Viewpoints

On today’s show:
The semipalmated sandpiper migrates annually from the Arctic to Brazil. Moncton filmmaker Anas Nannis captures its journey on film. Kavana Wa Kilele, a Mount Alison University student from Kenya, passed away two years ago. Friends and students have come together to establish Mount Allison’s first endowment supporting Black students. Students all over the country have been hit hard by inflation and many Ontario postgraduate students are feeling the crunch. In Kingston, Ontario, a Graduate Student Union is rallying to abolish tuition all together. The Journey Church in Calgary has been offering a daytime shelter for homeless and vulernable people over the past months. More than 200 people knocked on its doors. And in Québec, the Cowanswville re-use Ecocenter collected 26,000 kilos of reusable furniture and construction materials in just four months.

Thanks to our journalists this week, Alexandra Fernandes, Ryan Hunt, Taylor McClure, David Gordon Koch and Erica Butler. National Editor Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

On today's show:
How dangerous can a book be? We will spend most of this program trying to answer that question, in view of the new censorship laws in the United States and growing pressures here in Canada to ban certain books from libraries and classrooms. Our journalist Pamela Haasen speaks with a librarian in Smithers B. C. promoting the Freedom to Read Week. And we’ll top things off with a story by Ryan Hunt about Indigenous micro-courses being offered in Alberta to further truth and reconciliation.

Thanks to our journalists this week, Pamela Haasen and Ryan Hunt. National Editor Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today’s show:
Ontario’s Six Nations’ community will host Canada’s largest Electricity Battery Storage Project. The French Immersion program phase out, still very unpopular in New Brunswick. Citizens are still waiting to know if New Brunswick’s Premier Blaine Higgs will stay the course or back down. To Nova Scotia where the minimum wage will increase to $15 an hour in October. But more needs to be done, says the Halifax Workers Action Centre. The University of the Fraser Valley’s Peace and Reconciliation Centre will soon offer a non-credit program focused on reconciliation building for non-Indigenous Canadians. And the City of Prince Rupert is currently in the process of rebranding and upgrading signs around town, one that will feature Sm’algyax language.

Thanks to our journalists this week, Erica Butler, Stephen Munga, Andrew Dow, Sara Gouda and Morgyn Budden. National Editor Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. 

On today's Viewpoints:
In Ontario, the Jukasa Six Nations recording studio adds four more Juno nominations to its list, in 2023. To Nova Scotia, where the RCMP continues to investigate mischief at the Liverpool tourist bureau. It was vandalized in January with various forms of anti-LGBTQ+ graffiti. Protesters at a Drag Queen Storytime event in Coquitlam, BC, wave homophobic signs and yell insults and slurs at attendees. And the African Nova Scotian Justice Institute receives a provincial grant that will keep them in operation until March 2026.

Thanks to our journalists this week: Ed Halverson, David Moses, Sarah Gouda and Stephen Munga. National Editor Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. At Viewpoints we produce local news, nationwide. And you can find tons of stories from all across the country www.Canada-info.ca. Follow us on Twitter @canadalji 

On today’s show:
A class-action lawsuit has been greenlighted by B.C.’s Supreme Court. Claimants seeking damages after 35,000 litres of fuel, spilled in Lemon Creek in the Slocan Valley. Writer, activist and journalist Desmond Cole speaks at Mount Allison University about how schools handle Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility. Back to British Columbia, where 75,000 hectares of rain forests have been turned into a conservancy. 1000-year-old cedars, hemlocks and pristine waters are now protected from logging. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1988 that Canada’s Criminal Code provisions related to abortion were illegal. Thirty-five years later, Canada is still one of the few countries in the world, where abortion is 100% legal.

Thanks to our journalists this week, Erica Butler, John Rune and Meagan Deuling. National Editor Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.  At Viewpoints we produce local news, nationwide. And you can find tons of stories produced daily by our journalist posted all across the country at Canada-info.ca. Follow us on Twitter @canadalji. 

An angry crowd confronts New Brunswick education minister over French immersion reforms. For teachers and parents, the pill seems hard to swallow, and public consultations leave make way for harsh comments. If you’re looking for a new career as a bus driver, you could head  to Calgary. The city will be looking for 800 new drivers by year’s end. Sery, a non-profit organization established in 1992 and dedicated to helping immigrants celebrates 30 years helping them integrate in the Yamaska region, close to Montreal. And Becca’s coffee is now the daily brew at the Island Farm to Table Café in Quathiaski Cove. Becca’s Beans said the new partnership came about by happy accident.

Our journalists David Gordon Kosh, Taylor McClure, Anastasia Avaakumova, and Ryan Hunt. National Coordinator Maureen McEwan.  Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

The Alberta government sends out $600 inflation relief packages to its citizens. In Ontario, the Prince Edward County Municipal Council will keep the Ukrainian flag raised until the end of its term … or until the end of the conflict. In Québec, the town of Brome Lake brushes off Bill 96 and votes to keep its bilingual status.  In BC, a climate activist for the Canadian branch of Stop Ecocide wants the International Criminal Court to pursue crimes against the environment. A fibre-optic project has hit rocky terrain on Cortes Island in British Columbia and the planned high-speed internet network will be delayed for a few months. And former Six Nations Elected Chief Bill Montour recently passed away at the age of 81. The community mourns his loss.

Thanks to our journalists Alexander Wright, David Moses, Ryan Hunt, Taylor McClure, John Rune and Greg Osoba. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. National Coordinator Maureen McEwan. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Want to hear more? Canada-info.ca has hundreds of stories waiting for your eyes and ears.

On today's show:
Seniors in Revelstoke and Quadra Island, BC get a helping hand from grassroots initiatives. The Dartmouth Travelodge Hotel was transformed providing 65 new permanent housing options for the homeless. The 2SLGBTQ+ community has been targeted by vandals in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. Hateful graffiti was sprayed on a visitor information centre and the community is calling for action. And the Sackville Memorial Hospital is getting closer to bringing back its 24-7 emergency department. But it still needs, more new staff, before it gets the green light.
Viewpoints is produced by the Local Journalism Initiative and presented by the Community Radio Fund of Canada, in collaboration with campus and community radios across the country.
Thanks to our journalists Greg Osoba, Erica Butler, Sara Gouda, Ryan Hunt, Ed Halverson, Meagan Deuling. To Maureen McEwan our National Coordinator. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Listen to all our programs at canada-info.ca. Tune-in to all the stories produced our 30 something journalists posted across the country. Stories that pop-up every day not only in English but also in French and even a few in Spanish. They allow us to discover Canada and our local communities from different Viewpoints. 

(This show is a rebroadcast)

Time to listen and to remember those who fought for us, as we pause for Remembrance Day. We will travel to British Columbia and meet Canadian war veteran Lawrence Allen Kerr. He’s 97 and was a gunner in the Canadian Navy.  And then to Kingston, Ontario where community radio station CFRC is running its Shortwave Theatre Festival that presents radio plays. We’ll dive into Haley Sarfeld’s play Half Past Lunchtime, inspired by a concussion she suffered.

Our journalists this week: Karim Mosna in Kingston, Ontario and Pamela Haasen in Smithers, British Columbia. National Coordinator, Maureen McEwan. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada in Ottawa. 

(This show is a rebroadcast)

We stay in one place today as we dive into an audio documentary produced by our journalist Pamela Haassen posted in Smithers, British Columbia.

Pamela Haasen wanted to hear from people involved in the recent renaming of the Haida Gwaii village of Queen Charlotte back to the traditional name of Daajing Giids. In 2019, the activists involved in the Skidegate Haida Immersion Program (S.H.I.P.) submitted a request to the Queen Charlotte Village Council to change the name of the village, back to the ancestral Daajing Giids.

The Skidegate Haida Immersion Program, founded in 1998, has since been documenting the Skidegate Haida language of Xaada Kil for the purpose of saving a language that is quickly disappearing, and to keep in touch with their ancestors.

The protection and preservation of Xaada language is a lengthy process, and it is due to the efforts of 10 very committed and dedicated Haida elders who are fluent speakers of the Skidegate Haida Language. The average age of these Elders is 80 and they represent approximately 50 per cent of today’s fluent Skidegate Haida Kil speakers. Their effort to revitalize Xaada Kil are genuine. Respect for their ancestors' language and its many dialects have been of the utmost importance.

So these Elders took charge of the name change process and proposed it to the village council. The community has been working on it for years. Citizens, council members, government representatives were consulted and still are. Whether it's approved or not, the proposed name change and process could serve as an example for many communities across British Columbia and Canada widely that wish to correct and recognize the wrongs of the country’s colonial history and wish to reconnect with the Indigenous culture and ancestors.

For the Haida, the proposed name change represents more than a name, but a way to be proud of their history, culture, and language, to communicate and pay respect to their ancestors.

In this documentary, Pamela Haasen spoke with many Elders, as well as with Queen’s Charlotte Mayor and the BC Minister of Municipal Affairs and Immigration. She first talks with Diane Brown about the importance of changing Queens Charlotte’s name back to Daajing Giids. Diane is one of the 19 people who still speak Xaada Kil.

Viewpoints is produced by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.