The Doc Project

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The Kerr Portions

Bob Kerr went from being a chubby kid to a fat teen. He learned to use his weight for jokes, even though he realized that his bullies weren't necessarily laughing with him. In college, Bob developed anorexia, and when it was on the verge of killing him, his parents made an extreme move: they called the police. Because the thing is, they'd already watched a son waste away. In Grade Six, Bob's younger brother John was starving himself and suicidal, and had to be wrenched away from a very dark place. Bob and John have never talked about how, and why, the two of them went down a similar path. Until now.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:27]

Blue Mountain

In 2018, as part of a special pilot program, Georgian College in southern Ontario recruited students almost exclusively from northern India, to help fill a desperate need for labour in hotels and resorts. Specifically, in the nearby ski town of Collingwood. The students have invested everything in the dream of permanent residency in Canada. For Harpreet Kaur Insan and Gurleen Singh, it's also about the dream of living their lives to their full potential, something neither of them feel they could have done had they stayed in India. But will they really find this opportunity here, in a snowy ski town a world away from everything they know?

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:09]

The Boxer

Maddison Fraser was 21 when she died in a car crash thousands of kilometres from home. But this story isn’t about Maddison’s death. It’s about the life her mother, Jennifer Holleman, believes she was trapped in when she died. As Jennifer puts the pieces together, she is certain her daughter was a victim of human trafficking. Now, Jennifer is telling Maddison's story hoping to change how the police investigate human trafficking, to help survivors get out, and to alert other parents — who may have no idea what's happening to their children.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:03]

The Long Walk

Last Spring, Amiththan Sebarajah hiked the 1000+ kilometre Arizona Trail. The trail starts at the US-Mexico Border in Southern Arizona. These borderlands are contentious, uneasy places for brown-skinned people to negotiate, where border patrol agents are vigilant. As he hiked, Amiththan, hoped to promote diversity on the trails. But as he walked, he also carried the trauma of his memories from the Sri Lankan Civil War.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:47]

Three Oaks

Halfway through her 12th grade year at Three Oaks Senior High School in Summerside, PEI, Lydia MacDonald started feeling sick. Fatigue, nausea, severe headaches. Lydia's mom, Toby, started hearing from other parents whose kids were complaining of similar symptoms. Toby began to wonder about renovations going on at the school. Then it came out — there was a breach in protocol during renovations at Three Oaks. Asbestos had been mishandled, and Toby sprung into action. But the discovery of the breach in protocol raised more questions than it answered.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:30:41]

Rhonda's Roots

In 1968 a group of students at Sir George Williams University in Montreal (what is now Concordia) called out a professor for racism. The university's mishandling of that complaint led to one of the biggest anti-racism protests in Canadian history. Philippe Fils-Aimé was one of the protesters. Meanwhile, 3000 kilometres away in Texas, the daughter he didn't know he had, was adopted into a white family. Now, 50 years later, Rhonda Lux is discovering the truth about her racial heritage and finding Philippe — and a sense of belonging.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:41]

Kinder Surprise

When Jennifer Warren's six-year-old son steals a Kinder Egg from a grocery store, Jennifer seizes the moment and stages what she thinks will be an invaluable lesson. But it turns out, you can't make a morality omelette without cracking a few chocolate eggs. AND when Ada Posner was 27, her mother, Ilona Posner, decided to finally share something with her. Starting with her pregnancy and stretching on into Ada's childhood, Ilona had kept meticulous journals of nearly every waking (and sleeping) moment of Ada's life. But it turns out, Ada is also a super detailed journal-keeper... and so is Ilona's father, Vladimir.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:27:36]

Finding Janelle

Betty Bird has been looking for Janelle Mercredi for 33 years. In the early 80s they were best friends, teenagers with attitudes who liked to make each other laugh. But after only a year together, Janelle moved away. A few years later, she was dead. Betty never really knew what happened. She didn't even know where Janelle was buried. But Janelle's death set Betty on a new path. Now, Betty is on a mission to find out what happened to Janelle, and to visit her grave so she can say thank you to the friend who changed her life.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:34:05]

Searching for Slumach's Gold

A long-lost gold mine... supposedly worth billions. A curse muttered by a man just before he was hanged for murder. Missing bodies. Torn-out maps. A seemingly endless list of clues. Slumach's gold is the stuff of Canadian legend. The mine is said to be located only about 40 km from downtown Vancouver, near Pitt Lake. And it's been attracting treasure hunters for decades. Meet the brothers who've chased the legend behind Slumach's gold for 60 years, as well as the contrarian who delights in disproving them. And then, follow the 39-year-old adventurer who thinks he's a hair's breadth from finally finding it.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:30:03]

Secrets of Stanley Park

Growing up, Rennie Smith never thought much about Stanley Park. The 1000-acre urban park sits on a peninsula on the edge of downtown Vancouver, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean. But every now and then someone would tell her she was a "throwback to the park." She never knew what they meant, until historian Jean Barman explained Rennie's family history to her. Rennie's family were from a mixed Squamish-Portuguese community who had lived in what is now Stanley Park for generations, until they were forced out and their houses were burnt down. Now, Rennie is on a mission to share the lost stories of Stanley Park.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:31:21]

Intervention

As Spencer Conway was driving his brother home from the hospital, he was full of questions. Garret, Spencer's brother, had overdosed some 30 hours earlier. Garret suffered from depression and he'd tried to kill himself before. But still, the hospital had discharged him, so things must be fine? After Spencer dropped his brother off at his Halifax apartment, Garret tried to take his own life again. He died later in hospital. The thing is, Garret was part of a program called "The Circle of Support" that could have let his brother know that Garret's doctors didn't think he should be alone. So why wasn't Spencer told? Reporter Elizabeth Chiu asks that question in today's story, and finds that there are proven methods of suicide prevention that are not being implemented in Nova Scotia.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:54]

Think of a Horse

Close your eyes and imagine a horse. What do you see? Statistically, you can probably picture the horse in your mind. The colour, the flowing tail. Tom Ebeyer can't do that. Tom doesn't have a mind's eye, and for the first 20 years of his life he didn't even know what a mind's eye was. But now, Tom is finding other people like him, and they are finding belonging in their difference. Plus, they finally have a name for it: aphantasia

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:09]

Independence Day

Think finding housing is hard? Try adding a wheelchair... Sean Towgood has cerebral palsy and has been on a waiting list for supportive housing for four years. He's desperate to move out of his mom's house and into the city to start his adult life. Now, Sean is on a mission to find out where he is on that list, and whether he'll ever get off it. He also wants to meet someone who actually lives in supportive housing, to find out if it's everything he's dreamed of.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:30:44]

Hutterite Runner

Elaine Hofer lives in Green Acres, a Hutterite colony nestled in the southwestern corner of Manitoba. Elaine spends her days working with her community and teaching at the local school. And although she is 38 years old, as an unmarried woman Elaine lives at home with her parents and two adult siblings. But for all the tradition and responsibility, there is one thing Elaine does just for herself... Elaine is a trail runner, running across the fields with her long skirt flapping in the breeze. Her love of running is sparking something bigger, and Elaine is bumping up against the edges of tradition.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:31]

The People's Ice Bridge

Since 1896, the residents of Dawson City have been betting on the Yukon River: the day, hour and minute when the river ice will "break up" in the spring. Because of the ice pool bet, the date and time of the past 123 break-ups have been recorded... and for the past four winters, the river has been behaving completely differently. As the river changes, so do the lives of the people who live along its shores.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:18]

Stand Up Bureaucrats

Ron Porteous and Rae-Ann Kublick's day jobs sound pretty dull - Ron's an IT guy for Canada Post and Rae-Ann's a government analyst. But by night, the two public servants are taking a six-week course on stand-up comedy that will have them cracking jokes in front of a roomful of strangers come graduation night. Also, to gain Ron and Rae-Ann's trust, Omar Dabaghi-Pacheco, an anchor for CBC News in Ottawa, has promised to do a set himself. Will Ron and Rae-Ann be able to poke fun at their day jobs? Will Omar return to the CBC Ottawa newsroom drenched in flop sweat? Will everyone be able to live their lives a little bigger?

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[mp3 file: runs 00:29:23]

Revolution Photo

Samira Mohyeddin thought she knew pretty much everything about the Iranian revolution - a revolution that caused her own family to leave the country for Canada when she was four years old. So when she saw that the photojournalist David Burnett had published a book on his own time in Iran in the 1970s, she couldn't wait to pore over his photos. Samira got to page 126, and a shot of a group of women standing in a stadium. And that's when she saw her mom, Zarrin. Zarrin and the other women were at an anti-revolution rally that, after the photo was taken, would turn violent. 100 days later, Zarrin left the country. And she had no idea that the photo existed.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:41]

Three Weddings and a Funeral

Joanne and Bob Wotherspoon are soulmates, but that didn't stop them from getting divorced. Their complicated love story spans over thirty years, documented in meticulous detail through home videos, wedding speeches, and Bob's autobiographical music. For years, Bob would write and record love songs that he'd send to his ex-wife, Joanne, and she'd treasure them. So when Bob got sick, the couple reexamined their relationship. Soon it was up to hospital staff to pull off the (re)marriage of the century.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:30:22]

Me, myself, and han

Eunice Kim was born in South Korea and speaks the language fluently, but recently, she stumbled upon an unfamiliar word: han. Han has no English translation. It's used to describe a combination of rage, grief and regret - a feeling so powerful, some believe you can die from it. To many Koreans, han is part of the cultural DNA. Once you know what it is, you see it everywhere, from Korean movies to the unofficial national anthem. So, how exactly did it escape Eunice? Why did her family never mention it? Eunice turns to her grandmother, her mother, and her father to ask them about han. Have they had it all this time? And is it possible that she's inherited something she never even knew existed?

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:09]

Doctor Piano

Nola Keeler quit tap-dancing when she was seven years old, never expecting to regret it. But decades later, when her 12-year-old daughter started dancing, Nola decided it was time to slip back into her dancing shoes and take the stage. AND when Patrick Kahn and his wife saw their Halifax apartment, they knew it was the one. Second floor, in a beautiful Victorian style house... but there was 500-pound problem. The piano that Patrick has owned and loved for 30 years couldn't get up the stairs. So Patrick called Doctor Piano, aka Gary Trenholm, who learned piano tuning at the Halifax School for the Blind, and has been THE piano guy in Halifax ever since.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:09]

The Motherhood Mosaic

Two stories of mothers bridging the divide between cultures. First up: When Bebe Carletti's mother immigrated from El Salvador to Canada, she wanted a better life for her children. So how will she react to Bebe's tattoos, when, for her, tattooing represents fear and violence in her old country? Next: Fourteen Japanese mothers gather in downtown Toronto for their singing circle, surrounded by their young children.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:09]

The Seamstress in the Basement

Growing up, it seemed to Pascal Huynh that whenever he went over to his aunt Thi Dung's house, she was in the basement, bent over a sewing machine. As a child, he didn't question it. But as he grew up, it struck him as more and more strange. Now, Pascal has re-opened family history to reveal that his aunt, Thi Dung Nguyen, spent 30 years toiling long hours as a seamstress, feeling trapped, pressured for money, and isolated by language. Until finally, she found a way out.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:29]

Towel of Song: a documentary-musical

One day, Tom Howell walked into a store on Toronto's Queen Street East, overwhelmingly drawn to a sign that said "Turkish towels have arrived at last!!!" Tom didn't know what a Turkish towel was. $250 later, he's still scratching his head over the thin, trendy towels, especially when confronted with his fiancée's insistence that they don't actually dry you - which she argues is a towel's one job. But still, Tom is inexplicably attached to his Turkish towels. Why, in the face of an item's questionable usefulness, do we hold onto it nonetheless? This is one of the questions that inspired our first ever Doc Project documentary-musical!

Download Towel of Song: a documentary-musical
[mp3 file: runs 00:28:20]

Sisterhood of the Travelling Exoskeleton

When Alex McEwan walked across the stage at his high school graduation, the audience went wild. Not because he was collecting his diploma, but because he was walking at all; Alex is paralyzed. But Alex wasn't cured, he was using an exoskeleton, a wearable robot that lets patients control the motion of their legs through movements in their upper body. Only catch is, you don't get to keep it. Once you've had your turn with the exoskeleton, it passes on to the next person.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:20]

The Comedian's Guide to Family Bonding

At 12 years old, Zachary Coffin is quite possibly the youngest comic in Winnipeg. His mom, Dawn Lavand, makes for his best material. But Zack's got to be careful, because Dawn is a stand-up too! PLUS: Comedian Bob Kerr and his dad loved nothing better than sitting outside on summer evenings, looking at stars, listening to crickets... and arguing about homosexuality. Bob - who is straight - just couldn't convince his dad that gay people weren't "destined for the hell locker." But when his dad got sick, a nurse named Terry accomplished what Bob never could.

Download The Comedian's Guide to Family Bonding
[mp3 file: runs 00:29:09]

Kai and Wendy

There's a lot of common ground that parents share. From diaper changes to bedtime stories, or going to the park, or the local pool. But is there space on this common ground for parents with disabilities? In this documentary, Kai and Wendy talk honestly about how they must constantly adapt their parenting... as the infrastructure they parent within remains resolutely ableist.

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[mp3 file: runs 00:28:16]