Breezy Breakfast Radio Hour

Episode 41: For Disability Justice

Disability activists have been working in Ontario and all across Canada for decades to improve their living conditions and social supports. The pandemic, of course, made things worse -- reliance on expensive delivery services increased, while people with disabilities were cruelly excluded from programs like the CERB. In Ontario, the provincial government even chose to deduct CERB dollars from ODSP recipients, so that they wouldn't see any gains in monthly income.

 

Disabled people in this province face abundant systemic barriers: poverty wages through Ontario Works and ODSP; a narrowed housing market due to inaccessible units; and an overall anti-disability stigmatization that creeps into all corners of public and private life. A better, more just, accessible world is possible. To make it happen would require a significant re-thinking of city planning, health care, governance, and community.

 

For this Breezy Breakfast, recorded on April 22, 2021, we hosted a panel of local disability activists: Erin Caton, Mike Greer, and Christina Faith Cameletti.

 

 

Erin Caton is a project manager, business owner and the chair and founder of the Environmental Sensitivities Coalition of Canada. She founded the ESCC to provide a collective voice in conversations about accessibility after realizing that people with Environmental Sensitivities are often left out of discussions.

 

Mike Greer is a disabled activist and Chair of the City of Guelph Accessibility Advisory Committee, as well as an ambassador with the Rick Hansen Foundation. Born with a condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta, he learned to adapt and deal with many challenges over the course of his life. Mike has a strong interest in motivational speaking and accessibility advocacy, with a goal to help organizations better understand the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. He holds a degree in Information Technology and has worked for the past nine years as an IT sales professional.

 

Christina Faith Cameletti is a lawyer in Guelph with a general practice focusing on real estate law, wills and estates. Christina has had an episodic disability since childhood, and has volunteered and advocated for Disability Rights since she was 7 years old, for organizations like the Arthritis Society, Easter Seals Canada and the AODA Alliance. During law school, she interned at ARCH Disability Law Centre, a specialty legal clinic in Toronto that advocates for accessibility, disability rights and policy reform.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 40: 2050 is Too Late

The city has two climate change targets for 2050: Net Zero Carbon (for the entire community) and 100% Renewable Energy (for the corporation of the City of Guelph). Last September it released its first Sustainability Report on how we’re fighting climate change. Unfortunately, it showed that our greenhouse gas emissions went up between 2018 and 2019. Not a good start, to say the least.

 

This approach to targets leaves little or no accountability for current decision makers. And technically, nothing needs to be done until 2049. We could also just buy carbon offsets instead of cutting greenhouse pollution. All of this leaves the door wide open to prolonged fossil fuel use.

 

Will we be able to meet our climate change targets? At this Breezy Breakfast, recorded April 15, 2021, Evan Ferrari from eMERGE Guelph joined us to discuss.

 

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 39: Highway 413 and the Greenbelt

On this Breezy Breakfast, we talked highways and greenways: the newly proposed Highway 413, and the timeless topic of the Greenbelt, which we're forced to keep bringing up due to the Province's persistence.

 

Here's a short timeline of our Provincial Government's relationship to the Greenbelt.

December 2018: the Ford government introduces Bill 66 – the proposed Restoring Ontario's Competitiveness Act. This bill included Schedule 10 which contained proposed amendments to the Planning Act. These amendments would have allowed development to occur in the Greenbelt. The Bill - without Schedule 10 - was approved on April 3, 2019.

December of 2020: the Ford government took away the power of conservation authorities to refuse developments that have received a ministerial zoning order. In addition, CAs cannot appeal these decisions via LPAT.

 

February 2021: Ontario announced plans to consider expanding the Greenbelt to include the Paris Galt Moraine and Urban River Valleys, including the ones connecting to the Paris Galt Moraine through the Speed and Eramosa Rivers.

 

The cynics among us might consider this newest proposal as a way to appease Ontarians who disapprove of the Ford government's environmental track record.

 

Indeed, the Ford government is set on building the GTA West highway, otherwise known as Highway 413. This highway would degrade parts of the Credit and Humber River watersheds that flow into Lake Ontario - the source of drinking water for millions of GTA residents. This 50-kilometre, six-billion-dollar highway would pave over two thousand acres of Ontario's most productive farmland. It is marketed as something that will address Ontarians' traffic woes; however, its estimated decreases in commuting time vary from 30 seconds to 30 minutes.

 

Last weekend, the plot thickened with reports about the various development companies that stand to benefit from the construction of Highway 413. Many of them have direct ties to various members of the Ford government.

 

Listen to this discussion to hear two sides of the development coin. Susan Swail, a registered professional planner specializing in sustainable land use planning policy, gave us the 411 on Highway 413. Mike Marcolongo, co-founder of Protect our Moraine and the Greenbelt West Coalition spoke on sustainable living in a province where it isn't always easy being green.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 38: Open Mic!

Every once in a while, we do these open mics to allow more space for all attendees to steer the discussion respectfully and collectively. Attendees set the tone, and the Breezy organizers lightly moderate to make sure everyone can engage on what matters to them.

This open mic brought up the library, Mayor Guthrie courting Amazon on Twitter to build a warehouse in Guelph, and more.

 

This session was co-moderated by James Gordon and Tanya Gevaert.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 37: Making Relationship with Water

Hi everyone, Dustin here:

 

Every March 22nd, many people around the world recognize the United Nations World Water Day as an opportunity to reflect on our relationship to water. I joined this year to reflect on the value water adds to my own personal and community life, including its important role in local and global ecology. This year I learned from Anishnaabe kwe who took part in a Water Walk through hundreds of kilometres of Saugeen Ojibway territory, making acquaintance with the waters that line the coasts and wind through the rivers.

 

My whole academic life has been shaped by water's influence in the world; it has been at the centre of much of my work for almost nine years now, and has brought me into awareness of a whole world of relationships. As Indigenous peoples continue to assert and embody, water is life. For humans and non-human species, plants and animals, geologic systems and climate stability, water plays a central role of reproduction, sustenance, cleansing, beauty, and inspiration.

 

On Thursday, March 25th, our special guests were three prominent water advocates: Mike Balkwill from Wellington Water Watchers; Lin Grist of the local chapter of the Council of Canadians; and Mike Sullivan of Get Concerned Stratford.

 

We had a broad discussion that touched on things like the moratorium on water bottling permits, the sale of Nestlé Waters Canada facilities, the struggle against MZOs that threaten water systems, the Blue Communities initiative, and Indigenous leadership on water protection. I hope listeners and supporters take this as an opportunity to reflect on what water does for us and how we can make a reciprocal relationship with it in our daily lives and advocacy.

 

This session was co-moderated by Dustin Brown and Tanya Gevaert.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 36: In Defense of Day Programs

We all know that this economic crisis has been unkind to community-based services, the people who use them, and the workers who hold them together.

 

The community living centres and day programs hosted through Community Living Guelph Wellington (CLGW) are one community support that has been in tension during recent months, with shifting directions coming from management. First, it was announced that day programs would be cancelled entirely, and the individual services model that the pandemic brought about would become the new normal. This could have forced many individuals, parents, and caregivers to seek out prohibitively expensive private care.

 

A strong campaign in defence of day programs was mounted, which has partly changed management's plans -- they say now that the centres and day programs will continue -- but advocates are not convinced that the battle is over.

 

On Thursday, March 18th, we were joined by three guests: Joanne Smithers, front line staff at CLGW and president of her bargaining unit; Fred Hahn, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees - Ontario; and Jennifer MacKenzie, parent to one of the day program's participants. We thought it was a fruitful and passionate discussion in defense of day programs, and autonomy for all.

 

This discussion was co-moderated by Phil Allt and Tanya Gevaert.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

 

Episode 35: The YIMBY Campaign

This episode of the Breezy Breakfast Radio Hour was recorded on Thursday, March 11th.

 

Our special guest was Dominica McPherson of the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination, who introduced us to the Yes In My Backyard campaign. With supportive housing at top of mind for many Guelph residents and activists, this was a timely conversation. Here's a preview, from Dominica herself:

 

"When everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home, our whole community benefits, and yet there are people experiencing homelessness and households facing core housing need in our community. Solving the affordable housing and homelessness crisis requires action and investment by all levels of government, and community action and support to make it possible. That's why the Guelph & Wellington Task Force for Poverty Elimination has launched a Yes in My Backyard campaign. Learn more about the campaign, one of its current action areas - permanent supportive housing, and how you can show your support for a welcoming community where everyone has the housing they need!"

 

This session was co-moderated by James Gordon and Tanya Gevaert.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 34: International Women's Day

On Thursday, March 4, we were honoured to have MPP Laura Mae Lindo, Omelnisaa Hassan Elfaki, and Professor Karen Houle on as our special guests, who led us in recognition of International Women's Day. It was an excellent back-and-forth between the guests, on a multitude of topics, including Omelnisaa's land-based work here in Guelph.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 33: Krista Walkey

On Thursday, February 25, the City of Guelph's new General Manager of Planning and Building Services, Krista Walkey, appeared as a guest to talk about all things planning. Want to hear about inclusionary zoning? The city's planning goals? The inner workings of City Hall's planning department? If yes, then this might be your episode.

 

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Support us on patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Email us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com

Episode 32: Open Mic!

On Thursday, February 18, we came back to the open mic, where Breezy audience members were invited to collaboratively influence the flow of conversation.

In this open mic, we covered a lot of ground. We started with a discourse on remote voting methods, in light of the City Council decision to accept mail-in voting and reject online options (for now), and eventually moved into a long discussion on supportive housing, with contributors outlining the difference between a municipal housing strategy vs. what is possible with larger scales. Other topics touched on include debunking a conspiracy theory, radon gas infiltration, an idea for repurposing land near the Two Rivers for Indigenous interests, and supporting our neighbours who struggle with addictions and isolation.

 

Like our work? Support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/BreezyBullhorn

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/breezybullhorn

Contact us at breezybullhorn@gmail.com if you have questions or want to join the breakfasts!