In today’s segment we will look at some proposed provincial regulations that could have a huge impact on the Grand River Conservation Authority and our watershed and what Regional Council’s response is to those proposed changes. We’ll discuss what’s happening with the proposed police budget amid calls for reallocation as we dive into November’s police board meeting. And finally, we’ll learn a bit more about Cambridge Council’s recent decision about a Consumption and Treatment Services site in Cambridge.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.
On the centenary of the first-ever exhibition of the Group of Seven painters, KWAG is premiering Deanna Bowen’s “Black Drones in the Hive” as the cornerstone of fall programming. This curatorial choice serves to break up with the narrative that the Group of Seven has served around terra nullius, and bring visibility to the narratives and intersections between Indigenous, Black, and settler stories.
This interview serves as part two of two with Crystal Mowry, senior curator at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, uncovering Deanna Bowen’s “Black Drones in the Hive”. In part two, Crystal will dive into some of the curatorial choices that bring the exhibit to life, the unlikely patternicity that links some of Kitchener’s historical characters to themes in the exhibit, and the evolving role of art spaces in supporting collective movements beyond the gallery.
Black Drones in the Hive is on view at KWAG until 28 February 2021.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.
Music for this episode was courtesy of Dylan Prowse.
Chuck Howitt talks about his time at The Record; how BlackBerry Town came to be; the research involved in writing a book; a rival book, Losing The Signal appears; finding a publisher with the help of Steve Izma; Lorimer Publishing accepts, but imposes a deadline. Chuck writes to meet the deadline; changes suggested by Lorimer made it a better book. Not a history book, but about people and stories and technology. Chuck explains what happened with RIM and its stock options. Talking about patents, patent trolls, and RIM’s patent lawsuit. What took BlackBerry down? Chuck thinks it was distractions (buying hockey teams, physics institutes), complacency, and failure to innovate. Discussing the technology offered by the competition. With RIM’s centralized infrastructure, how secure was the BlackBerry technology really? Chuck Howitt reads some excerpts from BlackBerry Town. Talking about other technology companies in Waterloo. “Unicorn companies”, worth billions of dollars on paper, but what are they really worth? Promoting the book in the media. Chuck is now writing a blog. How to buy the book: Online at Lorimer, IRL at Words Worth Books. Audio book on CKMS-FM? Stay tuned!
57m10s
Empty To Fill
and Bob Jonkman gives the end credits
On the centenary of the first-ever exhibition of the Group of Seven painters, the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG) is premiering Deanna Bowen’s “Black Drones in the Hive” as the cornerstone of fall programming. This curatorial choice serves to break up with the narrative that the Group of Seven has served around terra nullius, and bring visibility to the narratives and intersections between Indigenous, Black, and settler stories.
This interview serves as part one of two with Crystal Mowry, senior curator at the Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, uncovering Deanna Bowen’s “Black Drones in the Hive”. In part one, Crystal will talk about her role as a curator slash co-conspirator, share some of the themes of this timely exhibit, and reveal some behind the scenes stories that illustrate the journey of bringing these works together.
You can learn more about the exhibit from the artist herself, on Nov 26. KWAG is hosting Montreal-based artist Deanna Bowen discussing her solo exhibition, Black Drones in the Hive, in conversation with Crystal Mowry herself.
Black Drones in the Hive is on view at KWAG until 28 February 2021.
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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news., and other stories commissioned under the Local Journalism Initiative at canada-info.ca.
You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. If you want to get in touch with comments, or ideas about stories to cover, email us at news@radiowaterloo.ca.
Music for this episode was courtesy of Dylan Prowse.
Dan Walsh joins Bob Jonkman to play some guitar, and to talk about Guitars For Kids Waterloo Region and the fundraiser they’re having on Sunday 22 November 2020.
Dan Walsh tells Bob Jonkman it’s “Virtusoso”, not “Virtuoso”. Talking about beards, playing guitar, teaching, how it was in “before times”, performing online, cancelled shows in the event list, the vibe of playing live, talking about The Moonshine Café,
LEWP is “Line Echo Weather Pattern”; Dan’s 2006 National Replicon 14 guitar, the mojo of guitar sound. Practicing or playing? Experimenting with Open Tuning. Where’s the soul in music? Not in Nashville, apparently… Stolen guitars, sentimental value.
Interpreting Movin’ On, recovering a stolen guitar. Too many guitars? Getting around to Guitars For Kids Waterloo Region and the fundraiser; “Blue Box for Guitars”; how people donate guitars; the spread of Guitars For Kids across the country and North America; the donors that provide services to GFK; Video documentary coming out on Sunday, 22 November 2020 at http://guitarsforkids.ca/; Art Guitar auction at https://www.32auctions.com/gfkwr.
58m44s
Drive Me To Drink
Excerpt as Bob signs off for the week
Jim Stewart and Riani de Wet of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition return to CKMS Community Connections to talk about the new legislation for Long Term Care facilities and privatization of health care.
Ford’s 4-hour long-term care announcement too late:
Need commitment to deal with staffing crisis now
Toronto – While the Ontario Health Coalition is happy that the Ford government has finally adopted the 4-hour minimum care standard as policy, the timeline that they have given is so long that it is meaningless for the people who are suffering and dying in long-term care now, warns the Coalition. The Coalition has been working to win a minimum care standard in long-term care for more than 20 years, since the Harris government removed the existing care standard in the late 1990s. For at least 15 years this has been a priority issue and the Health Coalition has held countless events and activities to pressure consecutive governments to bring it in. Today the Ford government announced that it has adopted the 4-hour target but will not commit to implementing it until 2024/25, four years and a provincial election away.
“Too much of the government’s response to date has been focused on PR at the expense of concrete measures, said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “There is much more that the Ford government could do right now to save lives and get care levels up, so announcing a care standard four years from now is just not good enough.”
“Ontarians need to know what concrete recruitment and training is going to happen right now to get staff into the homes and to move us toward the four-hour minimum average care level as quickly as possible,” Ms. Mehra went on to say.
For example:
4 months ago, at the beginning of June, Quebec’s government launched a recruitment drive backed by the full power of government and funded fully to get 10,000 PSW-equivalent workers, paid them $21 per hour for training, increased wages to $26 an hour and is deploying this small army of workers into the homes.
British Columbia’s government took action 6 months ago to provide full time work and an increased wage of $21.75 per hour for PSWs in long-term care to stabilize the workforce.
In contrast, Ontario’s government did nothing substantial in the summer months when there was a lull in COVID-19 cases and should have been planning for the fall. Finally in September, they announced funding and training for 2000 PSWs along with a series of piecemeal funding and training; no big recruitment drive, no full time work, no improvement in wages and working conditions that would attract people to this work. They also renewed the pandemic pay until March, but at $1 per hour less than it was in the summer.
“We are happy that the minimum care standard is finally, belatedly, adopted as policy but we cannot allow this to be the way that this government tries to shut down the legitimate criticism about their inadequate response. We desperately need staff in the homes now. It is in this government’s power to do more. Why will they not do it?” concluded Ms. Mehra.
Almost Four Dozen People Who Applied to Testify Before the
Ontario Legislature’s Standing Committee on Bill 218 Limiting Legal Liability for COVID-19 Harms for Long-Term Care Homes and Others,
Cut Out of the Hearings Today
Toronto – Increasingly frustrated with the lack of accountability for the response to COVID-19 in Ontario’s long-term care homes, Coalition executive director Natalie Mehra called today’s revelation that dozens of people who applied for standing in today’s legislative hearings on Bill 218 which limits legal liability for the home operators, “Injustice heaped upon injustice,” for the families of those who have died.
A number of family members and their lawyers were among those cut from the hearings, as the Ford government has limited the hearings to one part-day meaning that there are only 15 spaces for people to be heard. The government gave almost no notice for the hearings, which are being held this afternoon, so families spent hours in the past two days reliving the horrors of the last days of their loved ones lives while trying to write up their presentations, only to find that they will not be heard, Ms. Mehra reported. “It is heartbreaking, just so wrong,” she said.
Fifty-eight people applied for standing and only 15 are being heard. The practice of severely limiting public hearings has reached unprecedented levels under the Ford government which has also changed the rules of the Legislature to enable themselves to pass bills with unprecedented speed.
“There is no reason that the government cannot extend the hearings to one more day to hear from people who have been directly impacted in the most devastating of ways,” she said. “We are calling on the government to extend the hearings and give the families the ability to have input on this legislation that directly impacts their attempt to seek justice.”
Bill 218 raises the legal bar for those suing for COVID-19 harms to gross negligence from simple negligence. It redefines “good faith effort” which usually means a reasonable and competent effort to say that long-term care and retirement homes, among others, just had to make an “honest effort, whether reasonable or not”, thereby making it both harder to sue and easier to defend. It makes these measures retroactive to March 17, 2020, the week that COVID-19 began to spread in long-term care homes, impacting more than two dozen class action and legal suits that are already underway against for-profit long-term care homes that were responsible for more than half of the COVID 19 deaths in Ontario’s homes in the first wave of the pandemic, a trend that is shaping up to be the same or worse in the second wave, reported the Coalition.
The Health Coalition, which opposes these measures for long-term care and retirement homes, will testify before the Standing Committee on Justice Policy at 1 p.m. today and will call on the committee to extend the hearings.
Bob Jonkman and Jim Stewart talk about the state of the Covid pandemic in Ontario, and are joined by Riani de Wet to discuss long term care legislation.
58m01s
Ridin’ With A Thief
while Bob gives the end credits.
The Reality Check is a weekly Canadian show that explores a wide range of controversies and curiosities by probing popular myths and exposing the surprising truth behind them. In a world awash with information, The Reality Check helps listeners differentiate fact from fiction, yet tries to strike a balance between providing entertainment and information. Born out of a grassroots critical thinking group who decided a podcast was the way to go – before podcasting was cool – TRC cuts through the “nonsense” using science to examine dubious claims.
The Reality Check airs every alternate Wednesdays from Noon to 1:00pm.
Bob Jonkman talks to Denny Copf about the style of Tomacco‘s music (Spoiler: It’s “Rock / Funk”), playing shared venues, the tribulations of drummers, the line-up of the band, playing large and prestigious venues, a bit of band history, streaming a show during the pandemic shutdown, the trouble with services shutting down streams for copyright violations.
About the Mister Twister video setup, the visual production for live shows, what brought Denny to play Funk/Rock, how Funk comes and goes in the mainstream, Denny’s musical background, using the pandemic to work on refining his music.
Producing the first Tomacco EP, realizing revenue from performing and streaming, using the pandemic to hone his craft. Bob makes another fundraising appeal. Inviting other bands to submit music. Talking about being a musician and a social justice advocate, events Tomacco has, upcoming social justice
How Denny came to name the band “Tomacco“, both a Simpsons reference and incorporates some GMO awareness. Listing the social media and online presence for Tomacco. Upcoming project: A new EP, discussing the setup and software tools used to self-produce an album. Another project: Filming an analysis on how bands are dealing with Covid. Working Covid into song lyrics.
57m53s
Rebellion Da Funk while Bob gives the end credits and makes a final fundraising request.
As the Waterloo Region’s Police board is discussing the next police budget, Radio Waterloo sat with Dr. Kathy Hoghart, an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work in University of Waterloo, and former advisor to police chief Brian Larkin, on issues of race.
The discussion covers the widespread calls to reallocate police budget money into other services that can more competently do the work the police have been tasked with, and issues of systemic racism within the WRPS and policing generally.
In the last few months the police board received several reports that clearly show the police bias against black and indigenous people. While board members were surprised by those reports, Dr. Hoghart wasn’t surprised at all.
— This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant program and is funded by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, the Government of Canada, and the CKMS Newsroom.
Check out the archived versions of this program and other episodes on radiowaterloo.ca/news. You can follow us on twitter @RadioWaterloo. And you can email news@radiowaterloo.ca to get in touch with comments or ideas about stories to cover.
The music was Blackroom by Moby, courtesy of mobygratis.com
Bob Jonkman speaks with Aaron Dawe about the music of Dichroma, the band itself, how Covid has affected the band, and the production of their new EP, possibly called Two and possibly to come out this Friday, 30 October 2020.
The interview starts at 5m55s. Sadly, the phone connection was not very good.
John MacDonald of the Kitchener Festival of Neighbourhoods
John MacDonald joins Bob Jonkman on a web conference to talk about the Kitchener Festival of Neighbourhoods, what the organization does, how it operates with the City, and the upcoming festival on Sunday 15 November 2020.
BlackBerry Town
CKMS Community Connections
Sex Love & Chaos
Just Beyond the Shine
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Virtusoso
LEWP
Cowboy
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Timeless
Virtuoso
The Reality Check
Vagabond
Tomacco
One
Dreamonic
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