30 min listen
Why were asylum seekers sleeping on the streets of Toronto?
FromThe Big Story
ratings:
Length:
25 minutes
Released:
Jul 19, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
Asylum seekers come to Canada for safety and a better life, but instead a group of them ended up sleeping on the streets of the country’s biggest city.The Peter Street shelter intake office was thrust into the national spotlight after the city–dealing with an overwhelmed shelter system–started to refer asylum seekers to federally run programs. But when people in need showed up to Peter Street site they were met with long waits, forcing them to stay on the street out front for weeks with no other place to go.Community leaders have taken matters into their own hands, helping move the unhoused people to GTA churches. Hours after they stepped up, the federal government announced more than $200 million nationally to fund interim housing for asylum seekers, with about half going to Toronto.But will this last-minute funding make a difference? And what will it take to create sustainable housing for asylum seekers in Toronto – and beyond?GUEST HOST: Melissa Duggan, reporter for CityNewsGUEST: Sharry Aiken, Associate Professor specializing in immigration and refugee law at Queen’s University
Released:
Jul 19, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (100)
Everything you need to know about the (sigh) sixth wave of Covid: Hospitalizations are climbing again in parts of the country, and cases are rising in others. It's deja vu all over again. It's clear we're in for at least some sort of Spring rise in Covid-19, driven by the BA.2 subvariant, but how bad could it be? Is it possible this is a sign of a virus playing itself out? What can people who are worried do to protect themselves? And ... haven't we done this enough by now? Will we ever figure this out? GUEST: Colin Furness, infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto by The Big Story