0:01  
Hey, what's going on everybody? Welcome to On The Job, a podcast about struggles and triumphs that people face in the workplace. I'm your host, Gracie Bryson. And in this special edition, we will hear stories from Canadian workers who find themselves in positions where they have to make a choice. Today on the show, we hear from a sugar baby, a waitress at a local burger joint, a lobster fisher all the way from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and an on camera host for BlogTO Dana, a varsity athlete at McMaster University went to great lengths to make some money, sometimes putting herself in uncomfortable situations.

0:39  
What if I'm out with this gentleman and I run into like, one of my parents' friends, or a coach from my childhood.

0:49  
And then I asked one of the customers like, What can I get for you? And he said, an iced tea and your phone number.

0:57  
I'm sure a lot of women who've worked in the restaurant industry have heard something like this before. Later, we'll hear from two waitresses who face sexual harassment while working at a restaurant. And next we'll hear a story from the east coast of Canada, about a family who's been fishing in the village for decades. A young Cape Bretoner has to decide whether to follow in his father's footsteps, or to follow his own dreams.

1:22  
You know, a lot of kids that didn't have that opportunity. Young boys around here were really interested in it right. And I just assume that he will grab onto too.

1:34  
Finally when Deepa Prashad a now successful host for BlogTO first started reporting on camera, she faced a lot of criticism about her race.

1:45  
I got hired to be the host of the Family Channel. And a lot of a lot of students from RTA had auditioned and when they found out I got the job, they're like you only got it because you're Brown.

1:57  
But first, we dive into the world of sugar dating. I spoke to Dana, a university student who to her surprise, started dating older men in order to make some extra cash. Money problems, something a lot of us are familiar with. By us, I particularly mean university students. Tuition, books, food, social life, these things cost money, and a lot of it.

2:28  
I was in first year university and I realized when I was at the Student Center, a meal is going to cost me like over $10

2:37  
This is Dana, a varsity athlete at McMaster University, who quickly realized that school is ridiculously expensive. Full-time student and full-time athlete, there's no time for a real job.

2:51  
My teammates and I were hanging out and one of them was saying that she knew a girl that had been on Seeking Arrangements and we were all kind of laughing about it and just like say how crazy that would be. But secretly in the back of my mind I was thinking like, maybe it's not so crazy.

3:07  
Seeking Arrangements, a website similar to every other online dating website, except the matchups most often are a younger girl and an older man who's paying the girl to go on dates with him. You're supposed to be 18 to make an account, Dana wasn't.

3:22  
A lot of the times I was getting turned down because people were thinking that I was younger than I said I was. The people on this website are very cautious. You know, like, if you're talking to a person that's under age, there's a lot of implications and potential criminal records.

3:42  
Well, she eventually met someone who didn't seem to notice, or maybe just didn't mind her youthful face. Dana hopped on the GO train and headed downtown Toronto for her first sugar date.

3:52  
I was super excited, I put on a lot of makeup, more than I'd like to admit and I went to the restaurant. And he was a lot older, like probably older than my dad, which was a bit weird. And we just chatted like he told me about his kids and his divorce and his business.

4:20  
And then after dinner, he handed me a wad of cash. I think it was about $300.

4:27  
Let's address the question that a lot of you listeners are thinking, why would these men rather pay to date someone, instead of just having a normal relationship?

4:36  
If I had to take a guess I would say it would be like a confidence thing. Because an older man gets to be with a younger woman and also to chance for him to just like show how rich he is.

4:52  
After a few dates with a few different men, Dana was now ready for what she called a consistent sugar daddy, one man to date, who will pay her for her time. Let's meet Ben.

5:03  
I had probably been seeing Ben for about four months consistently, I started with dinner. And then him inviting me on small trips, you just wanted a partner.

5:17  
Sugar dating is not prostitution. It's supposed to be dating where you're compensated for your time, but after four months of seeing someone paid or unpaid sex is sort of likely to happen.

5:31  
If you spend a lot of time with a person, you'll obviously get to know them took a lot of like thought just to like convince myself that it was fine. But it helps that it wasn't right away. It was after quite a few dates and like getting to know everything about his background and his history. So it wasn't like it was with a stranger, it was somebody that I felt comfortable around and trusted. The morals behind being paid for sex definitely don't align with how I was brought up telling parents or siblings or any of my close friends about it would be really embarrassing and probably hard for them to understand. That's not the best feeling or look.

6:25  
You mentioned though, that you would develop some level of feelings and comfort with Ben. So did you continue accepting cash? Or was it starting to move into something more?

6:34  
I still did accept the cash just because at the beginning we did have a common understanding. 

6:41  
And typically just having sex mean you should get a bigger allowance. 

6:45  
I did ask for more money. Just because I tried to place a certain value and respect on myself and my body.

6:55  
Did you tell anyone about Ben?

7:00  
I was really scared to tell anybody because kind of taboo to do these types of things. Like what if I'm out with this gentleman and I run into like like one of my parents friends, or a coach from my childhood. Like, that would be really awkward to explain like what I was doing having dinner with this older gentleman.

7:22  
Hey, how are ya?

7:23  
From a best friend's perspective, not knowing where Dana was every weekend or who she was with was worrying. Let's meet Michaela, Dana's best friend of 10 years.

7:33  
She told me that she had like, been seeing this guy like she didn't give him any details. She would spend a weekend at a time with this guy who she didn't really know and who was paying her to be with her sort of thing. She doesn't know him. I don't know him like she's not giving me any details as to where she is. So if anything were to go wrong, how would anybody knows sort of thing and those kind of ideas like it kind of did impact our relationship a little bit.

8:02  
Dana stopped seeing Ben a couple of months ago, when she realized that this probably wasn't that safe.

8:08  
He invited me to Montreal for a weekend and I told my parents that I was gonna stay at school. And then I told my housemate Michaela that I was going home, I realized that if something were to happen, nobody would know where I was.

8:32  
So there you have it. One way to make money as a university student. But of course, the more common way is waitressing. For young female waitresses, it's not always as simple as bringing food and drinks to the table. Reporter Nour Al Saied spoke to two university students who are far too familiar with pushy customers expecting more.

8:58  
The restaurant industry is a busy work environment. Customers are hungry, they want to be seated. They want to enjoy their time with friends, and most importantly, they want their food fast. Being a university student comes with many expenses. Whether it's tuition or rent or textbooks, students are always looking for ways to make money. Because of this many turn to waitressing astips are a great way of making extra cash. Leah DeVries a third year creative industry student at Ryerson University. She lives downtown with her older sister and is currently working two jobs to pay rent and a long list of expenses. Leah used to work as a waitress at a burger joint on College Street.

9:45  
Since I had been I had waitress before and I had done this type of job before I didn't really have any high expectations. I had heard rumors that like in Toronto, you make a lot of money when you waitress so like I assumed I'd be making like a good amount of tips. I'd be working late nights, nothing too special I just kind of figured it'd be like a regular waitressing job.

10:03  
Leah was looking forward to the job and couldn't wait to earn some money. However, there's one thing she didn't expect to be faced with and that's sexual harassment. A report by RFC united says that 90% of female restaurant workers have experienced sexual harassment on the job. Leah was sexually harassment customers daily, but her most memorable encounter was with one of her bosses.

10:26  
When I started, there was a really grumpy older owner of the restaurant, and he was there every day. He seemed really nice, we got along and he trusted me with the restaurant. So he gave me a key to the office and things like that and I would close and open the restaurant. Over the time, like we got to know each other he started to ask about like, personal life, we just like oh, like, you know, how school going and like really simple things to just have a nice relationship with your boss. And it just got to the point where he would text me when when it wasn't work related or off work hours. You know he'd ask me for opinions about like furniture in his apartment or you know, like, what he looked like and, and things like that. And it just got to the point where like the the comments were too personal.

11:07  
More often than not employees who experienced sexual harassment in the restaurant industry usually refrained from reporting. In the report by ROC United 70% of women said they feared the situation would get worse if they complain about harassment from customers.

11:22  
And I never really knew how to answer him, because I worked for him. So I didn't want to say no, don't want to say yes so it was just like a very awkward thing for me. It also felt weird to because I felt very uncomfortable, because he would come in and help me close and things like that. And there's nobody else in the restaurant, there's no cameras none of the cameras worked. People don't really care about that stuff.

11:46  
At the end of that summer, Leah decided to quit. Although she didn't work at the burger joint anymore she felt she had to do something about this problem. The problem of not being able to speak up about harassment in the workplace. So she decided to apply to law school and work as a lawyer to help protect women who went through what she experienced.

12:04  
I think this issue is really frustrating, mostly because I know that what I experienced isn't even to the magnitude of what other people experience, like I feel lucky. And so the fact that one in three women are sexually assaulted, it's not an easy situation and it's not something that will disappear very easily. And so in my sense, you know, I want to work in a field where I can really commit so the idea of law school and the idea of working in with justice and the idea of being able to help with like the proof aspect, and just the system in general needs to change.

12:45  
Katrina Wugalter is a third year psychology and neuroscience student at the University of Toronto. She used to live in Edmonton and worked at a restaurant there in order to earn enough money to move and study in Toronto.

12:57  
I worked in a restaurant where the female staff was expected to wear heels every day, but the male staff wasn't. And that already made me uncomfortable just from the start, because that kind of set the tone that the female servers were expected to be sexualized.

13:13  
Similar to Leah, Katrina faced sexual harassment while working at a restaurant. However, it came from customers she was serving. She recalls a day a table of eight obnoxious men who made her feel uncomfortable during one shift.

13:26  
And I remember one day I had this table of eight men and they were in like their 40s or 50s. I just felt really nervous just to serve them in general, because I, I don't know, I just had an expectation that they were going to be maybe like, more difficult than other customers. And then I asked one of the customers like, what can I get for you? And he said an iced tea and your phone number. And so I just kind of like giggled, because like, what else are you supposed to do? Right? Like, it's my job, like, I can't disobey the customer, the customer's always right.

14:06  
Katrina's story is one that many young woman can relate to. Usually, waitresses are not supported by managers when they complain about harassment from customers, or they remain silent so that they don't lose the chances of getting a good tip.

14:19  
So in my head I was just thinking like, this is I'm so uncomfortable, and I should like nobody should have to experience this at work but there's nothing I can do about it. Because if I tell my like managers every time my supervisors, they're just going to say like, you know, that's part of the job. And like, you can't disrespect the customers because we want them to come back and we want them to enjoy their experience. And I'm like, What about me enjoying my day at work like why, why does there they have to come before mine?

14:48  
Some restaurants similar to Katrina's have dress codes that sexualized the female workers, which makes it harder for them to defend themselves. Luckily, the Barbara Schiffer clinic here in Toronto offers a program called 'And Me Too.' This project helps increase access to justice for female employees harassed in the workplace, the biggest issue for female workers is speaking up about harassment. So this initiative helps women voice their complaints receive support when doing so. It aims to change the culture of restaurants so that women aren't subjected to this treatment. 

15:19  
And at the end of the day to its awareness, it's being kind. It's being attentive of the women around you. It's making sure that your friends get home safe at the end of the night when you go out. And so I do that every day, but I hope that one day like my career can completely help as well.

15:37  
It's really incredible what young people will do and sometimes even have to do in order to make some money. Sometimes it's overbearing men, other times it's overbearing fathers. Chad Wilcox, the subject of our next segment has a decision to make. Will he take over his father's lobster fishing license or pursue a career in radio? Originally purchased for 25 cents at the post office, these licenses are now selling for upwards of $1 million dollars. Reporter Emily Latimer spoke to Chad about the future of fishing.

16:23  
I've been on a fishing boat literally since I could walk. I grew up around it right, so we were on boats all the time. I used to go out like I was probably only five years old dad used to take me fishing every once in a while. I worked with my father on a fishing boat for eight years.

16:44  
Arnold Wilcox, skipper up the Unforgettable You 2. He's been coming with me since oh I don't know, three, four years old, I guess. He would always be full of piss and vinegar, the first couple hours in the boat, and then he go to bunk and then sometimes he wouldn't see him for six hours later.

17:14  
It wasn't until after grade 12 that I actually started full full time so starting in May, going right till the end. Yeah, it was a good experience. It's a lot of work. We used to haul 413 traps a day, so used to be about 1314 hour days. You do that for six days a week, you have Sunday off. So it was a lot of hours but again, it was only nine weeks so you got through it fairly quickly. I used to really like it as a kid so I don't know what changed, I guess difference from being just like a day on the boat to actually being work, I guess probably ruin the joy in it a bit. Probably when I got into high school, I guess doing it maybe full time kind of realized. I realized that yeah, this is not really for me. I love being on the water. I love being in the boat, but just that kind of work is not really where my interest lies. So I kind of lost my passion for it. When I first started I hated when it started. I hated looking forward to having to get up at like 230 in the morning then working till like four. I don't know if I loved it. I did it, it was good pay. It was nice working with my dad too but I thought when I was younger, I'd probably stick with it. But I don't think that's me these days. It's just not my kind of work really. I like being indoors. I like being outside but like that kind of work is you're exposed to the elements like for hours in a day right. And your wet most of the time, cold especially in the springtime. It's just that's I'd much rather be inside warm and dry that's kind of my thing. That I remember being in the car with my dad one day, just being like yeah, I don't know if I want to lobster fish or not. He's totally okay with that. He's like, that's fine. Do what you want to do.

19:27  
He threatened me the last couple of years with it and this year he followed through.

19:34  
We were thinking that he wouldn't that he'd be kind of sad. And I'm sure he was a little bit but he didn't show it and he was very supportive. He's like Yeah, you do what you want to do. No, you don't have to fish,

19:50  
I guess I don't know it was grad 10 or 11 he come fishing like as soon as school would be over he'd fish with me. And then when he finished grade 12 he fished with me lobster and crab every year, except this year.

20:09  
But I'm sure back in the mind he was probably like, ah. And he still says today he's like, well, we'll be there you know, if you ever change your mind, I'll have the license type of thing. But no, as of right now, it's definitely on the bottom of my list of things to do. I like the nine to five. Definitely a good change. There's something about it being the same all the time. That's really good. It's been interesting. I never thought I'd find myself in radio, but here we are. 1270  CJCB hey, I'm Chad Wilcox and that was Vince Gill with what the cow girls do. And good morning Cape Breton it is now 10 after seven and five degrees this morning, not a bad morning out there at all.

20:56  
Yep, it was, was more or less expecting, right, but anyway.  It is what it is.

21:08  
But no, he was really supportive and he wasn't that kind of person that push things. You know what I mean? When it came to fishing, because you do what you want to do and hopefully you like doing it. Probably in my dad's eyes he probably hoped it would be it was passed down from his father to him. And then I'm sure, I'm sure he'd assume that it'd be passed down to me.  It would be fantastic if I liked it, because I would be set with a job essentially, and a fairly good paying job. But as of right now, I'm just not interested in this, sadly.

21:44  
You know, a lot of kids that didn't have that opportunity. Young boys around here, we're really interested in it right? So then I just assume that he will grab onto too. I always told my kids I think, do what they want to do honestly put their heart into it, you know what I mean? But on the other side of the coin, I hate to see him work a pile hours in different jobs. When I know he can make probably more money doing what I'm doing.

22:26  
So in the end, Chad chose to pursue a career in radio. Somebody's got to tell Chad that he would probably make a lot more money if he was lobster fishing, then if he did radio, but that's just advice from fellow radio host. In our last story, we'll learn about Deepa Prashad another person who pursued pursued a career in broadcast. She talks about her journey to becoming a successful person of color in the media industry. We'll also hear from a student who's trying to navigate being a racialized person in the media landscape and what their hopes are for the future.

23:04  
A study done by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters found that approximately 12% of all on camera talent in Canada are visible minorities blogged to and Family Channel hosts. Deeper prashad is one of them. tepa said that her younger self would have never believed that she would be working in the TV industry today.

23:31  
When I was growing up, I didn't see many Indian women on television, especially in entertainment, because my specialty is entertainment. I love entertainment. And I would look at TV and be like, oh, gosh, what are my chances because I don't see anybody that looks like me.

23:46  
As Deepa went through school, she didn't think much of the broadcast industry. That was until one of her high school teachers sparked her interest in it.

23:59  
When I was in high school, I had this teacher who I love to death, his name is Mr. Steele. And one day, he was like, hey, I think you should be part of our com-tech class and do like the anchoring the news anchoring for the school. And I was like, why I was like, that doesn't interest me. Little did I know that's exactly what I wanted to do. And for some reason, he always thought that I would be good at it and I just never wanted to try it. So that was like in grade 10. And then I ended up falling in love with it. And he knew that like, okay, this is like a career path that I want to follow. I want to do video, I want to be on camera. So I think if I didn't have that extra push from him, I wouldn't have known what I wanted to do.

24:40  
From there Deepa said she fell in love with the idea of being an on camera host and applied to the Ryerson Radio and Television Arts program. Deepa said that she was nervous about getting experience in finding a job in the industry. But in just her first year at Ryerson, she landed the role of the new Family Channel TV host.

25:01  
Hey there Deepa Prashad here! Your brand new family channel host. No big deal. Who am I kidding? It's a huge deal. I'll be bringing you celebrity interviews, behind the scenes footage and first look at our new shows and videos. 

25:15  
Deepa said that she was excited about getting the job. But other people weren't so happy for her.

25:24  
I do find that people try to like belittle you because you're a person of color. I got hired to be the host of the Family Channel and a lot of a lot of students from RTA had auditioned. And when they found out I got the job, they're like you only got it because you're Brown. It's like a coping mechanism for people like if they're somehow not happy that they didn't get a position. Their automatic fallback is, well, you only got it because you're Brown, and they're filling some sort of quota. And I was like, I don't believe that because they should be hiring the person that has the best ability for the job, regardless of your color, or whatever else they try to like pin on you. So I think that was the first time I felt like, oh, gosh, I have an uphill battle, but you just have to stick with it and push yourself through it too.

26:15  
As the longest running on air host for Family Channel, Deepa has reached millions of children across the country. She says that it's important for her to be able to be someone that young children of color can relate to, because that's not something that she really had growing up.

26:32  
To me is really important. And I think this also ties back into the idea that I'm Indian, like, I actually had a lot of young Indian girls, like, reach out to me on social media be like, hey, like, we're so excited to see you as the host of Family Channel like we can relate. So to me that's like really, really important because I felt like I didn't have that. So to be the face of a channel like that, that kids are watching and kids are very impressionable at that age. I think it's super important. 

27:03  
In 2018, it was Deepa's final year of the RTA undergraduate program. At the time, she had already been a host for Family Channel for three years, but this year Blog TO hired her as their first ever full time host.

27:19  
What's up guys, it's Deepa and we're about to check out Toronto's newest fried chicken sensation. Now I feel like cheese and fried chicken this may be the place for you.

27:28  
Despite Blog TO being such a large entertainment platform for a diverse city like Toronto, she still face some backlash because of her race.

27:37  
People still judge me because I'm Indian people will be like, why did you hire an Indian girl to be like the face of Blog TO and they'll be like, why is this girl here? Like it should have been a white girl and I'm like, why are you still fighting about this? Like, is it really that bad that I'm brown and that I'm like a face of a really popular platform because I think being diverse is super important. Again, this, this social media platform reaches almost the entire city and it's important to have representation from every single culture.

28:12  
Looking back at her journey, and where she is now, Deepa says that it was frustrating receiving all this criticism around her achievements. But knowing that her hard work was paying off, was keeping her going.

28:25  
In this industry, everybody, everybody is so hard working and you cannot be complacent, you have to make opportunities for yourself. You have to push like, Blog TO that wasn't a position, there was no hosting position. I emailed them and I was like, hey, can I get a job as a host because you don't have one and they're like, okay. so like, you have to quit, you have to make opportunities for yourself. Because if you wait for opportunities to come to you in this industry, I think you'll be very disappointed.

28:57  
Deepa's success in the industry has inspired many young people of color, with one particular group being students of color, who are looking to go into the media industry. Tyler Griffith, co founder of the Ryerson Journalists of Colour Association, says that seeing people of color and Canadian media encourages himself and other students to continue pursuing a career in this field.

29:23  
I think it motivates me in the sense of, there's just so many of them that I look up to. And I hope this doesn't sound bad, but there's like way more racialized journalists that I look up to that I think do amazing work than I do white journalists. And yeah, another part of it is kind of just like, how much better they are sometimes at catching things in the industry that are wrong or like how much better their work is because it's informed by their own personal lived experience. Like they have a very unique voice, they have something to bring to the table and they're not afraid to call out things when they're wrong.

29:58  
Tyler says that he helps Canadian newsrooms will be better diversifying their staff.

30:04  
I think even just gauging by my newsroom here, the community level at Ryerson, like this is the first time in a long time, or maybe ever, I think where we've had more women on masthead. Like there's only like a handful of like white reporters. And like, I just see that slowly, kind of mixing into the large industry. Obviously, when you get to like bigger publications, there's it's still very white male dominated at the top. But I think as time goes on in our generation kind of gets into those positions that's gonna change and I think all of it is for the better.

30:37  
As Tyler remains hopeful of having more racial diversity and Canadian media, students alike look to industry professionals, like Deepa, who proves that people of color can be successful in the media industry.

30:54  
Well, there you have it. A few stories from Canadian people at work doing very different jobs, but all being faced with a choice from sugar dating to waitressing, lobster fishing to onscreen entertainment. You heard it all right here on this episode of On The Job. Special thanks to Angela in the studio and Janice for helping with critiques. I've been your host Gracie Bryson and it's been a slice.