Know Nonsense Anti Racism Podcast

How much do you know about the people who put food on our tables? There are the farmers yes, but I'm talking about the people who pick and package our food. Canada's agriculture system depends on temporary migrant labour to keep our stores and shelves full with fresh fruit and vegetables, but despite being integral to our food supply chain they are not treated that way.  We look into the history, policies and barriers to ...

The Know Nonsense Podcast sat down with Daniele-Jocelyne Otou (she/her), Communications Director at Apathy is Boring, to talk all things elections, engaging young people in civic engagement, diversity within organizations, and what is currently keeping her excited and inspired! For those of you working with young people and looking to create systemic change, you'll enjoy listening to Daniele's wisdom and experience.
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Today we are talking about something you've likely done a million times before without knowing there's a term for it. We're talking about code-switching which is when you change your language or appearance to fit in and adapt to the dominant environment around you. There are many times and ways people code-switch but we focus today's discussion (like all discussions) on what this means in the context of systemic...

We spoke to Dr. Akwatu Khenti about his work in public health and with the City of Toronto's Black Scientist Task Force on Vaccine Equity. This community-developed initiative is aimed at decreasing the disparity on vaccine infection and hesitancy within Toronto's Black community. His knowledge and experience on this subject are extensive and really sparked my thinking on the wider public health needs of communities of col...

The COVID-19 vaccines have become a thorny subject for a lot of Canadians. Despite their widespread availability now across the country, there are still around 6 million Canadians who have not received a jab, and many don't plan to. 

When looking at the data we see that many who are saying they don't want to vaccinate are Black and Indigenous. Why are these communities in particular avoiding getting vaccinated? T...

Today we're chatting with a friend and listener of the podcast, a facilitator named Andre Brown. Like myself, Andre was empowered to take action against systemic racism at the height of the protests last year for the murder of George Floyd, starting his organization Racial Just Us.

André M. Brown is an expert facilitator, well-versed in creating an atmosphere of respectful conversations around challenging topics, inc...

Did you notice that many people weren't up for celebrating Canada Day this year? It came and went with little fanfare and this was largely because many of us weren't feeling particularly proud of our country. More and more unmarked graves of Indigenous children are being discovered at former residential schools across the country and instead of celebrating, we're in mourning. That's what we talk about in today&a...

Since the 1960s, workplaces have initiated anti-racism and anti-oppression workshops and trainings, but we're  curious...are they working? Some organizations undertake DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) as one-off events, some are checklist items during workplace orientation, and others do it to avoid legal action.

But after 50 years of evolved DEI from race, to gender, physical and mental ability, and sexual ori...

Today's episode is all about three incredible Indigenous activists from Canada and the work they do combatting systemic racism in child welfare, environmental justice, and equity in the workplace. I'll admit I'm biased; they're all women I'm huge fans of! They are Cindy Blackstock, Autumn Peltier, and Larissa Crawford. I'm pretty sure you'll be fans of theirs too when you hear about their stories,...

Just a few weeks ago the Federal government launched the MMIWG National Action Plan, two years after the release of the inquiry's final report. Indigenous women, girls, and LGBTQ+ folks are disproportionately at risk of being killed or going missing compared to non-Indigenous folks in Canada. How did we get here and what's being done to redress this issue?

We're joined by Elisha Corbett. Elisha is a PhD can...