rabble radio

This week on rabble radio, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with executive director of the Institute for Change Leaders, Mike Perry. The two discuss the training the ICL offers organizers, activists and campaigners as well as the importance of building relationships and storytelling when organizing.  A lawyer and social worker by profession, Mike Perry is the Institute for Change Leader’s executive director. An experienced teacher and skilled organizer, Mike has served as legal advisor to the Metis National Council; director of communications for the National Capital Region YMCA-YWCA's Capital Campaign; and executive director of the Kawartha Lakes Family Health Team. In 2022, Mike was elected councilor for Ward 3 in the City of Kawartha Lakes.  Mike is also an alumnus of the public leadership program at Harvard, where he is currently a teaching fellow for the Leading Change: Leadership, Organizing, and Action course, and served on Institute for Change Leader’s board of directors prior to his appointment as executive director in 2023. 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, Dr. Lisa Everitt joins Kiah Lucero to talk about the emotional labour and burnout that teachers and education assistants in Canada are facing. The two also discuss the “HEARTcare” plan – a research project aimed at improving educator well-being.  About our guest and the HEARTcare project Dr. Lisa Everitt has worked as an executive staff officer with the Alberta Teachers Association since 2006. Everitt has held several roles at the association and has developed expertise in labour relations, employee benefits plans, educational research, and women in leadership.  Prior to joining the Association, Everitt taught high school mathematics in the Northwest Territories and Alberta. While her interest in compassion fatigue, emotional labour and educator burnout includes an academic perspective, it also has been informed by her work as a teacher working with vulnerable young people as well as her experience assisting teachers and school leaders struggling with mental emotional health.  Research conducted by the association over the course of the COVID19 pandemic revealed high levels of moral distress, symptoms of burnout, and compassion stress for Alberta teachers.  This session focuses on the findings of these studies and addresses HEARTcare planning, a guide based on collective compassion to plan for mental emotional wellness for teachers and school leaders. The HEARTcare plan was designed by Dr. Astrid Kendrick of the University of Calgary following an Alberta Teachers Association and Alberta School Employee Benefit Plan sponsored two year study that examined the consequences of providing emotional labour at work. 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, and ahead of International Transgender Day of Visibility this weekend, rabble’s Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow Madison Edward-Wright sits down with the former research director at JusticeTrans, Alexis.  The two discuss the reports, events and plans JusticeTrans is working on to help Two Spirit, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming communities in Canada.  About our guest and the JusticeTrans  Alexis is the former research director at JusticeTrans. They are a white settler of French and Scottish descent. They live and play in Nitaskinan, which is the occupied motherland of the Atikamekw Nehirowisiw First Nation. Alexis is non-binary, trans, queer, and multiply disabled. To learn more about JusticeTrans, visit their website here: https://justicetrans.org/.  Follow JusticeTrans online at:  https://www.instagram.com/justice.trans/  https://www.facebook.com/JusticeTrans  https://www.linkedin.com/company/justice-trans  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: We want gender equality and affirmative action, not lip service.’  Our panel featured social entrepreneur pk mutch and professor Nadia Abu-Zahra in discussion and analysis. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.  About our guests pk mutch is an award-winning sustainability/social entrepreneur and former C-suite publishing executive (McGraw Hill, Canada and John Wiley & Sons, NY), journalist, writer and educator who is deeply committed to creating an inclusive, just post growth economy by transforming entrepreneurship narratives, ecosystems, policy and education. mutch is also a columnist for rabble.ca and the former publisher of Liibseth Magazine.  Dr. Nadia Abu-Zahra (she/her) speaks five languages and has worked in multiple spaces of colonial and neocolonial conflict. She has collaborated on two books and over 30 other publications on freedom of movement, community mobilization, systematic oppression, and resistance. She held the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies from 2019 to 2023 at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. Dr. Abu-Zahra is an associate professor of International Development and Global Studies. 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 sits down with 2SLGBTQIA+ advocate Fae Johnstone to talk about the recent attempted political moves across provinces to take away trans rights – and how organizations like Momentum are fighting back. Fae Johnstone, MSW, is the executive director of Wisdom2Action, a progressive consulting firm and social enterprise, as well as the (part-time) executive director of the Society of Queer Momentum — a 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy nonprofit. She is a prominent advocate for queer and trans rights and a recurring voice in Canadian news on 2SLGBTQIA+ issues. She was the Grand Marshal of the Ottawa Capital Pride Parade in 2023, and recipient of the Young 2SLGBTQIA+ Entrepreneur of the Year award from Canada’s 2SLGBTQIA+ Chamber of Commerce, also in 2023.  To learn more Momentum and the work they do, visit: https://www.momentumcanada.net/ 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’s Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow sits down with Sarah Jama, Independent MPP for Hamilton Centre. The two discuss Jama’s removal from the NDP caucus due to her “early” calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and how Jama’s activism influences her politics.   A bit about our guest  Sarah Jama is an Independent Member of Provincial Parliament for Hamilton Centre. Jama’s community work spans over a decade in Ontario and beyond, and includes running intersectional leadership, education, and civic engagement programming for youth, starting grassroots organizations for different social inequities, including food insecurity programming, and championing anti-oppression initiatives in her communities. Prior to being elected, Jama was a sessional faculty member at McMaster University, and the executive director at the Disability Justice Network of Ontario. A well-known changemaker, Jama amplifies and creates spaces for young people by promoting skill building, knowledge sharing, and introductions to community organizing. As a Member of Provincial Parliament, Sarah Jama brings her grassroots organizing experience and deeply rooted connections in the community to Queen’s Park to provide platforms for disenfranchised folks who are often dismissed. She encourages them to share their experiences, suggestions, and grievances on a provincial level. 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, Kiah Lucero sits down with Brandi Morin to talk about her coverage of two top stories from the past year. The first: Imperial Oil's massive Kearl Mine tailings leak in Treaty 8 Territory; and the second: the brutal displacement of an Indigenous homeless camp in Edmonton – and her ensuing arrest.  Brandi Morin is an award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist from Treaty 6 territory in Alberta. For the last 10 years Brandi has specialized in sharing Indigenous stories, some of which helped spark change and reconciliation in Canada’s political, cultural and social landscapes. Her debut memoir Our Voice of Fire: A Memoir of a Warrior Rising became a national bestseller within days of its August 2022 release. 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: 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.