Viewpoints

Hoping to help Canadians shop locally, a Montreal student launches the Buy Beaver app. Another one in Ontario does kind of the same! And launches a browser extension that helps online shoppers… buy Canadian… eh ? Municipalities are also pitching in : we go to Kingston Ontario to find out what they’re doing to support Canada and “buying local”. Then, to the Nova Scotia library and its Banned Books Sanctuary. And Rapid housing projects are on the move in Toronto. 

Thanks to our many journalists: Jules Bugiel, Christena Lawrie, Cora Kuehl, Rick Conrad and Mia Johnson. Thanks to our National Editors, Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. Host and producer, Boris Chassagne. 

In British Columbia, the Comox Valley’s 10th annual Coldest Night of the Year fundraiser hopes to collect $225,000. Also in BC, an exhibition highlights the work of the Haida master carver, Christian White, which will be on display until 2026! And to the province of Quebec, which is facing one of its worst flu seasons in years. Some 4,500 cases were revealed in lab tests last week alone—a peak not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thanks to our journalists, Jules Bugiel, Jesse Wentzloff, and Heather Watson. Our National Editors are Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. 

We’ll make our first stop in Montreal, Québec, as a record rent increase could soon become a reality. This as Quebec’s Tenancy Board permits record rent hikes. Tenants prepare for the worst. Then to Haliburton County, Ontario, where Intimate Partner Violence is considered to be an Epidemic. Out east in Nova Scotia: He left Burma in 1967 and retired four times. Dr. Mohan Virick, now 89 years old, lives in Cape Breton. He’ll soon receive the King Charles the third III Coronation Medal. In British Columbia: The Prince George Christmas Bird Count had its eyes on 19,641 avians. And a new 200-foot-long Indigenous mural is revealed at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg in hope of inspiring dialogue and reflection. 

Thanks to our journalists, Ryan Funk, Elizabeth Oakley, Bill McCuish, Adam Inniss and Ian Gregg. To our National Editors, Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. Host and producer, Boris Chassagne.

The province of Nova Scotia invests over $1M in a Cape Breton biotech plant… Nova Scotia. That’s where the Kat’s Lobster Shack snatched the title of best lobster roll for the third time. A new store has set up shop in Winnipeg to help support war-displaced Ukrainian artisans. The Cobourg Council rescinded its decision to declare December as Christian Heritage Month. In Ontario, the Elora House organizes its Charity Walk to raise funds, and to support, local victims of human trafficking. The Camino Wellbeing and Mental Health connects with people who need to talk about their mental health issues. And you can have a howling good time and a three-course dinner with wolves at the Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve. One guy sets up to propose. 

Thanks to our many journalists: Rick Conrad, Dan Jones, Elizabeth Oakley, Ryan Gillespie Wilson, Cora Kuehl, Ryan Funk and Jakob Postlewaite. Thanks to our National Editors are Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. 

Cannabis-impaired driving is on the rise in Winnipeg. This is also where Muslim and Indigenous communities joined forces to inspire systemic change. Canadian composer Erik Lankin launches his first classical music project, The Icarus Album. Seniors are meeting up in Waterloo to talk about travel at the Friday Flicks Travel Show! The cities of Saint John and Moncton bid to co-host the 2029 Canada Games. Queens County athlete Abigail Smith will join Team Canada’s European judo tour. And our solar system will again put up a great show during The Great Alignment. 

Thanks to our many journalists: Ryan Funk, Dan Kellar, Leah Gerber, Ian Gregg, Iona Coe, and Rick Conrad. And our National Editors are Conrad Fox and Victoria Fenner. Host and producer, Boris Chassagne. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. 

Black History Month is coming up this February. Under the theme “all that we carry.” Paintings of New Brunswick-born Edward Mitchell Bannister come to Sackville, courtesy of the Smithsonian Museum. The exhibit is called Hidden Blackness. The Town of Cobourg, in Ontario, is rethinking its position on issuing religious declarations, this after being asked to designate a day in March as Atheist Awareness Day. The Wilfred Laurier University kicks off a new indigenous online course. A Concordia University student attends the COP-29 meeting in Azerbaijan and shares his experience with us. And a staffed salmon hatchery will be built on the north bank of the Nechako River, in British Columbia.

Thanks to our journalists, Ian Gregg, Andrew Dow, Dan Jones, Erica Butler, Adam Inniss and Jules Bugiel. Our National Editors are Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. Host & producer Boris Chassagne. 

Some Montrealers are taking matters into their own hands to find innovative, cost-effective solutions to affordable housing. Mount Allison University is investing close to 100 million dollars in its library and a new multi-sport complex. A school in Ontario has revamped its app, partly to turn away from X! Women’s hockey hits Vancouver, and veteran goalie Meghann Moore, reflects on the impact of the professional women’s league. And the Forks Foundation launches the Trail Together campaign. Winnipeggers can now adopt a section of the trail that runs along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. 

Thanks to our journalists : Heather Watson, Erica Butler, Jules Bugiel, Ryan Funk, and Ryan Gillespie-Wilson. Our National Editors are, Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. Host and producer Boris Chassagne. 

We start the new year with feel-good stories, as we should. And with Canadians that make a difference, locally and at the national level. Was volunteering locally on your New Year’s resolution list? We’ll meet up with some people for whom it was. To Montréal, Québec, where a senior’s centre provides support for youth caregivers. There are 1.25 million of them across Canada! The Dimensions Retreat Center helps Canadian veterans, cope with PTSD. History is made in B.C. The K’ómoks First Nation appoints its first Justice of the Peace. Dr. Marian Boller leads this journey of self-governance. And we will take to the ice and re-live special moments between fans and curlers in the mixed doubles curling trials, in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.

Thanks to our journalists Heather Watson, Elizabeth Oakley, Rick Conrad, Adam Inniss, and Cora Kuehl. To both our National Editors, Victoria Fenner and Conrad Fox, based in Ontario. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada and the Local Journalism Initiative. I’m Boris Chassagne, your host and producer.

This episode is a rerun 

Mike McCulloch will again fill in for me this week as he did last week, with a documentary produced in Abbotsford, British Columbia. We’ll be meeting musician Shamir Virgo, a singer-songwriter from Surrey, B.C. who’s enjoying some success. His song, Roses, has more than 1.7 million listens on Spotify and Soundcloud. Mike McCulloch, who will spend this half hour with Virgo, as well as with some of his friends and mentors. 

Thanks so much to Mike McCulloch and his many guests for filling-in for us this week. A great documentary. Thanks to all the journalists who took over the show for me over the past weeks with original and beautiful documentaries. To our National editors who helped coordinate production, Victoria Fenner and Maureen McEwan. Merci ! Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada with the support of the Local Journalism Initiative. 

This episode is a rerun. 

On today’s show, I will be out and journalist Mike McCulloch will be in, with a documentary produced in Abbotsford, British Columbia. It has been more than eight years since public health officials in British Columbia sounded the alarm… that users of illicit drugs were dying at greater rates than historically observed. Today, more than 15,000 people have died in the province since B.C. declared the toxic
drug overdose death crisis, a public health emergency, in April 2016. 

Thanks so much to Mike McCulloch and his many guests for filling in for us this week. Mike works out of Abbotsford, BC. Mike will also be with us again next week with another story about musician Shamir Virgo. Do not miss his beautiful documentary. Viewpoints is brought to you by the Community Radio Fund of Canada with the support of the Local Journalism Initiative.