rabble radio

This week on rabble radio, labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Mahendra Pandey. Mahendra shares his experience as a former migrant worker in Saudi Arabia, as well as his work organizing migrant workers today. About our guest  Mahendra Pandey is the senior manager of forced labor and human trafficking at Humanity United. Through this role, he focuses on the human trafficking in labor migration portfolio. Before getting involved in advocacy work, Pandey worked in Saudi Arabia as a migrant worker and experienced first-hand the poor working conditions that many Nepali migrant workers face.  While in Saudi Arabia, he developed a Nepali migrant rights network, Pravasi Nepali Coordination Committee (PNCC). Pandey holds a master’s degree in digital media and storytelling from American University at Washington D.C. and recently completed a leadership organizing and action course at Harvard University.  To learn more about Humanity United, visit this link.  If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube 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. 

Nick Seebruch sits down with Joyce Arthur, founder and executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada to talk about belief-based denial of care and the state of abortion rights in Canada. About our guest  Joyce Arthur is the founder and executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.  The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) is a broad-based national feminist organization consisting of groups and individuals who support ARCC’s vision and mandate. It recognizes and respects the cultural and political diversity of our country and its provinces and territories, works to represent as many women and communities as possible, and operates in both official languages.  ARCC acts as a “voice for choice.” Its primary mandate is to undertake political and educational work on reproductive rights and health issues. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube 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. 

Being an activist brings an emotional burden.  The issues we deal with are intense, difficult and sometimes without any immediate solution. And often, we try to deal with these issues through logically planning a strategy and communicating issues using words. It’s an intellectual process, but with a lot of underlying emotional baggage. Elisa Lee has some thoughts about how to get under the intellect to connect with ourselves and people in our communities on a deeper level. She, and many other people involved in grief work, think that it’s important to deal with the full range of emotions ranging from anger and fear to hope and joy. Today on rabble radio, we’re re-releasing an episode from May 2020, in which former rabble radio host Victoria Fenner sat down with Elisa Lee to talk about climate grief and how activists can better take care of themselves. This interview was originally a part of rabble’s series on Climate Hope in the Time of the Pandemic. To listen to the original episode, please click here.  About our guest  For the past 15 years, Elisa Lee has been promoting personal development in collaboration with nature as a specialist teacher in ecological education, a self-care facilitator and a rite of passage guide. She holds a masters degree in environmental education with a focus on women’s rites of passage and is the founder of Fire & Flower, a rite of passage organization for girls.  Lee’s current activism focuses on community grief rituals and nature-based rites of passage for girls and adults. A big part of that sense of being is getting beyond the intellectual processes which help us explain the world to ourselves and others, but does not get to the root of our reactions to the complex issues that we all face in these difficult times. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube 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.

In January last year, rabble’s parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg shared a piece calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh to revive the idea of electoral reform for Canada – and on the podcast, he joined Réal Lavergne, former president of Fair Vote Canada, to dissect Canada’s current voting system and discuss how a fairer way to vote might be accomplished in the future.   Today, we’re revisiting the topic of proportional representation and electoral reform in Canada.  Next year is an election year in Canada, and with a decline in popularity for current Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and with far-right extremism on the rise (and apparently influencing certain Conservative leaders across the country), many Canadians are already wondering how they might cast their vote.  Joining us on rabble radio this week is Ted Cragg, a spokesperson for Fair Vote Canada.  Ted Cragg has been involved with Fair Vote Canada since 2009, during the British Columbia referendum on electoral reform of that year. He previously served as president of the organization's national capital region chapter. He currently lives in Saint-Léonard-d'Aston, Québec, a province showing promising signs of being the first to adopt proportional representation in Canada. Fair Vote Canada seeks broad, multi-partisan support to embody in new legislation the basic principle of democratic representative government and ultimate safeguard of a free society: the right of each citizen to equal treatment under election laws and equal representation in legislatures. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube 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 July 8, workers at the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa (CASO) walked off the job after contract negotiations broke down with their employer over issues of funding and a strained workforce for essential child care services. On Tuesday OPSEU/SEFPO, the union representing CASO, took to X (formally Twitter) to announce a tentative agreement had been reached with their employer.  "Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa workers, members of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454, reached a tentative agreement last night after braving 24 days on strike. Further details to follow once the ratification vote concludes this afternoon – solidarity!" On Wednesday, it was announced the deal had been ratified. However, as Michele Thorn, president of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454 and adoption worker at CASO, says: the fight is far from over. Michele Thorn has worked at the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa since 1995 and was a child protection worker for 20 years. She is currently working as an adoption worker. She has been the president of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 454 since 2017 and has now been on the bargaining team six times since 2009. If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube 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 April 17, 2024 a pro-Palestine protest encampment was built at Columbia University where students called on their school to disclose and divest their investments in companies linked to Israel and its war on Gaza. This inspired a movement in universities across North America –and the globe– for students to create their own on-campus encampments.  After months of peaceful protest, the encampments at UofT, McGill, UOttawa have now been dismantled, but the pressure for divestment continues.  Today on rabble radio, freelance reporter Stephen Wentzell sits down with journalist and activist Desmond Cole to outline the misconceptions some had about the student encampments and what responsible reporting for Palestine looks like. Desmond Cole is a journalist, radio host, and activist. His debut book, The Skin We’re In, won the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. It was also named a best book of 2020 by The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC, Quill & Quire, and Indigo. Cole’s writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Walrus, and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He lives in Toronto. Stephen Wentzell is a journalist based in New York City covering politics, social issues, and the criminal legal system. A former national politics reporter at rabble.ca, Stephen has also worked at publications including CTV Atlantic and CityNews Halifax. In 2023, Stephen began studying at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, where he is concentrating in local accountability journalism, as well as health and science reporting. When he's not working, Stephen can be found snuggling with his cat Benson and watching the latest episode of the Real Housewives. 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, Nick Seebruch sits down with Deblekha Guin, the executive director of Access to Media Education Society. The two discuss the work the organization does to educate and empower youth through storytelling, artistic collaboration and peer facilitation.  In 1996, Deblekha (she/her) founded Access to Media Education Society (AMES), a non-profit that supports directly impacted youth in making and sharing personally and socially transformative digital stories. Since AMES's emergence Guin has co-visioned and coordinated 50+ distinct participatory media and digital arts production programs that have engaged over 2000 youth from equity-deserving communities in the creation of 500+ videos, animations and digital works.  Guin was recognized for her extensive BIPOC-centred, intergenerational and intersectional creative community-building work through an Intercultural Trust Award at the BC Multiculturalism and Anti-racism Awards in 2020. To learn more about Access to Media Education Society please 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, 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.