By Ryan Field -  Ryan is a Community Journalist with FOCUS MEDIA ARTS CENTRE.

News and Views is a radio program produced by Radio Regent (www.radioregent.com) that presents news impacting on Toronto’s Downtown East. The radio studio is based in Regent Park.

Toronto’s Downtown East communities are home to a significant population of indigenous residents which is why we began today’s third episode of News and Views focusing our attention on missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada held outside the Metropolitan Toronto Police Headquarters.

On February 14th, News & Views reporters attended 18th Annual Strawberry Ceremony outside of police headquarters. The ceremony was created to honour the lives of the missing and murdered Indigenous woman in Canada. According to speakers at the event, many of the mysterious deaths have yet to be investigated. As part of the ceremony attendees were each given a cup of water symbolizing life and connectivity, and a strawberry symbolizing an aspect of the female plant medicine which participants later consumed. The event highlighted the importance of collective healing and to never give up on highlighting the injustice of the police against Indigenous communities.

Next, our show hosts – Jesse and Ryan, discussed negative news reporting and how it’s important for citizens to form their own views as well as to keep a balanced perspective and not get overwhelmed by focusing only on the negative. Subsequently we featured a positive news story coming out of Montreal about a grass roots graffiti removal company. Corey Fleischer has been removing swastikas’s and other hate speech from walls. His work has inspired a global movement and Mr. Fleischer now locates and removes hateful speech throughout Montreal free of charge. He is erasing hate and the world is a better place for it.

Radio Regent is located in one of the most diverse neighbourhoods in Toronto and being black history month, News & Views profiled the Toronto Black Film festival (Feb. 15-20th) https://torontoblackfilm.com/. Cool, creative, independent, and racially diverse, the festival is about showcasing powerful black films and creating a space for reflection and debate on major socio-economic and social issues.

News and Views had to cover the circumstances that led John Tory, Toronto’s now ex-mayor 65th to step down from duties. One camp feels he should have stayed and continued his work while another feels that it was the right decision to leave his position. Regardless of where you stand, his actions ignited a societal discussion around consent, power, and relations in the workplace. It would be nice if we could have a mayor serve out their term without scandal and controversy. The controversy spilled into the budget meeting which Tory chose to attend before leaving. It was hard for him to even speak due to all the loud protesting against the budget he was advocating for and the extramarital affair he had with a member of his staff. We will surely be keeping an eye on news about all the candidates that will be applying for the job of Toronto’s new mayor.

While on the topic of government and money, we ended the show by discussing the Green Belt, which is a stretch of protected land in Ontario that premiere Doug Ford is planning to allow for development. There is great debate about this because the Green Belt, for many, is a very special place. Many Ontarians, including residents of the Downtown East, feel environment sensitive land like the Green Belt are essentially the lungs of Canada and that if we start building on it, we sacrifice our health and the health of nature and biodiversity. Others are questioning the motive behind the government’s actions and raising issues of inside deals and unethical transactions. We plan to stay on this story so stay tune News & Views on Radio Regent!