Journalistic objectivity doesn’t mean absolute neutrality — especially on fundamental issues such as … rooting for Canada at the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Hosts Sam Konnert and Constantina Varlokostas time scripts and count down the seconds to Canada’s opening match against Belgium in Qatar.
This show fell on the day of Canada’s first match in Qatar, and while we covered our usual wide spectrum of stories, a big slice of Midweek’s attention went on this day into crossing fingers, wishing and hoping, and watching the clock tick towards kickoff time.
Midweek’s Ali Khaleghi kicked off our own show with an update on the World Cup so far, going through both the games and the controversies.
Then host Constantina Varlokostas interviewed Diane Hill, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto’s department of social justice education and member of the Oneida Nation, about the Collaborative Indigenous Research Digital Garden, a new platform to share globally studies done with Indigenous communities.
Will Smith reported on how nature is healing in the wake of the COVID pandemic, as evidenced by the return of Ottawa’s Santa Claus parade, aaaaand then it was back to the World Cup, with Midweek’s Sophie Price introducing us to a Welshman who’s been in Canada since 1994 but can’t help hoping for Wales in Qatar (and against England).
Our other host, Sam Konnert, then took us to a local pub to meet another crew of Welsh fans as they sang Yma O Hyd, the Welsh team’s anthem, and bragged to him about The Red Wall.
It’s just seconds to showtime (and an hour and fifty-four minutes to game time in Qatar) as producer Mayson Maharaj eyes the lineup in her patriotic jersey.
Ali rejoined us, this time to introduce us to the family running SulaWok, a restaurant in Old Ottawa East that didn’t just survive the pandemic but actually thrived as takeout orders soared.
But life’s ups are only part of the picture: With winter now truly underway, Tavneet Dhillon brought us a report on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), that depressed state that experts say can afflict around 15 per cent of people as days are shorter and darker.
Rebecca Moen took us to Two-Sixty Fingers, a yearly invitational ceramics exhibition and sale at the Glebe Community Centre, and Jingyao Yu spoke with an expert on copyright law about the implications of the U.S. crackdown on the website Z-library for distributing e-books for free.
Then we were off with Midweek’s Mariana Tawil to a night at the Ottawa Children’s Storytelling Festival, followed by a look by Wafa El-Rayes at preparations for the National Arts Centre’s production of The Breathing Hole, a play in both English and Inuktut.
Reporter Ben Skene describe to us how things got heated the night before at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s meeting as trustees discussed the possible return of masking in schools and police helped the departure of disruptive audience members. Tavneet then came back with a look at how Ottawa is faring on affordable housing, given it was the day after National Housing Day.
Then it was off to the Red Bird Live music venue with Morgana Adby for a show with the theme of women in country music, aaaaand then back to the World Cup: Joy Spearchief-Morris spoke about World Cup fever with locals who all have a stake in the beautiful game, whether as coaches or players or pub managers and servers.
Ben came back with a story that was the exact opposite of the bitterness he covered at the school trustees’ meeting — this time he covered the Ottawa Chocolate Festival to gain insights into efforts to make chocolate production more sustainable. Then Joy was back with a story about the growth of the RA Chess Club, which has surged since the start of the pandemic (and the Queen’s Gambit TV series).
Aaaaand then it was a wrap at 1:30 p.m. sharp, and we were out the door soon after to catch the big game … that started so well, and then … well … let’s just leave it at that. Sometimes anticipation is the best part!