The Current from CBC Radio (Highlights)

This is a complicated time of year for many Jews in our part of the world who can often feel like outsiders whether they decide to participate or not. One American rabbi - who sat on Santa's knee as a child - has penned a detailed look at just how Jews ha

Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is regarded by many as his greatest painting. It took three years of painstaking effort and there are many tales of intrigue that lie behind the magnificent mural painted on the wall of a refectory in Milan. We share th

Today, we revisit a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. Hers is a remarkable story - chosen by the Angel of Death, Josef Mengele to paint portraits of those in the camp, she lived only because of her talents as an artist. We reprise a powerful interview done wi

Today we look at the case being made -- mainly by the U.S. and Russia -- for an international ban on the trade of polar bear pelts. And the counter case, being made by Canada's Inuit, that the polar bear hunt is crucially important to their livelihood.

If you loved the song -- in one of its dozens of cover versions -- perhaps you'll love the book. A tune that barely shook turntable needles back in 1984 now thunders across soundtracks, concerts, funerals and weddings. Today we focus on a song with a titl

In the first hours after Friday's massacre in Newtown, there was a volley of information and a flurry of corrections. Two shooters ... one ... a mother who taught there ... who didn't ...a name that was wrong ... the gunman buzzed in ... broke in... And s

So much to follow up on from the stories of the week. We've got your emails, tweets, thoughts and outrage on everything from Guns-in-America ... to a Smoking Santa ... to today's Supreme Court Ruling on the Niqab in Court.

It is being called the biggest student movement in the U.S. in years. Students at 192 university campuses across North America want their schools to step up on the issue of climate change by divesting what would be millions-of-dollars worth of endowments

Idle No More is a growing grass roots movement. It has turned into a social media movement embracing everything from flashmobs; to protests. It's founders are outraged over the omnibus budget bill c-45 and are calling for a new conversation on First natio

Federal legislation is forcing all unions to publicly disclose salaries and expenses. And across Ontario teachers are striking over legislation that allows the province to suspend the right to strike and impose collective agreements. And in the US there

For years Roy Bourgeois mixed activism with his religion as a Roman Catholic priest. He was a vocal proponent of human rights in Latin America. Then he took up the struggle for the ordination of women. For the Vatican that was one struggle too many. Roy

Last week .. the week that ended so tragically in Newtown Connecticut saw a series of political gun victories: Michigan passed a bill allowing concealed guns into schools. Ohio passed a bill allowing guns in cars in the Statehouse garage. The Illinois ban

Some 26, 000 Canadians have been given Health Canada's approval to use medical marijuana ... many of them growing their own. The rules start to change this coming Spring when only sanctioned commercial operations will be able to provide medical marijuana.

From ineffective police leadership at virtually every stage ... to a systemic bias in police responses to missing women. The inquiry that grew out of the mass murders of Robert Pickton paints a devastating picture over how vulnerable women in B.C. were ig

On the Monday after the Friday … after a weekend of evocative stories, images, analysis about a small-town in America saturated in sorrow ... some people know what the rest of us can never know. Today, amidst the grief .. the calls for change ...the fallout that put a little place called Newtown on the world map, we hear from three people whose own encounter with the horror of a school shooting shapes what they need us to hear.