Speaking for Change

Episode 12: On the Front Lines of the Pandemic - Racialized Workers and COVID

The pandemic has highlighted and further entrenched deep rooted structural inequalities embedded in the social, political and economic fabric of capitalist society. Inequalities framed through systems of white supremacy and racial domination have manifested themselves in a number of ways including differential levels of exposure to the virus, the execution of the vaccine roll outs, and unevenly shared financial hardships and other burdens. With a particular spotlight on the experiences of Personal Support Workers working in the heart of the COVID storm in Long Term Care facilities, this episode focuses on the ways in which systemic racism manifests itself in the Canadian context - unearthing how the ongoing racialization of the Canadian labour market has impacted workers. Speakers: Debra Slater An anonymous Personal Support Worker Moderated by Salmaan Khan Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

Episode 11: Angela Robertson on Building Alliances for Social Justice

Over the years, Social Justice Week not only showcased brilliant artists, scholars and activists, it also provided students with skills building workshops and offered them concrete advice on how to go about making progressive change in their immediate communities and the wider world. These words of wisdom came from people with a track record of positive impact as community leaders. People like Angela Robertson. Angela Robertson is a lesbian feminist author and activist working on issues affecting low income, Black, racialized, women’s and LGBTQ communities. She is widely respected for implementing life-transforming programs for women in Toronto, and has served as a board member for many influential community organizations. She is currently Executive Director of Queen West - Central Toronto Community Health Centre. Among other publications, she co-edited ‘Scratching the Surface: Canadian Anti-Racist Feminist Thought’. She has been a board member of Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention; Houselink Community Homes; and the Stephen Lewis Foundation. In this episode from SJW 2014, Angela Robertson unpacks the concept of intersectionality. She shares strategies for creating a more just world and reflects onthe importance of building alliances. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

Episode 10: Toward 21st Century Black Liberation ft. Robyn Maynard

This episode features Robyn Maynard’s keynote talk, Toward 21st Century Black Liberation, from Social Justice Week 2018. Robyn Maynard is the author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, a critically-acclaimed national bestseller. Maynard has a long history of involvement in grassroots movements against racial profiling, police violence, detention and deportation. Building on Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard provides an overview of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization, and punishment of Black lives in Canada. Drawing on examples from Canada’s immigration, child welfare, and criminal justice systems, the event explored the still-living legacy of slavery across multiple Canadian institutions. It was part of the Mandela ECI Lecture series, a unique series of keynote talks by renowned Black public intellectuals and artists. The series was presented by Social Justice Week in collaboration with TMU’s Office for Equity and Community Inclusion. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

Episode 9: Cathy Crowe on Tackling Homelessness in Canada

This episode features an interview with author and Street Nurse, Cathy Crowe. This event, called Strategies for Change: Tackling Homelessness in Canada, focuses on activists’ calls for real change to end homelessness across the country. Cathy Crowe is a long-time Street Nurse and is the author of Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out; and A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse. She was a Distinguished Visiting Practitioner based in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. In this episode, from Social Justice Week 2021, she discusses her work as a street nurse and the recent encampment evictions by police of unhoused people who were living in Trinity-Bellwoods park in downtown Toronto. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

Episode 8: NourbeSe Philip on Belonging, Race and Art

This episode presents a keynote talk by M. NourbeSe Philip from Social Justice Week 2017, called Black Be/longing: At the crossroads of art, culture, and human rights. It was part of the Mandela ECI Lecture series: A unique series of keynote talks by renowned Black public intellectuals and artists. The series was presented by Social Justice Week in collaboration with TMU’s Office for Equity and Community Inclusion. This talk spotlights one of Canada’s most important contemporary writers and revolutionary thinkers, M. NourbeSe Philip, whose aim has always been to make us see what has gone unseen. As an award-winning poet, essayist, novelist and playwright, she writes about memory upon the margin of history, in the shadow of empire, and at the frontier of silence. Her writing engages in genre-breaking exploration of memory, history and the transatlantic slave trade. In this talk, Philip draws from her latest book Blank to explore questions of belonging, race, politics, art, and the so-called multicultural nation. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo