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People just want to be treated with respect. That's one of the strongest messages that Meagan Gillmore says she's taking away with her as her internship as rabble.ca's labour reporter ends. Work isn't just a way to make money, she says. It's about finding one's place in the world and in our communities. In this conversation with rabble podcast executive producer Victoria Fenner, she talks about the logistics of covering a large country from her office in Ontario, the significant events of 2017, what it is that she likes about covering people and their work, and trying to forge a career in media as a young journalist as the media landscape shifts. She's a great spirit and has done some complex stories with us in her time this year at rabble. The internship is over, which is why she's leaving us. But we wish it wasn't so and hope she comes back to us with many story ideas. Best wishes, and thanks from all of us, Meagan! About the rabble.ca labour beat internship: rabble.ca is one of the only media that prioritizes our coverage of labour stories, and initiated this paid editorial internship, in partnership with Unifor. In 2015, we were delighted to broaden our partnership to CALM (Canadian Association of Labour Media) and extend the reach and impact of this much-needed labour beat in Canadian media. The labour beat reporter internship was created in 2012 by rabble.ca and is a partnership with Unifor, Canada's largest union in the private sector, with the goal of improving understanding of the labour movement across Canada and creating a bank of labour reporting expertise among emerging journalists. The success of the project has led rabble.ca, in partnership with Unifor and now CALM, to continue the position, now into its fifth iteration. "We're excited and honoured to continue this partnership with Unifor, which continues to build up knowledge and understanding of the labour movement throughout Canada," says Publisher, Kim Elliott. The long-term goal of the labour beat position is to equip reporters with new skills and to enhance their knowledge of the labour movement and workers' issues. The labour beat internship provides nine months of labour reporting at rabble.ca, but as the labour beat reporters continue careers in journalism, their time on the labour beat is sure to enhance labour coverage and understanding in the media as a whole. Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

For an artist, precarious work isn't a new trend. Artists have always worked from contract to contract, gig to gig, cobbling together a sustainable life (or trying to) from a wide variety of sources. What is new in recent years is that it's not just artists who are living a financially precarious life. Our guest today on rabble radio is the co-organizer of a festival called Precarious in Peterborough Ontario. And it's not just about precarious artists. Because precarious work isn't just an art problem anymore. The festival takes a broad look at precarious work in all sectors of the economy through the lens of art. It is organized in partnership with a wide variety of funders and supporters including The City of Peterborough, unions, a local Indigenous group and even a group concerned with food security. Kate Story is a writer, performer and former Newfoundlander now living in Peterborough Ontario. She is co-organizer of the Precarious Festival. Precarious: Peterborough ArtsWork Festival is being held until December 3rd. One of the highlights of the festival is a talk by Pulitizer prize winning American journalist and activist Chris Hedges. His presentation is called "Writing as Resistance", and will take place on November 20, 2017. His talk is being presented by Public Energy. They'll be recording it and have graciously agreed to share Chris Hedge's talk with rabble.ca — so keep a watch out for it next week. Image: provided by Precarious.

David Kattenburg is a name you might have heard over the past few months on places like CBC and the Globe and Mail. He's in the news because he's challenged the Liquor Control Board of Ontario about two wines on their shelves, labeled as products of Israel. When Dave saw the listing, he knew they were not products of Israel. The wines come from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. He knows. He's been to both wineries. So in July, he filed a complaint with the federal Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The basis of his complaint was that the label "Product of Israel" is false and misleading. The LCBO, which is one of the largest wine, beer and liquor distributors in the world, instructed their outlets to remove the wine from their shelves. But that didn't last long. The CFIA reversed their decision a few weeks later. So the wine is still on LCBO shelves. Dave is not giving up, though. On October 24, 2017, he and his lawyer Dmitri Lascaris launched an application for a judicial review of the Canadian Food Inspection's Agency's actions. David Kattenburg is a Winnipeg-based science educator, broadcaster and human rights activist. In this interview, he talks to Victoria Fenner about the court case, what motivated him to launch it, and especially, why he believes this issue is something worth fighting for. (Disclosure: Victoria is a close personal friend and colleague of David Kattenburg's but is not involved in this campaign). You can read the chronology of the story at the website of his lawyer Dmitri Lascaris. You can read and listen to David Kattenburg's large collection of stories from the West Bank at his web based magazine The Green Planet Monitor, and contribute to the legal challenge at their GoFundMe page. Image: David Kattenburg – taken at Psagot Winery, in the unlawful Jewish settlement of Psagot, Occupied West Bank. Used with permission.

Community college students in Ontario weren't even halfway through their first semester when they got the news that they were going to be taking a break from their studies. Approximately 12,000 college faculty from 24 colleges across Ontario have been on strike since October 16, 2017. Braden Alexander is a former rabble podcast intern and volunteer. After taking a four year degree at University of Lethbridge in Music, he enrolled at Fanshawe College in London to take further training in recording arts. We asked him to put together this podcast to ask the questions he, as a student, wants to know about the strike, and to reflect on how the work stoppage is affecting him and other students. We connected by skype, and he gathered interviews and streeters from the picket line outside Fanshawe. Interviews with : 1) Darryl Bedford – President – OPSEU Local 110, Fanshawe College Faculty Union. 2) three anonymous comments from faculty members from the windy picket line outside Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Thanks to Braden Alexander for putting this podcast together. Image: Braden Alexander

Christopher Torres, former National Organizing Director for United We Dream speaks to rabble radio. The status of 800,000 young people who were born in the US to undocumented migrants remains very much in limbo. We've heard a lot about DACA, which stands for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. To recap — Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is an American immigration policy brought in by former president Barack Obama that allowed some individuals who entered the country as minors and stayed, to receive a renewable two-year permit which would free them from threat of deportation and allow them to have a work permit. The policy was overturned by President Donald Trump in September this year, but the fight is not over. United We Dream, was the famous American campaign that pushed President Obama to introduce the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program. Tomorrow in Toronto, Christopher Torres will speak about how the DREAMers helped win Americans hearts and minds in order to achieve the goal of normalizing the status of 800,000 young people. He will also speak about what's happening to fight back Trump's deportation order. He is in Canada right now, helping the Institute for Change Leaders celebrate its first anniversary. He was in Ottawa on Saturday and in Toronto tomorrow (October 17, 2017) at an event being held at Ryerson University from 11:30 to 1:00. Details about the event here. Image: Wikimedia Commons/Rhododendrites​ Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

What does it mean to belong? That's a question that the Community Foundations of Canada has been asking over the past three years. Community foundations are one of the fastest growing ways to help people donate money to their communities. Instead of each person having to figure out what the community needs are, and where they can direct their donations, they can go to their local community foundation to help them. There are 191 community foundations in Canada, ranging from large ones in cities like Vancouver and Toronto, to very small ones in Haida Gwaii and Flin Flon. Community Foundations of Canada is the national network of these individual organizations. The national umbrella organization also actively researches conditions in our communities on a national scale. One of their ongoing major research projects is the annual Vital Signs report. The 2017 report was released last week. This year's report card isn't encouraging. What it showed is that our communities aren't doing enough to help people feel like they belong. Rising housing costs, lack of affordable housing, economic inequality and lack of faith in our public institutions are some of the factors that affect people's sense of belonging. Victoria Fenner, rabble radio's executive producer, spoke to Lee Rose, Director of Community Knowledge and National Vital Signs Lead; and Juniper Glass, Research Lead for National Vital Signs.

Gerry Caplan is well known to our rabble readers who have been active on the progressive left for many decades. There are many dimensions to Gerry's life work. 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. A few years ago, Gerry relocated to Barrie, which is also where Victoria Fenner, our rabble podcast network executive producer, lives. She went out to visit him and had a wide ranging conversation about his work in Rwanda, the state of politics today, the downside of democracy and what he, a grandfather, has to say about encouraging our younger generations to hope in this mixed up world. Photo: Victoria Fenner. rabble.ca Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

The title of today's show, Pushing Up the Sidewalk, was inspired by rabble blogger Lizanne Foster. Lizanne's blog on rabble is called Education in the age of climate change. She's a high school teacher in B.C. who shares some of her thoughts about working creatively in a regimented education system. Three educators from three levels of education — secondary school, college and university — talk about changing the landscape of education. Pushing up sidewalks, creating cracks in concrete. 1.) Lizanne Foster: Lizanne's blog focuses on education from a very specific angle — she talks about education and climate change. She wrote an article which was posted on August 8 where she asked the question "Are schools preparing today's students for tomorrow's problems?" 2.) Tim Green: Back in the days of old, the difference between university and college was distinct. If you wanted a more broad education, you went to university. If you wanted to fix cars or become a dental hygenist, you went to college. The lines between college and university have blurred since then. Tim Green teaches environmental studies, philosophy and critical thinking at Georgian College in Barrie Ontario. He talks to rabble radio about what colleges are doing to help students ask the big questions. 3.) Erin Soros: Erin is a writer and scholar currently appointed as an Andrew Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto's Jackman Humanities Institute. She researches collective trauma and teaches courses on literature and psychoanalysis, and literature and human rights. She's also done a lot of thinking about how universities do, and don't, accommodate students with mental disabilities. Image: https://pixabay.com/en/university-lecture-campus-education-105709/ Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

This summer, as much of the country celebrated Canada 150, there has been much needed discussion about the place of Indigenous people within that context. There has been growing recognition that the 'founding of Canada' narrative is not accurate and shows disrespect for the real founders of this country — Canada's Indigenous people. Complicating the equation even more, there are many people in this country whose heritage is both Indigenous and settler. Today we're going to hear from three people who question where they belong within that continuum. And to finish off, we'll hear from the founder/producer/host of the Media Indigena podcast, which explores these questions and much more. 1.) Braden Alexander – Braden was the rabble podcast network's 2017 intern. Braden is living in London Ontario and is about to start school at Fanshawe College in a month's time. He is of Metis heritage but doesn't know much more than that because he's adopted. He agreed to talk to us about how this ambiguity and his heritage has affected his life and his journalism. 2.) Heather Majaury and Myrriah Gomez-Majaury – Heather is the writer and performer of This is My Drum, a one woman play that explores questions of identity and belonging, resistance and surrender, partially in dialogue with her late Anishnaabe grandmother (Kokomis). It was performed in Kitchener/Waterloo in 2015. Victoria Fenner did a documentary with Heather and her daughter for The Green Planet Monitor in 2015. Today's show features an excerpt of that piece. You can hear the entire documentary here. 3.) Rick Harp – Rick is the founder, producer and host of the Media Indigena podcast. In 2015, rabble.ca invited Rick to be a panelist at the rabble podcast network's 10th anniversary celebration to talk about indigenous podcasting. He didn't have his own podcast at the time, but we could tell he was thinking about it. Less than a year later, he launched Media Indigena. A host/producer with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network for many years, Rick has also served as Artistic Director for the Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival, was a host and producer for CBC Radio and also worked at CKCU, Carleton University's campus based community station in Ottawa. He is a member of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan. Image: Heather Majaury and Myrriah Gomez-Majaury. Photo by Victoria Fenner Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.

The world is changed when we all work together. But how do we do that? There are lot of different ways, with one thing in common. We need to organize. Social movements happen on different levels — local, regional, national and international. There are many differences between organizing campaigns which involve thousands than ones which reach the small local level. But there are a lot of commonalities too. Today we take a look at the importance of social movements at the national, provincial and local level. 1.) Nora Loreto – rabble.ca blogger – On June 10th, Nora wrote a blog article with a headline "Social Organizing is Canada's Only Hope". For those of you who don't know Nora, she's a writer, musician and activist based in Québec City, and a long time rabble blogger. Some big picture thinking on why social movements are important. 2) Fighting cutbacks and austerity in Saskatchewan – an excerpt from Talking Radical Radio, host Scott Neigh spoke with JoAnn Jaffe and Peter Garden on his June 6 show. They're fighting back against the massive wave of cuts to social programs and privatization initiated earlier by the Saskatchewan government. They belong to Stop the Cuts, a group working to mobilize against individual cuts and to help people come together into a broader movement to affect change. Scott talked to Joann and Peter what has been happening in Saskatchewan that is motivating people to stand up against the cuts. 3) Parkdale Renters Stike – Renters in high rises in Toronto's Parkdale neighbourhood have been saying "Enough is enough". Despite fears that their landlord will evict them from their apartments, they have organized a rent strike, protesting against poor living conditions in the high rises, repairs that haven't been done and a landlord who is trying to raise rents above the allowable provincially regulated maximum. A conversation with Cole Webber of Parkdale Community Legal Services, an organization which is helping the renters fight for change and navigate the tricky legal system. (Note: We have a great video on rabble.ca posted on June 26th summarizing what the issues are. Check out Not Rex: Parkdale tenants strike for housing rights). And while we're talking about organizing — Amplifying the work of individuals and organizations fighting for social justice is rabble's founding mandate, and part of what makes us different from other media. 2017 promises to be a time of action and change: from the opportunities afforded with a potential NDP-led government and Green alliance in B.C., to Idle No More and Indigenous responses to the colonial legacy of Canada 150, and the challenges Trump policies pose to Canada — from net neutrality and online privacy to exposing the hypocrisy of the Trudeau government's stance on refugees and on protecting the environment. To keep on doing our work, we need support from people like you. Having donors who will give us five or ten dollars a month will help give us the stability to be able to predict our cash flow. We'll be able to look ahead and plan new projects and stories knowing how much money is coming in to our bank account every month. Go rabble.ca/donate to contribute, Thanks to Braden Alexander and Sophia Reuss, the other members of the production team. If you want to become a member of the team too, send me an email at victoria@rabble.ca. Victoria Fenner is executive producer of the rabble podcast network. rabble radio is a podcast of rabble.ca. Image: Victoria Fenner Like this podcast? rabble is reader/listener supported journalism.