habibti please

In this bonus episode, Nashwa sits down with Hawa Y. Mire to discuss her decision to run for the position of NDP candidate for York South—Weston. The two talk about the York South—Weston community, the conditions affecting the region that inspired Hawa to run for a position as a party representative for YSW (and why she chose the NDP specifically), the lack of black and muslim women in Canadian politics, and how a background in organizing has informed her platform.

This episode is a companion piece to the recently unlocked Episode 4, wherein Hawa, Ryan and Nashwa talk about Canada’s complicated relationship with Somalis, the disastrous Me to We scandal, and so much more. Be sure to take a listen if you haven’t already!

Mutual Aid & Community Support:

For those who live in Toronto: if you would like to stand in solidarity with the thousands of unhoused Torontonians, you can participate in a protest outside of John Tory’s condominium this Sunday, February 28th from 10am-5pm at 248 Bloor Street West ~ Bloor Bedford Parkette. For more information, please visit this post detailing the event being held by the Encampment Support Network.

As mentioned before, the City of Toronto has filed legal action against Khaleel Seivwright, the Toronto tiny shelter builder. It is vital people push back by writing to their city councillors and showing solidarity with Khaleel as the City attempts to charge him for implementing a temporary measure to keep people alive this winter. You can see a statement from Khaleel here. If you live in Toronto please call, email, or tweet your elected officials to drop the charges against Khaleel for his tiny shelters, stop gap measures to keep unhoused people alive this winter. Every year, unhoused people die in the city and nothing changes, things seem to get worse. Khaleel not only helped give people tiny homes, he demonstrated the ways the community steps up and cares for each other in times of rising austerity and organized abandonment by elected officials. We hope more Toronto citizens call for charges to be dropped and are in solidarity with those who are fighting for housing in the city. 

Additionally, here are further resources for communities within Toronto facing the results of increased austerity:

* Encampment Support Network (ESN) is an ad-hoc, volunteer-run network supporting people living in encampments in 6 locations throughout Toronto. This includes ESN Parkdale, ESN Trinity Bellwoods, ESN Scadding Court, ESN Moss Park, ESN LNP and ESN Cherry Beach.

* RenovictionsTO is a volunteer-run organization that gives tenants the tools they need to organize and fight back against their landlords who are partaking in a renoviction. 

* Keep Your Rent is another vital organization that offers Toronto residents a litany of resources to combat rent evictions.

* Evictions Ontario is yet another great resource for evictions—it also specifically offers a tracker to see where evictions are taking place across the province.

* Disability Justice Network of Ontario is a collective that aims to build a just and accessible Ontario through the dissemination of knowledge regarding issues that people with disabilities face—they promote change through legislative action; also, they support community members through a community caremongering program.

Guest Information:

Guest of the week: Hawa Y. Mire

Hawa recently won the nomination to become the Federal NDP Candidate for York South-Weston. She is an amazing multi-talented individual who is presently the newest Executive Director of The Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action (FAFIA). Hawa is a critical writer and commentator who has been featured in Macleans, Briarpatch Magazine, Metro Morning, CBC, CTV, and Rabble among others. She is the co-editor of MAANDEEQ, a collective of young Somali-demics from diverse fields who write and podcast about the Somali territories and the Somali diaspora. 

In April 2015, she co-edited a special issue journal for the Canadian Council for Policy Alternatives’ Our Schools, Our Selves titled Constellations of Black Radical Imagining: Black Arts and Popular Education. As mentioned within the episode, she has published The Anti-Somali Feedback Loop with Briarpatch Magazine (2017) which provides extensive documentation of Somali experience in Canada over the past 25 years.

You can visit her website at https://www.hymire.ca,  you can find her on twitter @HYMire and follow the campaign online through #HawaForYSW

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano and Ali McKnight

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Nashwa sits down with Dr. Naheed Dosani, a palliative care physician and health justice activist who cares for homeless and vulnerably housed individuals. They speak about how Covid-19 is socially impacting different groups throughout Canada. Some topics they cover include vaccine hesitancy among some communities and how to combat it, and how Covid-19 has differentially impacted people throughout Canada based on social location. The two also discuss long-term care in Canada and current gaps in the framework. Dr. Dosani reminds us that it is indeed a privilege to #stayathome. They also discuss vaccine roll out. Despite precarious and dangerous working conditions for Canada’s migrant workers, they have no guaranteed access to the vaccine; we hope listeners become signatories of and share the Vaccines For All campaign to ensure full access to the vaccine regardless of immigration status. This episode features a number of resources that complement the conversation—please check them out below. 

Mutual Aid & Community Support:

This week, the City of Toronto has filed legal action against Khaleel Seivwright, the Toronto tiny shelter builder. It is vital people push back by writing to their city councillors and showing solidarity with Khaleel as the City attempts to charge him for implementing a temporary measure to keep people alive this winter. You can see a statement from Khaleel here. If you live in Toronto please call, email, or tweet your elected officials to drop the charges against Khaleel for his tiny shelters, stop gap measures to keep unhoused people alive this winter. Every year, unhoused people die in the city and nothing changes, things seem to get worse. Khaleel not only helped give people tiny homes, he demonstrated the ways the community steps up and cares for each other in times of rising austerity and organized abandonment by elected officials. We hope more Toronto citizens call for charges to be dropped and are in solidarity with those who are fighting for housing in the city. 

Additionally, here are further resources for communities within Toronto facing the results of increased austerity:

* RenovictionsTO is a volunteer-run organization that gives tenants the tools they need to organize and fight back against their landlords who are partaking in a renoviction. 

* Keep Your Rent is another vital organization that offers Toronto residents a litany of resources to combat rent evictions.

* Evictions Ontario is yet another great resource for evictions—it also specifically offers a tracker to see where evictions are taking place across the province.

* Disability Justice Network of Ontario is a collective that aims to build a just and accessible Ontario through the dissemination of knowledge regarding issues that people with disabilities face—they promote change through legislative action; also, they support community members through a community caremongering program.

Additional Resources:

Readings and resources that complement this episode: 

* Webinar: Panel on impact of changes to Medical Assistance in Dying on Black & Indigenous Communities an event supported by The Disability Justice Network of Ontario (DJNO), Inclusion Canada, Disabled Women's Network of Canada (DAWN Canada), Independent Living Canada, and the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society (BCANDS).

* Marginalized communities concerned about changes to assisted-dying laws by Adrian Ghobrial

* We Are Not the Virus a podcast by Encampment Support Network 

* Second wave for some, tsunami for others. Medical experts on why the Ontario government’s one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work by Dr. Suzanne Shoush, Semir Bulle, and Dr. Naheed Dosani

* Ontario's homeless 5 times more likely to die of COVID-19, study finds by Kate McGillivray 

* Metro Morning with Ismaila Alfa - Feb. 24, 2021: Tell him I love him: Jennifer Jewell says the tiny shelter that Khaleel Seivwright gave her was better than a shelter

* Tiny Shelter Builder Khaleel Seivwright Asks Toronto to Drop Legal Action Against Him by Becky Robertson

* Working in long-term care by day, sleeping in a shelter by night: The economic realities of life as a PSW by Elizabeth Payne 

* Ontario teenager's death sign of pandemic 'human rights catastrophe,' newcomer advocates say by Jeremiah Rodriguez

* Behind Closed Doors: Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19 by The Migrant Rights Network 

* 'People are being shown no mercy': Online evictions raise alarm in Ontario by Holly McKenzie-Sutter

* Toronto Must Defend People Experiencing Homelessness by Canadian Civil Liberties Association 

* COVID-19 hit federal prisons twice as hard in 2nd wave of pandemic, report says by Kathleen Harris 

* Doctors for Justice in LTC

* Doctors for Defunding the Police

Guest Information: 

Guest of the week: Naheed Dosani 

Dr. Naheed Dosani is a palliative care physician and health justice activist, he is presently on faculty at the University of Toronto and McMaster University. 

Find Naheed online! 

Instagram

TikTok

Twitter

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano and Ali McKnight

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Nashwa and Ryan chat with Laurel Collins, the NDP MP for Victoria, British Columbia. The three discuss the push for climate accountability, the possibility of a Canadian equivalent of the Green New Deal, the perpetual prolongement of water crises within Indigenous communities, and the question of whether or not degrowth is the only way we can save the environment. Other subjects touched upon in the episode include what it’s like to advocate for sex work in Parliament, the fallout of the Me to We scandal and the curious case of missing money, as well as the gendered impacts of the COVID pandemic. 

Mutual Aid Support:

East York 50

This week, we’d like to highlight a fundraiser for The East York 50: this fundraiser was set up to help support a group of 50 immigrant families slated to be evicted. Any donations would be deeply appreciated.

East York Tenant Union (Crescent Town + Goodwood Unions)

We’d like to also bring some attention to the East York Tenant Union, a group situated in Toronto currently fighting against COVID evictions. We highly recommend checking out this post, detailing the Valentine’s Day gift the Crescent Town tenants gave to their landlord, Pinedale Properties.

Note that tomorrow, Feb. 16th, 2021 at 9am is the Landlord and Tenant Board hearing for Crescent Town. You can show your support by simply joining the video call (with a muted microphone)—don’t hesitate to document what you see and/or make social media posts about the event.

Link to video call

Also note that the Landlord and Tenant Board meeting for Goodwood is on Thursday, Feb. 18th, 2021 at the same time and can be reached at the same link above, so please appear twice if you can!

Peoples’ Defence Toronto

Note that both the The East York 50 and the East York Tenant Union are supported by Peoples’ Defence Toronto. For more resources about the collective, visit the links below:

Twitter

Facebook

Linktree

Guest Information:

Guest of the week: Laurel Collins

Laurel Collins is a Canadian politician who was elected to represent the riding of Victoria in the House of Commons. She was elected in the 2019 Canadian federal election. Prior to her election in the House of Commons, she was a city councillor for Victoria City. Laurel is a community organizer and climate activist. She was an Instructor at the University of Victoria and a city councillor prior to being elected MP for Victoria.

Find Laurel online! 

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

Habibti Please is proud to be part of the Harbinger Media Network

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s exclusive features a casual but thoughtful conversation between Nashwa and Yasmin Nair. Enclosed is a preview, if you want to unlock the full episode you can by subscribing on Patreon or Substack. Together they chat about her article On Nostalgia, Sex Work, and the Dancing Girls of Lahore. They discuss how the courtesan has been and is viewed in Paksitan and how sex work is flattened in the neoliberalized versions of feminism here and elsewhere. They also discuss Armie Hammer and sex panic as well as the culture around how we discuss relationships (please note that this was recorded on January 15th before some additional information on the situation was disclosed—we clearly state in the episode we do not condone violence against women). The two also explore what feminism has become, who it has forgotten and question what we all long for. Yasmin also discusses helps us understand who is and was left behind in the fight for gay marriage. 

This episode features a short list of complementary readings on substack - we hope you check them out. 

Guest Information:

Guest of the week: Yasmin Nair

Yasmin Nair is a writer, academic, and activist currently based in Hyde Park, Chicago. She is, with Ryan Conrad, a co-founder of the radical editorial collective Against Equality and a member of the Chicago-based radical queer collective Gender JUST. She is currently working on her first book, Strange Love: How Social Justice Was Invented and Why It Needs to Die. Her work has been published in numerous publications and is linked to or found at www.yasminnair.com.

You can follow her on Twitter here.

Additional Resources:

Some readings that compliment this episode : 

* On Nostalgia, Sex Work, and the Dancing Girls of Lahore by Yasmin Nair

* Polyamory Is Gay Marriage for Straight People by Yasmin Nair

* Right to Work: Sex Workers in India Organize to Fight Discrimination by Sarita Santoshini

* BDSM Can Provide Provide Healing Experiences by Sofia Barrett-Ibarria

* “Kink Helped My Mental Health” The Healing Benefits Of BDSM by Yasmin Lajoie

* How do we understand sexual pleasure in this age of ‘consent’? by Heidi Matthews 

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

This week, Nashwa chats with Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association and author of the upcoming book Border and Rule, Harsha Walia. 

They unpack the insidious nature of Canada being framed as “better” than America when it comes to marginalized people. The conversation highlights the faultlines of Canada’s immigration system especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite precarious and dangerous working conditions for Canada’s migrant workers, they have no guaranteed access to the vaccine; we hope listeners become signatories of and share the Vaccines For All campaign to ensure full access to the vaccine regardless of immigration status. 

Nashwa and Harsha also touch on the NDP’s motion in the House of Commons to designate the Proud Boys a terrorist entity will and can actually harm marginalized communities. They also touch on one of Canada’s most popular exports, its grotesque Canadian models of migration. 

The two wrap up with a discussion of how in our small worlds we can do the things that the government/state will not. They want to find ways to rethink how to be with each other and this episode reminds listeners that we have a collective struggle, to recenter what we all long for, and what we all owe each other. Walia helps us rethink borders and an imagined Canada—we re-imagine what could be and the radical possibilities that await us when we fight for one another in a demilitarized world.

Guest Information:

Guest of the week: Harsha Walia 

Harsha Walia is the author of the upcoming book Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. She is also the award-winning author of Undoing Border Imperialism, co-author of Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration as well as Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Harsha has organized in migrant justice, anti-capitalist, feminist, abolitionist, and anti-imperialist movements for the past two decades. She has been involved in grassroots movements including No One Is Illegal, Defenders of the Land, and Women’s Memorial March. She is the past Project Coordinator of the Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and current Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association.

You can buy her first book Undoing Border Imperialism here. 

You can buy her highly anticipated second book Border and Rule, being released in February, here.

We highly recommend people check out her 2012 article in Briarpatch entitled Decolonizing Together. You can join Harsha and D.G. Kelley for the launch of her book on February 11th for a conversation on about global migration, racial capitalism, and the ascendent far right.

Additional Resources:

Some readings that compliment this episode : 

* We Must Dismantle The Security State, Not Expand It by Harsha Walia 

* Don’t Expand the War on Terror in the Name of Antiracism by Arun Kudnani and Jeanne Theoharis 

* Whiteness as Property by Cheryl I. Harris 

* What could a progressive alternative to the failed “war on terror” look like? by Arun Kudnani 

* Calling the Capitol riot ‘terrorism’ will only hurt communities of color by Diala Shamas and Tarek Z. Ismail

* Behind Closed Doors: Exposing Migrant Care Worker Exploitation During COVID-19 by The Migrant Rights Network 

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Nashwa sits down with two transit organizers to discuss the TTC. Austin Jafri of TTCriders and Jamaal Myers of Scarborough Transit Action share present issues with the TTC as well as some small victories; they also shed light on the ways they have organized to push back and ongoing issues with how transit is made and built in Toronto. This episode highlights the need for ongoing advocacy around transit in Toronto and why it is an integral struggle for working class people. The pandemic brings the fault lines to the foreground as we witness the disproportionate impacts of an overcrowded system with limited routes for specific neighborhoods and people. 

If you want to support and unlock full length Habibti Please exclusives like paywalled episodes, videos, and post-shows, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon or a paid Substack subscriber. We are a small team and it costs a bit to make this happen. We are happy to contribute to this passion project but we are also *so* grateful to anyone who is able to support us continuing to build content. 

Solidarity is forever and to those fighting injustices everywhere! If you like the show and would like to see a specific politician interviewed or cause covered please find us on social media and drop us a line!

Guest Information:

Guests of the Week: Austin Jafri of TTCRiders and Jamaal Myers of Scarborough Transit Action

TTCRiders:

TTCriders is a membership organization of transit riders. We have a vision for an accessible, affordable world-class public transit system. Help build the power of transit riders by volunteering or becoming a member.  

Austin Jafri is a low-income, post secondary student living in Scarborough. He is a lifetime TTC rider and recently led a March Metropass Refund Petition initiative that resulted in 206, 000 Torontonians getting refunds. He does activism around education, transit and equity as a member of TTCriders, Scarborough Transit Action, Scarborough Civic Action Network & Scarborough Families for Public Education.

Scarborough Transit Action:

Scarborough Transit Action (STA) is a grassroots organization that speaks up for transit riders in Scarborough. We are fighting for a publicly delivered, operated and maintained LRT network in Scarborough. 

Jamaal Myers is a proud resident of his beloved Scarborough and is an organizer and activist with Scarborough Transit Action. Outside of organizing, he's a lawyer for TD Bank and he currently serves as a director and vice president of Malvern-based TAIBU Community Health Center, which is dedicated to serving the health and wellness needs of Black Canadians, and a director of the Scarborough Business Association, the voice of Scarborough businesses, where he chairs the organization's advocacy and policy committee. You can find him on twitter.

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Andre Goulet

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano, Nashwa Lina Khan, Ali McKnight, and Johnny Zapras

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Nashwa sits down with Vicky Osterweil, the author of In Defense of Looting. Nashwa interviews Vicky about her entry into left politics, her newest book, the politics of looting while also exploring the limits of electoral politics, and so much more. Nashwa and Vicky cover a range of topics including the history of looting, and whiteness as property. They also dive into liberation movements, armed self-defence, Black radical tradition, and the micro-moments in uprisings/riots. In our small worlds we can do the things that the government will not and Osterweil reminds us of the openness we should have to multiple tactics. Osterweil articulates the potential we have to build power in the streets while mapping a history of eviction defence, debt abolition, and a broader set of tactics deployed in tandem with looting. Osterweil’s smart and poignant insights into the contradictions of liberalism offer listeners a foundation to desire more. 

This episode reminds us that we have a collective struggle, to recenter what we all long for and what we all owe each other. Osterweil helps us re-imagine what could be and the radical possibilities that await us when we fight for one another. A world beyond electoral politics has existed and always will, see you in the streets! 

Guest Information:

Guest of the week: Vicky Osterweil

Vicky Osterweil is a writer, editor and agitator based in Philadelphia. 

Her book, In Defense of Looting, was released in August by Bold Type Books. You can buy her book here: In Defense of Looting by Vicky Osterweil. 

We highly recommend people check out her 2014 article in The New Inquiry by the same name.

Additional Resources:

Some readings mentioned in this episode : 

* Whiteness as Property by Cheryl I. Harris 

* The Wages of Whiteness by David R. Roediger 

* Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois

* Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man, Its Overrepresentation -- An Argument by Sylvia Wynter

* Assata (Shakur), an Autobiography by Assata Shakur 

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano and Ali McKnight

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Nashwa and Ryan sit down with Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green and discuss the progress of defunding the RCMP (as well as its many failings), the marginalized communities left behind by the distribution of CERB, the ongoing process of decolonization, and the possibility of a a green new deal. Also, the habibis ask Matt about what it’s like being a progressive Black person in Parliament, his stance on foreign policy, and about some of the NDP’s more controversial actions.

Guest Information:

Guest of the Week: Matthew Green

After completing his education in Political Science, Legal Studies and Business, Matthew made history when he became the first person of colour elected to Hamilton City Council in 2014. During his time as Ward 3 Councillor, Matthew’s policy initiatives focused on ecological, equity, and economic justice. 

In 2019, Matthew Green was elected the Member of Parliament for Hamilton Centre. Since then, he has been committed to ensuring the real working-class values of Hamilton continue to be represented in Ottawa while also standing with the NDP to fight for universal pharmacare, affordable housing, and urgent action for the environment. Additionally, Matthew works as an NDP Critic for National Revenue, Public Services and Procurement, Treasury Board, Deputy Critic for Ethics.

You can find Matthew Green online in the following places:

Website

Twitter

Instagram

Facebook

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Andre Goulet, Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano and Ali McKnight

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

This was an episode requested a few times so here we go habibis, an episode on Dune. Nashwa is joined by her online habibis Shaadie and Rob to discuss some spicy takes on Dune. Although we aren’t exactly sure if Edward Said would be satisfied with our analysis we had a lot of fun and Nashwa is sci-fied out. 

Guest Information:

Cohosts of this episode: Rob and Shaadie

Rob aka @smoothposer is host of @WrongLessonsPod and a Filipino-American organizer in the DC area. 

Shaadie is an organizer and engineer in Madison, Wisconsin. 

Most importantly, they are friends of Nashwa and the pod, og habibis. 

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Andy Assaf, Kandeel Imran, and Raymond Khanano

Habibti Please is proud to be part of the Harbinger Media Network

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe

Before the pandemic, the fight against police and carceral forms of punishment already had a long history unique to specific communities. Throughout the pandemic people have re-imagined what a world without police could look like. After the murder of George Floyd on May 25th, 2020, global uprisings occurred and actions continue to be ongoing. It is important to recognize that police violence is not inherent to America and often Canadians believe such violence does not exist here. 

In this episode, Nashwa sits down with two organizers to discuss what defunding the police looks like in different parts of Canada. She’s joined by James Wilt of Winnipeg Police Cause Harm and Sarah Jama of Defund Hamilton Police. This episode about defunding movements across Canada is part of a tiny series of episodes that we will be putting out on Canadian activism and social movements. 

Although we witnessed a surge in defund the police movements and organizing in the summer of 2020, such community based activism has a much longer history throughout Canada. This episode features two conversations with organizers and breaks down what defunding can look like in Winnipeg and Hamilton. It was an absolute honour to talk and learn from both James and Sarah. We cover tactics, tools, alternatives to police, and lessons from organizing and local context of the role policing plays in their communities. 

Local movements like these are part of the larger fight for a collective future we all long for. Solidarity is forever and to those fighting police brutality in their communities.

If you like the show and would like to see a specific politician interviewed or cause covered please find us on social media and drop us a line! 

Guest Information:

Guests of the Week: James Wilt of Winnipeg Police Cause Harm and Sarah Jama of Defund Hamilton Police.

Defund Hamilton Police 

Defund Hamilton Police is a coalition in Hamilton calling for defunding the Hamilton Police. They have successfully removed school resource officers out of the Hamilton-Wentworth district school boards through their advocacy. Most recently they held a multi day action involving a Freedom Camp in front of city hall to highlight the housing crisis in Hamilton where evictions are occurring at alarming rates and encampments are being torn down. The result of the this action is launch of Hamilton Encampment Support Network. You can follow Defund Hamilton Police on twitter here. 

Sarah Jama community organizer based in Hamilton, Ontario with a passion for community engagement, disability justice, and activism.

Winnipeg Police Cause Harm

Winnipeg Police Cause Harm is a community-centred police abolitionist group committed to defunding the Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) and reallocating resources to life-sustaining services. You can follow Winnipeg Police Cause Harm on twitter here.

James is a writer, student, and organizer with Winnipeg Police Cause Harm.

Production Credits:

Hosted by Nashwa Lina Khan 

Show Music by Johnny Zapras and postXamerica

Art for Habibti Please by postXamerica

Production by Andre Goulet, Nashwa Lina Khan and Johnny Zapras

Production Assistance by Raymond Khanano and Ali McKnight

Social Media & Support:

Follow us on Twitter @habibtiplease

Support us on Patreon

Subscribe to us on Substack

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit habibtiplease.substack.com/subscribe