The murder of a young Black man by members of a racist white gang in a city park during fireworks for the Victoria Day holiday in 2001 should have sent waves of shock and outrage through the mid-sized city where it happened.  And beyond. It was two years before anyone was arrested in the killing of Howard Joel Munroe in Victoria Park in Kitchener, about an hour west of Toronto. This is not a true-crime series.  This is an examination of the death of Howard Joel Monroe; a story that should be well-known across Canada...but is not.  

We begin our examination which includes historic and contemporary perspectives and theory with a documentary originally produced in 2016. A Killing in the Park is based on original reporting and interviews by Paul Cross, with audio first gathered in the weeks and months following the murder.  

In the follow-up discussions, commentary, and historic audio, listen as Dr. Stanley Doyle-Wood and Cross analyze the issues, events, and story. Our intention is to do this in a way that honours the memory of Joel, and the strength and resistance of his family and friends. 

The Erasure of Race: The murder of Howard Joel Munroe.  Part 1 - A Killing in the Park.  

WARNING: The content of this story may be upsetting.  The language reported by people involved, and the descriptions given, as well as the substance of the story may be triggering. Please be advised.

Thank you for listening; we'll soon provide a new link for the entire series, rolling out over the days across the 20th anniversary of Joel's murder. 

In April 2021 there has been a great deal of coverage on podcasts, radio and tv of the one-year anniversary of the mass murder in rural Nova Scotia: April 18 and 19, 2020. For an in-depth examination of the case I highly recommend the series 13 Hours: Inside the Nova Scotia Massacre from CuriousCast.  Episode six is particularly valuable for its examination and exposure of communication and coordination failures by the RCMP.  But I want to return to an examination of the news industry in Nova Scotia.  The news media missed the story Saturday night after the the first tweet by the RCMP.  The story could have, should have been on the radio and on newsroom social feeds late Saturday night.  On-call reporters could have inserted cut-ins on radio; information could have appeared on tv.  A year later, I'm still wondering...how did the news media miss it?  Many newsrooms seemed to be aware of nothing about the case until a follow-up tweet from the RCMP Sunday morning; more than eight hours after the first.  I'm left to believe that not one single person who works in media in Nova Scotia -- news, production, programming, music, sales, promotion, management, creative, administration -- caught a very unusually-worded tweet from the police before midnight on a Saturday night.  Because it was unusual enough that anyone with any connection to any form of news media should have contacted someone else from their workplace about it.  Newsrooms could have been on the story hours earlier; it could have been running overnight and much earlier Sunday morning. But newsrooms missed it...and too many are playing the game of blaming the RCMP for not doing more.  Yes, it should have.  But where was the media for eight hours?

Updated from April 30, 2020 with one small edit: I originally mis-identified the opening emergency audio as being from the RCMP; it's other first-responders arriving at the scene Saturday night.

There's more detail in this post, too: https://paulcrossradio1.wordpress.com/2020/04/22/novascotiashooting-no-emergency-alert-is-that-why-local-broadcasters-missed-the-story/

Regarding any conflict in timing of communications: The timeline appears to be 11:32pm local time for the first RCMP tweet, and 8:02am for the second.

The photo shows the timing of the first time the story appears on the Canadian Press newswire feed that would go to radio stations: 9:10am Toronto time, Sunday April 19th.

The government of Ontario wants police to start random stops of people on the street or in traffic to make them justify having left their homes during the stay-at-home rules of the pandemic.  Who do you think would be likely to get targeted and stopped? A frightening order to be taking effect on the 39th anniversary of the formal signing of Canada's constitution.  But what's this? Some municipal police forces, including the one where I live in Toronto...are telling the government...we're not going to do that.  

Update: Later in the day April 17 2021 the provincial government announced it was rescinding its direction for police to conduct random stops.

On the first all-female broadcast crew in NBA history. From March 25, 2021.  The Toronto Raptors become the first team in NBA history to have a game with an all-female broadcast crew: play-by-play announcer, analyst-colour commentator, sideline reporter, and broadcast show co-hosts.  It's just the third time in history a woman has performed the play-by-play.  First time was in 1988; and then, not again until 2018.  Meghan McPeak -- an alum of the Broadcasting - Radio program at Humber College in Toronto -- makes history as the first woman to do it a second time. And as the first woman of colour.  Of course it's all very exciting for one of her former professors.  For Educational purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of bits of audio from TSN Toronto, WUSA-TV Washington D-C, and highlights posted by the NBA on YouTube. (Image taken from TSN.)

This is the final episode of Season Five.  Subscribe to get instant notice of episodes in my other project series, and for instant updates when Season Six begins!

“How radio listeners need their own baseball play-by-play”.  From March 18, 2021.  Listeners have been tuning in on radio to live play-by-play of baseball games for nearly a century.  In Toronto, Blue Jays baseball on the radio became the soundtrack of the city in the glory years of the early 1990s, when the Jays won the World Series two years in a row.  But now, the corporation that owns both the Jays and the broadcast says it's dropping its specialized radio broadcast, and putting sound from tv on the radio instead.  No other team in Major League Baseball goes without a home radio crew.  TV audio is a poor substitute on radio. And it goes against the idea of accessible media.  Commentary.  For educational purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of audio of Tom Cheek's famous call of the 1993 championship game on radio, posted to YouTube by MLB and tv audio posted by MLB; and from Sportsnet The Fan 590.  For more on hearing sports play-by-play on High Definition Radio -- HD-- please check Season Two, Episode 12. (Photo: me with the World Series trophies at a time when 1050CHUM was home to the Jays Radio play-by-play.)

On pandemic stories in audio fiction. From March 11, 2021.  On the first "anniversary" of living in the pandemic, I'm listening for audio stories about living in a pandemic.  Audio drama -- ensemble, assembly or solo fiction -- is giving us new ways of exploring life in times of a pandemic...as escape.  For educational purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of bits from 2084 by Rainer Pluckebaum; On a Dark, Cold Night by Kristen Zaza, and The Apocrypha Chronicles from Renaissance Opera.  Three very different approaches from creators in Canada. (Image from the World Health Organization.)

On the passing of radio news star Dick Smyth.  From March 7, 2021.  Stories are being told as news reaches us that Dick Smyth has passed away.  His newscasts and his commentaries on 1050 CHUM are legendary.  One of a kind.  My unscripted thoughts, having worked with him at 1050 CHUM starting in 1985.  I neglected to mention how wary some people in the AIDS community were of speaking with me as I set out on a major documentary in 1991, because of their memories of things he had said on air years earlier.  Maybe that's a story for another day.  For now...some thoughts on Smyth.

“On women in radio on International Women’s Day”.  From March 4, 2021.  When academics and researchers write about women in radio they tend to lean toward public radio and community radio.  That's largely the case in a new book about women in radio in Canada.  It's another worthwhile edition.  I wonder if academia isn't missing a lot though, if more time is not spent examining the roles of some very well-known and popular women in commercial radio.  A few suggestions here, from my own long years in commercial radio, about women whose stories I think would make valuable study.  For educational purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of bits of audio from CBC, CHUM-FM, City-TV.  (Photo: Women in Radio - Unfiltered Voices from Canada. Edited by Genevieve Bonin-Labelle; University of Ottawa Press, 2020.). For more on the historic significance to radio of Hilda Matheson, please check Season 2, Episode 6.

On hearing sounds from Planet Mars on the radio here on Earth. From February 25, 2021.  We are fascinated by the planet Mars.  It stands out in the night sky, and we are drawn to it.  Since the mid-70s, machines from Earth have been landing on Mars and gathering data.  Now, there's a new probe -- Perseverance -- on Mars, looking for signs of previous life.  And for the first time, part of the mission is to search for and transmit sound from Mars back to Earth. Of course, the sounds NASA is making public...are being heard on the radio! For educational purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of bits of audio released by NASA and radio, tv and movie sounds in the opening montage.  (Image: DPA microphone, as shown on dpamicrophones.com)

On how there's nothing funny about switching from a sports radio format to "funny". From February 18, 2021.  Among the effects of the mass changes at radio stations controlled by Bell Media is the trashing of labour-intensive sports formats in cities including Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Vancouver.  In Vancouver, TSN 1040 is now Funny 1040. Sports radio listeners are outraged; you can find their independent videos on YouTube.  Hamilton already had Funny 820 where a once historic CHAM had lived.  That station has been airing an independently produced live morning show.  Until the hosts walked away from the radio station, live on air.  Commentary. For educational purposes.  Makes fair dealing use of bits of audio from the Humble and Fred radio show and podcast -- humbleandfredradio.com (Image from istockphoto.com)