16 episodes

The Fifth Estate - Season 51

First aired Oct 10, 2025Season 51

The season features in-depth investigative reports on major Canadian and international issues, including corporate accountability for a massive B.C. data breach, the toxic drug crisis, and an exposé on Canadian charitable donations supporting controversial international settlements.

Episodes

No episode image

Episode 1

The Denial Machine

NR
Oct 10, 2025

A data breach at B.C.'s Interior Health involving tens of thousands of employees' most sensitive information is for sale on the dark web; health-care workers' identities are repeatedly stolen while the agency denies the breach ever happened.

No episode image

Episode 2

Funding the occupation

NR
Oct 17, 2025

We're in the occupied West Bank on the trail of millions in Canadian tax deductible charitable donations. We reveal funds are supporting Israeli settlements deemed illegal under international law.

No episode image

Episode 3

Dying to Recover.

NR
Oct 24, 2025

Investigation into for-profit, privately owned residential substance use treatment facilities across Canada that, according to the investigation, operate with little government regulation or oversight, which critics say puts the lives of patients at risk.

No episode image

Episode 4

Dawson Creek: Behind the Fear

NR
Oct 31, 202545 min

We return to small-town Dawson Creek, B.C., where residents feel besieged by violence and murder. The RCMP failed to meet the deadline it set for answers, so we return to investigate yet more killings and reveal what is behind this crime wave.

No episode image

Episode 5

The War on Safe Drugs

NR
Nov 14, 202545 min

Canada’s opioid crisis has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people, costing the health and justice systems billions. Many health providers say there were solutions that could have helped. We reveal how politics got in the way.

No episode image

Episode 6

Smash & Grab

NR
Nov 21, 2025

Smash-and-grabs are going viral on social media, but the culprits remain unknown; revealing how adults are playing the system by luring kids into violent crime with lifelong consequences.

No episode image

Episode 7

Trapped on the Water

NR
Nov 28, 2025

Lobster is a billion-dollar industry on the East Coast; who gets to trap and when is tearing communities apart; the federal government is being blamed for doing too little to help ease tensions.

No episode image

Episode 8

Vanished

NR
Jan 16, 2026

A vacation to Quebec's Mont Tremblant turned into a nightmare. Last February, 22-year-old Liam Toman vanished without a trace. All that remains of his last moments are CCTV footage and his wallet.

No episode image

Episode 9

Missing Black Boys

NR
Jan 23, 2026

Reports of Black boys going missing have gone viral on social media; so have theories about what is happening to them; investigating who or what is luring these boys to remote communities.

No episode image

Episode 10

Canada's Crypto Fugitive

NR
Jan 30, 2026

An international search is underway for a Canadian who allegedly stole millions in crypto; we go from Hamilton, Ont., to Bosnia looking for a man with academic promise who may have turned criminal.

No episode image

Episode 11

Last Breath

NR
Feb 27, 2026

Designed to protect law enforcement and health-care workers, spit hoods have been linked to deaths; banned in parts of the world, in Canada, they're used countrywide, sometimes even on minors.

No episode image

Episode 12

The Business of Bigotry

NR
Mar 20, 2026

Online extremist content is influencing real-life violence. To creators, it's free speech; it's also big business. We go from Nashville to Calgary to eastern Europe on the trail of two Canadian companies that help creators turn hate into profit.

No episode image

Episode 13

Critical threat

NR
Mar 27, 2026

Threats to annex resource-rich Greenland shook Canadians. We reveal an American firm closely linked to Trump has secured a controlling stake in a massive rare earth mining project in Quebec.

No episode image

Episode 14

The Dissident & The Spy

NR
Apr 3, 202645 min

In November 2022, the body of a Chinese dissident was found near Gibsons, B.C. Was it a simple drowning or the result of a Chinese secret police operation? A former spy details how China uses covert means to threaten and intimidate.

No episode image

Episode 15

The Ostrich Con

NR
Apr 10, 202645 min

A small ostrich farm in rural B.C. became the centre of an international firestorm in the lead-up to a controversial cull after a bird flu outbreak. Was it necessary or government overreach? Locals say there's more to the story.

No episode image

Episode 16

Corruption, Crime & Cricket Canada

NR
Apr 17, 2026180 min

Cricket Canada is under fire amid allegations of corruption and fixing, even at the World Cup. We investigate claims of mistreatment of players and infiltration and death threats by organized crime.