Future Intended Podcast

January 1, 2025 came and went last year, and with it, the deadline for implementing the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), a statute enacted 20 years ago to improve accessibility standards. Experts have warned that Ontario is “nowhere near” being fully accessible. In this episode of Future Intended, Rudi Wallace talks to Brad Evoy (Executive Director, Disability Justice Network of Ontario) about the AODA and how it fares relative to disability justice, a concept that includes understanding how disability intersects with other aspects of identity like racialization, gender and access to shelter.

One of the most sobering indicators of Hamilton’s affordable housing crisis is the erosion of affordable housing stock: increasing rents and the sale of buildings has dramatically reduced the number of affordable units in our city. There is no magic wand that will solve this complex issue but there are organizations that are doing what they can. One of those is a new non-profit organization called Rental Rescue, which has a focus on buying properties and keeping them in the affordable housing market through a variety of means. In this episode of Future Intended, Rudi Wallace sits down with Krystal Valencia (Founder, Rental Rescue) and Kevin Tom (Chief Investment Officer, FirstOntario Credit Union) to talk about a partnership that resulted in the purchase of a King St. East property that will be preserved as affordable housing. They discuss the logistical challenges, opportunities as well as the need for more partnerships like this one so that individual efforts add up to a greater good.

Although encampments have become more visible in Hamilton and other cities since the pandemic, they are not new. In the 1920s and 30s, a group of people lived in “ramshackle boathouses”, the so-called Shacktown of Cootes Paradise. This caused public debate at the time related to the beauty and orderliness of the city. Housing is a human right according to the Canadian government’s National Housing Strategy Act but there is also the potential for conflict between the enforcement of City bylaws and other rights of people living in encampments. This conflict is at the heart of a legal case initiated by Hamilton Community Legal Clinic claiming the City’s policy is violating people’s rights as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms including life, liberty, security and equality rights. In this episode of Future Intended, Rudi Wallace hosts Clare Freeman (Executive Director, HCLC) and Michael Ollier (Director of Legal Services, HCLC) to talk about the case and the importance of finding housing solutions for people experiencing homelessess.

In this episode of Future Intended, Rudi Wallace hosts Mirand Jurilj, Public Education Co-ordinator at SACHA, to talk about the organization’s history, its services, the annual Take Back the Night event, rape culture and how we all have a role to play in ending sexual violence.

Rudi Wallace hosts Dr. Rick Monture, Professor, English & Cultural Studies at McMaster University and author of We Share our Matters: Two Centuries of Writing and Resistance at Six Nations of the Grand River.