rabble radio

This week on rabble radio, Libby Davies sits down with Avi Lewis to talk about a lifetime of activism and his plans to run in the next federal election. Avi Lewis is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, educator, and activist. Lewis is also the co-founder of The Leap, a grassroots climate organization launched to upend our collective response to the crises of climate, inequality and racism. Lewis engages in transformative change locally and globally. He was a candidate for the NDP in the last federal election and is currently an associate professor in geography at the University of British Columbia. Libby Davies is the author of Outside In: a Political Memoir. She served as the Member of Parliament for Vancouver East from 1997-2015, and is former NDP deputy leader and house leader. Davies is also a recipient of the Order of Canada. She currently co-hosts rabble.ca’s monthly political panel, Off the Hill.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

“Unions are not just a place for rank and file issues – they are also political.” This week, labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Ala’ Qadi to discuss how student unions and labour issues intersect with the crisis in Palestine.  Ala’ Qadi is the second vice chair of the Coalition of Racialized Workers at Ontario Public Service Employee Union (OPSEU). He is also a steward of Algonquin College faculty union and one of the coordinators of Labour 4 Palestine, Ottawa Chapter.  To learn about and donate to Labour for Palestine’s defense fund, please click here.  Ala’ is the former second vice president of Algonquin College Faculty Union, OPSEU Local 415. He has been active in union movements and social justice advocacy in Ottawa and Ontario for the last seven years and has been involved in organizing with unions and student movements throughout his life – in Palestine, Canada and the United States.   If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

On Tuesday, June 25, more than 300 people rallied outside SickKids Hospital in Toronto to call on the employer to end their decades-long pension holiday. Today, Leonora Foster, patient service aid and president of the CUPE local at the hospital joins rabble labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga to talk about the need for a new pension plan for SickKids employees.  Leonora Foster is a patient service aid at SickKids Hospital and a union steward for CUPE 2816. She has been working at SickKids for 36 years. After decades of backbreaking labour, Foster says she wants to secure a decent pension plan for herself and her co-workers to escape the clutches of poverty in her sunset years.  To read the full story from Calugay-Casuga, click here. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, we feature a segment from our most recent Off the Hill political panel. This month, our theme was ‘Off the Hill: Pride in Canada – The fight continues.’  Our panel featured  NDP MP Blake Desjarlais; rabble columnist Charlotte Dalwood; podcaster Shawn Dearn; professor Fritz Pino; and activist Martine Roy.  About our guests MP Blake Desjarlais (he/him) was born in ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton) and raised on the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement. Prior to his election as the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach, Desjarlais was a community activist and national director of the Métis Settlements General Council. Desjarlais made history in September 2021 when he was the first openly Two-Spirit person ever elected to the House of Commons and the first Indigenous representative from Edmonton. Charlotte Dalwood (she/they) is a Student-At-Law at Prison & Police Law in Calgary, AB, and an incoming Master of Laws student at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. She holds a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale University and is a monthly columnist on legal and 2SLGBTQ+ issues for rabble.ca. Their first book, Until At Dawn We Wake: Gender, Madness, Theology is forthcoming from Quoir in 2025. Fritz Pino is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Regina. Her work focuses on queer and trans philosophies and theories; racialized LGBTQ immigrant communities; decolonial approaches to social work research; and more. Her work aims to create culturally-grounded interventions and approaches by centering the cultural knowledge and practices of marginalized groups and communities. Martine Roy serves as the regional director for 2SLGBTQ+ Business Development in Québec & Eastern Canada for TD Bank and is committed to bridging the gap between the 2SLGBTQ+ community and the workplace. In the past, Roy served as a member of the board of directors of Pride at Work Canada for 10 years and served as president of Fondation Émergence until 2015. In 2017, she was awarded the Medal of the National Assembly of Quebec, and in 2023, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada for her tireless efforts as a leader, activist and advocate for diversity, inclusion and equity in Canada's 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Shawn Dearn is an award-winning podcaster, broadcaster and strategic communications executive. He is co-founder at Montreal-based social impact entertainment firm, Secret Agents, and Shawn is the host of Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast. Shawn spent the last two years researching and conducting interviews for an eight-part documentary series about Canada's LGBT Purge, which is now streaming everywhere you get your podcasts.   Check out the entire panel on rabbleTV or rabble’s YouTube channel! If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

This week on rabble radio, rabble editor Nick Seebruch joins Josh Bizjak, executive director of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation, to talk about the history of the organization and current research projects and initiatives.  Josh Bizjak was the founding director of development at the Broadbent Institute until joining the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation in January 2021, as the executive director. In his past role, he was instrumental in the Broadbent Institute's financial success and growth over the past decade. In 2018, Bizjak was senior advisor to the national director of Canada’s New Democratic Party under the leadership of Jagmeet Singh, and served in this position until 2021.  To learn more about how the DCL partners with rabble, be sure to check out the Jack Layton Journalism for Change Fellowship page on rabble.ca. And, to discover the current research projects and initiatives of the DCL, be sure to visit douglascoldwelllayton.ca/.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

It’s June, listeners! And in Canada and the US, June marks the start of Pride Season. Pride is when 2SLGBTQIA+ communities and allies gather in solidarity to celebrate queer identity and visibility, to commemorate the history of resistance to discrimination and violence, and to come together to fight current issues facing queer people.  This week on rabble radio, we’re re-releasing an episode from 2019 where Victoria Fenner sits down with Lyla Miklos, a queer activist from Hamilton, Ontario to talk about the city’s record of hate crimes and what other small communities in Canada can learn from Hamilton.  Continue the conversation on Pride in Canada by joining us for Off the Hill this month! Guests include rabble columnist Charlotte Dalwood and assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work, Fritz Pino. Hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. Register today to save your spot for our panel on Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.

Under the Rachel Notley NDP government in Alberta in 2015, and in response to public outcry over excessive compensation and benefits for public sector senior executives, the Public Sector Compensation Transparency Act (PSCTA) was introduced. With the Act came “sunshine lists” which outlined the compensation of all public sector workers whose earnings exceeded a certain threshold. In a blogpost by the Parkland Institute, Jason Foster explains the act and lists were originally created in hopes that disclosing names, salaries, and benefits would “curb tendencies toward financial excess by senior executives.”  He continues: “Whether it has worked as intended is an open question. What is clear is that it is something of a blunt tool.” And this blunt tool may not be the best solution.  This week on rabble radio, rabble labour reporter Kiah Lucero joins Foster to discuss the design flaws and shortcomings of the Public Sector Compensation Transparency Act and sunshine lists in Alberta.  About our guests  Jason Foster is the director of Parkland Institute and an associate professor of human resources and labour relations at Athabasca University. He is the author of Gigs, Hustles, & Temps (2023) and Defying Expectations: The Case of UFCW Local 401 (2018), as well as co-author of Health and Safety in Canadian Workplaces (2016). His research interests include workplace injury, union renewal, labour and employment policy, and migrant workers in Canada. Foster is committed to sharing research to as broad an audience as possible, so that it might contribute to policy change and making people’s lives better. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Dr. Chandni Desai, an expert in settler colonialism and Palestine studies, joins Dr. Muhannad Ayyash, a policy analyst and sociologist focusing on Palestinian social movements. They discuss the chilling concept of scholasticide, detailing how the destruction of educational institutions in Gaza parallels broader systemic genocide. The conversation emphasizes education's pivotal role in resistance and identity, underscores the importance of global solidarity, and addresses the devastating future impacts on Palestinian youth and culture amid ongoing conflict.

This week on rabble radio, we feature a segment from our most recent Off the Hill political panel. This month, our theme was ‘Off the Hill: The myths and realities of Canada’s labour shortage’  Our panel featured MP Matthew Green, economist Jim Stanford, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour Laura Walton and researcher and policy analyst at the CCPA, Véronique Sioufi.  About our guests MP Matthew Green was first elected Member of Parliament for Hamilton Centre in 2019 and re-elected in 2021. Previously, he served for the 2014-2018 term as the Ward 3 Councillor, and first person of colour to be elected to Hamilton City Council. Green is NDP Critic for  Employment and Workforce Development; Labour; Ethics; and Deputy Critic for Public Services and Procurement.  Laura Walton is the President of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), Canada’s largest provincial labour federation. The OFL represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario. Laura previously served as the President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), which represents over 55,000 education workers across the province. In 2022, Laura led an historic strike that won unprecedented gains for OSCBU members and that led to the defeat of Bill 28, the provincial government’s landmark anti-labour legislation. Jim Stanford is an economist and the director of the Centre for Future Work, a labour economics research institute with operations in Canada and Australia. Véronique Sioufi is the racial and socio-economic equity researcher and policy analyst at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives BC.  Check out the entire panel on rabbleTV or rabble’s YouTube channel!  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

It’s Asian Heritage Month in Canada – and this month, we’re very excited to bring you a two-part discussion on the history of Asian labour in Canada.  This week’s episode is a continuation from last week’s conversation in which rabble labour reporter Kiah Lucero, and Patricia Chong and Karine Ng from the Ontario and BC branches of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance discussed the history of the Alliance; key moments of Asian labour in Canada; and how racism, systemic discrimination, and “othering” still shows up in Canada today.  Today, we continue that discussion and dig into the concept of a “model minority,” what it means to be an immigrant on stolen land, and how all racial justice fights are intertwined.  About our guests  The Asian Canadian Labour Alliance (ACLA) is a national organization that represents the voice of Asian Canadian trade union members, Asian Canadian workers and the Asian community at large. Through educational events, organizing and strike support, the ACLA hopes to establish a wide network of labour and community activists in Canada. Patricia Chong holds a MA in Labour Studies from McMaster University and a Masters in Labour Policies and Globalisation from the Global Labour University (Germany). She is a short documentary film maker and a member of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance Ontario Chapter. She has worked as an organizer for both public and private sector unions and has successfully unionized workers in Ontario, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and the Yukon. 吳珏穎 Karine Ng (she/her) is an immigrant-settler on Turtle Island, a spore blown across the Pacific from then British colonized Hong Kong, with ancestral roots in what is known today as China. Her work is anchored in education, spanning across diverse ages and socio-cultural settings in the ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and the Tseil-Waututh people and elsewhere.  For additional information on the organizations mentioned please visit:  ACLA Ontario  Canadian Sikh Heritage  Challenging Racist “British Columbia”: 150 Years and Counting Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC Chinese Canadian Museum Coalition of Black Trade Unionists  For reading and watching materials:  Addressing Anti-Asian Racism: A Resource for Educators A Resource for Educators White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver Toronto Solidarity Rally Against Anti-Asian Racism (2021)  More about Emmie Tsumura, the artist who worked on the Asian Canadian Labour History banners Asian Heritage Month designs Follow her on Instagram here  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.