Tag Archives: systemic racism

CKMS News -2021-06-21- Overt and systemic racism in the region

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Host: Sherice Alishaw

With the increase in awareness about acts of racism and racist structures resulting from the Black Lives Matters and Defund The Police movements, there have been many opportunities for people and institutions to learn and adapt their behaviour, but are our communities actually learning the lesson? Racism and racial profiling are still rampant within our communities highlighted again in a recent incident which saw the unlawful arrest of a Black Cambridge woman after police mistook her for another person. 

In this episode, we speak with Jeneka Johnson, a member of our community who suffered racial profiling at the hands of a potential landlord. We discussed her story and what had transpired the day she tried to inquire about an apartment in the Kitchener Waterloo area. We also have an open discussion about ways you can promote equality within your community. 

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This program is a part of the “Local Journalism Initiative” grant project 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 News – 2020-10-31 – UW professor Dr. Kathy Hoghart discusses the police budget

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


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

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://soundfm.s3.amazonaws.com/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


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.