Coldest Night of the Year in North Perth celebrates success

United Way Perth-Huron and their North Perth Community Committee proudly announce results from the Coldest Night of the Year event in Listowel.

“We’re excited to share that we’ve raised $54,194 so far in support of local people experiencing hurt, hunger and homelessness,” said Lee Anne Andriessen, Chair of United Way’s North Perth Community Committee.

Woodstein Media Podcast Episode 28: Tarantula Tapes founders Casey and Core talk about DIY labels, Bitch Fest 2024 and music they love

This episode features a conversation with Casey and Core, cofounders of Barrie, Ontario’s independent music label Tarantula Tapes. They talk about releasing music they love and some of the problems they have overcome regarding quality control working at a DIY level. They recommend some of their favourite releases from the label’s first three years and future releases they are hyped to bring to music lovers.

Dirty dreams of Dead Milkmen

The anticipation of a road trip to Philadelphia inspires a dreamland visit to Dead Milkmen Acres. Captured here in its half-formed detail is an incomplete work of fiction that leads nowhere, except perhaps, to the streets of Philadelphia.

211 Day raises awareness of helpline connecting people to services across Perth-Huron

February 11th (2/11) is this coming Sunday, and that means it’s time for 211 Day, a day highlighting the information service connecting people to local community programs, social services, government supports, and more: 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year in over 150 languages.

Finally slamming the Doors on 2023 with MVLL CRIMES, Fight on Sight, Lowheaven, Monk, Single Mothers

Revisiting a hot December night in a boggy Hamilton sweatbox with MVLL CRIMES, Fight on Sight, Lowheaven, Monk, and Single Mothers that capped off the action for Wood-stein.ca in 2023. It’s time to crawl out of the mire and prepare for a productive 2024.

United Way hopes to ‘spark discussion and offer possible solutions’ with final two Quality of Life reports of 2023

“We’re excited to share more of our findings,” said Kristin Crane, director social research and planning for United Way. “People’s mental and physical health, the social environment and the state of the natural environment are important components of how people respond to the community. As with earlier reports, we hope the topics covered and recommendations made spark discussion and offer possible solutions to help us improve life across our region.”

Woodstein Media Podcast Episode 27: Pardon those MVLL CRIMES; let’s talk about Magic Mushrooms with Jillian Clair

This episode features a conversation with Jillian Clair about the movement to legalize magic mushrooms and her research into the benefits of Psilocybin, that ingredient some mushrooms have which adds that psychedelic touch to them that many of us have grown to love. The mood-stabilizing gift from nature that governments want to deny access to.

Social Research & Planning Council announces new living wage, Ontario government celebrates poverty wages

Living Wage Week in Ontario runs Nov. 6–12 and United Way Perth-Huron’s Social Research & Planning Council (SRPC) is announcing the new living wage of $22.75 an hour, up from $20.70 last year.

The Ontario government recently increased the minimum wage to $16.55 an hour on Oct. 1. The press release dated March 31, that preceded the increase claimed that “this 6.8 percent pay raise for low-income workers builds on the government’s steady and predictable increases every year to help families offset the rising cost of living.”

Pussy Riot execute a history of anti-Putin activism in Riot Days

The stage of the Axis Club in Toronto was transformed into the landscape that ended up focusing the global eye on an artistic band of Russian activists. Although Pussy Riot has yet to topple Putin’s regime, the notoriety they achieved in 2012 has made them an activist force to be reckoned with.

Riot Days is a play based on the memoir of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. Although the performance maintained the original Russian language, the story of resistance, repression and revolution has been cleverly presented in a multi-media blitz that even allows those of us who are unfortunate monolinguists to follow along and feel a part of the concert, rally, theatre and political happening. After all, as they say, “anyone can be Pussy Riot.”

Grassroots activists unite to educate and Take Action for Palestine

More than 600 people joined Take Action for Palestine Webinar hosted by Resource Movement, Independent Jewish Voices, and Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Toronto on Oct. 24. Though it may have been one tiny drop in an ocean of global solidarity with Palestinian liberation movements, it was packed with seeds of knowledge, and motivation.