Inside Canada’s hottest COVID-19 hotspot: Why did it take so long to help Peel?

In today’s Big Story podcast, about 40 per cent of the Amazon packages delivered to Canada come through Ontario’s Peel Region. It manufactures almost everything. It’s where trucks get loaded up and head out across the country, full of everything. And for months now, it’s been on fire with COVID-19. Vulnerable workers in multigenerational homes, without sick days, bringing home the virus and infecting their families. Yet even when the vaccination push began in earnest, Peel was left behind.

It wasn’t until a massive piece of reporting a month ago connected the dots, that Canadians started to realize the tragedy that was unfolding. And that feature was in an independent publication, not a major Toronto paper. Why did so many, from politicians to journalists to the public forget about Peel? And now that help has arrived—what will it take to put out the fire for good?

GUEST: Fatima Syed, reporter (You can read Fatima’s feature in The Local)

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You can also find it at thebigstorypodcast.ca.