rabble radio

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: How whiteness impacts federal policy.’  Our panel featured poet and activist El Jones; social responsibility and equity communications consultant Beisan Zubi; and assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work, Fritz Pino. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.  About our guests El Jones is a poet, author, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies (2022) and Live from the Afrikan Resistance! (2014). Beisan Zubi is a Canadian of Palestinian heritage who was born in Toronto, raised in Ottawa and has called Waterloo Region home for eight years. She works as a social responsibility and equity communications consultant with local nonprofits and recently founded a nonprofit that works to provide support and mentoring for Palestinian youth in Canada. 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. 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 month, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that an Act Respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Children, Youth, and Families (Bill C-92), which Parliament passed in 2019, is constitutional and not beyond Parliament’s jurisdiction as was claimed by the attorney general of Quebec in an appeal from 2022.  Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution affirms and recognizes Indigenous peoples’ right to self-govern. Bill C-92 additionally affirmed that the right to self-govern included “jurisdiction in relation to child and family services,” meaning Indigenous communities have sole authority over the care of their children. Here to break that down is rabble’s Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow Madison Edward-Wright and Naiomi Metallic, who worked as counsel to the intervenor, the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. How might this decision impact future fights for Indigenous sovereignty, in regard to Land Back, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit Peoples and more?  Naiomi Metallic is from the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation located on the Gaspé Coast of Quebec, known as the Gespegewagi district of Mi’kma’ki. She is an associate professor of law, the chancellor's chair in Aboriginal law and policy, and Aboriginal law certificate coordinator at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. Through teaching, writing, and speaking, Metallic outlines the issues facing Indigenous peoples in Canada, and how the law can be a tool for reconciliation and improving the lives of Indigenous peoples.  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, rabble labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Cathy Holtslander, the director of research and policy for the National Farmers Union (NFU). The two discuss the meaning of seed sovereignty and how the NFU are taking action through the Farmers’ Seed Act.    Cathy Holtslander is the director of research and policy for the National Farmers Union. She has been advocating for sustainable and just farm policy since the early 1990s, including as a member of the committee that led a class action suit against Monsanto and Bayer to stop GMO wheat and make them liable for GMO canola contamination of organic farms. Since 2008, she and her partner have operated a certified organic grain farm near Mont Nebo, Saskatchewan. To read Calugay-Casuga’s full analysis of what’s at stake, 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’re sharing a clip from our most recent Courage My Friends podcast series, hosted on Needs No Introduction. In the last four years, the world's five richest men have doubled their wealth, while five billion people have become poorer. And where it may take over two hundred years to end poverty, we may see our first trillionaire within only ten years. Are inequality, oligarchy and monopoly power the new normal? Or is there still time to reclaim our states for people, planet, and the common good?  This week, Lauren Ravon and Michèle Biss join host of the Courage My Friends podcast series Resh Budhu to talk about Oxfam’s latest report, Inequality, Inc. and the unprecedented rise in global inequality.  Lauren Ravon is the executive director of Oxfam Canada and Michèle Biss is national director of the National Right to Housing Network.  To listen to the full episode of Inequality Inc: Corporate power vs. public action, please tune into Needs No Introduction. Needs No Introduction is available on rabble.ca, Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The Courage My Friends podcast series is presented by rabble.ca and the Tommy Douglas Institute, with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation. 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, our Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow, Madison Edward-Wright sits down with Ted Rutland.  Rutland is an author and associate professor at Concordia University. His latest book, which he co-authored with Maxime Aurélien, is Out to Defend Ourselves which shares the history of Montreal’s first street gang.  Today on the podcast, Rutland and Edward-Wright discuss Rutland’s research work on anti-Black racism and policing in Canada — specifically, in Montreal.  Check out these resources:  Defundpolice.org By Robyn Maynard: Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present  By Andrea Ritchie and Mariame Kaba: No More Police: A Case for Abolition 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: The influence of U.S. politics in Canada.’  In this panel, our guests dissected the explosive world of U.S. politics and discussed the many ways our neighbours south of the border influence Canada.  Our panel featured MP Charlie Angus; senior researcher at the CCPA Stuart Trew; and rabble editor Nick Seebruch. 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’re re-releasing an episode from 2020 in which former rabble radio host Victoria Fenner sat down with Jean Leggett, a game developer from Oakville, ON ​to talk about why diversity and ethical storytelling needs to be encouraged in the gaming world. Jean Leggett is the CEO of One More Story Games.  Note: In 2019, Leggett was a recipient of a scholarship from the International Game Developers Association Next Gen Leaders Program. The goal of the scholarship is to bring diversity into the gaming world by supporting participants with personal and professional development opportunities. This is the scholarship she is referencing in the interview.  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. 

And just like that, another year has come and gone.  It’s become a bit of a tradition here at rabble radio to share a “best of” collection for the last episode of the year – so, if you’ll indulge us, for the third year in a row, let’s revisit some of our favourite episodes of 2023. Let’s dive right in.  2023 at a glance…   Let’s start in March, when rabble labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga was joined by Ethel Tungohan to discuss the expectations and assumption of care work in Canada. There is an “invisibilization” of care work in Canada, particularly for women and racialized communities; and the pair talk about how a complete breakdown of colonized thinking, learning and working in Canada must take place in order for true labour equity to take place. In April, Stephen Wentzell sat down with Dr. Brandon Doucet about his new book, About Canada: Dental Care and the challenges of Canada’s dental care system. In this year’s federal budget, the Liberal government announced a $13-billion plan to expand dental care to families earning less than $90,000 a year, fulfilling the government’s commitment to the New Democrats. This is, of course, a major step forward for dental care in Canada. But is it enough? Or do we also need to rethink the structure of dental care in Canada as a whole?  In June, Olivia Chow made history by becoming the third woman and first ever racialized mayor in Toronto’s history. Ahead of her being elected, national politics reporter Stephen Wentzell sat down with Chow to talk about her plans on making Toronto a more “caring” city.  And in June, Stephen Wentzell sits down with Red Buffalo Nova Weipert, an Ojibwe Two-Spirit, transgender artist, filmmaker, and storyteller to talk about how their multi-layered Indigenous identity informs their creative and professional work. Affordable housing and the housing crisis has been a hot topic this year on rabble. In August, Georgia Kelly sat down with Marva Burnett, national president of ACORN Canada. The two discuss the ways ACORN Canada is committed to achieving livable and affordable housing for all Canadians. The conversation on housing continued with ACORN Canada in our October political panel, Off the Hill: What to do about our affordable housing crisis.  And finally, in November this year, labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Jade Ho, a labour studies instructor at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. The two discussed what is possible for university students when they are given opportunities to learn about –and get involved with– social justice and labour issues in their own communities. Did we miss a favourite interview of yours from 2023? Let us know in the comments below!  Thank you for listening to rabble radio  Our show would not be possible without listeners like you. So thank you!  From all of us here at rabble, we want to wish you and your communities a very merry holiday season and a safe and happy new year!  If you’re in the giving mood and would like to support our show today, please visit rabble.ca/donate. 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. Or, if you have feedback for the show, get in touch anytime at editor@rabble.ca.

This week on rabble radio, Nick Seebruch sits down with Dr. Anabela Bonada, manager and research associate at the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation at the University of Waterloo. The two talk about COP28, climate anxiety and community action.  Dr. Bonada brings extensive experience and education to the field of climate science.  At the Intact Centre, Dr. Bonada leads and supports research projects including a national wildfire guide, infographic development and formulating recommendations for scaling up nature-based solutions to lower risk of wildfire, extreme heat and flooding, at the home, community, and landscape levels. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Guelph, where her research focused on the effect that climate change has on tree growth, which gave her insights on the repercussions of extreme events, such as drought, on forest ecosystems. Dr. Bonada earned her B.Sc. in environmental science from the University of Waterloo and holds a diploma in ecosystem management from Fleming College. At the University of Waterloo, she serves as the staff representative on the president’s advisory committee on environmental sustainability. Additionally, Dr. Bonada is the vice chair on the board of directors of the Canadian Association of Professionals in Climate Change.  Don’t miss next week’s episode, when we’ll be reviewing highlights from our top rabble radio episodes of the year! Will your favourite episode make it on our list? Tune in next week to find out.  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. 

Continuing our coverage from this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, this week Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with Meseret Haileyesus to talk about an often overlooked aspect of gender-based violence: financial and economic abuse.  Meseret Haileyesus is an economic justice and health equity advocate, thought leader, businesswoman, philanthropist, change-maker, and entrepreneur. She is a founder of the Canadian Centre for Women’s Empowerment, with a keen interest in addressing systemic barriers and other challenges that prevent women and girls from fully realizing their human rights. Haileyesus works to influence public policy decisions that support domestic violence survivors to make a successful transition to economic independence. Missed last week’s episode? Catch up 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.