0:04 You're listening to RSJ Radio. 0:11 Good evening and welcome to News Night. I'm Sawyer Bogdan. 0:15 And I'm Kayla McLaughlin. Our top stories today, Trudeau announced decisions on three pipeline projects in Canada and the Auditor General Michael Ferguson released a report this morning criticizing the federal government. 0:28 And for our top story, there was a car crash near Bloor and Sherbourne last night in what police are calling a drunk driving accident. 0:37 Last night, one person died and two people were left with serious injuries after a car crash at Bloor and Sherbourne. Matt Amha has the story. 0:52 A 23 year old Toronto man is under arrest following a car accident on Bloor and Parliament street leaving one dead and another 20 year old girl to hospital with life threatening injuries. Kaleeb Abujabeen is facing up to six charges and appeared in court earlier today. The accident follows an unfortunate trend of intoxicated young people involved in incidents of drunk driving, especially during the holiday season. Tons of young people have been affected with rideshare programs especially noticing it as a as a particularly busy time of year. Designated drivers against drunk drivers looks to get you out of your cars and into theirs. Trista Santos works for the organization based just west of Toronto, and hopes to curb incidents related to drunk driving through a designated driver program, particularly targeting young people. 1:35 For me, when I hear these things, it makes my head shake. For the simple reason that there are so many options. So many options that you can do. You can take a cab, you can take a bus, especially if you're in Toronto. Oh my god. 1:52 Alex Ilizarov, a fourth year business student lost a friend to drunk driving on Christmas Day. And knows all too well the way drunk driving can hit so close to home for so many Canadians. 2:01 Yeah, I've actually been touched by myself like I've lost a few friends because of drunk driving. In one big accident back home that happened around Christmas time. It was actually on Christmas night. So I know a lot of my friends were affected by that one as well because it was somebody our age, somebody we all knew in the community. 2:17 Ingrid Euro second year sport media student told us that she doesn't think issues of drunk driving are talked about enough. Also admitting it's something she's done herself. In fact, she's since become more than regretful about. 2:28 I can take ownership and say that I have definitely gotten behind the wheel when I shouldn't have and I'm, I'm not ashamed to say that and I've learned from my mistakes and I will never do that again. And I think that's something that needs to be shared among young people to know that, yes, we all make mistakes and we can learn from them. To make sure that never happens again and to educate other people on the situation as well. 2:46 Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 16 to 25 year olds, and alcohol and drugs are a factor in 55% of those crashes. It's an unfortunate reminder as we add one more name to that list. For news night, Matt Amha. 3:01 This just in the federal government approved two pipeline projects and rejected a third. Enbridge line three pipeline was approved, Kinder Morgan's pipeline was approved and the Northern Gateway pipeline was rejected. Trudeau says these decisions were made based on the economic and environmental concerns of Canadian citizens. 3:22 The Canada Revenue Agency, Transport Canada and National Defense have come under criticism. In the report released this morning, Auditor General Michael Ferguson says that the CRA takes too long to respond to objections to income tax decisions. Transport Canada also came under fire for taking too long, sometimes up to 10 years to implement new safety standards for vehicle passengers. Let's hear what else Ferguson had to say. 3:49 Well, yes, it's frustrating to see that there is a lack of emphasis on what the citizen has to live through in these types of programs. And there and there needs to be a change the way some of these programs are actually delivered. 4:05 76 people are dead following a plane crash near Medellin, Columbia Tuesday morning. The Chapecoense soccer team from the southern Brazil were among the 81 people aboard. Colombian authorities say five people survived the crash. The team was traveling from Bolivia to play in the Copa South American Club League final. The cause of the crash is still being investigated. Rescue efforts have come to an end for the day due to low visibility. Brazil's Prime Minister, Michel Temer spoke with reporters shortly after the crash. 4:50 The news we received this morning is very sad. In truth we never expected this. The Air Force has made airplanes available to take relatives. Evidently we must also recover the bodies and the foreign ministry has been taking action. 5:10 Brazil has declared three days of mourning. 5:13 A training mission gone wrong leaves the Canadian pilot dead after a CF 18 fighter jet crashed yesterday. The government announced just last week that they were looking into replacing the aging fleet of CF 18s. Although the defense minister says he could not speculate on what caused the crash. The pilot was based out of the Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake in northern Alberta. The plane came down on the Saskatchewan side of the border during a routine training mission. 5:43 The holidays are fast approaching and this time of year can be busy and stressful for a university student. A market called Shop the SLC opened today on campus. Students can pick up a quick gift while supporting fellow students. Our reporter Ashley Pooch, talked to one vendor about what she sells. 6:12 Alex Bella is a fourth year Media Production student specializing in animation. She's taken on an interesting side project. I make boob pots, and they're for little succulents. 6:26 Yep, she's talking about pots for plants. And she's seen a lot of different types on the internet. So there's boot pots, butt pots, penis pots and vagina pots, and I decided to take my hand at boob pots. Here's how she makes them. 6:40 So I make them from scratch from a hunk of clay and I mold two little balls on the chest and they're little unique loops of all shapes and sizes. And I hand paint them and I sell them for 20 bucks. 6:54 She used to sell her pots to just her friends, but decided she wanted to make a little bit more money. 6:58 I got an email blast and I've been making these for a while for my friends birthdays and so I was like why not try to sell these to a bigger crowd. 7:06 Shop the SLC allows students to spend their money while supporting fellow students like Vela. The market is open until Thursday. I'm Ashley Pooch for News Night. 7:20 With the holidays just around the corner, Santa Claus was on campus today spreading Christmas cheer. But that's not all he was doing. He was also at Ryerson to help raise money for a good cause. Rachel Arhan has this report. 7:39 Ho,ho, ho, ho. 7:43 Students are lining up to take a photo with Santa. Organizer Makenzie Duffy is standing by. 7:49 It's kind of like a classic thing that you did when you're younger. And I see a lot of people now kind of going out to the malls and getting one with their friends and doing the ugly Christmas sweater thing. So kind of just as a memory. So we wanted to just bring it here and make it more accessible and a bit cheaper for students so that we can spread our initiative and raise money. 8:05 Santa remembers at this time of the year is not just about the holidays. Students are currently dealing with the stress of exams. 8:13 Well, I think it just reminds them of waking up Christmas morning and seeing all those gifts and cookies that they left out for me eaten and the milk drank. And just kind of brings them back to their childhood in this stressful time of exam season. If I can make just one person smile, that's enough for me. 8:30 However, Santa was not just on campus to spread holiday cheer. He was helping students raise money for a group looking to empower and encourage young women to pursue careers in sports media. 8:41 We find that there is a lot of kind of divide between men and women in the industry and a lot of young women are afraid to kind of start. So we wanted to bring together in events that we can bring in young women and kind of empower the next generation to create an open a door for sport media. 8:57 Duffy is planning a February conference to show women what working in the sports media field is really like. Photos with Santa is the group's first fundraiser. Reporting for news night I'm Rachel Arhen. 9:08 A CIBC report states that the quality of employment in Canada is failing young and old Canadians are affected. Benjamin Tale, CIBC economist found that jobs created since 2003 are low paying. The percentage of workers paid below average wage has risen over the years to just under 61%. Tale acknowledged the high paying jobs are going to stay high paying jobs. But all new jobs are in the service sectors creating less employment in high paid jobs. This drives the divide between high wage earners and low paid workers. 9:57 CBC is requesting 318 million more to eliminate all advertisements. In order to go ad free CBC Radio Canada said it would need the government to boost its per person funding to $46 a year. CBC noted that this is still well below other public broadcasters around the world. The BBC in comparison receives $114 per person. 10:24 Ransomware strikes again. Students at Carleton University have been warned that some of their computers have been infected by a computer virus. The hackers are demanding ransom in Bitcoin, a digital currency that is difficult to trace. Carlton is still investigating. Last year in the University of Carlton was hacked and paid a $20,000 ransom. 10:52 Nearly 1000 Canadian military soldiers say they've been sexually assaulted in the last year. The complaints range from unwanted sexual touching to attacks and sexual activity without consent. A survey on past years shows that 27.3% of women and 3.8% of men have been a victim at least once since joining the armed forces. Almost half of the women say the perpetrator was a supervisor or someone of a higher rank. Chief of defense Jonathan Vance says he is extremely disappointed. 11:35 Nickelback is getting some help from the police in making a comeback. Anyone riding in the backseat of police cruiser for drinking and driving in Prince Edward Island will be forced to listen to tunes from the Canadian rock band. Constable Rob Harlan says having a song performed by the band while under arrest will be the perfect gift for anyone who breaks the law. 12:04 Thank you for tuning into News Night. I'm Kayla McLaughlin. 12:08 And I'm Sawyer Bogdan. Have a good night. 12:20 Good evening. You're listening to Current Affairs. I'm your host Serene Kwon. Tonight we're bringing you stories about a Ryerson fashion event, Black Friday, chaos, transit themed merchandise and more. Mass exodus is the Ryerson School of Fashion's year and spring event. Third year fashion communication and creative industry students plan this runway show each year. Students hosts another show in the fall to showcase their work. This year, the show was called splice. I talked to Krissia Polutso, the producer of Mass Exodus to find out more about the planning of these annual run rate runway events. So Krissia you're the producer for Mass Exodus this year. How have you been involved in fashion in the past? And what inspired you to step up to this position? 13:04 So having been involved in fashion in the past, I've been interning ever since first year. I've actually interned for a few fashion shows for Toronto Fashion Week. The main one was Macars, loved it. And what inspired me to get into this position was, I don't know I, I just really wanted to be a part of Mass Exodus. And I felt that I could bring a lot to the table. And I know that I have such a great class to work work behind, that I'm so thrilled, so I have a team behind me like that. 13:38 Perfect. So can you tell us what mass exodus is? 13:42 The Mass Exodus is the Canada's largest student run fashion show. It is, sorry, we're involved with the Ryerson fashion production class. We produce a show to exemplify the work of the fourth year fashion, communication and design students. 14:04 So on Thursday night, your team held a runway event called Splice here in the Rogers Communication Center where Ryerson students showcase their work. Can you tell me a little bit about Splice and how that connects to Mass Exodus? 14:15 So Splice's powered by Mass Exodus or events inspired by the word splice. So we define splice as the formation of connection between two unrelated concepts. So what we want to see was bridging the gap between real real life and artificial reality. The concept of glitch as our motif to in ourselves. So what we wanted to do was in a moment of glitch we want to question myself intrinsically and digitally and to the show and want to really amplify that. 14:47 Cool. So these shows give students an opportunity to get out of the classroom and work in the industry, alongside professionals. How do you think these experiences prepare designers to be a part of the fashion industry after leaving Ryerson? 15:01 So usually the shows we do invite people from the industry so they can have a little piece of what's next, for the future generations. I definitely think that this is a great jumping off point for our new designers and new fashion industry workers in the communication side of the industry. They are encouraged to explore and like challenge themselves to create new and innovative classrooms. So I really think that this platform of Mass Exodus is a great opportunity for them. 15:30 And going for what kind of preparations will go into planning such a large scale runway show? 15:36 There is a lot of crap going on. And so we have been working ever since September, just to plan as to show us sometime in April. No date has been confirmed yet. And honestly, it's just like we have a such a team, wonderful students working so hard to produce an amazing show. It's just like a lot of it's like it's crazy. 16:02 That's understandable. Well, thank you so much for speaking to us today, Krissia. 16:07 No problem. Thank you. Thank you for having me. We hope to see you at Mass Exodus. 16:07 And I'm sure it will be a fantastic show. 16:07 I hope so. Thank you. 16:20 How much do you love the TTC? Is it enough to buy a selection of transit themed merchandise? Ammie Parmar has the story. 16:30 The TTC launched its online store on Monday introducing many products like vintage posters and subway inspired cufflinks as a part of their official merchandise. Sharon Thon head of customer Communications at the TTC says there is a wide range of products that will appeal to all ages. 16:46 From ceramic mugs, toques, baby onesies, t shirts, water bottles and USB keys shaped like a street car. Lots of different different products. 16:59 Most of the merchandise is actually designed by in-house TDC designers that work with the TTC logo daily. However, some products are actually designed by local Toronto artisans. Thon says that the TTC is taking the opportunity to show off Toronto talent with their new merchandise. 17:17 As the TTC is such a big part of Toronto, it was important to us to recognize that we have a lot of great talent here and to give them an opportunity as well. So we've been working with a lot of artists. 17:31 For example, Canadian artisan companies Zink designs, handmade subway inspired cufflinks for the TTC store. 17:38 And then we also have David Creighton, who is a well known Toronto artist. Who does a lot of Toronto escapes and he always likes to include street cars and Toronto vehicles in his streetscapes. So if you look online, there's a bunch of sort of posters, art prints and postcards that you can order with David Creighton art on them. 18:03 TTC says there will be no financial risk. Toronto based company SBS marketing will manage the store including inventory, shipping and customer service. They have small items like mugs and posters starting from $10 and more artistic pieces from local artists for a couple hundred dollars. All pieces can be found at the TTC shop.ca. For News night, I'm Ammie Parmar. 18:29 Millions of people have been shopping nonstop the past weekend for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But now, organizations are hoping to shift gears from spending to donating with Giving Tuesday. Noella Ovid has the story. 18:44 We've all heard about people rushing into Best Buy on Black Friday to save a couple hundred dollars on a TV. But today Giving Tuesday is leading a different kind of rush. Giving Tuesday is a movement that aims to encourage people to donate money to help those in need during a time when most people are in a spending spree. Liz Hugenson is an organizer of Giving Tuesday. She explains how the event started four years ago. 19:08 This is actually our fourth year in Canada. So we are still a pretty young movement While compared to Black Friday were young. So it started in the United States in 2012 and then in Canada in 2013. 19:22 Liz says as GivingTuesday has since helped many charities 19:26 able to measure on several online donation processing platforms. For example on canadahelps.org they've seen an increase of over 300% since before GivingTuesday. 19:39 The movement is making a positive change at Ryerson too according to Claire Davis, a coordinator at Ryerson's Good Food Center. The center is taking part in Giving Tuesday by matching every donation received to provide food for twice as many students. 19:53 Usually there's not people coming into the center looking to just give a donation so today there's been a lot of people coming in which is really, really nice. 20:00 Other than providing food and money people can also help by donating blood donations and posting pictures with the hashtag unselfie. For News Night I'm Noella Ovid. 20:11 Your night out could add an hour longer starting next fall. The city has taken tentative steps towards extending last call at Toronto bars. But how feasible is it really? We go now to reporter, Emma McIntosh. 20:24 Thanks Serena. City staff are studying what would happen if last call were pushed past two am. Bars and other big cities like Montreal stopped serving drinks at three. Bar owners say later closing times can make Toronto more of an entertainment destination. Transform nightlife here and bring in billions of dollars. But opponents say it's not that simple. The subway already closes before the current last call. If Bars stay open later, then maybe the subway will have to run later too. And that costs money. People who live near bars are also worried about noise and safety. If anything comes of this changes would happen next fall at the earliest. Back to you in the studio Serena. 21:06 In 2010, Toronto City Council set a goal to create 10,000 affordable rental units and 3000 affordable homes by 2020. But Toronto was not even halfway to that goal by the end of last year. Recent university graduates have no choice but to find alternative solutions, such as living with parents or having multiple roommates to combat the high cost of living in Toronto. Brooklyn Neustader has a report. 21:43 At least once a day Kyle Cunningham is asked by his parents if he has heard anything back from the hundreds of job applications he has sent out. This usually happens when they are in the kitchen preparing dinner together. Kyle graduated from the geographic analysis program at Ryerson University in 2015, and has yet to find a job in his field. 22:04 I figured by now I would be living on my own or with roommates. I envisioned myself downtown in a career position. 22:12 Kyle currently lives in Scarborough with his parents since he can't afford the rent in Toronto without a well paying job. He's almost 25 years old. 22:21 I feel sad and it is a little bit embarrassing that I still live at home with my parents. And it's something obviously I think about every day. I would really like to change, but I can't afford rent the city. 22:44 There's no way I can fit a double bed in my apartment because it will be my apartment. It's tiny. 22:51 That's Paige Smith. She graduated from the acting program at Dalhousie University in 2014 and moved to Toronto last December to pursue her acting career. She currently works as a server to afford her rent. 23:05 It was always my plan kind of to move to Toronto, I wasn't just sure how I would afford it. So I kind of took the year and a half to work my butt off. I had three different jobs at one time. I think I went through like a 20 day stretch without a day off, just so I could afford to get myself here. 23:21 Paige pays approximately 1300 dollars a month after utilities for a 400 square foot apartment in the Wellesley Church village. 23:29 I thought I would have like a nice cute one bedroom with maybe like a small open concept area, living room and tiny kitchen. I wasn't looking for something completely huge, but I never expected what I ended up with for how much I was paying. 23:48 According to a study by a coalition of affordable housing groups, one in five Canadian renters face an affordable housing crisis, spending more than half their income on living expenses. 23:59 I'm a little bit more comfortable, but I'm still extremely budgeted. I give myself 30 bucks a month to go out and that's about it. 24:06 Affordable housing seems unattainable for recent graduates due to the lack of low cost rental supply in Toronto. Where most rental properties come from high priced investors with a high price tag to match. 24:18 It really affected like my relationship building and even like some of my confidence, like I'm trying to make a life in a new city and I can't afford to do it. 24:37 Ryerson fashion communications graduate Emily Stevenson lives in a row house at Jarvis and Carlton with two other roommates to save money. 24:46 Some of us were messier than others. That was something that I didn't really take into consideration before living with two other people but I definitely notice it now and would definitely appreciate a place of my own. 25:02 Emily pays $900 a month and is currently working in retail to afford her rent. But she's having a difficult time managing these expenses with her student debt. 25:12 This point in time, it is impossible for me to pay off my student loan while also paying for rent and living expenses. So it's kind of hard to take on an extra financial burden when I'm not making that much as it is. 25:25 Even after finishing university over a year and a half ago, Kyle still feels the financial effects of being a student, 25:32 I was saving up but I had to put a lot of that money towards tuition. So in the end, it wasn't enough to move out right away. And that's where I'm stuck now. 25:47 With the current job I have now it's not enough to be able to afford anything in Toronto. So I feel like I have to have a career position before I can move out on my own. 25:57 But for Paige the struggle to make rent is all part of living in the big city and trying to make her dreams a reality. 26:04 Moving to Toronto, while like it was really difficult and I am struggling to pay everything. For me it's worth it. In my heart, I know that I need to stay here and just kind of keep fighting for that dream. 26:16 Paige, Kyle and Emily plan to move out of their current living situations to find more affordable housing. However, none of them know when they will actually be able to make this happen. Last week, Canadian housing advocates called on the federal government to introduce a national housing strategy to combat the housing crisis across Canada. Advocates hope the strategy will be in place by next year, but the federal government has yet to set any plans. This has been Brooklyn Neustader reporting for News Night. 26:46 University students across Canada continuing to struggle to pay for tuition, rent textbooks and daily meals. It's no different at Ryerson, where the campus Food Bank and Kraft Dinner comes in handy. Nikhil Sharma has a report 27:04 Do you have classes later? In the morning. Oh, okay. 27:15 Our facilitator one day when he walked into one of our breakout sessions, he had a bar of chewy bars on his hand and he had like a lot of them. He's just like guys, I got this from the food bank, and you get like 10 points. And it's like, you can get milk from here, you can get eggs from here. You can get a lot of true bars from there and I'm always stopping by and it's just a great resource on campus. And a lot of students were like wow, this is amazing, because it's like free food free snacks and you always need something when you're on campus. 27:48 Hey, I'm Nikhail. Welcome to Press Pass. You were just listening to Mariam Hussein a first year mathematics student talk about how she found out about Ryerson's Good Food center. Nearly two in five students said they experienced some form of food insecurity. According to a recent report released by meal exchange. It's soup for cents day at the campus food bank and Hussein has combined to check it out for the first time. 28:15 Being a first year student it's my first time moving out from home and I've actually learned that it's a lot more hectic and like harder to manage money. So it is, um, it is like you have to have a budget and you have to, it's not as easy as it is when you're at home. And when you have your parents cooking for you. You have to like make everything from scratch, which can be which can be quite hectic, especially when you're a student, you don't have that much time on your hands. And when you don't have time on your hands, you go out and you're like eating fast food 24 seven. So it's like, that's unhealthy and if you want to make the healthier choices, it's really expensive. 28:52 Hussein doesn't need to deal with the high cost of commuting because she lives 15 minutes away from campus with a roommate, but deciding who will cook dinner depends on how much time she and her roommate have. 29:07 Me or my roommate we try to like alternate on who's gonna cook on each day. So sometimes I'm the one who's gonna cook and sometimes she's the one. It just depends on who has time on their hands. And if not, we always like we keep like frozen pizza, or like frozen foods in our fridge just in case if you really are don't have much time on our hands. And that's how we basically make things work for now. 29:34 Hussein isn't currently working and hopes to use the food bank once or twice a week. 29:42 I had like frozen meat the other day and I thought it would I would be able to like make food in like 30 minutes and it took me like two hours, which was a lot of time in my day. 29:59 The Good Food Center has been providing food relief for students at Ryerson since 1993. The number of community members who visited the campus food bank between 2013 and 2015 went up by 44%. 49% of users were identified as female. I decided to head down to Pitman Hall cafe to speak with Alyssa Webster, a first year Business Management student. Webster has been living on her own for two years and spends about $200 on food a month. She has a part time job at a restaurant in Toronto, which helps her pay for tuition, textbooks, living cost and daily meals. But like Hussein, Webster is facing the challenge of juggling, studying, paying for rent and eating healthy. 30:50 Last year, there was a point where I kept having to call my parents for either grocery money, grant money, and it was getting to the point where money was stressing me so out I started doing poorly in some classes like. 31:02 First year was a lot harder than the second for Webster who switched programs. She was on Ryerson's dance team as well as the program with a heavy course schedule. Webster added that her fridge is currently empty and that it's a lot easier to grab Kraft Dinner for 99 cents from the local store. 31:21 Both my roommate and I have similar jobs. So we both come home around similar times. And a lot of the times we're just so tired and hungry, like he'll either make one of his Kraft dinners or I'll make a can of soup that I have. But it's never anything extravagant and healthy because it's like I'm already too tired from work. I'm too lazy to even think about making anything healthy. So a lot of the times I find myself eating really horrible foods just at night just because I'm hungry so I'll just make chicken fingers or anything that I can just get into my stomach 31:57 When I went back to the Good Food center and spoke to you Claire Davis, who is filling up cups with lentil soup to give away to students, she said keeping the shelves stocked is always difficult. Davis is one of four community coordinators at the food bank, which is closed during the weekends. 32:16 ven though there's four coordinators, we are all full time students, we can only be here for certain amount of time during the week the university is not open on like we're not open on weekends, which is a big time that people could probably be coming in we'll pull you aside and say thank you and like this really genuine and heartfelt way. Bye Rena. And I think doing that is honestly hard for people to say like I just want you to know that this really helps. 32:50 This was an episode of Press Pass. If you like what you heard, spread the word. Thanks for listening. 33:01 Are your Uber rides just a little more expensive as of late? While some users report a slight but consistent hike in Uber fares, the ride sharing app isn't letting employees see more of the company's growing profits. Anders Marshall has more. 33:19 Uber said that their services made Toronto a better place to live while under municipal government scrutiny. What Uber hid behind their altruistic campaign was how poorly they pay and treat their workers. As of yesterday, Uber paid its food runners $1 and 80 cents per kilometer they traveled, whether on a bike or in a car. Minus a per delivery fee. Now that mileage rate is 75 cents lower with Uber taking the same cut. Details of the pay cut released via email to Toronto's Reddit page. I've looked into working for Uber Eats. The employment terms aren't great either. Uber Eats runners are not staffed employees, so they don't get health benefits and can't apply for compensation if they hurt themselves, say falling off their bike if their tires get jammed in a streetcar track. They also don't get tips. There's no word of delivery fares will lower. I have no hard proof but I doubt your dumplings are getting cheaper anytime soon. Uber promised a better city, not a poor one. Back to you. 34:18 It's not rare to know someone with a mental illness. It's even more common that people carry a certain stigma towards these individuals. Reversing those negative perceptions and attitudes that is worth fighting for. Amanda Woodrow reports. 34:33 Hi, my name is Lena Hale. And when it comes down to it, but the bottom line I have anxiety and depression. 34:44 Mental illness is a growing epidemic. Statistically, one in every three children will be diagnosed with a form of mental illness. 34:54 I'm not opposed to my, my diagnosis. It's something that's always been a part of me, nobody will be a part of me and I don't feel one way or the other about it. What I don't like is the stigma around it. Like people seem to think that they can't be around people who have a mental illness of any sort because they'll somehow catch it. 35:16 This is one of the common perceptions under the stigma. 35:20 A lot of the time, you meet people who are anxious and depressed, and you wouldn't even know it, because generally speaking, these people have a very good ability to hide it. A lot of people weren't aware that I have these issues until I said them and then they kind of go, now you don't have that. Yeah, I do. 35:41 Hunter Himmal has over a decade of experience working with children with disabilities and special needs. He encourages others to steer away from the stigma. 35:56 It upsets me because all these people is a situation by situation basis, but they all have good qualities. And they may be fearful because someone makes involuntary sounds and noises. Not really that does upset me that people can't look past the the outside things the material things, if you will. 36:23 Taylor Laced is studying child youth and family at gwelf and is becoming a registered early childhood educator. She also has two years as the sunshine special needs coordinator at BVG camp. She believes that the stigma is lessening, however, more should be done. 36:48 But I think that acceptance and tolerance of people who are quote unquote, different still needs to be worked on more. So this past summer, I worked with triplets, all three of them with severe severe cerebral palsy, all three in wheelchairs, one nonverbal very, very high needs. And a lot of the kind of stigma around them is the negative reactions that we got from other children their age. They were eight years old. I feel more came from the parents. So I think that parents kind of becoming tolerant and accepting of people that are different and people with special needs is the first step in order to make our society more accepting. So I noticed that when parents were very accepting their children kind of realize that this is okay, this is normal. And those types of children's are the ones that are friends of the triplets. However, some parents looked at it as they're different. You don't need to be friends with them and then those kids in their cabin didn't have much of an interest in being friends with them. So I think it's that. I think that people need to realize that giving others a chance whether they appear different or not. I don't think it's something that they would regret. And I think that that is what people still need to learn. I think people need to realize that it's okay to be different. 37:59 Taylor believes that inclusivity awareness, tolerance, and acceptance go a long way 38:08 Making people aware, because some people aren't aware of the differences that they don't see. And the amazing factors that do come into disabilities and the main aspects of people whether they have a disability or not. I think that making people more aware. 38:23 This is a common theme among Taylor, Selena and Hunter. It takes more than just accepting that someone has an invisible disability. 38:39 I'm aware that some people bind to stigma just because they're uneducated. So I really honestly would say, get educated, learn about these things. Read about it, find out, like, figure it out, learn it for yourself. I think once you've done that, if you're still close minded about it then keep your opinions to yourself. Because honestly, yes, you're entitled to your opinion, but if it's not helpful, don't say it. There are people who are struggling out there and they do not need more negative things thrown at them. 39:15 In order for us to accept, we must understand our differences and embrace that diversity, because together we can stop the stigma. For News Night, this is Amanda Woodrow. 39:30 Diversity on campus has been a growing point of conversation at Canadian universities and rightfully so. Matt Amha and Rachel Arhan have more with new sites new Real Talk podcasts. 39:57 Hello, and welcome to News Nights new podcast series Real Talk. I'm Matt Amha. 40:01 And I'm Rachel Arhan. 40:02 Today we're going to be talking about diversity on Canadian university campuses. why it's important who it affects and how it stands as uniquely different in Canada. These issues start in elementary school classrooms, middle schools and beyond. But they end up manifesting themselves in the classroom once students and end up making it here if they ever do. We also have to acknowledge the sort of unique circumstance we have living in Toronto. We know that about 45% of people in the city speak a mother tongue other than English and French, which is approximately 200 languages. 40:30 For sure, that's very true. And even 20% of Canada is foreign born, so that's about every one in five Canadians. 40:37 Yeah. 40:38 Which is the highest among the G8 countries. We're pretty diverse population, considering the stats, but it doesn't always manifest itself in our micro organizations, such as university campuses. 40:49 And especially when trying to find substantive statistics in the country. Um, for whatever reason, whether it's schools, policing, hospitals, a lot of institutions sort of have this issue and being able to find sort of relatable numbers. 41:04 But it almost seems like Canadians are scared of stats when it comes to race in general. 41:09 Yeah it does. 41:10 Whereas in America, they are very over and transparent with those stats, even with all the racial tension that we see permeating within the country, especially within the last three years. Even the last two weeks, three weeks with their new president, they're still a lot more transparent with those numbers. 41:26 Yeah, they're really big on it too. A lot of a lot of the schools out there, they actually have race indexes. So you can really follow where your institution lies on the index. Canada is just not something that we have any access to. Really helps people to affirm their reality as well, when you have numbers that back up your personal experience. It sort of helps bring that to light and have sort sort of sort of helps you engage in a dialogue that a lot of people know was important. And to sort of help bring the conversation to life we spoke to two students in particular about issues of diversity. These two students, they're young black women, they're roommates. So let's get into it. 42:00 First, we spoke to Christiane Beya. But let's hear more from the first of the roommates. 42:06 My name is Christiane Beya. I'm a third year journalist at Ryerson University. I'm from Maple Ridge BC, originally, okay, I was born in South Africa, and then we moved to Burnaby, BC. And then I grew up there till I was like about five and then we moved from Burnaby, BC to Terrace, BC, which is way up north, really cold. And then from Terrace BC, we moved to Kelowna and then from Kelowna, we moved to Maple Ridge, BC. All of these places I grew up in were predominantly white. It was interesting, because it was me, my family, so my siblings, and then like I had my cousins. We were the only black families in our neighborhood and so we spent a lot of time together. So outside of school, we it was mostly us. I really didn't like it. I didn't enjoy elementary school, and I did not enjoy high school at all. And it was a relief when I moved to Toronto. 43:08 Do you think you're not enjoying it had something to do directly with the fact that there were no people that look like you? 43:14 Absolutely. It was, there was no representation and I could not relate to the people in my class, the people around me. It was just really hard because I was just, I was really used to my family, my family about value. My parents weren't really enforced that in us. You're not like the rest of the people like not in a negative way, just like reminding us like, don't forget your identity. And don't forget where you came from. Like I found that people really just didn't understand me, like, they really like to categorize me. Obviously, like, you know, the stereotypes, and it was it was just really hard growing up, and I did not enjoy it whatsoever. 43:50 For sure. 43:51 When we were listening to we were having a lot of interesting dialogue about it. I just couldn't imagine being the only family in my town. I mean, the only black family in my town or city. It's an experience I just can't really relate to but I really appreciate her being able to say in the way that she did. 44:03 It's a nice feeling to see your likeness around you. So for me, especially to see the complete opposite knowing the way I grew up, it be kind of freaky for me, for lack of a better word. And I know it's probably a great feeling for her to see a lot more diversity now that she's here on a university campus that's within Toronto. Well, that was Christianne. But now let's, let's hear from Sunday. 44:25 Yeah. So Sunday is the second roommate that we sort of spoke to her name's Sunday Akon to be particular. She's from South Sudan. She was born in Ethiopia. She ended up moving to actually the East Coast. She actually moved to New Brunswick with her family. She spoke no English when she came here. Went through ESL, learning a language. That as well with with the culture shock that comes with moving to a whole new place, and she really gets into it a lot. So here's Sunday. 44:54 When I came into university, it was definitely very exciting to see that people were of different backgrounds. I wasn't really expecting it to be not diverse though, because knowing Toronto, I know that like half of Toronto's population is foreign born. So it wasn't expecting to like see, like just bare white people. But it's exciting to know that I can kind of experience all of the world's inhabitants in my own campus. 45:22 We asked her about how important it was to her and her grades specifically to see diversity amongst her peers and faculty. 45:29 When when things get like to like the administration, it kind of feels like people being forced to do something. Or like the university might like, try and do that because they're trying to like save face or like doing it for like an ulterior motive rather than just to like, you know, like, Look look like oh, look at us like we're Ryerson. Not only are we innovative, but we're also the school with the most like diverse students. Things like that to like bring more students, it sounds like a like a campaign or like an advertising like motive. Affirmative Action definitely is like a good thing. But I think we're like Ryerson in terms of diversity, yes, it could improve, but I think it's getting there. Like, I think I'm seeing a lot more teachers or instructors or TAs have like different backgrounds, rather than just like the white uniform teacher. 46:16 So I understand Sunday's view of about diversity. And I do believe that seeing diversity does have a bigger impact on us racialized students than many people realize or even Sunday stated. It can definitely affect your success in certain programs. And Christianne actually explained quite thoroughly why she believes that diversity is important, and who needs to begin with. 46:38 It needs to really start with the teachers. And that's really important, because I feel like, if you don't see a diversity amongst the staff, it's hard for them to relate to you. Like, especially in the journalism program, like it's hard to come to them with different ideas, different perspectives, because they don't understand. And for them, it's like, because they don't understand they're like, oh, that's not a story. Like, I don't see a point to that, like, you need to find something else. Like do something more relatable and it's like, Who is it relating to relating to you or relating to me. Toronto is what the most diverse city in Canada. So like for the for, for prof to say like, it's not relatable, if anything, it is the most relatable. 47:24 We all want to see ourselves represented in like all forms of society, right? It also like, this might sound juvenile, but it speaks to that part of like yourself, or like, you might think like, yeah, I can make it if I see other people from my demographic making it. 47:39 That's definitely something that's really relatable. Especially in a program like journalism, where with faculty, especially, we sort of expect them to bring like a wealth of perspective that's sort of reflective of the city that we live in now. Like we live in Toronto, so we want to, we want to feel comfortable in being in a classroom that's taught by somebody that's reflective of the communities that we come from. So with that said, here, we we actually spoke to both of them together. Had some great conversation. They speak about where they live, right now they live in Scarborough, Ontario. Which some consider a subsidiary of the city, Toronto, high immigrant populations. Definitely unique for two girls, one that's from a town with only one black family, and other from Windsor, Ontario via South Sudan. 48:23 And what's really cool about that is that we got to talk to them on the way home. So we were on the subway with them as well. 48:29 Yeah. 48:29 And so we had some really good conversation, and we really got into their world, here they are with mine. 48:33 Well, one of the major reasons that I kind of gravitated towards her was because she was somebody from a similar background as my own. She would understand a lot of the concerns I have. 48:44 Greenwood station. 48:46 Finding a house with somebody, so we kind of like we're on the same wavelength. 48:53 I think even going off of that, it's just like, if we're, when we're not together, and we see some, like, something going off in public, like, we'll text each other. It'll just be like a one word thing, cuz, cuz like, we just know, it's like, yo this happened. Like two words, like, girl I know. I already know what you're talking about. I experienced it. I saw it 49:14 It lightens the load, when you can talk about it, like had I not had somebody like Christianne to kind of like unload my, you know, concerns with society in general, it would have just been like something I had bottled up. 49:28 So again, me and you know, especially can sit around and talk about this sort of thing all day. 49:33 All day. 49:34 But like, the whole point of this is just to open up dialogue. 49:37 Exactly. 49:38 These are dialogues that just need to be had. Young young men and young women of color are really looking for a seat at the table. 49:44 Some might not notice this lack of diversity just because racial divide is not as overt in Canadian universities. But this really helps people to get a new opinion and really start having the conversation. 49:55 And I think a lot of that was summed up beautifully by Sunday right there. 49:58 We don't always have to have have the same thinking. But it's great to have the conversation. 50:03 Conversations key. 50:04 In order to see those different perspectives. And that's why we brought this to you today. 50:08 Yeah. So we hope you guys are listening. And we hope that you guys really engage in these dialogues and engage in these conversations in your own personal lives, because that's the only real way that we're going to be able to change any of this to begin with. And thank you guys again for listening. I'm Matt Amha. 50:22 And I'm Rachel Arhern. 50:23 We're gonna play you guys out with a little bit of Kendrick Lamar's Hood Politics. Hope you guys enjoyed and look for more of us from the future. This is Real Talk. 50:24 [Music: Kendrick Lamar - Hood Politics] 50:45 Today in sports, we have the return of a golf legend and a big win in the nation's capital. All that plus we'll talk Leafs and a quarterback whose comments have upset a number of Cubans. Daniel Marino has you covered. 50:59 Thanks, Serena. The plane crash involving the Brazilian team will be weighing heavy on the minds of the soccer community. It's safe to say a tragedy of this magnitude will affect the players even as far as Canada. 76 out of the 81 passengers died in the crash. Toronto FC is getting ready for the second leg of their Eastern Conference showdown with the Montreal Impact tomorrow night. Toronto is looking to use their experience from the first leg to get off to a better start this time around. CFC defender Drew Moore had this to say. 51:28 We learned a lot obviously starting the game a little better. Playing in behind them, you know don't play into their hands which is loss of possession in bad spots. 51:38 This is a big game for Toronto, as the contest is do or die. This is only Toronto's second playoff appearance appearance ever, and it's the hardest thing I've ever made it. San Francisco Forty Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick is back in the news. The outspoken player once again brought politics the field when he defended his decision to sport a shirt with Fidel Castro on it. The Miami crowd booed him on Sunday, as many Cubans were offended by his comments. So of course it was a Cuban player linebacker Kiko Alonzo, who stopped Kaepernick two yards short of time the game with no time remaining. After the game, Alonzo said he used catalytics comments to motivate his performance. Tiger Woods announced today that he's finally healthy enough to hit the greens once again. And he wants to keep playing golf for as long as he can. 52:26 But you just don't play golf for a lifetime. And I want to play golf for a lifetime. But also, I know I can't compete out here for a lifetime. 52:35 Woods has not played professionally since August of last year. He had multiple back surgeries in that time. 52:42 I'm gonna give it my best. I'm gonna be I'm gonna be focused. I'm gonna try and do what I can do and put the ball in the correct spots. Give myself looks and try various putts and post post scores. 52:54 Woods will be trying to continue is race to win the most majors in PGA Tour history. He has won 14 major championships, which is still four back of Jack Nicklaus his record. his quest back to the top of the sport will begin Thursday at the Hero World Challenge tournament. The City of Ottawa is still celebrating the first major sporting championship in 40 years. The Ottawa Redblacks defeated the Calgary stampeders 39 to 33 in overtime to win the Grey Cup Sunday. The MVP and QB of the Redblacks, Henry Burris almost couldn't believe that they won. 53:28 But it didn't look like it was a clean catch. Then all sudden, I hear the crowd go crazy. And all sudden it's a touchdown. I'm like, are you kidding me right now. 53:37 Fans who didn't buy tickets have to be kicking themselves after the thrilling game. The game failed to sell out and a million less people watched it on TV than the year before. It remains to be seen if Sunday's slugfest is enough to bring the CFL back to life in Toronto. That's all for sports. Back to you, Serena. 53:56 Thank you for listening tonight. This is the last show for News Night. But tune in next year. We'll have a new team, a new title and a new show jingle. Good night and good luck.