Mish Waraksa, a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner with over four years of experience working in safer opioid supply programs in Toronto, discussed how contaminants in the illicit opioid supply chain complicate the job of healthcare workers and the life-threatening side effects that come with Benzodiazepines and other impurities getting mixed into the street supply.
Katie Langille is a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner in the SOS Program at the Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre. SOS is a Safer Opioid Supply program established in 2020. Clients receive prescriptions for pharmaceutical opioids to decrease their reliance on the toxic, unpredictable street supply.
This podcast features Dick Lucas, singer of SUBHUMANS, Culture Shock, and Citizen Fish. For over 45 years, Lucas has blended punk, ska, and reggae sounds with thought-provoking lyrics on life and politics. He’s still loving that energetic bump performing brings, with SUBHUMANS set to play at Nofx’s final Toronto concert.
On this episode, award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster and washing machine engineer Joe Solo speaks about spreading his message of social justice, anti-fascism, and socialism in his music and books from Scarborough. Not the Scarborough that will jump into the minds of people raised in southern Ontario, but the one across the Atlantic on England’s North Sea coast.
Solo began his musical journey in 1987 and has seen him leaping around with pop-punk upstarts Lithium Joe or his solo albums hammering out his unique brand of Folk, Punk and Blues. His songs bring to mind great lyrical thinkers like Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Joe Hill, and Billy Bragg.
As anti-trans rhetoric gets normalized across Canada, activists stand up to the hatred. This episode highlights the work and activism of Celeste Trianon, a trans-feminine jurist and activist. On the legal front, she helps people in Quebec with name and gender marker changes. Across Canada, she has been involved in activism, resisting hatred directed towards the 2SLGBTQIA community, specifically trans, two-spirit and non-binary people.
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 12, Punjabi singer Hira Dhariwal speaks about making changes in his early 50s to follow his passion for music and how he gives back to his community through volunteer work with the Multicultural Association of Perth Huron. His music has been received quite well by audiences worldwide with millions of listens to his songs on Youtube.
Episode ten features a discussion with Elza Kephart, director of the feature films, Graveyard Alive, Go in the Wilderness and most recently, Slaxx, a socially conscious satirical horror-comedy that sharply informs on the evils of fair trade, corporate globalization and, fast fashion.
Although we do discuss the films and series, Kephart is developing. Much of this conversation focuses on her climate activism with Extinction Rebellion, the Ministry of the New Normal, and as a member of SCALE (Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency), and the Directors’ Guild of Canada’s National Sustainability and Climate Action Committee.
This episode features a conversation with Sam Tecle about what is meant by the call to defund the police. Tecle works with Success Beyond Limits, a collaborative, youth-led, community-based movement providing youth with holistic support to complete their education and experience success in their lives and Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty, a resident-led grassroots coalition of community residents, activists, workers, organizations working to eliminate poverty. He is also an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research and scholarly work span the areas of Black and Diaspora Studies, Urban Studies, and Sociology of Education.
After six months of operation and over 1 kg of substances provided through the compassion club, there have been no deaths resulting from the club. Further, members of the club are reporting less involvement in crime, less overdose risk, higher financial stability and increased control over their lives.
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