The St. John's Morning Show

More Canadians across the country are struggling to put food on their tables, according to new data from food banks. In St. John's, a 2019 study found that around half of MUN students have experienced food insecurity. Now, the campus food bank and Food First NL have come together with a survey to see the full picture of food insecurity on campus. Madi Hynes, a program assistant with Food First NL and PhD candidate at MUN, came to tell us more.

A drug that police say is 25 times more potent than fentanyl has been found in this province. In studio this morning we were joined by John Weber, a professor in Memorial University's School of Pharmacy. He's also a member of the Board of Directors, of the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

The American publishing company Harper Collins is offering to pay authors to use their work to train AI models. In studio with us this morning we were joined by local author Elisabeth de Mariaffi, who has had her own work used to train AI models in the past --- without her consent. HarperCollins Canada has been her publisher since 2015. We heard what her thoughts were on the matter.

The Canada Post strike has caused many vendors who use Etsy or Shopify to pause sales for the time being, costing many individuals a large portion of their income. Meghan Fahey is a local Etsy Market Organizer and her business, Driven To Ink, sells greeting cards. She joined us in studio today to talk about the effects of the strike on her business.

National Day of the Child is a Canada-wide initiative that highlights the impact of affordable childcare. Child Care Now NL is encouraging the continuation of 10-dollars-a-day childcare in this province, and are participating in ten days of action, kickstarting today. Yolande Pottie-Sherman is a Steering Committee Member of Child Care Now NL, and joined us in studio today.

Today marks Transgender Day of Remembrance. It was founded in 1999 by activists in the United States, and has since expanded around the world. Tonight, there will be a candlelight vigil at the Lantern. We were joined in studio by Eddy St. Coeur, Co-Chair of St. John’s Pride, and Morgan Moakler Jessiman with Quadrangle NL.

The Canadian Mental Health Association used words such as "troubling" and "alarming" to describe the mental health situation across the country in a new report. “The State of Mental Health in Canada 2024” says more Canadians are reporting feeling worse mentally than they were pre-pandemic, and that the Canadian government is investing less in mental healthcare than other countries. Chandra Kavanagh is the CEO of the Newfoundland and Labrador chapter of the CMHA, and joined us on the line this morning to discuss the new report.

The rental market in our province is incredibly difficult to navigate. But, in the next few weeks, a new app will be available to help with that. Weevva is the creation of developer Matt Creese, and it's already earning some acclaim. Matt joined us in the studio today to talk about it.

WestJet announced Monday that they'll be offering direct flights from here to London, Dublin and Paris - starting this spring. To talk about this welcome news, we were joined by Derek Winsor on the line. He runs E and B Travel Service in St. John's.   

Registered nurses from across the province are gathering in St. John's this week for their union's 29th convention. A recent conflict of interest scandal means the convention is all the more important. On the line, we were joined by the head of the registered nurse's union on the line, Yvette Coffey.