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.
Category: Indigenous Peoples
‘Many of my friends have died from a little speck of white dust,’ Wendego speaks about the opioid crisis
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.
Debate digs into mental health, education and hate affecting marginalized Ontarians
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.
Queer Vote Ontario debate promotes discussion of issues facing marginalized communities
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.
If my talent can help you, don’t let your stories fade away
I ended up walking away from my job on Valentine’s Day. How romantic was that? In the days before my resignation, it was announced that I would be receiving more awards for my writing. It was just a matter of waiting until April 29th to find out if I would get first, second or third place awards. Well, today was that day, and the Ontario Community Newspaper Association announced that Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrum-roll, please?
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