Black lives matter. It’s an inarguable truth that people somehow continue to argue about, and in recent weeks we’ve seen both the U.S. and Canada grapple with the fact that when police officers engage with Black civilians, those civilians disproportionately end up dead. George Floyd in Minneapolis. Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto. Their names are the latest to join the apparently never-ending list of civilians whose lives ended in the presence of police. In the wake of widespread protests in the U.S. and Canada, calls to defund police budgets are gaining attention like never before.
In this episode, host Norm Wilner is joined by NOW writers Radheyan Simonpillai, who’s covering the toll police brutality is taking on Black mental health, and Sadaf Ahsan, who’s been covering the Black Lives Matter protests. We’re accompanied by filmmaker Charles Officer, who directed the documentaries Unarmed Verses and The Skin We’re In, and Sandra Hudson, a vice-chair at the Black Legal Action Centre, which delivers legal aid services to low- and no-income Black Ontarians.
Hosted by senior film writer Norman Wilner, NOW What is a twice-weekly podcast that explores the ways Torontonians are coping with life in the time of coronavirus. New episodes of NOW What will be released every Tuesday and Friday. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, listen on Spotify or just play it below. And remember, we’re all in this together.
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