s buried in the ground. Archive episode disclaimer ... Show More
15m 23s
Sep 2023
TRAILER: The Unmarked Graveyard
<p>On September 28th, we’re launching a new series: <em>The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island.</em></p> <p>Hart Island is America’s largest public cemetery—sometimes known as a “potter’s field.” The island has no headstones or plaques, just numbered markers.</p> <p>M ... Show More
4m 56s
Aug 19
How hundreds of babies and children ended up in a mass grave in Ireland
Anna Corrigan grew up in Dublin, Ireland. She thought she was an only child, until she was in her 50s and discovered a family secret. Corrigan found documents showing her mother had spent time in one of Ireland’s so-called mother and baby homes — places where single women went to ... Show More
12m 42s
Nov 2022
What St. Joseph Can Teach Us This Advent With Sr. Colleen Gibson, SSJ
Saint Joseph is the most mysterious character from the Advent story. He doesn’t say anything and we know pretty much nothing about him, yet there are few figures more central to the story of our faith community. So host Mike Jordan Laskey asked his friend, Sister Colleen Gibson, ... Show More
55m 4s
Feb 2011
Dame Anne Owers
Kirsty Young's castaway is the former Chief Inspector of Prisons, Dame Anne Owers. A long-time human rights campaigner, she's spent years immersing herself in the problems of people on the margins of society. During the time she was Chief Inspector, the prison population expanded ... Show More
38m 33s
Aug 10
A Tiny Island's Big Secret
Far out in the Pacific, Pitcairn Island was once seen as an untouched paradise. But beneath the tranquil surface, police uncovered years of devastating abuse—crimes against women and girls that everyone knew about, but no one stopped. When the truth finally emerged, it exploded i ... Show More
35m 14s