As founder and Executive Director of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities and Community Health (ENRICH) Project, Dr. Ingrid Waldron works alongside African Nova Scotian and Mi’kmaw communities to disrupt environmental racism as a necessary part of the environmental justice movement. In this episode, Ingrid positions environmental racism as an urgent health equity issue and highlights how the ENRICH project builds community power through meaningful partnerships, research and collective action. Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, a former Medical Officer of Health, then reflects on how public health can better respond to communities whose health is affected by systemic racism. 

(00:00) Introduction

(8:38) Interview with Dr. Ingrid Waldron 

(42:35) Interview with Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed  

Episode Guests: Dr. Ingrid Waldron is Professor and HOPE Chair in Peace and Health in the Global Peace and Social Justice Program at McMaster University, the Founder and Executive Director of the ENRICH Project, and the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Canadian Coalition for Environmental and Climate Justice. Her research and advocacy, as well as her 2018 book There’s Something in the Water and her 2020 Netflix documentary of the same name have played a pivotal role in creating awareness about and addressing environmental racism. Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed is the Associate Dean of Serving and Engaging Society for Dalhousie University’s Faculty of Medicine, and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology. She is a public health specialist physician with 18 years experience, having served as the former Medical Officer of Health for the Halifax area and Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health for Nova Scotia. 

Learn more:

• Disrupting Whiteness
• Disrupting the Status Quo in Public Health
• Environmental Racism and Climate Change: Determinants of Health in Mi’kmaw and African Nova Scotian Communities (Canadian Climate Institute)
• Anti-Indigenous Racism in Canada (NCCIH)

Episode Credits: Production for this episode was led by Pemma Muzumdar and Rebecca Cheff, with contributions from Bernice Yanful and Carolina Jimenez (NCCDH). The episode was hosted by Bernice Yanful. The Mind the Disruption project team is led by Rebecca Cheff, with technical production and original music by Chris Perry. Promotion by Caralyn Vossen (NCCDH). Artwork by comet art + design. Sound credits: Clips used from There’s Something In The Water trailer and from the Senate of Canada. Mind the Disruption is a podcast by the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health. NCCDH is hosted by St. Francis Xavier University and funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent those of PHAC.