rabble radio

In this episode, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Jason Toney, director of media advocacy at Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), to discuss Prime Minister Mark Carney's recent comments on recognizing Palestine as a state—and the conditions he attached. The two break down what those conditions mean and also talk about CJPME's work to ensure fair and accurate media coverage of Palestine in Canada. About our guest and CJPME Jason Toney is the director of media advocacy at Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), where he leads the Media Accountability Project, monitoring Canadian media coverage of Palestine. He has been active in Palestine solidarity for over a decade, including cultural exchanges and organizing debate conferences in the region. He previously worked in independent publishing with Black Rose Books and Daraja Press. He is the editor of Take the City (Black Rose Books, 2022) and co-editor of When Genocide Wasn't News (Breach Books, 2025). He has published essays on media, Palestine, municipalism, Hannah Arendt, and Murray Bookchin. He lives in Montréal. CJPME's mission is to enable Canadians of all backgrounds to promote justice, development and peace in the Middle East, and here at home in Canada. To learn more about Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, please visit: https://www.cjpme.org/ If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has a track record of taking from the public to give to private interests. No where is this more evident than his government's approach to environmental conservation. Time and again, Doug Ford has removed public land to give to private developers, all in the name of supposedly strengthening the provincial economy and building houses. In recent years, parks and other greenspaces have been sold off for the creation of spas, highways, and some housing all while destroying valuable habitats and ecosystems. Today on rabble radio, I speak with Tim Gray, the Executive Director of Environmental Defence about the recent announcement that 60 per cent of the provincially owned Wasaga Beach will be handed over to private developers. About our guests Tim Gray is the Executive Director of Environmental Defence, a leading environmental advocacy organization in Canada. He is responsible for leading the organization's initiatives to safeguard Canada's freshwater, build livable cities, get toxic chemicals out of the products we use, clean up plastic pollution and transition Canada from fossil fuels to modern, clean energy. Tim was a founding Board member of Global Forest Watch Canada and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, and in addition to leading Environmental Defence, he is also the Board of Directors of Evidence for Democracy. In 2025, Tim was a recipient of a King Charles III's Coronation Medal for his environmental work. Tim obtained an H.BSc. in Biology from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario in 1987 and a M.Sc. in Botany/Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto in 1992. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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, we're re-sharing an interview from 2023 featuring Scott Martin and Sean Smukler. Sean Smukler is an associate professor in applied biology and soil science at University of British Columbia (UBC) and director of the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm. Martin and Smukler discuss the current challenges farmers are facing in Canada due to climate change – and wonder aloud where Canada is headed. To learn more about the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC, visit their website here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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 the face of rising anti-immigrant rhetoric, a new partnership between Lush Cosmetics and the Canadian Council for Refugees is taking a stand. Together, they've launched Neighbours—a campaign built on the belief that Canada should be a place of welcome, belonging and justice for all. At the center of this campaign is the limited-edition Resilient Bath Bomb. Seventy-five percent of the purchase price (minus the taxes) from the Resilient Bath Bomb go directly to organizations working on the front lines to support refugee and immigrant communities. Today on rabble radio, Gauri Sreenivasan (Canadian Council for Refugees) and Carleen Pickard (Lush Cosmetics, North America) sit down with rabble editor Nick Seebruch to talk about how the partnership came together, the shared values behind it, and how everyday acts of care can connect to broader movements for justice and belonging. About our guests Gauri Sreenivasan (she/elle) is co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, a leading voice for the rights, protection, sponsorship, settlement, and well-being of refugees and migrants, in Canada and globally. She has over 30 years of experience in policy and advocacy, working in leadership roles across civil society, Parliament Hill, and with academia and researchers to build alliances for change on Turtle Island and around the world. Carleen Pickard works on social, environmental and animal justice campaigns for Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics. As advocacy and activism manager, she supports campaigns and initiatives on issues important to Lush such as reconciliation with Indigenous People, ending fossil fuel extraction and animal protection. Prior to Lush, she held several positions at the human rights group Global Exchange between 1997-2015, including executive director, associate director and Mexico program director. She was also an organizer and political co-director at the Council of Canadians, Canada's largest advocacy organization. Carleen holds an MA in Anthropology and Development from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, where she worked with Zapatista communities in Mexico resisting military occupation. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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 editor Nick Seebruch speaks with Dr. Yipeng Ge, one of over 4,000 people from around the world who joined the Global March to Gaza. The Global March to Gaza attempted to reach the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Palestine, aiming to draw global attention to the blockade of Gaza and call for an end to the siege. You can read Dr. Yipeng Ge's full reflections on the march in his op-ed for rabble—available now on our website. About our guest Dr. Yipeng Ge is a primary care physician and public health practitioner based on the traditional, unceded, and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg. In his clinical practice, he works in family medicine practice and refugee health at a community health centre. He has worked on and studied the structural and colonial determinants of health in both the settler colonial contexts of so-called Canada and occupied Palestine. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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.

Labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Leo DeVries from Science for the People to discuss Prime Minister Mark Carney's plan to boost defence spending to five per cent of Canada's GDP over the next decade. What will this mean for workers? For the economy? And more broadly, what does it signal about Canada's priorities—especially when it comes to fighting the climate crisis and honouring Indigenous rights? Can massive military investment coexist with those commitments, or are they fundamentally at odds? About our guest Leo DeVries is a math graduate student and an organizer with Science for the People: Ottawa. Science for the People is an organization of scientists, workers, educators, and activists dedicated to building a bottom-up social movement with radical perspectives on science and society. Through research, writing, protest, and grassroots organizing, Science for the People seeks to demystify scientific knowledge and embolden "the people" to take science and technology into their own hands. The organization's numerous publications play a formative role in the field of science and technology studies, challenging mainstream understandings of science as "neutral" and instead showing it to be inherently political. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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.

Tara Mandarano is a writer and editor based in Ontario who lives with chronic pain. Today on rabble radio, she shares her story about living with fibromyalgia and endometriosis as a single mother. About our guest Tara Mandarano is a writer, editor, and poet. Her writing has been nominated for the Best-of-the Net award, and has appeared in The Washington Post, HuffPo, Today's Parent, Los Angeles Review of Books, and Motherwell, among numerous other publications. She is also an advocate in the mental health and chronic illness communities. Find her blog here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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're sharing a clip from our June Off the Hill political panel. In this panel, our distinguished guests — Eriel Deranger, Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action; Clayton Thomas-Müller, author and activist; Sabrina Grover, political strategist and communications expert; former NDP MPP Joel Harden; and rabble's own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg — explore the implications of Prime Minister Mark Carney's commitment to making Canada "an energy superpower." The discussion delves into how this vision intersects with Indigenous sovereignty, pipeline development and Canada's climate commitments. About our guests Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), executive director/founder of Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) and 2024 winner of the global Climate Breakthrough award. Eriel is active in international Indigenous rights advocacy movements participating in various boards and UN bodies. Her work focuses on Indigenous rights, climate justice and intersectional movements. She is recognized for her role as spokesperson for her community in the international Indigenous Tar Sands Campaign. Prior to this she was a Specific Land Claims and Treaty Land Entitlement Researcher for the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations. Eriel has written for various magazines and publications; featured in documentary films including Elemental (2012); and is regularly interviewed for national and international media outlets. Clayton Thomas-Müller is a member of the Treaty #6 based Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan located in Northern Manitoba, Canada. He has campaigned in and out of Canada, to support Indigenous Peoples to defend their territories against the encroachment of the fossil fuel industry. He is an award winning film director, media producer, organizer, facilitator, public speaker and bestselling author. His book, Life in the City of Dirty Water, was a national bestseller and a CBC Canada Reads finalist. Sabrina Grover is an experienced political, advocacy and communications professional with an expertise in the international development and global health and nutrition sectors. Grover served as the campaign manager for the Mark Sutcliffe Campaign for Mayor in Ottawa, and in 2021 Sabrina ran as the Federal Liberal Candidate for Calgary-Centre. She also sits on the board of several organizations including the Public Affairs Association of Canada, the Sled Island Music Festival and HomeSpace where she primarily supports stakeholder relations and building partnerships with government and private sector partners. She's also a frequent political commentator on CBC Calgary, CTV Power Play and the Vassy Kapelos Show. Joel Harden is a lifelong community organizer who represented Ottawa Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 2018 to 2025 as a member of the Ontario New Democratic Party. During his time at Queen's Park, Harden served as the party's Critic for Transit and Active Transportation, where he championed accessible, affordable, and sustainable public transit solutions across the province. Karl Nerenberg is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker, working in both English and French languages. He is rabble's senior parliamentary reporter. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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.

Content Warning: This interview includes personal accounts of homophobia and experiences of violence. Please listen with care and sensitivity. It's Pride Month, and while advocating for queer and trans rights is a year-round commitment, this June feels especially urgent. Countries once considered relatively safe—like the UK and the US—are rolling back protections and adopting increasingly hostile policies. And in many parts of the world, same-sex relationships are criminalized, people who defy gender norms face punishment, and simply living authentically can put someone's life at risk. An organization that works to protect queer and trans lives globally is Rainbow Railroad. In 2023 alone, Rainbow Railroad received more than 15,000 pleas for help from LGBTQI+ individuals facing life-threatening danger. While not everyone can be relocated, the organization works with global partners to get those at risk to safety. This week on the show, we're joined by: Devon Matthews, the head of programs at Rainbow Railroad to discuss the important work the organization is doing to support 2SLGBTQIA folks across the globe; and also Rahma Esslouani, a newcomer to Canada originally from Morocco. Rainbow Railroad is a global not-for-profit organization that helps at-risk LGBTQI+ people get to safety worldwide. Based in the United States and Canada, they are an organization that helps LGBTQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. In a time when there are more displaced people than ever, LGBTQI+ people are uniquely vulnerable due to systemic, state-enabled homophobia and transphobia. These factors either displace them in their own country or prevent them from escaping harm. About our guests Devon Matthews (she/they) is the Head of Programs at Rainbow Railroad, where they lead global initiatives to support LGBTQI+ individuals facing persecution. Since joining the organization in 2018, Devon has led the organization through numerous major international emergency responses, helping to deliver life-saving support to thousands of queer and trans people at risk. She holds a BA (Hons.) from Dalhousie University and an MA at the University of London under the Refugee Law Initiative. Rahma Esslouani is a newcomer who relocated to Toronto, Canada, from Morocco via Turkey. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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.

If you've been tuning in to rabble radio for a while, you'll know that every summer, we return to a familiar —and vital— discussion: climate change is a labour issue. In the past, we've spoken about how extreme weather events affect working Canadians, how climate change affects agricultural workers and the economy, and we've chatted with advocates in Ottawa calling for a National Firefighting Agency. There's no debate: climate change and labour are inextricably linked. Today on rabble radio, we're spotlighting an organization in British Columbia calling for the implementation of a maximum working temperature. The Worker Solidarity Network is urging the provincial government to introduce legislation that would protect workers from the dangers of extreme heat on the job. Currently, BC has no regulations in place to set temperature limits in workplaces—but with the increasing threat of deadly heat waves, advocates say the time for action is now. About our guest Jiyoon Ha is the communications coordinator at the Workers' Solidarity Network based in British Columbia. WSN consists of workers throughout the province that share an invested interest in the well-being of precarious employees that struggle under capitalism. Ha brings five years of experience in the service industry to her role at the WSN. She was emboldened to fight for labour justice after growing up in a working-class community and having worked precarious jobs, where she experienced unfair working conditions that upheld harassment and wage theft, among other things. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 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. Fundraising music used with permission from: uppbeat.io/t/hartzmann/sunny License code: JJOU2WYAPVKYRO1H