Viewpoints

On today’s Viewpoints:

We’ll be grass hopping from city to province. We’ll tell you about Truth and Reconciliation Day. September 30th marks Truth and Reconciliation Day across the country. A time to reflect on the past but also to create a better future for Indigenous peoples. We’ll go to BC, and New Brunswick. The 1 Million March 4 Kids national protest took place on Wednesday, September 20 in 33 cities and towns in Ontario and 101 places in Canada, from major cities to small towns. The purpose of the protest was to support of the elimination of the SOGI curriculum, pronouns, gender ideology and mixed bathrooms in schools. Our reporters based in many Canadian cities were there. We’ll hear from Kingston, Montreal, Nanaimo, Toronto, Peterborough, and Vernon.

Thanks to all our journalist Meagan Deuling, Erica Butler, Edward Sweeney, Owen Thompson, Jules Bugiel, Mick Sweetman, Ian Gregg, Christena Lawrie, and Pamela Haasen. Our national editors, Victoria Fenner and Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today’s show:
People in dozens of Canadian communities took to the streets in competing protests to voice their opposition or approval on how schools approach Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity education. A piece of history from rural New Brunswick resonates all across Canada and around the world. The book, “Len and Cub: A Queer History,” documenting one of the Maritimes’s earliest same-sex relationships, becomes the talk of the town. In Six Nations in Ontario, the Moment 4 Life Colour Run suicide awareness walk, returns after being put on hold for years. And the housing crisis in Montréal pushes people into poverty and sees students in dire straits.

Thanks to our team of journalists this week, Deya Miller, Mick Sweetman, Jules Bugiel, and Erica Butler. To our national editors Maureen McEwan in Ottawa and Victoria Fenner in northeastern Ontario. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today’s Viewpoints:
A recent report shows the minimum wage in Nova Scotia is far below what the calculated livable wage should be. Justice for Workers Nova Scotia says employers should step in, and pay more than what is required by law. People on welfare in Québec say they feel imprisoned by a rule that forbids them to leave the province more than a week at a time. In British Columbia, the Oceanside Task Force is hoping to build 24 tiny homes for the homeless. And the play Give’m Hell looks back at history, chronicling the fight waged by some Peterborough students a decade ago to keep their school from closing.

Thanks to our journalists this week. Mick Sweetman in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Jules Bugiel in Montréal, Québec, Edward Sweeny in Peterborough, Ontario, and Haeley DiRisio in Halifax, Nova Scotia. To our national editors Victoria Fenner in Toronto and Maureen McEwan in Ottawa. Host and producer Boris Chassagne, in Montréal. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada in Ottawa. 

On today’s Viewpoints:
We’ll have five stories for you this week and most of them from out west.
We won’t be talking about forest fires, but about Drug Overdose Awareness Day, and what community members are doing to try to combat the overdose epidemic in BC. We’ll talk with an ex-drug dealer about how he overcame his own addiction and with a woman who thought she was saving her brother’s life.

And then to Alberta, where four universities will share in a new fund for technology innovation. And also related to education, the difficult issue of housing, making life difficult for students from one end of the country to another. The BC Selkirk College is asking the community to open up its doors to students. And then, continuing with our back to school theme, we go to Nova Scotia where students are also trying to contend with higher tuition fees.

Thanks to our team of journalists hired through the Local Journalism Initiative of Canada, Hayley DiRisio, Ryan Hunt, Mick Sweetman, Scott Onyschak and Sabrina Spencer. To our national editors Maureen McEwan and Victoria Fenner. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today’s show:
We’ll settle down and have a chat with a man with a purpose. Marcus Pukonen traveled for eight years across the globe without using a single motor. No planes, no motor boats, or motorcycles. You might have heard of him already on Viewpoints, as we did play an excerpt from an interview he granted to Owen Thompson. But today, we have the whole story.

National Editors Maureen McEwan and Victoria Fenner. Journalist, Owen Thompson. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today’s Viewpoints:
Mobile home sales are down across British Columbia. Some mobile park owners are refusing to sign a controversial bank form, blocking transactions, mobile home owners caught in bureaucracy. A generous land donation helps to expand the Amlamgog First Nation conservation project near Sackville, New Brunswick. And an arbutus wood sculptor from BC shows his best work for the first time in 23 years!

Thanks to our journalist: Erica Butler, Loni Taylor, and Meagan Deuling. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. National editors Victoria Fenner and Maureen McEwan. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

On today’s show:
We’ll talk literature with three Canadian writers. We’ll first stop in Russell, Ontario to meet up with writer Phil Gurski. He’s a local writer whose self-published book tells the story of over 150 men who left Russell to fight in the First World War. And then to Toronto’s City’s Book Awards that just unveiled this year’s long list of 13 writers. We’ll be hearing from two of them, writer and physician Vincent Lam who published On the Ravine, and Sheila Murray who released her first novel, Finding Edward.

Thanks to our journalists, Owen Thompson and Candice Vetter. And to our National Editors Maureen McEwan and Victoria Fenner who are working very hard with their team of some 30 journalists editing stories from coast to coast. Meet up with them daily at canada-info.ca. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

On today’s show:
The City of Edmonton will be planting 2 million trees over the next eight years, investing more than $100M. Bill C-18 is blurring the media landscape across the country. Facebook started blocking content on its platforms. Local community radios and newspapers could be hit harder than others.  Crime on Vancouver Island is on the rise. Stats Can just published the latest numbers.  And recent research published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives shows that Nova Scotians face more isolation when it comes to accessing mental health care. That’s partly because the online model is a barrier for some people. 

Thanks to our journalist Ryan Hunt, Haley Dirisio, Scott Onyschak and Mick Sweetman. National editors, Victoria Fenner and Maureen McEwan. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today’s Viewpoints:
Canadians celebrated Emancipation Day on August 1st all across the country. Many took part in the 10th Freedom Train Ride event at Union Station in Toronto, for example. And in Nova Scotia, the Dalhousie Art Gallery celebrated Emancipation Day with “The Secret Codes” quilt exhibit. We’ll dive into Bill C-18 which is creating quite a stir. Some big tech companies—Facebook and Google in particular, already say they will not comply. Ottawa is trying to reach an agreement with them. Alex Freedman, Executive Director of the Community Radio Fund of Canada, helps us better understand what’s at stake. And to close the show we’ll meet with a blind man who swam 30 km across the Georgia Strait in Nanaimo, BC.

Thanks to our journalists, Andrew Dow, Pamela Haasen, and Mick Sweetman. National coordinators Victoria Fenner and Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community radio Fund of Canada. 

This episode is a rerun of a show previously aired on March 17, 2023.Today, three stories out of British Columbia: Nelson Public Library speaks out about the hate campaign and the threats that forced it to cancel a drag event. A couple living in their RV is having a difficult time finding a place to park during the winter months in Revelstoke. Abbotsford author Jay Lang has been keeping busy. She just released her 11th novel in three years! Our Periscope will take us to Toronto and Six Nations. And to Liverpool: the east coast community is  working on its harbour and water infrastructure.

Thanks to our journalists this week, Meagan Deuling, John Rune, Stephen Munga, Ed Halverson, Andrew Dow, Daniel Centeno, and Daniela Leon. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. National Editor Maureen McEwan. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.