Mind The Disruption National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health

Many public health practitioners provide a range of supports focused on sexual and reproductive health. Listen to this episode to hear about how Dr. Saraswathi Vedam and her team at the Birth Place Lab are disrupting the status quo for reproductive health research in Canada by intentionally centring the voices and priorities of communities that are under-represented and excluded from health research. Saraswathi speaks with host Bernice Yanful about how she works with others to bring the Lab’s vision for “reproductive freedom, safety, and justice for every person” to life. 

Check out this episode to learn from Chloé Cébron and Shezeen Suleman who are part of a growing movement mobilizing for the right to health care for all people living in Canada, regardless of immigration status. In this episode, Chloé, the director of policy and advocacy at Médecins du Monde, shares lessons from a successful advocacy campaign to expand health care coverage for all children living in Quebec. Then Shezeen, a midwife and co-chair of the Health Network for Uninsured Clients in Toronto, reflects on using advocacy as a strategy for health equity.

As Director of the Community Climate Resilience Lab, Dr. Imara Rolston recognizes that the climate crisis is a health emergency that will disproportionally impact racialized communities. Listen to this episode to hear how Imara and his team are bringing together non-profit leaders, grassroots leaders, academics, and policy makers and creating a Toronto-focused Racial Justice Climate Resilience framework. Through this work, they are supporting cites to reckon with historical slavery and colonialism and integrate community-driven solutions. Community outreach worker Diana Chan McNally then reflects on opportunities for public health to improve community engagement efforts.

As the National Director of Disability Without Poverty, Rabia Khedr is building a vibrant intersectional movement led by people with disabilities to end disability poverty through a new federal Canada Disability Benefit. Listen to this episode to learn from Rabia about why this benefit is so necessary and what is still needed to deliver meaningful change. Jonathan Heller, a visiting scholar at the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health, then shares practical strategies that public health can use to build community power and support movements like Disability Without Poverty.

Wendie Wilson is a mother, educator, artist, writer, community advocate and a member of the African Nova Scotian and Black Food Sovereignty working group for the Halifax region’s JustFOOD Action Plan, alongside registered dietitian Nickaya Parris. In this episode, Wendie and Nickaya provide a window into the transformative work happening to advance community-rooted food sovereignty action in Nova Scotia. Listen to this episode to learn about the food sovereignty movement and why it matters for public health.

As founder and Executive Director of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities and Community Health (ENRICH) Project, Dr. Ingrid Waldron works alongside African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities to disrupt environmental racism as a necessary part of the environmental justice movement. In this episode, Ingrid positions environmental racism as an urgent health equity issue and highlights how the ENRICH project builds community power through meaningful partnerships, research and collective action. Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, a former Medical Officer of Health, then reflects on how public health can better respond to communities whose health is affected by systemic racism.