After 20 years, its time to say goodbye
There are some who are going to read this and be honestly shocked by what I’m about to write. This week I cancelled my memberships and monthly donations to the federal and provincial Libéral parties.
I should explain myself. This isn’t due to some falling out. Or a protest of government policy. I did use to work for the party in a previous lifetime. However that has come and gone. I have found a new passion and something that I enjoy doing very much. The 905er.
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I’m really proud of this. Give it a listen please.
If you have 40 minutes today give a listen to this week’s episode of The 905er. I’m really proud of this episode and is what we hoped to accomplish with this medium and format.
A vaccine is here, just in time for Christmas!
In case you’ve been living under a rock or really really in self isolation, you have probably heard the great news! A vaccine for COVID-19 is here. It’s viable and effective and the plans are being formed to roll it out to the public.
We spoke about it on The 905er this week:
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Some nonsense has gone on long enough…
This week’s theme of posting and news seems to be those on the edges of our community, that COVID-19 seems to make easy to discard. On my podcast The 905er, this week we centred our attention on the Ministry of Long Term Care home policies effects on separating families in it’s care.
Yesterday, I wrote about the Hugs over Masks people being allowed to get away with violating mask by-laws. As well, a friend of mine Brenda Agnew, shared a shameful story of trying to take her son into Indigo here in Burlington. Her son has a disability, and is the reason why mask exemptions were included in masking by-laws. I’m not going to speak for her. She can do that herself, you can find her Facebook post here:
Read more… When you’re ahead of the curve…
The last 24 hours have shown quite the development in a few episodes we’ve covered on The 905er. I highly recommend you click on the link to go through our episodes if you haven’t already to get caught up. But we’ve had follow up developments and supplements on three episodes we’ve produced in the last day or so. Click on the link below to subscribe and listen on your favourite podcast app:
Podcasting needs to change in Canada
For the last three months, I have been busy building my new podcast The 905er into a viable enterprise. I have been working with a colleague, Roland Tanner on this. Neither of us had experience creating podcasts, nor marketing them. However, like any good entrepreneur, that hasn’t stopped us from diving in head first.
We have learned quickly a lot of this new media industry in Canada. Mostly as to how there doesn’t seem to really be one. According to one estimate, there are approximately 850,000 podcasts out there right now. With that number you must be saying, Joel you’ve just contradicted yourself. Normally I’d agree, however there is another statistic that we’ve observed since beginning this venture.
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Part 2 is up
This week on The 905er we have a two part episode on Cameron Kroetsch’s investigation by the Integrity Commissioner.
You can listen to part 2 here:
A Lack of Integrity in Hamilton
The 905er Checks on the State of Our Mental Health – The 905er Podcast
A year into Covid-19 and our already-stretched mental health services in the 905 region are seeing unprecedented levels of demand. Adults and children alike are finding the uncertainty and isolation of life during pandemic to be a challenge, and as months have become over a year, those challenges only become more difficult.
In today's episode Joel and Roland talk to Melanie McGregor of the Canadian Mental Health Association, Halton Branch, about how Covid-19 has affected our mental health services, and the fact that access to mental health professionals can be far more difficult than it should be, because it is not fully funded under OHIP.
If you are facing mental health challenges because of Covid-19 or for any other reason, there are multiple services available to you 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Please make sure you speak to a professional as soon as possible.
If you are experiencing a crisis, call Crisis Outreach and Support Team (COAST): 1-877-825-9011.
If you are not in crisis, but need counselling, support or advice, CMHA Halton provides free walk-in counselling. At present this is being provided by phone. Call 289-291-5396 to speak to a counsellor within 24 hours.
Outside Halton, CMHA has branches across the GTHA and all of Ontario. Visit cmha.ca to find your local branch. You can make a donation to support CMHA's work at cmha.donordrive.com.
Mental health services specifically for children are provided in Halton by ROCK (Reach Out Centre for Kids). Their crisis line is 905-878-9785, and they provide multiple other methods for children and parents to contact them for assistance and support, detailed on their website.
Thanks to those who help us put this together:
Thanks to our patrons! You can join them at https://www.patreon.com/the905er. Supporting the 905er with a monthly donation enables us to do this podcast, to make it better and better, and to make sure it reflects your priorities. Please consider joining our growing team.
The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!
Don’t forget to check out 905er.ca, even if you get the podcast delivered to you automatically. We post additional news and stories there, and welcome submissions and ideas for additional content.
- The 905er Checks on the State of Our Mental Health
- Can't We Do Better Than NIMBY or YIMBY? With Shannon Gillies
- The 905er Returns to 1492 Landback Lane with Karl Dockstader and Sean Vanderklis
- Pride and Prejudice: The Aftermath of the HCDSB Pride Flag Debate, plus Vaccinations and Sick Days
- The 905er asks: "What is the true cost of COVID-19"
The 905er this week is taking a special interest in the Hamilton City Council’s Integrity Commissioner’s investigation of Cameron Kroetsch. For those of you who are not fully aware of the story, Mr. Kroetsch is an activist and advocate busy in the Hamilton LGBTQ community.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
