Bob Jonkman makes a fundraising request for a new audio board, and talks to Jack Bishop, the chair of the KW Santa Claus Parade about this Saturday’s parade and the preparations that go into it.
Jack Bishop tells us when and where this year’s KW Santa Claus Parade takes place: Saturday, 18 November 2023; it begins at 10:00am at the corner of Frederick Street and Weber Street, and continues up Weber Street to Erb Street in Waterloo. Why so early? The Toronto Santa Claus parade is on Sunday, and the KW parade is always the day before. The route has changed from north-to-south along King Street to south-to-north along Weber Street, it’s because of the ION tracks and wires. Any wires on this route can be dealt with. It’s about an hour trip, with the head of the parade arriving at Erb just as the tail leaves Frederick.
8m15s
The KW Santa Claus Parade is a community parade, for community groups to show their involvement to the public. There’s no limits to the groups that want to enter. There are fees, because it costs about $25,000 to put on the parade: policing costs, paying the marching bands, and other costs. The community groups pay a fee of $300, commercial entries pay $500. There are other thoughtful community people that sponsor some bands. Jack may still be able to squeeze in one or two last-minute entries if you contact him right away! There are about 80 entries, including community groups, marching bands, clowns. Jack is still looking for volunteers to help out, there are lots of costumes available. It’s a good role for young people; it’s a good experience. To enter, click on the 2023 Parade Registration Here button on the Lions Club’s Santa Claus Parade website.
13m44s
Jack tells us what happens when people sign up for the parade. There’s a meeting for volunteers on Friday night, where they get outfitted with a costume. Then people come back at 8:00am on Saturday and get slotted into the parade. Jack makes it sound easy, but he’s been doing to for a while. There are about ten core people who manage the event, but it grows just before the event. Planning starts in the summer, and it takes four of five months. Working with the City, there’s an all-services meeting: fire, police, ambulance, transit… The same people are involved in the Oktoberfest Parade, good practice for the Santa Claus Parade. Jack organizes the order of the entries; it’s mostly random. But Santa goes at the end, the main sponsor goes at the start, the bands need to spaced out. Jack has had 15 years of experience. The parade was going for 25 years before the Lions took over, so it’s probably existed for 40 years.
Some of the buttons and lights on the sound board don’t work, so Bob makes a pitch for a new audio board. You can help by making a donation at https://radiowaterloo.ca/give.
26m11s
Jack explains how the parade logistics are organized. The floats line up at Frederick and Weber all the way back to Edna Street. Just before the parade starts there’s a Santa Claus Run, hundreds of runners all dressed in Santa Claus suits. A Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer inflatable float leads the way. When it (and the other inflatable floats) get to the rail overpass and other overhead obstructions the float is pulled down out of the way. The inflatable snowman is 20ft tall, others are only(!) 15 feet. The obstructions are pretty consistent over the years, so people get to know the route. Jack makes the organization sound easy, but reminds parade participants to arrive early to get on the float well before it leaves. At the destination there are buses to take people back, the floats need to arrange their own transportation back. The bands have their own buses, assembling at The Aud then picking up the band members at the end.
35m15s
Jack says that booking marching bands has been a big problem. All the drum and bugle corps are gone! Some companies that sponsored bands are gone, and the organizers are gone. It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of money, and a lot of experience to manage a marching band, and people have gone on to other things. Covid has been a big factor too. Small bands, rock bands, just don’t participate much in parades. The Regional Police have a marching band, but only participate in the Oktoberfest Parade, not the Santa Claus Parade. Band members are getting older, and it takes a lot of stamina to march for an hour carrying an instrument and huffing and puffing into a trumpet or clarinet. Jack is always an organizer, but has never marched in a parade. He knows lots of people, which helps getting sponsorships. There are not many people who like to ask people for money. Bob is asking for donations today too, but with inflation people are not donating as much as they used to. Jack finds that getting permits from two City municipalities and one Regional municpality is easier year after year, there are lots of volunteers, no paid staff, to do that.
Jack has been up since 3:00 in the morning, working on parade stuff. The line-up keeps changing! Jack finds there can’t be too many people working on one job, better to have one person do it. And that’s Jack.
46m32s
The Lions Club was formed just over 100 years ago in Chicago, the Lions Club of Kitchener was chartered in 1937. The Lions Club, right from the start, has been involved in vision-related issues. Helen Keller challenged the Lions to be the “Knights of the Blind”. There are about 25,000 members across Canada, every small community has a Lions Club. They do screening of kindergarten kids, kids who have never had their eyes checked. The Lions are tied in with the optometry school at the University of Waterloo. They have refractors used for testing. Kids are referred to optometrists, but not all kids actually follow up with appointments. The Lions will buy glasses for kids who need the financial assistance. The Lions Clubs have just created two new districts, and want to take this project across the country. Another major project is guide dogs for the blind, started in 1985. That’s expanded to hearing dogs, diabetic-sensing dogs, stress-relief dogs. There’s a school in Oakville for the finishing part of training a client with their dog. It takes a month to get trained! People can apply to the Lions Foundation of Canada in Oakville through https://www.dogguides.com/.
54m17s
Another major project is the Citizen of the Year. This year’s recipient is John Tibbits, president of Conestoga College. He’ll be in the parade as a celebrity! The award is in May, the search begins in January. There’s a selection process, nominators have to write a letter to say what the nominee has done, then a selection committee makes the decision.
55m30s
Bob thanks Jack, gives the credits, and introduces the last musical selection.
David Alton of the Lived Expertise Working Group talks to Bob Jonkman about the work of LEWG, what is “lived expertise”, working with the City of Kitchener, the principles of human rights in housing, homelessness, and using contributions of people with lived expertise. David tells us of some upcoming events for the members of the Lived Expertise Working Group and the public.
David explains the purpose of the Lived Expertise Working Group, twelve folks with housing marginalization experience and advocacy experience. “Expertise” rather than “Experience”, so that the contributions are seen with the same value as academic expertise. They are presenting a report to the City of Kitchener council as part of a staff report from the Planning Department. Pointing out the different areas of responsibility for City departments, and different levels of government. The work LEWG is doing with the City of Kitchener is influencing decisions made in other municipalities (City of Cambrige, City of Waterloo, the Region of Waterloo). But a large part of the work is helping the mutual aid groups in the area, creating a bridge between these groups and the municipalities. Talking about the role and perceived role of by-law enforcement, part care-giving, part criminalizing. David’s message to all organizations is to remove the barriers to care. They recognize the difficult role that municipalities have. A good news story: The Region of Waterloo modified a by-law on hate speech to include income status and housing status.
David talks about the report that will be presented to council: A list of principles; what it means to include lived expertise in the planning process. The people working in the Lived Expertise Working Group are being compensated, just as experts from other areas would be. There are stipends for transportation, child care, &c. Not just the people in LEWG are at capacity, but councillors and city staff feel overwhelmed by all the pressures and logistics, but the community understands that. There was some friction at the June council meeting, David recaps. David discusses the different sources of funding for their position and the Lived Expertise Working Group. David tells us about the Ride For Refuge, this Saturday. Covering some of the eight principles of lived expertise engagement, for example “the value of bridges”, “the value of paid work”, “navigating around conflict.”
Talking about David’s participation in the Jillian video, with their partner Aashay. Talking about David’s participation in Ground Up WR, working to counter the “Parents’ Rights” movement that restricts youth from self-expression. There is a rally at City Hall on Wednesday, everyone who wants to be an ally is invited. Ground Up is well connected with the community, it’s a good place to start if you’re looking to help. David encourages people to pay close attention to what’s going on in housing and homelessness — winter is coming. Follow organizations like Unsheltered Campaign or ACCKWA. The Lived Expertise Working Group is sending some members to Halifax for the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness conference in November, donations are gratefully accepted to enable LEWG to help send another member to the conference. Connect with the Social Development Centre or the Civic Hub Waterloo Region to get involved. Talking about the photographic exhibition, which was a conference fundraiser.
56m46s
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.
Vanessa Ricci-Thode is one of the organizers for Waterloo Bookfest and a founder of the KW Writer’s Alliance, as well as the author of a series of books. She talks to Bob Jonkman about Bookfest and the KW Writer’s Alliance, writing, and reads from her most recent book, Fireborn.
Vanessa Ricci-Thode tells us about Waterloo Bookfest, some of the special guests (Katie Mack, E.K. Johnston), and more listed on the KW Writer’s Alliance Bookfest website. How KW Writer’s Alliance got started on Zoom during the height of the pandemic. Talking about NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. KW Writer’s Alliance was started with Caroline Topperman, looking to give Waterloo Region authors a space to keep writing all year ’round. Support includes moral support (especially after rejections!), guides to publishing, guides to improving the writing craft. Talking about traditional publishing vs. self-publishing.
Running down the events taking place at Waterloo Bookfest. How Bookfest is organized. There are 70 authors, and there’s a waiting list! Talking about other events, like Word On The Street which is no longer happening in Waterloo Region. Authors bring their books (of course), but some will have bookmarks and artwork as well. There is overlap in the arts for authors, several are visual artists or musicians. Jason Baronette is one such author, he’ll be at Bookfes, but he’s been on CKMS Community Connections as part of his band Athanase.
It’s the Waterloo Bookfest, that means for all of Waterloo Region, including Kitchener, Cambridge, and the rural townships. Vanessa will be at Bookfest as an author, with her series Fireborn. Vanessa tells us about her writing process. Talking about acquiring Fireborn and the logistics of getting it in online stores.
Bob encourages more prose readings on the radio. Vanessa tells us about other reading series in southern Ontario. The website is for Grand River Writers & KW Writer’S Alliance, bringing in people from outside of Waterloo Region. Talking about possible upcoming events, readings, workshops. Vanessa gives some ideas for future workshops.
55m43s
Vanessa recaps the details for Bookfest 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 alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
CxViolet comes into the studio for a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance, and talks to Bob Jonkman about his start in music, vocal training, composition, trying new things, and his upcoming EP Hackerboy and an album with The New People.
We are having a technical difficulty! Talking about Glimpse of Us by Joji. The musician or artist isn’t always in control of creating music or art. Inspiration from Mr. Alonzo in high school, then to university for a Bachelor in Classical Music, the Romantic Era. CxViolet doesn’t play much of that any more, but it influences composition now. Introducing the Introduction Piece.
Talking about CxViolet’s vocal range and voice training — everyone can find the voice they have to shape the art they create. Talking about the origins of Hackerboy, and the origins of CxViolet.
22m25s
Bob makes a pitch to local musicians to submit their music to office@radiowaterloo.ca with KWCon in the subject line for people from Waterloo Region, and CanCon for Canadians further away.
22m49s
CxViolet has played locally, but right now is taking time to hone his composition. CxViolet likes taking spaces that normally don’t play music and turning them into musical venues. Looking for venues and opportunities! Contact @_cxviolet on Instagram! Talking about other social media presences. The first self-hosted show was at AOK, a video game bar. Performing with The New People, working on starting a label / publishing house / band. Introducing “the roadies” Stevie and Naomi, and the next song, still untitled.
Is this song autobiographical? All songs carry some biographical fingerprints. Talking about guitar technique. CxViolet is self-taught, claims he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Recently took up rock climbing, the forearm muscles are killing. Lyrics first, or music first? For this song, it came all at once. CxViolet pushes beyond the familiar, trying new things outside the norm. CxViolet writes for CxViolet, and the fans follow along. CxViolet doesn’t perform covers; for anything he likes well enough to cover he wants to do it justice. Talking about performance rights, SOCAN; any agents or managers should contact @_cxviolet. Music is a full-time gig, but CxViolet is sitting in the broke-artist trope. CxViolet got some grants from arts councils to offset recording expenses. CxViolet plays, records, produces everthing with the help of friend and artist-partner Stevie (more than a roadie!).
40m34s
Bob asks for another song, CxViolet sets up to improvise something. Asks Bob for a key (G), sad or happy (happy), something for end-of-summer.
CxViolet claims not to have practiced this before the show, he just knows some chord progressions. Talking about piano lessons.
44m26s
What’s coming up in the future? The Hackerboy EP in late September, followed by The New People album in October. CxViolet is working on 40 songs, ready to come out. He’ll be putting out music until he has no more music to put out, but feels there’s an infinite reservoir inside him. CxViolet has a three-year plan, maybe ending with a world tour. Playing outside Waterloo Region, playing at festivals, and playing in the classical sphere. CxViolet wouldn’t go back to playing classical, but might put those skills towards film scoring or video game scoring. Doesn’t do the restaurant / bar piano gigs, except for the pay. Prefers performing in non-musical venues. Maybe turn his attic studio into a venue, to host maybe ten people. Maybe doing secret concerts like Sofar Sounds. Working with The New People to help others find their voice, and playing with other artists.
50m55s
Appearing in the Jillian video with I, The Mountain. CxViolet received the sweetest worded e-mail ever, and couldn’t say no after that. The idea was to get people together who are a little bit unique and have a unique sense of self. CxViolet was very impressed with how the production came together.
52m29s
Dealing with an unreceptive audience: CxViolet hasn’t really experienced that, has some tricks up his sleeve, such as asking “Name a key” and making an improvisation. But the fan base is well curated, so that hardly ever happens. The fan base exists as far away Europe and South America.
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 alternate Fridays from 3:00pm to 4:00pm.
Megan Ruttan of Waterloo Region ACORN joins Bob Jonkman to talk about evictions, renovictions, tenants’ rights, and setting up a tenants’ union in Waterloo Region.
Introducing Megan Ruttan and ACORN: The Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now, a low- to moderate-income tenants union, but they take on any issues that their members want to take on, for example payday loans. The union is just getting set up now to help fight renovictions and demovictions. Megan herself is experiencing attempts at renoviction. This has been happening for at least six years. This pre-dates ACORN, but ACORN would have fought it by drawing attention to it by direct action such as protests. There have been rallies against other renovictions in Kitchener. Landlords intimidate tenants by withholding information, so that tenants do not know what their rights are, or even who their landlord is. ACORN in Hamilton has helped create a by-law that makes it illegal to evict people in Hamilton for renovations. But each municipality will have different by-laws. ACORN has just held a national day of action on the financialization of housing. They’re asking for a law that will give first right of refusal will go to housing organizations, co-ops, and other businesses that want to build affordable housing. Waterloo Region ACORN has about 500 members; about 15 full members who pay $15/month in dues, but many people can’t afford that. Waterloo Region ACORN started about three months ago, in April.
Waterloo Region ACORN has a three month plan, meeting in August to plan an action to take place in September. They’re building membership; anyone is welcome to join, not just renters. The August meeting will be hybrid, both in-person and online for Covid safety. The national organization in Ottawa and the chapter in London have provided a lot of help in the form of flyers, handouts, mailing lists, &c. The money from dues goes towards copying costs and SDCWR for use of their facilities. The entire region of Waterloo has an epidemic of unsheltered people. The chapter was named Waterloo Region ACORN to include everyone in the region; it’s not just a Kitchener issue.
28m47s
“The financialization of housing” treats housing as an investment, not as shelter or homes, or as a human right. Municipalities are not building purpose-built rental housing; many politicians to make this happen to own rental properties, and seem disinclined to reduce their holdings to build affordable housing. Globally, the climate crisis is creating climate refugees, who need housing. Do we have shelter for these people? We need to build housing. The municipalities need to build the housing, not just pass by-laws or re-zones. The City of Kitchener is not acting to build housing or reduce renovictions when they had the chance to vote on zoning changes. Their answer seems to be to police housing. If they don’t build housing, people will die. Who could be affected by the housing crisis? Almost every renter. What happens with the laws that require landlords to provide the renovated units to former tenants? It gets ignored, landlords just rent to new, higher-paying tenants. People in this situation don’t have the capacity, “the spoons”, to deal with this. Megan has the spoons to deal with this because she’s connected in the community, and knows the resources.
38m14s
How did Waterloo Region ACORN get started here? There were already people with memberships in other chapters; people contacted the national chapter; they already had a mailing list! Everything is connected, Megan was already active in climate organizing, political organization; if one issue is advanced, the others are too.
How do people get involved if they have no background in tenant organization? Come to the meeting in August, ACORN will provide training on door knocking, &c. They’ll knock on the doors of tenants to let them know help is available. They’ve reached out to local politicians, but not all have responded. Talking about other events where ACORN has had a presence. Giving credit to Maribel and other leaders, their appearances in local media.
48m25s
What about all the local construction? It’s mostly condominiums, only 15% affordable housing. Condos aren’t affordable housing. The tenants’ union is the opposite of a Home Owners’ Association, the union lifts you up, doesn’t repress your rights.
50m36s
Reviewing Waterloo Region ACORN‘s presence on social media. Talking about Project Mushroom, an online presence for social activists. It had some setbacks when the founder discovered it could not be monetized, but Megan and others are still keeping it alive.
53m12s
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.
Bob Jonkman talks with VEFO, musician and animal rights activist about his social justice philosophy, the alter-ego that VEFO represents, animal liberation, the Plant Based Treaty, producing music, VEFO’s influences and other activities, mainstream music, and the VEFOFEST Popup + Jaqui NDS Tribute this Saturday 29 June 2023 from 4 pm to 8pm at the Arts Quad at the University of Waterloo.
VEFO does perform on Control the Voices, but his vocals are sampled and chopped up. VEFO likes both lyrical and instrumental tracks for balance.
2m57s
VEFO wears a mask to create a character, an alter-ego, a new artist profile. VEFO’s music started to promote animal rights activism. In animal agriculture animals are viewed as though they don’t have a personality or a face, and so VEFO was created as an anonymous identity to show that you can turn yourself into whoever you want to, and VEFO is there to support. The mask reduces the ego, and shows how we are all a community of people trying to do better and trying to change the world for a kinder and sustainable future. VEFO has been doing music for six years, the activism for about four years, and hard-core animal rights for the last two years. VEFO draws inspiration from Regan Russell who was killed during an animal vigil in Burlington. Got Your Back was created as a tribute track to Regan. VEFO plays at both musical venues and animal rights rallies. Bob met VEFO at KW Vegfest.
8m01s
VEFO tells us about VEFOFEST, this Saturday 29 July 2023 at the University of Waterloo through the UW Animal Rights Society.
10m24s
4 All the Animals (Save The World) Live, On-Air, In-Studio!
Talking about the lyrics in 4 All the Animals. Finding VEFO’s motivation in animal activism. Discussing animal liberation, and the trauma that animals experience in industrial agriculture. Are politicians paying attention? Yes, some politicians have endorsed the Plant Based Treaty, and VEFO is trying to get the University of Waterloo to adopt it. This is a world-wide campaign; the UK has had some success, but not so much in Canada. The treaty applies to institutions as well, such as hospitals, jails, schools. But Bob hasn’t seen much uptake in his mom’s long term care home.
Talking about VEFO’s production work. He’s been concentrating on sampling vocals. It’s a way to process his emotions, feeling on top of the world when working on one track, then next day your heart is just torn; music is always there for you. VEFO is a big fan of Moby, re-recording his tracks when the emotion strikes. We discuss dancing. VEFO plays guitar as well, will be playing electric guitar at VEFOFEST. VEFO is also a big fan of Prince. He performs solo, but is always open to collaboration. He’s been practicing with the Liberation Choir at the Wishbone Animal Rights Lab in Toronto, as well as practicing drumming. VEFO will be playing snare drum at the Toronto Animal Rights March 2023 on Saturday 26 August. Will there be a march in Waterloo? VEFO doesn’t think there are enough animal rights activists here to hold a march.
34m40s
VEFO’s music isn’t mainstream; he doesn’t feel that he can make pop music. Is mainstream media ignoring this music because of commercial interests? Not even Moby releases animal rights music, there’s no commercial value. Maybe mainstream fans don’t want to hear social justice music. VEFO started @VeganLove4All on Instagram and Vegan Love 4 All on YouTube to promote animal rights.
38m50s
Talking about V4EVA and the Beat Challenge, creating a new beat and a new genre every day.
Talking about MotionRave Demo. Music or lyrics first? Either way… Recap of VEFOFEST, doing it every month, next at University of Toronto. VEFO tells us how to release music on streaming services. Talking about the Burlington Vegfest (note: not at Spencer Smith Park, but at the Burloak Waterfront ParkMap)
49m21s
Talking about GuruuuV, an alter-ego that started VEFO’s music story. It combines “groove” and “guru”; the purple comes from Prince. There’s no politics or message with GuruuuV, just music.
Today we’re playing lots of KW Content: Music by musicians from Waterloo Region. Then we speak with Mark Higgins, the promoter/producer/impressario for Canada’s Teen Jam.
Mark Higgins tells us about Canada’s Teen Jam: A program of musical discoveries for teens with dreams, the next generation of superstars. The mission is to take this across Ontario and Canada. Many teens have sports and other programs but teens with musical talent have nothing. Mark is not releasing the names of the performers yet, that will be revealed on Saturday. Bob offers to bring the performers into the studio for an interview and a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance! Mark is impressed with the professionalism and demeanor of the performers. Canada’s Teen Jam launched in January, and is now starting the tour to get the performers into other festivals and showcases. Kitchener is the first stop. Canada’s Teen Jam goes from 3pm to 5pm, followed by the Wayback Festival performers. Mark appreciates the irony: Canada’s newest performers followed by Canada’s superstar rock performers. Mark has had a lot of experience promoting and producing performers, notably The Tragically Hip at Bobcageon, which was filmed for a documentary. Covid has affected the start of CTJ, everyone is catching up from the performances that were missed.
53m04s
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.
Nick Bordman, accompanied by Caleb Khuu, gives a Live, On-Air, In-Studio performance, and talks to Bob Jonkman about touring, recording, performing, and songwriting.
Talking about the genre of Country Music, and country music venues in Waterloo Region. Re-recording Tread Lightly , the first song Nick ever wrote with Matt Koebel; how it’s changed since the first recording. Talking about Nick’s recently completed tour, including the Horseshoe Tavern. Touring with The Boogie Boy Band, but there are session players on Nick’s studio recordings. Talking about the modern way of recording, session musicians record their tracks in their own studios, send them in, and the producer assembles them in the DAW, the Digital Audio Workstation. Nick tells us his songwriting technique: Inspiration from the outdoors.
Talking about the origins of Home and the origins of Nick Bordman, and how he might develop in the future. Music is a full-time career for Nick, he feels lucky to have stumbled into the opportunities he’s had. He’s an old soul, getting compared to the country singers someone’s grandma might have listened to. Nick tells us how he met Caleb, just walking past Caleb’s band in the street. Caleb says playing everything from country to jazz is not such a big stretch. Talking about playlists on streaming services, and how to market to streamers and viewers.
Take Out Some Insurance is a Jimmy Reed cover, Nick has only performed it live. Nick performs other songs with a bit of a yodel to them, Hank Williams’s Your Cheatin’ Heart. Nick has worked some vocal teachers, including Amanda Kind. Also talking about the Seneca College program, Independent Songwriting and Performance.
37m03s
Words first, or music first? Nick writes the words first, he has an idea for a story, some phrasing, then calls up collaborators to put the music to words. Sometimes that changes the words. Nick composes on guitar (so does Caleb), he doesn’t get along with piano. Talking about the process of songwriting from lyrics and music to production and recording. Nick has at least five songs he’s working on now. The EP of that should be coming out soon.
Listening to the lyrics in Beam Blues. Listing some upcoming shows, and Nick’s contact information and social media accounts. Talking about an audience not paying attention to the music at some gigs. Getting subs for the band, and sessions musicians for recording. Caleb tells us about doing session work. Talking about ever-changing technology in recording.
Aaron Liang and Matt Lam join Bob Jonkman to talk about their band Waterfowl, how they turned from a studio band into a live performance band, composing their music and writing their lyrics, and dealing with the many instruments and changeovers on their live gigs.
Introducing the band, from both Toronto and Kitchener. There are other members, Ben Easton and Calvin Wu. There are lots of instruments, everyone plays keyboards, and there are many guitars. They’ve been playing live gigs, but made their album Habitat first. Adapting the recorded sound to live performance, the music wasn’t written with the idea of playing it live. Aaron and Matt had written music and played in bands before, while in high school in Toronto. There are recordings, but not for public listening yet. The Habitat album was intended for friends and family, with limited distribution. They used some online web services to get some press, now it’s just on the streaming services. Both Matt and Aaron have day jobs, it’s tough finding time to play and record music. Now that they have a live band, the next music will be written in a more traditional way, workshopping the songs during live performances. Some songs on the album were released individually, like Open Up. It was based on a Lesley speaker sound effect. It was much more difficult to produce this song than to come up with the music in the first place.
Analyzing the sampled vocals in Open Up. Music first, lyrics second. Matt does more lyrics, Aaron does the songwriting. Start with a melodic progression, then form some words to it, altering the melody to stay within their vocal range. We got a sneak peek of the entire album, CKMS-FM aired it before it was released. Matt and Aaron had some excitement during their album release, when the venue caught fire. They’re no longer calling their genre “Dream Pop”, their style is more varied than that. Talking about the theme of the album, “water”. They started their band in the middle of Covid, there was nothing else to do. They’ve already had some personnel churn in the band. How the other band members got the music. Introducing Ascending.
Talking about the instrumentation on Ascending, and writing for a particular instrument, or a particular effect. Playing covers to fill in a live set, and arranging the set list to accomodate instrument changes. Talking about upcoming gigs, no gigs in Kitchener-Waterloo yet. But they’re looking for new gigs! They’re adding more original music to their live sets, then record and produce them. Talking about their recording setup. How they named the band, Matt is a novice birder and was looking through birding books. Introducing All My Time.
All My Time is the song they close their live sets with. How they promote their music, using some online distribution services and music review blogging sites. Bob talks about the NCRA‘s !earshot Digital Distribution System to get their music to all campus and community radio stations in Canada. Talking about touring. Reviewing Waterfowl‘s contact information and streaming services.
55m05s
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.
Bob Jonkman talks with Dan Jancar, Hills Walter, and Tim Palser of the FOG Blues & Brass Band about the origin of the band, recording the album, writing Twelve Bar Prescription, their trip to Memphis, and, of course, about the blues. And they perform two songs, Live, On-Air, In-Studio!
Introducing the band. In the studio is Dan Jancar, Hills Walter, and Tim Palser; other band members are Bobby Becker, Joe Dublanski, Domenic Di Nino, and Al Hosack. In studio we have Tim playing guitar and Hills on harmonica, and everyone on vocals, other instruments in the band are saxophones, bass, keyboards, and drums. Sometimes Dan plays baritone sax. But there are no horns, so there is no brass in the FOG Blues & Brass Band. Even though the sax is made of brass it’s considered a woodwind. But the band was named “Blues & Brass” through marketing genius. Orginally the band was a five-piece, and named for “Five Old Guys”, hence the capitalization.
7m40s
How does a seven-piece band get gigs? Not all venues can afford all the musicians, but they stand their ground. They all have day jobs, even though managing the band is a full-time job. Band members have different hours, so they can take shifts in doing the admin work. Talking about other people, producer Robi Banerji, and recording in Dan’s basement, the Jancar Studios. How the album Twelve Bar Prescription came to be. The title song was written by Grant Heywood, then reworked by the members of the band. Working through the Covid pandemic, working with software, building the studio, doing all the Covid mitigation.
Analyzing the song Twelve Bar Prescription, how it changed from the way Grant Heywood wrote it. Grant and Hills have both been in Musician’s FAQ. Coral Andrews first broke the first record on CKMS.
21m47s
Talking about their trip to Memphis representing the Grand River Blues Society for the International Blues Challenge. Starting with 12,000 bands, the organizers knocked it down to 300 bands, including FOG. It was a contest, with stringent time constraints. And FOG made it through to the semi-finals! They went not expecting to win, but to make contacts. They made quite a few, but then Covid shut it down. Then they had some smaller gigs like the Kitchener Blues Festival in 2020 at Bobby O’Briens, but there were lots of constraints for Covid.
This is a first, FOG Blues & Brass Band haven’t done their music acoustically before. Why blues? Each band member has their own story. Dan has a metal background, Hills is wearing a Bob Dylan T-shirt. Blues only has five chords, but they stretch every facet of five chords, and throw in some jazz elements. They’re playing “Canadian Blues”. Kitchener has a rich history, not just Mel Brown, but others like Sonny Boy Williams. Each performer has the opportunity to play with others. Hills did a dance album during Covid, and he does jazz, classical, funk, blues, rock, even country. Everybody in the band is pretty diverse in their musical interests. Talking about the other members’ contributions.
42m25s
Adapting their music to different circumstances, like doing Beaterland acoustically, which was the biggest production number on the album. Talking about working with other musicians. Talking about live music in Kitchener, new venues opening, including The Boathouse. Guelph has a buzzing underground scene, very eclectic.
Hey Lucy ends with Jacob The Cat purring, he gets a credit on the album liner notes. Discussing how many chords there are in Hey Lucy. Talking about upcoming gigs and events. Covering the various social media accounts. Talking about the Grand River Blues Society, how FOG got the gigs in Memphis. Talking about the work they do with the Youth Blues Camp.
55m12s
Introducing Why Get Up as the regular closing song.
Introducing Natalia Valencia and Saturday Night. Talking about Natalia’s start as a musician, and the process of writing Saturday Night. How Natalia met her producer, Trevor. Natalia tells us about her upcoming EP and the concept behind it. Natalia introduces the next song.
Talking about pre-show nerves; Natalia’s live performances, going to University of Waterloo, getting a Master’s degree in Social Work in Social Policy. Finding the time to write music, playing at open-mic venues, commercial venues. Playing for Sofar Sounds, secret performances in people’s homes. Talking about the production of the recordings, and the new songs coming up. Does a producer who contributes to background music get a writing credit? No, only the person writing the lyrics and music is the songwriter, background music writers get a producer credit. Natalia introduces My Kind of Paradise.
Discussing the feel of My Kind of Paradise. Natalia tells us how she writes music. Lyrics first, or music? For Natalia, it’s lyrics first. Natalia also plays ukelele, and is learning piano. Natalia has not yet written Christmas music or other festive music, but she does covers of other people’s music. Talking about Natalia’s inspirations, and the genre of her music. She’s just been introduced to heavy metal, and is learning to appreciate it. Introducing Living With Your Memory
Bob listened to the lyrics, found it very sad, but could be a favourite. Playing different venues, concert gigs or background music. Talking about nerves again. Natalia goes back to the studio in a few weeks, every night for a whole week. Natalia’s a perfectionist, will do 40 or 50 takes for song. Any live gigs? Natalia has just got her busker’s license, will be playing on the streets and in the subways of Toronto.
53m25s
Bob gives the closing credits, and Natalia plays us out to the end of the show.
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 University 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.
Some of the buttons and lights on the sound board don’t work, so Bob makes a pitch for a new audio board. You can help by making a donation at https://radiowaterloo.ca/give.
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https://www.waterloohealthcoalition.org/
https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/
Living Room for Small
