The Fifth Estate — Season 51
Where the story doesn't end with the headline
About this season
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 (16)
1. The Denial Machine
Aired 10 October 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.
2. Funding the occupation
Aired 17 October 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.
3. Dying to Recover.
Aired 24 October 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.
4. Dawson Creek: Behind the Fear
Aired 31 October 2025 • 45 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.
5. The War on Safe Drugs
Aired 14 November 2025 • 45 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.
6. Smash & Grab
Aired 21 November 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.
7. Trapped on the Water
Aired 28 November 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.
8. Vanished
Aired 16 January 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.
9. Missing Black Boys
Aired 23 January 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.
10. Canada's Crypto Fugitive
Aired 30 January 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.
11. Last Breath
Aired 27 February 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.
12. The Business of Bigotry
Aired 20 March 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.
13. Critical threat
Aired 27 March 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.
14. The Dissident & The Spy
Aired 3 April 2026 • 45 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.
15. The Ostrich Con
Aired 10 April 2026 • 45 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.
16. Corruption, Crime & Cricket Canada
Aired 17 April 2026 • 180 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.