COMMONS

Canada is a big, interesting, and complicated place and COMMONS is committed to bringing you thoughtfully crafted and illuminating stories that will challenge everything you think you know about this country.

This past year, we have brought you stories from all across the country. We told your stories about some of Canada's most powerful families. We launched an emergency season to cover the COVID-19 crisis in long-term care. And right now, we're taking a hard look at how the police operate in this country. 

We want to keep doing this work. So this week we're reflecting on the year behind us and talking about our goals for the future. Please consider supporting the work that we do. 

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Julian Fantino may be the most famous cop in Canadian history. He was the chief of four different police forces. And for decades, he was one of the most influential voices in law enforcement. But during his rise, people critical of the police had a way of finding themselves in the crosshairs. They were smeared, surveilled, intimidated and arrested.

The police are a singularly powerful institution in this country. How far are the cops willing to go to keep it that way?

Featured in this episode: Lennox Farrell, Jerry Amernic, Susan Eng, Derek Finkle

To learn more:

“Toronto Police Farce” by Derek Finkle in Eye Weekly

Dudley Speaks for Me by Ngardy Conteh George

Hogtown: The Politics of Policing by Min Sook Lee

The Trials of London by Max Allen in CBC Ideas

Duty: The Life of a Cop by Julian Fantino and Jerry Amernic

Additional music from Audio Network

Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com

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Stories about the power that police wield in Canada, and about the lengths they're willing to go to hold on to it. First episode drops Wednesday, October 14.

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In the final episode in our series about the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in long-term care, we’re going to tell you a different kind of story. A story of hope. About how the people we treat as disposable, can have lives of joy and dignity. And about one place where they were given exactly that.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Moira Welsh (Toronto Star), Mary Connell 

To learn more:

“The Fix” by Moira Welsh in The Toronto Star

“To Fix Long-Term Care, Homes Must See Residents As People, Not Patients” by Sherina Harris in HuffPost

“We Must Do More To Protect People With Dementia” by André Picard in The Globe and Mail

Additional music from Audio Network

“I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor” by Chris Zabriskie, adapted.

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Four months after the first outbreak in a Canadian nursing home, over 7000 long-term residents have died of COVID-19. But if you look at the news or social media or our political debates, it seems like we’ve already moved on. Maybe that’s because it feels like this kind of tragedy was inevitable during a pandemic. It wasn’t. And we know that because in some places in Canada, politicians and public health officials made decisions that saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Samir Sinha, Isobel Mackenzie, Michael Schwandt, Kieran Moore

To learn more:

“If you can get your relatives out of seniors’ homes, try to do so as fast as you can” by André Picard in The Globe and Mail

“With an early focus on seniors’ residences, Kingston has so far avoided the brunt of COVID-19” by Karen Howlett in The Globe and Mail

Luck and timing: How B.C. has managed to avoid the worst-case COVID-19 scenario by Briar Stewart in CBC News

This episode is sponsored by Rotman’s MBA Essentials Online

“Clean Soul” by Kevin Macleod, adapted.

Additional music from Audio Network

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Jonathan Marchand is one of the thousands of young disabled people living in long-term care. But Marchand doesn’t want to fix the system. He doesn’t think it can be reformed. Marchand is an abolitionist. For a century and a half, Canada has hidden away disabled people in institutions where they were neglected and abused. Is long-term care just the latest incarnation of this dark history?

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Jonathan Marchand, Sharon J. Riley (The Walrus), Kenneth Jackson (APTN News), Madeline Burghardt, Dustin Galer

To learn more:

“When Is a Senior No Longer Capable of Making Their Own Decisions?” by Sharon J. Riley in The Walrus

“‘Sitting duck’: Disabled woman, 27, lives in Toronto seniors home with COVID-19 outbreak” by Kenneth Jackson in APTN News

Working Towards Equity: Disability Rights Activism and Employment in Late Twentieth-Century by Dustin Galer

Broken: Institutions, Families, and the Construction of Intellectual Disability by Madeline Burghardt 

Hope Is Not a Plan

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

Additional music from Audio Network

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After a stroke left him locked in his own body, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana has found ways to lead an incredibly full life. Then the pandemic came. It swept through Quebec, leaving a trail of devastation. Today, Rabbi Cahana is one of the thousands of Quebeckers left stranded in the middle of one of the worst disasters in modern Canadian history.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Aaron Derfel (Montreal Gazette), Tamara Sussman, Kitra Cahana, Ronnie Cahana

To learn more:

“Once a retirement plum for Quebec elders, nursing homes are now symbols of neglect” by Les Perreaux in The Globe and Mail

“The incredible stupidity of not putting Dr. Joanne Liu in charge of Quebec’s response to the coronavirus” by André Noël in Ricochet

“How Montreal's CHSLDs mirrored the Diamond Princess outbreak” by Aaron Derfel in the Montreal Gazette

This episode is sponsored by Wealthbar

Additional music from Audio Network

“I Am a Man Who Will Fight for Your Honor” by Chris Zabriskie, adapted.

Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com

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Innis Ingram’s mother is his hero. But today, she’s living in one of the worst hit long-term care homes in Ontario. She has a terminal illness. Dozens and dozens of people around her have died, including her friend and roommate. And she’s had minimal human contact for three months. But even though he can’t be there with her, Innis is determined to get her the care she needs.

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Innis Ingram, Nathan Stall

To learn more:

“Ontario LTC whistle-blower saw many incidents of verbal abuse and forced feeding” by Jill Mahoney and Karen Howlett” in The Globe and Mail

“It’s time to let families visit long-term care homes” by André Picard in The Globe and Mail

“Some Ontario doctors, families worry rules for care home visits causing harm to residents” in CBC News

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

Additional music from Audio Network

“Western Shores” by Philipp Weigl, adapted

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We take a break from our PANDEMIC season with an extended interview with Damian Abraham, a guest from our episode about Canada's wrestling dynasty, The Harts. Damian explains the art of juggling the real and the fake, wrestling's dying language and how Canadians helped build World Wrestling Entertainment.

Damian Abraham is the host of Turned Out A Punk Podcast, the creator and host of The Wrestlers, and a member of Toronto hardcore band, Fucked Up.

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Long-term care workers are in the vanguard in the war against COVID-19. They’re not the kinds of workers who get movies or TV shows made about them. In fact, their stories are rarely told. But not only are they battling heroically against this pandemic. They’re fighting for recognition and respect within a system built to marginalize them. 

COMMONS: Pandemic is currently focusing on how COVID-19 is affecting long-term care in Canada.

Featured in this episode: Joadel Concepcion, Joanna Bulatao, Lisa Burke, Naomi Lightman, Zaid Noorsumar

To learn more:

“‘We are dropping like flies,’ says Ontario home care nurse” by Zaid Noorsumar in Rank and File

“Fear and exhaustion: Working as a PSW in long-term care during the coronavirus” by Alanna Mitchell in Maclean’s

“Comparing Care Regimes: Worker Characteristics and Wage Penalties in the Global Care Chain” by Naomi Lightman in Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society

This episode is sponsored by Freshbooks

Additional music from Audio Network

Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.