Needs No Introduction

Our final episode of this Courage My Friends season features a December 10th Human Rights Day Panel Discussion, the first of a series of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Community Worker Program at Toronto's George Brown College. Community workers and human rights advocates, Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat, Samira Mohyeddin, Diana Gallego, Desmond Cole and Diana Chan McNally discuss the meaning of human rights in Canada 77 years after the UN adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, critical issues facing us today and the power of solidarity-driven, rights-based organizing.

Speaking to Canada's approach to human rights, Pitawanakwat says:

"A big wakeup call was a couple of days ago when the UN passed the International Day Against Colonialism and Canada abstained. Because Canada is very much still rooted in this colonial mechanism and ideology here … In Anishinaabe culture, we don't rely on the idea of rights, rights are a European construct. We rely on the idea of responsibility … If we relied on human rights, we would be in a dismal place, which is where we are today."

According to Chan McNally:

"Every time you see an encampment that is someone exercising their right to housing by literally making their own tent.We have downloaded the responsibility directly on homeless people to ensure their own rights. And criminalizing even that action of survival ... It's ludicrous, ludicrous to me."

Speaking to the importance of community work, Cole says:

"People are doing it in this school and in this program. The reason that I always say yes, when you ask me to come here … I was homeless myself more than 20 years ago when I moved to this city. Somebody who took a community worker program referred me to a youth shelter and changed my life. For real."

On the role of independent journalism, Mohyeddin reflects on her upcoming documentary about the pro-Palestine student encampment at UofT:

"Our corporate media was vilifying these young people.

And you know, my motto for journalism has always been to 'Make mad the guilty and appall the free.' And I think that if we operate from that place, even as citizens, we can really make a change."

On the power of solidarity, Gallego says:

"The system want us being isolated. Solidarity is a word they trying to penalize … Solidarity is going and bringing the power that the Indigenous community have with the Palestinian movement. Bringing the solidarity of the unions back to us, back to the people.Being a community worker … Being the first face that a refugee is seeing in Canada and seeing the welcoming and seeing the support, means a lot."

About today's speakers:

Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat is an Anishinaabekwe, Indigiqueer and member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded First Nation. As an Indigenous Birthworker, jingle dress dancer, artisan and radical educator, she is committed to principles of Indigenous Liberation and self determination. Her journey as a Birthworker began on the prairies where she practiced Harm Reduction and perinatal outreach for over a decade. She holds an undergrad degree from University of Victoria social work program and has a Masters in social work from university of Toronto with a trauma specialization. Olson Pitawanakwat currently co-leads Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction and Native Arts Society, both 2spirit/Queer/Trans led initiatives.

Desmond Cole is a journalist, radio host, and activist. His debut book, The Skin We're In, won the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. It was also named a best book of 2020 by The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC, Quill & Quire, and Indigo. Cole's writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Walrus, and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He lives in Toronto.

Diana Gallego is a Colombian trained lawyer with a background in advocacy, human rights, and social justice. In 2002, she was forced to flee Colombia with her husband and son, an experience that deepened her commitment to working with immigrants and refugees. She is a graduate and former faculty with Community Work from George Brown College in Toronto and joined the FCJ Refugee Centre in 2015, where she is now one of the Co-Executive Directors. Gallego served as president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, from 2023 to 2025. She also serves on the Inland Protection steering committee of the CCR, focusing on the social and economic integration of refugees and family reunification as primary areas of her advocacy.

Samira Mohyeddin is a multi-award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. She has a Master of Arts in Modern Middle Eastern History from the University of Toronto and a graduate of genocide Studies from the Zoryan Institute. For nearly a decade, she was a producer and host at CBC Radio and CBC Podcasts. She resigned from the CBC in November 2023 and founded On The Line Media, where she brings audiences intimate conversations and informed commentary with a focus on critical and contextual journalism. Mohyeddin was the 2024 - 2025 inaugural journalism fellow for the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto and is the 2025 PEN Canada Ken Filkow Prize recipient. She is currently in production on a documentary about the Palestine solidarity student encampment at the University of Toronto.

Diana Chan McNally (she/they) is an alumni and former faculty of the Community Worker program at George Brown College (Toronto) and is a community worker in downtown Toronto. As someone with lived-experience of social services and of being unhoused, Chan McNally's work focuses on human rights and equity issues for people who are homeless. Chan McNally is the founder and Coordinator of the Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People and works with human rights organizations The Shift and Maytree.

For Community Worker Program and application information, please visit Community Worker Program at George Brown College

Donate to the 50th Anniversary Community Worker Program Student Bursary

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Diana Gallego, Samira Mohyeddin, Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat (Photog. Mahihkan Studios), Desmond Cole (Photog. Gage Fletcher), Diana Chan McNally (Photog. Gage Fletcher) / Used with permission - Photographer, Gage Fletcher

Panel Recording: Prof. Ben McCarthy

Introduction to Session: Prof. John Caffery

Community Worker Program 50th Anniversary Organizing Committee: Prof. John Caffrey, Dr. Rusa Jeremic, Prof. Berti Olinto, Dr. William Payne, Stefan Kallikaden, Dr. Bill Fallis, Prof. Emeritus Bob Luker, Prof. Resh Budhu

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In episode six of the Courage My Friends' season nine, we welcome impact strategist with Animikii, Indigenous Technology, Jeff Doctor, technology and human rights lawyer with Tekhnos Law and senior fellow with The Citizen Lab, Cynthia Khoo, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood.

We discuss Canada's accelerated approach to artificial intelligence and the mobilization of civil society groups against it, multiple impacts of largely unregulated AI on people, planet and democracy, Indigenous perspectives on data sovereignty and digital colonialism and the meaning of AI beyond the hype.

Reflecting on the government's accelerated AI development, Mertins-Kirkwood says:

"There's definitely a distinct moment that's happening right now. A particular hype cycle, a push to adopt this current iteration of 'artificial intelligence', whatever that means … The question is why are we doing it. The way that the federal government in particular talks about AI is frankly very ideological … We need to adopt it for its own sake, independent of what that actually means … We're just kind of rushing without having a clear sense of where we're going."

On civil society's objection to the "national sprint" consultation on AI, Khoo says:

"...As people who are familiar with this field and topic … we're kind of appalled … AI has spread through so many spheres of society, it's not just a tech issue anymore, it's a whatever issue you care about … This 30-day "sprint" with leading language and incredibly narrow scoping from our government, it's frankly embarrassing. And just shows they're not really taking seriously the … empirically demonstrated … harms of AI and what's really at stake for everyone across the country. '"

On the subject of data sovereignty, Doctor says:

"Every technology has politics, Every technology is a product of its time … And enter this current moment where this magic bean of AI, this bundle of excuses comes together, that, oh we have to extract more, we have to mine more, we have to use more energy. As an Indigenous person this is nothing new to me … Indigenous territories, lands and peoples as sacrifice zones … for the greater good or for national sovereignty … Who's national sovereignty?"

About today's guests:

Jeff Doctor is a Cayuga Nation citizen from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. As an Impact Strategist with Animikii, Jeff works with Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island to develop web applications that support their self-determination and digital sovereignty. Jeff also volunteers with Protect the Tract: a Haudenosaunee grassroots project that promotes healthy land stewardship of the Haldimand Tract, and is an artist-in-residence at the University of Toronto as a member of the Akni:ho'gwa:s Artist Collective.Jeff has an MA in sociology and a decade of experience supporting Indigenous data sovereignty from the ground up. His focus is improving practical Indigenous data governance through advocacy, counter-mapping, and building appropriate, ethical software that helps Indigenous Peoples get their land, cash, and data back.

Cynthia Khoo is a technology and human rights lawyer at Tekhnos Law, and a senior fellow at the Citizen Lab (University of Toronto). Previously, she was a senior associate at Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology in Washington, DC. Cynthia's legal practice, research, and expertise focuses on how the Internet and emerging technologies impact the human rights of historically marginalized groups, in particular their rights to privacy, equality, and freedom of expression. She holds a J.D. from the University of Victoria and LL.M. (Law and Technology) from the University of Ottawa, where she worked as junior counsel at and represented the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) as an intervener in cases before the Supreme Court of Canada.

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood is a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, where he focuses on climate, artificial intelligence and economic policy.

Read the OPEN LETTER to the Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation from civil society organizations and individuals opposing "National Sprint" consultation on AI strategy

Individual and Organizations can sign onto the Open Letter, that has been re-opened for signatures, here.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Cynthia Khoo, Jeff Doctor, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In episode five, we are pleased to welcome award-winning author Saeed Teebi who speaks to us about his powerful new book, You Will Not Kill Our Imagination: A Memoir of Palestine and Writing in Dark Times.

In our annual focus on the power of storytelling, we discuss what it means to be a Palestinian writer in these times, the challenges of writing against dehumanizing narratives, complicity in the attempted erasure of Palestinian life, identity and art through both violence and silence and how imagination, story and writing become profound acts of resistance in a time of genocide.

On the condemnation of Palestinian language and writing, Teebi says:

"In the face of actual violence waged against them, Palestinians are tried and convicted of presumptive violence for their language.Our words are assumed to be code words or dog whistles that mean something else necessarily more nefarious than what we say they mean … The usual language remains available to the rest of the world to use freely. It is only Palestinians and their allies who have been segregated out of it. A linguistic apartheid that applies to us wherever we are, in the same way that the geographic apartheid applies to us in occupied Palestine."

About today's guest:

Saeed Teebi is an award-winning writer and lawyer. His debut short story collection, Her First Palestinian, was a finalist for several awards, including the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Prize. His nonfiction has appeared in The Globe and Mail and The New Quarterly. Born in Kuwait, he resettled in the United States, then Canada. He now lives in Toronto.

Check out his latest book You Will Not Kill Our Imagination: A Memoir of Palestine and Writing in Dark Times

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Saeed Teebi, photography by Sarah Köhler (Used with permission)

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In episode four, we welcome co-executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Karen Cocq, advocacy and media relations coordinator at The Refugee Centre in Montreal, Alina Murad and President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, Aisling Bondy.

We discuss the Carney Government's new border security acts, Bill C-2 and its questionable make-over with the recently tabled Bill C-12, how they effectively rewrite Canada's approach to refugee rights and protections, whether this new security regime is a response to the Trump tariff demands or an opportunity to continue Canada's years-long tightening of the borders, and if passed, what these acts could mean for those seeking asylum and for Canada as a whole.

On Bill C-2, Cocq says:

"We're calling it this mass deportation machine … government being able to use these new powers to remove many more people, that's what's really frightening to us … that it's going to look a little bit more like what's happening in the United States."

On the tabling of Bill C-12, Bondy says:

"When we first heard, Oh, there's a new Bill … the Conservatives won't support C-2. This is great, maybe it won't pass. And we heard there's going to be a new version. Okay, maybe they're going to make some of the refugee aspects less bad. And then we find out no, everything's the same and this is really just a way to get it through faster. And so this actually entirely is a rather unfortunate development."

According to Murad:

"Bureaucracy is not going to deter people from seeking safety when there is a need, right? … People who come to Canada … have well-founded claims. They have well-founded fear. They have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they do deserve safety provided by Canada. This is not going to change."

About today's guests:

Aisling Bondy is the current president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL), a national organization comprised of several hundred lawyers who practice in refugee law. She is the founder of Bondy Immigration Law and is a member of the Refugee Lawyers' Association, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, the Ontario Bar Association and the Canadian Bar Association.

Karen Cocq is co-executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC), a membership-based organization of migrants. MWAC is the secretariat of the cross-country Migrant Rights Network, the largest coalition of migrant led organizations in Canada. She has been active in migrant justice and workers' rights organizing for 20 years.

Alina Murad is the advocacy and media relations coordinator at The Refugee Centre in Montreal. She leads policy research and advocacy initiatives addressing systemic barriers faced by refugees and asylum seekers in Canada. Follow them on Instagram @therefugeecentre and @pointofentrypodcast.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Aisling Bondy, Karen Cocq, Alina Murad, / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In our third episode we welcome support staff president for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 418 at St.Lawrence College. Amanda Shaw, second vice president of OPSEU Local 415 at Algonquin College, Martin Lee and from George Brown College, member of OPSEU's part-time and sessional divisional executive, Ben McCarthy.

We discuss the mass layoffs and program and campus closures across Ontario's 24 publicly funded colleges, impacts on college workers, students, and wider communities, what this means for the future of public post-secondary education and how what has been publicized as a "crisis" is really a scandal of the deliberate dismantling of the public college system by the Government of Ontario.

According to Lee:

"We've been using the word 'crisis' a lot, right? And, you know, it's got all the symptoms of being a crisis ... But it's not a crisis, it's a scandal. What we're actually looking at is a scandal. A crisis is something that happens. A rainfall, you know, it's an act of God. No, no, this is deliberate and intentional. And the more you see it, the more it becomes clear that this is an active process by the Doug Ford government."

Reflecting on the situation facing college workers and communities, Shaw says:

"We're seeing a hemorrhaging of our members from the system. It's about job security. It's about protecting the jobs in the communities ... it's about keeping a viable educational option in the communities and making sure that we're able to meet industry need ... If we don't have colleges that exist in those smaller communities, then what's to be said of education?"

On the changing nature of union organizing, McCarthy says:

"Part of this neoliberal trend that emphasizes the bottom line also emphasizes an individualism that does not serve worker rights, that does not serve worker power…If disaster capitalism continues to profit off of these moments of unrest, of uncertainty to their profit..that's also a possibility for us, that is organized labour..To step into that uncertainty, and by collectivizing our fight, raising the water in the harbour for everybody."

Read OPSEU's report, Dismantling Public Futures: Diverting Training Money from Ontario Colleges Through Ford's Skills Development Fund Endangers the Provincial Economy

And Ben McCarthy's article in The Grind, The Manufactured Crisis in Ontario Colleges

About today's guests:

With 25 years of experience in the college system, Amanda Shaw currently works for St. Lawrence College on the Cornwall campus as an academic planning assistant. She is currently serving as support staff local president for OPSEU/SEFPO Local 418, and is on her third term.

Ben McCarthy is a labour organizer, artist, and teacher working in Toronto, Canada. He is a member of the divisional executive representing precarious faculty with OPSEU. He teaches courses in labour history, immigration, and cultural production at George Brown college. His artwork interrogates the technological and economic conditions that produce the listening subject.

Dr Martin Lee is the second vice-president of OPSEU Local 415 at Algonquin College. In his teaching role, Martin is a professor of biochemistry, a former academic coordinator, and active researcher in the field of applied physical biochemistry. In OPSEU at a provincial level, he was on the Workload Monitoring Group (WMG), resulting in the world's largest cohesive study of faculty workload. This then led to his involvement in the Ontario College Academic Bargaining team for 2024 (and ongoing). His union work focuses on building the data which drives the local and the division and tries to bring an equity lens to the voice of the membership, often supporting these arguments with the data needed to formulate novel approaches. He has presented the topic of what he calls 'data-weaving': the process of taking any and all sets of information that a local has at hand, and using it to better understand large union sets, including those with multiple sites, multiple job classifications, or subgroups.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute or here.

Image: Amanda Shaw, Ben McCarthy, Martin Lee / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In this episode we welcome, climate justice and Indigenous rights organizer from Stellat'en First Nation and senior advisor at the David Suzuki Foundation, Janelle Lapointe; member services and movement building manager with Climate Action Network Canada, Lauren Latour and Canada organizer for World Beyond War, Rachel Small.

We discuss the Draw the Line National Day of Action taking place across Canada on September 20, the reasons for this historic cross-movement coalition and the urgency of drawing the line now in this moment of converging and overwhelming crises, for people, for peace and for the planet.

Speaking to origins of Draw the Line, Latour says:

"After years and years and years of communities from across progressive spaces saying, we need to learn how to work together in community. We need to learn how to build coalition. It just felt like this was the perfect opportunity for that."

On the critical need for a coalition, Lapointe says:

"We're all waking up to the root cause of the crises, which is imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and those systems were intentional and systemic and focus on division. And so I think we need to be just as intentional, strategic with our unity. And I think that's what this mobilization is all about."

Reflecting on why we need to Draw the Line now, Small says:

"You can't quadruple Canada's military budget without stealing those billions of dollars from everything else and from everyone else … We have to refuse … and instead say, no. Actually Carney, you're gonna need to choose a side … because we are drawing the line."

For more information on the National Day of Action, please visit Draw the Line

About today's guests:

Janelle Lapointe is a climate justice and Indigenous rights organizer from Stellat'en First Nation. She is currently a senior advisor at the David Suzuki Foundation and a guest on Treaty 13 territory, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Huron-Wendat peoples, as well as the Mississaugas of the Credit. She leans on her lived experience growing up on her small reserve in Northern British Columbia to ensure that intersectionality is at the forefront of environmental narratives, to build power and help others see their stake in fighting back against the status quo.

Lauren Latour works as member services and movement building manager for Climate Action Network Canada, the farthest-reaching network of organizations taking action on climate and energy issues in the land currently called Canada. Currently based on unceded Anishinaabe Algonquin land in Ottawa, Lauren draws on over a decade of experience in progressive spaces as she works to support the climate movement from behind - emphasizing efficacy, and forefronting a justice-based approach. Rachel Small works as the Canada organizer for World BEYOND War, a global grassroots organisation and network working to abolish war and the military industrial complex, is a founding member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition, and coordinates the Arms Embargo Now campaign. She has done grassroots organizing within local and international social/environmental justice movements for nearly two decades, with a special focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian extractive industry projects.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Janelle Lapointe, Lauren Latour, Rachel Small / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In our season nine premiere, we welcome Martha Paynter, nurse, scholar and author of Lawless: Abortion Under Complete Decriminalization. We discuss Canada's complete decriminalization of abortion (the only country to do so), the fascinating and often fraught history that brought us to this point, abortion as a public good, the influence of the anti-choice lobby here and the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the US, and what it takes to make abortion truly equitable when decriminalization is not enough.

Reflecting on the need to understand abortion as a public good, Paynter says:

"We have these major cultural forces that just reiterate this idea that abortion is rare and hard. And it's not, it's very normal. It's very common and it takes seven minutes. And actually it will allow you to follow your dreams. Whether that dream is to escape a violent relationship or to finish your graduate degree or whatever. So we do need to have this shift in the way we talk about abortion. And we need to understand abortion, not just as healthcare, but as this force of good in our society."

About today's guest:

Dr. Martha Paynter has worked to advance abortion access in Canada for over 20 years. A writer, nurse and public scholar, she is recognized internationally for her expertise at the nexus of reproductive justice and prisoner health. She is an associate professor at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Nursing, where her research addresses the health rights of people experiencing incarceration and sexual and reproductive health care in Canada and around the world. She is the author of Abortion to Abolition: Reproductive Health and Justice in Canada (Fernwood, 2017) and has published extensively in national magazines (Chatelaine, Briarpatch) and scientific journals. Paynter is a keen advocate for increasing the influence of women and gender diverse people in news media and participates regularly in interviews with national and international print, radio and TV press (CBC/Radio-Canada, Global, CTV). She values and fosters collaborations with community organizations and lived experience experts in reproductive health and prison justice. Paynter is a recipient of the 150th anniversary medal from the Senate of Canada for her volunteer service to the country (2017) and the King Charles III Coronation Medal for service to the nursing profession (2025).

Paynter's latest book, Lawless: Abortion Under Complete Decriminalization is being released this month by Fernwood Publishing.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Martha Paynter / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, The Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In episode nine of the Courage My Friends series, we welcome visiting professor and dean of the faculty of agriculture and veterinary medicine at Gaza's Al-Azhar University, Dr. Ahmed Abu Shaban. We discuss the weaponization of already fragile food systems in Gaza, the acceleration of the climate crisis through conflict and Palestinian resilience under occupation.

Reflecting on the nexus of food, climate and occupation, Abu Shaban shares:

"My father passed away in 2021 and we had a farm in Gaza. This farm was destroyed several times. And this farm is an olive trees farm. And olives, you know, you need to wait at least three to five years to get production out of it.So several times we cultivate the seedlings … The Israelis come inside … and destroy the land, cut the trees. My father would just … recultivate the trees again. I told him, Listen, but this is really too expensive because we are investing a lot of money in this and we never see the production of them. And my father said, Let them cut it for 100 times and we will recultivate for 101 times."

About today's guest:

Dr. Ahmed Abu Shaban is a visiting professor at York University in the faculties of liberal arts & professional studies and environmental and urban change. He is also dean of the faculty of agriculture and veterinary medicine at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. His work focuses on food systems and climate vulnerability, particularly the impact of conflict on agricultural production and food security in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Abu Shaban plays a leading role in advancing higher education in crisis settings and co-founded the Emergency Committee of Universities in Gaza.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Dr. Ahmed Abu Shaban / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In episode eight, we return to the George Brown College Labour Fair and a discussion with Ontario Federation of Labour president Laura Walton and chief steward and second vice president of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 556 Jeff Brown. We discuss the multiple issues facing the labour movement, union priorities and, in this age of polycrisis, what exactly we are working for.

Speaking to the upcoming federal elections, Walton says:

"I think we all can agree it's not going to be an NDP federal government. It's either gonna be Liberals or Conservatives. And I call them cancer and chemo; one's gonna kill you, the other one's gonna make you sick. We're going to be under, in Ontario, two governments that are not worker friendly, both federally and provincially. And it's going to be incumbent on workers to really embrace organizing principles … Now's not the time to be quiet. Now's the time that we're going to have to join our voices together to really push back."

Reflecting on the how the trade war may impact already underfunded Ontario colleges, Brown says:

"The colleges extend into so many fields in our province. Obviously healthcare, nursing community workers, but also things like all the skilled trades, forestry, aviation. I mean, these are the workers in communities that are the backbone of our economy … and the concern that being this underfunded, now with this trade war … the provincial government will use this as an excuse to further starve the system."

About today's guests:

Laura Walton is the president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) Canada's largest provincial labour federation. Walton served as president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees' Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) starting in 2019. She also served on the CUPE Ontario Executive Board. With a firm belief in the equalizing power of inclusive public education, Walton led her 55,000 coworkers across Ontario to withdraw their labour for two days in November 2022 in protest of the Ford government using the notwithstanding clause to ram through legislation that imposed a contract on CUPE education workers. Previously she served as president of CUPE Local 1022 which represents the education workers of Hastings and Prince Edward County District School Board.

Dr. Jeff Brown is an experienced educator, researcher, and labour activist. He is a full-time professor in the Liberal Arts and Sciences department at George Brown College in Toronto and Chief Steward/2nd Vice-President of OPSEU Local 556, representing unionized faculty at George Brown. He is also a member of the Ontario College Faculty Divisional Executive.

Session Introduction & Audience Questions by: Ashley Booth

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute.

Image: Laura Walton, Jeff Brown / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

In episode seven, we are pleased to feature executive director of the Workers' Action Centre, Deena Ladd. In her keynote address for the 33rd annual Labour Fair at Toronto's George Brown College, No One Left Behind: Building a Workers' First Emergency Response to the Tariff Crisis that Unites Us, Ladd discusses the current trade war, the dangers facing workers and a solidarity-driven plan that puts workers first.

Reflecting on what's needed in a workers' first approach to the tariff crisis, Ladd says:

"Our communities are already in trouble. And we know that the tariffs imposed are gonna have a ripple impact, far worse than the pandemic's… We desperately need a government strategy that has learned from these past economic crises to ensure that no one gets left behind. ..To make sure that when you are providing supports, that they first of all have to be adequate. That they're not institutionalizing poverty. That they're accessible … And that they're structured in a way that doesn't unintentionally punish people after the fact."

About today's speaker:

Deena Ladd has been working to improve wages and working conditions in sectors of work that are dominated with low-wages, violations of rights, precarious and temp work for over 30 years. She has worked to support and develop grassroots training, education and organizing to build the power of workers with groups such as the Fight for $15 and Fairness Campaign, Decent Work and Health Network, the Migrant Rights Network and Justice for Workers. Ladd is one of the founders and executive director of the Toronto Workers' Action Centre. The Workers' Action Centre organizes to improve wages and working conditions with low-waged workers, women, racialized and immigrant workers in precarious jobs that face discrimination, violations of rights and no benefits in the workplace.

Clip: Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Audience Questions read by: Resh Budhu, Ben McCarthy

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute or here.

Image: Deena Ladd / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.