Copy editors Mack Linke and Gail Pope ready our scripts…
Some sure signs that spring is just around the corner: melting snow, the sudden urge to clean, the start of Daylight Saving Time, and Carleton University basketball teams winning national championships…
Midweek’s Emily Vaz and Cate Newman went out with mics in hand to ask passersby about spring cleaning plans, and got some intriguing answers.
One woman said being able to open windows to warmer air makes her want to freshen up inside by getting rid of the clutter and dust, while another confessed that spring cleaning is for her a kind of procrastination.
Then there’s Grayden; Grayden likes his stuff the way it is. Don’t mess with Grayden’s stuff.
…while audio producer Lauren Roulston fine-tunes the interview recordings…
Daylight Saving Time began dark and early on the Sunday before our show, and reporter Anne-Marie Iemmolo spoke with a sleep expert about why he and others in his field feel it’s time to retire the tradition due to real, measurable health harms.
Co-host Annie Doane then gave us a rundown on the upcoming Youth Infringement Festival and the six one-act plays it will feature.
Devon Tredinnick interviewed a social justice activist about Ottawa Police Service officers who were seen wearing the Thin Blue Line symbol at a charity game, and about the broader question of whether huge police budgets promote confrontation, rather than calmer communities.
Carleton’s basketball program has become legendary, winning championship after championship — including both the men’s and women’s U Sports national championships just days before we went to air — but all legends started somewhere, and in this case, it was back in 2003 when the men’s Ravens won the first of what would become their 17 nationals crowns in the past 20 years.
…so everything is set for hosts Annie Doane and Zoe Miller to take to the airwaves.
Reporter Reanna Julien tracked down Osvaldo Jeanty, a guard on that 2003 team, to get his memories of those early glory days and his advice for this year’s champs. Jeanty’s message: Stay humble, he says — you didn’t win the championship; the program you’re one part of did.
(That’s Jeanty back in the day in the lower left of our top image, and with his 2003 championship teammates in the top right.)
The City of Ottawa took a major — and sombre — step on International Women’s Day, one week before our show: It declared intimate-partner violence in the city an epidemic. Midweek’s Cate Newman spoke with Megan Golfetto of Interval House Ottawa about why this formal declaration matters.
Then reporter Devon Tredinnick was back with an interview with an enthusiast who actually loves something lots of other folks love to hate: public transit. Reece Martin explained to Devon that while there may be lots to complain about, people shouldn’t overlook the good and what’s actually going right with OC Transpo.
Osvaldo Jeanty in action with the 2003 champs.
Supporters of Canadian sociology professor Hassan Diab say he’s getting railroaded by French prosecutors determined to try him on terrorism charges dating back to bombings in Paris in the 1980s, despite serious doubts about the case’s legitimacy even within the French judicial system. Anne-Marie Ieommolo found out about how a Carleton professor has built this ongoing controversy into a course she teaches her students.
And we wound up our show gazing ahead into the lineup for the International Film Festival of Ottawa, and specifically its category called The Female Gaze. Midweek’s Bobby Eros interviewed Tish Chambers, creator of IFFO’s Female Gaze screening series, about what she means by that term and what she’s hoping to help audiences experience.
Swoosh goes another show — nothing but net!
Photo to left and photos at top of Jeanty, lower left, and the 2003 team photo, upper right, by Carleton Ravens/Carleton University; men’s 2023 team photo at top, upper left, by Trevor MacMillan (STFX/U SPORTS); women’s 2023 team photo at top, lower right, by Vaughan Merchant (CBU/U SPORTS)