The Breach Show

With Ontario facing a snap election, we take a deep dive into more than six years of austerity and free market fundamentalism under Doug Ford.  Desmond Cole is joined by Bryan Evans, co-editor of Against the People: How Ford Nation is Dismantling Ontario, to break down the Ford playbook and unpack the damage done.

As Trump’s tariff threats loom, trade expert Stuart Trew talks to host Donya Ziaee about what Canadian workers should be prepared for, how the corporate elite are exploiting the crisis, and how the Left can seize on the moment to push for more progressive change.

El Jones speaks to Martin Lukacs about her recent trip to the occupied West Bank, where her delegation visited with scholars, journalists, artists, and communities engaged in non-violent resistance to Israeli apartheid. Writing by Budour Hassan here.

Desmond Cole, a journalist and activist known for his bestselling book "The Skin We're In," joins Martin Lukacs to dissect Justin Trudeau's near-decade in office. They reflect on the disillusionment following Trudeau’s promising start, highlighting his failures in housing and Indigenous relations. Cole critiques the superficiality of Trudeau's reconciliatory gestures and the real impacts of corporate interests on policy. The discussion also explores the political shift in Canada post-convoy, questioning the left's strategy and the rising right-wing sentiment.

In the wake of Chrystia Freeland’s explosive departure from the Liberal cabinet, Martin Lukacs and El Jones discuss the establishment media’s infatuation with Ottawa’s palace intrigue and what the future for a hobbled Trudeau government might look like. Plus, we answer listener questions just in time for the holidays.

Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish recently generated headlines when she stepped down from her local police services board, calling the city’s escalating police budget “out of control.” Desmond Cole visits her office to discuss her resignation and the alternatives to policing.

It was a big week for the military-industrial complex in Canada, with the west’s war-making establishment convening in Halifax for the annual International Security Forum (then hopping over to Montreal for a NATO summit).  El Jones fills Martin Lukacs in on her attempts to report on the Security Forum, where the hand towels were plush, the security uptight, and the drumbeat for increased Canadian military spending strong.

Independent journalist Duncan Kinney of Progress Report was charged with mischief for allegedly spraypainting two monuments dedicated to Nazis and their collaborators—a charge he says the Edmonton Police have used to surveil and silence him. Kinney sits down with Desmond Cole to discuss his case.  To donate to Kinney's legal fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/duncan-kinney-legal-defense-fund

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, sits down with Desmond Cole to discuss Canada’s ‘crystal clear’ complicity in the Israeli destruction of Gaza and the ‘hope that remains in this darkness.’

As Americans hit the polls next Tuesday, El Jones and Martin Lukacs hash out the U.S. election campaign, the folly of pandering to the right, neoliberal identity politics, the implications for Palestine, the threat of Trump, and their respective halloween costumes.