On December 25th ’21, we lost one of our beloved hosts of this podcast, as Candy Palmater passed away. We’ve come together one more time with hosts Jamar McNeil and Anne-Marie Mediwake as they, along with the producers of this show, share some of their fondest memories of Candy. We will miss Candy’s powerful insights, funny stories and unique perspectives on so many important issues but especially on matters affecting Canada’s Indigenous communities. We are so incredibly honoured to have had her as part of this podcast ..read more

In our final episode, we are shining the spotlight on the mental health of the BIPOC LGBTQ+ community. According to Rainbow Health Ontario, LGBTQ2S+ people experience stigma and discrimination, and this stigma can have a variety of negative consequences throughout the life span. Large Canadian studies indicate that LGBTQ2S+ people are more likely than heterosexuals to report unmet mental health needs and were more likely to consult mental health practitioners. To help us better understand some of the community’s experiences, we have three guests who share their journey and insights on this epi ..read more

Canada’s Indian residential school system opened in the 1800s but the legacy of those schools is evident even today showing up in high poverty rates, over-representation of Indigenous children in foster care, a disproportionate number of Indigenous people in the prison system and hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women. And echoing what the community has been saying for a long time, since May of this year, more than 1,300 suspected graves have been found at or near former residential school grounds. In this episode, we speak with two residential school survivors, former First Nations ..read more

According to a report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, more than half of children under the age of 15 in foster care in Canada, are Indigenous. Being a foster child, and especially a racialized foster child, comes with its own set of challenges including stigma, lack of resources, navigating placements with different foster families and the impact on mental health including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic, anxiety disorders, major depression and drug/alcohol abuse. Black and Indigenous children are over-represented in the child welfare system and in today’s episode we are looking ..read more

Men within the BIPOC community face unique barriers when it comes to taking care of their mental health. Whether it’s cultural stigma or orthodox definitions of masculinity, men have historically shied away from seeking help for their mental health but experiences with racism, micro-aggressions and police brutality are just some of the factors impacting BIPOC men. For example, Indigenous men have a suicide rate that is double that of the Canadian national average. To shed more light on men and their mental health, 20-year student, Shemar Barnett, joins this episode of the podcast to share his ..read more

Hate crimes have been on the rise across Canada, with a 9% increase in anti-Muslim attacks in 2019 compared to the previous year. And with Muslim women, especially visibly Muslim women, being the target of hate, violence and discrimination, we are looking at the impacts of these traumas on the Muslim community’s mental health. In this episode we speak with author & mental health advocate Shaimaa Kraba, as she recounts being bullied and harassed in school in a post 9/11 world, facing micro-aggressions at work and experiencing anti-Muslim hate not once, but twice in Calgary. We also hear fro ..read more

Canada recently announced that it planned to welcome a little more than 400 thousand immigrants in 2021 to become permanent residents. But if you are racially marginalized, what is it like to start a new life in a new country? What are some of the barriers to navigate especially when it comes to taking care of mental health? In this episode you’ll hear from Arzoo Multani, a young South-Asian woman who had to deal with the racism, family stigma and the police first before she got help for her mental health, Petrona Joseph, author and entrepreneur, who’s aiming to destigmatize mental health in t ..read more

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