The world’s been a busy place lately, but this week’s Midweek tried its best to keep up — and even look a bit ahead.
Host Zoe Miller, audio producer Devon Tredinnick and reporter Cate Newman are all smiles. The 93.1 in the top right is CKCU-FM’s place “on the FM dial,” written in lights down the side of Dunton Tower at Carleton University — our home campus.
Midweek’s Lauren Roulston opened our show with a report on how a local grassroots group called Horizon Ottawa is trying to help ordinary locals decode the latest municipal budget — and why it’s important for them to know what’s in it.
Reporter Bobby Eros then spoke with an anthropology student at Carleton University whose request for student views on transit brought such a tsunami of replies that she had to end it early so she’d be able to process all the (not entirely positive) comments.
Next, we went to the University of Ottawa, where Midweek’s Sember Wood reported live from a donation drive organized by the campus’s Turkish Students Association to aid victims of the devastating earthquake that struck parts of Turkey and Syria just two days earlier.
Gail Pope followed up by interviewing Skylar Badenoch, a first responder to Haiti’s 2010 earthquake who spoke about the terrible impact such massive disasters have on those living where they happen … and on those who come to help in their wake.
Show producer Annie Doane and colleague Kermit monitor the show as it goes live to air in our studio.
A calm pause is welcome after such a story, so Devon Tredinnick took us to the new Ottawa Trans Library, where founder Tara Sypniewski explained why this quiet inclusive space was needed and what the broader community would benefit from understanding about trans people.
The Rideau Canal is facing its latest opening ever this year — if it opens at all — and Gail Pope asked a research scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada what future seasons may hold for this iconic attraction … and the rest of us.
Midweek’s Cate Newman took us back to Ottawa’s latest draft municipal budget, asking an ability advocate what cuts to the city’s transit system could mean to those who depend on accessible buses and trains to move beyond their homes.
A sign left behind by counter-protesters at the National Arts Centre. (Photo here and top by Lauren Roulston)
Anne-Marie Iemmolo, one of this week’s hosts, then brought us an in-depth look at how some large retailers are trading the personal information of customers with tech giants, and how we can be on guard to protect our privacy as best we can.
But after all this dread-inducing seriousness, it was time for some laughs: Midweek’s Cate Newman took us out to Meow! That’s Hot, a combination kitchen, bar and hot-sauce factory on Bank Street that (of course) turns into a comedy club on Thursday nights, and introduced us to two local women breaking into the comedy scene.
Reporter Lauren Roulston spent much of the morning before our show down at the doorstep of the National Arts Centre where protesters condemning the NAC’s Drag Story Time were met with a larger, louder crowd condemning their condemnation and calling for an end to bigotry.
As if on cue, Sember Wood reported next on a volunteer-run group promoting contra dancing, where everyone dances with everyone in joyful movement (the metaphor was unplanned — honest).
Mack Linke closed out this week’s show by speaking with Congolese artist Heritier Bilaka about the role that personal stories and journeys play in his painting, and how he uses his art in part to challenge racism.