Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Franchise chains account for $90 billion a year in sales-10 percent of Canada's gross domestic product and employing over one million Canadians. Even in an economic downturn, franchising is a reliable business. Experts predict that people eager to create their own jobs in a time of uncertainty are more attracted to a proven concept. Follow Amanda and Chris Collucci as they try to sweep the world off its feet with their housekeeping franchise concept,...

With hidden cameras, wiretaps and undercover footage broadcast here for the first time, CBC reporter Bob McKeown goes deep inside the Canadian mafia. It's a story of money and the mob that traces the Rizzutos ruthless rise from their beginnings in New York City to murder and mayhem on the streets of Montreal. As the Rizzuto family's control over organized crime dissolves in blood and loss, how did it hold onto power for so long and what comes next...

The Greenpeace story started in Vancouver during the late 1960s. Young people were campaigning against nuclear weapon tests by the U.S. and Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. A protest movement swelled against one of the planned tests in Alaska; while the protesters' efforts didn't stop the U.S. from detonating a bomb, they did garner plenty of media attention. Greenpeace then changed its focus, launching a campaign against commercial whaling...

Stronger. Higher. Faster. Healthy, active living is on everyone's mind these days. And recession or not, people always want to eat well and take care of their bodies-and are willing to pay a premium to do it. With thousands of diet-specific food products on the market these days, diet food has become a multi-billion dollar industry. And within this health craze is the ever-expanding organic sector. As people look for natural alternatives to pesticide-laden...

Earning rave reviews during its run at Ontario's Stratford Shakespeare Festival, this unforgettable Gilbert and Sullivan operetta takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to British class structure, the admiralty, and the ruling classes. It's also a love story with a multitude of permutations. Josephine (Katherine Terrell) plans to elope with sailor Ralph Rackstraw (James McLean), but their plans are spoiled by villainous Dick Deadeye (Eric Donkin). In the...

The black-footed ferret lives on a single diet - prairie dogs. But when the ubiquitous prairie dog was hunted and poisoned into near extinction, black-footed ferrets disappeared from prairie grasslands. This Nature of Things program follows a painstaking and precarious project that attempts to re-introduce ferrets to their Saskatchewan home. The tiny population of returnees faces constant threat. The big question: will the ferrets breed and produce...

Every year, a new diet fad offers fresh hope to the overweight. But when the weight returns or refuses to budge, millions of hapless consumers simply jump on the next diet bandwagon. This documentary explores the machinations of media and diet empires that have fed, and continue to feed, off the Western obsession with slim and trim. With a fascinating historical overview of fad dieting, including the meteoric rise of Dr. Robert Atkins, the program...

Ads targeting girls between the ages of 8 and 12 employ an increasing level of sexuality. Are advertisers responding to neo-feminist notions of "girl power" or are they leading girls toward harmful self-images? This program examines the trend by following a group of tween girls through their daily lives, recording their perceptions of fashion, celebrities, boys, and themselves. Interviews with both concerned and clueless parents-as well as a behind-the-scenes...

This film explores the dreams and disillusionment created by Fidel Castro's revolution between the 1950s and 1980s. Learn about optimism during the first years of social reforms, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the regime's gradual repression that lead to a mass exodus from Mariel Harbor in 1980. A tiny communist bastion holding out against its giant U.S. neighbor, Cuba long fired the imaginations of many, but the dark sides...

George Stroumboulopoulos sits down with the founders of Canadian companies and business success stories. Incisive conversations with the sharpest minds in business writing, Malcolm Gladwell and David Chilton, make this a must for marketing, entrepreneurial and business courses! Featuring interviews with Nouriel Roubini, Harry Dent, David Chilton, Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen Bronfman, Michael Budman (Roots), Jim Balsillie (RIM), Suze Orman, Heather Reisman...