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WATCH: A mini-doc on the rise of Black Lives Matter Sudbury

As part of our Black History Month coverage, new media reporter Heather Green-Oliver and Communities reporter Jenny Lamothe teamed up to produce a mini-documentary on a movement that swept the city in 2020

With the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd on May 25, 2020, whose eight-minute death while a police officer knelt on his neck was captured in an agonizing video, anger swept across the U.S., Canada and beyond.

People in cities and towns took to the streets to express their anger and frustration at what many see as ongoing police violence and prejudicial treatment of visible minorities.

Floyd’s death was the catalyst, but the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Toronto, two days after the Minneapolis man’s death, was a catalyst, too. Korchinski-Paquet fell from the balcony of her high-rise apartment building after police were called to a domestic situation.

Although a police investigation determined officers were not at fault, her death led many to question whether a social worker, instead of police officers, could have diffused the situation and prevented her death.

The hashtag #DefundthePolice began to spread, and calls began to rise that some police funding should be redirected to community services better equipped to deal with people in crisis.

New media reporter Heather Green-Oliver and Communities reporter Jenny Lamothe teamed up to produce this mini-documentary that tracks the rise and impact Black Lives Matter Sudbury has had in the city, from their coming out event on Juneteenth 2020 to their continued efforts to effect social change in the Nickel City.


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