This episode features a conversation with Kristin Crane, director of Social Research & Planning for United Way Perth Huron, about the living wage, which leapt over $3 from $17. 55 to $20.70 when the most recent calculation was announced in November 2022. The numbers used in this discussion are from the area in which this podcast is produced: Perth and Huron County.
On episode 14, Garth Mullins, host of the award-winning Crackdown podcast, drew on his experience as a drug user and activist to discuss harm reduction and the overdose crisis, the challenge of distributing a safe unadulterated drug supply, defunding the police, the positives and negatives of British Columbia’s decriminalization pilot, starting a grassroots drug user activist group, and his new band Low Dead Space.
On episode three of the Woodstein Media Podcast, Eris Nyx, co-founder of the Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), talks about the episodic compassion club actions being done in Vancouver to make sure drug users have a safe, clean supply of drugs to prevent overdoses, changes she would like to see implemented regarding public education surrounding drug use, and the aesthetics of DULF.
In episode two of the Woodstein Media Podcast, Raymond “Wendego” King speaks of using Hip Hop as an outlet for sobriety, #fuckfentanyl, and losing friends to overdoses.
Joe Amero, a social worker in the Toronto shelter system, discusses his history of drug use and harm reduction. Joe discusses how his brother Harry’s overdose affected his family and how he dealt with his feeling through a one-person show he wrote titled Blood, the Drug User Liberation Front’s compassion club actions where they distribute a clean supply of drugs to help stop overdoses due to drugs contaminated with Fentanyl, Drugs! The Musical, the Telethon! and songs by Hobo Banditos, the Hip Hop band he and Harry were in.
This is the second feature in a three-part series diving into aspects of the opioid pandemic, the overdose crisis, whatever you wish to call it. It is a public health crisis which became exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Canada’s Public Health database, there was a 95 percent increase in apparent opioid toxicity deaths from April 2020 to March 2021, with a total of 7,224 deaths, compared to 3,711 deaths from April 2019 to March 2020. Since then, deaths have remained high.
These statistics were published in March 2022 and only went as far as September 2021, but by that point, 5,368 apparent opioid toxicity deaths had occurred. This is approximately 20 deaths per day. For a similar timeframe in the years before the pandemic, there were between 7 in 2016 and 12 in 2018 deaths per day.
This is the first feature in a three-part series diving into aspects of the opioid pandemic, the overdose crisis, whatever you wish to call it. It is a public health crisis which became exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Canada’s Public Health database, there was a 95 percent increase in apparent opioid toxicity deaths from April 2020 to March 2021, with a total of 7,224 deaths, compared to 3,711 deaths from April 2019 to March 2020. Since then, deaths have remained high.
These statistics were published in March 2022 and only went as far as September 2021, but by that point, 5,368 apparent opioid toxicity deaths had occurred. This is approximately 20 deaths per day. For a similar timeframe in the years before the pandemic, there were between 7 in 2016 and 12 in 2018 deaths per day.
On May 26, over 50 organizations collaborated to host a provincial debate on issues facing the 2SLGBTQI+ community and other marginalized groups of Ontarians. Four parties thought the event was worthy of acknowledgement and participation. The Ontario Party, the New Blue Party and the Progressive Conservative Party chose not to participate in a discussion of the needs of equity-seeking communities.
This is the second of two articles covering the debate. The election is on June 2, and Woodstein Media intends to help people make informed choices at the polls.
Vote.
On May 26, over 30 organizations collaborated as Queer Vote Ontario to host a provincial debate on issues facing the 2SLGBTQI+ community and other marginalized groups of Ontarians. The None of the Above Party, NDP, Green Party and Liberals thought the event was worthy of acknowledgement and participation.
The Ontario Party, the New Blue Party and the Progressive Conservative Party chose not to participate in a discussion of the needs of equity-seeking communities.
This is the first of two articles covering the debate. The election is on June 2. Woodstein Media intends to help people make informed choices at the polls.
Issues facing the Queer, equity-deserving and marginalized communities in the Ontario election will be the focus of a debate being hosted on May 26.
Updated the list of participants as of May 24 at 5:30 pm.
The following candidates are participating: Green Party of Ontario candidate for Nippising, Sean McClocklin, Ontario Liberal Party candidate for Willowdale, Paul Saguil, NDP candidate for Toronto Centre, Kristyn Wong-Tam, and None of the Above Party candidate for Mississauga-Streetsville Greg Vezina.
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