Local 514

Nashwa Lina Khan of Habibti Please joins Local 514 host Kalden Dhatsenpa to unpack the recent visit of the Swedish royal couple. They were not here to inaugurate a new Ikea but instead to lobby on behalf of the infamous Swedish defence giant Saab. Tune in to learn more about this shady company and how they want to set up base in Montreal.

Shi Tao Zhang joins host Kalden Dhatsenpa on Local 514 to talk about Chinatown community organizing in Montréal. The neighborhood has a long history of fighting gentrification and racism and unfortunately not much has changed. Shi Tao Zhang details the organizing done by the Resistance Chinatown Mobilization project and their multi-pronged campaign fighting for social justice in the last Chinatown...

Local 514 host Kalden Dhatsenpa is joined by regular guest, Katia Lo Innes to help viewers and listeners familiarize themselves with the different options available to them at the ballot box for the 2025 Montréal municipal elections. With new parties, and new mayoral hopefuls what is there to know before casting a vote November 2nd? Tune in to learn more about the different parties vying for your...

Sergio Da Silva is one of  Transition Montréal’s star candidates this municipal election. Host Kalden Dhatsenpa sits down with the city councillor candidate for Saint-Jacques to discuss nightlight, expropriation, and some tweets of his that have bothered right-wingers. Listen now to hear the full conversation.

On this episode of Local 514, host Kalden Dhatsenpa speaks to Projet MTL ‘s candidate Logan Littlefield who is running to become borough councillor in the Champlain—L’Île-des-Soeurs district of Verdun. Logan Littlefield is a landscape architect with a vision for Verdun’s future. Can he defend the Projet administration? Tune in to find out.

In this episode of Local 514, host Kalden Dhatsenpa and filmmaker and professor Nicolas Renaud discusses the afterlives of Quebec’s Bill 97, a controversial forestry law prioritizing industrial access over conservation and Indigenous rights. Despite being removed off the table Dhatsenpa and Renaud reflect on land defenders, ecological collapse, and the colonial logic of “Crown land.” Renaud critiq...

In this episode of Metropolis , host Kalden Dhatsenpa speaks with Ted Rutland , associate professor at Concordia University, about the resurgence of racist narratives linking immigration and crime in Quebec politics. Following Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s recent comments tying demographic change to rising crime, Rutland traces the long history of such fearmongering in politica...

Montreal’s housing crisis is frequently characterized by simplistic villains and quick solutions. Today’s episode of METROPOLIS, Host Kalden Dhatsenpa is joined by Montréal-based urban planning researcher and housing policy analyst Gavin Armitage-Ackerman to debunk some of the most persistent misconceptions and assumptions of the housing crisis. To set the scene, asking rents in montreal have surg...

On this episode of  Metropolis , host Kalden Dhatsenpa interviews Rose, a housing rights organizer with the Comité de Logement de La Petite-Patrie, about a practical new resource she co-authored:  “How to Investigate Your Landlord.“ The guide aims to equip tenants with the tools to research landlords before signing leases, empowering them to recognize potential red flags and avoid harmful situatio...

In this episode of Metropolis , host Kalden Dhatsenpa sits down with journalist Perle-Merode to explore the experiences of the Congolese diaspora in Montreal and the ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The conversation centers around Réseau Mayele, a grassroots community organization founded to empower Congolese youth, bridge generational gaps, and...

On this episode of Metropolis, we cover some significant developments, including Québec’sQuébec’s controversial Bill 97, Carney’s Bill C-2, and the anti-immigrant sentiment in Montreal, as well as the major strike by STM maintenance workers. Today, host Kalden Dhatsenpa is joined by guest host Nashwa Lina Khan, a community educator and cultural commentator on Habibti Please, a Substack and podcast...

On today’s instalment of Metropolis, host Kalden Dhatsenpa speaks to CUTV video journalist, Aude Simon, about the murder of Abisay Cruz by Montréal police and specifically how it’s been affecting community workers. Aude begins the segment with a clip of her interview with community worker Stephanie Germain. Stephanie shares the profound challenges of building trust with youth in Montreal’s predomi...

In this interview, Ivory from QPIRG McGill discusses the McGill university’s recent move to threaten the organization’s student funding unless QPIRG McGill severs ties with the Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) group. McGill has issued a formal notice of default on QPIRG’s Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), claiming that QPIRG has violated university policies by maintaining an association w...

Host Kalden Dhatsenpa is joined by returning guest and Executive Director of CUTV, Dru Oja Jay. This episode unpacks six major developments shaping Quebec’s political and social climate. First up, Quebec’s new language regulations under Bill 96, now in effect, require French to occupy more space on commercial signage. This has sparked trade friction with the U.S.. Kalden and Dru untangle the long...

With their Montréal book launch approaching, video journalist Kalden Dhatsenpa sits down with Montreal authors Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan to discuss the book they have co-authored, The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back the Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists. The work examines a certain subsection of the population. Environmentalists. Specifically, the ones whose activism lies...

It's been a week since the Canadian federal elections. The dust is settling. The Liberals have clawed their way back into governing despite having been down in the polls at the beginning of the year. How did Montréalers vote? How did the parties fare? and what is next for the metropolis given this new federal context. Dru Oja Jay and host Kalden Dhatsenpa analyze the results by looking at some key...

CUTV attended the Housing Justice Convergence in Montreal for its latest Metropolis episode, covering an event that brought together over 200 participants to address Canada’s housing crisis. Organized by SEIZE, the convergence aimed to unite tenant unions, developers of alternatives, policy experts, funders, and housing advocacy groups to share grassroots perspectives and encourage nationwide coll...

Amidst multiple leadership races across Canadian politics, Montreal's ruling municipal party, Projet MTL, is on the precipice of choosing its next leader. Five candidates believe they are fit to replace Valerie Plante, the party's leader since 2016. Who are they? What are they promising? What could the next era of municipal politics look like in Montreal? Host Kalden Dhatsenpa chats with Dru Oja J...

The title of this week's episode is the central question posed by PhD candidate, Concordia public scholar, and tree scientist Alex Pace at “Montréal: 2050: A Climate Haven?” In this week’s episode of Metropolis host Kalden Rangdröl Dhatsenpa speaks with Alex Pace to uncover what exactly is a “climate haven”, Montréal’s performance in achieving its climate targets, and the ways he hopes his eve...

In 1996, at the National Defence University of the United States, Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade developed a military doctrine known as "shock and awe." This strategy relies on overwhelming force and disproportionate displays of power to break an enemy’s will to resist. Organizer, author, and former Amazon employee Mostafa Henaway argues that Amazon has employed a similar tactic in i...

On this episode of Metropolis, host Kalden Rangdröl Dhatsenpa speaks with public health nurse and community organizer Sasha Dyck about the current illnesses spreading around Montréal, the struggles of ongoing vaccination drives since COVID-19, and local politics in the neighbourhood of Parc-Ex. Kalden Dhatsenpa – Local Journalism Initiative Sasha Dyck works as a public nurse in the Montréal neighb...

On today's episode of Metropolis, we discuss what kind of policies we expect from a Pierre Poilievre led government. Host Kalden Dhatsenpa, Dru Oja Jay and new journalist and filmmaker Katherine Ottawa-Nequado discuss the policy expectations of a conservative government. Filmmaker Katherine Ottawa-Nequado discusses the policy expectations regarding immigration, housing, media, and indigenous i...

Metropolis Wraps Up 2024: A Year in Review As December arrives, Metropolis closes the year with its final episode for 2024. Host Kalden Dhatsenpa revisits the biggest stories shaping Montréal over the past year, joined by regular contributor Dru Oja Jay, publisher at The Breach and executive director of CUTV. Together, they reflect on pivotal events that defined the city’s landscape. Tragedy at th...

Welcome back to Metropolis! In this episode, host Kalden Dhatsenpa sits down with Felix Fuchs, a returning guest, labour expert, and professor, to discuss the current labour disputes affecting Montreal. Their conversation dives into recent labour developments, focusing on strikes at Canada Post and broader issues surrounding public services and workers’ rights. Fuchs reflected on last December’s C...

On today’s episode of Metropolis, host Kalden Dhatsenpa speaks to Duha Elmardi, a Sudanese activist who is a core member of the Sudan Solidarity Collective, about the underreported conflict in Sudan which at the time of writing is the largest displacement crisis in the world with over 14 million displaced. Since April 2023, two military forces, The SAF and RSF have been warring in Sudan. This conf...