Fabian Fletcher, president of the board at tri-Pride Community Association Inc. comes into the studio to talk about the tri-Pride organization, the tri-Pride Summer Festival, the performers, the history of Pride, some other 2SLGBTQIA+ organizations including Spectrum, and ideas for future activities and events.
Introducing Fabian Fletcher, the President of the Board of Directors of tri-Pride, an all-volunteer organization. In addition to the summer festival there’s Winter Pride, in February or March, and PRIDEtoberfest during the Octoberfest weekend. The Board works on organizing the events, but also works on policies and procedures, governance issues, and work more on advocacy and doing grass-roots community organization. The Board is eight or nine folx, a Vice-President and other Board directors who take on roles like vendors market, sponsorships, a treasurer, a development director: a small but mighty group. But there are twenty-plus volunteers who do the work of setting-up and tear-down, oversee the vendors market, volunteers to manage the stage area. There are enough volunteers for the summer festival, but people can sign up now for the fall and winter events. To volunteer, contact info@tri-pride.ca or look for the volunteer call-out on social media.
6m45s
Planning for the summer event started in January; lots of paperwork. The summer festival this year is taking place at Willow River Park, officially known as Victoria Park. The vendor market filled up really early this year, but there are still people looking for spots. This is the second year back after a Covid absence. Last year was really well attended, hoping to increase that for this year.
9m54s
Aside from the vendor booths, there will be performances from Noon to 4pm, local live performers, music, spoken word, standup. From 4pm to 8pm there will be the drag performances. Alysha Brilla is the musical headliner, and the headline drag performers are Ongina and Trinity K. Bonet, both from Ru Paul’s Drag Race. tri-Pride has a sign-up sheet for local performers, but the headline acts were cold-called. There’s a great drag scene in Waterloo Region.
12m27s
tri-Pride has been operating since 2002, doing summer festivals and other events. The City of Kitchener has an events team that coordinates with tri-Pride to arrange all the applications and paperwork. tri-Pride is very privileged to have the Board members it does to fill out paperwork and applying for licenses. Fabian wishes were ways to make the process more accessible to smaller organizations and community-based folks to have space in the park to have events. The requirements for audited financial statements are out of reach of organizations on shoe-string budgets that have no finances.
The tri-Pride festival this year is on Saturday, 10 June 2023 in Willow River Park, from Noon to 8pm. “tri”-Pride covers all three cities, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge, although they have not been out in Cambridge as much as they want to. But Grand River Pride has just started up in Cambridge, having their summer festival also on Saturday, 10 June 2023!
20m58s
Covering some of the history of the Pride movement, starting with the Stonewall Riots in 1969. Are things getting worse today? Not necessarily, intolerance has always been there, but people today are less hesitant about sharing their hate. Life has become more difficult for Queer folx, actions v transferring over from the United States. Fabian knows of incidents across Canada, not so much in Waterloo Region, although there is the example in Oxford county with the municipality of Norwich refusing to fly the Pride flag.
25m26s
What actions can tri-Pride and other organizations take? It’s tricky, because the organizations need to ensure the safety their membership. Non-Queer folks can show up for the Queer community at events, protests, and rallies, get involved with local organizations, and lobby their elected officials. tri-Pride joined #Act4QueerSafety, and signed a letter addressed to government officials at both provincial and federal levels to say “Enough is enough, you need to act for Queer safety.” But while getting involved, there will be spaces strictly reserved for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. For example, tri-Pride is trying to create safe spaces geared toward BIPOC Queer folk, IndigiQueer youth, Two-Spirit youth, and those intersecting personalities. But non-Queer folk should show up for the larger festivals and use their voice and use their privilege to advocate for their 2SLGBTQIA+ community members.
Talking about tri-Pride‘s online presence; keeping it up-to-date is tough with volunteers. The main website needs to be updated, there’s a new volunteeer to do that.
Talking about other Pride organizations across Canada. There’s a Canada-wide organization, and a world-wide organization called InterPride. Joining such a federation gives tri-Pride a chance to hear from other organizations what’s working for them, to support each other, and to brainstorm ideas for festivals. There’s no Canada-wide Pride festival, although Captital Pride in Ottawa has what is deemed the nation-wide Pride festival, and InterPride has a festival as well.
37m43s
Pride festivals aren’t so much a protest any more, but a celebration. Fabian says it’s building communities. Talking about other events, like PRIDEtoberfest, a dance / drag performance / other performance. It’s an indoor event, unlike the summer festival. Winter Pride is a bit smaller, a dance with one or two drag performers. Fabian would like to have more social, low-key events like coffee nights, or speed friending.
39m50s
Talking about other Pride organizations, like Spectrum, in the same building as the CKMS-FM studio. Fabian is a staff member at Spectrum, overseeing their volunteers and operations. But tri-Pride is careful not to step on anyone’s toes, looking to support and uplift other organizations. Talking about some of Spectrum‘s programs, Fabian mentions “capacity building”, to be more accepting and creating safer space for Queer folks. tri-Pride focuses on the events, and focus on creating spaces. They’re looking at ways to do smaller events throughout the year that are tailored to different parts of their community.
Fabian tells us how Alysha Brilla came to be the headliner for this year’s festival. This year’s lineup was chosen to highlight diversity to represent what our community actually looks like.
50m45s
Bob and Fabian go over the details of the coming tri-Pride festival: Noon to 8pm on Saturday 10 June 2023 in Willow River Park, followed by a dance starting at 9pm hosted by Queer Night Out.
52m35s
Bob thanks Fabian for being on the show, and gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition returns to CKMS Community Connections to talk about the latest developments in Doug Ford’s privatization of the public healthcare system in Ontario, and tells us of the referendum to stop the privatization of public hospitals to for-profit hospitals and clinics. Polling stations are open on Friday and Saturday, 26 and 27 May 2023 at locations throughout Waterloo Region, and Ontario. You can vote online at https://publichospitalvote.ca/.
But to start, Bob reminds listeners that the deadline for signing Government of Canada petition E-4268 is Friday 26 May 2023. This petition requests parliament to extend to transgender and nonbinary people the right to claim asylum in Canada by reason of eliminationist laws in their home countries. It’s set to be one of the most-signed petitions in Canadian history, sign now before it closes!
Bob recognizes Victoria Day, with some ideas for changing the focus away from Queen Victoria. And he gives a reminder that the Friday 26 May 2023 is the deadline for signing Government of Canada petition E-4268, To extend to transgender and nonbinary people the right to claim asylum in Canada by reason of eliminationist laws in their home countries.
Introducing Jim Stewart of the Waterloo Region Health Coalition . Jim talks about the province-wide citizens’ led referendum on the privatization of our core hospital services. Leaking information about privatization to the press. Documenting the discrepancies between what the Progressive Conservative Pary of Ontario promised during the election in June of 2022 with what they said eight weeks later.
10m12s
Jim tells us about the exisiting capacity of our public hospital system. There are enough operating rooms and time available that we don’t need for-profit health care. The public health capacity exists, but the funding is lacking. Jim quotes some figures of mis-spent budgets and shortfalls from lack of budgeting in the billions of dollars.
13m45s
Talking about Bill 60, now the law as Your Health Act, 2023. There are secrecy regulations built in since public health care funding is re-directed to for-profit corporations, there is no longer fiscal accountability and transparency. We don’t have a lot of options to hold the government accountable since the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario holds the majority of seats in the Legislature. As a result, they completely ignored the opposition parties when the opposition made recommendations to modify Bill 60. When WRHC visits PCO MPPs they just give the usual talking points.
19m00s
A quick digression about the number of votes, 17.8% of eligible voters, that elected a majority of seats for the Progressive Conservatives. A strong argument for proportional representation!
20m05s
Jim tells us about court cases dealing with double-billing in British Columbia. The British Columbia government disallowed double-billing, but it was appealed, and appealed to the Supreme Court, who refused to hear the case. But the Ontario government has not learned any lessons from that. Jim gives more examples of the higher bills from for-profit health clinics, which are charging for unnecessary procedures that don’t improve health outcomes. You can avoid extra billing by asking “Is this medically necessary?” and then refusing treatments which aren’t necessary. But how are non-medical citizens supposed to know? Jim refers to studies that show that for-profit health care is inferior to public health care, eg. for-profit clinics using less-skilled staff to save money (and maximize profits). Bob relates the disaster in the Long-Term Care homes, where at the start of Covid for-profit homes had far greater rates of death among residents than the publicly-funded homes.
28m02s
Jim tells us about the replacement of Ministry of Health oversight with for-profit providers overseeing for-profit clinics. This is a huge conflict of interest, but now allowed under the Your Health Act. The Act has the wording that health care can be provided by a medical professional or “another prescribed person”, which might be someone without a medical degree. That cheapens the cost of labour , and increases profits.
29m50s
There are now 1037 health care lobbyists at Queen’s Park. Right-wing think tanks like the Fraser Institute are recommending market-driven health care. This is approaching health care as provided in the United States. The people of the US are opposed to this type of for-profit health care, but the politicians are in favour. What’s in it for the politicians? They’re influenced by repetition, arguments for privatization presented in a compelling way.
31m53s
Jim gets into some specifics of the costs of proving cataract surgery, and hip and knee replacements, which are all listed in the privatization regulations. There are the procedural fees, which in for-profit clinics are 50% higher than in hospitals, and facility fees can be double in for-profit clinics compared to publicly funded hospitals. The additional fees just for cataract surgeries amount to $30.7 million dollars. Hip and knee replacement surgeries, which are much more complex and dangerous than cataract surgeries, are responsible for an additional $600 million dollars over public health care. But we’ll never know the true costs, because the freedom of information acts don’t apply to private clinics.
Jim tells us of the plan: resist this by holding a citizens-led referendum this coming Friday and Saturday. Jim lists some of the locations for polling stations around Waterloo Region. But the referendum is province-wide, from Thunder Bay to Niagara Falls. WRHC is a volunteer organization and can use help to staff the polling booths. But more importantly, they need your vote. Jim reads the ballot question: Do you want our public hospital services to be privatized to for-profit hospitals and clinics? Yes or No. Jim gives a great shout-out to the churches and organizations that are providing assistance in setting up polling stations. There’s a map at https://publichospitalvote.ca/find-voting-station. It’s taken over a month to get this organized, and small army of volunteers.
45m44s
Talking about the Waterloo Region Health Coalition: About 50 core members, but membership comes and goes. All people who are constantly fighting for public health care and challenging the decisions made by the Ford administration. Jim re-iterates that public health care costs us less. Ontario is dead last for per-capita funding, and dead last for the number hospital beds per capita, dead last for the number of nurses per capita. Mr. Ford has been in power for five years, this is his responsibility. We can do as we did with Covid, provide additional funding to correct this situation. The money is there.
49m13s
Talking about petitions to the provincial government: 20,000 signatures on a petition is a lot; a million votes in the referendum is even more significant. Jim’s literature is available on the Ontario Health Coalition website. Jim lists the supporting organizations, eg. the Labour Council, the Council of Canadians, Ontario Nurses Association, Unifor, the major union groups, the Canadian Federation of University Women, Retired Teachers of Ontario. Canadians really cherish their health care; Tommy Douglas, who was responsible for universal health care in Canada was voted The Greatest Canadian (but Bob voted for Stompin’ Tom, and Jim voted for Terry Fox).
52m13s
Even though these grass-roots groups support this referendum, it is not an Elections Ontario referendum. What happens when OHC presents this to the government of Ontario? Jim thinks the government will be embarrassed. Jim hopes the media will pick this up. People across the Region who were unaware of what was happening will have an opportunity to voice their displeasure. Bob fears the government will just ignore the referendum altogether.
53m50s
Jim covers some of the financial costs of privatized, for-profit health care. 45% of all Americans typically have a medical debt load of $10,000; 60% of all bankruptcies in America are the result of health care costs. We’re starting to see medical debt in Ontario now. Jim is convinced Canadians don’t want that. Bob recaps the date and locations of the referendum, and says “Go out and vote!” Jim says that this your time to stand up for the public health care system. There is no other moment that is as important as this referendum on Friday and Saturday. Help the WRHC send a message to Mr. Ford.
56m15s
Bob thanks Jim Stewart for coming in yet again, and gives the end credits.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Czar has brought in an SP-404MKII by Roland (a synthesizer / sampler), and tells us about her own music. David Lacalamita, the teacher at St. Mary’s High School gives a quick introduction of the device, and Czar runs down some of the capabilities.
28m05s
Czar plays samples from the Roland SP-404MKII.
28m44s
Czar explains what we’ve been listening to, and explains how she gets the sounds from the device.
30m26s
Czar demonstrates playing a live demo.
31m40s
More explanations on how the tracks are made, and Czar makes some more samples. You can hear more of Czar’s music as Stunt Double on most social media and music platforms.
35m57s
A track that Czar created while on her way to her grandparents.
38m03s
More information on the capabilities of the Roland SP-404MKII.
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https://www.waterloohealthcoalition.org/
https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/
