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In the sixth and final episode of the Courage My Friends podcast special series, we welcome eco-feminist, scientist, author and celebrated global climate justice leader, Dr. Vandana Shiva. Our discussion takes us beyond borders to the global realties of this pandemic -- a pandemic that is most acutely felt by low-income nations who must contend with deep legacies of poverty amid the callous disregard of a global economic system that continues to leave the south behind. According to Shiva: "We need to see the multiple pandemics right now. The pandemic of COVID. But there's a pandemic of hunger. There's a pandemic of unemployment and shutting down of small local businesses. There's a pandemic of heartlessness and fear." Where "these new diseases are really a result of invasions into forests," the stage had long been set for (and what many are now describing as) the age of pandemics -- COVID-19 being its most recent and opportunistic arrival. Bats and pangolins aside, the disastrous impacts, accompanying crises and worrying predictions of the current pandemic are the result of distinctly human-made systems. Systems firmly rooted within what Shiva sees as the death spiral of modern capitalism. "I talk about this as an anti-life ideology that has been kept in place by force for over 500 years. And now at the time where the pandemic should be making us put life and care and mutuality and cooperation at center stage, that's precisely the time where this anti-life philosophy is being put on fast-forward." For the world's marginalized, especially those in the global south, this is part of the ongoing legacy of conquest and colonialism. "You know, I've never found a day when capitalism was born. I have found a process in which it was crafted. And that process is colonialism. Basically creating a civilizing mission. Giving yourself the right to invade other countries. And then declaring the land, the wealth, the economies as yours. And collecting rents and revenues from it." From structural violence -- fomented through centuries of conquest and colonization, decades of exploitative structural adjustment, debt, climate destruction and continuing plunder by the global north, its corporations and "philanthro-imperialist" billionaires, to the current vaccine apartheid, Shiva speaks to how the Global South stands at the forefront of the converging crises of COVID, Capitalism and Climate. "First you spread, in irresponsible ways, these new pandemics, because of a globalized neoliberal limitless greed system. And then you deny people treatment. This is what's happening right now. And, you know, instead of governments being able to take care of their national health systems, they're having to fight patent battles at WTO." Established in the early 90s by the Dunkel Draft, the World Trade Organization (WTO) together with the IMF and World Bank, now set the rules for global trade. Regularly finding in favour of global north economies and multinationals -- often involving the exploitation of global south markets, resources and labour -- the WTO as Shiva sees it is nothing less than, "an organization created for recolonization." As southern fields continue to feed northern appetites for 21st century cash crops, i.e. GMO (genetically modified) Soya and BT (pest-resistant) cotton; local farmers contend with hunger, poverty, desperation, and the collapse of local agricultural economies begun by the Green Revolution decades ago. The genetic material (plant, animal, mineral) of the global south and traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples the world over continue to be stolen, misappropriated and commercialized through the biopiracy of patent and Intellectual Property systems, allowing multinationals to own the very building blocks of life -- from seed to animal to water and alas to vaccines. As Shiva says, "The race for vaccines started even before the vaccines were there." And where the ensuing vaccine apartheid leaves India, the world's largest democracy gasping for breath and Africa, the cradle of humanity, at a less than one per cent vaccination rate, for Shiva this deserves nothing less than the strongest condemnation. "The big debate in WTO right now, the whole issue of patents on vaccines and denying people the right to survive is... writing their death-knell…This to me is genocide," she said. The economic orthodoxy of neoliberalism, placing the private over the public, profit over people, the corporate over the commons and industry over environment, does indeed feel like a reprise of colonialism -- but with a twist: "First of all, colonialism was about commerce. But commerce by force, commerce with military might. And commerce with a letter patent -- you know, it was a patent in involved! Columbus was given a letter patent, which according to the King and Queen, they had the power to do this from the Pope who got it from God directly. And the difference between that colonization and this colonization is the billionaires are the gods. The billionaires are the Popes -- they write the religions. The billionaires are the Kings and the Queens. They rule the world." Those billionaires who are also prolific names in charity and global "problem-solving," for Shiva, they are merely philanthro-imperialists, pretending "to be giving when they're actually grabbing." As she speaks to us surrounded by sickness and death (of what will eventually manifest as the Delta variant around the world), for Shiva, this moment reveals the true and horrifying face of colonial capitalism and its legacy, "in the virus of greed combined with a virus of impunity and of indifference." However, where she is also witness to farmers fighting for food sovereignty, Sikh langars offering food and oxygen to those in need and global south nations and their allies coming together to challenge patent monopolies held by multinationals, this also becomes a moment of hope. A hope borne of solidarity and resistance: "We need a new solidarity with the Earth. We need a new solidarity with Indigenous people. And most importantly...a leadership of Indigenous cultures. The leadership of women. The leadership of working people to bring us out of these multiple crises, which have only one outcome - extinction of humanity and collapse of ecosystems." In this age of borderless pandemics, climate destruction and global capitalism, is this a time of reckoning, redress and decolonization of the very systems that brought us to this point? Where the well-being of one is intertwined with the well-being of all, can we finally engage in a meaningful solidarity within and between nations? Can we begin to build regenerative and circular economies that protect the planet and all of its peoples? Where Shiva long ago decided that she could "take on the empire with a little seed," what possibilities lie within a global solidarity movement intent on growing "gardens of hope?" Host and co-producer Resh Budhu begins the conversation with a focus on India during the onset of the deadly 2nd wave of Covid-19 in early May, 2021. Note: All quotes in this article are the words of Dr. Vandana Shiva. About today's guest: Dr. Vandana Shiva Named an "Environmental Hero" by Time Magazine in 2003, "One of the five most powerful communicators of Asia" by Asia Week and as one of the "Top Seven most Powerful Women on the Globe" by Forbes Magazine in 2010, Dr. Vandana Shiva combines sharp intellectual enquiry with courageous activism. In 1982, she founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in Dehra Dun, to address the most significant ecological and social issues of our times. In 1991, she founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seed, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade. In 2004 she started Bija Vidyapeeth (or Earth University), an international college for sustainable living in Doon Valley in collaboration with Schumacher College, U.K. Dr. Shiva has received numerous awards, including the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award,), Order of the Golden Ark, the Global 500 Award of the United Nations, the Earth Day International Award, the Sydney Peace Prize, the Doshi Bridgebuilder Award, the Calgary Peace Prize, the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity, and the International Environment Summit Award.A prolific writer of over 40 publications, Dr. Shiva's most recent book is Oneness Vs. The 1%: Shattering Illusions, Seeding Freedom. Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute Image: Dr. Vandana Shiva. Used with Permission Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Miriam Roopanram, Sharon Russell Julian Wee Tom (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Victoria Fenner (for rabble.ca), Ashley Booth, Chandra Budhu, John Caffery, Michael Long Produced by Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Victoria Fenner, rabble.ca Host: Resh Budhu

In episode 5 of the Courage My Friends podcast, urban planner and author Cheryll Case and community organizer, author and activist Dave Meslin discuss our cities, their structures, priorities, politics and the relationships they foster with those that call them home. With more people now living in urban areas than at any other time in human history, cities are of increasing importance. Centres of commerce and industry, focal points of political and social engagement and cultural crossroads of greater and greater diversity, our cities are sites of complexity and innovation. From the opioid epidemic and the climate crisis to the current pandemic, cities also stand on the frontlines of so many of our current crises; crises made all the worse as they play out against the backdrop of deeply entrenched inequalities. What has COVID-19 revealed about our cities? According to Meslin, if we've been paying attention, not much that we didn't already know: "…all the problems we're seeing with COVID were already all there -- I mean, except for the disease itself, of course. But in terms of how it's impacted racialized communities and those with lower paying jobs, where folks have to go into a factory and then have to get crowded onto a bus. I mean, those are just symptoms of problems that have been lingering forever." Problems that are inherent to a system that insists on prioritizing economic growth over social well-being. Or as Case puts it "a system that is rigged in favour of the wealthier people…[while] past harms done unto marginalized groups, including women, lower-income people, racialized communities, and Indigenous nations is underdeveloped." From Case's human rights approach to urban planning to Meslin's activism on public engagement across a range of areas from bicycles to ballots and billboards; much of their work (and much of this discussion) is focused on Toronto. Yet, where Toronto holds the distinction of being the world's most diverse city, the lessons it offers are far-reaching. Toronto is plagued by deep intersections of race and class. As Meslin says: "I just think we have to stop pretending that Toronto isn't highly segregated and that income and class and ethnicity and skin color aren't tied together...we should all be absolutely disgusted with the degree of economic segregation in Toronto, right now in 2021." By hook or by crook or just sheer short-sightedness, cities like Toronto routinely exclude its most marginalized members from having a say in the policies that directly impact their lives. Be it in our competitive winner-take-all electoral system that feeds into increasingly centralized systems of government or the lackluster (if not outright lack of) meaningful consultation in infrastructural design, vulnerable communities tend to be sidelined; sidelined in city planning, but frontline when those plans fail. However, community-centred approaches to municipal planning offers us a way forward. According to Case, this means, "building the capacities of the marginalized members of society to understand the system as it is. To develop their own opinions on how the system should function and then work with people in power so that policies can be developed -- so that their interests are also met." For Meslin, this also means moving toward decentralized systems of power, defeating top-down approaches to politics and reinvigorating local democracy by meaningfully integrating the wisdom, work and needs of communities. Perhaps even creating a fourth level of community government: "Public space should be designed in a way to maximize bottom up, neighbourhood, diverse community expression. And our democracy should be designed, not for a handful of dinosaur parties who've been around for generations, but for new innovative voices. Younger voices. Diverse voices… I think if we decentralize power, problems will sort themselves out. Because collectively we have the wisdom to figure all these things out." For Case, the work is already being done by communities themselves. "You'll find oftentimes that the community work that they do supplements the work that cities do…The city has these visions for inclusivity and diversity, [but] the city cannot achieve this vision without the labour of these residents." This work is now being collated into the Toronto Atlas of Neighbourhood Groups and Organizations or TANGO, a collaborative project involving Case, Meslin and others advocating for a more just city. How do we envision urban centres that are built on rights rather than capital? Can we redesign more meaningful and inclusive systems of local democracy? How do we make cities a place of belonging for all of us and that we are all truly proud to call "home"? Host and co-producer Resh Budhu begins the conversation on the meaning of an inclusive and human rights approach to cities and city-planning. About today's guests: Cheryll Case Cheryll Case practices a human rights approach to community planning. As founder and Principal Urban Planner of CP Planning, Cheryll coordinates with charities, private sector industries, and communities to resource the systems necessary to secure dignified living for all peoples. This includes housing as a human right, urban agriculture, and improving the ability for marginalized residents to access arts and culture opportunities. She has lead a Toronto wide and grassroots led consultation on housing as a human right, as well as work local to the Eglinton Avenue West neighbourhood. In partnership with Black Urbanism TO, she led Black Futures on Eglinton, an arts based community research project. She is author and editor of "House Divided: How the Missing Middle Will Solve Toronto's Affordable Housing Crisis" shortlisted for the Legislative Assembly of Ontario's 2020 Speaker's Book Award. She served as a member of the City of Toronto's Expert Advisory Committee on the 2020-2030 Affordable Housing Plan, is currently a co-chair of the Balanced Supply of Housing Node of the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative, and is a member of the ULI Equity Diversity and Inclusion committee. Dave Meslin With one foot planted firmly in the world of mainstream politics and the other in the more vibrant universe of grassroots activism, urbanist, community organiser, trainer and political entrepreneur, Dave Meslin has found ways to turn energy into action. Leaving a trail of campaigns and organisations in his path, including the Toronto Public Space Committee, Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto, Unlock Democracy Canada, Dandyhorse Magazine and Cycle Toronto, Dave has spent the last twenty years as a passionate transpartisan political disruptor and political biologist exploring the strange and mysterious worlds of protest movements, party politics and non-profit organizations. Dave has worked as an executive assistant at both city hall and the provincial legislature, painted do-it-yourself bike lanes on the street, organized hundreds of volunteers, started a handful of non-profits, worked as federal lobbyist, helped draft provincial legislation, survived tear-gas riots in three countries, buried his car and got thrown in jail. Not in that order. His best-selling book, Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up, is a roadmap for change and a cure for cynicism. His TED talk about apathy and his 90-second video clip using Lego to explain our voting system has garnered millions of views online. Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute Images: Cheryll Case and Dave Meslin. Used with Permission Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Miriam Roopanram, Sharon Russell Julian Wee Tom (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Victoria Fenner (for rabble.ca), Ashley Booth, Chandra Budhu, John Caffery, Michael Long Produced by Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Victoria Fenner, rabble.ca Host: Resh Budhu A co-production of the Tommy Douglas Institute, George Brown College, Toronto, and rabble.ca with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Foundation.

This is Episode Four of the Courage My Friends podcast: From epidemic to pandemic: rethinking health. We discuss how people are coping in the pandemic and the ways populations are impacted differently. Where is the most vulnerability? The discussion highlights the realities for those in poverty, particularly the under-housed. Together we discuss how Indigenous teachings and harm reduction practices can inform our responses to these current crises and help us to move forward in a compassionate way that does not leave people behind. Today's guest host John Caffery is joined by two guests -- Zoë Dodd, community scholar at the University Health Network and harm reduction activist, and Keith McCrady, who has worked with Indigenous children and youth for over 25 years. He is now the executive director of 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, an organization that focuses on prevention, education and support for 2-Spirit, including First Nations, Metis and Inuit people living with or at risk for HIV and related co-infections in the Greater Toronto Area. The organization bases its work on Indigenous philosophies of holistic health and wellness. Recent studies have shown that people are struggling to cope; rates of suicide, eating disorders, domestic violence, and substance use have all significantly increased since the pandemic began. Ontario has been in an opioid crisis for a decade and the pandemic served to exacerbate the situation with overdose deaths increasing by 76 per cent according to the report Changing Circumstances Surrounding Opioid-Related Deaths in Ontario during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In discussing the social determinants of health, Dodd expressed the need to see people as whole beings. "The pandemic has shown us we have so much grave inequality with the impacts of colonization, racism, poverty, some of the biggest social determinants of health have been around housing and income and the massive inequality in so many ways causing people to die," she said. As the conversation shifts to discussing the environmental conditions in Canada and the boil water advisories in Ontario, McCrady noted that the lack of access to drinking water on Indigenous reserves is "pure evil." "If this was any other community, I think it would be solved long ago, the people in power are failing us and adding to the problem…to even feel that you are worthy of water…we need to focus on the areas that we are failing, including Indigenous people, we need to service families as a whole." The episode is a tender, powerful, and thought provoking discussion amongst people who have worked on the frontlines for years and who share their insights of how to care for one another and create a more humane and just world for us all to live in. About today's guests: Zoë Dodd is a long-time harm reduction worker and advocate for drug user health and liberation living and working in Tkaronto/Toronto. She spent 15 years co-facilitating Hepatitis C support groups that are rooted in popular education and harm reduction. She was instrumental in developing a community-based model of Hep C care that prioritizes people who use drugs. She is a vocal critic of government responses to the overdose crisis; an expert in overdose response, she helped to establish Ontario's first overdose prevention site, Moss Park OPS which ran illegally in a park for a year before receiving government funding. Zoë is a co-founder and co-organizer with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society. She is currently working as a community scholar with MAP centre for Urban Health Solutions focused on the harms of involuntary drug treatment. She is an abolitionist, anti-capitalist and is strongly committed to dismantling the drug war. Keith McCrady grew up in the community of Biinjitiwaabik Zaaging Anishinaabek, and relocated to the GTA over 13 years ago and now calls Scarborough home. Keith, the proud father of four has dedicated his life to supporting the goals and dreams of Indigenous communities, particularly in Toronto. Initially, he focused on children and youth programs, and eventually expanded into Indigenous education, employment, human trafficking, physical literacy and housing. Keith McCrady's advocacy and leadership also come with his identity as a two-spirited person. "It's not just a sexual orientation or a gender identity," he says. "It's also my role in my community and a place in our circle." As the executive director of 2-Spirited People of the 1st Nations, Keith's goal is to walk alongside the 2SLGBTQ communities and provide education and support to members of the 2-Spirit community and reclaim our place in the Circle. With guest host John Caffrey. A transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute Images: Zoe Dodd and Keith McCrady. Used with Permission Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Miriam Roopanram, Sharon Russell Julian Wee Tom (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Victoria Fenner (for rabble.ca), Ashley Booth, Chandra Budhu, John Caffery, Michael Long Produced by Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Victoria Fenner, rabble.ca Host: Resh Budhu A co-production of the Tommy Douglas Institute, George Brown College, Toronto, and rabble.ca with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Foundation.

In episode three of the Courage My Friends podcast, we are joined by Paul Taylor, a life-long anti-poverty activist, current Federal NDP candidate and Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, Canada's largest food justice organization. As Taylor says, "One of the ways I've come to think about our work is we are working alongside communities, across the city of Toronto, that have faced chronic underinvestment -- that have been on the brunt, or the receiving end, of systemic racism, sexism, those sorts of issues. And we're working with these communities… to build community-led food infrastructure." Where this pandemic seems to have reserved its harshest realities for those already most marginalized within our communities -- impoverished, Black, Indigenous, racialized, seniors -- according to Taylor this moment is only the latest development in a long-standing food crisis impacting far too many: "I think it's really important to contextualize what's happening with food insecurity in this country. Before the pandemic there were 4.5 million people that were food insecure across this country. That number has skyrocketed. The last count that I saw is now 5.5 million people that are food insecure. So that is like the populations of Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg combined." The food crisis during this pandemic is not just about food access but also about the dangers facing frontline food workers, who grow, pack, sell and deliver our food -- working populations who also, and ironically, are forced to deal with food insecurity in their own lives. "We need to have a bigger conversation about paying the actual costs of food, and also making sure we're paying livable wages," Taylor says. This, of course, is only one of a number of painful ironies discussed by Taylor. Another is the existence of hunger and poverty in a wealthy country like Canada that celebrates corporate philanthropists for treating people as "compost bins" and policy-makers who continue to rely on the grace and commitment of over-burdened and under-resourced food banks as a way to absolve themselves of delivering on a vital social right. It is this promotion of charity-based solutions that Taylor finds particularly troubling. As he says, "We feel a moral imperative. I get it. We know that people are struggling with access to food, and we want to do something. I think the problem is what's been constructed as our default is food banking." Reflecting on his own sense of social justice and anti-poverty activism, Taylor locates his awakening in the mid-90s and the so-called Common Sense Revolution, when we were treated to the sauceless pasta and unbuttered bread of neoliberalism in Ontario. "I was raised by a single mom, powerful Black woman, you know, doing all that she could to support our family. And when I was 13, the province elected Mike Harris, and one of the first things he did was he cut welfare by 22 per cent. And for me as a child, you know, that was the first time I saw my mother cry. And it was earth shattering for me to try and understand what was happening and why someone would make a decision to make it harder for my family to eat." Food insecurity is not just a food issue, it's an issue of systemic oppression and policy failure that demands an overarching or "joined up policy" response. According to Taylor: "I think we've really got to be challenging these underlying systems: White supremacy, classism, capitalism, all of these organizing principles, ableism...that have so much of an impact on who has food in this country to eat and who doesn't." It also demands that we do not allow ourselves to fall into resignation and hopelessness. As Taylor tells us: "I hear more and more people speaking to me as if they feel that hunger and poverty are inevitable. And I think as soon as we believe that these things are inevitable, that homelessness is inevitable, we've lost…we deserve a refund on what we've been sold from previous governments." Can we finally secure that "refund?" And is it in the right to eat in a post-pandemic world? About today's guest: Paul Taylor is the executive director of FoodShare Toronto and a lifelong anti-poverty activist. He also teaches at Simon Fraser University, is a regular political commentator on CTV and has written numerous op-eds and columns on various social issues. Growing up materially poor in Toronto has inspired Paul to commit his life to doing what he can to dismantle the systems and harmful organizing principles that cause and uphold poverty, food insecurity and wealth inequality, including racism, white supremacy and neoliberalism. In 2020, Paul was named one of Canada's Top 40 under 40, one of Toronto Life's 50 Most Influential Torontonians and voted as Best Activist by Now Magazine readers. Paul Taylor is the Federal NDP candidate for Parkdale-High Park, Toronto. Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute Image: Paul Taylor. Used with Permission Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Miriam Roopanram, Sharon Russell Julian Wee Tom (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Victoria Fenner (for rabble.ca), Ashley Booth, Chandra Budhu, John Caffery, Michael Long Produced by Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Victoria Fenner, rabble.ca Host: Resh Budhu A co-production of the Tommy Douglas Institute, George Brown College, Toronto, and rabble.ca with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Foundation.

In episode two of the Courage My Friends podcast, we are joined by anti-poverty activist and former organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, John Clarke and Paul Meinema, national president of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), representing essential workers including "food workers from field to fork." Clarke and Meinema discuss the ways in which this pandemic has forced us to confront what Clarke sees as a "crisis in capitalism" -- its path forged well before the arrival of COVID. John Clarke says "As the pandemic is unleashed in the neoliberal world, the virus literally followed the trail that was laid down for it by the whole neoliberal reordering of the workforce, and the neoliberal reordering of societies…. In a thousand ways, the neoliberal society and the neoliberal city created a route for the pandemic to go down." Decades of mounting inequality has been a defining outcome of neoliberalism. The impacts of this inequality have been disproportionately endured by our most vulnerable -- poor and largely racialized communities and front-line workers who have always been essential, but until COVID largely invisible. As Meinema describes them: "Workers that we've looked past... when you go into a grocery store, or retail store, or often a person who's cleaning your hotel room … They're almost invisible people. But they're the people that we are relying on now, to get us through this." And here we are in what Clarke sees as, "a situation of really unprecedented economic dislocation, unprecedented suffering. And clearly, governments were not prepared for this crisis. And governments have not responded to this crisis in a way that meets people's needs." Are we continuing to meet an unpredictable pandemic with predictable policy responses -- the kind of thinking that paved the way for this crisis in the first place? How can we designate workers as essential and yet treat them as though they are expendable? According to Clarke, "It's sometimes been regarded as hyperbole to say that the corporate profits are worth more than human life. But I think this pandemic and the experience of the pandemic has actually demonstrated that very, very, very starkly. ..here has been a readiness to abandon people, a readiness to, if you'd like, sacrifice people." What is the way forward? Can we move from banging pots to making policies that support our most vulnerable? Can we find an answer in a universal basic income? What is the role of unions? What about our communities? As we move toward a post-pandemic (but still perhaps pre-pandemic) world, is it possible to release ourselves from exploitative economies? Meinema reminds us that, "we cannot let any of these things that have occurred to us slip through our fingers and not remember them." What lessons do we take with us into the future? Can the post-pandemic world also be a post-poverty world? Host and co-producer Resh Budhu begins the conversation with a focus on the most critical issues facing vulnerable communities and front-line workers in this moment of crisis. About today's guests: John Clarke became involved in anti-poverty organizing in the 1980s, when he helped to form a union of unemployed workers in London, Ontario. In 1990, he moved to Toronto to become an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and stayed in this role until 2019. He is presently Packer Visitor in Social Justice at York University. Paul Meinema is the national president of United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW), the country's leading and most progressive private sector union with more than 250,000 members. He is also an executive vice-president of the UFCW International Union and a member of the UFCW International Executive Committee. Paul's service with UFCW spans four decades, beginning in the 1980s when he first volunteered to serve his co-workers as a shop steward while working on the floor at the Fletcher's meat processing plant in Red Deer, Alberta. Paul also serves as Canadian sector representative on the board of directors of the International Foundation of Benefits, and as a trustee of various UFCW Canada benefit and pension plans. Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute Images: John Clarke and Paul Meinema. Used with Permission Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Miriam Roopanram, Sharon Russell Julian Wee Tom (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Victoria Fenner (for rabble.ca), Ashley Booth, Chandra Budhu, John Caffery, Michael Long Produced by Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Victoria Fenner, rabble.ca Host: Resh Budhu A co-production of the Tommy Douglas Institute, George Brown College, Toronto, and rabble.ca with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Foundation.

In the pilot episode of the Courage My Friends podcast, we feature a conversation with Ed Broadbent former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada and Chair of the Broadbent Institute, and Kofi Hope, thought leader, Toronto Star columnist and CEO of Monumental. They discuss this current crisis that reveals, even as it accelerates, deepening fractures within our societies. Looking at the extraordinary crisis facing Canada and the rest of the world over the last year, Broadbent and Hope focus on the disproportionate and devastating impacts it has had on our most marginalized members -- low-income, largely Black and Brown communities, who also make up the majority of those in front-line, insecure and precarious jobs that this pandemic has made both essential and deadly. However, where inequality may have been amplified by Covid-19, it certainly didn't start here. From employment protections to vaccine roll-outs, we discuss how current inequalities and political responses are connected to "bad policies" rooted in old systems. Systems shaped by four decades of neoliberal capitalism. As Broadbent says, "Covid came along just at the moment that the intellectual bankruptcy of neoliberalism was being revealed." Did four decades of neoliberal erosion of social welfare set us on a course of disaster? Has an economic and social ideology trumpeting unfettered profit, deregulated markets and competitive individualism torn away at the social fabric and resiliency that would have enabled us to better withstand the shock of this pandemic? As Hopes states, "equity, the idea that we have to focus on the vulnerable… it's not enough to talk about it and to have empathy. This is where structure and systems and power actually need to change, if we're actually going to see different outcomes moving forward." If the remedy to what Oxfam International has dubbed "The Inequality Virus" lies within equity and equality, how do we make this core to our policy, practice and political instinct? According to our guests, perhaps the answer lies in the vision set out by the Broadbent Principles for Canadian Social Democracy and in what Hope describes as the social power found within our communities and within ourselves. If COVID-19 was the trigger for a disaster waiting to happen, is it also a chance for us to redeem ourselves by building communities and nations that honour the rights and dignity of all. Host and co-producer Resh Budhu of the Tommy Douglas Institute at George Brown College in Toronto starts by asking about our guests' initial thoughts on these unprecedented times and the convergence of Covid, Capitalism and Climate. About today's guests: Kofi Hope is a Rhodes Scholar and has a Doctorate in Politics from Oxford University. He is the co-founder and CEO of Monumental, a new start-up focused on supporting organizations work towards an equitable recovery from COVID-19. Currently he writes a monthly opinion column for the Toronto Star newspaper and is an emeritus Bousfield Scholar and current adjunct professorat UofT's School of Geography and Planning. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Wellesley Institute and is a board member at the Atkinson Foundation. In 2017 he was winner of the Jane Jacobs Prize and in 2018 a Rising Star in Toronto Life's Power List. Kofi was the founder and former Executive Director of the CEE Centre for Young Black Professionals. In 2005 he established the Black Youth Coalition Against Violence, which became a leading voice for advocating for real solutions to gun violence in Toronto and led to him being named one of the Top 10 People to Watch in Toronto in 2006 by the Toronto Star. Ed Broadbent was first elected to Parliament in 1968, and served as an MP for 21 years, 14 of which were spent as leader of the New Democratic Party. His concern for the deepening of inequality in Canada has been a consistent theme in all of his professional and volunteer endeavours. First elected to Parliament in 1968, Ed served as an MP for 21 years, 14 of which were spent as leader of the New Democratic Party. During his time in Ottawa, his focus was on Aboriginal and economic rights, women's equality, child poverty, ethics in government, and tax equality. The founding president of Rights & Democracy, Ed has a Ph.D. in Political Theory and has taught at several prestigious universities. He has been invested as a Member of the Privy Council (1982), Officer of the Order of Canada (1993), and Companion of the Order of Canada (2002). Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute Images: Ed Broadbent and Kofi Hope. Used with Permission Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Miriam Roopanram, Sharon Russell Julian Wee Tom (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote) Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Victoria Fenner (for rabble.ca), Ashley Booth, Chandra Budhu, John Caffery, Michael Long Produced by Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Victoria Fenner, rabble.ca Host: Resh Budhu A co-production of the Tommy Douglas Institute, George Brown College, Toronto, and rabble.ca with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Foundation.

In December, we at rabble.ca asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch here. Today on rabble radio's rabble rousers to watch series, we go to Regina to talk to Maureen Huot. Maureen currently has gained media attention because of a petition to declare the west lawn of the Regina legislature as a space for Indigenous peoples. She is working in consultation with signatories of her petition: Elders and Matriarchs, educators, artists, and Saskatoon NDP MLA and Opposition critic for First Nations and Métis Relations and Truth and Reconciliation, Betty Nippi-Albright. Maureen is a consummate ally, having worked with youth setting up climate strikes in Saskatchewan, with First Nations communities towards the goal of environmental justice and sustainability, and a whole lot more. On September 19 way back in 2019, rabble podcast producer and host Victoria Fenner did a panel discussion with a group of students about the work they were all doing organizing climate strikes. Maureen was one of the guests on that show. She's not the same age as the students by a few decades, but we included her in the conversation as an adult ally. That's something that Maureen does well. Maureen's activism is multifaceted and wide-ranging. She is a founding member of EnviroCollective, a grassroots initiative to promote action for climate change. She's also involved in health issues and food sovereignty. She is a person with a disability, and is interested in any issue which improves our collective and individual quality of life. In her own words: "When my friend Shanon Zachidniak invited me to what has become EnviroCollective, I never knew how deeply it would resonate with me, what an impact we could have, or what other opportunities it would lead to. Volunteering is about trying, not perfection; capacity is not the same as competency. What really matters are the connections, the collaborating, and maintaining credibility. Many non-profit groups hold integral pieces of the environmental puzzle, and typically have to do more with less against well-funded opposition. Creating a bridge between the knowledge and efforts of Indigenous peoples and settler descendants can change the current unsustainable trajectory of our planet and society; we are all Treaty people." The conversation starts with some reflections about her rabble rousers to watch nomination and it what it means to her. Image: Maureen Huot. Used with permission. Music: Karl Nerenberg/La touladie en hiver. Used with permission.

In December, we at rabble.ca asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch here. Our guest today is heading for a courtroom on Monday. "We had made a decision, many of us, that we were willing to get arrested, that we weren't willing to voluntarily lift the blockade. And so we stayed in place and after about four days of the RCMP showing up to see if we would change our minds, they arrested nine of us ... and charged us with a criminal charge, which was a bit of a surprise, of disobeying a court order." -- Nina Newington Nina describes herself this way: "Writer, gardener, carpenter, Nina Newington lives with her wife on a farm by the Bay of Fundy. Her second novel, Cardinal Divide, came out last year. She delights in the unsettling of colonialism, the unbinding of binary, the necessary transformation of our relations with nature." She was nominated as a "rabble rouser to watch" because of her work through Extinction Rebellion in defending Nova Scotia forests and waters from destruction in the name of profits. She was arrested, along with other protesters in December for blocking clear-cutting of a forest in southwestern Nova Scotia, specifically for not obeying a court injunction. WestFor, a consortium of 13 mills and industrial forestry groups, is behind the harvest plans on Crown land. They applied for an injunction prohibiting protests which could hinder the company from doing their business. An interim injunction was granted, and a group of protesters, which included Nina, was charged with disobeying the interim injunction. On reflection about her current situation and her life to date: "The forest protector camped on a logging road in southwest Nova Scotia feels remarkably close to the tomboy playing truant in the woods of my native Britain 50 years ago: disobedience has been a theme." Image: Nina Newington/Just Before Our Arrests. Used with Permission. Music: Karl Nerenberg/La touladie en hiver. Used with permission.

In December, we at rabble.ca asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch here. In 2020, amidst the pandemic, the district government of Muskoka has declared a climate emergency and endorsed a plan which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and take them down to zero by 2050. This is a region which votes staunchly conservative every provincial and federal election. Muskoka is also cottage country, full of lakes, rivers, forests and a premium destination for people who want to protect the great outdoors. But, environmental action doesn't happen by itself. Today we'll hear about an organization that is finding success in building awareness. The organization behind the curtain is Climate Action Muskoka. Today we hand the microphone over to my friend and colleague, Maya Bhullar. Maya is the editor of the Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit. Maya has also written an article about Climate Action Muskoka, and we thought you might want to hear from her guests in their own words and in their own voices. Maya talked to Sue McKenzie and Linda Mathers on February 5, 2021. Sue McKenzie is a retired elementary teacher, a longtime activist, a mother, and a co-founder of Climate Action Muskoka. Sue, her husband Len Ring and children have had the privilege of extensive world travel but have now committed not to travel by air again to cut their carbon footprint. Linda Mathers is also a retired educator. She has been a long time volunteer and climate advocate at both the community and political level as a key organizer with Climate Action Muskoka, as a mobilizer of volunteers for the Ontario Green Party and as an advocate for environmental stewardship on her community association. Image: Climate Action Muskoka. Used with Permission. Music: Karl Nerenberg/La touladie en hiver. Used with permission.

In December, we at rabble.ca asked "What are the organizations that inspire you? Who are the activists leading progressive change? Who are the rabble rousers to watch in 2021?" And you responded. Over the next while, we'll be running both print and audio features about the people and organizations you nominated. Follow our rabble rousers to watch here. We begin our podcast series with a nomination from Barrie, Ontario. In fact, there were several nominations from Barrie, one for the organization you're about to hear from. rabble podcast producer Victoria Fenner was especially interested in the Barrie nominees because she lived in Barrie for the past five years. She can personally attest that it is a very tough place to be a progressive. She says, "After all, it's the only place east of Manitoba that ever elected a Reform party MP. It's solid Conservative country ... and we're not talking red Tories here. But, there is change afoot, and progressive people are starting to come out of the woodwork." There are many communities like this in Canada, so talking to the nominees from Barrie could be useful for other communities of a similar political stripe. Our two guests today talk about what they, and other Barrie residents, are doing to shift the dynamic through the organization called Engage Barrie, one of the rabble rousers organization nominees. Our guests today are: Alyssa Wright -- Alyssa was also nominated in her own right for the work she has been doing in Barrie on a wide range of issues. She describes herself as "musician, writer, educator, advocate, activist, actor, and wearer of far too many hats." In the conservative city of Barrie, Alyssa has connected a community of progressives who are eager for change. She is one of the organizers for Engage Barrie, an initiative designed to reconnect a community with its local politics. She is also an advocate for installing a supervised consumption site in Barrie -- what would be the city's first. Alyssa is also a cello player, and it's her life mission to use arts to tackle difficult issues. She's currently co-writing a musical theatre feminist manifesto, in response to Barrie being rated 2019's "Worst City to be a Woman" by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. (A title she reckons the city will win again for 2020). "This past year has shown me that there is more compassion in this community than is evidenced in our political leadership," says Alyssa. The people of this city have shown me that there are lots more reasons for optimism than despair." Brandon Rhéal Amyot is an activist, writer, and life-long learner. Growing up in Simcoe County for most of their life, they have been involved in various causes and communities over the past 10 years, with a specific focus on the 2SLGBTQ+ community, Indigenous community, the student movement, and local causes. Brandon Rhéal is in their third year of the interdisciplinary studies degree at Lakehead University's Orillia Campus with disciplines in political science and media studies. At Lakehead they have been involved with campus life, most recently as a board member on the Lakehead University Student Union. Brandon Rhéal also has a diploma in Aboriginal Community and Social Development from Georgian College. Brandon Rhéal was a founding member of Fierté Simcoe Pride. In their time with the organization, Brandon served in several roles ending in their time as president (2017- 2019). Shortly after helping form Fierté Simcoe Pride, they served a term as student trustee at the Simcoe County District School Board. A note about our theme music: The theme music featured in the podcast is a composition by rabble.ca's parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg. It's called La Touladie en hiver. In Karl's own words -- "It is a tune that came to me while walking in the Hampton Park woods, near our house. I was thinking of a grey, December day, and of appropriately languorous, not-rushed and not-too-complicated music. My ridiculous mind then made the leap from a grey day to the grey trout, the large member of the trout/salmon/char family that was once plentiful in most of the Great Lakes, then was almost destroyed by invasive, parasitic sea lampreys, but is now coming back. It is a winter fish. It thrives in cold water in fact. Grey trout are especially happy that, in winter, they can swim casually in shallow waters where the little fish they like to eat live. In summer, grey trout need to go deep, where the water is cold enough for them -- but where there are few little fish (which prefer warmer water). In the deeps, all they have to eat, pretty much, is plankton. In Quebec, they most often call the grey trout le touladi, a word of uncertain origin, but most likely Indigenous." You can hear the whole composition, and see Karl playing ... here ... Image: Alyssa Wright/Barrie City Council. Used with permission. Music: La touladie en hiver - performed and composed by Karl Nerenberg. Used with permission.