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.
Bob Jonkman talks with Neal Moogk-Soulis of The Monarchist League of Canada about the role of the League, the role of the Monarchy in Canada, the coronation of King Charles III, republicanism in Canada, and a cost/benefit analysis of the Monarchy.
What is The Monarchist League? What does it do? Founded in 1970 to educate Canadians about the monarchy and the Crown, and to remind politicians that the role of the Crown is not diminished. The League identifies commemoration events that should be marked; during Royal visits to assist the Governor General and Lieutenant-Governors to ensure that there is a strong Canadian presence; to remind members of the Royal family and the Governor General and Lieutenant-Governors that Canada is a constitutional monarchy and there is support for the Crown in Canada.
8m37s
Why do Members of parliament and others need reminding? All take an oath of loyalty to the Crown, but sometimes their actions don’t reflect the words of the oath. The League does advocacy and education, and has an information booklet aimed towards students that describe the role of the Crown in Canada. Politicians are only looking towards the next election, but the Crown endures forever. The League’s chairman, Bob Finch, has a strong connection to the Governor General; the GG may contact the League for support during Royal visits, or other Royal events such as a coronation ceremony later this week.
11m20s
Provincial Lieutenant-Governors have a similar role to the federal Governor General, they sign off on legislation before it becomes law. But it doesn’t happen often that Governors General or Lieutenant-Governors deny legislation. The most famous example is the King-Byng affair from 1926. Neal has a more recent example when Stephen Harper wanted to prorogue parliament, and has an example from BC as well. Neal uses the analogy that the Governor General is like a fire extinguisher: You hope you never have to use its power, but you have one just in case.
14m47s
The Monarch has no direct role in the governance of Canada, it has been a steady devolvement of the powers of the Monarch over Canada, starting with the Statute of Westminster in 1931. Before this, courts in Britain could overrule Canadian courts. All powers returned to Canada with the patriation of the constitution in 1982. King Charles is the King of Canada, separately from being the King of England. But our origin as a Commonwealth nation has more to do with our former status as a colony than having King Charles as our Monarch.
17m09s
King Charles himself does not wield much power over either Canada’s or England’ politics. Under a constitutional monarchy the King does as commanded by the people. The King may advise when meeting with the Prime Minister in private. The King is the ruler of everyone, so does not take political sides. But King Charles has been working his entire life on political issues, and now his role has changed. Can that change? The Monarch rules at the will of parliament; King Charles can’t change that role, it would require an act of parliament. That’s unlikely to happen, the Monarch provides stability. Bob expects changes like this may happen once in a lifetime, Neal points out that most reigns are much shorter than Queen Victoria’s and Queen Elizabeth’s combined 130 years, and that we’re seeing some change already with the coronation.
Neal chose What I Wouldn’t Do because the song is about an oath of what she wouldn’t do, similar to the oath Charles makes in his role as the king. Neal describes what happens during a coronation. It’s a religious ceremony more than a political one, but tied to the rituals of the times before a parliament existed. The attending guests will be asked if they accept Charles as their king, but no-one expects anyone to object, and it wouldn’t affect the outcome anyway. Charles became King the moment Queen Elizabeth died, but the coronation is held later to allow everyone time to come to the ceremony. The date is chosen as much for the weather as anything else.
32m33s
There is nothing big being planned in Waterloo Region to celebrate the coronation. Partly logistics, partly due to the pandemic. Various landmarks will be lit up in green, the colour for the coronation, and in London various church bells will be pealing. The Lieutenant-Governor and the Governor General will be doing something. The League has encouraged people to host community celebrations as a means to educate people about this time in history.
34m15s
Before Covid, The Monarchist League would organize trips to locations of Royal visits, and hold an Accession Luncheon every February to mark the time when Elizabeth became Queen. The League has been trying new ways to reach out to people, but it’s a challenge finding an event that connects to everyone. And the Regions’ large size makes in-person gatherings difficult. Victoria Day is used as an opportunity to celebrate the Crown in Canada.
36m50s
Demographics of The Monarchist League: Both older and younger people; veterans who fought for the Crown, and an active group of Young Monarchists (who are very good at social media!). There has been an influx of new members since Charles’s acension to the throne.
Neal describes how he came across Watermelon Sorbet, doing a concert with Eve Goldberg!
44m35s
Controversy: There are republicans who do not want Canada to be a monarchy. Neal counters those arguments. What about the expense of having a Monarch, Governor General, and the GG residence, Rideau Hall? Neal ways that for individual Canadians it costs $1.54 to maintain the Monarchy in Canada. If we didn’t have the Governor General then whatever we would have in their place, that money would still be spent. What about the cost of the c oronation? Much of that is for security. The cost of a coronation is probably the same as that of a presidential inauguration. And King Charles has been mindful of the cost. But people are apathetic, and a CBC poll suggests most Canadians don't want Charles as King. Neal thinks this may be because Charles was Prince of Wales for such a long time, and people had a chance to see how he lived his life, for better or for worse. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that Canadians have larger concerns to deal with. And if we don’t have a King, then what would we have instead? Neal does not want to keep the Monarchy just to avoid change, instead, consider what the system does for us now, and have conversations about what a change might be.
51m16s
The Crown is more than just a figurehead for some people; consider that all Indigenous relations are with the Crown, not the government of Canada. King Charles has recognized that Indigenous peoples play a major role in environmental stewardship.
53m26s
Neal expects a Royal visit from King Charles, sometime in the next couple of years. And then the Monarchist League will spring into action. Neal tells us how to join the Monarchist League; there is an application form on The Monarchist League’s website.
Talking about Beautiful Waterloo Day, about university life. Taking a road trip to California, in pursuit of engineering jobs. Tristan has some recorded music, not yet available to the public. Experimental stuff, synthesizers and software. Liz hasn’t recorded anything yet, she’s only been playing guitar for about a year. Tristan has been designing and building modular synthesizers, and even sold some! Liz paints, plays music, and writes. Just music, not poetry or books. Liz puts down the music first, chords first, then melody, then words. Liz has only been writing music for a year, too. Talking about the chords in Beautiful Waterloo Day. It took about six hours for the first draft, maybe fifteen hours total. But Liz is not a perfectionist. Liz introduces the next song, with lyrics by David Andreasen, Tristan did the guitar work, Liz wrote the melody.
This is a recent song, written in the last month. Talking about influences in song writing: life, love, and personal experience. Liz’s mom, singer Jacquie Drew, had a motorcycle accident this summer, so Liz designed an obstacle detection system for motorcycles, and went to Death Valley to test it. The beauty of Death Valley inspired the next song.
Liz tells us more about mechatronics, part of robotics, including mechanical, electrical, and software engineering. Liz uses the artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT a lot. It’s OK for engineering where answers are clear, maybe not so much for politics or social studies. Professors are (mostly) not going to be replaced, ChatGPT doesn’t have the human touch. ChatGPT is not so good at writing music. And there’s the ethics: Is ChatGPT stealing content? And what about autonomous vehicles?
Liz has written four songs in the first year of playing guitar; where does she get her talent? Her mom, Jacquie Drew, has offered support and ideas for songs. Tristan gets his musical influence from his dad. Liz has played at several Open Mic nights in Toronto and Waterloo. Liz and Tristan have just created Midnight Maple, the name under which they perform. They’ve got a recording setup, and will be sending some new songs to Radio Waterloo! Now that exams are over they’ll be concentrating on music. Then they’re road-tripping to California, destination Silicon Valley. Tristan will be designing hardware for robotic vacuum cleaners guided by sensors and AI, so it doesn’t bump into walls. Liz is taking it easy at first, but will also be working in engineering. They’ll be coming back in June for convocation, we’ll catch up with them then.
53m29s
Bob gives the end credits while Liz and Tristan play us out.
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.
Bob Jonkman talks to Rowena Samuel and Alison Watson from CFUW (The Canadian Federation of Women) about the upcoming giant used book sale. There’s info about CFUW, their programs, the scholarships, the advocacy work, and the social groups.
Some errors crept into our conversation. Mary Sehl writes:
There are more than 200 members in the Kitchener-Waterloo CFUW chapter alone. Across Canada there are more than more than 7,500 members.
The CFUW is now branding itself by its initials. It won’t drop the U for University but, as Alison and Rowena said, it is no longer exclusive to university graduates. Its legal name will remain the Canadian Federation of University Women but, not unlike many corporations these days, we will just use the initials.
Public Service Announcement: Mary Sehl announces the CFUW donation drive for books, audio books, CDs and sheet music.
3m50s
Introducing Rowena Samual and Alison Watson of the CFUW. Alison tells us about the CFUW. There are 200 members across Canada, and it’s been around over 100 years. Rowena tells us about the different aspects of the CFUW — charities, social, dinner groups, book clubs, &c. It’s no longer just for university women, and the group has rebranded to drop “University” from their name, now they’re Canadian Federation of Women, but still known as CFUW
6m36s
The book sale is in is 56th year, although they missed three years due to Covid. It has become the main fundraiser, and possibly the most successful fundraiser of any CFUW chapter. Alison gives us a rundown of what happens on Wednesday and Thursday, with the actual sale on Friday and Saturday. There are lots of shifts for people to help. Planning for this event started last year September. And then there’s a lot of cleanup afterwards.
11m37s
The book sale nets about $30,000 a year, which gets invested over the years. In addition there are donations from members and friends. Alison is a trustee of the charitable fund for the CFUW charity. This fundraiser is going towards scholarships, there are fifteen different awards that go out. The education awards are the main focus, but there are other fundraisers, for example an evening with Lisa LaFlamme. Those funds went to organizations that Lisa is associated with. Tickets were sold out months in advance. Other CFUW chapters also raise funds for scholarships, since women’s education is at the forefront of CFUW. They have an advocacy committee, to select the causes to support. In the future they’re looking for other events, since book sales may not always be this popular. There is a clothing donation drive for women who need business attire for their job search.
16m22s
There are things other than books in the book sale. The books need to be in good condition, if not they’re put into the skip bin. No magazines, no reference books, and no vinyl records, but they take CDs, DVDs, and sheet music. Volunteers arrive at 8:00am to begin the sale, doors open at 9:00am.
19m32s
Are people still reading, or are they just going online and looking at their phones? There are still people buying books, and reading is good for child developement. Rowena is disappointed that she’s not reading as much as she used to. Alison has been worried about decline for years, but people are still buying books. Maybe someday books will become collectors’ items like vinyl is today, but books are still the best way to read and share. Rowena’s neighbourhood is full of book boxes, and they get good circulation.
Public Service Announcement: Mary Sehl announces the CFUW-KW 56th Giant Used Book Sale.
25m45s
Alison gives more information on Open Closet, collecting clothing donations and through social agencies in Waterloo Region making it available men, women, and children. There are Random Acts of Kindness, working with the homeless community, St. John’s Kitchen, and the Out Of The Cold program. CFUW does a December 6th vigil, working with the University of Waterloo. There is a strong affirmative action advocacy group; the Advocacy Committee is working on aging and long-term care; housing, environment — a lot of women in CFUW are working on making things better.
28m12s
What are the criteria for people receiving the scholarships? There are fifteen awards, two for high school students, the top student in chemistry and the top female graduating student. There are bursaries for practical nursing students. There’s an award to the Kitchener Junior Symphony for a string player looking to continue their studies, which is in memory of one of the CFUW members’ sons. There are about 60 students in Waterloo Region who receive awards.
30m26s
Back to the book sale: Rowena says that books and CDs sell for $2.00 or $3.00, but by Saturday they’re sold by the box — $15.00 for as many books as you can fit in a box. But you have to be able to carry the box out, no boxes on wheels! Sometimes staff will collect a box of related books and offer it as a “mystery box”. There are three rooms of books: the main gymnasium room with hardbacks, the cloak room with children’s books and non-fiction, and the chapel with more children’s books and paperbacks. There are too many books, maybe 50,000 books donated, to have them catalogued or sorted. They’re organized by category: Self-help, humour, classic literature. There used to a separate room for dealers, but now they have to sort through the all the books like everyone else. A sign of the times: There are not as many used book sellers as there used to be. A lot of people are buying books online, and books aren’t the quality they used to be and fall apart before they can be resold.
37m14s
The social connections of the club gives people different reasons for joining. Alison joined because she was looking for a book club. There are bridge groups, food is a large part of the organization, there are hiking groups, cycling groups… Somebody recently start a sketching group. CFUW is a great way for women to meet others with similar interests and maybe improve their skills. Alison is also in a French Language group. Most groups meet once a month. And there are monthly speakers: Authors, hikers, people to talk about the environment, theatre events. It’s a wide range of interests. These meetings are for members only, and often held in people’s homes. The social activities are a big draw for new members. Duing the last three years of the pandemic people got very good at Zoom. The dining groups would order take-out and eat it on Zoom. But for speakers it’s difficult to engage the audience through a camera.
Any other events? CFUW slows down during the summer, but looking for something in the fall and next year’s book sale. Talking about Mary Sehl’s public service announcement, and encouraging any Waterloo Region organizations to put their PSAs on the radio.
49m30s
PSA: CFUW book sale donations
50m15s
PSA: CFUW 56th Giant Used Book Sale
50m59s
How the First United Church gets booked. It’s a busy venue, and they’ve expanded their programs so CFUW has slightly less space than in the past. Most volunteers have done this before, people who have been members for a long time. The book sale used to be cash-only, but this year they have the capability to take credit and debit cards. And they can give charitable receipts. There are volunteers staffing a bag check, so you don’t have to carry around bags of books as you shop.
53m39s
How long has CFUW done the book sale at First United? All 56 years? The church has been there a very long time.
54m44s
How to join CFUW? Look on the website, there’s information on how to become a member. The CFUW year is almost over, new people will probably join in September. There are a lot of new members interested the advocacy work. Alison gives a recap on the recipients of the funds raised at the book sale.
56m39s
Bob 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.
Caleb Khuu is in the studio for a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance on guitar, accompanied by Rosie Samra doing the vocals! This was to have been some advance publicity for his show at The Jazz Room on Friday 21 April 2023, but it’s already sold out!
Introducing “The Dynamic Range Duo”. Talking about Caleb’s guitar, a small parlour model. Caleb has some 20 guitars! More than any person needs, but less than any person wants. Some were gifts! Caleb’s regular guitar needs some repair, which Caleb can do himself, although he’s better with electric guitars. The electric / acoustic debate: You have to have an ear for it to hear the difference, but Caleb can tell. Caleb is primarily an electric guitar player.
8m45s
Caleb has his first “solo” gig, headlining under his own name. Usually he’s a sideman for other performers. This time he’s playing as The Caleb Khuu Quartet: Caleb Khuu on guitar, Rosie Samra doing the vocals,
Matt Bruzzese on drums, and Mitch Camacho on electric and upright bass. Caleb put together this lineup just for this event. The event is already sold out! The Jazz Room is the venue, The Jazz Society does the bookings, mostly just for The Jazz Room, but they may do some other things too. Call them up, and ask for more Caleb Khuu Quartet!
11m16s
Caleb started playing jazz in high school, looked for other opportunities and auditioned for The Jazz-FM Youth Big Band. Caleb felt a little outclassed, but there weren’t many other guitar players so he got the spot. The playing was “Freddie Green style”, a simple accompaniment for a jazz band. Caleb really enjoyed it, because he didn’t have the chops back then, and this allowed him to the chance to learn. But there were plenty of opportunities for guitar solos. People love guitar solos in all genres, although Caleb was never a heavy metal guy or a shredder. Maybe some day.
15m38s
Music is the only job Caleb has had. He’s played, and he teaches. All ages, all abilities. He’s played played bass, including upright bass.
How does Caleb choose his music? He picked songs that spoke to him as a musician, a person, a guitar player. Guitar has its own culture, especially in the jazz realm. Guitar fits into any genre, whereas violin, for example, can be shoehorned in but doesn’t necessarily fit. Caleb likes the gypsy jazz style as played by Stephane Grapelli and Django Reinhardt, and hopes that style comes back. Caleb has spent years chasing technical ability, and the best compliment he gets is that his playing sounds seamless between what he hears inside, and what he plays. When Caleb plays a lot of gigs as a sideman he needs charts to keep track of all the music, but generally improvises without writing it down.
25m45s
Is guitar playing still work? The playing isn’t a chore, but making worksheets for students might be a bit more boring. That’s the business of doing business, not the business of making music. Caleb didn’t didn’t have a single moment when he realized he was playing all the right musicality. Happily, he got a video of that solo.
28m03s
Caleb is not much of a music writer, he says he’s awful at writing. He might come up with something when he’s practicing for other musicians, but it never gets written down. As a result, there is no Caleb Khuu pre-recorded music out there. He’s on the fence for releasing his own music, maybe when he’s got more life experience. He’ll see us again in five years!
Does Caleb sing? It’s a work in progress. But that’s why he’s hired Rosie. How does he find his musicians? Caleb has a vision of the music, and connects to the people who fit into that vision. Caleb will find sidemen for other musicians, but it’s not really an independent job but just additional responsibility. He’s not a “manager” or “publicist”, in fact he’s scarce on social media. He’s avoided Fear Of Missing Out, he’s made a living out of getting called. Once he decides to publish himself he’ll hire managers and producers and agents. Other musicians may produce all their own materials, but Caleb will hire the best people he can to help him with their expertise.
37m44s
Music is immensely collaborative; when he plays even a single note or rest Caleb is aware of all the history and influence behind it. But this doesn’t overwhelm Caleb, the music just comes innately. He can take advantage of that, or not. Caleb has had influence from friends of all ages, he comes from a long tradition of working musicians. There’s a long tradition of musicians hiring sidemen, and Caleb fell into it at a young age. He’s open to touring as a sideman, but he’s a full-time student, second year, with plans for medical school or grad school. So get this music stuff done early!
42m14s
Recap of the gig at The Jazz Room in the Huether Hotel. Talking about Caleb’s youth in other countries, how he got interested in playing jazz — he saw his future high school jazz band playing at the Huether. Is headlining with his own jazz quartet the pinnacle? Yes, but Caleb has plans for The Caleb Khuu Octet. But Caleb Khuu The Soloist is playing lots of gigs today, both as a listening set and a background set. There are fans who show up regularly at many gigs. People come for Caleb’s interpretation of other people’s songs. Rosie was worried about performing jazz standards at The Jazz Room, but Caleb says there’s lots of room for standards. He’ll be playing some standards, as well as modern funk and soul, like Royals. There’s some danger of misjudging the audience, where his style of music doesn’t fit the audience. But Caleb says stay true to yourself, that’s the one lesson he’s learned from all the years of experience of the people he’s played with.
49m16s
How far will Caleb travel? He’s been to Montreal for a gig, playing with Frankie Flowers. Made Caleb feel like a proper rock star. But Caleb’s school obligations keep him local for now.
Rosie has some exams coming up, will be releasing a new song later this summer, and will be playing with Caleb during the summer! And Radio Waterloo will get first dibs on the new release.
57m35s
Bob gives the credits while Caleb plays us out.
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.
Lily and Gabby are in the Bachelor of Public Relations program at Conestoga College. This is one of their assignments, working with a third person, Tyson. Other class members are doing networking events, or pottery/painting fundraising. Gabby tells how the event unfolds: reaching out and networking. Lily and Gabby chose the music event assignment because they’re really into music. This may become a career, filling a niche.
12m09s
How will this be evaluated? The goals are to generate publicity for the charity, to raise $1,000 (already surpassed). Funds are raised through Canada Helps and ticket sales, and a silent auction: gift cards, movie passes.
14m31s
How does a band battle work? Each band has 30 minutes to play, with a changeover between bands. It’s a friendly competition, and the attendees will vote with a d igital voting system. The audience gets to choose!
The event is fundraising for the Business and Education Partnership of Waterloo Region (BEPWR), for local youth in elementary and high school. This will give students grants of $500 or $1000 to get their projects off the ground. This charity was chosen by the professors, who had worked with the organizer of BEPWR before. All student teams will be raising money for this charity. And working with these charities may provide opportunities for future careers in public relations.
23m41s
Gabby and Lily give an overview of the public relations program: event planning, finance, media theory. It’s a four-year degree program, graduating with a degree in Bachelor of Pulic Relations. Gabby started at Western University in Political Science, but came back home to Waterloo to study Public Relations. Lily in in her second year of the Public Relations progam. The goal of PR is to bridge the gap between a company and their public. Bob sees an opportunity for some Public Relations for Radio Waterloo!
Gabby knows the members of Turning Corners! Everybody knows everybody? Getting to know Gabby and Lily, and learning more about the BPR program, and how they’ll apply their knowledge.
35m32s
Talking about crisis management and public relations. Following up after the event, sending thank-you notes to people for participating, &c. Making presentations to summarize their event for the class.
38m11s
Getting other media attention from those ‘big’ radio stations!
Gabby know the members of Small-Town Strip Club too! Lily and Gabby know people in all the bands! How are the bands selected? They’re donating their time, and hope to get the prize money to make their start. The “Browns” in Browns Battle of the Bands is Browns Restaurant, where Gabby works. How they selected the sponsors, and the venue, Maxwell’s Concerts and Events, who are also providing the technicians to run the event. There are no other event planning courses in the BPR program, but maybe Gabby and Lily will make it their passion project.
Joshua Säde James Joshua Säde James gives a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance and talks to Bob Jonkman about working on a cruise line, song contests and song camps, working with producers, and songwriting.
Talking about an old song. Joshua’s “World Tour”, landing a gig as the entertainment on a cruise line with NCLH. James is with Eric Alper and Arturo Research for bookings and publicity. Talking about the perks of working on a cruise line. Also working at Bobby O’Brien’s, playing a gig this Friday, 24 March 2023 with Katy Topham.
13m15s
Talking about Joshua’s earlier career in Toronto. And his future career playing the bar circuit.
15m37s
Is there time to write songs on a cruise gig? Joshua tells us about life aboard while trying to write.
Does Joshua play other instruments? Yes, but mostly piano and guitar. Joshua tells us about finances and taxes. Composing on the keyboard. Talking about recording his songs, and wanting a band. Winning a singing contest, where the prize was a music video and production of three songs. Anthony Wright, the producer, took Joshua’s songs and made them better. Joshua expressing his musical ideas with mouth sounds. Talking about collaboration versus hiring a producer. Writing songs in three hours for a contest, or song camps like Dreamhouse in Toronto. Talking about the song camp experience.
34m55s
Death of a hard drive. Joshua doesn’t remember what songs in progress might be on there. Talking about the songwriting process. Music or lyrics first? Music, usually. Talking about the songwriting process.
41m18s
Joshua’s online presence. Shoutout to Noah Vella for the photos for Gone. JSJ gets decked out in costume for all his shows.
Comparing the acoustic version of Gone to the produced version. There’s a mix of acoustic and electric in Joshua’s live shows.
49m58s
Joshua give out his contact information for bookings, and tells us of upcoming shows at Bob by O’Brien’s and future shows on his next cruise gig. Lots of new songs to be released. Joshua’s performances do well on streaming services, but the revenues don’t cover the cost of production.
57m00s
End credits as Joshua plays Honey
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.
Introducing Lillie Proksch, the Senior Communications and Events Coordinator at Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region, and the producer of the She Is Your Neighbour podcast; Jenna Mayne is Communications and Fund Development Manager, and the host of the podcast.
4m26s
WCSWR supports women and children who are experiencing domestic violence. Not just physical violence, but also emotional, financial, psychological, coercive control. Support is through emergency shelter, outreach services, transitional housing, and other support services. There are 45 beds in each location, Haven House in Cambridge and Anselma House in Kitchener. Both are at capacity. The units are hotel-style, with adjoining rooms available for women with children. With the housing crisis, stays can be from eight to twelve months. The long stays prompted the start of the transitional housing program, at Aspen Place, which is three units to house up to twelve people. And housing placement workers will help women get permanent housing. The need for services has increased 92% over the last two years, and that’s related to the additional stresses from Covid.
9m06s
Women don’t need to stay at the shelters to access the WCSWR services. Help is available through the two support phone numbers, and online at https://wcswr.org/ The online chat was implemented at the start of Covid, and is staffed by a social worker. The web site has a safety exit that deletes all the history from the WCSWR web site.
11m13s
WCSWR started the She Is Your Neighbour podcast to talk about the fact that domestic violence is happening to people in all different neighbourhoods, doesn’t matter what their background. They wanted to bring a face and a voice to the issue – the women experiencing abuse are not like they’re portrayed in mainstream media, these are strong women. WCSWR hired a professional photographer, Hilary Gauld to take pictures of the podcast participants. The podcast is aimed both at the general public, but also at women experiencing domestic violence, knowing they’re not alone in this experience. This is Season Four, Understanding Femicide. It’s six episodes discussing what happens when domestic violence becomes lethal.
14m19s
Trailer for Understanding Femicide.
15m07s
She Is Your Neighbour Season Four: Understanding Femicide will air on CKMS-FM from 1pm to Noon from 13 March 2023 until 17 April 2023. It is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and other sites. Episodes can also be heard on the She Is Your Neighbour website. Featured on the website is Dr. Jennifer Kagan-Viater, featured on the second episode of the podcast. One purpose of the podcast is general education, including the definition of femicide: All killings of women and girls that involve sex- or gender-related motivations or indicators. Lillie gives a synopsis of the first episode with Fallon Farinacci.
19m11s
Clip from Episode One with Fallon Farinacci
20m15s
Discussing the serverity of femicide: In 2022 there were 52 femicides in 52 weeks. The word “Femicide” is hardly ever heard in mainstream media. The issue of femicide appears to be getting worse, and more so due to the pandemic. Women need to know they can reach out for support. It’s difficult to know who is experienci domestic violence because women don’t always report it, or reaches out for help. There is a lot of shame and stigma surrounding domestic violence. Women may be afraid to call the police or come out to an emergency shelter. But all kinds of people come to the shelter, all different backgrounds, wealthy people, older women. There is domestic violence in same-sex relationships, but violence against women is disproportionally by men.
23m28s
There are a lot of male allies and supporters, some of whom are on the podcast. Men can help by being supportive, providing information on the WCSWR support lines, but not necessarily asking women to leave their relationship right away.
What does it take to produce a podcast? It’s a long process, especially when it comes to safety concerns. It starts about six months in advance when they reach out to their guests. Lillie and Jenna write questions, pre-interview guests, have the photographer take pictures. The first seasons were ten episodes, but now reduced to six episodes to make it more manageable. There is a mix of ways they find their guests. Big names have appeared on the podcast, such as Anna Maria Tremonti. Bob had not imagined that someone as high-profile as Anna Maria Tremonti would be a victim of domestic violence. Lillie and Jenna reached out to her agent, and also through Twitter. Some people they reach out to don’t want to be on the podcast, other people have approached them. Ensuring the safety of their guests is a primary concern.
33m52s
Before Covid the interviews were done in person, now they’re done remotely. That has given Lillie a bit more prominence. They’re using Riverside FM as their remote recording sofware, and ensure the guests have a good microphone and setup. Bob geeks out over the technical specs of the software. The podcast is minimally edited to keep the guests as authentic as possible. The podcast started very small in a room at WCSWR and has turned into a bigger and better thing than expected. Bob says the podcast is very well done.
38m05s
Plans for the future? the next four episodes are airing weekly through the social media channels and the website. They’re trying to make She Is Your Neighbour as big as it can possibly be. Then they’ll start choosing next season’s theme and the guests. And they’re making She Is Your Neighbour into more than a podcast. There is a group called Neighbours And Loved Ones, standard training for community members who are worried about someone or who want to know about the services WCSWR provides. That’s run by a social worker on request. There is also a She Is Your Neighbour podcast club, like a book club but better because you don’t have to read anything. There’s a merch line to try to keep the project sustainable. There are several sponsors, some for individual episodes, and Rogers has sponsored the entire last two seasons. Sponsors come from contacts at the various events WCSWR runs throughout the year. It’s difficult to put a cost on the podcast, it’s rolled into all the other work Lillie and Jenna do.
41m22s
The podcast is being syndicated on Midtown Radio as the March feature, and a little bit on Rogers. Bob suggests they syndicate on the NCRA’s !earshot Digital Distribution System, and get distribution to campus and community stations across Canada.
Future episodes feature experts and survivors. Episode three will have Dr. Myrna Dawson, and episode four has local guest Sarah Robertson. Other guests are Sofia Aresta and Marlene Ham.
48m37s
WCSWR coordinates with other shelters out of the region when there aren’t enough spaces locally. WCSWR is one of the biggest crisis services organizations in Ontario. It used to be two separate organizations, Anselma House and Haven House, and people still remember it that way. WCSWR is biggest for a variety of reasons, not necessarily that things are worse here. Any women and their children who are experiencing any form of domestic abuse can make use of the support services. Lillie and Jenna repeat the contact information for support.
51m38s
Talking about how WCSWR is funded: 60% of the funding is from the Ontario ministry of Children and Community Services, the rest is from fundraising. Some programs, like music therapy are completely funded by donors. There are two signature events, the next is Hats Off To Mom, the annual Mother’s Day brunch, the first time it’s being held in-person in three years. Angie Hill is hosting, Juneyt is providing music.
54m25s
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.
Introducing Rosie Samra, a Kitchener native! Recording her songs at various studios, currently with Mike DeFaria of Blacktail Recordings in Mississauga. Rosie has been singing since she was really little. Talking about breathing technique, but that’s not something Rosie considers when writing songs. Music or lyrics first? It depends. Rosie has been writing music since 2019. Sunday Afternoon was the first “real” song. Music is easier than lyrics, but Rosie hasn’t considered collaborating on songwriting yet. The Canadian system of rights and royalties are too complex, something we run into at the radio station. Talking about the source of the lyrics, not always taken from real life. Changing the song for the studio, the studio version is a bit more amped up.
Discussing the differences between the acoustic version and the studio version. How Rosie adds the lyrics to the music. Admiring Rosie’s vocal technique. Rosie doesn’t play an instrument, which is why Hiba is here today. Rosie doesn’t write out the notes; her phone is her notesheet. Hiba hasn’t been involved in Rosie’s music production, but will be doing something in the future. Recounting how the Rosie and Hiba duo came to be. Rosie is working on a few project, but can’t talk about that yet. Talking about the upcoming concert at The Jazz Room with Caleb Khuu. This is more “Jazz” than Rosie is used to, she’s “more Pop.” Rosie does a lot of live performing. Talking about the sources of income: More from live performances than from streaming. She’s performed at restaurants, pubs, but also at art gallery openings and festivals, here in KW and the GTA as well.
24m10s
Rosie got her start at the beginning of the pandemic, but things are looking better now. She’s a full-time student, so the pandemic was a chance to concentrate on studies. But it’s been rainbows and sunshine since. Rosie tells us how she got her first gig, and more recent gigs. Rosie handles booking and management herself, but selling the art, promoting the art is more work than the art itself. Rosie is handling a full course load at University, honours science (mostly biology) with a double minor in medical physiology and Islamic studies. Rosie says that optimistically, she’s a musician with a science fallback. She’s a bit intimidated by people with a formal education in music. Introducing Sunday Afternoon, the first song Rosie recorded and released.
Talking about Sunday Afternoon. Rosie would like to be known as a jazz singer, but considers herself a pop singer. Jazz musicians are very intense, specific about instrumentals and scatting and scales, not something she can relate to. Does Rosie cover other people’s music? Yes, that’s how she got started in music. None of the music at The Jazz Room is Rosie’s music, she’ll be singing Caleb Khuu’s music. Rosie says that people at The Jazz Room don’t want to hear the standards of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Louis Armstrong performed by others, you’re expected to bring something new. It’s more for a new, modern spin on jazz, which they’ll be performing on 21 April.
38m51s
Rosie, Caleb and the band have spent a lot of time vetting the songs to be played. They’re not considered standards, but not unknown either. Only Georgia On My Mind could be considered a standard. They’re practicing a lot, three hours most Sundays. Rosie isn’t used to singing jazz, not used to the solos that each performer takes. She’s been told she makes jazz “approachable”. At other gigs where Rosie singer her original music is received well. Crazy is her favourite and always received well. When people are really listening to the music it makes Rosie feel like the most special person on Earth. When Rosie is busking downtown the most popular song is Tennessee Whisky.
Does social media influence what Rosie writes? Yes, it influences how she lives her life! But social media can be so destructive, because you only see people at their best. It changed Rosie’s self-perception when she started on social media at age 13. The beauty standard is so ingrained on social media. Rosie’s presence as a professional musician and entertainer is mostly on Instagram, and she’s not really on Twitter at all.
50m47s
Rosie’s “glam shots” on Instagram are by her photographer friend Angad Singh; he gets to hear all the music before it comes out. He listens to the song, then he and Rosie comes up with a mood for it, then he sets up the photo shoot. Angad supplies the props. Angad is a full time student at University as well, yet still manages to find time for photography.
53m08s
Rosie gives her social media and contact information, and Hiba gives info about the University of Waterloo club, the Animusic Ensemble, playing music from anime and video games, and which has a concert on Sunday 2 April 2023 in building M3. Hiba plays a happier version of On My Own while Bob 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 joins Bob Jonkman by phone to discuss the state of public health in Ontario, and to talk about the upcoming pickets in support of the Ontario Nurses’ Association this Thursday, 23 February 2023 at St. Mary’s Hospital and Grand River Hospital.
Welcoming Jim Stewart back to the studio. Jim explains the crisis in Ontario health care. Funding for the pandemic came from the Federal government ($6.5 billion for all of Canada by March 2022, according to a government press release).
6m48s
Premier Doug Ford has capitalized on the backlog in surgeries as a result of the pandemic, but surgical backlogs are happening globally. Taking advantage of Ontario’s backlog to begin privatization is “absolutely despicable”. Nurses in New York are striking over their work conditions, we have the same conditions in Ontario. Nurses in Ontario aren’t on strike yet, but there will be pickets by nurses in front of hospitals across Ontario, including St. Mary’s and Grand River hospitals in Kitchener.
9m52s
Doug Ford’s do-nothing strategies has resulted in Ontario being in last place for per-capita health care funding, last in numbers of beds per-capita, and dead last in the number of nurses per-capita. The Health Coalitions would like to see Ontario get back to an average rating, but the current privatization strategy will only make it worse. The right-wing mantra is to create a crisis, then claim that privatization is the only solution. But it is well known that privatization only makes these metrics worse. The Ontario government has been underfunding health care by $900 million, according to finance critic Catherine Fife, NDP MPP for Waterloo. And the plan in the new budget is to reduce health care spending by 2024 even more, by $5 billion dollars, according to Liberal health critic Dr. Adil Shamji. It is unlikely that we will ever be able to come back to a public health care system. At the same time, Doug Ford has been transferring funds from our public hospitals to independent health care facilities, to move 50% of our surgeries to for-profit, private clinics. And Doug Ford has introduced Bill 124 to reduce the wages of nurses and other medical professionals, resulting in nurses leaving our public hospitals, and making recuitment for new nurses dreadful. We have massive vacancies in nursing staffing levels. The crisis Doug Ford has created is a political decision, to proceed with privatization of the public health care system. There are over 1137 pro-privatization health care lobbyists at Queen’s Park. The WRHC thinks privatization is a disaster for public health care, a fatal blow for our hospitals, especially small and medium hospitals.
16m18s
Privatization has been happening for several years with diagnostic imaging and blood tests, now transferred to cataract surgeries and other opthalmic procedures. Private clinics will only take the easiest, most profitable cases. OHIP will pay $610 per cataract, but only $400 when done in a public hospital. In addition there are facility fees for maintenance and administration in private clinics. In 2014 OHIP paid $198 million in procedural fees, but $434 million for facility fees. OHIP is paying this extra money for building and administering private clinics. This is not in the public interest, since we have the surgical capacity in our existing hospitals.
20m01s
Private clinics take the easy surgeries at greater expense, so our underfunded and understaffed public hospitals will need to deal with the more complex surgeries. Jim again calls this despicable. There are 24,000 vacancies for health care professionals, 140 in Waterloo Region alone. Then the call drops, and Bob introduces the next song.
Jim was talking about the band Kroka, and Bob suggests they come in to the studio for a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance!
27m28s
Are we losing the health care battle? We have the capability of stopping privatization. Jim explains the structure of the Ontario Health Coalition and the Waterloo Region Health Coalition, non-partisan organizations. Everyone Jim knows supports the public health care system, which is why Jim is so disturbed by the announcements to privatize. The former Ontario minister of health, Christine Elliott, made an announcement in February 2-2022 that they would privatize health care. This was an existential threat to public health care. Jim was interviewed by The Record about this announcement, but when The Record contacted the Ontario ministry of health for a response they said what the WRHC was saying was categorically false, although Jim had a recording of Christine Elliott’s announcement. The OHC and WRHC launched a campaign with lawn signs and radio spots. All during the election the Ontario PC Party denied any plans to privatize. They offered no campaign platform and didn’t show up for all-candidate meetings. But two months after the election they announced 50% privatization again. Jim and the health coalitions are finding out from Ontarians whether the government has a mandate to privatize.
34m48s
There are other organizations that care about public health care. We have to take some ownership; if Ontario decides to privatize health care it will happen across the country. We’ll have American style medical debt and medical bankrupcy. Some 150 million Americans have at least $10,000USD of medical debt; 50% of all American bankrupcies are due to medical debt.
36m27s
What’s the trend for privatization in the rest of the world? No, it’s not happening globally. The OECD countries all have publicly funded systems. There are some examples of alternative systems, we could consider adopting some of those strategies. There are some countries that have some privatization, but it’s difficult to compare those systems to ours; Jim describes the French system, which includes pharmaceuticals, dental, and eye care. There may be private insurace for a private room, but that’s the ancillary care, not the primary health care. Germany has private health care only for the very rich, but the overwhelming majority of Germans are covered by their national health care. By contrast, in Ontario all our doctors have private practices, all our laboratory services are private, much of our medical imaging is privatized, about 70% of our long-term care is privatized, and home care is almost 100% privatized. All we have left is our public hospitals. And now 50% of surgeries are to be privatized. We are working against the global trend, we need to think about re-establishing public health care system we believe should be there.
40m29s
Would there be some advantage to having a national health care system instead of a provincial one? Constitutionally we have the Canada Health Act with requires the provinces to administer health care in a public fashion, but it doesn’t force provinces to deliver health care in any meaningful way with a public methodology. In Alberta their private health care delivery hasn’t work; surgical wait lists grew. But it has been a lucrative business. The proposed Ontario privatization will still be paid through OHIP, so surgeries will be paid at a premium rate; surgeons can make an extra $200 by performing surgery in their private clinics. And who is deliver the care now? Where do the nurses, medical technologists, and physicians come from? They come from the public system, there are only a limited pool of human resources. And so the public system will have enormously long wait lists for surgeries and other procedures. But a fully public health care system has better outcomes at lower costs. This can be seen between the partly private NHS system in England compared to the public NHS in Scotland. NHS in England is barely surviving, will never go back to a public system, and that’s Jim’s big fear for Ontario.
45m30s
What are the Ontario and Waterloo Region Health Coalitions doing? They’re lobbying the government directly, and talk to the media, and support local initiatives such as the ONA picket lines Thursday 23 February 2023. Come out and tell the media we are not supportive of privatizing our public health care system; we want the reverse, a fully funded public health care system, to grow it and strengthen it and finance it properly with the right kind of human resources and financial resources. Join the Waterloo Region Health Coalition which is made of concerned citizens who want to take action. The best way to join is through their Facebook website or send Jim an e-mail at waterlooregionhealthcoalition@gmail.com. Also the OHC website, https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/. WRHC has regular monthly meetings on Zoom, Jim hopes to go back to in-person meetings soon. There are also individual memberships to the OHC, join up and be a Health Care Defender. They’re looking for people to report on fees being charged for surgeries &c. Pickets at the hospitals are right at the main entrance, an hour at each hospital, just show up.
50m09s
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.
Cait Glasson, “Social Activist At Large”, spoke with Bob Jonkman about the 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 Cait, and the reason for the petition to have asylum protections extended to Trans people because of eliminationist laws in their own countries, necessitated by recent announcements in the US and UK to outlaw Trans people. Ordinarily we would consider the US and the UK as “safe third countries”; Cait perceives what is happening in those countries as genocide, and does not want to turn away people as Canada did with the St. Louis, a ship from the Third Reich carrying people trying to get away. The petition was initiated a week ago on Thursday, 26 January 2023, and had received 18,388 signatures at air time. The petition is online at https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4268. Cait reads the petition.
Cait tells us that the holocaust of the second world war started with the Trans people. Cait tells us of Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, who coined the word “transsexual”. Berlin was the gay capital of the world, but this culture was the first thing the Nazis tore down. After the war, when people were liberated, homosexuals and Trans people were put back in jail. West Germany and Canada had laws against homosexuality until 1969, and in the military until 1992. Cait herself was caught in this law when she was in the military, and discharged.
Cait tells us about conditions in the UK, starting with Terfs, Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists, telling us about J.K. Rowling and other online trolls. They specialize in brigading Trans women to take their lives, and they like to SWAT people, calling the police under false pretences to harass Trans people. Cait has taken precautions to ensure her security, online and with the police. Cait says the hate against Trans people is the worst it has been since she transitioned thirty years ago.
Commenting on the music: Bob calls it “the aluminum of heavy metal”. But he likes the music.
Cait tells us how to get a petition before the government. It needs 500 signatures, so Cait set the petition to four months. Cait approached Mike Morrice, MP for Kitchener to help with the petition and to sponsor it. The petition is now up to 18,512, up 200 in 20 minutes. It took about three weeks to get the petition from writing down the idea to getting it online.
We’ve had problems with anti-Trans politics in our own municipal elections, with the election of several anti-Trans school board trustees. Cait hasn’t felt in danger in Kitchener herself recently, but some younger friends are regularly harassed. But the police won’t take action. Bob suggests this is not transphobia, a fear, but transmisia, an out-and-out hate. Cait thinks it’s all starts from fear and disgust, citing research that this may be caused by an overactive amygdala.
There’s a right-wing ecosystem of media that set up to feed into those fears, and push it to engage their base. Talking about the hate on social media. Twitter is especially bad, but Mastodon in the Fediverse is much better, “the grown-up version of social media” — there are no algorithms pushing hateful content in your face.
Talking about Cait’s account in the Fediverse: @oldladyplays@wargamers.social. Cait tells us how she got the online name “Old Lady Plays”, playing video games. Someone mentioned Cait playing on Reddit, and Cait’s subscriptions shot up, and she was interviewed on international radio! Cait tells us about a virtual football manager game, and a linguistic game.
Cait’s career was as a translator of French, German and Russian; she tells us how translation is not interpretation. How she got into translation, right at the time of perestroika in 1987. She can understand spoken Russian and some Ukrainian, but speaking is much harder.
Talking about the time signature in Broken Inside.
What can be done to return things to normal? Cait is very public about being transgender, both for the Trans community and the Cis community, to show that she’s just another person in the community.
She does education work for Spectrum, going to companites and organizations to teach them how to deal with the Queer community. The equity laws tell companies what do do, Cait’s program tells them how. This is the Rainbow Diversity Training program.
Mis-gendering people is a big deal to Trans people. When it happens, treat it like you would stepping on someone’s toe. Apologize, and move on. No need to make further excuses.
Cait reviews the purpose of the petition. Sucessful completion of the petition only means that it will be debated in parliament, not necessarily that a law to enact it will be passed. That’s why Cait now hopes to get 100,000 signatures, approximately that of an election riding, to show politicians that this is what Canadian citizens want.
Bob Jonkman talks to Matt Burdett of Lost Faculty about his new single, Muddy My Mind, the sound he’s trying to achieve, the songwriting process, the ins and outs of music publishing, and his upcoming gigs.
This is the debut release of Muddy My Mind! Matt comes from Hamilton, Ontario, playing at the Corktown Tavern, Casbah, the Doors Pub, Mills Hardware, and Bridgeworks. Matt just completed his Master’s degree in Sustainability Management at the University of Waterloo. Tonight he’s off to play at the release party for Muddy My Mind at the Coach & Lantern Pub in Ancaster. Matt brought his guitar to play some other tunes that he’s releasing over the next few months, starting with Pieces.
Admiring Matt’s guitar, a graphite body with a maple neck. Matt’s a heavy-handed guitar player, that gets lots of volume out of the guitar. Pieces was the first song he wrote as a single piece. Matt cites Bob Dylan as an influence for this song. He didn’t have a title, until a woman in the bar called out “Call it Pieces!” Most songs come to Matt in pieces, not all in one shot. Matt likes writing both the music and the lyrics, being both McCartney and Lennon. Matt’s been performing as a solo act for only about five years. Matt’s going for the full band sound, working with Michael Keire at the Threshold Recording Studio in Hamilton, who has worked with big, guitar-driven bands, and gave Matt some pointers. Matt’s band on the recording of Muddy My Mind wasn’t his regular band, but a bunch of friends that played in The Bandicoots; three of them played on the track. Matt wants to play some venues in Toronto, and is looking to put together a show in Waterloo. Contact Matt if you can make it happen! Matt draws his songwriting influence from walking around downtown of the place he’s living. Matt introduces the next song, a preview of the next song he’s releasing.
Any Other Name was recorded at the same time as Muddy My Mind, Bob is looking forward to hearing the band version as well. Matt writes chord charts, tabs out some guitar licks, passes this to the other musicians: Andrew Parkinson on drums, Nikolai Kozel on guitar, Justin Ross on bass and vocals. Matt says it’s nice to play with people who are better than you, it brings you up. In February 2021 Matt drove to BC, tells stories of winter driving. It took five days to get there, but took his time to get back. He was working in Gibsons, BC, working on his degree remotely. Made lots of friends there, got good ideas for poems and music. But it might take three years for him to turn his ideas into music. Matt uses phone memos to record his ideas, playing into the phone. Matt is concerned about digital material being unavailable in the future, the pervasiveness of phones and technology. Matt will play a sad song to take our minds off it. Matt introduces A Man Escapes, based on French film he studied in University.
Matt’s songwriting includes combining two different narratives into one song, something he lifted from Phoebe Bridgers’s song Kyoto. One of the story lines in A Man Escapes came from Matt’s walk around the Hamilton Escarpment when he wasn’t having a particularly good day. The other came from driving along Highway 101, windows down, music blasting. Talking about developing finger picking skills. Matt’s been pushing his “band” sound, sometimes at the expense of songs like this, but there’s space for both kinds of sounds in the same project. Matt inventories his music room, it’s busy, it also has guitars from his parents. No drums, Matt prefers to leave that to the professionals. Does Matt have writer’s block? It comes and goes. Matt does most of his writing in the winter, and living life in the summer.
Bucket List has its chord progressions from doo-wop chords from the 1950s. Matt has been getting pigeonholed as an acoustic singer-songwriter, now he’s playing with a pedal board for a full sound, and even brought in a drummer once. He took Lost Faculty as the project name. It’s even the name of the band, even though there’s not a set lineup for the band. The switch from “Matt Burdett” to “Lost Faculty” should be complete soon. Matt uses TuneCore to distribute his music. Matt has been trying to learn the ins and outs of royalties, streaming rights, publishing, licensing. It’s hard to understand, and not get taken advantage of. New CRTC regulations should make CanCon qualifications easier for Canadian songwriters. Matt has been getting gigs more frequently since the name change to Lost Faculty. He e-mails, networks with bands, meets people, sharing a bill with friends. Matt’s playing at the historic Horseshoe Tavern on Monday, 6 February 2023, got by a cold e-mail and a link to the music; he regularly plays at the Coach & Lantern Pub, a pub gig so he plays lots of covers and mixes a few originals in. That’s where he started playing the Open Mics, now he hosts the Open Mics! Other gigs at The Casbah and Doors Pub, and the release party tonight at 9:00pm at The Coach and Lantern. If you want Matt Burdett of Lost Faculty to play at your venue contact him at mattburdettmusic@gmail.com.
55m50s
Matt Burdett plays us out while Bob 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 on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Tim tells us about Basketball Rock, more of a novelty song for him, but now the music he writes is labelled “neo-classical”. All his songs are recorded at River Music Studios in London, Ontario, the better for the quality of the music. Tim Schwindt, propietor of River Music did the guitar, bass, and drums; Tim (McInnes) played the piano and sang the vocals, and, of course, wrote the song . Tim’s first album was almost all ragtime music, with seven Jellyroll Morton covers, and seven of his own compositions in the ragtime vein. His second album, Shadowlife is almost all his own music. Tim says you can hear his style get more serious, for example he says Repetitive Stress is being picked up on dark, lugubrious playlists on Spotify. Tim wrote It’s A Sad Song and An Even Sadder Song in an attempt to create the saddest song ever written. Certainly it’s the saddest song Tim could write.
9m11s
Tim is mostly self-taught. He took piano as a kid and teenager, but what he doesn’t know about music theory would fit into a good-sized warehouse. He finds YouTube useful for picking up music theory. Introducing An Even Sadder Song (but Bob plays Music For Money instead).
The viola and violin parts were played by Tim’s neighbour, Kelvin Enns, the principal viola player for the London Symphonia. Kelvin and Tim have collaborated on several pieces, including For Ukraine and Almost Home. Tim has also collaborated with Jessie Grandmont on the song Ghost Dance. Jesse is currently touring with Fiddler on the Loose (plug plug!) playing in Drayton, Petrolia, and even in the United States. He’s an excellent violin player, and Tim says he just plays some triads on the piano…
17m01s
Bob comments on Tim’s varied repertoire; Tim says he’s narrowing down to writing only neo-classical music. But every now and then a funny song occurs to him, like Better Days, about vaccination, in which he also plays ukelele. Current events sometimes get Tim going, like writing a pro-vax song to counter the anti-vax songs.
19m06s
Tim just had a birthday (the Big Seven-Oh); he started his “music business” after he retired from being a forklift driver. He started seriously playing music in 2015 playing at the McCormick Home for Alzheimers patients, every now and then sneaking in his own compositions. Once Tim started getting ready to record the songs just kept coming. All of Tim’s musical connections (collaborators, studio, playing venue) are within walking distance of his home. Tim stays out of the spotlight, preferring to do studio work and writing songs rather than performing. He’d love to find other people to perform his music. Some of Tim’s music is getting thousands of streams on Spotify.
23m13s
Tim is working on a new song. It was something Tim had heard before — something he had written himself. But Tim says it’s not wrong to steal from yourself. Sometimes Tim thought he was in a rut, but then a brand-new melody occurs to him. There are hundreds of songs that have gone through the transom of his mind; there are parts of songs, ones for which there’s no ending, and some he’s just plain forgotten. Tim can’t keep two different songs in his head. A new song will knock out the one that was there. Tim set up a video camera to film himself playing, so if he forgets something he can go back to remind himself of the melody. Tim introduces Ghost Dance with Jesse Grantmont on violin.
Talking about the instrumentation on Music Box Waltz — it’s a celeste, also used in Mozart’s Magic Flute and Tchaikovsy’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, then Music Box Waltz switches to a Fazioli-sound piano. Tim is a connoisseur, he can tell the difference between a Bösendorfer, Yamaha, or Steinway piano. For some songs he uses the effect of an upright or broken-down piano, for example in Silent Movie Heroics.
Silent Movie Heroics is meant to emulate movies of Douglas Fairbanks Sr., swashbuckling, swordfights, and chases. It’s a change of pace from the serious neo-classical stuff. The slightly out-of-tune piano sound is an effect added digitally to a midi keyboard. Done professionally, the effects sound like the real thing.
43m41s
On Music For Money that’s Tim’s brother Brad McInnes playing the Irish flute. Tim told him what the melody was, then Brad was on his own. Tim hasn’t collaborated on composing, but he has “borrowed” from other composers, for example Almost Home sounds a lot like Beethoven’s Pathétique.
Does Tim deliberately try to emulate other composers? He did in this case, although he says his composition is not as sophisticated, and doesn’t have as much “meat on the bone” as Chopin’s real music, but it’s a suggestion of his music. Tim suggests playing Backwards Boogie.
What’s backwards about Backwards Boogie? Tim says it’s the left hand — if you play it backwards you’ll get some subliminal messages. Tim went into the studio and improvised. It’s not a three-chord boogie but a six-chord boogie. Tim prefers people use Spotify to get his music, wants to get Ghost Dance over 1,000 streams.
Bob Jonkman talks with Tamara Lorincz, who’s involved with a number of Peace and Social Justice organizations, and Stuart Ross from World Beyond War.
On last week’s CKMS Community Connections I spoke with Tamara and Stuart briefly at the “No F35 Fighter Jets” rally, but there was so much else to talk about that Tamara and Stuart came to the studio for a longer conversation.
Sign the Parliamentary petition to: Study the financial, climate, environmental, and social costs of the F35 fighter jets; Make public the results of that study; and Cancel the planned purchase of F35 fighter jets and invest in climate action and the well-being of Canadians: e-4217 : Petition to the House of Commons
An earlier Parliamentary petition endorsed by the No Fighter Jets Coalition was presented by the Hon. Bardish Chagger, MP for Waterloo: e-3821 (National defence and military operations) to which members of the government have responded.
Stuart Ross tells us how he became involved with World Beyond War. Tamara Lorincz tells us of several other organizations that promote peace and non-violence.
9m52s
Talking about the F35 fighter jet purchase by the Canadian government. Discussing the expense, the carbon emissions, other pollutants in the fuel, stolen Indigenous lands for airforce bases, and the trauma and chronic disease brought to these communities from the effects of fighter jet emissions. Militaries are responsible for a 5% of the total carbon emissions across the world, and the United States military is the largest consumer of fossil fuels on the planet. In Canada, the Department of National Defense accounts for 61% of all federal government emissions. There is no plan to offset the emissions from military vehicles and operations. We need to talk about demilitarization for decarbonization. The F35s are not defense armament, but attack fighters. And they are seriously flawed: They only have a range of 2,200km, they can’t fly across the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, or even across Canada, without flying alongside a tanker. And so Canada will not just be purchasing fighter jets, they will also be purchasing a fleet of strategic tankers to supply these fighter jets. And also runways, hangars, and fuel tanks in the Arctic. Instead of this, Canadians need affordable housing, and health care, and education, and public transit. And yet, these F35s are well known to have many technical flaws, but Canada will not own any of the software or repair manuals.
Tamara gives some context for No To NATO, including the clips from speeches by veterans from the war in Afghanistan. Tamara encourages us to view the video on YouTube: “No NATO, No War”: U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit. Stuart recommends a film Soldiers Without Guns. Tamara provides background information on NATO, a U.S. let military alliance that has launched illegal wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya; its role in provoking the war in Ukraine, and its attempts at globalizing conflict in Asia. NATO is the greatest threat to peace in the world. Tamara explains the situation of Sweden, and especially Finland experiencing pressure to join NATO, even though Finnish citizens are opposed. Tamara says that if we want to succeed on peace, to succeed on the climate crisis and the Sustainable Development Goals then we need to work collaboratively and co-operatively with Russia and with China. Tamara urges people to read Stephen Cohen’s book War with Russia? The south-east region of Ukraine is the Donbas, a dominant Russian-speaking minority, who held a referendum to say they want to be part of Russia. NATO-backed forces have been shelling and killing Donbas civilians, yet this is something people don’t hear in the mainstream media. If NATO countries had respected the Minsk agreements, giving autonomy within Ukraine for the Donbas region to end the violence against the Russian speaking minority, then this Russia-Ukraine war would never have happened. Tamara wants to see political parties and elected officials to call for an inquiry, and to stop sending weapons, and to support peace and a political resolution.
47m40s
What can be done? People can find out what the peace movement is doing in Canada at https://peaceandjusticenetwork.ca/. They are planning an international weekend of action from 24-26 February 2023 to rally in the streets and public squares, to contact their elected representatives, and they will be holding webinars on true nature of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the F35 fighter jet purchase. Also check the World Beyond War website.
We need peace for a livable planet, and we need peace for a positive happy future for out children and future generations. Stuart hopes that the millions of peace and environmental organizations can get together and have a solid, large voice in stopping this war in Ukraine.
Talking with Brian Chris about the Christmas album, the book that goes with it, and the origins of the song. Introducing Chris Collins, Brian’s producer. Talking about Brian’s trip to Nashville, and the song he performed there, Now Or Never.
Chris Collins performs the vocals on Now Or Never. Talking about Chris’s studio, Sonic Alley Studios. Discussing Brian’s process for writing songs, and producing them.
Talking about live performances, needing an agent, connections in the music industry. Chris Collins has written music too, but hasn’t recorded any. Working with other artists, like rapper Li’l White Lie. Shoutout to Street Hop for local Hip Hop music. Talking about some of Brian’s older music. Introducing Something About Christmas.
Talking about Brian and Chris’s musical background. Brian’s musical instrument collection and album and CD collection. Learning music from the Internet. “Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect.” Chris has been collecting instruments in his studio, and keeps stuff like lava lamps around for inspiration. Brian gets inspiration from everywhere.
37m00s
Talking about Brian’s books. They’re inspirational books for kids. Brian reads an excerpt from Play Your Way, illustrated by Brian’s wife, Brittany Barr. The Broken String is the first book Brian wrote. Brian gives a synopsis of the story, and his aspirations as an author.
Chris’s son heard the lyrics “It’s the worst time of the year” and didn’t realize that it was a joke. But Brian says Christmas is tough, and hopes this song resonates with that feeling. Introducing Special Stuff, and Bob gives the end credits.
Andrew explains the setup of the installation Music For Trees on Roos Island in Willow River Part for the Open Ears festival this past spring. The origins of Music For Trees originated in an idea to emulate the sun and the moon. Synthesizer isn’t Andrew’s main instrument, that’s the harp. There’s 47 strings on a harp! And some have 50 strings! And seven foot pedals! The harp isn’t a chromatic instrument, so you use your feet to access the black notes. Other harps use levers. Andrew has four harps, the pedal-operated 47 string harp, a 26 string wearable harp, and two harps he built from a kit. Those are good to have for kids when Andrew is teaching. The strings on a harp are colour-coded, Cs are red and Fs are blue.
17m13s
This Garden is Andrew’s album of music primarily written for harp that sets four poems to music, poetry by Eli Sokoloff Harris. This was the capstone project for Andrew’s degree. It’s available on Bandcamp! Andrew likes quiet, prefers hearing the sounds around him (but not cars). Does Andrew listen to his own music? He writes music out of necessity, when nothing else scratches the itch. He looks for music that doesn’t pollute with its soundwaves. Music that slows things down. As an example, You Always Loved The Water.
Bob thought it was Andrew doing the narration, but it is Andrew’s friend Eli. When Andrew was looking for material for his grad concert, he asked Eli to send him some poems. It reminded Bob of a Vangelis piece called The Little Fete. Andrew’s thoughts on the piece today are not the same as when he wrote it, or heard the poem for the first time. It talks not so much about the garden itself, but what happens between people.
36m38s
Bob and Andrew met at the Rural Rainbow Ride in response to a Woolwich councillor making some “disgraceful remarks”. The ride was so the city community could show that they support the rural Queer community even if they don’t live there. As with all activists, Andrew thinks he should be doing more; while he attends events, the Rural Rainbow Ride was the first thing he organized.
43m01s
Andrew is no longer on social media. It didn’t feel authentic, like he was trying to create a gobal audience. Andrew is trying to care about everything, but he can only act on so much. Geting off the Internet gives him more control over where he’s acting. Bob says the Internet is not Real Life, but Andrew says digital things are real, but which ones? The Internet is still new, and the odds that we got it right on the first go are not very high. Perhaps we need some public control over the Internet, because when we leave it up to profit it doesn’t serve the public. We need access to the Internet the same way we need access to electricity. Things that happen on the Internet are real. Meeting online friends in real life is also real, but in a different way. Being off social media hasn’t affected Andrew’s ability to market himself, he tries to be present in the community and talk to people, tries to stay hyperlocal. The pressure is trying to keep up with social media, to post daily, but Andrew is trying to make art, he can’t keep up with that or it becomes just “content”. Andrew had a concert at the Conrad Centre For The Performing Arts with support from the City of Kitchener as part of the NUMUS 2022-2023 season. Not so much a concert as a collection of installations all in one space. Andrew will try to make this project available digitally, on his web site “this fall”…
53m12s
Bob gives the closing credits, and we go to the end of the podcast with Postlude (I love the way it flows)
Loon Town is back in the studio! Bob Jonkman talks with Danielle Savage, Nic Hyatt, and Dave Lacalamita about their tour of Ontario and Québec, making their video for Silver Flowers, musical collaboration, and writing harmonies. And Loon Town performs some songs, Live, On-Air, In-studio!
Quick band intro. Reviewing the Ontario/Québec tour. Discussing Great Sorrow lyrics, and how collaboration works. The structure (and length) of the Slow Space album. “Bootleg” music from Dave’s previous visit. There’s some material for a new album, but for now concentrating on performing the current songs together. Nic explains why some songs didn’t make it to this album; they’re conceptually different. Discussing the artwork on the website and the album cover. Talking about the video for Silver Flowers that was shot in Québec the past weekend.
“It ends abruptly, right here.” Talking about the rhythmic structure of Silver Flowers. Shoutouts to the video production crew, discussing the complexity of shooting video and recording an album. Getting together again in the spring for more songwriting. Spread across Canada, it’s like Loon Town has four hometowns, with a home crowd at every stop.
Bob resists the impulse to sing along. How Ice Cream Shop was developed. Sharing collaborative works to perform them solo — is there a “proprietary” feeling to the songs? No, the members are attached to the results but happy to play them; there’s a generosity to it. Talking about rights and songwriting credits: Everything is shared equally. How about the public “sharing” Loon Town music? It’s unavoidable, and they don’t mind as long as it’s from the ethos of sharing, but not for profit. The music is copyrighted, but they’re open to sharing if someone asks. Drop them a note! Cover versions of songs are equally valid. All band members have jobs in the music field: Dave is a music teacher, Nic runs a record label, Danielle does sound installations, and Milli is a full-time drummer. But they’ve all packed boxes and cut staples in their off-season. But this month of touring has been a full-time music gig, and it’s slowly increasing.
How Black Crow here differs from the album track, and it’s more upbeat when played live with the band. Bob thought Dave’s guitar had been restrung, but it’s still wound nylon strings making a slidey effect between notes. Seeing what a song lives as — embracing who’s there, what instruments are there. The first album Exit Strategy was different from Slow Space, these songs have all existed as “B” sides or demo versions. Collaborating by sharing files might be time-consuming, with the danger of losing the creative spark. But Danielle says there wasn’t a lot of waiting; everyone had a shared repertoire and worked on it. There was enough material that if there was a lull they could pick up something else. Did some “distance residencies”, took a week to spend time writing together, called each other to work on material. Sometimes a song comes all at once, sometimes it can take years to finish the last 10%. The last 25% is the hardest. All members have other collaborators for different projects, creating different music. Lots of new material for the Radio Waterloo library! Shoutout to campus and community radio station, where interesting music is being played all the time. There is Loon Town merch, a vinyl disc of Slow Space! Hand-delivery by a band member if you’re in their hometown!
Pick Up The Phone has three-part harmonies, how do you write harmony? Dave is a natural-born harmonizer. There are techniques, but sometimes they just try stuff out.
Bob gives the end credits, and Dave Lacalamita plays us out.
CKMS Community Connections Hour One airs on CKMS-FM 102.7 on Monday from 11:00am to Noon, and Hour Two airs on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Introducing Dave Lacalamati from Loon Town and his travelling bandmates. Introducing the band: Danielle Savage from Penticton, Nic Hyatt from Whitehorse, and Milli Hong from Montréal. How they met, how they manage to have a band scattered across Canada. Using Ableton to collaborate remotely. Upcoming shows: Cameron House on Thursday; at Sephora Catana’s studio in the old Boehmer Box Factory building in Kitchener. In Ottawa on Saturday, and Montréal on Sunday. Then band members are doing some playing and writing together, playing in Sarnia a week later, and then Dave follows the others to play in British Columbia. This is the first tour and playing live since the start of the pandemic. And the Slow Space album has just been released on 4 November. Going to play a track from that now.
Identifying the genre of Loon Town music, Dave identifies it as “Synth Pop”, the Exit Strategy album is “Psych Synth Rock”, more heavy guitar, busier drumbeats. Dave is playing an acoustic guitar today, and composes on guitar with a little bit on piano. Nick, Danni and Dave are all songwriters, one goal of the new album is collective songwriting. Bob is surprised that composing is sometimes accidental. New songs are shared with the band by audio clips, written out only to figure out details. Not all the chords have names! Dave and Nick like improv, Milli is a jazz musician. Hoping to incorporate some improv in their live performances. This will be the first time all four musicians have played together in person!
The album version has differences from the live version. Examining Dave’s guitar, which he uses to write music. Talking about how the rest of the band composes. Doing some group composition now that the group is together. And shooting a video when they’re in Montréal, something “upbeat”. Dave is a music teacher at St. Mary’s high school, his students describe all music as “upbeat”. Composing professionally helps teach music to the students; some teachers lack that context. Dave teaches “Music and Computers”, using computers to record, compose. There’s a computer lab, not unlike the CKMS-FM studio. Maybe get some student compositions on the air! So much local talent and local music being produced. A little local community radio history. Dave taught drama during the pandemic, and plays a song about the process of “getting out of your head” and being a bit over-confident.
Maybe this song was autobigraphical? Dave didn’t write it with himself in mind. It’s a fun song, and the chords are simple. Talking about what’s happening in the world of education today. Kids are not in school due to an education workers’ strike. Discussing the government’s treatment of hard-working but low-paid workers, which has said that human rights don’t matter here. Dave knew education minister Steven Lecce from their university days, not surprised he’s a politician. Does Loon Town have protest music? Not as such, there needs to be a chantable chorus. But all members of the band are politically engaged, and comment on the state of the world; music is a way of recapturing some of that power. Recap of upcoming performances. Discussing the Loon Town website, a animated map of Loon Town. Clicking on the icons will play music. After Toronto and Kitchener the tour continues to Ottawa, Montréal, Penticton, Nelson, and Vancouver. There are some unused songs for a new album. But Dave is interested in pursuing music with specific sounds that exist in the band. Dave would like to revisit the sound of Exit Strategy, there’s a lot of energy in that album. Dave has done a bit of solo work, an improv piano set, and has been playing a bit with Alison Corbett and Grady Caplan. Dave introduces the last song.
Discussing Great Sorrows, recognizing people’s needs over the last few years. Talking about a future CKMS Community Connections episode with Loon Town, and Bob 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 on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Aalaa RehmanAyla and Abdullah Rehman Aalaa, Abdullah, and Ayla Rehman of #CANYouthVoteMatter #CANMinorityVoteMatter join Bob Jonkman in the studio. We discuss the importance of voter engagement, we get to know the Rehmans, and Abdullah spins some tunes.
Introducing Aalaa, Ayla, and Abdullah. Aalaa makes a land acknowledgement, makes a pitch for donations, and tells us what the #CANYouthVoteMatter #CANMinorityVoteMatter show is about, and her motivations for doing a radio show. Talking about the poor voter turnout, getting every vote out. Looking for candidates.
Learning about Abdullah, Ayla, and Aalaa outside of politics. Besides school there are lots of extracurricular activities. Ayla has written a book, The Fantastic Friends: Snake Goes Crazy. And the three siblings have written several other comics and stories. And all three are musicians and play in a guitar club.
Narine Dat Sookram is the first guest on Sunday; Aalaa, Ayla, and Abdullah have been on Narine’s show, Let’s Chit Chat with Narine Dat. Aalaa tells us how she finds candidates to interview. Contact information for any candidates if they want to be interviewed. Then Abdullah plays some music.
Screenshot of the Radio Waterloo website showing the “Funding Drive 2022” Radio Waterloo is having its On-Air Funding Drive for 2022, so Bob Jonkman makes a pitch for donations and plays new KWCon music by artists from Waterloo Region and the surrounding area.
The music scene in Rockwood, with Ian Reid. Better Man Today is about Woody’s jump into full-time music writing and performance at the age of 44. The album ideas came from the process of thinking about leaving his day job. The songs were written with Matt and Chris Gormley. The album’s six songs were written in three days by Woody, Matt, and Chris at a cottage retreat. The producer is Carl Jennings of Freedom Train. The four are amazing on stage, but most of Woody’s performances are solo.
Woody held Drive-in concerts during the pandemic with EJSE Studio and Anthony Andrews of Party Cinemas. Headlining Jim Cuddy, and bringing local talent like Sohayla Smith, whos’ been featured on Radio Waterloo‘s Musician’s FAQ. Woody also did online concerts with Zoom for Weight Watchers, which really expanded his fan base. Covid was successful in that regard; Woody lets the universe look after things. Live concerts are a different thing, but some of the same people are in the audience — Woody met some people in person that he’s previously met online. Playing upcoming concerts in Kitchener for the first time at Rich Uncle Tavern and Fall’s Road Pub.
Introducing I Am Enough, which was originally labelled Am I Enough?. One of the few songs Woody wrote solo. This should be out in a seven-song collection in October or November; just awaiting the submission process from FACTOR.
The last line of the song answers the question “Am I Enough?”. Woody doesn’t read music, but works with musicians who are fluent in music, and they write their own parts. The songs benefit from the extra creative input. Woody did learn to read music twice before, but his passion is singing and writing, not musical theory. Carl Jennings is Woody’s musical producer at Westmoreland Studios who drills Woody through vocal takes and who is an amazing bass player.
Upcoming gigs in Kitchener are solo, but on 8 July 2022 at Stonewall’s Restaurant the gig is a trio with Matt and Chris Gormley. Woody has been very busy now that post-Covid bookings are coming back. Playing nursing homes, other gigs, sometimes six or seven a week. Much more fulfilling to work for yourself playing music than being at an office job. Russell Scott helped Woody make the decision to be a musician full-time, along with the support of Woody’s wife.
There is Woody Woodburn merchandise: The Woody Hoodie! The VW microbus artwork is by Woody’s uncle, and there’s musical merch too. The merch is a small part of the revenue stream, the gigs are the main income. Woody hasn’t fully accepted that people want to wear his logo and merchandise, although he’s coming around to telling people they might enjoy his music. There’s some streaming revenue, all done through CD-Baby, which also does social media posting, distributing to other outlets. Woody is quite happy to get his music heard by other people on free streaming sites. People are buying CDs and probably don’t even have a CD player, but they’re supporting Woody’s music.
Introducing Dad, released on Father’s Day for Woody’s dad.
A tough song for Woody to get through, but Woody’s Dad is his biggest fan. Woody varies his set list depending on the crowd’s vibe, sometimes Dad is an opener, sometimes it’s a finale. Woody can gauge the vibe by audience response, people coming up and talking. Every venue is different, even when the audience is unresponsive Woody approaches it by believing something amazing will happen, and it usually does. Some gigs are for playing the bills, and Woody plays cover songs the audience knows. But Woody tells the story of quitting his day job, and here’s the song he wrote about it. And Woody puts his own spin on cover songs.
Is Better Man Today a concept album? In theory; it’s about what’s important in life. Most of the songs come from Woody’s experiences, the feelings from within. But there’s one different song, a party song on the EP, but it’s still a meaningful song about the writing trip to the cottage. Woody doesn’t write traditional love songs. There is a theme that runs through all songs. The party song is Bottle of Rum.
This sure sounds like a Cape Breton traditional song. Woody has a family connection to Cape Breton — people here ask “Are you from the East Coast?” but people there say “You’re not from around here…”
Woody broke a guitar string playing Bottle of Rum, the weather, humidity and air conditioning isn’t good for guitars. Woody’s guitar needs some service from Folkway Music, Woody’s guitar shop.
Woody’s music room is sparse, other rooms are in use for other things. Woody wants to have a proper at-home studio. There’s a piano, but Woody’s only had one piano lessons from local musician Andrea LeBlanc of My Living Room Live.
Woody covers his upcoming events, several at breweries which have become popular recently. Then Woody plays some music to take us out while Bob 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 on Friday from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Bob Jonkman is joined by Dr. Erin Dej, Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at Wilfrid Laurier University, Dr. Laura Pin, Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department, also at Wilfrid Laurier University, and Lesley Crompton, who works with the Unsheltered Campaign at the Civic Hub in Waterloo Region. They discuss the impending eviction of the people at the Victoria/Weber encampment, direct aid, government responsibilities, housing policy, and the role of academia.
A community fridge facilitates access to high quality food. It is open 24 hour a day, 7 days a week and available to anyone who needs food at any time. Donations of fresh food or non-perishable items are welcomed.
Kitchener
The Kitchener Market Map
300 King Street East
Kitchener, Ontario
Waterloo
Cafe Pyrus Outpost Map
120 Roger Street
Waterloo, Ontario
Dr. Erin Dej introduces herself, explains the role of critical criminology in social justice issues, and begins to explain the Point-In-Time count when technical difficulties arise.
Dr. Erin Dej explains that what is happening in Waterloo Region with homelessness is happening across the country, and across the world. The Point-In-Time count shows a doubling of homelessness since 2018. Part of that is due to Covid, but there are a variety of factors that contribute.
Dr. Laura Pin introduces herself, and explains how Political Science influence policy action around social issues and homelessness.
Lesley Crompton introduces herself, and the Unsheltered Campaign which has been filling gaps in social services for food, water, sanitary facilities, and shelter. Talking to people with lived experience, and gathering stories. Identifying the “hidden homeless”, people who are not registered with the municipality for the shelter system. Extended families are excluded, but may have some of the same issues. The Point-In-Time count had to be done by the municipality in order to get funding from other levels of government, but contracted the service out to the assistive organizations like Unsheltered Campaign. There are issues dealing with the macro issues because so much attention is focused on the micro issues.
17m43s
Direct aid provided by eg. Unsheltered Campaign, Going Mobile KW, 519 Community Collective provide food, food ingredients, and food preparation for people who have food insecurity. It is difficult to prepare a variety of meals from supplies from the food banks; it does not provide the recipients with the choice of what to eat. There is no confirmation of need, no means testing; treating people with dignity. Are people satisfied, well-nourished? It’s difficult to say. Is this Canada’s “Social Safety Net”? Aid agencies need a “Billing For Filling” initiative, billing the state for filling the gap. This goes back to social policy, social assistance for people who have disabilities or are unemployed; the rates are not enough for people to afford shelter and food. The single rate for Ontario Works (OW) is $750/month; the Ontario Disability Support Program is about $1150/month. These are not livable, humane rates.
24m30s
At the Waterloo Region Council Meeting on Tuesday, 7 June 2022, there was a call for additional funding from higher levels of government. Housing requires intergovernmental relations and multiple levels of government to manage. But at the regional level there are lots of things that can be done, eg. a regional encampment protocol. While there is a need for additional funding, it’s not an excuse for making use of the powers the regional government has for taking action. Beyond food, there are other issues that require support. Shelter support for families in motels are the same facilities used for people displaced from encampments, but this does not work for many people. Waterloo Region contracts out these services to aid agencies. Lesley Crompton says we need an Auditor General to ensure that there is more public accountability and transparency between the Region and its service providers to ensure they’re doing what we think they’re supposed to be doing — Lesley doesn’t think they are.
29m21s
There are upwards of 50 people living at the Victoria and Weber encampment. Regional Council seemed sympathetic, but not motivated to help. Premier Doug Ford has said that for people in this situation just need to get a job. But Dr. Dej says that lots of people in this situation have a job! They’re working, but it’s not enough to pay the rent. For those without work, it is difficult to get a job. How do people without a job get a bus pass to find work? How do they get equipment like steel-toed boots needed to get a job? How can people try to get a job when they’re in an encampment, likely sleep deprived from being in the same area with 50 other people, concerned for their safety, and unable to get good rest from sleeping on the ground. And even when people on social assistance do get work, their earnings are clawed back at %50, an effective tax rate much higher than anyone else has to pay. The provincial government is cutting its sources of revenue (license plate renewal), federal government isn’t pursuing foreign holdings tax which could be used to invest in affordable housing and social housing. Dr. Pin says that at the local government level, a vacant home tax or foreign ownership tax could raise revenues for social programs. People are working part-time, employers cutting hours to minimize benefits. But even people working full-time at minimum wage earn only about $2000/month before deductions, yet rents are around $1600/month. If we took an approach of housing as a human right it shouldn’t matter whether people work full-time, part-time, if they need child care, or if people have a disability and can’t work — people still have a right to decent and affordable housing. The Region of Waterloo’s housing policy has put forward a human rights approach to housing; the federal government in its national housing strategy has also put forth a human rights approach to housing. But how can we make this a lived experience for people experiencing homelessness? Yet the Region of Waterloo Council has not advanced this into a formal motion.
35m30s
International Human Rights declaration indicate that people are not to be evicted from their housing, or even encampments. What legal ramifications are there for municipalities that break the International Human Rights declaration? Dr. Dej says that federally this has already been adopted. Yet municipalities don’t follow it. Instead, municipalities are adopting a criminalizatin of homelessness, and even a militarization of the efforts to evict people from encampments. We do have a national protocol for homeless encampments in Canada to follow for removing people from encampments developed by the former UN Rapporteur on Housing, Lailani Farha and Dr. Kaitlin Schwan that tells municipalities how to do it within our international human rights obligations. Recognize that people don’t want to live in encampments, they want to be housed. The challenge is that following this protocol takes time, but people want quick fixes. Yet removing encampments is not that quick fix people are looking for, it’s not going to end homelessness.
38m06s
Lesley Crompton points out that people need more than just housing: They need wrap-around services such as cooking instruction, a social structure, mental health issues that need to be addressed. Some shelters have zero-tolerance for violence. But what is violence? Someone speaking exteremely loudly may be considered violent, and get evicted. At motels used for housing, the staff are not able to deal with mental health issues. People need on-going supports, but some municipal housing staff think that merely providing housing is enough. What can academics do to influence the outcome of the pending eviction? Dr. Pin recognizes her privilege; people from the region connect with her in ways that they don’t connect with people on the ground. The 30 June deadline for evicting people from the Victoria and Weber encampment is artificial, the site is not needed for construction until the fall. Dr. Pin suggests we push back against that deadline to give people more time to discuss with decision makers as to what they need. Dr. Dej suggests that we push as hard as we can to make sure that the voices of the people in the encampments are the ones that are heard. She has received criticism about the Point-In-Time counts and other academic pursuits, that money spent on academic studies would be better spent on housing directly. But there is a lot of power in that data, it can convince people in ways that people might be convinced otherwise. For example, Dr. Dej has researched, rigorous data that supports Lesley’s statements on the need for ongoing services. Use this as clout to amplify the voices of people on the ground.
43m33s
How does this get to the politicians who make the decisions? Dr. Pin has been inviting councillors and staff into the Unsheltered Campaign meetings to hear what community organizations have to say on the issue. Dr. Pin’s graduate seminar prepared a report on comparative encampment protocols from a human rights perspective to provide the Region with data on how difference cities have put forward protocols to manage encampments, and providing some analysis to determine which protocols are more consistent with a human rights approach. Building relationships and capacity at the Regional level to do that kind of analysis. What can ordinary citizens do? Lesley Crompton says to take time to understand, to talk to people at the encampments, to talk to people who have been working for the people at encampments. The Region’s capacity of outreach staff is very limited, and does not give enough time to spend with the individuals at the encampments. Get involved, so you can then speak to the Region. This is an election year, and while there are no Regional or City councillors on the same page as Premier Ford, it is time for a change. CARE (Coalition Against Removing Encampments) is a grassroots organization that looks at other social justice issues, a coalition of other organizations. Dr. Pin mentions the Social Development Centre and the Civic Hub WR for people who are interested in connecting in a immediate way. Challenge the stigma that’s presented to the people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, recognize that the people in encampments are our neighbours and community members.
49m23s
Bob thanks the guests, gives the credits for CKMS Community Connections, and introduces Dreamer by Rose Brokenshire.
Subscribe to the CKMS Community Connections podcast!
See all CKMS Community Connections shows!
Creative Commons Attribution Only license. Copy, re-use, and derivative works are allowed with attribution to Radio Waterloo and a link to this page. Music selections are copyright by the respective rights holders.
https://www.waterloohealthcoalition.org/
https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/
Living Room for Small
https://www.demilitarize.ca/
https://vowpeace.org/
https://worldbeyondwar.org/
https://www.wilpf.org/
https://nofighterjets.ca/
https://peaceandjusticenetwork.ca/
