Kitchener-raised rap artist, Dom Vallie, whose real name is Dominic Turton, has been nominated for the second time at the Canadian Juno Awards. This year, he’s been nominated for rap album of the year for his album, “See You When I See You.” Radio Waterloo spoke with Turton, who still resides in Kitchener, to hear more about how the city has influenced his music, how he came up with his stage name, what he’d be doing if it wasn’t music, and where he’s going next. Turton spoke about how the Kitchener-Waterloo community has been behind him from the start, and how his childhood experiences have influenced his music.
Music sampled from single, “Show Me,” courtesy of Dom Vallie/Dominic Turton
Waterloo Region is a hub for human trafficking, confirm police. The number of cases that the Waterloo Region Police Service Human Trafficking Unit investigate is growing each year, as well as the number of victims and people seeking help at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region’s Anti-Human Trafficking Program.
Radio Waterloo spoke with Detective Sergeant Jeff Merrigan with the WRPS Human Trafficking Unit and Lyndsey Butcher the director of care at the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region to talk about the numbers they are seeing and what human trafficking looks like in Waterloo Region. Both say the community needs to come to terms with the reality of human trafficking in the Region, and that the problem needs to be confronted.
Cricket has exploded in popularity in Waterloo Region in the last few years. So much so, staff with the cities of Cambridge, Waterloo and Kitchener are working together to create a regional cricket strategy so they can accommodate the needs of the booming cricket community.
Cricket community members have responded saying they need more space to play, indoor facilities and lighting so they can get as many players playing as possible in the area.
Radio Waterloo spoke with Giridhar Bannaravuri, the president of the Southern Ontario Cricket Association, an organization which facilitates cricket in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Stratford and Guelph, as well as Lisa Collins, the manager of sport development and golf for the city of Kitchener to hear more about the upcoming strategy and the needs of the cricket community.
Excerpt from “SOCA 2024 Season _ KWC Cricket _ SOCA Gala 2024” used with permission from SOCA.
dan kellar
Kitchener, ON – As daytime temperatures dipped below -20 degrees this week in Waterloo Region, anti-poverty advocates in Waterloo Region demanded action from municipal governments to open more indoor space for homeless community members. In response, the region teamed with local service providers to open a new 20 person emergency overnight warming space in Kitchener. A second emergency overnight warming space will open early next week in Cambridge.
This show features interviews with anti-poverty and housing advocate Regan Sunshine Brussé and councillor Jim Erb of the regional government. Brussé discusses the human rights approach to housing which the regional government adopted in the2024 Plan to End Chronic Homelessness and offers her thoughts on how to address the extreme cold this winter. Councillor Erb says the regional government and staff are working diligently to address the extreme cold, and he responds to ideas advocates have brought forward such as using Grand River Transit’s bus fleet or regional properties for emergency warming sites.
In many communities, the Christmas season is kicked off with a city tree-lighting ceremony, where a large bedecked Christmas tree is lit up for all to see – in fact, Waterloo Region’s three cities are all lighting their Christmas trees this coming Friday. But in today’s environmentally tough times, some may be wondering if cutting down 30-foot giants is the best choice for a city’s Christmas tree. Radio Waterloo takes a look.
Region of Waterloo community members expressed strong support for new bike lanes on Benton and Frederick streets at the Region of Waterloo’s Sustainability, Infrastructure and Development Committee meeting on August 14, 2024.
Despite concerns about emergency vehicle access and pedestrian safety, the proposal to reduce car lanes and add bike lanes received broad support. The project’s first phase will include painted bike lanes. Phase 2 includes long-term plans for physically separated lanes to be completed by 2031.
Even with these phased-in plans, community members asked council to forgo Phase 1 and immediately start with separate bike lanes. They highlighted the benefits of safer, physically separated cycling paths connecting major areas in Kitchener. However, the delegates also discussed concerns about service vehicle access and suggestions for immediate safety improvements like precast concrete barriers.
The Region of Waterloo has endorsed a new 66-bed shelter in Kitchener will serve women, gender diverse, and non-binary adults exclusively. The decision came after a lengthy debate at the Region of Waterloo’s Community and Health Services Committee on April 13th.
Public pressure has been mounting since the closure of the previous women’s shelter at the end of June, which has left no dedicated shelter beds for women in the region. At the meeting, community members and delegates, including those with lived experiences, highlighted the importance and urgency of dedicated shelter spaces for women and gender-diverse individuals for their safety and well-being.
The new shelter at 84 Frederick Street plans to offer a different operating model than the previous shelter, which was operated by the YWCA. The new model will focus on housing outcomes and additional wraparound supports, with an increase in employees with lived expertise.
As of July 31st, the Ontario government will discontinue the Wastewater Surveillance Initiative. Unlike situations in Peterborough and Ottawa, funding for the program has not materialized from the Region of Waterloo. Councillor Colleen James updated CKMS News on the situation locally stating the Region is seeking federal support to keep the regional surveillance programs operational.
Wastewater surveillance data has fueled numerous research projects and imparted information that health authorities could rely on to accurately predict and prepare for illness outbreaks.
The cancellation has had its critics, including Professor Trevor Charles, director of the Waterloo Centre for Microbial Research.
Professor Charles discusses the potential for negative impact on public health preparedness and the loss of a world-leading research community in Ontario. The Ottawa Science Policy Network highlights that 95 researchers will be affected, potentially leading to a brain drain.
Despite government assurances of continued efforts, the Public Health Agency of Canada has not disclosed any plans to take over the initiative.
Summer hiking season is back, and along with it, warnings to be on the lookout for ticks.
At Waterloo Regional Council on June 19, the Waterloo Region Public Health Department warned residents of the increased presence of black-legged ticks in the area. A black-legged tick bite can transmit Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses.
Dr. Adele Chang, the Region’s Associate Medical Officer for Health describes the detection of these ticks in Cambridge and that three additional tick-borne diseases — anaplasmosis; babesiosis; and Powassan virus disease, have been added to the provincial list of diseases of concern.
Bolstering Dr. Chang’s warning, the eTick website reports a doubling of tick sightings in the area.
Alongside these warnings comes advice on how to prevent tick bites in the first place. Rebecca Piavison the Public Health Manager for Vector-Borne Diseases at the Region of Waterloo, provides practical tick tips, emphasizing the importance of physical barriers, insect repellents, and thorough body checks after outdoor activities.
Waterloo Region Health Coalition has called for the Ontario government to hold a public vote on healthcare privatization in Ontario.
Jim Stewart of the Health Care Advocacy Group criticized the government’s privatization agenda, and the lack of clear communication both during the 2022 election and since, arguing privatization lacks public support and undermines the public system.
The Ontario Health Coalition highlights significant underfunding of public hospitals by the Ford administration, leading to increased wait times and operational challenges.
While Kitchener Conestoga MPP Mike Harris, Jr. defended the government’s health care spending (but provided no citations for his claims), Kitchener Centre MPP Aislinn Clancy argued the government has been underfunding the system, ultimately increasing the costs for taxpayers and creating a two-tier system.
by: dan kellar
Kitchener – Spectrum, an organization that serves local 2SLGBTQIA+ folks has been busy ahead of Pride 2024, planning many initiatives including participation in Tri-Pride Summerfest on June 1st, Pride Ride on June 7th, and Spectrum’s 3rd annual gala on June 13th.
“Kicking things off” on May 31st, Spectrum’s executive director, Scott Williams will join Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe and others to unveil a new “Rainbow Crosswalk” in uptown. Speaking about the importance of projects like the crosswalk, Williams told CKMS, “we need to be very visible in order to remind people that we have always been here and will always be here.” Mayor McCabe also provided CKMS a statement about the crosswalk.
This show features an interview with Scott Williams on Spectrum’s activities, Pride 2024, and the new rainbow crosswalk. Williams also speaks about ongoing effects and efforts related to the June 28th 2023 hate-motivated attack in a gender studies classroom at the University of Waterloo.
The impacts of being hit by a car can be serious and the increased size of vehicles can contribute to more severe injuries. While attempts to increase driver accountability have so far failed at Queen’s Park, police have trained their focus on preventative measures and awareness to improve road safety.
The show features an interview with Waterloo Regional Police Services staff sergeant Scott Griffiths and insights from Janice Jim, the chair of the City of Waterloo Active Transportation Committee and vice president of CycleWR.
The weather last winter in Waterloo Region was mild and unstable, just as predicted. This variable weather is expected to continue into a hot, dry summer with potential serious repercussions on our community.
These predictions follow an unusual year of weather, complicated by global weather disturbances, including El Niño. According to the University of Waterloo weather station, the winter snowfall amount as of the end of March was at less than half of the average of the typical season.
Milder winter temperatures are causing other concerns as well. With the U. S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that in 2023 24, the ice cover on the Great Lakes reached a record low of less than 3 percent ice cover basin wide.
Dr. Annabella Bonata, research associate and manager of the Intact Center for Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo explains the dynamics responsible for our changing weather patterns, emphasizing the potential consequences and highlighting the need for adaptation.
by: dan kellar Kitchener – On April 9th 2024, an external counsel for the Waterloo Regional police and the former internal legal counsel for the Thunder Bay police, Holly Walbourne was arrested by the OPP and charged for actions which they say took place while she was still working for the police force in the northern Ontario Town.
Walbourne was retained by the WRPS for her legal services in May 2023, however, police spokesperson Cherri Greeno wrote to CKMS News that “As a result of allegations that are currently before the courts, WRPS has discontinued this contractual agreement.”
Walbourne has been charged alongside former Thunder Bay police chief Sylvie Hauth. The two are charged with obstructing a public or peace officer, breach of trust, and multiple counts of obstruction of justice.
This show features an interview with Patrick Watson, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Toronto, who researches policing and police oversight. He explains how communication works between police forces, and why the hiring of Walbourne may have happened despite the issues in Thunder Bay.
A few years ago, it was common for car windshields to be spattered with bugs after a drive in the country. According to Jennifer Leat of the Pollinator Roadsides Project, that’s not happening so much anymore. There are fewer bugs, and fewer bugs equals fewer pollinators.
A community driven project to help pollinators will be happening on Saturday April 13 to restore habitat corridors for pollinators by planting pollinator-friendly native plants along roadsides.
Backed by a grant from the Region of Waterloo’s Community Environment Fund with support from volunteers and sponsors, the Pollinator Roadside Project seeks to increase biodiversity, support pollinator conservation, reduce maintenance costs, and control water runoff. The project also hopes to set a provincial and national precedent for prioritizing sustainability in roadside plantings.
Jennifer Leat, Lead of the Pollinator Roadsides project talks to CKMS about the project and the importance of pollinators.
Lyme disease, a combination of skin rashes, fevers, headaches, and fatigue, is contracted from black legged ticks, and if left untreated, can escalate to affect joints, the heart, and nervous system.
ETick.ca is an online platform where people voluntarily report tick sightings in the environment or when found on humans or animals. Comparing the first three months of 2023 to 2024 shows there has been a threefold increase in blacklegged tick reports for KW on eTick.ca.
The Region of Waterloo’s Public Health Manager for Vector-borne Diseases is Rebecca Piovesan, and she talked to CKMS News about lyme disease and back-legged ticks.
High patient volumes and staffing shortages within local hospital emergency rooms are impacting the ability of local paramedics in the Waterloo Region to respond to critical calls.
The preliminary Paramedic Services Annual Report was presented to the Community and Health Services Committee at Regional Council (item 8.2 on the regular agenda) this week reporting response statistics, off-load delay mitigation, and changes to the categorization of system alerts and patient acuity.
Although call volumes requesting paramedic help increased only by 1% in 2023, in 2022 call volumes increased by 11% over the previous year, and the paramedic service is still adjusting to these high call volumes.
While the local paramedic service exceeded all of their provincial and regional response time targets, the challenges posed by off-load delays, which happen when paramedics are held up in hospital emergency departments waiting for patients to be transferred to the care of a hospital, are a significant factor in response time.
Early Wednesday (Feb. 28), about 50 demonstrators in Kitchener blocked the entrance to local arms manufacturer Colt Canada on Wilson Avenue, demanding that the Canadian government impose an immediate and total arms embargo on Israel.
The demonstration is part of a broader protest across the country which is demanding a Canadian arms embargo on Israel and highlighting military exports from Canada to Israel. It was organized by Labour 4 Palestine, Labour Against the Arms Trade, and World BEYOND War, in response to the call by a coalition of more than 30 Palestinian unions and worker organizations to end all complicity and stop the flow of weapons to Israel.
About 60 people gathered in front of the Waterloo Region Police Services (WRPS) building in Kitchener on Friday to protest the fatal shooting by police of Nicholas Nembhard, a 31-year-old Black man.
Nembhard was killed in the evening of Feb. 19, the third such fatal shooting in the region since 2007. Police confirmed Feb. 20 that the Special Investigations Unit was investigating the shooting.
The next day, on Feb. 21, the African, Caribbean, and Black Network (ACBN) put out a statement condemning the WRPS’ killing of Nembhard, a “Black man in distress due to a mental health crisis.”
Organizers of the Friday demonstration explained why they felt the gathering was necessary and explained their demands of police, including changes to responses to mental health calls.
But some people felt organizers had not done enough to include the Black community and had used the killing of a Black man to push their own agenda.
As Canada continues supplying military equipment and components to the Israeli government amidst the attacks on Palestinians, the federal government is coming under increased scrutiny. On February 1st, the Nicaraguan government announced they were initiating action against Canada, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands at the International Court of Justice for supporting the Israeli aggression in Palestine.
This show features Rachel Small of World Beyond War discussing the groups activities, and the new online map which highlights locations and production details of weapons companies involved in arming the Israeli military, including 8 locations in Waterloo Region. CKMS News also discussed accountability and transparency in the Canadian weapons industry with Kitchener-Centre Green Party MP Mike Morrice.
CKMS News asked the ministry of International Development to confirm that the government has received letter from the Nicaraguan government regarding the initiating of actions against Canada at the ICJ for arming Israel. John Babcock, a spokesperson for the ministry told CKMS News that “Global Affairs Canada has seen the Nicaraguan press release.” He concluded “We are not in a position to comment further on this matter”.
Episode One of Readers Delight features authors: Carl Innes, Brian Van Norman & Carolyn Wilker.
Carl Innes read ‘The Meal’ from his book “The Eye of Calchas: An Anthology”. This book is available on Kindle. The Genre is: Supernatural Horror. Brian Van Norman read from his book “Against the Machine: Evolution”. This book is available on Kindle and on Amazon as paperback. The Genre is: Dystopian Science Fiction. Carolyn Wilker read ‘A Room is Waiting’ from her book “Good Grief People”. This book is available on Amazon in paperback and her website www.carolynwilker.ca. The Genre is: Memoir.
Invasive Group A Streptococcus (IGAS) – which can cause afflictions from a sore throat to flesh-eating disease – is on the rise in Waterloo.
Chief Medical officer of Health Dr Hsiu-Li Wong presented the respiratory disease update at the Region of Waterloo council meeting on Wednesday evening.
While the overall number of people infected is still low as of early January, the Public Health Agency of Ontario noted that 540 infections were reported in Ontario alone from October 2023 to the end of December. Within this data were 6 children under the age of 9 who succumbed to the disease.
Dr .Wong described symptoms of a severe IGAS infection, which include fever, sore throat, neck pain and rash that continue to worsen.
Epidemiologists do not yet understand why the disease has spiked and recommend taking precautions including proper hand hygiene and staying home when sick.
by: dan kellar A 235 acre donation of farmland and forest in Wilmot to therare Charitable Research Reserve is on hold over a parking lot. The Schneider family has been working on the donation since 2020 and has now reached out to regional residents to pressure township politicians to finalise the deal.
The land sits on Waterloo’s border and the family has allowed light recreational use of the forest for decades, with some trail users parking along nearby roads. Now, citing safety and liability concerns, the township is requesting a parking lot be built to accommodate future land use. However, project proponents say the request will damage sensitive areas while burdening the charity with added maintenance costs.
This show features an interview with Dr. Stephanie Sobek-Swant, the executive director of rare, along with a quote from the Schneider family’s statement, and the short comment a township representative made to CKMS News.
Tensions simmered when the topic of A Better Tent City (ABTC) came up at the last Waterloo Regional Council meeting of 2023. ABTC is tiny home community in Kitchener that currently houses 50 chronic homeless people.
On one side were those who supported the motion from Councillor and Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic which granted $236,390 for the next two years to ABTC. On the other side were those who said the grant was unfair and inequitable.
Several Councillors insisted the wording of Councillor Vrbanovic’s motion be removed as they felt it was insulting to staff. Another criticism arose because six other groups had been denied original funding but did not afterwards ask Council for money, some councillors felt this was unfair and inequitable
Despite the criticism, Council carried Councillor Vrbanovic’s motion granting ABTC $236,390 for the next two years
Waterloo – Over 8,000 renters have registered their units with ACORN’s Rental Registry since the grassroots social and economic justice organisation launched their map based online database at the end of the summer. ACORN Ontario told CKMS News in a statement that “the rental registry will track rising rents across the province.” which they say will “lead to better, publicly-available housing data that can help protect and create more affordable housing”.
Today’s shows features interviews with Acer Bonaparte, the chair of ACORN Waterloo Region, which since its launch earlier this year, has focused primarily on tenant rights and housing issues. Additionally, CKMS speaks with Geordie Dent of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations (FMTA), a non-profit organization founded in 1974 which advocates for better rights for tenants. The show also includes comments that the ACORN Ontario chapter provided to CKMS News.
ACORN Ontario told CKMS News that the registry was created by the Montreal based non-profit Vivre en Ville, saying “The registry was first introduced in Quebec and has over 30,000+ rents voluntarily registered. The rental registry is easy, quick and secure as it was designed to be compliant with SOC2 cybersecurity standards.“, standards that meet requirements for governmental use.
According to rentals.ca, which has for years tracked such data, average rents across the country are still rising at over 100$/month, with a one bedroom apartment in Waterloo averaging 1,944$ a month in October. Two bedroom apartments are now averaging 2,543$ a month, nearly a 15% increase from last year at the same time.
While many provinces have some form of rent control, in Ontario since Doug Ford dismantled the existing system in 2018, that control comes in the form of a 2.5% maximum allowable increase to the rent after a 12 month period. However, the Landlord and Tenant Board, an arm of Ontario’s legal system, often allows this maximum to be exceeded after being convinced by a landlord’s request. As Geordie Dent explains, the board approves the above guideline increase “in the neighbourhood of 90-95% of the time”. Additionally, the maximum increase also does not apply between tenants, meaning the landlord can increase the rent any amount they want on new tenants once the old ones move out.
The Landlord and Tenant Board does not specifically track how often they approve AGIs and their 2022-2023 report has a lot of incomplete data. A brief review of cases by CKMS News centering on Above Guideline Increaseson the Canadian Legal Information Institute, where all such cases are listed, reveals the 10 most recent cases were all decided in favour of the landlord, with the majority declaring: “The Landlord justified a rent increase above the guideline because of capital expenditures.”
While above guideline increases continue to have harmful effects on renters, ACORN Ontario told CKMS News the registry will provide “Greater transparency for renters so they can make informed decisions about where they choose to live”. The statement concluded “Better housing data can help inform stronger affordable housing policies like those supported by Ontario ACORN’s ‘Real Rent Control’ Campaign. Over time, the registry will clearly show that rents increase astronomically in between tenancies on units that aren’t subject to rent control, and as a result of above guideline rent increases. These loopholes in our current rent control laws create incentives for landlords to renovict or demovict their tenants or neglect repairs until tenants get fed up and leave”.
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