rabble radio

By now, we've all heard about the poor working conditions Amazon workers face globally. So, why then, are there only two unionized Amazon factories in North America?  Labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga talks to Félix Trudeau, the president of the first union to be certified at an Amazon warehouse in Canada, about his efforts unionizing his colleagues and what other Canadian workers can learn...

Well, it's official: Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States.  So… now what?  For those in and out of the States, the news comes as a bit of a shock. Despite the presidential race being a tight one, particularly over the past few weeks, there were those who held out hope that Kamala Harris and her "new way forward" was going to win out.  But no. Instead, the convicted felon wi...

Thomas et al v. Canada is a class action lawsuit which was filed in the Federal Court of Canada in 2020 on behalf of Black Canadians employed in the Public Service of Canada. The action seeks to address and dismantle the systemic racism and discrimination within the Public Service of Canada. Specifically, for Black individuals who applied for employment with the Public Service and were denied entr...

Last year, the big headline to come out of the COP28 conference held in Dubai, was the news that an agreement had been made amongst participating countries to transition away from fossil fuels.  With Canada being the fourth-largest oil producer in the world and the fifth-largest producer of natural gas, where does this leave us? And what are we expecting to see come out of the upcoming COP29 confe...

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: Catching up on Canadian and U.S. politics.'  Our panel featured  NDP MP Niki Ashton; rabble columnist and policy analyst Chuka Ejeckam; poet and activist El Jones; and rabble's own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg.   About our guests Niki Ashton is NDP Me...

Monday, October 7, 2024 marked the one year anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in Israel-Palestine, which was followed by Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.  Over the past year, activist organizations, groups and citizens worldwide have done their part to call for an end to this genocide. One such organization is Independent Jewish Voices (IJV).   Today, Louise Sm...

To tip or not to tip?  Tipping culture has become a large conversation in Canada over the past few years, as both customers and service workers across the country struggle to meet the demands of the cost-of-living crisis. Receiving tips to supplement a small paycheque becomes all the more necessary. Meanwhile, giving generous tips feels all the more harder.  So how would you react to knowing that...

This week, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Alistair Hepburn, executive director of ACTRA Toronto. The two discuss the do-not-work notice placed on Mr. Beast's Beast Games in Toronto and other actions ACTRA is taking to protect Canadian performers.  About our guests  Alistair Hepburn is the executive director of ACTRA Toronto, the largest branch of ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema,...

This week, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Off the Hill co-hosts to review how rabble's monthly panel series came to be and where we hope to go in the future.  About our guests  Robin Browne is Off the Hill's co-host. Robin is a communications professional and founder of the 613-819 Black Hub, living in Ottawa. His blog is The "True" North. Libby Davies is Off the Hill's co-host and aut...

This week on rabble radio, we share a clip from the first episode of the new season of the Courage My Friends podcast: Climate and the city: Are we ready? In this episode, host Resh Budhu sits down with former mayor of Toronto, David Miller to discuss the crucial role of cities in "fixing" the climate crisis and what we can learn in building sustainable and equitable urban communities. Miller and...

Earlier this month, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) launched a campaign this month highlighting how the fossil fuel industry in British Columbia is increasing healthcare system costs and reducing access to care. The campaign shared billboards and transit ads, held a press conference in front of Vancouver General Hospital and shared an open letter from over 300 doc...

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 l...

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 or...

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 intelle...

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...

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 So...

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...

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...

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. Lewi...

"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 Algon...

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 ser...

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 ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧ...

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 dir...

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...

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...