rabble radio

This month, starting tomorrow until September 27, students across Canada are organizing a week of action to call attention to climate change. People around the world are seeing more and more severe weather. Oceans are rising, deserts are growing and the planet is in trouble. We are glad to work with organizers who are demanding that every government and industry take on climate change as a priority. Today on rabble we're talking to Climate Strike organizers across the country about what they are planning for upcoming week of action. This edition of rabble radio is done in partnership with rabble's Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit, and the help of toolkit editor Maya Bhullar. Panelists: Rebecca Hamilton: Vancouver Sydney Chadwick: Regina Alex Flett: Regina Maureen Huot: Regina (adult ally) Allie Rougeot: Toronto Nick Lorraway: Kingston (Queens) Anna Morineau: Ottawa Gatineau Michael James: Edmonton You can find more information about the strikes on climatestrikecanada.org. Spread the word among students and, if your school days are over, come out as allies. Image: Climate Action Toronto, May 3 2019. Payton Mitchell. Used with permission.

James Gordon thinks that we might be able to sing our way towards a solution in dealing with the climate crisis. Not just through song alone, of course, but by mobilizing groups of people and lifting the mood a little bit with a whole theatrical range of seriousness, scariness, inspiration and hopefulness. Today on rabble radio, podcast executive producer and rabble radio host Victoria Fenner talks to James Gordon at his debut performance at a house concert in Barrie, Ontario. And he even gave her permission to play some of his songs from the show. James Gordon, for those of you who haven't heard him before, is a singer songwriter whose career goes back some 40 years. He has recorded over 40 albums and has written for symphony orchestras, musical theatre, dance, film scores, as well as performing his own work all over North America. He was even a song writer in residence for CBC Radio. He's still touring and writing, but now has to divide his time between songifying and sitting in city council chambers of Guelph, where he is in his second term as a councillor. One of the things he's been known for, especially in the run up to the 2015 election, was his production Stephen Harper – the Musical. That's one of the hazards of tying your songs to the news agenda. Sometimes you have to retire some of your repertoire when the world moves on. But as you'll hear, Gordon is good with that. And now, his tradition of interpreting the news in song and dance continues with his latest production. Image: James Gordon/Facebook Music: from "Emergency Climate Musical" – Used with permission of James Gordon

As the climate crisis escalates, new solutions and new groups are emerging to becoming part of the dialogue. Extinction Rebellion is a fairly new one — it started just last year in the U.K. on May 18, 2018. Its first major action was the blocking of five bridges across the Thames just last November. Since then, there have been Extinction Rebellion groups coming together in other parts of the world, including here in Canada. Their core values are summarized in three points — tell the truth, act now and form a citizens' assembly to determine how the changes will happen. The group's actions are very direct, very visible and include non violent civil diobedience. Civil disobedience is something that is little understood by the general population here in Canada. rabble podcast executive producer Victoria Fenner called Rocky Petkov, an organizer with Extinction Rebellion in Toronto. They talked a lot about that, and also their plans to have an effect on the results of the upcoming election. Image: Sebastian Dooris/Flickr

Hamilton, Ontario. Factory city, crime-ridden downtown, mafia stronghold. At least that's what people used to think of Hamilton. That's been changing in recent years as people from "away" have been discovering the good things about the city as they've moved to escape high real estate in Toronto. They've been discovering what longtime residents have known all along — that it's a city full of people with good hearts and pride in their city. Yet there is still a dark underbelly in the Hammer. Hamilton has just earned the dubious distinction of being community No. 1 in police-reported hate crimes in Canada, according to a July 2019 report by Statistics Canada. According to the report, the rate was 17.1 people out of 100,000. As a comparison, the national rate was 4.9, while Toronto was 6.4. Judging by recent events, it's not getting better. Over the past few months there have been visible demonstrations of hatred. In June, Hamilton Pride was targeted by far-right hate groups. Yellow Vesters have been showing up at city hall every Saturday morning for several months to demonstrate. There are a few more elements in this toxic stew, which today's guest explores. Lyla Miklos is the former chair of Pride Hamilton and the LGBTQ advisory committee for the City of Hamilton. A resident of Hamilton since 1982, she is an engaged citizen who thinks the local city council and mayor's actions are inadequate to address the problem of hate in her city. She also thinks that the problem didn't rise up out of nowhere. Her conversation with rabble podcast executive producer Victoria Fenner begins with a recap from Miklos about recent happenings related to hate in the city, and then moves into what other communities can learn from what's going on in Hamilton. Victoria Fenner is executive producer of rabble's podcast network. Image: Lyla Miklos

Today marks the anniversary of the death of Jack Layton. He passed away from cancer on August 22, 2011, leaving a void in Canadian politics which will never be filled in quite the same way. Because Jack Layton was one of a kind. His message resonated with people so much that he brought the NDP party from 37 seats in the 2008 election to 103 seats in 2011. Under Jack Layton's leadership, the NDP became the official opposition in Parliament for the first time ever after the 2011 election. The quote for which he is best remembered comes from the end of a letter he wrote to the Canadian people in his final days. The letter concludes with the now well known passage: "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Today on rabble radio you'll hear excerpts from Jack Layton's state funeral, held at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on August 27, 2011. You'll hear Shawn Atleo, who, at the time, was the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He delivered a blessing on behalf of Canada's First Nations community. You'll also hear a welcome message from Anne McGrath, chief of staff during Jack Layton's time in office, and speeches by Stephen Lewis, a friend, humanitarian and fellow NDP member who was leader of the Ontario NDP in the 1970s. And we finish with Mike Layton, Jack Layton's son. Image: Elliott Margolies/Flickr

When rabble.ca podcast producer Victoria Fenner heard that Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was coming to the small conservative city of Barrie, Ontario, on July 18 for a pre-campaign town hall and rally, she could think of a lot of things to talk to her about. Barrie is right in the middle of Tory blue country and tough territory for progressives. It's the biggest city in Simcoe County, located on the traditional territory of the Haudensaunee, Ojibway/Chippewa and Anishnabek First Nations. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties. Colonization by Europeans began about 400 years ago by French explorers. The first elections here happened way back in 1823 after the British took over and it's been Conservative country for a very long time. It's close enough to Toronto that a lot of people commute every day from the south part of the riding. The north part of the county, not so much. But out towards Collingwood, cottagers and skiiers from Toronto contribute a lot of money towards the local economy. There are very few Red Tories in this county. Remember the Reform Party? That upstart right wing party that shifted politics further right in the late '80s and the '90s? The former riding of Simcoe Centre, which was right in the heart of the city of Barrie, was the only place in Canada east of Manitoba that ever elected a Reform Party MP. That's an indicator of how conservative this area of the country is. The Liberals do come close sometimes but not enough to get them elected. In the 2015 election, the Green Party was the distant fourth party. The Green Party message is a tough sell in places where people think they have to choose between a stable economy and a healthy environment to live in. But that's not just here — that kind of dichotomous thinking goes on in so many places. The good news is that this can change with people moving in from other places, and a growing sense that the environment needs to be a bigger priority. In today's rabble radio, Victoria Fenner and Elizabeth May talk about that and a wide range of subjects — the disconnect that some people see between economy and environment, the first-past-the-post system, how international trade agreements have affected the health of the planet, and the role of media in fostering an empowered, informed citizenry. Image: Victoria Fenner

When you think about it, public libraries are a pretty remarkable. Fascinating fact — did you know that the first free tax-supported public libraries in Canada opened in 1883 in Saint John, Guelph and Toronto? And now every town has one. Where else can you get access to thousands of books, magazines, newspapers, CDs and DVDs for the amazingly low price of free? (Well, except for the overdue fines, that is.) It's a staggeringly great deal when you think about it. That's not the only amazing thing about libraries, Olivia Robinson has discovered. She's the recipient of this year's Jack Layton Journalism for Change Fellowship. You'll be able to read her resulting series "The Future of the Public Library" starting on Tuesday, August 13, 2019. Robinson is rabble.ca's second recipient of the Jack Layton Journalism for Change Fellowship. The fellowship is a joint project by rabble.ca and The Institute for Change Leaders, and supports emerging writers and journalists who are passionate and engaged in developing unique voices in social change reporting. Robinson has discovered that the role of the library is changing. No more the stuffy, deadly quiet space with lots of rules, libraries are becoming the living room of our communities. And everyone is welcome. That includes people who live on the margins of society for whom reading in a warm space, using a computer or getting out of the cold is a lifeline. It brings about a whole other set of challenges for library staff, but there are some great examples where they are rising to those challenges. rabble podcast exec producer Victoria Fenner has been watching the progress of Robinson's series and has recorded two conversations with her that you'll hear today. The first part took place at the very beginning of her fellowship in January 2019 where she talked about her background and interest in libraries and the stories she was researching. The series started to go in a different direction in April when Doug Ford's Conservative government brought in some major cuts to libraries in Ontario. So Victoria gave Olivia a call again in May to find out how the project was going, and especially how this latest news in Ontario was shaping her coverage. Photo: Olivia Robinson

Pamela Palmater's Reconciliation Book Club successfully launched with the first book club event last Saturday. The book club is her way to help people learn about reconciliation and Canada's First Nations in a safe and supportive space. To date, it has received almost 1,000 views and over 60 comments online, so it seems to have hit the right notes. The first book she chose was Whose Land is it Anyway: A Manual for Decolonization published by the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators in B.C. It is available for free download by clicking the link above. Here at rabble, we really like this idea and we've done some stories about it in the last couple of weeks. We were all curious about how it went, and her plans for future editions so Victoria Fenner, rabble's podcast exec producer gave her a call. Pam says it went very well, and yes, she plans to do more. Victoria talked to her on Tuesday of this week, two days ago. Pam Palmater is a Mi'kmaw lawyer and member of the Eel River Bar First Nation in New Brunswick. She teaches Indigenous law, politics and governance at Ryerson University and heads their Centre for Indigenous Governance. She also has a blog on rabble.ca. The next book for the Reconciliation Book Club review will be Karen Stote's An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and the Sterilization of Aboriginal Women published by Fernwood Publishing. Image and audio clip: Pamela Palmater. Used with permission.

Understanding the historic roots of the broken relationship between settlers and Canada's Indigenous people is a necessary step which we need to take to start solving the problems. And we especially need to acknowledge how those historic patterns still manifest themselves today. This edition of rabble radio features an interview with Dr. Bruce Clark. Bruce Clark has been arguing for the past two decades that Canada's courts have blocked the way to reconciliation with Canada's Indigenous people. In his recent book, he elaborates on his thesis that the legal system in Canada has been utilizing instruments to suppress Indigenous sovereignty in law and that it therefore is culpable in genocide. The book is called Ongoing Genocide caused by Judicial Suppression of the "Existing" Aboriginal Rights. Dr. Clark is a Canadian writer, activist and former lawyer. He first began working on Indigenous sovereignty issues back in 1973 when he was retained by the Temagami First Nation at Bear Island. The issue was an Ontario government plan to build an $80 million ski lodge on their land. He is also known for his work defending Indigenous land title at Gustafson Lake in the interior of British Columbia in 1995. In 1999, he was disbarred after criminal charges and convictions related to events that happened during that time. In the years since, he's used his legal knowledge to be an advocate for Indigenous rights and is the author of several books. The interview on today's show was done by Michael Welch of the Global Research News Hour. Thanks once again to Global Research News Hour for partnering with rabble.ca by letting us re-podcast their interviews. The show is hosted and produced in Winnipeg by CKUW news director and contributor, Michael Welch, in association with the Centre for Research on Globalization. Image: Pixabay – Monan – Canada Justice Law

David Kattenburg is a tireless advocate calling for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He's a Winnipeg based university science instructor and web publisher of The Green Planet Monitor. And he also works for social justice on matters related to environment, sustainability and the wide variety of subjects under that big tent. (A side note – he's also seeking a judicial review of a July 2017 decision by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, permitting illegal Jewish settlement wines to be labeled 'Product of Israel'. The Federal Court of Canada is expected to rule on his application in the Fall.) He goes to the Middle East whenever he can and spends a lot of his time in Palestine, bringing along his recorder and camera to gather material for The Green Planet Monitor. On the site, you can find his writings, audio interviews and photos from his explorations which back several years. What is compelling about his site is that it does a good job of explaining the complexities of this region. Like any good university prof, he explains the background in a way that people who don't have a comprehensive knowledge of the dynamics can understand. And he also does stories about daily life in Palestine – demonstrating how the occupation affects people's lives. Today we have a sampling of stories from David Kattenburg's explorations in June and early July this year. 1.) Protestors at a roadblock in the village of Kufr Qaddum which has been blocked by the Israeli military since since 2003. The people interviewed are residents of the village , talking about how the roadblock affects their economy and their lives. 2.) No Right to a Home – Jeff Halper is founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). House demolitions are routinely carried out in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, in Gaza and even in Israel's internationally recognized borders, but only to Palestinian homes. 3.) When people protest their living conditions, the result is often jail. Khalida Jarrar is a Palestinian politician who has been jailed for her political action. She talks to David Kattenburg about her times in prison and her efforts to make a difference in the lives of women and girls in the prison where she was locked up. Image: Israeli soldiers advance on protesting Palestinians, Kufr Qaddum. Photo by David Kattenburg. Used with permission.