May 1, 2017
SHARE
CANADALAND
#181 Desmond Cole: Celebrated and Resented
On April 20, Toronto Star columnist and Newstalk 1010 host, Desmond Cole, gave a powerful deputation at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting. He then stood in protest, calling on the board to restrict police access to ‘carding’ data. The meeting eventually adjourned, and Cole was escorted out by police officers. For almost five years now, Cole has been using his platform as a journalist to report on and push back against ‘carding’—which disproportionately affects Black people—by the Toronto Police. Cole—former host of CANADALAND COMMONS—joins Jesse Brown to discuss recent criticism he’s received from fellow journalists and the public, how mainstream media has failed to highlight the damaging effects of carding, his new CBC documentary The Skin We’re In, which explores anti-Black racism in Canada, and the book he’s writing about Black Canadians.
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher

On April 20, Toronto Star columnist and Newstalk 1010 host, Desmond Cole, gave a powerful deputation at a Toronto Police Services Board meeting. He then stood in protest, calling on the board to restrict police access to ‘carding’ data. The meeting eventually adjourned, and Cole was escorted out by police officers.

For almost five years now, Cole has been using his platform as a journalist to report on and push back against ‘carding’—which disproportionately affects Black people—by the Toronto Police.

Coleformer host of CANADALAND COMMONSjoins Jesse Brown to discuss recent criticism he’s received from fellow journalists and the public, how mainstream media has failed to highlight the damaging effects of carding, his new CBC documentary The Skin We’re In, which explores anti-Black racism in Canada, and the book he’s writing about Black Canadians.

More from this series
What connects Fidel Castro and a stocky Belgian named Georges to the worst campaign of political violence in modern Canadian history?
September 25, 2023
Have the business practices of one of the world's biggest liquor monopolies damaged wine writing? And, is the environment created by this vacuum in the world of journalism being abused by some high profile writers?
September 18, 2023
When some Canadians look south of the border, sometimes all they can think is: thank god I’m Canadian. But can a Coffee Crisp, or the pronunciation of the letter Z, really save us from the rise of fascism?
September 11, 2023
It’s possible that Chantal Hébert’s journalism once held Canada together. She joins Jesse for a discussion about what’s appropriate in political news coverage, and what (if anything) needs to change.
September 4, 2023
Canada’s biggest grocery chains spent nearly 2 billion last year buying up their own stocks.
August 28, 2023
Foreign Interference by the Chinese government into Canadian politics is probably the biggest news story of the year, and yet we know so little about it. What was the interference? Why did it occur? Did it work? Who was involved?
August 21, 2023
What’s it like to podcast in a country where freedom of expression can land you in jail?
August 14, 2023
Jesse Brown might think himself quite the question master, but today the tables have turned and our guest host, Jonathan Torrens, investigates the inner workings of this show's host.
August 7, 2023
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND