rabble radio

The influx of money into our communities comes at a cost. All those shiny new buildings come with a high price tag as people with higher incomes move into our communities from elsewhere. They bring high real estate prices as the market grows. And new economic development also changes the kinds of services that are needed or desired to serve the growing and changing city. It's happening all over the country. Hamilton, Ontario is a classic case study of how gentrification changes a community. Hamilton has had a reputation as a low rent city, but that's all changed, especially in the last five years. It's not as unaffordable as Toronto, but many people with low incomes are becoming displaced by higher rents because their homes are being sold by their landlords. Or they're being evicted while landlords renovate so they can get higher prices. There's no affordable place to go, with rents going up all over the city. Gentrification is at the heart of a battle in Hamilton about public transit. Many people are supportive and others fear the development that will happen further on down the line when the line is built. For years, public transit in Hamilton has been substandard. The proposed solution, an LRT line going from east to west, is a good idea in many ways. But not everybody shares that opinion. Today's program asks the question — is this "A train to inclusion?" Lil Blume and Stephen Dale examine the coming of light rail transit in Hamilton, Ontario, with an eye on the question of how transit planning and the quest for social equality might — or might not — intersect. Produced with support of the Ontario Arts Council Media Arts Division. Image: Wikipedia – LRT Kenala Jaya Line Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

Last week, March 16, marked a tragic milestone – the 50th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre, the mass murder of unarmed people in two small villages in Vietnam. It has been called one of the most shocking events of the entire war. My Lai was one of the two villages. The exact number of deaths has never been definitively established, with estimates ranging from 170 to over 500. Many of the people killed were women and children who were also mutilated and raped by American soldiers. The massacre escalated global outrage and opposition to the war and back home in the United States. In the end, only one of the 26 soldiers criminally charged for their part in the massacre was convicted. That one lone soldier spent three and a half years under house arrest. He never went to jail. This grim anniversary is cause for reflection not just on that incident, but the entirety of the war and its aftermath. This next interview is excerpted from The Global Research News Hour, a podcast and radio program by the Centre for Research on Globalization and CKUW Radio in Winnipeg. You'll hear show host Michael Welch talking to Christian Appy, a leading American historian and expert on the Vietnam War. Appy is professor of history at University of Massachusetts and the author of American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity (2015). This interview was excerpted from a longer program focusing on various aspects of the United States and the Vietnam War. You can listen to the whole show and past podcasts here. Image: Wikimedia: My Lai Memorial Site Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

Imagine coming home to your apartment building and seeing a sniffer-dog your lobby from a private canine detection company hired by your landlord. Or you go to a music festival and there is a group of security guards and sniffer dogs. That's what happened to Michelle Guo's friend from Australia. So Michelle decided to look into the legality of using sniffer dogs and what our rights are here in Canada. What she's discovered is a lot of grey areas. Michelle Guo is a Media Studies Student and rabble podcast contributor from Montreal. She speaks to rabble radio host Victoria Fenner. Image: Wikipedia – sniffer dogs in Sweden Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

February is one of the worst months to be homeless in Canada. Temperatures plunge and it seems like winter will never end. It's a harsh reality for thousands of people in Canada. That's why community radio stations across Canada have chosen February as the time for their Homeless Marathon. Today, fourteen campus and community radio stations across the country will be devoting their airwaves to the topic of homelessness. Luke Smith is with the National Campus and Community Radio Association. He talks to rabble podcast exec producer Victoria Fenner about how the idea came to be, what you'll hear and how to listen. If you live in one of the 14 communities across Canada taking part, you can listen onair. To find out, call your local station, or go to the NCRA website and click on the Homelessness Marathon link. You can also listen online by going to www.localfm.ca – Local FM is the campus community radio station in St. John, New Brunswick which is coordinating the national effort this year. Image: Luke Smith, National Campus and Community Radio Association Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

When he's not at work at the Urban Worker Project, Andrew Cash is a musician. On January 26th, he spoke to rabble podcast exec producer Victoria Fenner in Barrie, Ontario, between sound checks just before a tribute concert to the late Gordon Downey Jr. of the Tragically Hip. The concert was in support of the Gord Downie and Chanie Wenjack Fund. Andrew Cash is also a former member of parliament and one of the co-founders of the Urban Worker Project. When he was a member of Parliament from 2011 to 2015, precarious work was one of Andrew's major issues of concern. His National Urban Worker Strategy Bill was ground breaking legislation in Canada's Parliament dealing with precarious work and led to the first protections under federal labour laws for unpaid internships. The Urban Worker Project is an extension of that work. Because Bill 148 only came into effect on January 1st of this year, Ontario is the focus of a lot of the discussion about labour changes, but changes are needed in other provinces too. And changes are coming. Does it go far enough? Should it be a model for other provinces? Image: provided by Urban Worker Project Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

This past weekend, January 20 and 21, 2018, was the anniversary of the first Women's March which was held last year to coincide with inauguration day in the United States. Marches were held all over North America, including many here in Canada, large and small. Sandy Cove, a tiny village on the Fundy Shore in Nova Scotia had 32 marchers. And though that sounds small, it's half the village population. Big places like Vancouver and Toronto didn't get that high a percentage of the population out. Toronto police estimated 6,000 people at the Women's March in that city. And police estimates are usually on the low side. Safe to say there were a few tens of thousands of people marching in Canada. For those of you who weren't able to make it to a Women's March in your community, we're bringing you a snapshot in sound from the March from London Ontario, collected by Meg Borthwick, a London resident, activist and also rabble's babble moderator. Image: Kevin Jones Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

It's been a year since the historic women's marches happened across North America and in many other parts of the world. The marches were organized to coincide with the timing of the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States. Things have turned out even worse than we thought for women in the United States over the past year. This weekend there will be women's marches again. If you go to the webpage listing this year's events, you'll see a map of North America with little red dots showing where this year's marches will be happening. And some of those dots are in Canada. On this edition of rabble radio, we talk to Samantha Monckton, an organizer of the March on Vancouver. She's also connected to groups across the country hosting women's marches. I gave her a call to find out how things are shaping up for this weekend. And, we hear from Frieda Werden, co-founder of WINGS – the Women's International News Gathering Service. WINGS is one of North America's first feminist radio shows. Frieda is a dual citizen now living on Denman Island in BC and plans to go to the March on Nanaimo. She has been involved in the women's movement since the 1960's, mostly in her former home state of Texas. She shares a long term view of what's happening in the women's movement and the erosion of women's rights under the presidency of Donald Trump. To find out what's going on with marches in other communities across Canada, go to The March on Canada's facebook page. Image: Women's March Toronto – Wikimedia Commons Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

This week's protests at Tim Hortons in various parts of Ontario have fuelled the debate about minimum wage — worker justice on one hand, employer profits on the other. The argument by some vocal business owners in the fast food sector is that they just can't be profitable if they have to pay their workers a higher minimum wage. Yet, there are places in Canada where employers pay higher than the minimum wage in the hospitality/food sector, and they're still in business. For example, a recent post on the internet job site indeed.com advertises a food counter attendant job at McDonalds for $15-17 an hour in Yellowknife. A front desk agent for a hotel in the same city lists a wage rate of $16.78 an hour. The minimum wage in the Northwest Territories is currently $12.50. George Lessard, has lived in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories for 30 years. He's also known as Media Mentor, working as a media consultant, photographer, writer, and trainer. He's also a longtime rabble supporter and contributor. rabble.ca podcast exec producer Victoria Fenner spent her coffee break talking to George about minimum wage in the North and how people survive in a place where jobs are scarce and the cost of living is much more than down south. Image: George Lessard virtually taking a picture of Tim Hortons in Yellowknife. Photos by George Lessard Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

The new year has started, but there's still time to make new year's resolutions. We know there are a lot of you out there who have followed rabble's progress ever since we went on the net in 2001. And even more of you who have discovered rabble.ca over the years. Today, we're bringing you reflections from some of our rabble staff about what they want to see rabble do over the next year. It's a big time of change — the world is changing, the internet is changing, and rabble is also changing along with all those forces which shape our lives. And helping shape that change. Interviews with: a) Meg Borthwick – rabble did social media even before Facebook and Twitter. Meg is the moderator of rabble.ca's 'babble' discussion forum b) Michelle Gregus – rabble's managing editor – Michelle has to balance her editorial with constant technological change. Hear how she does it. c) Kim Elliott – rabble publisher – Kim has been rabble.ca's publisher for over ten years. She's seen a lot of changes in the way internet journalism is done, and constantly needs to shift with the winds of change. d) Victoria Fenner, executive producer of rabble podcasts and host of rabble radio. rabble.ca was one of the first online organizations in Canada to start podcasting. That was back in 2005, when practically nobody knew what a podcast was. Victoria talks about how the growth of podcasting is shaping what we are doing at rabble over 12 years later. From all of us at rabble.ca, thanks for being there with us through the craziness of 2017. And for being there with us this year as we forge ahead shaping rabble.ca — the next generation. Image: Pixabay – Creative Commons Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

Last December, we were looking ahead to the year to come with some fear and trepidation. We were still in shock after Donald Trump's win in the U.S. What were we in for? Well, now we know. To say it's been a challenging year is the understatement of the still-new century. And though it looks like Peace on Earth is a concept which seems more elusive than ever, there are lots of people out there working to reverse the damage that has been done over many years of globalization, corporate control, and the actions of demogogues who use "democracy" as a synonym for "capitalism". For your holiday listening, some wise words from people who believe that all is not lost. The struggle continues, and is far from over. a) Chris Hedges – Writing as Resistance – In this excerpt, Chris talks about his early years as an activist journalist. He was in Peterborough at the invitation of Bill Kimball, the artistic director of an organization called Public Energy. So, when you hear Chris talk about Bill, that's who he's referring to. They went to school together in the States in their younger days. You can hear the whole talk here. b) For decades, Angela Davis has been deeply involved in movements for social justice around the world. She emerged as a prominent activist in the 1960s, especially for her involvement in the American Civil Rights movement. Her work as an educator — both at the university level and in the larger public sphere – has always emphasized the importance of building communities of struggle for economic, racial, and gender justice. She spoke at the Canadian Labour Congress Convention on Sunday May 7, 2017 as part of the CLC Human Rights Forum: Disruption is Power. Here is the entire talk on Needs No Introduction. c) Gerry Caplan has worked for justice for a long time. He was a key figure in the New Democratic Party for many years as a party strategist and even took a run at a seat himself at one point. He's an author, and a commentator on the state of the media. He's also an authority on genocide, especially in Rwanda. He writes for publications like the Globe and Mail and is a frequent guest on the CBC. And … we are very proud that Gerry Caplan has a blog on rabble, and especially proud that he's been a friend of rabble since the very beginning, way back at the turn of the century. You can read his rabble blog here. His entire interview on rabble radio with Victoria Fenner can be found here. Thanks for the larger perspective, all of you. Thanks to all of our contributors to rabble podcasts, and we look forward to hearing your voices again in 2018. Image: Peace on Earth – Wikimedia