An Interview with Charity Hicks

“Nothing better illustrates the heartless and mechanistic nature of our system than modern day gold mining.” Sakura will give an overview of the gold mining industry, from environmental and human rights impacts to an overview of many communities resisting its abuses. She will also talk about the complicity of the Canadian government in collaboration with governments around the word, with a focus on the cracks in the system when this corruption has been exposed. Sakura will also explain what we can do to combat this unnecessary evil.

CKUT 90.3 FM, QPIRG Concordia, No One Is Illegal, The Anti-Colonial Solidarity Collective, Climate Justice Montreal, and Submedia.tv present The 7th Edition of Under The Weather Defending the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Extraction featuring MEL BAZIL, indigenous Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en organizer, sovereigntist, and anarchist of the Unist'ot'en Action Camp http://unistotencamp.com/ With an introduction by Clifton Nicholas and a special opening by the Buffalo Hat Singers

This is the 6th edition of Under The Weather, featuring Joanna Petrasek MacDonald of the Climate Change Adaptation Research Group A Necessary Voice: Youth Engagement in Climate Change Policy, Research, and Action She is currently completing her Master’s thesis at McGill on the impacts of climate change on the mental health and well-being of Inuit youth in Nunatsiavut, Labrador and the connection between participatory video and youth resilience. Joanna’s interests in youth and climate change stem from a background in climate activism, including having attended both COP15 and COP16 for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as a Canadian Youth Delegate, as well as serving on the Executive Committee for the Sierra Youth Coalition. Come hear about how Joanna has bridged the gap between activism and academia in youth-based climate justice organizing and research! For more information on the Climate Change Adaptation Research Group, visit http://www.jamesford.ca/ Also featuring a special presentation by Thomas Pringle and Tyler Lawson of the Moving Image Research Lab at McGill University! We'll be doing a special collaboration with MIRL in June, so stay tuned for that! In the meantime, check out http://mirl.lab.mcgill.ca/

March featured a special in-studio edition of Under The Weather. The focus was on urban sustainability. We interviewed Kevin Manaugh of the McGill School of Environment and the School of Urban Planning and then sat down for a round-table discussion with Julia Freeman and Marieve Isabel of the Montreal Urban Sustainability Experience at McGill University. Special thanks to Melissa Fundira for interviewing Professor Manaugh and for joining us in-studio!

The Soil Connection: Eating Meat For the Good of the Planet a lecture by HOLLY DRESSEL Best-Selling Author, Teacher, Environmentalist and Researcher Best-selling author and researcher, Professor Holly Dressel of McGill’s School of the Environment is one of Canada's most recognized names in teaching, environmental studies, health care, economic concerns and aboriginal issues. Dressel is best known for her work with celebrated environmentalist David Suzuki on film and radio programs, as well as the three books they have written together: From Naked Ape to Super-species, Good News for a Change and More Good News. All three books handle problems specific to urban environments and argue for the extreme importance of biodiversity in the healthy survival of all systems, from water and carbon cycles to climate and social cohesion. She is also the writer, producer, broadcaster or researcher for many radio and television series and documentaries, mostly done for CBC and the NFB. In addition to her involvement with environmental subjects, Dressel wrote Who Killed the Queen? The Story of a Community Hospital and How to Fix Health Care, the most complete book on the history and status of the Canadian Health care system. Professor Dressel is in demand as a journalist, speaker and media expert on a variety of issues, including climate change, economic systems, biodiversity and habitat preservation, indigenous and traditional systems, public health and genetic engineering. Dressel has worked for many years with native and traditional communities around the world, from the Quebec Cree and Mohawk to the people of Colombia’s Choco and the Kerala region of India.

This is the fourth edition of Under The Weather, featuring Dr. Timothy Merlis of the McGill University department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Timothy Merlis´s research focuses on modelling climate sensitivity, tropical cyclones, and atmospheric circulation. Listen to this podcast to hear about climate modelling and the challenges of researching climate change, what kinds of predictions these models can make, and how climate research can be tied in to policy-making.

In November 2013, when Detroit community organizer Charity Hicks visited Montreal to give her lecture for Under The Weather, CKUT programmers Melissa Fundira and Irene Dambriunas sat down with Charity for a one-on-one interview. Take a listen!

Visionary Organizing in an Age of Climate Crisis with Detroit organizer Charity Hicks Many people feel we live in ecologically destructive, highly unequal and spiritually toxic economies. They crave an alternative. But what should it look like? And how will we get there? Detroit is a city on the front-lines of neoliberal and ecological devastation. It is also a laboratory for alternatives. Detroit organizer Charity Hicks will share lessons about organizing for a transition to diverse, democratic, life-affirming and earth-centred economies. In an age of climate and ecological crisis, she will address the need for a new paradigm of movement-building that affirms place-based, resilient organizing and takes the leadership of Indigenous communities and communities of colour. Charity Hicks is a writer, researcher, healer, artist, grower, and organizer involved in environmental and food justice, urban agriculture, Africana culture, and restorative justice. She is the policy fellow for Eat 4 Health Detroit and an organizer of the Detroit Food Justice Taskforce to promote a justice-centred food system. She is the policy director of the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, helping to empower the Detroit community to protect, preserve and value the land, air and water. She is a founding member of several organizations in Detroit including the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, an urban herbalist and ecological awareness group and an African Women’s Society. She was the lead person on the team that wrote the City of Detroit Food Security Policy. She was the Health, Healing and Environmental Justice point person for the US Social Forum in Detroit in 2010. Charity also sits on the board of several social local and regional social and environmental justice organizations, including the Detroit Public Schools Health Council and Peoples Water Board Detroit.

In October, the National Energy Board met in Montreal to make its final arguments regarding the reversal and expansion of Enbridge Line 9b, a pipeline running from Montreal to Sarnia. This edition of Under The Weather was a panel featuring three climate justice organizers and their takes on the National Energy Board meetings. The panelists featured are: Cameron Fenton of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition Cindy Spoon of the Texas Tar Sands Blockade Amanda Lickers of the Swamp Line 9 Blockade The panel was moderated by CKUT news programmer Aaron Lakoff.

Amy Miller, director and producer of The Carbon Rush and No Land No Food No Life, gives a talk on how documentary films can serve as educational tools in the climate justice movement. This talk took place on Thursday, September 12th 2013 at McGill University and was broadcasted live on CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal.