rabble radio

This week on rabble radio, we feature a segment from our most recent Off the Hill political panel. This month, our theme was 'Off the Hill: Corporate interference and the climate crisis.' Corporate interference – or corporate capture – refers to the means by which large corporations can (and do) influence politicians and political decision-making. We have to wonder: how does corporate Interference affect the climate crisis in Canada? Our April panel included MP Leah Gazan, Diana Yoon and Gordon Laxar. Hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. Happy birthday, rabble.ca! This week, rabble is celebrating 22 years of sharing progressive news and views! And it's all thanks to the support from our rabble rousers. Thanks to the financial support of rabble rousers like you, rabble can continue to publish journalism that matters - reporting on the news from progressive social and labour movements and providing context and analysis to national and world events that you will not find elsewhere. Help us celebrate our birthday! We're giving away vegetable seed packets, books and our new union-made tote bag to new donors. Become a rabble rouser today at rabble.ca/donate. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

In this year's federal budget, the Liberal government announced a $13-billion plan to expand dental care to families earning less than $90,000 a year, fulfilling the government's commitment to the New Democrats. This is, of course, a major step forward for dental care in Canada. But is it enough? Or do we also need to rethink the structure of dental care in Canada as a whole? This week on rabble radio, national politics reporter Stephen Wentzell speaks to Dr. Brandon Doucet about his new book, About Canada: Dental Care. About our guest Brandon Doucet is a Nova Scotia-based dentist, founder of the group Coalition for Dentalcare, and author of About Canada: Dental Care. You can get a copy of About Canada: Dental Care at FernwoodPublishing.ca or order it at your favourite local bookstore. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

What does it mean for a workplace to be truly inclusive for all workers? This week on rabble radio, labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Jade Pichetter from Pride at Work to discuss creating safe and inclusive workplaces for trans, non-binary and agender people. Through dialogue, education and thought leadership, Pride at Work Canada empowers employers to build workplaces that celebrate all employees regardless of gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation. -- Pride at Work Canada About our guest Jade Pichette is an inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility professional based in Tkarón:to/Toronto. Currently, Pichette serves as the director of programs at Pride at Work Canada, where they work with over 250 large employers across Canada around gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation inclusion. Pichette was one of the authors of Transitioning Employers, a survey of policies and practices for trans inclusive workplaces. To learn more about the work Pride at Work Canada does, please visit their website here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, Georgia Kelly sits down with Franz Hartmann from The Alliance for a Livable Ontario. The two discuss the Alliance's goals for holding the Ontario government accountable and creating vibrant communities across the province. Want to learn more about The Alliance for a Livable Ontario? Visit their website here. About our guests: Franz Hartmann is the coordinator of The Alliance for a Liveable Ontario. Before this role, Hartmann was the executive director of the Toronto Environmental Alliance (or TEA) for 11 years. He also served as chair of the Ontario Greenbelt Alliance for four years and helped the Alliance build vast community support for the Greenbelt. Prior to working at TEA, Hartmann was the environmental advisor to Jack Layton when he was city councillor and oversaw Layton's civil society engagement activities in Ottawa. Georgia Kelly is a third-year undergraduate in the University of Toronto's Ethics, Society, and Law program. She works as an associate editor for the student newspaper, the Varsity, and is working towards a career as a journalist. She primarily reports on labour issues on campus and local business issues around Toronto. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, we feature a segment from our most recent Off the Hill political panel. This month, our theme was 'Off the Hill: Mind the gap – the federal budget and income equality.' The federal budget for 2023 is soon to be announced. Who decides the budget? Who influences it? And where does all that money go? Last year's budget was aimed at growing the economy in Canada and making life more affordable and equitable. But did it? Our guests dissected these questions and more in our Off the Hill panel this month. Our March panel included MP Niki Ashton, Chuka Ejeckam, David Macdonald and Karl Nerenberg. Hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. Happening next week: Book launch, 'Advocating for Palestine in Canada' Join rabble for a very special book launch webinar on Thursday, March 30, 2023 at 8pm ET / 5pm PST. Through the experiences of the contributing authors, Advocating for Palestine in Canada offers an indispensable and first-hand view into the complex social and historical forces at work in one of the world's most urgent issues, and one which also has huge implications for freedoms enjoyed by Canadians. This webinar will feature contributing authors from the book to share their unique views and wide experiences on advocating for Palestine in Canada, revealing a solid civil society movement in the face of strong institutional opposition. Our panelists share how they came to Palestine activism, why they continue and where they see the movement going. Register for this free event today! If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga is joined by Ethel Tungohan. Today, Tungohan and Calugay-Casuga discuss the expectations and assumption of care work in Canada. Calugay-Casuga and Tungohan talk about Matatag: Filipina Care Workers During COVID-19, a photo series project by Filipina nurses, support workers, and caregivers during COVID-19. The two also talk about the "invisibilization" of care work in Canada, particularly for women and racialized communities and how a complete breakdown of colonized thinking, learning and working in Canada must take place in order for true labour equity to take place. Tungohan appeared on a recent episode of Courage My Friends: 'Migrant workers and 'the pandemic paradox': The unseen hands that truly keep us afloat.' In this episode, she joined Jhoey Dulaca and Chris Ramsaroop to discuss temporary foreign workers in Canada. Be sure to tune into that episode after this! Tungohan's new book, Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement-Building, and Communities of Care is set to be released August 2023. Join us for Off the Hill next week! The federal budget for 2023 is soon to be announced. Who decides the budget? Who influences it? And where does all that money go? Last year's budget was aimed at growing the economy in Canada and making life more affordable and equitable. But did it? Our guests will dissect these questions and more in our Off the Hill panel this month. Guests include MP Leah Gazan, rabble columnist and policy researcher Chuka Ejeckam, economist David Macdonald and rabble parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg. Hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. Save your spot for this free event today! Join us this March 23, 2023, 7:30 PM ET / 4:30 PM PT. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, national politics reporter Stephen Wentzell is joined by Dr. Martha Paynter. Paynter last joined rabble radio in June of 2022 to talk about the misconceptions people have about access to abortion in Canada and the other threats facing reproductive justice in the country. Today, Wentzell and Paynter discuss Paynter's new guidebook for providing abortion care in prison, a new jail facility being built in N.B., and the need for universal contraception coverage in Nova Scotia. Dr. Martha Paynter is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick. She is the affiliate scientist for the Nova Scotia Women's Choice Clinic. In addition to this, she is the founder and past chair of Wellness Within: An Organization for Health and Justice. She is also the author of Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada. Join us for Off the Hill this month The federal budget for 2023 is soon to be announced. Who decides the budget? Who influences it? And where does all that money go? Last year's budget was aimed at growing the economy in Canada and making life more affordable and equitable. But did it? Our guests will dissect these questions and more in our Off the Hill panel this month. Guests include MP Leah Gazan, rabble columnist and policy researcher Chuka Ejeckam, economist David Macdonald and rabble parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg. Hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. Save your spot for this free event today! Join us this March 23, 2023, 7:30 PM ET / 4:30 PM PT. Save your spot: Advocating for Palestine in Canada, book webinar Through the experiences of the contributing authors, Advocating for Palestine in Canada offers a first-hand view into the complex social and historical forces at work in one of the world's most urgent issues, and one which also has huge implications for freedoms enjoyed by Canadians. This webinar will feature contributing authors from the book to share their unique views and wide experiences on advocating for Palestine in Canada, revealing a solid civil society movement in the face of strong institutional opposition. Our panelists share how they came to Palestine activism, why they continue and where they see the movement going. Save your spot for this event here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, rabble contributor Doreen Nicoll speaks to Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, to talk about two important campaigns by Democracy Watch. The first, an 'honesty in politics' law which fines politicians who make false promises or misleading statements during elections and while in office. This campaign involves the proposal of an independent "watchdog agency," and gives the watchdog agency the power to investigate and penalize the politician caught lying. The second campaign is focused on ending secret, unethical lobbying. Because of loopholes in lobbying laws, it is legal for lobbyists to be secretly bankrolled by wealthy interests to buy influence and trade favours with politicians and government officials in secret. On this, Conacher says: "Secrecy is a recipe for corruption, waste and abuse of the public and the public interest." Democracy Watch is a national non-profit, non-partisan organization, and Canada's leading citizen group advocating democratic reform, government accountability and corporate responsibility. Since its formation in 1993, Democracy Watch has won more than 200 changes to federal and provincial good government and corporate responsibility laws. Save your spot: Advocating for Palestine in Canada, book webinar Through the experiences of the contributing authors, Advocating for Palestine in Canada offers an indispensable and first-hand view into the complex social and historical forces at work in one of the world's most urgent issues, and one which also has huge implications for freedoms enjoyed by Canadians. This webinar will feature contributing authors from the book to share their unique views and wide experiences on advocating for Palestine in Canada, revealing a solid civil society movement in the face of strong institutional opposition. Our panelists share how they came to Palestine activism, why they continue and where they see the movement going. This event is sponsored by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), Fernwood Publishing, Another Story Bookshop, Independent Jewish Voices Canada. With partners Zatoun and, of course, rabble.ca. Save your spot for this event here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on the show, rabble editor Nick Seebruch speaks to Medea Benjamin, co-founder of women-led peace group Code Pink. Code Pink is a grassroots NGO with an anti-war mandate. The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on the morning of February 24, 2022, which makes today the one year anniversary. Today, Seebruch and Benjamin discuss the global efforts Code Pink and like-minded organizations have made to encourage a peaceful resolution to this war. Reflecting on the one year anniversary of the war, Benjamin says: "I feel like the human community has not evolved far enough to recognize that this way of dealing with conflicts is not only unjust, inhumane – but untenable." Benjamin appeared on rabble radio in May of last year to speak with Libby Davies about Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You can listen to that episode here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, we feature a segment from our most recent Off the Hill political panel. This month, our theme was 'Off the Hill: Tackling systemic inequalities.' This month is Black History Month. In our political panel this month, we examined the critical issues facing us in Canada this month including the privatization of health care in federal-provincial agreements, the ongoing space right wing sentiment has in mainstream culture and some of the initiatives happening across the country to address systemic racism and inequality. Our February panel included MP Matthew Green, Richard Sharpe, Stephen Brown and Karl Nerenberg. Hosted by Robin Browne. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.