Unpacking the News

On a very special Valentine's Day episode, our panel convenes to investigate the roots of a political phenomenon: what's behind Andrew Scheer's absolutely wild, nearly animal, magnetism? Why has the xenophobic dog whistle of modern conservatism become louder under his watch? And is this a new normal in federal Canadian politics? Plus: why the NDP's fight to hold on to Tom Mulcair's old seat in the...

Is the media narrative of an NDP in crisis over-hyped? Why is the Globe and Mail editorial board concern trolling Jagmeet Singh? And does the party need a sharp Left turn if it wants to make gains in the 2019 federal election? On episode 77 of Unpacking the News ex-journalist Kai Nagata, Comms Director at BC citizen's action network Dogwood, joins host Andre Goulet to assess where the New Democrat...

Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland was in good company this week at the Davos summit as she shared a stage with far-right Brazilian president Jair Bolsanaro to defend and promote the soft coup in Venezuela. Writer and academic Christo Aivalis (Canadian Dimension, The Washington Post, Ricochet) joins host Andre Goulet to explore why an official endorsement of regime change in the southern h...

In a comprehensive coast-to-coast retrospective, Emily Leedham (Rank and File Prairie Edition), James Wilt (News You Can Use) and Stokely Wilt-Leedham (Canadian Cat Quarterly) join host Andre Goulet for an end-of-year review of 2018. Subscribe to Rank and File: Prairie Edition and News You Can Use on iTunes, GooglePlay or wherever you get your podcasts. Support the show at patreon.com/unpackingthe...

It’s a special seasonal 2018 year-end episode of Unpacking the News as * Ricochet West Coast editor Erin Seatter in Vancouver * The Alberta Advantage’s Kate Jacobson in Calgary * Radio Free Winnipeg’s Scott Price * Family Compact/Cable Street's Geoff Sharpe in Toronto * 49th Parahell’s Rob Roussseau and * Ricochet Francais' Katia Gaid in Montreal join host Andre Goulet for an investigation into th...

After a fourth straight weekend of violent protests in the French capital, 89,000 police have been deployed around the country to restore order. What role has the detached neoliberalism of President Emannuel Macron played in setting off Europe's latest political and social crisis? In this conversation Paris-based Ricochet and National Observer contributor Clothilde Goujard joins host Andre Goulet...

On a very spooky episode of Unpacking the Tomb, host Andre Ghoul-et welcomes 'Scary' Scott Price of the long-running Canadian history and media discourse show 'Radio Free Winnipeg' (co-hosted w/ 'Gruesome' Greg Gallinger) to talk about the little-known and much-neglected 'Gateway to the West'. On which morbidly minor issue did the mayoral election revolve? What are the most macabre and major issue...

The monthly DIY event 'Squad Laffs' has become a Montreal underground comedy institution, creating a safe space to work out material on stage for little-heard comedic voices and perspectives. Co-founder/showrunner James Brown joins host Andre Goulet for a conversation on the political and the personal of indie stand-up comedy. Plus: what's life like in that most opaque of Canadian political instit...

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have been affected by marijuana prohibition laws, but the Trudeau government has been slow to coordinate Amnesty legislation with the legalization of Cannabis. On episode 70 of 'Unpacking the News', investigative journalist Tracy Giesz-Ramsay joins host Andre Goulet to discuss Day Zero of Legalization. Plus: society pathologizes addiction without understanding wh...

Borderless is a Michigan-based media collective dedicated to investigative journalism and community discourse. On this episode, founder Joel Campbell welcomes Unpacking the News host Andre Goulet on The Lamp Post podcast to discuss the crucial role that independent media plays in amplifying progressive perspectives. Plus: Debunking the Justin Trudeau mystique for American liberals. Race, class and...

Alexa Conradi helped to shape the early years of Québec Solidaire in her role as president of the far-left party from 2006 to 2009. She was also a crucial voice of opposition to the Parti Québécois’ Islamophobic Charter of Values as the head of the Québec Women’s Federation, a position she held from 2009 to 2015. On this episode she joins host Andre Goulet to explain why we're right to be wary of...

The Quebec NDP are back and contesting their first election since 1994. But what kind of challenges are the party and its candidates facing as the province heads to the polls on October 1st? In this conversation host Andre Goulet speaks with Apostolia Petropoulos, the NPDQ candidate for the ethnically diverse riding of Laurier-Dorion, about the triumphs and travails of life on the campaign trail i...

Even as this October marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Parti Québécois, the 2018 provincial election finds the sovereignist party fighting for its political life. With support for independence at an all-time low, is PQ leader Jean-François Lisée connecting with voters on the campaign trail? Or is the party in the midst of an existential crisis? Earlier this month journalist Chris C...

What are the mainstream political parties in Quebec? What are the electoral options for the Left in the province? And what role will the issues of sovereignty, political participation and the role of religion in public life play in this election? Ricochet correspondent Ruby Irene Pratka and a round-table panel of guests join host Andre Goulet to try to make sense of the issues, the personalities a...

John Fea is a professor of American History at Pennsylvania’s Messiah College and the author of this summer’s ‘Believe Me: the Evangelical Road to Trump’, a discerning, critical take on current American politics. On this episode, he joins host Andre Goulet to explore how the embrace of Donald Trump is the logical outcome of a long-standing evangelical approach to public life defined by the politic...

A mass eviction is being carried out in a south Ottawa neighbourhood and multi-billion dollar real estate holdings conglomerate Timbercreek Asset Management has given more than 400 residents of Herongate until September 30th to vacate homes many of them have been in for decades. In this conversation, organizer Ikram Dahir of the Herongate Tenant Coalition joins host Andre Goulet to explain how pri...

Montreal-based journalist Jon Milton’s work focuses on grassroots social movements and the mechanics of institutional power. In this conversation, he joins host Andre Goulet to explore the links between law enforcement and the white supremacist movement in Quebec. Plus, a look back at a history of collusion between the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the violent National Front white pow...

On this episode: Fresh from the birthplace of the CCF, The Calgary-based Alberta Advantage podcast provides bi-weekly commentary and analysis on local and provincial politics from a left perspective. In this conversation, co-host and producer Kate Jacobson joins Andre Goulet to discuss how the Alberta NDP have given the province a political education and why the party shouldn't be counted out in t...

Always an aloof and imperial domestic politician, Stephen Harper's ideologically-driven post-politics path is bringing the 59-year old Prime Minister into the orbit of some very interesting organizations including violent militant group The People’s Mujahedin of Iran and Zionist NGO The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. On this episode, Brad Goertz (ep28's 'Realpolitik and Big Oil:...

On this episode: Emilee Gilpin is the National Observer's lead journalist and storyteller on coverage of Indigenous issues and the 2017 Journalist for Human Rights' "Emerging Indigenous Intern" at The Tyee. In this conversation, she joins host Andre Goulet to discuss the limitations of Western journalistic standards, why the Canadian Press Club's all-white male portrait gallery is super creepy and...

On this episode: writer and podcast host ('49th Parahell') Rob Rousseau's Twitter game, which combines the best of a combative and Extremely Online socialist Left with absurdist comedy, is baffling and infuriating all the right people. One recent Tweet, featured on a morning segment of 'Fox and Friends', the Daily Caller and basically everywhere in the American right-wing echo chamber, has made hi...

On this episode: Are credible, existential threats to democracy and the rule of law ascendant? What should we make of what went down at the G-7 summit in Charlevoix? And is it time for the Canadian government to fundamentally rethink its relationship with the United States? Guest Jasmin Mujanovic, political scientist and analyst of southeast European and international affairs and the author of the...

On this episode: an archaic first-past-the-post electoral system hands Doug Ford's PCs a landslide majority, Andrea Horwath's NDP registers a historic level of support and Kathleen Wynn's Liberal Party suffers a political implosion. Guest Christo Aivalis, author of 'The Constant Liberal: Pierre Trudeau, Organized Labour and the Canadian Social Democratic Left' and a Labour and Political History po...

On this episode, guest Tim McSorley of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group explains how the National Security Act of 2017 (Bill C-59) creates the legal conditions for mass surveillance, legalizes cyberattacks by Canada’s Communications Security Establishment and allows for secret trials (with secret evidence) for anyone on the ‘no fly list’. Plus: Tim provides a brief history of the...

In a week that saw an escalation of tactics from racist group Atalante at Vice's Montréal office, Savannah Stewart, Coordinating Editor at Concordia University's The Link magazine joins host Andre Goulet to discuss Canadian and American media normalization of the far-right since 2016. Plus: the Commission Scolaire de Montréal caves to an online hate campaign, cancelling a community event for young...