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
“ It's not the time to turn your back and say, these are the wrong kind, these are not Canadians, or these are not our kind of people, or these are misinformed people.” -David Cayley
December 8, 2025
Someone thinks we should buy time on AM radio. Also, Alberta is Calling, quite literally, and they want a show.
December 4, 2025
“This idea of ‘gamblification,’ they're actually tracing features found in casino games that are being reproduced in games for little children.” - Sarah Grimes, professor in communication studies and the Wolf Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill
December 1, 2025
“ Our concern is that we will see maternal or fetal death as a result of a lack of access to care in Kamloops.” -Alix Dolson
November 24, 2025
“This has been the most challenging couple years of my life as a broadcaster, maybe as a person too.” -Jesse Brown
November 17, 2025
We don't seem to question, at least not in the public discourse, what it means that the same investment firm is enmeshed with so many of our media companies. -Gemma Boothroyd
November 10, 2025
You’re an expert in something, so tell us what the media always gets wrong about your favourite thing.
November 6, 2025
“Just stop having this vibes based pump and dump hype economy and start paying attention to foundations and to human thriving.” -Cory Doctorow
November 3, 2025
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND