The Women Of Ill Repute Maureen Holloway and Wendy Mesley

Cindy Blackstock wants to fix things. She has fought for Indigenous kids to be treated with the same respect as everyone else. Which means better care and much more funding. And then we talk about why “Pretend Indians” are so infuriating. Very serious stuff. But change is happening. She radiates with hope, and is proud to be seen as a Woman of Ill Repute! We talk about destroyed childhoods and residential schools. Also, why her Spirit Bear is white, and why Cindy is a much better name than Wendy.Cindy Blackstock was born in 1964 in British Columbia to a Gitxsan father and a non-indigenous mother. She just won McGill’s highest award, the latest of so many, for her work fighting racism and establishing the Jordan Principle. She has a gazillion degrees, is a professor at McGill, and runs the First Nations Caring Society, which fights for equal funding and care for Indigenous kids.
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You think YOU’re busy? Zabrina Douglas is a nurse, a mother of five AND a Juno nominated stand up comic. How does she do it all? With a lot of help from family, but one role informs the others. Not only are kids an endless source of material, but it turns out that humour can be helpful and healing in health care too. Come spend some time with this fun and lovely woman. Topics include crazy Jamaican parents, lying to your kids, and how to roll a bunch of small laughs into a big one. 
Zabrina Douglas is arguably the busiest woman in show business, because she’s also a nurse and a mother to 5 children. Zabrina has been a regular on Kenny Robinson’s “Nubian Comedy Show” and performed at Just For Laughs, the Toronto Fringe Festival, the CBC and the Comedy Network. Her album “Things Black Girls Say” is available through Howl and Roar Records.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at womenofir@gmail.com
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Kathleen Wynne got so worked up about the John Tory story (stepping down as Toronto mayor re: affair with staffer 38 years younger) she spilled her guts about an inappropriate affair when she was 21, and he, uh, wasn’t. She just told her kids before it was published. Kathleen tells us why the Tory story matters, and why life in modern politics is so tough on women politicians like Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon.
She was the first woman to be premier of Ontario, and the first openly gay premier in Canada. Kathleen Wynne was an MPP, served in several cabinet posts, and then became premier for one term. Various controversies ended her second bid. She still believes in politics, and still wants to make a difference.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at womenofir@gmail.com
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The Badass of Badasses
Ann Medina says “The CBC fired me, and now they’re honouring me?”.  Yup, as they should. Medina was a foreign correspondent back when it was “revolutionary” for a woman to be in the field.  She tells us how talking to people about their lives was what mattered most, how she never worried about it being a man’s job, about why she got dumped, and how to solve all the problems of journalism today!
Ann Medina was a TV reporter for NBC and ABC before coming to the CBC in the 70’s, becoming bureau chief in Lebanon, filing for the Journal, anchoring Saturday Report and now being inducted into the CBC News Hall of Fame. She was on the academic path to be a philosophy professor until she started getting mad at how the news was covered. She is still mad, and still an inspiration.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at womenofir@gmail.com
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Canada may not have the best health care system on the world, but it’s better than most. That’s largely due to people like Dr. Danielle Martin. Read her bio for all her achievements, but just know that we have a fearless advocate for making things better. Just watch her take down a U.S. Senate Committee. We talk about all the problems: wait times, expensive drugs, and how to find a family doctor (hot tip: July is a good time to find a fresh one). Also, just a reminder to never ask a doctor at a party for free health advice.
Danielle Martin is Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, the largest academic department of its kind in the world. She has worked and managed clinics in rural and remote communities offering family and maternity care. Dr. Martin has spent years as a senior hospital executive, most recently at Women’s College Hospital. An educator and role model, Dr. Martin schooled a U.S. Senate Committee on health care in a video that went viral, earning 35 million views and counting. The recipient of many awards and accolades, Dr. Martin become the youngest physician to receive the F.N.G. Starr Award, the highest honour in the Canadian Medical Association. 
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at womenofir@gmail.com
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Are all geniuses rebels? Steve “Spaz” Williams changed movie history creating the first realistic monsters in James Cameron’s Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park. Now the big new doc “Jurassic Punk” reveals how he refused to play the game, got ignored at the Oscars, got pissed in more ways than one, and maybe found contentment. On our podcast we talk about it all as we get a tour of his beautiful house in the Ozarks and pretend we get all the techy bits.
Steve “Spaz” Williams grew up inToronto, studied animation at Sheridan College, then moved to California to work for Industrial Light and Magic. He worked with James Cameron and George Lucas creating the world’s first computer generated monsters on the Abyss, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park. He is now the subject of a huge documentary called Jurassic Punk. He now lives in the Ozarks but is holding onto his Canadian passport.
We love writing and would love for you to read what we write. Sign Up for our Substack Newsletter.
We also want to thank everyone at Schneider & Pollack Wealth Management for making this podcast possible.
If you would like to support the show, we do have partner opportunities available. Please email Wendy and Maureen at womenofir@gmail.com
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