Hosts John Gallardo and Rhea Lisondra practise scripts, while Audio Producer Meaghan Haldenby (top) perfects our sound.
Aaaaaaaaand…we’re back!
Midweek’s Winter 2020 season is underway with a new crew of producer/reporters and scores of fascinating stories ahead of us, if our first show is any indication.
It ranged from the unbearably sad through the deeply worrisome and on to the encouraging, the entertaining and, well, the downright cute and cuddly. In other words, like all Midweeks, this show was pretty much Life.
We opened marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 with a look at what can — and must — still be learned from that horror three-quarters of a century ago — and also heard what’s being learned these days about the intersection of violent unrest and religious extremism and persecution.
Chase Producer Gavin Lopez-Smith hears from a reporter in the field.
Carleton University, like campuses and communities across Canada, is still reeling from the deaths of members of its family in the Ukrainian airliner crash in Iran. Reporters Dexter McMillan, David Lochead and John Gallardo produced a moving documentary on how and why we mourn such sudden losses.
The plight of those stuck out in the cold in the depths of an Ottawa winter has moved local volunteers to assemble kits of necessities for the homeless. Reporters Martin Halek and Julia Paulson introduce us to the helping hands at the Ibn-Rushd Islamic Cultural Centre, whose work is an act of both faith and neighbourliness.
Likewise, Midweek’s Rhea Lisondra brought us the story of how the Capital Rainbow Refuge group is holding a series of workshops as part of its effort to gather support for its work bringing LGBTQ+ refugees to Ottawa from places where their lives are endangered by war — and by just being who they are.
Midweek’s Maan Alhmidi looked at the ideas Carleton engineering students are bringing to the climate change debate, and David Louchead reported on how the Ottawa Transit Challenge is encouraging a focus on improving mass transit.
Gavin and Show Producer Clare Rayment discuss lineup.
The rising spectre worrying the world these days is the novel coronavirus spreading in and beyond China. Midweek’s Steven Marchand and Maan Almhidi spoke with experts who helped us put the threat in perspective — and warned of a different danger: scapegoating certain groups for blame, as they note has happened often in history when sudden epidemics arise.
Let’s talk about how much it costs those in Canadian prisons to call friends and loved ones, seeking connection and support. Some are accusing the communications giant Bell of profiteering on prisoners at the same time it’s championing mental health awareness.
Reporters Nils Goetze and Martin Halek dug into the background behind the complaints about Bell’s deal with the prison system, and also reported live from a protest at Bell Place in Ottawa.
Reporter Steven Marchand updates Gavin.
Others have been protesting, too — including residents of apartment buildings on Carling Avenue: They say their landlords aren’t taking proper care of their units, but many can’t find alternatives they can afford. Their choice is stay and suffer or face homelessness, and they told Midweek’s Erna Bitote and Nils Goetze that this just isn’t fair.
Hundreds of others who say there’s an affordable housing emergency in Ottawa were at City Hall as our show aired to press for city council to take action. Steven Marchand braved the icy winds to find out what they want.
Midweek’s John Gallardo was also on the cold streets to find out about housing and the lack thereof from participants in a 24-hour camp-out at Gloucester and Bank in downtown.
Hosts John and Rhea take the show to air.
Erna Bitote spoke with a business expert on what automation-linked layoffs by Loblaws may tell us about the future of work, and Midweek’s Luke James looked at what automated reffing may look like in hockey.
But one thing no one will ever be able to automate is the reassuring schnorfle one can get only from the snout of a dog — and Midweek’s Lauren Rollit took us off to Algonquin College, where the campus’s therapy dog program is celebrating its first anniversary by adding 11 more dogs to the pack of helpers.
Lauren reported this is a paw-sitive development. (Please don’t laugh. It will only encourage her.)
So there you go: Midweek’s back with bells on — and eight more shows to go!