From Embers

This episode features a talk entitled Autonomously and With Conviction: A M é tis Refusal of State-Led Reconciliation given on October 12, 2018 at the 13th annual Decolonizing Thanksgiving Dinner in Guelph, Ontario on traditional Neutral/Chonnonton, Anishinabec, and Haudenosaunee territory. It also includes a short interview with the presenter, where we discuss questions about Canada's project of...

An interview with the Punch Up Collective , a small collective of anarchist organizers based in Ottawa, Ontario.  We talk about living in the capital of Canada, forming collectives, formality and process, and strategies for sustaining movements in the long term.  We also discuss their recent workshop about organizing collectives.   Links: Full curriculum for the collectives workshop (the link will...

Organizers with Alliance Against Displacement share stories about the Schoolhouse Squat as well as DisconTent City and a few other tent cities on unceded Coast Salish territories. We talk about the context of the housing crisis, how homeless indigenous and working class people are organizing to meet their immediate needs for shelter, safety, and community, building a revolutionary political force...

A conversation with podcaster and anarchist organizer Aaron Lakoff about his new podcast Changing On The Fly .  We talk about sports and anarchy, the intersections between hockey and radical politics, and what to do about Canadian nationalism.

A few weeks ago the From Embers crew took a road trip out east for the Halifax Anarchist Bookfair and to visit friends and family. We had the opportunity to visit the Treaty Camp established by Mi'kmaq  people to protect the Shubenacadie River from an Alton Gas Natural Gas Project . I sat down with Dale Poulette who is one of the people holding down the camp on a daily basis. He cut his teeth at t...

Conversation with a former political prisoner in canada about her experiences in the federal system and her recently published prison memoir. We discuss changing prison conditions in the now-closed Prison for Women (P4W) in Kingston and Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, the importance of relationships with other women in prison, legal and political strategy following her arrest, the difficult...

An interview with a member of a Montreal-based collective that is researching and raising awareness about police crackdowns in gay cruising areas. Links: Cruise Control collective page (facebook link) Ultra Red audio activists, Los Angeles, USA  

We return to the rising wave of renters struggles across the province of Ontario. On May 1st, tenants in the Stoney Creek Towers in Hamilton declared a rent strike, demanding that their corporate landlord drop an above-guideline rent increase of almost 10% over three years, and that the property managers perform numerous needed overdue repairs to their units. I first interviewed Jason of the Hamil...

This episode first aired in May 2018 and featured two interviews with tenant organizers in Ontario. The first interview is with Jason from the Hamilton Tenants Solidarity Network about the East Hamilton Rent Strike launched on May 1st. The second interview is with Adam from the Limestone Solidarity Network in Kingston.

Conversations about prison organizing in Canada - interview with a Halifax organizer about the Burnside Jail protest and conversation about Prisoner Justice Day organizing in Nova Scotia and Ontario Burnside prisoners' statement: https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house/the-prisoners-at-the-burnside-jail-are-engaged-in-a-non-violent-protest-here-is-their-statement/ Info on the US prison strik...

85 years ago this week, in the midst of another long hot summer, a series of anti-semitic and xenophobic provocations in Toronto escalated into a full blown riot at Christie Pits. Tonight we bring you two interviews to mark the 85th anniversary of the Christie Pits Riot in Toronto. The first is with Cyril Levitt, co-author of the book The Riot at Christie Pits . The 2nd edition is being released t...

An interview with a comrade who recently published a critique of Max Stirner's The Ego And Its Own.  We discuss anarchist morality and ethics, why we hate the state, whether anarchism means building a world with no masters or slaves, egoism, individualism, killing the cop inside your head, and whether dead philosophers matter. 

An interview with an anti-fascist based in Montreal. We discuss the history of the Quebec far right dating back to the 1930s, anti-fascist resistance in 1990s Montreal, and the contemporary context, including an important victory against La Meute on July 1, 2018. Links: Montreal Antifasciste Montreal Counter-Information

I talk to Rosa, a friend and anarchist person of colour living in Montreal, about racism, identity politics, identity-based organizing and projects she's involved with. Thanks to Rosa for the music selections!

A post-Canada Day reflection on resistance to colonial celebrations.  Interviews with two Indigenous organizers, one about "Canada Day" here in Kingston, Ontario, and another on "Australia Day," also known as Invasion Day, which meets massive protests across Australia each January. Links: Background on the resistance to colonial birthday parties in Kingston. Idle No More Kingston (facebook link!)...

An hour-long investigation into efforts in recent years to resist the Trans Mountain Pipeline and its world. Our first interview is with an anarchist who participated in an anti-pipeline camp on Burnaby Mountain in 2014. Our second interview is with Kanahus Manuel, a Secwepemc woman currently involved in the struggle against the pipeline which runs through her territory. Links: Wreck: A Vancouver...

A conversation with a friend who recently gave an "introduction to anarchism" workshop and is also writing an article called "Making Our Relationships More Free." He's putting forward an anarchism that seeks a collective, relational freedom rather than an individual one. Topics include: - how to frame anarchism to people who don't understand it yet. - a forthcoming anthology about the place of ind...

Stories from the Québec anti-G7 mobilizations, June 7-9. Two interviews, one with a RRAG7 (Réseau de Résistance Anti-G7) organizer in Québec and one with an Ontario anarchist previously charged with conspiracy for organizing against the Toronto G20 summit in 2010. Music by Keny Arkana.

Two interviews with people involved in supporting the thousands of refugees currently crossing irregularly into Canada from the United States through Southern Quebec.  Topics include migrant justice, border policy, countering the far right, and solidarity. For more information on Solidarity Across Borders: http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org For more information on Bridges Not Borders: http://w...

An interview with anarchist and surrealist author Ron Sakolsky. We discuss his life, free jazz, academia, the intersections of surrealism and anarchy, mutual acquiescence , maroon communities, and his day to day life on Denman Island, BC. Ron's latest book "In Search of the Masterless Men of Newfoundland" is available from Little Black Cart . This interview was recorded at the 2018 Montreal Anarch...

Stories about dealing with repression and an interview about conspiracy charges, infiltration, and movement defense

Reflections from May Day events in different places across so-called Canada and short interviews with organizers from Halifax, Montreal and Kitchener

Conversation about organizing in a rural context with an anarchist living in Prince Edward County, Ontario.