EOTP 010 Interview with Floyd Kane
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[00:00:00] Augy: Welcome back to the podcast today, I'm fired up about the guests that we have and we have great guests, but today is a superstar guest. And if you're watching TV and streaming shows right now, especially when it comes to dramas, there was a show on CBC and on Fox network that is hot, hot, hot, and that is Diggstown.
And so today I'm so pleased to talk to the creator and writer for Diggstown, but also someone who's from Nova Scotia, went to law school here, did his undergrad here is very connected to the community and he really unpacks for us. What happened with him throughout his life that led to him creating such a great series that people are eating up right now.
So today I'm pleased to welcome Floyd Kane.
Everyone welcome once again to Empathize Others: The Podcast today's episode is one I've been creating and trying to get together for a long time. Uh, the guest is someone who is probably one of the biggest guests that we've had on the podcast so far. And to me, I'm a little star struck because you know, this is someone who.
You know, I've, I've been really, really watching the work that they're putting out in the community work. And, uh, although we're both African Nova Scotian and we have connections, which we'll talk about, uh, when it comes to filmmaking, this person is doing big things in Canada, in the US and if you haven't heard of the series Diggstown, uh, Marcy Diggs, lawyer from this Halifax Dartmouth area, um, you've been under a rock because that show is one of my favorite shows.
And from, you know, many, many people have told me it's one of their favorite shows. So today we're pleased to welcome to this platform. Floyd Kane.
[00:02:17] Floyd: Hey, thanks, Augy. Great to be here.
[00:02:21] Augy: No worries, listen Floyd. So happy to get, you know, to get some time. And I know that you were here recently, then you're back, you know, your well you're, you move around.
That's what, that's what you do. But for me to get a little bit of time with you and, and, uh, you know, th the podcast really focuses on community, right? And, and, and there's always an angle around why is community important to you? So we always kind of start off with, you know, can you talk a little bit about, you know, where you're from, what community you're from, and, uh, and, and we'll start there.
[00:02:56] Floyd: Um, sure. I'm from East Preston, Nova Scotia. Um, that's I was born and raised there. Um, my whole, my whole entire family, my grandparents, my great grandparents. I mean, going back several generations, I mean, where I grew up as essentially, uh, if you look at the Queens Grant, At the registry of deeds, it's called the Kane subdivision.
So I grew up, my community was essentially this gigantic extended family that I have.
[00:03:32] Augy: Wow. That's a, you know, there's what a historical connection. And we know as African Nova, Scotians that, um, you know, we have a history that goes back hundreds of years. Right. And we often say that in Canada, when people say, where are you from?
You know, they see you in Toronto and Montreal, and so are you from Barbados? Are you from Trinidad? Are you from, and we're like, no, we're from Scotia. Like where, you know, so when, when you, when you link your community Floyd to almost like a Loyalist Deed right. Of, of that far back, um, that really speaks to, um, your sense of growing up.
Did you realize that you were part of that East Preston Kane, Thomas, community.
[00:04:16] Floyd: Um, 100%. I mean, my whole life I've like, I mean, I think for me like that community, because when I was growing up, there was no Metro Transit, right. There was the one bus that came, went in at 11 o'clock and came back out at six o'clock.
And if you missed it, you were hitchhiking home. So you're that community as a child. That was very much my world, right? Like, like even, even in terms of elementary school, like I went to elementary school in East Preston at Partridge River elementary, and the white kids were bused into our school. So it was a very different experience than a lot of other people had.
Right. And so then it wasn't until grade, I think grade five where during the summer Partridge River had burned down. And they built a new school at bell park, Bell Park academic center. And we were bused up into that school. And that was like, and that was sort of the introduction of like, you know, a larger worldview, should I say?
[00:05:31] Augy: Yeah. That, that integration. And we, we often talk about this Floyd on this, this, this podcast around community, when you don't know anything in your community, just your home, like you, you, and especially when you talk about, you know, pre Metro Transit going out the highway, you were at home a lot and you so you're around your family.
You're playing with your cousins, you're playing with your sisters and brothers and, and that is your community. And then, you know, sometimes the first. Realization, and then you say Partridge River was in your community. So you don't realize the difference and that other people are not really from your community and might not get along with their community and might look down on your community.
You probably don't realize that until you go to that first integrated school. Right?
[00:06:16] Floyd: 100%, 100%. I mean, like the way I grew up was very, I mean, it wasn't, it was different probably from the norm, but it wasn't different from, I think a lot of people in the black community during the time that I was growing up, um, which would have been in the seventies, eighties, um, you know, we didn't have running water.
Like I didn't have, we didn't have running water until I was 14. Well, um, you know, my dad was, you know, we lived in a four room, uh, like shingle house, like our house was made of shingles. On the outside. Right. And we had like four rooms inside the house. I mean, we had a woodstove where there was a hole cut in the gyprock so that you could actually get the heat from the woodstove, which burned, you know, throughout the night into the back rooms where we slept.
I mean, it was, it was a very, uh, basic growing up. I mean, to this day, that's one of the reasons why I do, I don't really have any large desire to go camping. I feel like, I feel like that's how I grew up. Right. So, um, yeah, it was a different, it was a very different experience than a lot of my. Well, certainly my white peers growing up and definitely, you know, people who were from the City.
[00:07:50] Augy: Yeah, that's, that's a great point for Floyd because, you know, we think about Halifax and people that don't know Halifax, a lot of our black communities are basically rural.
So if you look at Hammons Plains on Pockwock Road, you look at East Preston, North Preston, um, Lucasville, Cherrybrook,, you know, and Cherrybrook might know like all of those places, even though they're in the HRM, they're, they're pretty much in almost country rural settings. And so we grow up as, that's what it means to be Scotian.
Like we're a little bit country and we're a little bit urban and we kind of got a mix, a mix of the two and, and, and so take us now. So now you're, you're gone to high school and I'm sure. So where did you go to high school?
[00:08:35] Floyd: I went to Cole Harbour High.
[00:08:37] Augy: Okay. I taught at Cole Harbour, but I love Cole Harbour. Um, so now Cole Harbour is unique and it's, I want to bring that up.
Cause you talked about, um, going to a different elementary school, Bell Park, and then Cole Harbour is one of the only schools where local students don't really go to Cole Harbour. Some of them do, but you have Eastern Passage bussed in. You have North Preston bussed in, East Preston bussed in to this school. And so what was the next level from Bell Park to your sense of community?
Once you got the high school?
[00:09:12] Floyd: I think it was interesting, right? Like, I mean, I I'm somebody who I never, you know, to my benefit and detriment, I was never a joiner in terms of, I wasn't part of one group, I kind of glided through several different groups. As I went through high school, I was pretty much alone, kept to myself.
Um, I would say. For me, I think definitely what you had that was different from the Bell Park experience was you had a group of black kids and a group of white kids, both, uh, both communities like impacted by poverty, um, who had no experience being around each other. And I think they, and I think because of that, there was just a battle for turf, for ownership, for space.
And I think that all of that, you know, presented as it should, as it became about race. Because I think you, there just was a sense that, you know, how can you hurt? Like, you know what it is when kids are trying to hurt each other, you go for the thing. They know, they, they go, they try to find that the touchiest point.
Yeah. I think for a lot of, a lot of us, the touchiest point is race. I mean, I have people who can say a lot of things to me, even as an adult, but the moment that you say something that is racist, it's like we're having a conversation. That may lead to like something more because that's just, it's that painful.
Right. And so when people know that, so I think, I think a lot of that happened at, uh, Cole Harbour. And obviously when I went there, it culminated in, you know, the fight that happened, you know, back in 1989, the infamous. Yeah.
[00:11:20] Augy: Yeah. And that was funny. You bring that up Floyd, because I taught at Cole Harbour member, you know, probably a decade after that.
And, and at the time the remnants of there were still there. So the school was still early in, early out, Sunny Wicks was the full-time security officer that, you know, there's no other school that had that, but it's interesting that you bring up, um, community because that fight was amongst adults too, to a certain extent.
I mean, there wasn't, there was some school presence, but there were people who were from Eastern Passage, people that were from the Prestons that came because similar to, and I work at the Department of Ed now. And, and we deal with this a lot, like when one of our students feels, and that there's a racial incident.
The whole community is in on it. Like the parent groups are there there's and so those incidents would seem singular. They're not like bullying, like it's a singular thing, it's a community thing. And so what happened during that? What they might call the riot or whatever Cole Harbour was that the two communities it boiled over and it became something bigger than just the school?
[00:12:29] Floyd: Well, in, in, in, in my opinion, I feel like it was always something bigger than the school. Good point, right? Like, like I think that they're like, to me, like, I always had questions about why the kids who grew up on Lake Major Road on the other side of the bridge were never busted in the North Preston to go to elementary school.
Right? Like, like, why is, why is the Nelson Whynder Elementary School only zero to four, as opposed to zero to six? Like it's just to me, like.
There are all of these questions about why we, and when I say we, I mean the powers that be set up geographically and systemically, they set all of this up to fail. And to this day, like they've, they've never really corrected it. I mean, I'm still, and I, and I'm jumping ahead a bit, but like, it's like when I came down to do Across The Line, um, I think it back in like 2016, 2014, um, I was talking to a friend of mine at the Department of Education and they were telling me that the, the university numbers for multi-generational black Nova Scotians were the same as when I graduated from high school.
And that just was, that was shocking to me, you know? And, and I think that's like for me, That's, those are the fruits of the powers that be setting up a system, the kind of system that we set up.
[00:14:12] Augy: Right? Yeah. And you speak to, you speak to systemic racism, really Floyd, because it's not a one thing, but we look how, Sir Robert Borden is set up and Nelson Whynder's set up and, and, and, and Graham Creighton, and, you know, there's, there's things that are being done in the way that you're integrating some schools in some not that are leading to, you know, you bring youth together and adolescents that have never been together and expect that, that they're not going to, like you say, fight for territory and, and, and not really get along.
And also Cole Harbour's an example of, you know, busing and kids that don't even live close to each other at all. Right. And so that brings me, and I'm thinking every time we do this podcast for it, there's a beautiful kind of FA theme or threading. One thought as a kid, as a teenager, leads to you as a young adult, you lead to you as an adult.
So there seems to be a mix of artistic creativity and law equity. So as you go to St Mary's, is that a good call that you were kind of still that artistic person, but there was something about equal rights and fairness. That was also mixed into that. So talk about going to university and, and does, does that, does I'm kind of hearing that, does that make sense?
[00:15:33] Floyd: Um, it's, it's a, it's an interesting question. Um, just because I feel like the big thing, when I think about equity and I think about my university years and my high school years, it like a lot of my feelings around the topic of equity. We're formed by the fact that, so I, when I was in grade 11, I got a job working at the IGA Mic Mac Mall.
And I was the first black male. They hired as a car pickup boy at the time. That was what we were called. Um, you know, the people who put your groceries in the trunk of your car. Um, and when I started the day that I started and I'll never forget this, so I'm being taken around by this guy and he's introducing me to everybody, like all the people who are in the store as a new person.
And he tells this French Canadian woman who works in the produce department, uh, Giselle that my name was Kunta. And they think it's and they think it's the funniest joke. Right? They think it's just such a funny joke. And I just remember it and I didn't find this out until later on. Right. Like I just, and I remember just thinking, when I found out I'm like, okay, that's Nova Scotia that's to be expected.
Right. Like, cause I mean, I've been dealing with a lot of this, like racism and whatnot in the various forums in my entire life, but I'm in grade 11. Right. So, and this, and this is really the first time I'm spending a great deal of time outside of my community. So it's just, it just is, it's this weird thing.
Right. And then of course, I, um, later on the, this, the biracial woman who she works in the deli department, she comes out to see me in car pickup and she pres she proceeds to tell me about the conversation that proceeded me being hired, which was the, which in the conversation was essentially. To the head cashier, why don't you ever hire any black guys to work the front?
And essentially after this conversation happened, I got the call. And the reason I got the call was because they head cashier happened, happened to know my mother who worked at Zellers. Now, prior to this time, I'd come into IGA, dropped off three job applications. And I was later told that essentially, when a black guy came in to apply for the job, the applications were thrown in the garbage.
So, so for me, knowing all of this stuff, it feeds into a, it makes me more cynical about fairness and objectivity, right? When it comes to how we're treated in the workforce at a very young age, Right. And then on top of that, it just makes me, it makes me skeptical that there's goodness, you know, that, that, that you can actually get a fair shake because even when it appears like you're getting a fair shake, it's tainted by all of this, like BS.
So good. And
[00:19:18] Augy: so,
[00:19:20] Floyd: so, so, so this was this, this was what I like. This is what I was walking to into as somebody who was 16. Right. And so, and so then on top of that, you know, every day when I, like, when I worked in car pickup, and then when I, I worked for IGA for seven years, so I worked, I went through car pickup.
I became one of the first male cashiers. Uh, to ever work at the grocery stores. I w I ended up working the post office. Like, it just was like, like I, I was from there. I was there from grade 11 until I finished law school. And so what I re what I recognize is that it was very seldom that first of all, people would say crazy racist shit to you all the time, all the time, they would accuse you of stealing, you know, you didn't, "You stole my 25 cent coupon", you know?
Um, and then of course it went from that to, you know, uh, people call it like people coming into the store and drunk on a Saturday night and just calling you the N word to your face and you having to deal with like, figure out some strategy socially to deal with that. And so, so to me, You know, in terms of equity, I feel like all of my ideas around equity and what I saw as being inequities and how we're treated and how to, in, in how to like, change, hopefully use my life.
If I can't change the world, use my life to change the world of the people who I touch. That's really where all of that was forged. Right. Um, and I, and I felt like that was like, I mean, you know, it's awful, right? Like, I mean, I remember when the woman from the deli department came out to talk to me about the fact that I was the first to be hired.
And she said to me, "Don't F up because there will never be another one hired again".
Yeah, no, no question. Tons of pressure, but of course, but that's been, that's also been my entire career. I've always being the first one and having to kind of like make sure that I perform so that there's space left for somebody else who comes, comes after me.
[00:21:59] Augy: Yeah. And that's a great conversation around community that is unique.
And hasn't really come up so far in the podcast, which I appreciate you bringing up the realism of growing up in Nova Scotia. Because as you know, one of our connections is Rocky Jones who was a civil rights lawyer and my mom, Joan Jones. So think about, you know, me growing up and needing to leave the house because there's a bomb threat on Cunard that, you know, they're going to burn down our house.
Um, you know, death threats towards my mom. Um, you know, in also that same burden of being the first, you know, I kinda went through that as well. And, um, I think I really appreciate the realness that it's not fun. It's not easy, but you feel a responsibility, even a community responsibility that you have to hold that down so you can open up the space for the next person.
But, but being the first one in is like almost in the war, like you're the first person, y'now foot soldier that goes in. Right. So you're going to take a lot of knocks cause you're, you're the first person in. And, and so, you know, I think that, you know, there's a, there's a connection there around, okay. So how can you take them?
And this is what I've done, Floyd is how can I take what happened to me in two things, make room for community and give those same skills. It's almost like Anansi skills, right? Like Anansi, the folk tale. Like you have to out craft people like that. I learned that from small, but then the other thing is speak truth to power.
Like that after a certain point, I was just saying, I'm telling these stories so that in white people and people who are in the majority of Nova Scotia know that, I know that they know. So as you get university and now you're, you're a young man. Um, and you've had these experiences. What was going through your mind as you went through St.
Mary's and then you go to DAL Law school. What were you? And I, I know that you, you ended up going to Toronto to start your articling and, and was called to the bar in Ontario. Was that your path, like, was law, what you thought you were going to do?
[00:24:10] Floyd: Um, here's the deal? Um, I actually, when I went to St Mary's I started as a commerce, uh, major, um, I had a play produced when I was in 19 in the community at the Black Culture Center.
And. I decided to change my major to English. Um, I decided I was either going to be a teacher and I would go on and get my master's and my PhD in English and be a professor and write for screenplays during my summers. That was my, that was my plan. Um, or I would become a lawyer, become an entertainment lawyer and then write right in that eventually be able to put in the, be put in a position to write full-time.
Um, the, the Plan B ended up becoming the Plan A, um, and you know, I just kind of, I mean, that was just, it just worked out that way. Um, you know, I, I, I got, I was very lucky in terms of the people who I met along the way. Um, you know, I like to put the, to bring it back to community. I had really great.
Community, you know, I had people who I had, people who taught me a great deal about, um, just how to live and how to walk through the world. You know, I mean, I mean, one of the things that, you know, I mean for better or worse, my way of living has always been, and this is something that comes from the grocery store.
You essentially, I decided that it doesn't matter what some stranger thinks about me or says about me, you know, at the end of the day, that person doesn't matter. The people who matter your community or the people who matter, your friends and family are the people who matter. And so that's one, so one of the things for me, When I have community, I choose the people who are part of my community very carefully.
Um, because those are the people whose opinions I care about, whose advice I care about who, you know, I think I have friends who, uh, they've been my friends since, uh, junior high school and they've been my best friends. And we, there are times when we don't talk for months on end and we're like, we just start off, start over.
Like, we just never, like, it never ended. Like it's an unbroken chain. And for me, like, I think that's an important, it's a strategy that, like, I think one of the things that we, you know, racism and like equity issues for me, the way that you. Combat everything is by being successful,
like big, big, because once you, once you're successful, it's like, yes, people can come at you, but they, you, they have to understand that if you're successful, they can't take away. They can't take away your success. I mean, like you're asking me about whether or not my plan was fully by design. No, my design was not to leave Nova Scotia.
I love Nova Scotia. I mean, despite, despite all of my issues with the province, you know, with respect to racism, whatnot, I love Nova Scotia. However, you know, and I'll tell you what happened. I mean, yeah. I was in my second year of law school. And when you're in you, as your dad probably knows, or probably would have told you, um, when you go to law school, they do this whole match thing.
And I don't know if Rocky went through it, cause I know Rocky wants to do his own thing, but there's this whole match thing where, and they have these Saturdays that they call super Saturday or whatever, where you meet with all the law firms that come to the law school and you know, they all interview you and you talk shit, whatever.
So what happened is, so the Toronto firms came down, I was there, did the, you know, networking thing with them. One of the firms took a great interest in me. Um, just because they're one of the partners she had grown up economically disadvantaged as well. So she kind of vibed with me on that level. Um, And then, you know, the Nova Scotia firms were coming to the law school and I was particularly interested in Patterson Kitz because they represent the Bank of Montreal.
Um, they had a, an entertainment practice because I think Chip, Chip Sutherland, I want to say, I know I'm getting his name wrong, but he was like a big music guy who was also, he was a music promoter who bought all the concerts to Hal, to Halifax. And I think he was one of their, their partners or an associate there.
And so anyway, I, I, I really want to article at that firm because I was interested in entertainment law. And so the Saturday that we were spoke that they were supposed to have the Super Saturday that I had to go to Ottawa because I was working with the, the Black Law Students Association of Canada at the time.
And they were having, and they were having a thing. So I come back. So I called the firm, I let them know I'm not going to be able to be there, but I'd love to meet with them because I really, I really would love to article with them. I, uh, I arrived back to Nova Scotia. I go for the interview. The interview is great, you know, really great.
I get back to the law school. And, uh, a couple days later, Carol Aylward, who was the director at the time, she calls me into her office and she proceeds to tell me that she got a call because someone from Patterson Kitz that called her complaining about the fact that there was a black male law student.
And there were very few of us, who had come down and interviewed with them and they didn't come to the super, Super Saturday event. And they didn't have the pamphlet on the firm or know anything about the firm or, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then these kids wonder why they don't get Jobs. So that was a whole, so that was the whole, the whole thing.
Right. And meanwhile, in my back pocket, I had the, I had the job offer from Blake's in Toronto, which was the second largest law firm in the country at the time. So, um, so, so despite all of that Patterson Kitz came back and offered me an articling position. And I respectfully declined. Yeah. Because for me it just was like, what, like why, why would I choose this over this law firm in Toronto?
Where they basically have said, we want you, we like you there's no, am I allowed to swear? Go ahead. There's no bullshit. You know, and you can just like, like, I can just go and I can get. A great set of articles. I can have this on my resume that I worked for this firm and I'll do my, I'll do my, my bar in Ontario.
And if I come back to Nova Scotia and I w and I need to I'll do it in Nova Scotia, it was just, it was a very, like for me, it was a very disheartening experience because like I said, I, I really wanted to stay in Nova Scotia. Um, but that kind of, you know, set my departure in motion.
[00:32:45] Augy: W w what I just appreciate, you know, the space and you telling your story Floyd, because at this point, obviously you've got this great light shining on, you know, Floyd Kane, but yet, you know, I really appreciate the community conversation and I feel your,
love - hate for Nova Scotia. And I will say that because there's things about it that I really don't like as far as the minority situation and, and, and, and the way that, um, the racism that exists here. It's a fact we live it to fact, but I'm also from Nova Scotia. I'm Scotian. I love that we are R and B. I love that we are a little bit country.
I love that. You know, there's a lot of things about it. I love, but I would also say that what speaks to me is, as I started to get older, similar to you, I was making decisions around what I wanted to do based on authenticity of the offer. Right? Whether it was where I went to university, where, what job I took, I mean, I spent 10 years teaching in the Caribbean and I went there for authenticity because I didn't want to be a minority anymore.
So I went to a place where it was a majority, I, that there was an authentic feel that I needed in my soul. Right. And I think that kind of speaks to you being in Toronto. And being in that space where you can get the entertainment law, you can get the, the people that value what you bring to the table. Uh, but there's an authenticity that we, we often have to go towards and I would even say last thing, and I don't want to talk too long, but I just, I now do a lot of equity, diversity and inclusion work with companies.
And I will tell certain companies, I'm not doing the work because it's not authentic. 'You feel a George Floyd guilt, and you want someone to come in and I'm not going to do that'. Right. So, you know, that authentic piece is there. So I do want to move us along. So when let's talk about, you start to now in Toronto, get some experience writing, right.
And, and you're, you're starting to get those, those connections. Um, and, and that's, so you come back and you're with Halifax Film in 2004, right? So there's a kind of a return to Halifax and to, um, you know, some, the writing for CBC and stuff like that is that when you start to feel momentum like this writing for television, writing for movies, writing docs, this is my thing.
[00:34:59] Floyd: No. To be honest, but no. So, so what happened? So I came back in 1998 because, uh, the NDP had become the official opposition and Yvonne Atwell had been elected as the first black female MLA. And I went to work as a researcher for them, you know, Yv.. You know, Yvonne essentially got me the job and I worked with them for a year.
Uh, we went through a very, that was probably one of the, the most tumultuous elections Nova Scotia had ever had. Um, it was terrible. I hated the job. I, we w when we lost a bunch of seats, Would they have to get rid of two researchers and I essentially volunteered to go. Um, but as I was leaving, I ended up being hired by Salter Street Films as their as legal counsel.
And I worked with them for about two years, and then they were purchased by Alliance Atlantis. And then I stayed for, I stayed for another year. Um, and then, uh, how they, Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop started a new company called Halifax Film Company. I ended up going to work with them. Um, and I was one of the founding shareholders of that company.
That company then went on to become DHX Media. Um, and now it's called WildBrain. I left it wasn't until, I would say if I'm being honest, like I was writing the whole time that I was working at that company, like I was writing after work. At a certain point within that company, I realized my career is never going to take off.
Like I, I had opportunities where I did it. I did a show called North South about the construction industry in Nova Scotia, which was a seven part drama series. Um, I did a six part drama series called Soul that I executive produced. It was created by Andy Marshall and Peter Lauterman was the show runner on that.
Um, but it wasn't until I actually decided to leave DHX, which was in, uh, I think almost nine years ago that I actually, even though I spent like, you know, like, and I didn't work all the time, like I, I basically, I left the company. I got one gig as a writer working on the show Continuum. Um, I then ended up spending three years, not really working or making any money other than just.
Honing my craft as a writer and then eventually, um, Amos Adetuyi, he asked me to produce a movie with him and called, called, um, Torchbearer. That movie fell apart. Um, we had some development money left over. We were going to give it back to Telefilm and Stephanie Azam , who was the Telefilm person at the time.
She said, is there something else you want to work on? And that led to me writing Across The Line, which you know, and that, to me, that is a moment that everything just took off.
[00:38:20] Augy: And that's around 2014?
[00:38:23] Floyd: 2014,. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
[00:38:26] Augy: Wow. And I, again, and I love the questions cause you're filling in, obviously it's a podcast interview you're filling in, but this is for people to, to see that it wasn't easy.
It wasn't linear. Um, you know, and, and I remember, you know, I actually, I ran into Yvonne, um, a couple of days ago, she was at a basketball gym watching her grandson play. Right. And so, you know, we know that community-wise Yvonne holds a lot of, she's an elder in the community and still does that work. So, and I didn't know that you, you, you had, um, been involved with that political side.
And so I do want to get to, um, because Across The Line was, was, um, was you got accolades for that? Um, how did, how did we get, because we got to get to Diggstown, like, how did that, how did that bubble up.
[00:39:20] Floyd: Across The Line?
[00:39:21] Augy: Well, no Diggstown. So, or even what you're transition from. Cause obviously Across The Line gave you another spotlight. Right. But, but, and you said right then I got my, my, my momentum, uh, just to explain the beginnings of even where you writing Diggstown before you had the chance, or did they come to you and you started to write it?
Like, how did the idea come and then how did it come to fruition?
[00:39:47] Floyd: So for the last few years, like, like after, Across The Line, I'd spent quite a bit of time trying to do, I wanted to do something involving a black person working as either a cop or a lawyer in Halifax. And so I developed, I developed a show about a black male detective working in the north end and having an ex-wife who was like a.
Uh, who was a prosecutor who was, who had ties to the south end. And so like then I worked on something where it was about of black female cop who was undercover, who was returning to Nova Scotia to her fam. So, so a lot of this was bubbling. Cause I mean, for me, like one of the big issues is that we it's very seldom that we see authentic portrayals of black Nova Scotians on Canadian television.
So, so, so that's, that's been something I'm very interested in. So then, um, you know, my producing partner, Amos Adetuyi who, to this day, we're still partners. Um, he called me and he was like, you know, I think CBC would be interested in doing a legal drama. And so then I started thinking about, well, what w how can I take these characters who I've developed in these cop shows and move them into a legal procedural and what would be interesting for me as a legal procedural?
And so I, I called a few people who I know who work in legal aid, and I was like, so what does that look like? What's your day look like? How does that work? And so after talking to them, I was like, okay, well, this could be an interesting world to think about because we don't, it's very seldom that we see portrayals on television, where, um, lawyers are representing people who are poor, or like economically, economically disadvantage.
Right. Usually when you see shows, people tend to look middle class, upper middle class, um, you know, and so I, so I really wanted to kind of take a look at what that world was, but I also had this whole idea of. It's interesting to think about how, when you are poor, how a small charge can completely disrupt your life.
Yes. And I thought, and, and that was something that I just, I never really saw on television. And that was why we initially, our first case was to do like a drunk driving case, because it seems like such a simple thing, but it's like if you drive a truck for a living, then that means you can't work. If you lose your license.
And if you're late, and if you're in the middle of a divorce, which was what my, uh, character was. And you're D you're dealing with a dispute with a former spouse over your children. Um, then the fact that you're not making any money. Becomes a problem as well. So, so there are just all these, these, these, this tiny little legal case though, this charge can have these massive reverberations for your life.
And that was where the show really started for me in terms of thinking about, you know, yeah, it'd be really great to do a show. Like Diggstown where you have characters dealing, like where you have Marcy and the other legal aid lawyers, defending clients who are dealing with these types of issues and the re and the reverberations for their lives.
[00:43:32] Augy: Yeah. And that's it. And congratulations on, on the show Floyd, because you, you deal with that so well, but you also deal with it. And if you're from Nova Scotia, Jojo Carvery, we, we, we know the names, we know the Diggs name, that's an East Preston name that, you know, that's, you know, and so w there's that familiarity, but I do.
And many people love the content Floyd, because it's interesting when I hear I go back over our time together just now. And I think about you at IGA and you at Cole Harbour and, and, and you at Bell Park. And, and there's a sense where you can now get those things off your chest, right? In a, in a, in a drama, like in a, in a situational, um, drama where I see there's a real authenticity to some of the stories that you're bringing out.
Um, because obviously my dad, you know, worked, he didn't do legal aid, but he. Defended people that didn't have money like he did. And that's a different type of law. That's a different,
[00:44:36] Floyd: yeah. Your, your dad. I mean, you probably don't know this but years ago. I mean, I wanted to make your dad's story into a movie and he, and I had spent time talking about that because what we want to do is we wanted to do a mini series based on the whole situation with him and Anne Derrick and the cops doing exactly, exactly that, that whole case.
And, uh, um, you know, I want, I'm not going to, I will tell you off the record, but, um, someone didn't decided they didn't want to participate, at the last minute, and we weren't. And so we weren't able to do it. But to me, like that's one of the greatest stories, untold stories. Ever, because it's this fascinating, not it's, it's so fascinating to think about how the legal establishment align themselves against your father in this, in this situation.
Right. It just was like, it's like, it's a brilliant, it's a brilliant situation about, you know, someone fight who has been fighting against the system, his entire life and the system coming after him.
[00:46:03] Augy: Yeah, because in speaking truth to power, because that example, we won't get into it on this podcast, but it was an example of calling it what it was.
And that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being put down and, and, and from the Bar and from their and judges and, and when you just saw it. And the funny thing is, and you knew my dad on certain levels. I know my dad is so not what people made him out to be like, if you wanted to demonize him, he could.
But, but the fact is, is that, um, he was about fairness and equality and he wasn't afraid to call stuff out. And it was easy for him to do that when he wasn't a lawyer. Right. He, when he was a civil rights activist, he was blowing stuff up. And just saying whatever, if you didn't like me, didn't like him. But when he became a lawyer, that story that you're talking about in particular, um, like they tried to constrain him within the job.
Right. And make him pay. For speaking that same truth and hopefully it opened up some space for other people to speak truth, to say that yes. You know, we think about the street check thing now. Like he was just saying that what happened that day with cops that weren't even there for that particular incident was racist and they wouldn't have done it to a white child.
And that led to that long battle over just saying that, that they wouldn't have done that to a white child.
[00:47:26] Floyd: No, that's crazy. That's crazy.
[00:47:29] Augy: So how do you feel, I mean, with some of the feedback that you're getting now, and is there some sense and you said, you know, it's nice to be in a position where now you have your power, you have, you know, have a, you have a name and people are, are, are, um, Almost paying attention to your every word, but yet your voice speaks through a hard hitting down to earth, surfing, you know, legal aid, lawyer that bounces back and forth female powerhouse.
Um, D like how, obviously this is a rhetorical question, but how do you feel now about this, this thing that you th that you built called Diggstown?
[00:48:15] Floyd: Um, I love Diggstown. I think it's, um, I, for me, like, you know, it's a show that I love what we do and the space that we fill in terms of the Canadian television landscape. Um, I love, I love the fact that we're able to, we're not afraid to talk about, um, things that are necessary or uncomfortable for Canadians to kind of.
Give some thought to, um, you know, I, for me, you know, after the whole thing with George Floyd happened and listening to so many people say, well, I didn't know this. And I never understood this. And it's like, well, wait a second. You're like a, you know, someone who grew up in the sixties and seventies and you don't know, um, that just felt, um, disingenuous in a lot of ways.
It felt disingenuous to me. And so part of the show is about, you know, talking about these things that happen in Canadian society, um, and having people and putting people in a position to not be able to say, I don't know anymore, you know, because we're, we're telling you it does happen. It does exist in our country, in your own backyard.
And you have to embrace that. Um, but the other thing I will say is in truth, like, I don't think I don't, I don't think of myself as being powerful. I think of myself as being like right now, I have a platform and I have, which is Diggstown. And I can use that platform to try and, you know, express to people.
What, in a lot of ways, how I feel about the world or to show people kind of the world that I live in. Um, but you know, tomorrow if Diggstown ends, I mean, it ends and I move on to, and I move on to the next show and I go back to hustling just like every other writer. So I, so to me, like, yeah, I just like right now, I'm just really.
I'm really grateful to have had the three seasons so far, and hopefully we'll get a fourth to be able to tell these stories and to bring like Marcy and bring Nova Scotia in both it's like beauty and ugliness to, you know, to the rest of the world.
[00:51:00] Augy: Yeah. And I do want to thank you again for that, because when I watched the show, I'm so proud and I'm saying that honestly, as a Nova Scotian, like I'm seeing places and I'm here with my wife, who's from Hamilton and we're talking, Hey, that's where we met.
Like when have we ever been able to do that? I mean, so much, you know, especially lawyer drama, if it's Canadian, it's coming out of Vancouver, it's coming out of Toronto, especially right now. And sort of tell that Nova Scotia story, because we have many people here in Canada that don't understand Nova Scotia. They really don't right.
So you've opened that up and I do want to make it a shameless plug for the last episode that I watched. You had one of the people that had only podcasts Kate McDonald was, was, uh, working right as the police officer, um, who lived in PEI. Right. And so, you know, I kinda thought I laughed at the, you know, I knew you were coming on.
I said, wow, that's a, that's a nice connection. Um, the last thing I really, to really, you know, again, and I'm so happy having here is to tell you how much I admire what you do, but our other connection is the scholarship at St. Mary's, The Edna and Velma Thomas Kane Writers Award. Um, you know, there's, you've established that around supporting and giving back, but you put some beautiful parameters around how that scholarship looks.
Um, explain a little bit about the scholarship and how it came to be with you working with St. Mary's.
[00:52:29] Floyd: Um, sure. Uh, um, I've taken a deep breath just because, um, the two women it's named after my late aunt Velma and my mother are extremely instrumental in where I am in my journey. Um, my reason for wanting to do it, I mean, it has to do with what I talked about earlier, in terms of across, like working on Across The Line and hearing the statistics about black Nova Scotians who have been multi-generational of Nova Scotians in terms of whether or not they choose to go to university.
And I guess my, my feeling was really, I, when I started Diggstown, one of the things I really wanted to do was encourage more. I wanted to find, black Nova Scotians. So I could bring into the writing room and maybe shepherd them and help them come up through the process. And when I initially tried looking for people in Nova Scotia during season one in there wasn't anybody, you know, or so I was told there wasn't anybody.
So then what happened is in season two, um, we looked again and we actually had, like, we participated formerly with like the Screen Nova Scotia, uh, in their whole writing program where you can come into a series and mentor in the writing room for a couple of weeks. And then none of their applicants were black Nova Scotians at the time.
So I just kind of this third season, we were, we got lucky because I actually had, we actually were able to get Kumbie. Who, you know, she had, she had sent a script to me to read for a feature film, just unrelated to Diggstown. And I had said to her, I said, well, Hey, do you want to come? And, you know, be my show running assistant for the rest, for the season of Diggstown for personal reasons, she couldn't do that.
But I said, well, how about coming into the writing room for a few weeks? Anyway, at least you'll get some experience and you can, you can tell people, you, you like, you can put it on your resume. Um, and so that like, so, so I've, I always wanted to kind of have that happen, but it wasn't happening fast enough.
And in the way I wanted it to. So what I decided was I wanted to create, you know, well, let me go back. The other thing that happened is I have two nephews who both went to SMU. They're both like 10 years out of university. They both still have massive student loan debt. So I paid, so I paid it off because, because I could, I just, I like, I like, I'm not, I mean, you don't know me, but I I'm not somebody who is, I have two things that I like eating at a nice restaurant and I like a nice bottle of wine, that's it?
Yeah. Like I'm not, I'm not a big spender, so I'm relatively cheap. So for me it was like, okay, I can afford to do this. So I'm going to help them out. And so from that, I thought to myself, think about the number of black Nova Scotian students who, when they're, when they think about going to university, they stop thinking about university as an option.
Not because they don't want to go to university because they're thinking about the massive debt load they'll leave when they come out of university that they'll have hanging over their head. Yes. And, and for me, I was like, okay, because I, cause I understand, right. Like I, I, I was from that perspective of, I didn't have a parent or relative who I could call and say, Hey, can you lend me a thousand dollars to do X, Y, and Z?
Can you lend me a hundred dollars to do X, Y, and Z? I didn't have that. I didn't grow up with that. So I understood that as a reality for a lot of black Nova Scotian kids who, who are thinking about university. And so right out of the gate, when you're thinking about that, you go, okay, well maybe university is not for me.
Maybe I'll get a trade and listen. I mean, and just to say this, like, there's nothing wrong with getting a trade. University is not for everybody. You know, if you want to, if you, I mean, frankly, as an old friend of mine said, If you want to be a garbage man, you can be the best garbage. You'd just be the best garbage man
you can be, you know, be passionate about it. You know, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. But if you want to go to university, what I wanted to do was remove money as an obstacle. What I wanted to do was give people an opportunity who decide to go to university to know that at the end, when you're finished your undergrad degree, if you want to continue, or you want to pay off your debt, or you want to travel for like two years, or you want to go do some fellowship writing fellowship in the States or Australia, wherever, there's an opportunity for you.
You know, it's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it's there waiting for you. And that was, that was why I created the scholarship because it's not a scholarship. It's a prize. Essentially once when you, at graduation, you apply. If you're the successful person, someone hands, you a check for $30,000, you do what you want to do with it.
Right. And, and that, to me, like, I just, if I would've had something like that, when I was an undergrad, if I knew that this existed, when I was in high school, I would have totally went to like, I would have made sure I was going to university because I don't have to worry about the money I can go, oh, well, I might, I could ma I could win this.
You know? And so that was, that was the reason why I created it. And the reason I put the parameters around it in terms of like being black Nova Scotians is because, I mean, that's, to me, like once again, I want to see those numbers go up. Right. I want to see more black men, more black women going to choosing to go to university.
You know, if they want to. Right. Once again, it's about giving people a choice, you know, and not making everything about economics,
[00:59:29] Augy: No well, you know, it's beautiful and it's brilliant. I've read the parameters for it. And, and, and, you know, I also sit on the selection committee and I thought when we were going through it, I thought it was such a different way to look at it because what blew my mind is when he said, when you get the money, we're not checking back on you.
And there's something very. Systemic and all say, Euro centric around. We need to know how you spent every penny. Right. And, and so, so, you know, I thought when, so when we were going through it, I just thought, wow, you really opened up a beautiful space, Floyd. Um, you're, you're, it's a brilliant way to give back to the community.
And when we think about student loans and getting a prize at the end, when you graduate to say 'whew' all this pressure's off me and I can be in a creative space. Right. I think that that's brilliant. And, and, uh, I just want to get a thank you for the work that you do. I want to thank you for the beautiful platform, which is Diggstown.
Um, the work that you're doing, Floyd and, and, and, uh, and sharing your time with me today. I really got to know more about you. And obviously the people that listen to the podcast, we get to know more about you. And, uh, I really, really appreciate your time. And it's been a pleasure talking to you, sir.
[01:00:47] Floyd: Thank you so much Augy, this was really great.
Empathize Others: The Podcast ©2021 Strongcoffee Media Group - Horizon Line Films Ltd.
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[00:00:00] Augy: Welcome back to the podcast today, I'm fired up about the guests that we have and we have great guests, but today is a superstar guest. And if you're watching TV and streaming shows right now, especially when it comes to dramas, there was a show on CBC and on Fox network that is hot, hot, hot, and that is Diggstown.
And so today I'm so pleased to talk to the creator and writer for Diggstown, but also someone who's from Nova Scotia, went to law school here, did his undergrad here is very connected to the community and he really unpacks for us. What happened with him throughout his life that led to him creating such a great series that people are eating up right now.
So today I'm pleased to welcome Floyd Kane.
Everyone welcome once again to Empathize Others: The Podcast today's episode is one I've been creating and trying to get together for a long time. Uh, the guest is someone who is probably one of the biggest guests that we've had on the podcast so far. And to me, I'm a little star struck because you know, this is someone who.
You know, I've, I've been really, really watching the work that they're putting out in the community work. And, uh, although we're both African Nova Scotian and we have connections, which we'll talk about, uh, when it comes to filmmaking, this person is doing big things in Canada, in the US and if you haven't heard of the series Diggstown, uh, Marcy Diggs, lawyer from this Halifax Dartmouth area, um, you've been under a rock because that show is one of my favorite shows.
And from, you know, many, many people have told me it's one of their favorite shows. So today we're pleased to welcome to this platform. Floyd Kane.
[00:02:17] Floyd: Hey, thanks, Augy. Great to be here.
[00:02:21] Augy: No worries, listen Floyd. So happy to get, you know, to get some time. And I know that you were here recently, then you're back, you know, your well you're, you move around.
That's what, that's what you do. But for me to get a little bit of time with you and, and, uh, you know, th the podcast really focuses on community, right? And, and, and there's always an angle around why is community important to you? So we always kind of start off with, you know, can you talk a little bit about, you know, where you're from, what community you're from, and, uh, and, and we'll start there.
[00:02:56] Floyd: Um, sure. I'm from East Preston, Nova Scotia. Um, that's I was born and raised there. Um, my whole, my whole entire family, my grandparents, my great grandparents. I mean, going back several generations, I mean, where I grew up as essentially, uh, if you look at the Queens Grant, At the registry of deeds, it's called the Kane subdivision.
So I grew up, my community was essentially this gigantic extended family that I have.
[00:03:32] Augy: Wow. That's a, you know, there's what a historical connection. And we know as African Nova, Scotians that, um, you know, we have a history that goes back hundreds of years. Right. And we often say that in Canada, when people say, where are you from?
You know, they see you in Toronto and Montreal, and so are you from Barbados? Are you from Trinidad? Are you from, and we're like, no, we're from Scotia. Like where, you know, so when, when you, when you link your community Floyd to almost like a Loyalist Deed right. Of, of that far back, um, that really speaks to, um, your sense of growing up.
Did you realize that you were part of that East Preston Kane, Thomas, community.
[00:04:16] Floyd: Um, 100%. I mean, my whole life I've like, I mean, I think for me like that community, because when I was growing up, there was no Metro Transit, right. There was the one bus that came, went in at 11 o'clock and came back out at six o'clock.
And if you missed it, you were hitchhiking home. So you're that community as a child. That was very much my world, right? Like, like even, even in terms of elementary school, like I went to elementary school in East Preston at Partridge River elementary, and the white kids were bused into our school. So it was a very different experience than a lot of other people had.
Right. And so then it wasn't until grade, I think grade five where during the summer Partridge River had burned down. And they built a new school at bell park, Bell Park academic center. And we were bused up into that school. And that was like, and that was sort of the introduction of like, you know, a larger worldview, should I say?
[00:05:31] Augy: Yeah. That, that integration. And we, we often talk about this Floyd on this, this, this podcast around community, when you don't know anything in your community, just your home, like you, you, and especially when you talk about, you know, pre Metro Transit going out the highway, you were at home a lot and you so you're around your family.
You're playing with your cousins, you're playing with your sisters and brothers and, and that is your community. And then, you know, sometimes the first. Realization, and then you say Partridge River was in your community. So you don't realize the difference and that other people are not really from your community and might not get along with their community and might look down on your community.
You probably don't realize that until you go to that first integrated school. Right?
[00:06:16] Floyd: 100%, 100%. I mean, like the way I grew up was very, I mean, it wasn't, it was different probably from the norm, but it wasn't different from, I think a lot of people in the black community during the time that I was growing up, um, which would have been in the seventies, eighties, um, you know, we didn't have running water.
Like I didn't have, we didn't have running water until I was 14. Well, um, you know, my dad was, you know, we lived in a four room, uh, like shingle house, like our house was made of shingles. On the outside. Right. And we had like four rooms inside the house. I mean, we had a woodstove where there was a hole cut in the gyprock so that you could actually get the heat from the woodstove, which burned, you know, throughout the night into the back rooms where we slept.
I mean, it was, it was a very, uh, basic growing up. I mean, to this day, that's one of the reasons why I do, I don't really have any large desire to go camping. I feel like, I feel like that's how I grew up. Right. So, um, yeah, it was a different, it was a very different experience than a lot of my. Well, certainly my white peers growing up and definitely, you know, people who were from the City.
[00:07:50] Augy: Yeah, that's, that's a great point for Floyd because, you know, we think about Halifax and people that don't know Halifax, a lot of our black communities are basically rural.
So if you look at Hammons Plains on Pockwock Road, you look at East Preston, North Preston, um, Lucasville, Cherrybrook,, you know, and Cherrybrook might know like all of those places, even though they're in the HRM, they're, they're pretty much in almost country rural settings. And so we grow up as, that's what it means to be Scotian.
Like we're a little bit country and we're a little bit urban and we kind of got a mix, a mix of the two and, and, and so take us now. So now you're, you're gone to high school and I'm sure. So where did you go to high school?
[00:08:35] Floyd: I went to Cole Harbour High.
[00:08:37] Augy: Okay. I taught at Cole Harbour, but I love Cole Harbour. Um, so now Cole Harbour is unique and it's, I want to bring that up.
Cause you talked about, um, going to a different elementary school, Bell Park, and then Cole Harbour is one of the only schools where local students don't really go to Cole Harbour. Some of them do, but you have Eastern Passage bussed in. You have North Preston bussed in, East Preston bussed in to this school. And so what was the next level from Bell Park to your sense of community?
Once you got the high school?
[00:09:12] Floyd: I think it was interesting, right? Like, I mean, I I'm somebody who I never, you know, to my benefit and detriment, I was never a joiner in terms of, I wasn't part of one group, I kind of glided through several different groups. As I went through high school, I was pretty much alone, kept to myself.
Um, I would say. For me, I think definitely what you had that was different from the Bell Park experience was you had a group of black kids and a group of white kids, both, uh, both communities like impacted by poverty, um, who had no experience being around each other. And I think they, and I think because of that, there was just a battle for turf, for ownership, for space.
And I think that all of that, you know, presented as it should, as it became about race. Because I think you, there just was a sense that, you know, how can you hurt? Like, you know what it is when kids are trying to hurt each other, you go for the thing. They know, they, they go, they try to find that the touchiest point.
Yeah. I think for a lot of, a lot of us, the touchiest point is race. I mean, I have people who can say a lot of things to me, even as an adult, but the moment that you say something that is racist, it's like we're having a conversation. That may lead to like something more because that's just, it's that painful.
Right. And so when people know that, so I think, I think a lot of that happened at, uh, Cole Harbour. And obviously when I went there, it culminated in, you know, the fight that happened, you know, back in 1989, the infamous. Yeah.
[00:11:20] Augy: Yeah. And that was funny. You bring that up Floyd, because I taught at Cole Harbour member, you know, probably a decade after that.
And, and at the time the remnants of there were still there. So the school was still early in, early out, Sunny Wicks was the full-time security officer that, you know, there's no other school that had that, but it's interesting that you bring up, um, community because that fight was amongst adults too, to a certain extent.
I mean, there wasn't, there was some school presence, but there were people who were from Eastern Passage, people that were from the Prestons that came because similar to, and I work at the Department of Ed now. And, and we deal with this a lot, like when one of our students feels, and that there's a racial incident.
The whole community is in on it. Like the parent groups are there there's and so those incidents would seem singular. They're not like bullying, like it's a singular thing, it's a community thing. And so what happened during that? What they might call the riot or whatever Cole Harbour was that the two communities it boiled over and it became something bigger than just the school?
[00:12:29] Floyd: Well, in, in, in, in my opinion, I feel like it was always something bigger than the school. Good point, right? Like, like I think that they're like, to me, like, I always had questions about why the kids who grew up on Lake Major Road on the other side of the bridge were never busted in the North Preston to go to elementary school.
Right? Like, like, why is, why is the Nelson Whynder Elementary School only zero to four, as opposed to zero to six? Like it's just to me, like.
There are all of these questions about why we, and when I say we, I mean the powers that be set up geographically and systemically, they set all of this up to fail. And to this day, like they've, they've never really corrected it. I mean, I'm still, and I, and I'm jumping ahead a bit, but like, it's like when I came down to do Across The Line, um, I think it back in like 2016, 2014, um, I was talking to a friend of mine at the Department of Education and they were telling me that the, the university numbers for multi-generational black Nova Scotians were the same as when I graduated from high school.
And that just was, that was shocking to me, you know? And, and I think that's like for me, That's, those are the fruits of the powers that be setting up a system, the kind of system that we set up.
[00:14:12] Augy: Right? Yeah. And you speak to, you speak to systemic racism, really Floyd, because it's not a one thing, but we look how, Sir Robert Borden is set up and Nelson Whynder's set up and, and, and, and Graham Creighton, and, you know, there's, there's things that are being done in the way that you're integrating some schools in some not that are leading to, you know, you bring youth together and adolescents that have never been together and expect that, that they're not going to, like you say, fight for territory and, and, and not really get along.
And also Cole Harbour's an example of, you know, busing and kids that don't even live close to each other at all. Right. And so that brings me, and I'm thinking every time we do this podcast for it, there's a beautiful kind of FA theme or threading. One thought as a kid, as a teenager, leads to you as a young adult, you lead to you as an adult.
So there seems to be a mix of artistic creativity and law equity. So as you go to St Mary's, is that a good call that you were kind of still that artistic person, but there was something about equal rights and fairness. That was also mixed into that. So talk about going to university and, and does, does that, does I'm kind of hearing that, does that make sense?
[00:15:33] Floyd: Um, it's, it's a, it's an interesting question. Um, just because I feel like the big thing, when I think about equity and I think about my university years and my high school years, it like a lot of my feelings around the topic of equity. We're formed by the fact that, so I, when I was in grade 11, I got a job working at the IGA Mic Mac Mall.
And I was the first black male. They hired as a car pickup boy at the time. That was what we were called. Um, you know, the people who put your groceries in the trunk of your car. Um, and when I started the day that I started and I'll never forget this, so I'm being taken around by this guy and he's introducing me to everybody, like all the people who are in the store as a new person.
And he tells this French Canadian woman who works in the produce department, uh, Giselle that my name was Kunta. And they think it's and they think it's the funniest joke. Right? They think it's just such a funny joke. And I just remember it and I didn't find this out until later on. Right. Like I just, and I remember just thinking, when I found out I'm like, okay, that's Nova Scotia that's to be expected.
Right. Like, cause I mean, I've been dealing with a lot of this, like racism and whatnot in the various forums in my entire life, but I'm in grade 11. Right. So, and this, and this is really the first time I'm spending a great deal of time outside of my community. So it's just, it just is, it's this weird thing.
Right. And then of course, I, um, later on the, this, the biracial woman who she works in the deli department, she comes out to see me in car pickup and she pres she proceeds to tell me about the conversation that proceeded me being hired, which was the, which in the conversation was essentially. To the head cashier, why don't you ever hire any black guys to work the front?
And essentially after this conversation happened, I got the call. And the reason I got the call was because they head cashier happened, happened to know my mother who worked at Zellers. Now, prior to this time, I'd come into IGA, dropped off three job applications. And I was later told that essentially, when a black guy came in to apply for the job, the applications were thrown in the garbage.
So, so for me, knowing all of this stuff, it feeds into a, it makes me more cynical about fairness and objectivity, right? When it comes to how we're treated in the workforce at a very young age, Right. And then on top of that, it just makes me, it makes me skeptical that there's goodness, you know, that, that, that you can actually get a fair shake because even when it appears like you're getting a fair shake, it's tainted by all of this, like BS.
So good. And
[00:19:18] Augy: so,
[00:19:20] Floyd: so, so, so this was this, this was what I like. This is what I was walking to into as somebody who was 16. Right. And so, and so then on top of that, you know, every day when I, like, when I worked in car pickup, and then when I, I worked for IGA for seven years, so I worked, I went through car pickup.
I became one of the first male cashiers. Uh, to ever work at the grocery stores. I w I ended up working the post office. Like, it just was like, like I, I was from there. I was there from grade 11 until I finished law school. And so what I re what I recognize is that it was very seldom that first of all, people would say crazy racist shit to you all the time, all the time, they would accuse you of stealing, you know, you didn't, "You stole my 25 cent coupon", you know?
Um, and then of course it went from that to, you know, uh, people call it like people coming into the store and drunk on a Saturday night and just calling you the N word to your face and you having to deal with like, figure out some strategy socially to deal with that. And so, so to me, You know, in terms of equity, I feel like all of my ideas around equity and what I saw as being inequities and how we're treated and how to, in, in how to like, change, hopefully use my life.
If I can't change the world, use my life to change the world of the people who I touch. That's really where all of that was forged. Right. Um, and I, and I felt like that was like, I mean, you know, it's awful, right? Like, I mean, I remember when the woman from the deli department came out to talk to me about the fact that I was the first to be hired.
And she said to me, "Don't F up because there will never be another one hired again".
Yeah, no, no question. Tons of pressure, but of course, but that's been, that's also been my entire career. I've always being the first one and having to kind of like make sure that I perform so that there's space left for somebody else who comes, comes after me.
[00:21:59] Augy: Yeah. And that's a great conversation around community that is unique.
And hasn't really come up so far in the podcast, which I appreciate you bringing up the realism of growing up in Nova Scotia. Because as you know, one of our connections is Rocky Jones who was a civil rights lawyer and my mom, Joan Jones. So think about, you know, me growing up and needing to leave the house because there's a bomb threat on Cunard that, you know, they're going to burn down our house.
Um, you know, death threats towards my mom. Um, you know, in also that same burden of being the first, you know, I kinda went through that as well. And, um, I think I really appreciate the realness that it's not fun. It's not easy, but you feel a responsibility, even a community responsibility that you have to hold that down so you can open up the space for the next person.
But, but being the first one in is like almost in the war, like you're the first person, y'now foot soldier that goes in. Right. So you're going to take a lot of knocks cause you're, you're the first person in. And, and so, you know, I think that, you know, there's a, there's a connection there around, okay. So how can you take them?
And this is what I've done, Floyd is how can I take what happened to me in two things, make room for community and give those same skills. It's almost like Anansi skills, right? Like Anansi, the folk tale. Like you have to out craft people like that. I learned that from small, but then the other thing is speak truth to power.
Like that after a certain point, I was just saying, I'm telling these stories so that in white people and people who are in the majority of Nova Scotia know that, I know that they know. So as you get university and now you're, you're a young man. Um, and you've had these experiences. What was going through your mind as you went through St.
Mary's and then you go to DAL Law school. What were you? And I, I know that you, you ended up going to Toronto to start your articling and, and was called to the bar in Ontario. Was that your path, like, was law, what you thought you were going to do?
[00:24:10] Floyd: Um, here's the deal? Um, I actually, when I went to St Mary's I started as a commerce, uh, major, um, I had a play produced when I was in 19 in the community at the Black Culture Center.
And. I decided to change my major to English. Um, I decided I was either going to be a teacher and I would go on and get my master's and my PhD in English and be a professor and write for screenplays during my summers. That was my, that was my plan. Um, or I would become a lawyer, become an entertainment lawyer and then write right in that eventually be able to put in the, be put in a position to write full-time.
Um, the, the Plan B ended up becoming the Plan A, um, and you know, I just kind of, I mean, that was just, it just worked out that way. Um, you know, I, I, I got, I was very lucky in terms of the people who I met along the way. Um, you know, I like to put the, to bring it back to community. I had really great.
Community, you know, I had people who I had, people who taught me a great deal about, um, just how to live and how to walk through the world. You know, I mean, I mean, one of the things that, you know, I mean for better or worse, my way of living has always been, and this is something that comes from the grocery store.
You essentially, I decided that it doesn't matter what some stranger thinks about me or says about me, you know, at the end of the day, that person doesn't matter. The people who matter your community or the people who matter, your friends and family are the people who matter. And so that's one, so one of the things for me, When I have community, I choose the people who are part of my community very carefully.
Um, because those are the people whose opinions I care about, whose advice I care about who, you know, I think I have friends who, uh, they've been my friends since, uh, junior high school and they've been my best friends. And we, there are times when we don't talk for months on end and we're like, we just start off, start over.
Like, we just never, like, it never ended. Like it's an unbroken chain. And for me, like, I think that's an important, it's a strategy that, like, I think one of the things that we, you know, racism and like equity issues for me, the way that you. Combat everything is by being successful,
like big, big, because once you, once you're successful, it's like, yes, people can come at you, but they, you, they have to understand that if you're successful, they can't take away. They can't take away your success. I mean, like you're asking me about whether or not my plan was fully by design. No, my design was not to leave Nova Scotia.
I love Nova Scotia. I mean, despite, despite all of my issues with the province, you know, with respect to racism, whatnot, I love Nova Scotia. However, you know, and I'll tell you what happened. I mean, yeah. I was in my second year of law school. And when you're in you, as your dad probably knows, or probably would have told you, um, when you go to law school, they do this whole match thing.
And I don't know if Rocky went through it, cause I know Rocky wants to do his own thing, but there's this whole match thing where, and they have these Saturdays that they call super Saturday or whatever, where you meet with all the law firms that come to the law school and you know, they all interview you and you talk shit, whatever.
So what happened is, so the Toronto firms came down, I was there, did the, you know, networking thing with them. One of the firms took a great interest in me. Um, just because they're one of the partners she had grown up economically disadvantaged as well. So she kind of vibed with me on that level. Um, And then, you know, the Nova Scotia firms were coming to the law school and I was particularly interested in Patterson Kitz because they represent the Bank of Montreal.
Um, they had a, an entertainment practice because I think Chip, Chip Sutherland, I want to say, I know I'm getting his name wrong, but he was like a big music guy who was also, he was a music promoter who bought all the concerts to Hal, to Halifax. And I think he was one of their, their partners or an associate there.
And so anyway, I, I, I really want to article at that firm because I was interested in entertainment law. And so the Saturday that we were spoke that they were supposed to have the Super Saturday that I had to go to Ottawa because I was working with the, the Black Law Students Association of Canada at the time.
And they were having, and they were having a thing. So I come back. So I called the firm, I let them know I'm not going to be able to be there, but I'd love to meet with them because I really, I really would love to article with them. I, uh, I arrived back to Nova Scotia. I go for the interview. The interview is great, you know, really great.
I get back to the law school. And, uh, a couple days later, Carol Aylward, who was the director at the time, she calls me into her office and she proceeds to tell me that she got a call because someone from Patterson Kitz that called her complaining about the fact that there was a black male law student.
And there were very few of us, who had come down and interviewed with them and they didn't come to the super, Super Saturday event. And they didn't have the pamphlet on the firm or know anything about the firm or, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then these kids wonder why they don't get Jobs. So that was a whole, so that was the whole, the whole thing.
Right. And meanwhile, in my back pocket, I had the, I had the job offer from Blake's in Toronto, which was the second largest law firm in the country at the time. So, um, so, so despite all of that Patterson Kitz came back and offered me an articling position. And I respectfully declined. Yeah. Because for me it just was like, what, like why, why would I choose this over this law firm in Toronto?
Where they basically have said, we want you, we like you there's no, am I allowed to swear? Go ahead. There's no bullshit. You know, and you can just like, like, I can just go and I can get. A great set of articles. I can have this on my resume that I worked for this firm and I'll do my, I'll do my, my bar in Ontario.
And if I come back to Nova Scotia and I w and I need to I'll do it in Nova Scotia, it was just, it was a very, like for me, it was a very disheartening experience because like I said, I, I really wanted to stay in Nova Scotia. Um, but that kind of, you know, set my departure in motion.
[00:32:45] Augy: W w what I just appreciate, you know, the space and you telling your story Floyd, because at this point, obviously you've got this great light shining on, you know, Floyd Kane, but yet, you know, I really appreciate the community conversation and I feel your,
love - hate for Nova Scotia. And I will say that because there's things about it that I really don't like as far as the minority situation and, and, and, and the way that, um, the racism that exists here. It's a fact we live it to fact, but I'm also from Nova Scotia. I'm Scotian. I love that we are R and B. I love that we are a little bit country.
I love that. You know, there's a lot of things about it. I love, but I would also say that what speaks to me is, as I started to get older, similar to you, I was making decisions around what I wanted to do based on authenticity of the offer. Right? Whether it was where I went to university, where, what job I took, I mean, I spent 10 years teaching in the Caribbean and I went there for authenticity because I didn't want to be a minority anymore.
So I went to a place where it was a majority, I, that there was an authentic feel that I needed in my soul. Right. And I think that kind of speaks to you being in Toronto. And being in that space where you can get the entertainment law, you can get the, the people that value what you bring to the table. Uh, but there's an authenticity that we, we often have to go towards and I would even say last thing, and I don't want to talk too long, but I just, I now do a lot of equity, diversity and inclusion work with companies.
And I will tell certain companies, I'm not doing the work because it's not authentic. 'You feel a George Floyd guilt, and you want someone to come in and I'm not going to do that'. Right. So, you know, that authentic piece is there. So I do want to move us along. So when let's talk about, you start to now in Toronto, get some experience writing, right.
And, and you're, you're starting to get those, those connections. Um, and, and that's, so you come back and you're with Halifax Film in 2004, right? So there's a kind of a return to Halifax and to, um, you know, some, the writing for CBC and stuff like that is that when you start to feel momentum like this writing for television, writing for movies, writing docs, this is my thing.
[00:34:59] Floyd: No. To be honest, but no. So, so what happened? So I came back in 1998 because, uh, the NDP had become the official opposition and Yvonne Atwell had been elected as the first black female MLA. And I went to work as a researcher for them, you know, Yv.. You know, Yvonne essentially got me the job and I worked with them for a year.
Uh, we went through a very, that was probably one of the, the most tumultuous elections Nova Scotia had ever had. Um, it was terrible. I hated the job. I, we w when we lost a bunch of seats, Would they have to get rid of two researchers and I essentially volunteered to go. Um, but as I was leaving, I ended up being hired by Salter Street Films as their as legal counsel.
And I worked with them for about two years, and then they were purchased by Alliance Atlantis. And then I stayed for, I stayed for another year. Um, and then, uh, how they, Michael Donovan and Charles Bishop started a new company called Halifax Film Company. I ended up going to work with them. Um, and I was one of the founding shareholders of that company.
That company then went on to become DHX Media. Um, and now it's called WildBrain. I left it wasn't until, I would say if I'm being honest, like I was writing the whole time that I was working at that company, like I was writing after work. At a certain point within that company, I realized my career is never going to take off.
Like I, I had opportunities where I did it. I did a show called North South about the construction industry in Nova Scotia, which was a seven part drama series. Um, I did a six part drama series called Soul that I executive produced. It was created by Andy Marshall and Peter Lauterman was the show runner on that.
Um, but it wasn't until I actually decided to leave DHX, which was in, uh, I think almost nine years ago that I actually, even though I spent like, you know, like, and I didn't work all the time, like I, I basically, I left the company. I got one gig as a writer working on the show Continuum. Um, I then ended up spending three years, not really working or making any money other than just.
Honing my craft as a writer and then eventually, um, Amos Adetuyi, he asked me to produce a movie with him and called, called, um, Torchbearer. That movie fell apart. Um, we had some development money left over. We were going to give it back to Telefilm and Stephanie Azam , who was the Telefilm person at the time.
She said, is there something else you want to work on? And that led to me writing Across The Line, which you know, and that, to me, that is a moment that everything just took off.
[00:38:20] Augy: And that's around 2014?
[00:38:23] Floyd: 2014,. Yeah. Yeah, that's right.
[00:38:26] Augy: Wow. And I, again, and I love the questions cause you're filling in, obviously it's a podcast interview you're filling in, but this is for people to, to see that it wasn't easy.
It wasn't linear. Um, you know, and, and I remember, you know, I actually, I ran into Yvonne, um, a couple of days ago, she was at a basketball gym watching her grandson play. Right. And so, you know, we know that community-wise Yvonne holds a lot of, she's an elder in the community and still does that work. So, and I didn't know that you, you, you had, um, been involved with that political side.
And so I do want to get to, um, because Across The Line was, was, um, was you got accolades for that? Um, how did, how did we get, because we got to get to Diggstown, like, how did that, how did that bubble up.
[00:39:20] Floyd: Across The Line?
[00:39:21] Augy: Well, no Diggstown. So, or even what you're transition from. Cause obviously Across The Line gave you another spotlight. Right. But, but, and you said right then I got my, my, my momentum, uh, just to explain the beginnings of even where you writing Diggstown before you had the chance, or did they come to you and you started to write it?
Like, how did the idea come and then how did it come to fruition?
[00:39:47] Floyd: So for the last few years, like, like after, Across The Line, I'd spent quite a bit of time trying to do, I wanted to do something involving a black person working as either a cop or a lawyer in Halifax. And so I developed, I developed a show about a black male detective working in the north end and having an ex-wife who was like a.
Uh, who was a prosecutor who was, who had ties to the south end. And so like then I worked on something where it was about of black female cop who was undercover, who was returning to Nova Scotia to her fam. So, so a lot of this was bubbling. Cause I mean, for me, like one of the big issues is that we it's very seldom that we see authentic portrayals of black Nova Scotians on Canadian television.
So, so, so that's, that's been something I'm very interested in. So then, um, you know, my producing partner, Amos Adetuyi who, to this day, we're still partners. Um, he called me and he was like, you know, I think CBC would be interested in doing a legal drama. And so then I started thinking about, well, what w how can I take these characters who I've developed in these cop shows and move them into a legal procedural and what would be interesting for me as a legal procedural?
And so I, I called a few people who I know who work in legal aid, and I was like, so what does that look like? What's your day look like? How does that work? And so after talking to them, I was like, okay, well, this could be an interesting world to think about because we don't, it's very seldom that we see portrayals on television, where, um, lawyers are representing people who are poor, or like economically, economically disadvantage.
Right. Usually when you see shows, people tend to look middle class, upper middle class, um, you know, and so I, so I really wanted to kind of take a look at what that world was, but I also had this whole idea of. It's interesting to think about how, when you are poor, how a small charge can completely disrupt your life.
Yes. And I thought, and, and that was something that I just, I never really saw on television. And that was why we initially, our first case was to do like a drunk driving case, because it seems like such a simple thing, but it's like if you drive a truck for a living, then that means you can't work. If you lose your license.
And if you're late, and if you're in the middle of a divorce, which was what my, uh, character was. And you're D you're dealing with a dispute with a former spouse over your children. Um, then the fact that you're not making any money. Becomes a problem as well. So, so there are just all these, these, these, this tiny little legal case though, this charge can have these massive reverberations for your life.
And that was where the show really started for me in terms of thinking about, you know, yeah, it'd be really great to do a show. Like Diggstown where you have characters dealing, like where you have Marcy and the other legal aid lawyers, defending clients who are dealing with these types of issues and the re and the reverberations for their lives.
[00:43:32] Augy: Yeah. And that's it. And congratulations on, on the show Floyd, because you, you deal with that so well, but you also deal with it. And if you're from Nova Scotia, Jojo Carvery, we, we, we know the names, we know the Diggs name, that's an East Preston name that, you know, that's, you know, and so w there's that familiarity, but I do.
And many people love the content Floyd, because it's interesting when I hear I go back over our time together just now. And I think about you at IGA and you at Cole Harbour and, and, and you at Bell Park. And, and there's a sense where you can now get those things off your chest, right? In a, in a, in a drama, like in a, in a situational, um, drama where I see there's a real authenticity to some of the stories that you're bringing out.
Um, because obviously my dad, you know, worked, he didn't do legal aid, but he. Defended people that didn't have money like he did. And that's a different type of law. That's a different,
[00:44:36] Floyd: yeah. Your, your dad. I mean, you probably don't know this but years ago. I mean, I wanted to make your dad's story into a movie and he, and I had spent time talking about that because what we want to do is we wanted to do a mini series based on the whole situation with him and Anne Derrick and the cops doing exactly, exactly that, that whole case.
And, uh, um, you know, I want, I'm not going to, I will tell you off the record, but, um, someone didn't decided they didn't want to participate, at the last minute, and we weren't. And so we weren't able to do it. But to me, like that's one of the greatest stories, untold stories. Ever, because it's this fascinating, not it's, it's so fascinating to think about how the legal establishment align themselves against your father in this, in this situation.
Right. It just was like, it's like, it's a brilliant, it's a brilliant situation about, you know, someone fight who has been fighting against the system, his entire life and the system coming after him.
[00:46:03] Augy: Yeah, because in speaking truth to power, because that example, we won't get into it on this podcast, but it was an example of calling it what it was.
And that led to hundreds of thousands of dollars being put down and, and, and from the Bar and from their and judges and, and when you just saw it. And the funny thing is, and you knew my dad on certain levels. I know my dad is so not what people made him out to be like, if you wanted to demonize him, he could.
But, but the fact is, is that, um, he was about fairness and equality and he wasn't afraid to call stuff out. And it was easy for him to do that when he wasn't a lawyer. Right. He, when he was a civil rights activist, he was blowing stuff up. And just saying whatever, if you didn't like me, didn't like him. But when he became a lawyer, that story that you're talking about in particular, um, like they tried to constrain him within the job.
Right. And make him pay. For speaking that same truth and hopefully it opened up some space for other people to speak truth, to say that yes. You know, we think about the street check thing now. Like he was just saying that what happened that day with cops that weren't even there for that particular incident was racist and they wouldn't have done it to a white child.
And that led to that long battle over just saying that, that they wouldn't have done that to a white child.
[00:47:26] Floyd: No, that's crazy. That's crazy.
[00:47:29] Augy: So how do you feel, I mean, with some of the feedback that you're getting now, and is there some sense and you said, you know, it's nice to be in a position where now you have your power, you have, you know, have a, you have a name and people are, are, are, um, Almost paying attention to your every word, but yet your voice speaks through a hard hitting down to earth, surfing, you know, legal aid, lawyer that bounces back and forth female powerhouse.
Um, D like how, obviously this is a rhetorical question, but how do you feel now about this, this thing that you th that you built called Diggstown?
[00:48:15] Floyd: Um, I love Diggstown. I think it's, um, I, for me, like, you know, it's a show that I love what we do and the space that we fill in terms of the Canadian television landscape. Um, I love, I love the fact that we're able to, we're not afraid to talk about, um, things that are necessary or uncomfortable for Canadians to kind of.
Give some thought to, um, you know, I, for me, you know, after the whole thing with George Floyd happened and listening to so many people say, well, I didn't know this. And I never understood this. And it's like, well, wait a second. You're like a, you know, someone who grew up in the sixties and seventies and you don't know, um, that just felt, um, disingenuous in a lot of ways.
It felt disingenuous to me. And so part of the show is about, you know, talking about these things that happen in Canadian society, um, and having people and putting people in a position to not be able to say, I don't know anymore, you know, because we're, we're telling you it does happen. It does exist in our country, in your own backyard.
And you have to embrace that. Um, but the other thing I will say is in truth, like, I don't think I don't, I don't think of myself as being powerful. I think of myself as being like right now, I have a platform and I have, which is Diggstown. And I can use that platform to try and, you know, express to people.
What, in a lot of ways, how I feel about the world or to show people kind of the world that I live in. Um, but you know, tomorrow if Diggstown ends, I mean, it ends and I move on to, and I move on to the next show and I go back to hustling just like every other writer. So I, so to me, like, yeah, I just like right now, I'm just really.
I'm really grateful to have had the three seasons so far, and hopefully we'll get a fourth to be able to tell these stories and to bring like Marcy and bring Nova Scotia in both it's like beauty and ugliness to, you know, to the rest of the world.
[00:51:00] Augy: Yeah. And I do want to thank you again for that, because when I watched the show, I'm so proud and I'm saying that honestly, as a Nova Scotian, like I'm seeing places and I'm here with my wife, who's from Hamilton and we're talking, Hey, that's where we met.
Like when have we ever been able to do that? I mean, so much, you know, especially lawyer drama, if it's Canadian, it's coming out of Vancouver, it's coming out of Toronto, especially right now. And sort of tell that Nova Scotia story, because we have many people here in Canada that don't understand Nova Scotia. They really don't right.
So you've opened that up and I do want to make it a shameless plug for the last episode that I watched. You had one of the people that had only podcasts Kate McDonald was, was, uh, working right as the police officer, um, who lived in PEI. Right. And so, you know, I kinda thought I laughed at the, you know, I knew you were coming on.
I said, wow, that's a, that's a nice connection. Um, the last thing I really, to really, you know, again, and I'm so happy having here is to tell you how much I admire what you do, but our other connection is the scholarship at St. Mary's, The Edna and Velma Thomas Kane Writers Award. Um, you know, there's, you've established that around supporting and giving back, but you put some beautiful parameters around how that scholarship looks.
Um, explain a little bit about the scholarship and how it came to be with you working with St. Mary's.
[00:52:29] Floyd: Um, sure. Uh, um, I've taken a deep breath just because, um, the two women it's named after my late aunt Velma and my mother are extremely instrumental in where I am in my journey. Um, my reason for wanting to do it, I mean, it has to do with what I talked about earlier, in terms of across, like working on Across The Line and hearing the statistics about black Nova Scotians who have been multi-generational of Nova Scotians in terms of whether or not they choose to go to university.
And I guess my, my feeling was really, I, when I started Diggstown, one of the things I really wanted to do was encourage more. I wanted to find, black Nova Scotians. So I could bring into the writing room and maybe shepherd them and help them come up through the process. And when I initially tried looking for people in Nova Scotia during season one in there wasn't anybody, you know, or so I was told there wasn't anybody.
So then what happened is in season two, um, we looked again and we actually had, like, we participated formerly with like the Screen Nova Scotia, uh, in their whole writing program where you can come into a series and mentor in the writing room for a couple of weeks. And then none of their applicants were black Nova Scotians at the time.
So I just kind of this third season, we were, we got lucky because I actually had, we actually were able to get Kumbie. Who, you know, she had, she had sent a script to me to read for a feature film, just unrelated to Diggstown. And I had said to her, I said, well, Hey, do you want to come? And, you know, be my show running assistant for the rest, for the season of Diggstown for personal reasons, she couldn't do that.
But I said, well, how about coming into the writing room for a few weeks? Anyway, at least you'll get some experience and you can, you can tell people, you, you like, you can put it on your resume. Um, and so that like, so, so I've, I always wanted to kind of have that happen, but it wasn't happening fast enough.
And in the way I wanted it to. So what I decided was I wanted to create, you know, well, let me go back. The other thing that happened is I have two nephews who both went to SMU. They're both like 10 years out of university. They both still have massive student loan debt. So I paid, so I paid it off because, because I could, I just, I like, I like, I'm not, I mean, you don't know me, but I I'm not somebody who is, I have two things that I like eating at a nice restaurant and I like a nice bottle of wine, that's it?
Yeah. Like I'm not, I'm not a big spender, so I'm relatively cheap. So for me it was like, okay, I can afford to do this. So I'm going to help them out. And so from that, I thought to myself, think about the number of black Nova Scotian students who, when they're, when they think about going to university, they stop thinking about university as an option.
Not because they don't want to go to university because they're thinking about the massive debt load they'll leave when they come out of university that they'll have hanging over their head. Yes. And, and for me, I was like, okay, because I, cause I understand, right. Like I, I, I was from that perspective of, I didn't have a parent or relative who I could call and say, Hey, can you lend me a thousand dollars to do X, Y, and Z?
Can you lend me a hundred dollars to do X, Y, and Z? I didn't have that. I didn't grow up with that. So I understood that as a reality for a lot of black Nova Scotian kids who, who are thinking about university. And so right out of the gate, when you're thinking about that, you go, okay, well maybe university is not for me.
Maybe I'll get a trade and listen. I mean, and just to say this, like, there's nothing wrong with getting a trade. University is not for everybody. You know, if you want to, if you, I mean, frankly, as an old friend of mine said, If you want to be a garbage man, you can be the best garbage. You'd just be the best garbage man
you can be, you know, be passionate about it. You know, it doesn't, it doesn't matter. But if you want to go to university, what I wanted to do was remove money as an obstacle. What I wanted to do was give people an opportunity who decide to go to university to know that at the end, when you're finished your undergrad degree, if you want to continue, or you want to pay off your debt, or you want to travel for like two years, or you want to go do some fellowship writing fellowship in the States or Australia, wherever, there's an opportunity for you.
You know, it's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it's there waiting for you. And that was, that was why I created the scholarship because it's not a scholarship. It's a prize. Essentially once when you, at graduation, you apply. If you're the successful person, someone hands, you a check for $30,000, you do what you want to do with it.
Right. And, and that, to me, like, I just, if I would've had something like that, when I was an undergrad, if I knew that this existed, when I was in high school, I would have totally went to like, I would have made sure I was going to university because I don't have to worry about the money I can go, oh, well, I might, I could ma I could win this.
You know? And so that was, that was the reason why I created it. And the reason I put the parameters around it in terms of like being black Nova Scotians is because, I mean, that's, to me, like once again, I want to see those numbers go up. Right. I want to see more black men, more black women going to choosing to go to university.
You know, if they want to. Right. Once again, it's about giving people a choice, you know, and not making everything about economics,
[00:59:29] Augy: No well, you know, it's beautiful and it's brilliant. I've read the parameters for it. And, and, and, you know, I also sit on the selection committee and I thought when we were going through it, I thought it was such a different way to look at it because what blew my mind is when he said, when you get the money, we're not checking back on you.
And there's something very. Systemic and all say, Euro centric around. We need to know how you spent every penny. Right. And, and so, so, you know, I thought when, so when we were going through it, I just thought, wow, you really opened up a beautiful space, Floyd. Um, you're, you're, it's a brilliant way to give back to the community.
And when we think about student loans and getting a prize at the end, when you graduate to say 'whew' all this pressure's off me and I can be in a creative space. Right. I think that that's brilliant. And, and, uh, I just want to get a thank you for the work that you do. I want to thank you for the beautiful platform, which is Diggstown.
Um, the work that you're doing, Floyd and, and, and, uh, and sharing your time with me today. I really got to know more about you. And obviously the people that listen to the podcast, we get to know more about you. And, uh, I really, really appreciate your time. And it's been a pleasure talking to you, sir.
[01:00:47] Floyd: Thank you so much Augy, this was really great.
Empathize Others: The Podcast ©2021 Strongcoffee Media Group - Horizon Line Films Ltd.
