rabble radio

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

Today's program comes from the recent Hospital Employees Union annual convention called Powered by Solidarity. It was held from November 4 through 9, 2018 in Vancouver. There's a lot to talk about when it comes to health care, but today's podcast isn't going to be about that. It is about solidarity though. In this case, it's about solidarity with and by Indigenous workers. Rod Mickleburgh is the author of On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement. One of the chapters in the book is about the role of Indigenous workers and locals in the history of the province — something that there hasn't been a lot of information about in history books. He was a guest speaker at the HEU Convention. B.C. Premier John Horgan also stopped by the HEU convention to talk about another subject — the upcoming B.C. referendum on proportional representation. Voting has been open since October 22 and ends next Friday, November 30. Federally, the issue is off the table for now but provinces have the power to determine their own electoral system. This referendum in BC is a big step toward that goal. He shares a few words about the referendum with the HEU delegates. Thanks to Tania Ehret for recording these speeches for rabble podcasts. Listen to rabble radio's May 3, 2018 interview with Rod Mickleburgh. Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

Last week, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that the number of migrants and refugees from Venezuela has reached 3 million. We've seen a lot about this on the news but there are some different interpretations about what is causing this mass migration that you don't hear. Last May, rabble.ca was part of a delegation that went to Venezuela to observe the country's elections. The people in the delegation saw sharp differences between what was happening on the ground and what was being reported in the western media. And even when there was agreement on the facts, there was disagreement about the reasons. And there still is. Canada is one of the countries which is participating in the endless condemnations of the Maduro regime. Canada has economic sanctions in place against Venezuela, which critics of our foreign policy say create the problems that make life unliveable for so many and escalate the crisis. Things haven't gotten better in Venezuela since our election reports in May. In its most recent couple of programs, Global Research News Hour has devoted its airtime to explorations of the ongoing issues in Venezuela. A couple of weeks ago, host Michael Welch had a chance to talk to Steve Ellner, a professor of economic history and political science at Venezuela's Universidad de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela since 1977. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles on Venezuelan history and politics, specifically in the area of political parties and organized labour and frequently lectures on Venezuelan and Latin American political developments in the U.S. and elsewhere. He was in Canada in late October as part of a North American speaking tour. Michael Welch spoke to him in Winnipeg. Image: Wikimedia – 2015 Venezuela Colombia Migrant Crisis *************************** Read/watch rabble Venezuelan election coverage from May 2018: Venezuela is democratic because the majority of voters made it so The Vultures of Venezuela Rabble TV Venezuela – a mother's testimony Counting the Vote in Venezuela What should international labour solidarity with Venezuela look like? 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 sound of a train in the night… it's a comforting sound that tells us somebody's out there in the darkness. But to the people of Lac-Mégantic in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, the sound of a train has very different associations. It's a reminder of that night — July 6, 2013 just after 1 am, when a runaway train barrelled into town, killing 47 people and decimating the core of the small town of approximately 6,000 people. Bruce Campbell has just written a book called The Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster – Public Betrayal, Justice Denied, published by James Lorimer and Company. He's the former Director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and is the author of three major reports and a number of media commentaries on the Lac-Mégantic tragedy. The book is the story of one runaway train and a small town catastrophe. It's also a larger story about how free market ideology of unfettered markets, big oil and deregulation caused the tragedy. Bruce Campbell managed to blend the two aspects of the story – the political issues and the human repercussions, painting a vivid picture of the town and its people and the long term effects of policy failures on individual lives. He speaks to rabble podcast exec producer Victoria Fenner. You can read an excerpt from the book here. Image: Wikipedia – Police Helicopter View of Lac-Mégantic If you're in Toronto tomorrow, November 9, 2018, join Bruce Campbell at the Centre for Social Innovation, 720 Bathurst for his Toronto book launch. It's from 5-7 pm. Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!

Even though we're in Canada, many of us are watching the U.S. midterms next Tuesday with hope, and also fear and trepidation. Not just because the U.S. and Canada have important economic links, but also because what's happening in the U.S. also affects our social and political life up here. In particular, we've seen that Trump's brand of racism isn't stopping at the border. A return of Democratic Party strength next week will do a lot to help reign in the Republican party and the president. At least, that's the hope. Victoria Fenner, rabble's podcast producer, talked to two Americans who are working for change in their country as Tuesday approaches. 1) David Mivasair – Like many Americans, David is a dual citizen been living in Canada for a long time. And even though he's made his home in Canada for 23 years, he's understandably worried about the land of his birth. So he's doing something about it. He's campaigning in a swing district in New York State in the 22nd Congressional District of New York as a volunteer for Democratic candidate Anthony Brindisi. He's been doing Facebook posts since the middle of October which paint a picture of a beautiful rural landscape populated by very divided people. He talked to Victoria about why he decided his energy was needed in this place. 2) Music – Why Are the Guns Still Firing – performed by Joe Jencks, written by Si Kahn. Used with permission and thanks. From the CD The Forgotten – Recovered Treasures from the Pen of Si Kahn. 3) Joe Jencks – Joe is a singer, songwriter, social activist and an American from the Chicago area. In this conversation at a recent house concert in Barrie, Ontario, he talks about the state of his country and the contribution that music makes to build community and hope. 4) Music – Let Me Sing You a Song – written by Joe Jencks – in Joe's words – "dedicated to the courage, perseverance and integrity of my mentor and friend Pete Seeger. It was inspired by his 1955 congressional testimony". From the CD Poets, Philosophers, Workers and Wanderers. Used with permission and thanks. Last minute campaign notes — David Mivasair says there is still need for volunteers to help get out the vote. Canadians welcome. If you'd like to join him, the phone number for candidate Anthony Brindisi's campaign in the 22nd Congressional District of New York is 315-281-9642 or email info@brindisiforcongress.com. On the West Coast, you can contact the Democratic campaign in the 8th District of Washington, just south and east of Seattle, at (425) 395-4775 or info@drkimschrier.com. Help make rabble sustainable. Please consider supporting our work with a monthly donation. Support rabble.ca today for as little as $1 per month!