Tag Archives: Defund The Police

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News – 2021-02-25 – Declaration to divest from policing and prisons gains traction across Canada

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Host: Ivan Angelovski

Over 250 organizations and over 3,000 individuals have signed onto “Choosing Real Safety: A Historic Declaration to Divest from Policing and Prisons and Build Safer Communities for All.”

Signatories include UNIFOR, and a wide array of human rights and racial justice organizations across Canada who talked at the recent online conference, presenting the declaration.

In this episode, we’re listening from Christin Macklin from UNIFOR, Robyn Maynard of Abolition Coalition, Ravyn Wyngs, of Black Lives Matter -Toronto, Molly Swain of the indigenous led organization Free Lands Free People, Nanky Rai of Doctors for Defunding Police, Souheil Benslima of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project (CPEP), and Harsha Walia of British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, Canada’s oldest civil liberties organization.

The website sharing information about the declaration and facilitating individuals and organisations can sign on to declaration is www.choosingrealsafety.com.

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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. 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

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News – 2021-01-20 – Waterloo Region Weekly Roundup

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Host: Melissa Bowman

The Region of Waterloo will finalize it’s 2021 budget this month. Calls from the community to reallocate funds from policing into more upstream services has led to, as one councillor declared, an unprecedented interest in the police budget this year.

This week’s Waterloo Region Weekly Round-up takes a look at how we got here, diving into police board discussions and delegations from community residents in support of reallocation of funds towards Indigenous and Black-led community initiatives.

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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

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

CKMS News – 2020-10-31 – UW professor Dr. Kathy Hoghart discusses the police budget

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Host: Ivan Angelovski

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.

 

Dr. Kathy Hoghart’s UW bio-page:
https://uwaterloo.ca/school-of-social-work/people-profiles/kathy-hogarth

Dr. Kathy Hoghart’s twitter:
https://twitter.com/radicalprodigal

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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. 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

CKMS Community News, Newsroom

CKMS News – 2020-10-15 – Police target a Black PhD candidate for arrest

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Host: Ivan Angelovski

Black Lives Matter of Waterloo Region, along with other Black and African organizations in the Region, started a petition for the police to drop the charges against Irene Ekweozoh, a Waterloo based PhD candidate in law.

Ekweozoh was arrested on September 20th, after problems with her White neighbour in their apartment building.

The issues began in February, when, according to Ekweozoh and the police report, after an argument, her neighbour unleashed a dog on her and her 13 year old daughter.  The police told Ekweozoh that charges were not warranted against her neighbour in that incident.

In this episode you will hear from:
Irene Ekweozoh, PhD student targeted for arrest by Waterloo regional police, Fanis Juma an organizer with Black Lives Matter of Waterloo Region, Tapiwa Jabhama from the African Canadian Association, as well as Fidelia Otokhina and Promise O Williams from the Nigerians in the Region of Waterloo.

In a statement from the regional police service’s public relations department it was noted that “anyone with concerns about police conduct or professionalism can call to speak to a supervisor to relay their concerns or issue a formal complaint at 519-570-9777 (WRPS). Complaints about police conduct can also be filed with the Ontario Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) here: www.oiprd.on.ca.”

The Black Lives Matter Waterloo Region statement in support of Irene can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYirGQ8tOYyTppvBskF8fi3EBOyaWgpOcLC-PnhL-s3byoyQ/viewform

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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. 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

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News – 2020-10-08 – What will happen with the calls to defund the police in Waterloo Region?

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Host: Ivan Angelovski

In June this year, tens of thousands of people marched the streets of Kitchener in support for the Black Lives Matter movement, asking for change. Their most important demand was to defund the police.

With similar calls across Canada that were unsuccessful, what will happen with the police budget in Waterloo region?

In this episode we talk with Teneile Warren, local organiser and anti-racism activist, and Karen Redman, Regional Chair and chair of the Waterloo Region Police Service board.

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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.

CKMS Community News, Newsroom, Shows

CKMS News – 2020-09-07 – Doctors for Defunding Police

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Host: Ivan Angelovski

On May 27, 2020, in the High Park neighbourhood in Toronto, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old black-indigenous woman, ended up dead after an encounter with Toronto police. The police were originally called by her mother to try to de-escalate an unsafe mental health situation.

All of this is under several investigations, so I’m very careful with words.

One of those investigations – the one by the Special Investigations Unit, the SIU – unit that’s supposed to investigate police misconduct in Ontario, cleared all the police officers that were at the scene.

The decision sparked a new set of anti-racism protests across Canada, a series of protests started after the murder of George Floyd in the States.

Whatever the truth is, and probably only people who were in that apartment know what it is, the case goes to the list of cases in which people with mental problems ended up dead after coming across police officers in Ontario, like Ejaz Choudry, Ian Pryce, and Andrew Loku, among others.

In Toronto, an organization Doctors for defunding police started a petition, now signed by 622 Canadian doctors and health professionals, warning that policing in this country is a public health crisis and calling for a change on how this society is reacting to mental health, and other issues.

In this program, we’re talking with doctor Suzanne Shoush and medical student Semir Bulle, from the University of Toronto who started the organization.

Background:
The letter and signatories can be found here: https://doctorsfordefundingpolice.com/ and oyu can find Doctors for Defunding the Police on twitter: @DrsDefundPolice

Download audio: https://storage.radiowaterloo.ca/CKMSNews-202-09-07-DoctorsForDefundingThePolice.mp3

White text in all capitals on a black background reading "Wellness checks should never be a death sentence." @drsdefundpolice"
White text in all capitals on a black background reading “Wellness checks should never be a death sentence.” @drsdefundpolice”. Image courtesy of Doctors For Defunding Polcie

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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.