rabble radio

The hockey playoffs are here and that means it is serious hockey time for a lot of fans across Canada. This episode, we skate past the hockey headlines and instead hear about a women's league in Toronto. Putting a microscope on this question: do you have to be a scientist to do science? Citizen scientists don't think so. If you filed your taxes on time, you'll have time to think about this: A new book argues there is a tax cut scam going on that is hurting us all. Climate Justice advocates say that the fight against the climate crises has to involve other struggles. In this episode, one advocate advocates for direct action.

First we turn to a journey – the journey of Nishiyuu. Aboriginal youth recently trekked over 1,500 kilometers on foot through extreme conditions to promote solidarity and action around the issues facing indigenous peoples. We hear words from Isaac Kawapit also known as the "The White Wizard" and an interview by Lorraine Chisholm from RedEye Radio with Matthew Mukash. So, are you a feminist? What does that even mean? Artist, activist, and educator Kim Crosby says there are many different feminisms. With International Women's Day on March 8th Riaz Sayani –Mulji met with Kim Crosby to talk about feminism, organizing and more. Here's part of their conversation. For this story we turn to Halifax. In the 1960's the municipal government, against the wishes of residents, razed the historic Black settlement of Africville. Now once again there is a struggle over space and community. This time the fight is over what could be a community centre. Talking Radical Radio's Scott Neigh [Ni] spoke with Rev. Rhonda Britton of Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia about the struggle to preserve the closed St. Patrick's-Alexandra school building as a community space. We have just passed the two year anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. Chie Matsumoto is an anti-nuclear and labour activist in Japan who gave an updated on the situation to Asian Pacific Current's Jiselle Hanna. Finally Bob Wiseman is the man that wrote and peformed our theme song. He also has a new album out and we get to share with you a great song called "The Reform Party at Burning Man."

More than 20 years ago the Tsilhqot'in Nation used blockades and court action to halt plans for clear-cut logging in the heart of their territories. B.C. Justice David Vickers ruled on that case in 2007. His ruling had widespread implications for future consultation, land title, and compensation in land claims cases across Canada. The federal government did not agree with the ruling, and appealed it. Over a decade later, the case is about to be heard at the Supreme Court of Canada. rabble.ca's Redeye called up one of the lawyers for the Tsilhqot'in First Nation. Here is Redeye's Lorraine Chisholm talking to David Rosenberg. Royce White is a professional basketball player. An excellent player. He is also a person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The disorder has made it difficult for him to play professional basketball. He says that professional sports could not, or would not, accommodate his mental illness. In a controversial interview, White spoke out about a subtle war between the business of professional sports and the health of the players. Nathan Kalman-Lamb is an academic who writes about social inequality and sports. He says that White's activist statement makes him the most important athlete since Muhammad Ali. rabble.ca's Progressive Voices podcast interviewed Kalman-lamb. Here's their conversation. This one is for all of Canada, except Toronto. Maybe you heard a loud groan coming from that big city. You heard it when the Chair of Toronto's Parks and Environment committee, Councillor Norm Kelley, claimed that he didn't accept the scientific consensus on climate change. Soon after, at a climate justice rally, rabble's John Bonnar caught up with another city councillor, who is also an environmentalist. Gord Perks was glad to talk about the challenges facing Toronto around the climate crisis. Here's their conversation. Finally, we finish, as we all must, with death. More specifically, how we deal with death. Pashta Marrymoon is one person who provides alternatives to modern palliative care practices. She calls herself a "death midwife." Marymoon spoke with Lynn Thompson on changing the death journey and began by explaining what is meant by the term "death midwife."

Judy Rebick is a long-time activist, writer, broadcaster and founding publisher of rabble.ca. Not only has she been part of social movements for years, she has written and taught extensively on the topic. She's been an avid participant and analyst of the Idle No More movement in Canada. And she recently joined rabble.ca editor Derrick O'Keefe, who hosts a program called W2 Media Mornings on Coop Radio 100.5FM in Vancouver. Here's part of their conversation. Union of B.C. Indian Chief's Grand Chief Stewart Phillip also appeared on the program, and Jahanzeb Hussain took on some of that interview. Political Science professor David McNally has monsters on the mind. In his new book Monsters of the Market Zombies, Vampires, and Global Capitalism (published by Haymarked) McNally draws on popular culture, folklore and literature to better account for our understanding of capitalism and labour. Whatever you do, don't turn out the lights when listen in to his conversation with Ali Mustafa. Madeline Schwartz wrote a piece for Dissent Magazine entitled Opportunity Costs: The True Price of Internships. In the article, she said that a feminist perspective is needed to understand internships. Then Rabble.ca podcast Feminist Current called her up. Here is Madeline Schwartz in conversation with Feminist Current host Meghan Murphy. Human trafficking is recognized as a modern day version of slavery. It has a tremendous impact on the poor. But human trafficking affects all of us, not just the people directly involved. Lila Shahani made that point as part of a lecture about human trafficking in a Phillipine, Canadian, and Global Context at the University of British Columbia this month. Shahani is the Assistant Secretary at the National Anti-Poverty Commission and the Human Development & Poverty Reduction Cabinet Cluster of the Philippine Government. Remember to please support shows like this at: rabble.ca/donate.

Clayton Thomas-Muller and Keira-Dawn Kolson on climate change and climate justice, Joanne Dallaire discusses Attawapiskat, and Deb Singh on resisting violence against women. Please support rabble.ca during our donation drive! You can support right here! Idle No More. That's the slogan under which Aboriginal groups across Canada are rallying for social justice and indigenous sovereignity. As thousands rally across Canada, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence is entering the second week of a hunger strike. She it attempting to get a meeting with the Prime Minister to talk about substandard housing and other issues on Attawapiskat. Last year, Meagan spoke with Joanne Dallaire, an educator and healer from Attawapiskat about how we should all be responding to the crises in First Nations communities across Canada. In late October this year 1000 youth from across the Canada participated in a climate justice conference in Ottawa called Powershift 2012. The goal of the conference? To train a generation of climate justice activists so they can work to usher in a clean energy revolution. Clayton Thomas-Muller is an indigenous and environmental justice activist. Who has been organizing grassroots efforts to create environmental change for a decade. He is currently working with the Indigenous Environmental Network. When he took the podium at Powershift 2012, he spoke about what climate justice means. Another speaker at the Powershift 2012 Conference was Keira-Dawn Kolson. Her community has faced pipelines, water shortages, changing climate and a dwindling supply of their traditional food supply: caribou. At the opening of the Powershift conference, the multi-disciplinary artist, motivational speaker, singer-songwriter, leader, dreamer and educator spoke about how her community has been affected by resource development. December 6th in Canada is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. It is also known as White Ribbon Day. The National Day of Remembrance and Action was established in 1991 by the Parliament of Canada to mark the anniversary of the 1989 murders of 14 young women at l'École Polytechnique de Montréal. The victims in the shooting were killed by one man who called them feminists before he shot them. This year on December 6, an event called Speaking Up was held in Toronto. Toronto City Councillor Mike Layton spoke about his work organizing against gender-based violence, in particular with the White Ribbon Campaign an organization which aims to prevent men's violence against women. Also presenting at the event was Deb Singh. Singh is a survivor and an activist. She's a counsellor with the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre: Multicultural Women Against Rape. At speak up, she addressed the role of language and its relationship to violence in our culture.

Ali Abunimah is a journalist and the founder of the electronic intifada. That's an independent online news publication and educational resource focusing on Palestine, its people, politics, culture and its place in the world. In the days after the recent ceasefire in Gaza, he joined rabble.ca's Redeye podcast to share his viewpoint on the conflict and the ceasefire. Host Mordecai Briemberg began by asking him about why he thought Israel attacked. An international boycott of businesses profiting from illegal Israeli settlements is needed. Dr. Richard Falk made that assertion in a report to the United Nations this October. His recommendation for a boycott led Canada, the United States, and Israel to call for his resignation. Dr. Falk is a professor emeritus of International Law at Princeton. He is also the special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian Territories for the UN. And Dr. Falk has not resigned. rabble.ca's Redeye podcast has been covering the conflict in Gaza over the last month, and they invited him to join them on their podcast. Here he is, explaining why he made the call for a boycott. You've had a few weeks to recover from the U. S. presidential election coverage. It's safe now to pull your fingers out of your ears as the 24-hour-a-day horse-race coverage is thankfully over. Now is the time for a little more reasoned coverage. Kevin MacKay is a professor of social sciences at Mohawk College, and executive director of the Skydragon Co-operative is a non-profit worker-coop dedicated to the goals of progressive social and environmental change. Here he is, speaking with Riaz Sayani-Mulji from rabble.ca's Progressive Voices Podcast about the difference between the parties. Rape jokes, creepshots, and a slut memes about 12 year olds. They're all there on Facebook. Talk about Facebook privacy concerns abounds in the media. But there's not much in the news how the site deals with misogyny. Soraya Chemaly writes for Alternet, Fem 2.0, The Feminist Wire, and the Huffington Post, which is where she took on Facebook's failure to shut down misogynist posts and pages. Here she is on rabble.ca's Feminist Current podcast, after host Meghan Murphy asked about when she first noticed Facebook's misogyny problem. It comes up in many conversations about feminism. This comment: "I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist." But what if a person could be a feminist AND a humanist? It's a radical thought. Dr. Sikivu Hutchinson is one person who believes that it is both possible, and necessary. She calls it radical humanism. Hutchison is the founder of the Black Skeptics Los Angeles and a senior fellow with the Institute for Humanist Studies. The F Word collective invited Dr. Hutchinson onto their podcast to talk about faith, feminism and radical humanism. When rabble radio produced our 100th episode, we thought it would be a good idea to check in with a centenarian. Anne McPhee was 100 at that time, and she graciously agreed to talk with me about her life and the changes a century had brought to Nova Scotia. Anne McPhee died this month. She was 103. McPhee was well-known in Nova Scotia. She had a head for business and for years she ran a clothing store in Mulgrave. Here she is, talking about changes to the business and life in the Maritimes.

On September 29th, Omar Khadr was brought back to Canada from the U.S. military prison where he'd been held for a decade. A new book of writing called Omar Khadr, Oh Canada examines his story and the political and legal issues it reveals. Ten days before Khadr's return, contributors to the book held a launch in Vancouver. They debated and discussed the importance of Khadr's story, and what it means for Canada and Canadian citizens. Legal scholar Grace Woo was part of the discussion. Listen in from a RedEye podcast. November marks the second anniversary of a now-notorious article in McLean's magazine' 2010 Campus issue. It was titled "Too Asian?". That article sparked anger across Canada over how racialized people are perceived and treated in Canada's educational institutions. "Too Asian?" Race, Privilege and Post-Secondary Education is one book that sprang out of the controversy. Jeet Heer contributed to, and co-edited the compilation. Here he is, speaking with Matt Adams on radio book lounge. When actor and author Phillip Sheppard was a young man he was prepared to go to school in Physics. He gathered up his pencils and his calculators. Then he bought a bicycle and travelled to Japan to study Noh theatre instead. Here he is explaining how he made that choice to Lyn Thompson and a flock of boisterous seagulls on Living on Purpose. During an interview about the tragic suicide of Amanda Todd, Meghan Murphy asked political writer and social commentator Melinda Tankard about the rising trend of sexualizating girls, and where she sees it. Hear the whole interview on the Feminist Current. Does Halloween have to be sexy? Meagan's got some costume suggestions. Adi Sara Kreindler is a singer-songwriter and a fan of musical satire. The satyrical warbler has ridiculed the conservative government, pipelines, and cuts to old age security in her composition. Now, she's blasting the F-35s. Here she is on the Redeye podcast, talking music and social change.

June is pride month and while Pride Celebrations have become a party in lots of places, the event got its start in June of 1969, when queens and dykes at New York's stonewall tavern had finally had enough of police harassment and started to riot. Well, a new book celebrates another piece of queer activism, this time in Canada's heartland. The Loud and Queer Cabaret is an annual event that has been featuring queer artists and writers in Edmonton Alberta for the last 20 years. The Alberta government has a history of taking overt stands against human rights, and the cabaret played an essential role in changing attitudes when it comes to queer issues in the province. At the same time, Loud and Queer workshopped writing , music and drama from many of Canada's artists. Darrin Hagen is a ground-breaking drag artist and author of a book about the drag scene in Alberta called: The Edmonton Queen. He is also a long-time producer for the Loud and Queer cabaret. For the show's 20th anniversary, he decided to take some of its most powerful moments and put them in a book. It's called Queering the Way: an anthology from the Loud and Queer Cabaret. Rabble.ca's Kaitlin McNabb called Darrin Hagen to talk about the book. Here's their conversation. Last year, when a Toronto police officer teaching a safety seminar at York University suggested that to remain safe, women "should avoid dressing like sluts," his comments trivialized sexual assault and cast a harsh light on the way Toronto police treat sexual assault victims in one fell swoop. In response to his comment, women's rights advocates across North America organized the slutwalk protest march. The name, the march, and the idea that reclaiming the word "slut" can have value for women's rights have been cause for vigorous debates ever since. This year was Toronto's second slutwalk. One critique of the walk's first year was that the bulk of the marchers and speakers were white women, and women of color, transpeople, and other groups were not included in planning and the march itself. This year Kim Crosby was determined to create a more inclusive environment at the walk. Crosby is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, a queer survivor of sexual assault, and an activist on behalf of racialized peoples. She has written extensively on issues of race and gender, and she's the cohost of Black Feminism Live on Radio Regent in Toronto. Here's what she had to say at slutwalk 2012: If you are planning to go to the casseroles protest every Wednesday until further notice, you might want to invest in earplugs. But don't put them in just yet. We've got something you want to hear. Three months into nightly student protests over tuition hikes, Quebec's bill against free assembly, Bill 78, has inspired even more people to take to the streets. Last week Montreal campus station CKUT's Friday Morning After program invited in a very special guest. François-Olivier Chené was the guy who wrote the Facebook invite that started Canadians rummaging through their kitchen cupboards in search of pans and pots to bang. Program hosts Josh Hind, Sara Shaltony, Adam Bemma, and Rana Alrabi sat down with him at CKUT for a chat about the casseroles. Here's their conversation.

Happy May Day. Across Canada and the world social justice and progressive activists are readying themselves to celebrate solidarity in art, music, words, ideas, and actions. Over the last year or so, the Occupy movement has been one of the largest and most visible actions for solidarity across the globe. In this episode of rabble radio, we thought we'd bring together art and activism by turning the show over to audio artist Sarah Boothroyd. Over the last year or more, Boothroyd has brought together sound, music, and action. It has all wound up in a 28-minute audio piece called rabble rousers. Boothroyd's audio work has been featured by broadcasters, festivals and galleries in over a dozen countries and we're happy to host it at rabble.ca as well. Rabble rousers touches on ethics, justice, democracy, global citizenship, and art. It also explores the notion of protest as a spontaneous installation of improvised music in public space. It features field recordings from protests around the globe, including many from the occupy movement. Rabble rousers was supported by the Ontario Arts Council. All music is licensed under creative commons licenses. Featured artists included Random Coil, Pleq, Papercutz, Carlos Lemosh, Marcus Fischer, Upsteria, Erstlaub, Aurastore, Aos Crowley(Matt Dean), Pocka (Brad Mitchell), Mattias Ksipert and the Prelinger Archives. Photo credit: Stan Jourdan

The Conservative Party of Canada is denying that it knew about a scheme to misdirect voters to non-existent polling stations in the last election. Here's one of the so-called robocalls, misdirecting voters to non-existent polling stations. Dave Hudson lives in Guelph, and he received that call the morning of election day. He quickly realized that something was amiss, and recorded the call. That was back in May, but I caught up with Dave this week. I called him up at work Here's our conversation. Well, we're in the final run up to the NDP leadership convention. As it approaches, a top concern for many delegates is this: Which leader will be most electable in Quebec ? Will Quebecois will vote for someone who is not from Quebec. In his play Blue Dragon, Robert LePage addresses a similar issue, but with an international focus – should Quebecois look beyond their borders? Columnist Thomas Ponniah saw a recent production of the play, and it got him thinking. Here's his column. The activist toolkit is one of the newest parts of rabble.ca, and it's not just a resource and a feature within our site. Now it's a podcast called Constructing Change. In this episode, Constructing Change looks at the protests against security certificate legislation, which allows the the Canadian government to decide on extradition for Canadian residents without a public trial. Recently, Stephen Harper and two key ministers, Peter Kent and Joe Oliver, have said the Environmental Assessment Act allows too much public input, creates uncertainty for investors, and threatens economic development. The act is being reviewed, and a report is expected within the month. Jamie Keenan is with Mining Watch Canada, and he spoke to the Redeye podcast about why the act is important and some of the ways it strives to balance environmental preservation and industrial development. Here's that interview. If you haven't already, take a moment to donate to rabble.ca in our fundraising drive. If everyone who listens essentially bought us a coffee a month, we'd be in great shape. If you matched whatever you pay for your monthly subscription to your local paper, we'd be doing even better. If you can do it, head to rabble.ca/donate and make a donation. That's rabble.ca/donate. See you there I hope. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this program. Dave Hudson, Thomas Ponniah, Steff Pinch, Todd Ferguson and the Redeye collective. Our theme is composed by Bob Wiseman.