Lorna Crozier on CBC’s The Current (photo: CBC)
Recent Order of Canada winner and Department of Writing professor Lorna Crozier‘s spot guest-hosting a special episode of CBC’s The Current on Friday, December 2, proved so popular that she was invited back again to the show on Thursday, December 8.
The original episode—titled “We Are the 10 Percent: Poverty in Canada”—got such an overwhelming response that Current host Anna Maria Tremonti asked Crozier to return for a special call-In edition to hear what it is like for people to be poor in Canada.
“Last Friday we heard about how poverty can isolate and silence a person. But after last Friday’s special many people found their voice,” reads the write-up on the Current‘s website. “The emails, the voice messages, the heartfelt reaction overwhelmed us all.”
“For a group of people who number in the millions, they are essentially invisible, unseen, unheard . . . far too easy to ignore,” it continues. “The poor in this country aren’t even officially counted. There is no official national formula to track who joins the ranks. And what is becoming increasingly clear is that it doesn’t take much to join those ranks.”
Even literary magazine Quill and Quire perked up their ears at the episode, with writer Natalie Samson quoting Crozier on their online Quillblog: “I know what it’s like to come from a needy family. Though both my parents worked, we lived in substandard rental housing. We went without. And I keenly felt my mother’s worry as she tried, and failed, to make ends meet.” Samson also pointed out that the episode featured poetry readings by Crozier’s husband and former Writing instructor Patrick Lane.
Listen to the original episode here.
Catch the listener response to the episode here.