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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.

We'll start with our newest columnist. Thomas Ponniah is an affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University. In his first audio column for rabble radio, he takes us on a journey from war into love. If you're a person who spends time online, you've almost certainly thought about the possibility of cyberattacks. But creating fear of cyber attacks may just serve another agenda. That's what Conn Halliman believes. He's a columnist with Foreign Policy in Focus. The rabble.ca podcast Redeye spoke to Halliman earlier this month. Here's what he had say: Many people in the non-profit world have been noticing a trend over the last 3 years. They say there are a number of ways that organizations are being punished for openly voicing criticisms of the Canadian government. Darren Shore is the communication co-ordinator for Voice-Voix, a coalition of Canadian organizations that want to stop the governent from attacking those who practice dissent in Canada. Shore sat down for an interview with rabble.ca's Journalists for Human Rights podcast. Here's what he had to say. As I told you at the beginning of our show, it's donation drive time again here at rabble.ca. Our volunteers have been hard at work finding new ways to tell you all about it. Here's one of them. Arts and education are a powerful combination. A new book, edited by Debra Barndt, shows how one inspires the other. Barndt is a popular educator and a professor at the University of Toronto. The book is called Viva! Community Arts and Popular Education in the Americas. Matthew Adams recently sat down with Barndt to talk about her book and the role community arts play in education.

2011 has been a very eventful year for activists, community organizers, and progressives. First we had the Arab Spring, Canada's NDP leader Jack Layton died after a long battle with cancer, then the Occupy movement grew into a global phenomenon. Japan faced an earthquake, tsunami, and a disabled and damaged nuclear plant. Abousfian Abdelrazik was finally taken off the United Nations list of terror suspects, the Canadian government came under fire again for the terrible conditions in First Nations communities, and the Canadian Boat To Gaza did its best to make its way to its destination. In this episode of rabble radio, we'll look back over the year. This year was also rabble.ca's 10th year as the go-to independent media website in Canada. We held a number of events throughout the year, and launched a new series by notable thinkers in Canada called Reinventing Democracy: Reclaiming the Commons. Olivia Nuamah is the current director of the Atkinson Roundation, which provided start-up money for rabble.ca. She was part of a panel discussion we held in Toronto to celebrate our decade online. When she took the mic, she gave rabble a challenge for the years ahead. Here's what she had to say. One of the big news stories during this year's federal election was the Orange Crush, which made the NDP the official opposition in Canada's Parliament for the first time in history. The jubilation over that advance was soon overshadowed by the death of party leader Jack Layton. rabble.ca was at the state funeral, and spoke with some of the mourners who attended. Here is some of what they had to say, remembering Jack Layton. The year began with uprisings in Egypt and across the Arab world. Nahla Abdo is an Arab-Canadian feminist. She was kind enough to share her thoughts on the uprising and women's role in it. Here's what she had to say. Jase Tanner is a filmmaker and activist with Code Pink on his way to Gaza via Egypt when the demonstrations began. We caught up with him there. While all that was happening in Tahrir square, here at home, conditions at remote First Nations were as normal. That is, not great. By this winter, leaders in Pikangikum and Attawapiskat had appealed publicly for help from the government. Joanne Dallaire is a respected elder and educator, and she has some ideas about how Canada could improve conditions on reserves They involve you and I. Here's what she had to say in an interview this fall. Japanese Canadians rallied to send help to the thousands upon thousands who were affected by the earthquake, tsunami, and accompanying nuclear emergency that engulfed the country in the spring of this year. As the crisis developed, rabble.ca's redeye podcast checked in with Gordon Edwards, head of the Canadian coalition for nuclear responsibility. Here's part of an interview with Edwards, after revelations that Japan had not issued warnings to schools affected by radiation from the plant led to protests from Japanese citizens. The Occupy movement started in the summer in NYC, and by summer it had spread to streets and parks across North America and Europe. The Occupiers took on a wide range of causes, but in general, protests focused on issues of income disparity and housing for the 99 per cent of people struggling in today's economy. Despite the fact that cities eventually tore down the occupy encampments, the movement is continuing. At McMaster University, Occupy has moved to the student centre. The progressive voices podcast featured the Occupy movement there in their last podcast. Here's a sample. We've featured a lot of music this year on the network. We started the show by playing a segment of a duet for Abousfian Abdelrazik. It was composed as part of a project to support his return to Canada and his removal from the UN list of terror suspects. Another musical development this year was that Raffi composed a number of songs to inspire and energize political activism in Canada. We're going to finish this year-end rabble radio with the song he composed for the Occupy movement. Here is "No wall too tall."

Before we start these notes, a reminder: rabble.ca is kicking off our fundraising drive this month and so I'd like to issue you a little challenge. We know that most of you listeners consume all kinds of media — mainstream and independent. What rabble.ca wants you to do this year is match your spending on mainstream media: newspapers, cable, whatever you get, and send that amount rabble.ca's way. You can do that at this link: rabble.ca/donate. You can make a one-time donation or buy a membership. It's your support that keeps rabble.ca running. That link again is rabble.ca/donate. Hope to see you there. We're going to start this program with some music. Abousfian Abdelrazik's struggle has been a long one. While he was on a visit from his home in Montreal to Sudan he was jailed by the Sudanese government, on the recommendation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. During his imprisonment he was interrogated and tortured, but he was never charged. In 2007, he was released from prison, and took refuge in the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum. He lived there for 14 months, while his attempts to return to Canada were blocked by officials. In 2009, grassroots pressure helped facilitate his return to Canada, and this week Abdelrazik was told that his name had been removed from the UN list of terror suspects, and that his life could return to normal. In support of Abdelrazik's struggle, Montreal artists have been raising funds and creating work to commemorate his experience as part of Montreal's history. Stefan Cristoff has been writing a series of piano works based on Abdelrazik's struggle, to start off this episode, we're going to play you one of those pieces. Here is is a live performance of a duet for Abdelrazik, performed by cellist Rebecca Foon and Stefan Christoff. That was Duet for Abdelrazik, performed by Rebecca Foon and Stefan Christoff. A CD of compositions is scheduled for release in 2012. For more information, you can go to: http://artthreat.net/2011/04/abdelrazik-foon-christoff/ I'd like you to cast your mind back a few months. Attawapiskat and the housing crisis affecting its residents is all over the news these days. While it is the most recent First Nation to capture the spotlight it is not the only First Nation where housing conditions, education and career prospects for residents are far below the standard Canada insists it wants to provide. Despair and suicide are common in communities where living conditions that include poor housing, no plumbing and inconsistent water supplies. I thought it would be appropriate, in this episode, to play an interview I conducted earlier this year with Joanne Dallaire. In August, after two months which saw five young people commit suicide in his community, Gordon Peter, the former chief of Pikangikum First Nation, wrote an open letter asking for assistance. It hit the media, but was soon lost under other suicide reports as two NHL players took their own lives. Joanne Dallaire agreed to talk to me after the Pikangikum story had fallen out of the news. She has worked with Ryerson University to help incorporate aboriginal teachings into curriculum there, conducts healing workshops for aboriginal and non-aboriginal organizations across Ontario, and sits as an adviser for several agencies. She devotes herself to teaching and healing. She is from Attawapiskat. Here's our conversation. This month the Occupy movement in Canada faced strong opposition from municipal governments in most cities. Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto suffered the most high-profile evictions. Raffi is known by many for his work as a children's entertainer. He is also a well-known social change advocate,writing songs in support of social movements worldwide. He took his inspiration for the song we're about to feature from the Occupy movement. Here is Raffi with No Wall Too Tall. For more coverage of the Occupy movement as it continues, go to rabble.ca/occupy. Cathi Bond is rabble.ca's trusty movie columnist. While the rabble.ca podcast Reel Women — where she and Judy battled it out over movie picks — is done, that doesn't mean that Cathi is off the movie beat. In this episode of rabble radio I thought I'd bring you her latest. The new podcast is called Watch Me. This episode, she's talking about Sarah's Key. Here's Cathi. If you want to subscribe for Cathi's DVD recommendations, you know where to go. rabble.ca/podcasts then click the link to Watch Me. That brings us to the end of this episode of rabble radio, thanks for listening. Just a quick reminder before we take off. Thanks to all the people who helped to put this episode together: Cathi Bond, Emily Hill, and Kim Wiltzen. Small crew this week! Our theme was composed for us by Bob Wiseman. If you have any comments or questions, please don't hesitate to email rabble radio. You can do that by emailing me. My address is as follows: Meagan@rabble.ca That's all from me. Talk to you next month. And I can't leave without giving you the donate address again: rabble.ca /donate.

In this episode, intrepid rabble reporters talk to the people who chose to #occupy. Michael Stewart heads to Vancouver, while Matthew Adams and Meagan Perry take on Toronto.

This month marked the 10-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City. The event, and the wars that followed have affected lives around the world. In this episode of rabble radio, an interview about how the effects of 9/11 have been felt by Muslim women. As part of Aboriginal awareness week, Clifton Nicholas speaks about the portrayal of aboriginal peoples in the media. A rebroadcast of the eulogy for Jack Layton delivered by Stephen Lewis. Layton's death gave many the impetus to become more involved in their communities, and at rabble.ca we've activated a new online tool to make connecting to your community a little easier. It's called the activist toolkit. And that's where we're starting the show today.

Today is the day of Jack Layton's state funeral at Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto. The ceremony follows days of heartfelt outpourings. In this podcast, memories of Jack Layton from those who knew him: young people who volunteered with him, and long-time activists and leaders. Hear some of their stories in this podcast.