rabble radio

The Jewish National Fund is an international charity with branches around the world, including Canada. The organization describes its work on its website this way: "For decades the Jewish National Fund of Canada has cared for the land of Israel. This mission took the role of planting trees, building water reservoirs, preserving natural habitats, and building parks and bicycle trails. More recently, JNF Canada has taken on projects to build the social infrastructure of the land of Israel for the benefit of the People of Israel." Critics say that its activities are not all benevolent. Today's guest is one of them. David Mivasair is a rabbi living in Hamilton, Ontario. In an email to rabble radio, David said "I am writing to people I know in Canada to ask you to please sign this formal, legal petition to Canada's Minister of National Revenue to revoke the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund Canada, if it is audited and determined to be in violation of Canada's Income Tax Act and foreign policy, as I am thoroughly convinced it is." He listed a number of reasons, including (in his own words): 1) The JNF is dedicated to acquiring and providing land for Jews. It excludes Palestinians and other non-Jews. It outright owns 16% of the land in Israel and controls the management of about 90% of all land in Israel. It violates the provision in the Canada Tax Act that stipulates that a charitable organization must provide a "public good", which means does not discriminate on the basis of ethnic identity. 2) The JNF uses charitable donations from Canada to support projects and programs in coordination with the Israel Defense Forces. Charitable organizations are not allowed to support foreign militaries. 3) The JNF funds projects in Israel which displace Palestinians from their homes, demolish villages, build on their sites and otherwise make physical changes in a militarily occupied territory. This violates international law and Canadian foreign policy. He talks to rabble podcast executive producer Victoria Fenner about the petition which he has launched. At posting time, it has been supported by approximately 1800 Canadians, including NDP MP Niki Ashton and Pierre-Luc Dusseault. You can find out more by going to the Stop the JNF Canada website. Image: David Mivasair

There are many media workers in Canada who got their start at community based campus radio stations. That possibility may not exist in Ontario if the Ford government's new plan for student fees is implemented. Ontario-based campus radio stations are fighting for their lives. The Ford government's surprise Student Choice Initiative will have a direct impact on campus based community radio stations, and some of them may close altogether. Even though campus and community radio stations are independent non profit organizations, most are heavily dependent on student fees to pay the majority of the bills. The Student Choice initiative has the potential to severely cut into the revenue that stations need to survive. Barry Rooke is the executive director of the National Campus and Community Radio Association. They're deep into planning their annual conference in Toronto from June 4-6. In the midst of their planning, they've had to shift focus and mount a campaign to deal with this critical situation. There will undoubtedly be a lot of strategizing at the conference about this, but there's no time to waste. The reforms are slated to come into effect this coming September so they're planning now. Barry Rooke talked to Victoria Fenner about how the fee structure works and what could happen if the Ford Government's new idea is implemented. Image: Volunteer in Campus/community radio station CKMS in Waterloo, 2003. Photo: Victoria Fenner Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

On today's episode of rabble radio, we're discussing the Progressive International movement, a budding network of social movements, activists, and political organizers around the world who are linking up local struggles with an international vision to rebuild a progressive world order. Progressive International is working towards a vision of a world built around a shared progressive values of solidarity, prosperity, and equity. The movement was launched in November 2018 at the Sanders Institute in Vermont. On today's program, rabble's Assistant Editor Sophia Reuss interviews NDP MP Niki Ashton. She was at the initial launch of the Progressive International, and spoke on a panel with former Greek Finance Minister and leader of the Democracy in Europe Movement, DiEM25. Yanis Varoufakis, as well as U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, and other prominent progressive figures. Image: Matt Jiggins/Flickr Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

As the implications of last week's takeover of the elected Venezuelan presidency by the unelected leader of the opposition become more clear, the debate intensifies. The Canadian government, along with the majority of Western governments, supports the removal of the democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro from power and the replacement with unelected Opposition leader Juan Guaido. But not all Canadians are patting our government on the back for supporting what many believe is a US orchestrated coup. Today's show features three Canadian activists who don't agree with our government's perspective. 1.) An excerpt from last week's show called Power Play: The U.S. And Canada back a Coup in Venezuela. The Global Research News Hour examines the internal and external forces attempting to undermine the democratically elected government of Venezuela, their motives and what the future holds for the Bolivarian Republic. The excerpt which you'll hear on today's show is a critique of the Canadian government's support of the leadership change, and also talks about why our country's official position is no different from that of the United States. Global Research News Hour host and producer Michael Welch did this interview last week and posted the show, just two days after the leadership takeover. He talks to Radhika Desai, Professor of Political Studies and member of the Winnipeg Venezuela Peace Committee, and Nino Pagliccia Vancouver-based Venezuelan-Canadian, writer and activist. Thanks to Global Research News Hour for permission to re-podcast. If you'd like to hear the entire hour long program, you can listen here. 2.) You may recall that rabble.ca was part of a delegation last May which went to Venezuela to monitor the Presidential elections — the same election that the US, Canada and other world leaders are declaring to be illegitimate and a justification for the overthrow of President Maduro. Humberto da Silva is a regular contributor to rabble, a filmmaker and member of the delegation. He shares some perspectives on recent events. You can read rabble reports and watch Humberto's videos from the May 2018 Venezuelan elections here. Photo: Wikipedia – Venezuelan people queuing to vote Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

The Doug Ford government is continuing to cut back and change post-secondary education in Ontario. One of the things announced last week was a plan to make ancillary fees optional. Those are fees that students pay for a wide variety things that aren't directly related to their course work. Right now, in many cases, students can already opt out by paying and asking for a refund. This new idea is an "opt-in" strategy, where students would be given a menu of choices where they check off what they want to pay and not. This makes it easier for students to have a say in what they want to fund. Critics of the plan say that students will be tempted by the short-term savings while eroding campus life and the educational experience for students in general. They say it also has the potential to significantly erode student activism. And it wouldn't apply to all non-academic fees. Things like library and athletic fees would still be mandatory. The Canadian Federation of Students says that the opt-out arrangement would only apply to those things that are considered "Student Experience Fees," which are the fees applied to most extra-curricular organizations and activities on campus. Things like student council fees, bus passes, student media and even health and dental plans will be subject to the new rules. In some cases, like student council fees, we're talking $100-200 per year. In some cases, it can be just a few dollars for things like campus media, Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) or donations to, for example, WUSC's Student Refugee Program. The CFS has an additional reason to fight back — the fees that students pay for CFS membership would also be subject to the opt-out clause. On today's rabble radio, Victoria Fenner talks to Hildah Otieno, the executive director of CFS Ontario, who says this idea will severely limit students' ability to have their voices heard on campus. They talked yesterday by phone from the CFS office in Toronto, and she explained what kinds of services would be impacted and what the effects of this opt-out strategy would be. Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

Brenda O'Farrell has been on the job as rabble.ca's editor-in-chief for a few months now. She started working with us in October 2018. Now that she's had a few months to settle in, and with it being a brand new year, Victoria Fenner thought it would be a time to ask her to share her ideas about media in Canada and rabble.ca in particular. Brenda comes from a different place in the media ecosystem than rabble, having worked mostly in commercial media, but even in these early days she's showing that she has good ideas about how to navigate the ever-changing media landscape that we now find ourselves in, and that she has some great ideas for rabble.ca as we chart our course in these challenging times. They talked via Skype. Bio: Brenda O'Farrell is the editor-in-chief of rabble.ca. Formerly a senior editor at the Montreal Gazette, she has held a variety of positions, including National editor, Sunday editor and special projects editor. She created and launched the Homefront section, which appears in the Saturday edition, before leading the reporting team that launched two of Postmedia's most successful hyper-local news websites. She started her career as a reporter at a community weekly paper, and is now an active member of the board of directors of the Quebec Community Newspaper Association. She has also been an on-air commentator at CJAD Radio in Montreal, and a professor of journalism at Concordia University. She lives just west of Montreal. Image: Brenda O'Farrell Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

Tomorrow is the deadline to submit comments to the federal government about what we'd all like to see in a new Broadcast and Telecommunications Act. The government's goal for the review, as stated on its website, is "to update and modernize the legislative framework in a balanced way that takes into account the realities of Canadian consumers and businesses, and our artists, artisans and broadcasters without increasing the cost of services to Canadians." It's a little known fact that there are three categories of broadcasters which form the pillars of the current Broadcast Act. We hear a lot about the CBC and private broadcasters, but not so much about the third pillar, community broadcasting. In many ways, not-for-profit community-based radio and television is still this country's best kept secret. Canada's community radio and television organizations have been working hard to build up the sector's profile, and to secure their position in the new Broadcast Act. The National Campus and Community Radio Association is one of those organizations. The two French community radio organizations — L'ARC du Québec (Community Radio in Quebec) and L'ARC du Canada (Francophone Community Radio in the rest of Canada) — as well as CACTUS (Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users) are also part of the community media landscape in Canada working for greater recognition of the community media sector. Barry Rooke is the Executive Director of the NCRA. In this interview, he shares some surprising facts with rabble radio host Victoria Fenner about community and campus radio in Canada. Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

rabble radio's first program of 2019 looks southward at the people who are migrating north from Central America to the United States. Crushing poverty and ultra violence in Central America are usually said to be the main factors causing migration from that region to the U.S. That perception is grounded in fact — gang violence and poverty are some of the big factors. But there is also a link between climate change and migration that is not addressed as often. Robert Albro is a cultural anthropologist at the Center for Latin American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. Since 1991, Dr. Albro has conducted research on popular and indigenous political responses to multicultural democratization and economic globalization in Bolivia. His current research focuses on how global cultural policy shapes the terms of globalization. This interview comes to us from The Green Planet Monitor's radio program The Green Blues Show. Dave Kattenburg, is the show's producer and host. They talk about the links between food security and the migration of people from the dry corridor countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Image: Farm in Guatemala near Chilmaltenango. Photo by Victoria Fenner Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

Simon Chambers has just come back from COP 24, the Annual United Nations Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland. The conference just ended on the weekend. The conference was scheduled to take place between December 2 and 14 but went into overtime to resolve important outstanding issues. Simon is Head of Communications at the ACT Alliance, a coalition of 151 churches and faith-based organisations working together in over 125 countries. Unlike some of the far right churches we hear about, the membership of ACT Alliance consists of churches which do believe that climate change is real, and that faith based groups should be part of the dialogue.Their ACT for Climate Justice Now campaign aims to bridge the technical, moral and ethical perspectives on climate justice. AT COP24 it mobilized members to safeguard the integrity of creation. On today's rabble radio, he talks to rabble radio executive producer Victoria Fenner from his office in Toronto to share his perspective on what was accomplished. Simon estimates that there were about 28,000 people at COP 24. He says that being at COP is a rare opportunity to be together with people who are passionate about climate work, though they're not all on the same side or have the same solutions. The language and terminology can be very difficult for non specialists to understand, so that's one of the reasons why he was there. One aspect of his job is to communicate to his stakeholders and the general public, translating language which is often dense, scientific and complicated. And a big part of his job is about bringing the voices of the world's vulnerable population into the discussion about climate change. Image: ACT Alliance at COP24. Photo by Simon Chambers. Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

John Foster's new book Oil and World Politics was the result of unconventional inspiration. The retired economist specializing in the oil and petroleum industry was attending a series of lectures where, as he describes it in the preface of the book, a couple of his colleagues called him out for rolling his eyes in the back row. In his own words, "the speakers extolled all the wonderful things that Western leaders were doing for the world. I was a bit skeptical whether the non Western world was as accepting as they insinuated." Having spent so much of his life working as an oil economist, John Foster understands the underlying role played by oil and gas in international affairs. It's a huge role, and he believes that The Petroleum Game is the foundation upon which the geopolitics of the world sits. He identifies hidden issues behind many of the conflicts in the world today, looking at military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria; tensions in the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea; and use of sanctions or political interference related to petroleum trade in Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. And closer to home, the Alberta Tar Sands. Victoria Fenner spoke to John Foster over skype. Further reading: John Foster also wrote a recent column for rabble on December 10, 2018 called Pipelines will not solve the big problems with Alberta Oil. Image: Roy Luck – Flickr – Oil Tanker at Kinder Morgan Pipeline Terminal