In our May edition we bring together different facets of Islamophobia that are propped up by Canadian laws and foreign policy:

We hear from Adil Charkaoui and Sophie Harkat -- who spoke at a panel hosted by QPIRG-McGill and the Collectif Canadien Anti-Islamophobie this spring -- about Canada's draconian security certificate regime. Adil a été emprisonné de 2003 jusqu’à 2005 et par la suite vivait sous conditions jusqu'à ce qu'il gagne son procès à la Cour Supreme en 2009; il nous raconte son expérience et la lutte qui a mener à l’invalidation de son certificat de sécurité. Sophie is the wife of Mohamed Harkat, who was imprisoned from 2002 until 2006 and remains under strict conditions of house arrest and faces deportation to torture.

We also play audio from #RememberJan29 co-organizer Syed Hussan. Hussan speaks to the normalization of Islamophobia through the Québec mosque shooting and the wide scale targeting and killings of Muslims in the Middle East, backed and carried out by Canadian militarism.

Photo courtesy of Homes not Bombs.

This April we spoke to two student activists: Student Society of McGill University VP External Connor Spencer spoke on McGill's failure to address professors' sexual misconduct and Divest's Nina Scheer spoke on the uphill battle of getting McGill to stop investing in fossil fuels. We also play clips from mobilizations in support of community organizer Lucy Francineth Granados, who was deported to Guatemala this morning. #Lucydoitrester #LetLucyStay #MeToo

IWD themed episode, with a focus on celebrating resistance led by Indigenous and non-status women who are directly challenging the state-backed violence they experience.

We play excerpts from the vigil for Tina Fontaine held here in Tiohtià:ke and interview Jessica Quijano of the Native Women’s Shelter’s Iskweu Project, as well as speak to Guadalupe and Maria of the Non-Status Women's Collective of Montréal.

Songs by Alanis Obomsawin ("Nbaw" and "Awsjagaw Nibin"), the Buffalo Hat Singers, X-Ray Specks ("Oh Bondage! Up Yours!"), Natalia Lafourcade ("Derecho de Nacimiento") and the anti-folk opera "What the fuck am I doing here" ("Betrayal song").

Remembering Azzeddine Soufiane, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Ibrahima Barry and Abdelkrim Hassane, who were murdered in the massacre at the Grand Mosquée du Québec on January 29th, 2017.

We play audio from Syed Hussan(of the Canadaland podcast "As if it never happened") and interviews with #RememberJan29 co-organizer Aliya Pabani and shooting survivor Aymen Derbali.

On January’s show we hear from David Bush of rankandfile.ca on recent business attacks against the new $15 minimum wage in Ontario; activist-journalist Desmond Cole speaks to Canada's reaction to last year’s islamophobic shooting at the Grande Mosquée du Québec, an excerpt from the Canadaland podcast; Claire Abraham of Project Genesis discusses the inadequacies Québec’s rental board, just what steps to stake when faced with a lousy landlord, and the ongoing struggle for dignified housing; and Mostafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers' Centre shares what is happening with the minimum wage fight in Montréal and Québec and lessons from the recent increase in Ontario.

December's show features an introduction to issues in disability law in Québec from lawyer and lecturer Mélanie Bénard. Next, we feature an interview with University of Ottawa law student Yafa Jarrar on Palestinian political prisoners including her mother, Palestinian politician Khalida Jarrar. Finally, we hear from LegalEase’s Alice Mirlesse all the way from Argentina, in an interview with Salvador Zúñiga on the recently released investigation results on the March 2016 murder of his mother: Indigenous leader and environmental activist from Honduras Bertha Caceres.

This month we give some background to Québec’s most recent piece of Islamophobic legislation, Bill 62, and hear about different facets of state-backed racism, from Islamophobia to anti-blackness. Featuring:

-- "Open for me my heart" poem by Farha Najah at the January vigil for the anti-Muslims murders of Azzeddine Soufiane, Khaled Belkacemi, Aboubaker Thabti, Abdelkrim Hassane, Mamadou Tanou and Ibrahima Barry, in Ste Foy, Québec

-- speech by Fatima Ahmad, a niqabi woman and second year student in Education at McGill, on Bill 62

-- historian and sociologist Houda Asal, author of Se Dire Arab au Canada, on the history of Islamophobia, from the TREYF Podcast "What the hell is going on in Québec"

-- Mubeenah Mughal, mother of three and former organizer with Accommodate This!, on Islamophobia from the era of the Bouchard Taylor Commission

-- Robyn Maynard on the state's perpetuation of anti-black racism in the launch of her new book, “Policing Black Lives"

-- songs by Shadia Mansour and Yuna

We begin with a discussion with Kira Page from COCo on the law of charities and other nonprofit, and the political problems it raises. We then talk with organizer and pediatric emergency physician Samir Shaheen-Hussain about the draconian policies that systematically prevent people from accessing dignified health care here in Québec. Finally, we hear from Carleton University professor Maeve McMahon on the extradition of Canadian citizen and sociology professor Hassan Diab. Diab was extradited to France in 2014 for allegations of his involvement in a 1980 bombing in Paris, despite the fact that the Canadian judge presiding over his extradition proceedings called France’s evidence against him “convoluted, very confusing, with conclusions that are suspect”

This month's LegalEase took on an indigenous focus featuring a live recording of a rally led by John Cree and Katsitsakwas/Ellen Gabriel resisting a housing development project next to the sacred pines area on Kanienkehaka territory, the same area they protected in the 1990 78-day armed standoff known as the “Oka Crisis.” Next we interview a Mi'kmaq water protector participating in an ongoing demonstration against Alton Gas's plan to store high pressure natural gas in salt caverns that will divert 10 million litres of mining waste per day into the Shubenacadie River. Next we feature stories from the podcasts Media Indigena and From the Margins. The first is a discussion with Mi'kmaq Professor Pam Palmater on the Canadian colonial tactic of imposing third party management on first nations. The second piece ("Workers Go to Jail While Bosses Pass Go") explores how class structure is reinforced through the application of workplace theft law in Canada.

First we talk to Claire Michela and Tuviere Onookome-Okome of AMUSE, the Association of McGill University Support Employees, whose floor fellows recently won their first ever collective agreement.

We then hear speeches from Jean St-Vil and Idil Esse at Montréal's "Welcome Migrants and Refugees" rally, as well as an interview with Anais Montenegro from Montréal's trans-march, who lays out the struggle of trans migrants to obtain legal documentation that corresponds to their gender here in Québec.

Finally we turn to Venezuela, as former election observer and Venezuela solidarity activist Raul Burbano speaks in defence of the country's socialist government and recent constituent assembly vote.