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Increasing diversity in the newsrooms of the nation is a topic which has been talked about and strategized around for several decades. But has all that talk resulted in action which has increased the number of people of colour and Black journalists in Canada's news media? Our two guests on rabble radio today say there is still a long way to go. Anita Li of Canadian Journalists of Colour; and Nadia Stewart of the Canadian Association of Black Journalists say our newsrooms aren't there yet. They just co-authored a study called Canadian Media Diversity: Calls to Action. The report was released earlier this month after six to seven months of data collection, meetings with industry leaders, data collection and producing the document. For Li and Stewart, it wasn't enough to produce more statistics. They wanted a living document which provides tangible, concrete which has specific recommendations for changes which, if implemented, have the potential to bring more people of colour and Black journalists into the country's newsrooms. The Canadian Association of Black Journalists and Canadian Journalists of Colour share the same goal -- they want to see a media industry which is equitable and truly representative of Canada's racial diversity and commitment to multiculturalism. Image: Victoria Fenner/rabble

Video gaming is a pastime which keeps growing and growing with no signs that it's ever going to stop. According to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada in a 2018 report, 23 million people in Canada play video games. They say that makes Canada one of the biggest per capita populations of gamers in the world. They also have another surprising figure -- half of those gamers are women. For people not into gaming, that's surprising because the gaming world also has a reputation for being an exclusive club for young men. The 2014 Gamergate controversy happened recently enough that people still remember it. Gamergate was a harassment campaign targeting female game developers, specifically naming feminists as the kind of people they didn't want in gaming. And their contempt extended to anyone who was trying to bring diversity of any kind into the culture. It can be a tough place for anybody who is trying to work with games which counter these values and work towards inclusion, not exclusion. Jean Leggett is a feminist video gamer and game developer from Oakville, Ontario, who actively resists the people she calls "the angry toxic dude bros" by fostering an environment which is accepting of all. In her role as CEO with One More Story Games, she's a frequent speaker at gaming conferences where she talks about gaming and inclusion. She has just received a scholarship from the International Game Developers Association Next Gen Leaders Program. The goal of the scholarship is to bring diversity into the gaming world by supporting participants with personal and professional development opportunities. She talked to Victoria Fenner about the scholarship, and most importantly, why diversity needs to be encouraged in the gaming world. Image: Jean Leggett, One More Story Games. Used with permission.

Too often, the issue of climate change is believed to be an either/or situation, as in, we can have a healthy environment, or we can have economic growth. Farmers tend to be a fairly cautious bunch of people who are slow to change when they perceive that what they're doing is working fine. There isn't widespread agreement that change is necessary. Or when there is agreement, what to be done about is contentious. Just ask a group of farmers about the carbon tax and see what happens. But, of course, this isn't true of all farmers. Today we're going to hear from Stewart Wells, a prairie farmer from the Swift Current, Saskatchewan area who is one of the voices in a new campaign called called Farmers for Climate Solutions. The campaign got underway this week on Tuesday, launched on National Agriculture Day. Farmers for Climate Solutions is being spearheaded by a coalition of farmer-led organizations and supporters, mostly from the organic agriculture sector. Wells is also on the executive of the National Farmers Union (NFU), one of the coalition partners. In December, the NFU released a report called "Tackling the Farm Crisis and the Climate Crisis." It has a lot of facts, figures and ideas about building sustainability in agriculture which balances economics with climate action. He talked to Victoria Fenner about his own 1,400-hectare organic farm where he and his partner grow grains, alfalfa and pulse crops (beans, dried peas etc.), about the NFU report and what farmers can be to to sustain both their livelihoods and the environment. Image: Victoria Fenner/rabble.ca

The long awaited overhaul of Canada's broadcast and telecommunications acts came another step closer to realization last week with the release of the report "Canada's Communications Future: Time to Act." The report was commissioned in June 2018 by the Trudeau government because the current acts are outdated, especially because of all the changes that have happened because of the internet. The report has been a year and a half in the making, and recommends sweeping changes to everything from the structure of Canada's broadcast regulators, to fixing Canada's broken news media and how Canadian content will be funded. And of course, what to do about Netflix, which is the part of the report that's getting the most attention. Today's guests on rabble radio are Barry Rooke of the National Campus and Community Radio Association and Cathy Edwards, executive director of the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users, also known as CACTUS. They say they're disappointed that the non profit community media sector was barely included in the report. Victoria Fenner talked to them yesterday. Disclosure: Victoria Fenner works with Cathy Edwards at CACTUS. You can also read Karl Nerenberg's take on the policy review document last week on rabble: "Trudeau Must Not Ignore Bold Report on Media in Internet Age." Image: CHCO Community TV, Charlotte County, NB. Used with permission

We're hearing a lot about the benefits of 5G wireless networks, the next generation of broadband which will give us faster speeds on our wireless devices, but the downside of the technology isn't getting near as much press. Among its benefits: it will make self-driving cars possible, enable robotics in factories which are managed from remote servers, and improve the delivery of remote medical care. In Canada, the rollout is beginning this year. 5G has the potential to drastically improve internet performance in rural areas where there is no access to wired infrastructure. Anybody who's out in a rural area and who has to go to a webinar or online meeting understands why that's a good thing. But despite the benefits that 5G will bring, there are voices that are saying "not so fast." Today's two guests are among those who are cautioning that the evidence is not clear that 5G wireless technology is safe. There is a wide range of studies which go between extremes. On one extreme there are some who say it's perfectly safe, while others raise fears of the coming 5G apocalypse. For non-scientists, it's hard to know what to believe. In the middle are voices which are not anti-technology, but are raising the caution flag. Today's rabble radio guests are in that category. We'll hear from Frank Clegg, a former president of Microsoft Canada. With 40 years experience in IT, he is now CEO of Canadians for Safe Technology. This interview was done by Michael Welch of the Global Research News Hour in September of 2019. In our second interview Victoria Fenner talks to Mark Gildenhaar of Kingstonians for Safe Technology about organizing at the local level. Image: Alistair McIntyre/Pixabay

Finding care for a loved one with a serious ongoing medical condition is heartwrenching for families. When long-term care or homecare is needed, it's also frustrating and confusing. There are few options, and the standards of care can vary significantly from one provider to another. And most of the time, there are few choices. Though the provinces are supposed to fund this kind of medical care, it's not funded very well. This is a complex subject that labour beat intern Zaid Noorsumar has been delving into while he's been with with us here at rabble.ca. His research focuses on Ontario, but he says similar conditions exist in other provinces too. He talks to Victoria Fenner about the challenges that health-care workers and their patients face, and why their needs are not being met. Zaid is our sixth labour beat intern. He is a journalist who has contributed to CBC, The Canadian Press and Rankandfile.ca, among other news outlets. He's covered issues spanning labour, politics, social justice and sports. You can read his other stories written during his internship here. And, rabble.ca welcomes Alex Cosh to his new position as opinions editor. He says hello to our listeners and talks about what he brings to the job from his home office in Powell River, B.C. Image: truthseeker08/Pixabay

Many people were frustrated and angry when the federal Liberals broke their 2015 campaign promise that electoral reform would happen before the next election. Dave Meslin, community activist and organizer from Toronto, decided that it was only a setback. He's continued doing his research and organizing people to fight for proportional representation. On December 1, he launched a Kickstarter campaign with Unlock Democracy Canada, a non-partisan organization for democratic renewal and political transformation. Called "Time to Topple," the goal of the new project is to create a roadmap to reform municipal electoral processes and reclaim city halls across the country. The campaign exceeded its goal of $15,000. The research will draw from lessons learned in London, Ontario, which is the first municipality in Canada to adopt a ranked balloting system in its city elections. Meslin is a longtime proportional representation advocate. Among his many activities, he founded the Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto. In 2019, he released the book Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up, which covers his accumulated experience to date around his three main themes of concern "billboards, bicycles and ballots," especially advocating for an intelligent redesign of our governance systems. Dave Meslin spoke to Victoria Fenner, rabble's executive producer of podcasts. Image: "Time to Topple" campaign graphic. Used with permission.

Anybody with a family who has to rent will tell you that a lot of landlords don't like to rent to families. This is especially true if the head of the family is a teenager with very small children. Today's guest is Melissa Tremblay, a University of Alberta assistant professor in educational psychology. She has received a Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation in the Indigenous category, presented on November 26, 2019. The Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation — Indigenous is presented to an Indigenous student or post-doctoral fellow who has made a significant achievement in research and development innovation during their Mitacs-funded research. Mitacs is a national, not-for-profit organization that has designed and delivered research and training programs in Canada for 20 years. It works with 70 universities, 6,000 companies, and federal and provincial governments to build partnerships that support industrial and social innovation in Canada. Melissa Tremblay received the award for her innovative work to develop and evaluate a housing support program for pregnant teens and teen moms and dads. She talked to Victoria Fenner about what her research told her about the challenges of being a teenager with children, especially in this very difficult housing market, and some of the innovative research techniques she used to get teenagers to open up about their lives. Image: sathyatripodi/Pixabay

COP 25, this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference, was scheduled in Madrid from December 2-13. It went into overtime and didn't end until two days later on December 15. Simon Chambers, today's rabble radio guest, was at COP 25 in his capacity as communications director for the ACT Alliance. The ACT Alliance is a global organization of more than 145 churches and related organizations working together in over 120 countries. The organization's mandate is to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalized people. It's an international organization, and Chambers is a Canadian living in Toronto. He joins Victoria Fenner today to talk about his impressions of this year's proceedings. They talked about Canada's performance and also about protest actions which happened because activists were frustrated with the slow pace of change from the official government delegations who were negotiating. Image: Simon Chambers/ACT Alliance

Now that the holiday season is upon us, you're maybe thinking about what kind of gifts to give that doesn't add to the amount to the stacks of stuff that so many people already have too much of. Here's a gift idea — you can give a piece of land to the people of your community. Or, if you don't have land to give, you can make a financial gift to your local land trust, if you have one. Or you can volunteer your time. Today's guest on rabble radio is Sheila Ziman, one of the founding members of the Haliburton Highlands Land Trust. The Haliburton Highlands is a small rural district about two and a half hours northeast of Toronto. It's cottage country, and a place where preserving the environment is a high priority among some of its residents. Sheila Ziman joins Victoria Fenner to talk about what a land trust is, and how land trusts work. There are land trusts all over the country. The Ontario Land Trust Association has a list of them here. Image: Haliburton Highlands Land Trust. Used with permission.