Blueprints of Disruption

Don't forget to get our Rabble Rants on their own feed now: https://podfollow.com/rabble-rants With the federal Conservatives in full campaigning mode, we thought we'd take a moment to highlight some of the more dangerous aspects of Pierre Poilievre. Even before he was leader of the CPC, his ambitions were clear, and so were his politics. Anti-democratic, anti-Indigenous, hostile. Now his tactics,...

What if we told you there is NO housing crisis? The author of The Tenant Class , Ricardo Tranjan joins hosts Santiago Helou Quintero and Jessa McLean to talk about the housing market, its purpose and the use of policies that don't challenge the narrative of shelter commodification and land ownership. Tranjan presents the landlord / tenant divide as a more useful class analysis for our times. He en...

The Death of Aaron Bushnell His last words were "Free Palestine". 25 year old Aaron Bushnell livestreamed what he called an extreme form of protest. In front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, the US Airman and self described anarchist doused himself in an accelerant and lit himself on fire. In these dark times, many folks may be feeling desperate and looking for ways to make a bigger impact. O...

Pharmacare announcement from the NDP After weeks of leaked deadline ultimatums, Jagmeet Singh announced he'd reached a deal with the Liberals on what he is calling universal pharmacare. Should people in Canada celebrate this as a first step? Our hosts suggest we hold our applause for the moment. We go over details of what is included in the deal, what isn't - and exactly what the status of the leg...

Desmond Cole , journalist, organizer, activist and author of The Skin We're In , provides a thoughtful analysis on where the Defund the Police movement is right now. It is hard to hear at times, but incredibly constructive. It is more of a discussion of where we need to go than lamenting on past political choices. Although, we do start off by asking Desmond how he feels about Toronto Mayor Olivia...

Publicly Funded Catholic Schools in Canada Only three provinces still publicly fund Catholic Schools...why? After yet another Catholic school board in Ontario refuses to fly the Pride flag, our hosts discuss the merits of fully dismantling the Catholic school system. ________________ All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to suppor...

Topic 1: Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital becomes a major distraction to Canadian Media Rather than talking about the hospitals in Gaza under attack, Canadian media chose to focus on the erroneous statements of Canadian politicians to again smear peaceful pro-Palestinian protestors. Host Santiago Helou Quintero was at the Hands Off Rally in Toronto, and has much to say on how the narrative was stolen...

Journalist Jack Ross joins hosts Santiago Helou Quintero and Jessa McLean to discuss his new investigative piece for In These Times , As Fentanyl Overdoses Soar, LA City Crews Toss State-Funded Narcan from Encampments . _________ All of our content is free - made possible by the generous sponsorships of our Patrons. If you would like to support us: Patreon Follow us on Instagram Resources: Jack Ro...

Topic 1: Canadian political elites worried? Relentless pressure from activists was too much for the BC NDP to handle, forcing MLA Selina Robinson to lose her position in the Cabinet. This has politicians and their inner circles closing ranks around and pushing back against the more aggressive tactics being deployed by grassroots activists. What has them so worried? Topic 2: Nicaragua Put Complicit...

Topic 1: BC NDP MLA Selina Robinson's recent remarks on Palestine One could have thought that what MP Robinson has said and tweeted the last 120 days would have landed her in hot water, or perhaps removed from caucus. As of recording - only a couple of NDP elected have said anything about it. Why do those upholding these openly Anti-Palestinian views get to operate with such impunity? Our hosts br...

The episodes starts off with the story of Skigh Johnson, a Toronto resident who taped handwritten posters onto her local Starbucks to protest their support of genocide and their attack on workers who voiced pro-Palestinian views. What happens next is almost unbelievable - except it isn't and its how many activists are being targeted and made examples of. What happened to Skigh helped spark positiv...

Topic 1: Electoral Reform Special Guest Matt Kerch , a political commentator from British Columbia, joins hosts Jessa McLean and Santiago Helou Quintero to dish on the potential benefits and prospects of electoral reform here in Canada. Topic 2: Immigration and Housing We help debunk the xenophobic rhetoric being amplified that blames immigration numbers for the housing crisis we're in. National m...

The word ceasefire may not have been included in the provisional ruling issued against Israel by the International Court of Justice on Friday, January 26th, but it was a ruling against them nonetheless. With demands to end mass killings, bodily and mental harm, as well as ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid - the ICJ has essentially told Israel to end hostilities against the Palestinian people...

In our second interview with Labour activist Anna Lippman , we get to hear all about her recent experience volunteering as a protective presence in the West Bank, Palestine. With villages under constant harassment and attacks by both the IDF and Israeli settlers, a call went out to allies to travel to the West Bank, stay with families and use their presence as a deterrent for more unchecked coloni...

An interview with Labour for Palestine representative Anna Lippman on Answering the Call from Palestinian workers to disarm Israel and Free Palestine. She speaks tothe responsibility we have in Canada and to the power of workers outside AND inside weapons manufacturers to end the siege on Gaza. We hear a bit about the work Labour for Palestine was doing before October 7th and what happened when ur...

With activists and journalists being accosted and arrested across Canada last week - we thought it was time to reinforce that all cops are bastards (and tools of Capital) always. And that we can not, for a moment, make space for police responses to people trying to hold the powerful accountable. We cover: Journalist Brandi Morin arrested covering an encampment eviction in Edmonton, and the use of...

Topic 1: Algoma International Students Strike to Win After hundreds of international students at Algoma University in Ontario received a failing grade for an online course, they got no explanation. For most of them, the course is mandatory and it wasn't the first time they had been failed without knowing why. As international students, their status is precarious and depends on completing school. T...

Topic 1: Lebanon and Israel Just as the siege on Gaza didn't start on October 7th, Israel's attacks on Lebanon didn't start with the recent assassination of a Hamas leader in Beirut. Special guest, Lebanese educator and activist Moe Ramadan joins Host Jessa McLean to give a debrief on the history of Israeli occupation and aggression in Lebanon and an update on the current situation. The similariti...

Lawyer, journalist and advocate, Dimitri Lascaris joins hosts Jessa McLean and Santiago Helou to talk about holding Canadian politicians accountable for their role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He and his comrades have been disrupting fundraisers, asking hard questions at press conference, interrupting other political functions to get attention on the issue of Gaza. We ask him why they...

Topic 1: F*ck Landlords In Toronto, a notoriously bad landlord attempts an unlawful eviction and the York-South Weston Tenants Union shows them what people power looks like. An occupation, legal appeals and amazing acts of solidarity ensured the tenant wasn't put out on the street - and we all learned a great lesson in organizing our communities. Evictions are happening right across Canada. Police...

Who is there left to vote for? What good does it do? Many people are struggling with these questions after witnessing the NDP trend to the political centre and attack activists within its own ranks. There is no political party in Canada that truly represents leftist values or that can be trusted to act in good faith. We've already made the case that the NDP does not deserve free labour from the ve...

It's here. It's been here for a while. Fascism is a dominant ideology in the West that requires us to be constantly resisting. The problem is, it's not always obvious in appearance. Fascism rarely presents itself through swastikas and tiki torches, though that, too, is on the rise. More often it is disguised as democratic and hides in plain view of the Overton window. The question is, how do we re...

Reporting on Genocidal Warfare Flooding tunnels with sea water, targeting hospitals and the bombing of safe zones. The latest updates from Gaza are horrific following the short lived humanitarian truce. The hosts examine some of these tactics, the Dahiya Doctrine of disproportionate violence and the mentality it takes to carry these acts out. An analysis of Canadian media seems to show a shift hap...

Topic: Ontario's Ministry of Dangerous Labour Host Jessa McLean on Doug Ford's latest attack on construction workers. He's ended mandatory coroner's inquests into deaths on construction sites - the most dangerous place in the Province to work. By looking at his history with the industry and the inventions made on behalf of employers (developers), it becomes clear Doug Ford and the Ontario Progress...

We interview Patricia Chartier and Sandra Hughes of the Ghost Gurney Project in Ontario. Their goal is to save public healthcare from Doug Ford. They do this by using social media to tell the stories, bust the myths and deliver the facts - in hopes that people will wake up and push back. They share their process of gathering people's health stories and getting them seen on social media and how the...