On the final episode of the season, the Commons team digs into the rise of the fringe right in Canada. Journalist Evan Balgord has been covering organizations like the Proud Boys, Soldiers of Odin, and the Three Percenters for the better part of the past year. He joins us to discuss the ongoing street protests and what's driving these groups' discontent.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're thrilled to welcome legendary broadcast journalist Amy Goodman. Her program, Democracy Now!, was one of the few non-Indigenous media outlets to provide sustained coverage of the Standing Rock camps protesting the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. With a pro-pipeline president in the White House and a government in Ottawa that's shown a willingness to green-light our own projects, Goodman weighs in on what we can expect going forward. Also, British Columbians and, well, the British, are both coming to grips with minority governments. And nobody seems entirely sure how they're supposed to work. Philippe Lagassé, Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University provides some much-needed clarity.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The dust has settled, and the Conservative Party of Canada has elected Andrew Scheer -- an anti-choice, anti-gay-marriage, anti-refugee, anti-M103 candidate -- as their new leader. As the election results trickled in, the Commons team were joined by Conservative consultant Ginny Movat and about 50 loyal listeners at Toronto's venerable Monarch Tavern to dissect the various campaigns.   Proceeds from this event were donated to Newcomer Women's Services -- a Toronto-based not-for-profit that supports new immigrants.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Appropriation is the buzzword in the news this week, as a misguided editorial was followed by a white elite up in arms on social media. In the end, two prominent magazine editors were gone from their posts, and the debate about the under-representation of non-white voices in Canadian media got significant traction. But Commons is a show about politics, so we asked CBC columnist and head of TIFF Cinematheque Jesse Wente how appropriation is represented in the Canadian political sphere. On the left coast, the Green Party is playing spoiler for the first time in Canadian history in the wake of the BC election, the Conservative Party is getting ready to choose their new leader, and Commons is throwing a Party to watch and analyze those results live. When somebody says 'traditional values,' everybody drink!Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the rollout of a basic income trial. The program is to be introduced in three Ontario communities this summer, including Thunder Bay. This is widely seen as compensation for living in Thunder Bay. B.C. Premier Christy Clark gives a voter a succinct primer on democracy, while Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil trips on his shoelaces and accidentally drops his writ. In our feature interview, Ashley speaks with Bloodwatch.org founder and Executive Director Kat Lanteigne about her long fight for justice for victims of Canada's tainted blood scandal, and why she believes the federal government and some provinces are inclined to roll back some of the regulations put in place following the Krever Report.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Commons team unpacks the just-released specifics of the Trudeau government's plan to legalize cannabis. And after twenty minutes or so, all they can think about is snacks. Seriously.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Liberals, according to Conservative MP Scott Reid, are trying to "ram through whatever the fuck they want." In other, vaguely sexually-themed Conservative news, Brad Trost isn't down with the "the whole gay thing," while k.d. lang asks if Jason Kenney might be secretly fond of it. Kellie Leitch and Senator Lynn Beyak? Just crapping on Muslims and Indigenous peoples again, respectively. Nothing sexy there.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having passed a second reading, the controversial bill C-23 stands to give U.S. border guards greater authority to reject, detain, or search Canadians and permanent residents trying to cross the border. Speaking of the border, a significant chunk of our shared border with the United States comes in the form of four of the five Great Lakes (bonus points if you can name the one entirely contained within one of the two countries). President Donald Trump's newly-unveiled budget threatens to decimate the funding of the Environmental Protection Agency and, by extension, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. And the ugly battle for the federal Conservative leadership reached blobfish levels of unattractiveness as accusations of widespread voter fraud reached a fever pitch over the weekend.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the city of Thunder Bay, ON, agreed to implement the recommendations of an inquest that looked into the deaths of seven Indigenous students. This, despite the fact that no one from city council appeared to have attended said inquest. The case of a Halifax-area cab driver accused of sexually assaulting a heavily intoxicated female passenger was dismissed by a provincial court judge after he claimed that, "clearly, a drunk can consent." Finally, the Globe & Mail dug deep into a brewing cash-for-access scandal in British Columbia that could have significant ramifications in that province's upcoming election.Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to CANADALAND Commons! New hosts Hadiya Roderique, Ryan McMahon, and Ashley Csanady spend their first episode looking into the mostly manufactured controversy behind M103 - a motion to denounce Islamophobia and racism and a push for the Canadian government to set up a committee to look into the rise of discrimination in the country. Also, refugees from countries on U.S. President Donald Trump's list of banned countries are taking the extraordinary step of trying to cross the border into Manitoba. On foot. In February. What happens to them when they get here and are they just going to shipped back to the States? Finally, the Sixties Scoop was likely something you didn't learn about in your high school history class. But the courts last week awarded the now-grown Indigenous children taken from their families a $1.3-billion settlement. Support COMMONS: http://commonspodcast.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.