PressProgress Sources

Send us a note! Capital gains – what are they and why is everyone talking about them? This year’s federal budget, released on April 16, is rolling out changes to the way capital gains are taxed in order to make wealthy Canadians “pay their fair share.” According to Finance Canada, these changes are targeted at the wealthiest of the wealthy – Canada’s top 0.13%, a group of approximately 40,000 Cana...

Send us a note! Author and journalist Jeremy Appel joins host Stephen Magusiak to discuss (almost) all things Jason Kenney: his quest for power, his influence in building the Conservative Party of Canada, his undoing, and, most recently, the conclusion of a massive 5-year RCMP investigation surrounding his campaign to take over Alberta's United Conservatives. Once a key figure in building Ste...

Send us a note! You might know Ed Broadbent as the former leader of Canada's federal NDP. But Broadbent was more than just a political party leader -- he also spent a lifetime seeking social and democratic change outside partisan politics in academia and civil society, both in Canada and around the world. On this episode of Sources, PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun is joined by Luke Savage, a...

Send us a note! Canada’s spy agency is investigating the nomination of an Ontario Conservative MP, according to evidence from a recent investigation by PressProgress Associate Editor Rumneek Johal.  Questions surround the nomination of MP Arpan Khanna, who was allegedly favored by the party establishment with ties to figures including Jason Kenney, Stephen Harper and Pierre Pollievre. Rumneek join...

Send us a note! Francis Hébert-Bernier, a reporter with Quebec’s independent news outlet Pivot , speaks about the historic public sector strikes currently underway in the province. These strikes are part of the Common Front movement where multiple public sector unions are bargaining at once with Premier Francois Legault's government. These are the largest strikes in the history of Canada and...

Send us a note! Dr. Roberta Lexier joins Stephen Magusiak to discuss her recent OpEd in Medicine Hat News, where, as a Jewish Canadian, she strongly condemned the violence and oppression happening to Palestinians in Gaza. In this episode we explore the narratives that dominate mainstream media and politics in Canada. Support the show

Send us a note! Social media companies are enforcing an Indian Law that censors social media content critical of the Indian government and its ongoing crackdown in the Punjab state. Canadian Sikhs have found themselves in the crosshairs of this aggressive campaign of censorship, harassment, and intimidation.  The campaign has escalated on Facebook since the assassination of BC Sikh leader Hardeep...

Send us a note! Dark money networks from out of province have set their sights on Manitoba. Emily Leedham joins Stephen Magusiak to discuss her investigative series into the Canada Growth Council, a registered third party advertiser tied to Alberta and Saskatchewan conservatives, oil lobbyists, and an obscure religious sect known as the Plymouth Brethren. Support the show

Send us a note! Far-right groups are planning a convoy to Toronto to “Save the Children,” and it’s already spinning out of control.  PressProgress Editor Luke Lebrun joins Host Stephen Magusiak to talk about the convoy movement’s latest conspiratorial obsession , and what they have planned for the fall if they can get along enough to organize it.  Support the show

Send us a note! Researcher Kurt Phillips with Canadian Anti-Hate Network joins Stephen Magusiak for a look at the recent wave of anti-LGBTQ2SA+ protests and hate crimes happening in Alberta and across Canada. From acts of vandalism, mobbing town councils and school board meetings, and chemtrail conspiracy theories, we take a look at what its about and where its coming from. Support the show

Send us a note! PressProgress Ontario Reporter Mitchell Thompson joins Stephen Magusiak to talk about the Toronto mayoral race, and one unlikely candidate who stands out in the crowded field of conservative hopefuls. Though still a long shot, former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey has seen some momentum in the polls with his right wing populist positions and some big endorsements from right wi...

Send us a note! As funding for charter schools in Alberta increases rapidly, public schools are under attack.  Rumneek Johal is joined by Wing Li with Support Our Students to discuss the rapid expansion of Charter schools in Alberta under conservative governments, and how they almost exclusively cater to elites using public funds, at the expense of everyday Albertans. Support the show

Send us a note! Stephen Magusiak is joined by journalist Jeremy Appel to discuss what we know so far about the right wing group that appeared on the Alberta political landscape after the Coutts border blockade.  Did Take Back Alberta come out of nowhere? We look at who their supporters are, who leads them, and what they’re trying to accomplish. Support the show

Send us a note! The PressProgress team is joined by investigative reporter Sam Harper with Pivot to talk about the common threads and the common funders behind the right-wing networks that stretch across Canada. We talk conspiracy theories, astroturf campaigns, Alberta dark money in Quebec, secret societies, and where the right-wing think tanks like The Fraser Institute fit into the bigger picture...

Send us a note! Today’s episode of Sources features an interview with Faiz Shakir, Executive Director of the labour news site More Perfect Union and Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign manager. More Perfect Union was founded in 2020 to tell working class stories through video journalism. In just a few years, More Perfect Union has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views. Pr...

Send us a note! How workers at an Amazon packing facility made history by unionizing, and lessons learned to pave the way forward, with Amazon Labour Union President Chris Smalls in his first trip to Canada. Support the show

Send us a note! We read Justice Roleau’s final report on the Emergencies Act Inquiry in its entirety so you don’t have to. Tune in to learn about the convoy’s origins on TikTok, the infighting among occupiers, as well as among Ottawa police, as well as some of the strange and surprising details buried in the Emergencies Act Inquiry’s final report.. PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun joins Stephen Ma...

Send us a note! International students are coming to Canada for their education and leaving in body bags. The government doesn’t seem to be tracking the issue.  Discussing the web of exploitation surrounding Indian international students who are dying at high rates across Canada from drug overdoses, suicides, and more with Jindi Singh, National Director Khalsa Aid Canada. Support the show

Send us a note! Following Doug Ford’s move to outsource 50% of Ontario surgeries to private, for-profit health facilities, PressProgress Ontario Reporter Mitchell Thompson joins Colleen Fuller for an in depth look at at the creep of for-profit healthcare across Canada.  Support the show

Send us a note! Is Canada going to have a Freedom Convoy 2.0 in 2023? First, the convoy organizers said a reunion was happening in Ottawa. But on Christmas morning, organizers had a surprise, announcing they had changed their minds and the convoy would be heading to Winnipeg. Then on New Year’s Eve, a top convoy organizer announced the whole convoy was cancelled. The next day, another organizer an...

Send us a note! On the final episode of the year, the PressProgress team looks back on memorable headlines of 2022 Rumneek Johal, Luke LeBrun, and Mitchell Thompson join Stephen Magusiak to talk about the freedom convoy, far right astroturf in Vancouver, Stephen Lecce’s fraternity days and more. Support the show

Send us a note! A social technology company is working with police across Canada to create reports that justify the need for a new approach to the “social safety net.” Helpseeker, a Calgary-based ‘social impact’ firm, has been hired to produce reports for police in Edmonton, Vancouver and Ottawa, raising questions about the involvement of police in the delivery of social services. Many of the repo...

Send us a note! It’s an environmental problem that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars to tackle, and successive Alberta governments have lacked the political will to address it. Hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells exist across the province, many of which are inactive and at risk of abandonment. For decades the Alberta Energy Regulator has allowed large producers to offload their clea...

Send us a note! Stephanie Carvin, a Carleton University international affairs professor and a former CSIS intelligence analyst, talks about the failure of police to anticipate the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ and how it was allowed to spiral out of control. Evidence and testimony show signs of intelligence failure, communication breakdowns, erratic leadership, and an “ insurrection from within ” Ottawa Polic...

Send us a note! Climate journalist Geoff Dembicki discusses his latest book The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change. Drawing from internal oil industry documents spanning decades, The Petroleum Papers examines how major players in the Alberta oilsands suppressed their own research about the climate crisis, and created the playbook to spread climate change d...