Needs No Introduction

It's Halloween again and for the Courage My Friends podcast series, this means it's a time for stories. Returning with our annual 'mouth open, story jump out' episode, storytellers Kesha Christie of Talkin' Tales, Njoki Mbũrũ recent recipient of the Community Foundations of Canada Transformational Storytelling Fellowship and Rani Sanderson, storytelling workshop facilitator with StoryCentre Canada, share in stories and conversation about the power of storytelling for community work, transformation and social change.

Christie reflects on the power of stories:

"When we share stories openly and honestly, we hear the heart of the other person. We're able to understand each other. It's the way that we pass down our beliefs and traditions. And it's also a way for us to question the society around us. It gives us a different view."

Reflecting on transformative storytelling, Mbũrũ says:

"If storytelling continues to be extractive and commodified, then it becomes a product. And transformative storytelling is not about producing a series that is a hit show. It's not just about a product that is sellable. Transformative storytelling is really about honoring the dignity, the consent, the self determination and the sovereignty of whoever is giving a story."

Sanderson talks about how stories build connection:

"Stories breed stories ... Somebody tells a story and then somebody else tells a story and then somebody else tells a story … Oh, that reminds me of this. That reminds me of this thing. And suddenly you have a whole room of people talking where maybe nobody, especially younger people [who] were a bit reticent to speak about some issues, some topic, just something. And during the pandemic, a lot of that was just about being isolated and lonely."

About today's guests:

Kesha Christie is an accomplished storyteller who uses African and Caribbean folktales to connect people and cultures. Her engaging performances and insightful commentary have earned her a reputation as a respected voice in the storytelling community, and she has performed at a variety of venues and events across Canada. Kesha also runs her own platforms, including the "Walk Good" podcast and "Talkin' Tales" YouTube channel, where she shares her passion for storytelling and its ability to bring people together. She is deeply committed to preserving and promoting African and Caribbean cultural traditions, and her work continues to inspire audiences of all ages. To learn more about Kesha and her work, visit www.talkintales.ca

Rani Sanderson has a background in film studies and production, later obtaining her Masters of Environmental Studies, where she concentrated on community-engaged arts and environmental education. For the past 15 years she has been facilitating workshops, with a focus on digital storytelling. In 2015 she was invited to head up StoryCentre Canada, (building on the work of American partners) where she develops and implements digital storytelling workshops for non-profit organizations across the country.StoryCenter founded and pioneered the Digital Storytelling methodology of participatory media creation in 1992, and has since taught hundreds of workshops around the world with a variety of communities and organizations.

Njoki Mbũrũ is a storyteller, poet, and immigrant from Kenya who is currently living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Building on her completion of the LEVEL Youth Public Policy Program through the Vancouver Foundation in 2020, she has continued to advocate for policies, projects, and partnerships that uplift the leadership and voices of Indigenous and Black people and communities. Between November 2022 to August 2023, Njoki completed a storytelling fellowship with the Community Foundations of Canada; an experience which has now propelled her to deepen her exploration of the relationships between public policy, emerging technologies, and philanthropy. As a guiding framework for her relationships and imagination work, she is guided by the question: "What else is possible?"

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

Image: Kesha Christie, Njoki Mbũrũ, Rani Sanderson / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Grace Taruc-Almeda, Karin Maier and Jim Cheung (Street Voices)

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.

Our second episode quite literally puts the lens on climate as we spotlight the 24th annual Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival (PIF), running from October 12th-22nd at Toronto's Paradise Theatre.

PIF executive director Katherine Bruce speaks with us about the continued and growing importance of Canada's largest and longest running environmental film festival and this year's program of shorts, speakers and feature-length films.

Filmmaker Deirdre Leowinata discusses her film Keepers of the Land and its themes of reclamation and reconciliation.

We are also joined by Liz Marshall and Alfonso Salinas on the premiere of their powerful feature-length film, s-yéwyáw: Awaken.

Speaking about this year's Planet in Focus Film Festival, Bruce says:

"This year's program represents something that's broadened our definition of environment enormously over the last probably eight years, to include social justice, climate justice is racial justice … We really decided this year to create a tighter program with as many panels and speakers, filmmakers present as possible … People long for connection when they've seen these films that we present. They come away with questions. They come away with concerns. They come away with a desire to be involved, to be engaged with the issues … And that's what I think is so beneficial about always offering an audience an avenue, but also a space – a space to gather."

On her festival short, Keepers of the Land, Leowinata says:

"I hope that it'll get people really excited about what's happening in Canada. Because this is just one Indigenous community in Canada, and there are so many other communities who are doing work like the Kitasoo Xai'xais Nation, and who are really moving the needle in terms of Indigenous-led Conservation, and that's what our film is about. "

Reflecting on S-YéwYáw AWAKEN, Salinas says:

"We've gone on this journey where we've learned so much about each other and what happened on the film, on and off the film, it was a lot of healing. And now we get to share that story with the world, which I think is the most important thing. "

The 24th annual Planet in Focus International Film Festival, running until October 22nd in Toronto at the Paradise Theatre (1006 Bloor St West).

Check out s-yéwyáw: Awaken for future viewing dates and locations.

About today's guests:

A part of the Planet in Focus team from 2010-2012, executive director Katherine Bruce was delighted to return to the festival in 2016. She has worked extensively in the arts sector as a producer in film, theatre and visual arts including the UK-based Cape Farewell – The cultural response to climate change as Development Director for Carbon 14: Climate is Culture in partnership with ROM Contemporary Culture. She also serves on the steering committee of CREW Toronto (Community Resilience to Extreme Weather), the advisory committee for Youth Unstoppable and on the board of the international Green Film Network.

Deirdre Leowinata was born in Jakarta, Indonesia to an Irish father and a Chinese-Indonesian mother. After spending much of her childhood in an international community in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she moved to Ottawa where she did her bachelor of science in evolution, ecology, and behaviour, focusing on the impacts of climate change on butterfly ecology and physiology. Compelled by a growing need for science communication, she moved to Toronto in 2013 to complete a post-graduate program in environmental visual communication through the Royal Ontario Museum and Fleming College. Since then Deirdre has led multimedia communications and reporting for local and international organizations of various sizes. A cinematographer, writer, and director and working in music videos, shorts, and feature-length films, she continues to facilitate impactful multimedia stories that address our relationships with the natural world.

Kwamanchi, Alfonso Salinas is a shíshálh Nation member and the traditional wellness coordinator for the Nation. In his role, he creates programs to practice shíshálh traditions and opportunities for those who want to pass down their gifts. Alfonso received his drum from his grandfather in 2009 to become a song carrier. A graduate of the Indigenous filmmaker program at Capilano University, Alfonso worked for the shíshálh communications department and produced the "Voices of shíshálh" TV series. Later, he became a guide in Stanley Park teaching visitors the history and traditions of Coast Salish people. Alfonso continues to document important events for the Nation today.

Working with diverse teams and communities, global funders and influencers, Canadian filmmaker Liz Marshall has written, directed, produced and filmed multiple impactful documentary projects around the globe since the 1990s. Motivated by the transformative language of film and television, her award-winning work is exhibited and reviewed widely. Feature length and broadcast titles include: s-yéwyáw / Awaken (2023) Meat the Future (2020) Midian Farm (2018) The Ghosts in Our Machine (2013) and Water on the Table (2010).

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

Image: Katherine Bruce, Deirdre Leowinata, Alfonso Salinas, Liz Marshall / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Grace Taruc-Almeda, Karin Maier and Jim Cheung (Street Voices)

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 the launch of our fifth season, we are pleased to welcome back author, public intellectual and director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad. Taking us through the recent economic summits of BRICS and the G20, as well as the cascade coups in West Africa, Prashad delves into the rapid and stunning changes taking place in the world today, where they came from and what this could mean for a changing world order. Is it multipolarity or is it something else?

In speaking of the origins of the BRICS bloc of economically emerging nations, Prashad says:

"You know, it's interesting because it's almost as if people in the West were blindsided by the appearance of this thing called BRICS and recently, of course, the term Global South … there's a straight line between the anti-colonial struggles of the 19th century and these developments now … And so the BRICS isn't some invention of the Goldman Sachs economists. It didn't come out of nowhere. It's part of a long history by these countries to fight for economic sovereignty, political democracy on the world stage in one sense or the other, and then some kind of economic parity."

Prashad also reflects on the history of coups in the Global South and those now taking place in West Africa:

"In many parts of the Third World, especially during the period of the debt crisis and subsequent to that. .. there was a sense that nothing is going to change. You know, people resigned themselves to a kind of futility ...There is a sense of resignation to decay. We are not going to be able to develop. We're not going to be able to advance ... These coups, two of them in Mali, two of them in Burkina Faso, one in Niger, one in Gabon, these coups ... represent the frustration of their populations. And that's a reality. That's hard to take away. And that's why millions of people across the Sahel have been coming out to defend these coups."

Tune in to my conversation with Vijay Prashed on summits, coups and an empowered Global South that says, "we are not afraid of the West anymore."

About today's guest:

Director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad is an historian, journalist, researcher, activist and a prolific writer. He has over 30 books to his name, including: The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World; The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South; Red Star Over the Third World; and Washington Bullets: A History of CIA, Coups, and Assassinations. He is the chief correspondent for Globetrotter, a columnist for Frontline News and chief editor of Leftword Books.

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

Image: Vijay Prsahd / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Grace Taruc-Almeda, Karin Maier and Jim Cheung (Street Voices)

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.

For our season finale of Courage My Friends, we return to this year's George Brown College Labour Fair, The other P3s: pandemic, privatization, precarity,,, and planet!!

In the panel on 'Food Industries: Feeding Ourselves on a Precarious Planet', moderator Lori Stahlbrand is joined by guests: Joshna Maharaj, a chef, social gastronomy activist, educator and host of the Hot Plate podcast; Chris Ramsaroop, an organizer, educator and activist with Justice for Migrant Workers; and Charlotte Big Canoe, partner and membership director at The Full Plate. The four discuss food justice, social gastronomy and the rights of workers from farms and factories to fine-dining and food agencies in these times.

Maharaj explains:

"Social gastronomy is a practice about the power of the kitchen to change lives. Now that is a giant thing to say. But essentially what we're talking about is a growing movement of chefs who are finding really meaningful ways to use our craft to support and nurture communities. It's using our celebrity, our purchasing power and our influence to build a more just and sustainable food system … But also it's about taking the idea of hospitality beyond restaurants, to institutions, to community spaces, and to public policy."

Ramsroop likens the current migrant worker system to that of indentureship:

"People who come to work in Canada are on a Tied Work Permit … They have no labour and social mobility. And once they try to exert their rights or if they get injured and sick, in most cases they're sent home and they will not be so-called, named or able to return back to Canada… [Under] 'agricultural exceptionalism' or 'corporate exceptionalism' … we create something as a crisis, you get rid of all the rules and regulations and you say that the industry can … .ramp up production, bring people to come to work and face no accountability when things hit the fan … We tried to warn people to say, look, you cannot have workers coming to work in Canada under very precarious conditions, people are going to die. Nobody listened. Nobody took the initiatives or steps to protect workers. And lo and behold, we saw what happened during the pandemic and farm workers."

Reflecting on her organization and supporting food industry workers, Big Canoe says:

"So what we want to focus on at The Full Plate is thinking about those little things that might make a difference for you in this role and might make it so that you feel you can stay in hospitality a little bit longer … Often you get to a point where your body can't take it anymore. You're mentally drained. You just want to do something else and kind of exit. And that's a really hard place to be in because it makes it so that people don't value this industry and ..we want people to love it. Because for a restaurant setting, people come to you on their best days. They come to you to celebrate … milestone moments in their life. And they also come in on some of their worst days and they want a little bit of a lift up...It's not just a set of hands bringing food to a table … For the people there to stay in that industry and continue to provide hospitality to others, we have to also give the hospitality back to those folks."

About our guests:

Joshna Maharaj is a chef, a two-time TEDx speaker and activist who wants to help everyone have a better relationship with their food. She believes strongly in the power of chefs and social gastronomy to bring values of hospitality, sustainability, & social justice to the table. Maharaj works with hospitals & schools in Canada to build new models for institutional food service. Her first bookTake Back the Tray (May 2020) captures the lessons and experience from her work in changing institutional food systems around the globe. She is an enthusiastic instructor of both culinary and academic students, constantly finding ways to make food stories come alive. Maharaj hosts Kitchen Helpdesk, a weekly call-in food show on CBC Radio, and she co-hosts a food and drink podcast called HotPlate, currently in its fourth season.

Charlotte Big Canoe is the partner and membership director at The Full Plate, a Toronto based non-profit that provides access to services and supports to hospitality workers in need. The Full Plate was founded in early 2020 by a group of women in the hospitality industry, and has grown to include access to produce boxes or grocery gift cards, wellness programs for hospitality workers, and training focused on inclusive environments in restaurant spaces. Big Canoe is of mixed heritage, with her father's family from the Chippewas of Georgina Island, and her mother's family being Irish settlers. Big Canoe has worked in various roles in the hospitality industry over the past 14 years, with a focus on wine and spirits education.

Chris Ramsaroop is an organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers, a grassroots activist collective that has been organizing with migrant workers for nearly 20 years and whose work is based on building long term trust and relationships with migrant workers and includes: engaging in direct actions, working with workers to resist at work, launching precedent setting legal cases, and organizing numerous collective actions. Ramsaroop is an instructor in the Caribbean Studies Program at the University of Toronto and a clinic instructor at the University of Windsor, Faculty of Law. Ramsaroop is working to complete his PhD at OISE/University of Toronto. Chris is also currently assistant professor at New College, University of Toronto, Community Engaged Learning.

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

Images: Joshna Maharaj, Chris Ramsaroop / Used with permission. Charlotte Big Canoe / https://thefullplate.ca/about.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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 sixth episode of the Courage My Friends podcast, series 4; Ana Guerra Marin, communities director and just transition lead, and lead Indigenous researcher, Dara Wawaite-Chabot discuss the mission of worker-founded Iron & Earth to create pathways for workers from traditional (carbon-based) energy jobs to jobs within renewable energy sectors and how green transition meets climate justice when it comes to the needs of workers, Indigenous communities and the country.

According to Guerra Marin:

"Iron Earth started in the oil sands in Alberta, where some workers were concerned about one of the many boom and busts of the industry cycle. They were also concerned about what they were seeing with the environment … [O]ur mission and vision … right now is to empower fossil fuel workers and Indigenous workers to build and implement the climate solutions required to transition. It's not just the workers. The workers, their family. When a refinery shuts down in a town that affects commerce, education, churches, it affects everything … So we are currently in the process of doing that internal work. Our audience right now is workers, their communities and Indigenous peoples across nations and urban centers."

Wawatie-Chabot explains:

"I work from an Indigenous perspective, given that I'm Algonquin Anishnaabe. I have grown up on the land with my family and I have that relationship with my communities that I'm from … To do any of this work in a just way requires acknowledging the history that Canada has socially, historically, economically, with Indigenous peoples across this land. So what that means for me, is that these relationships are our primary focus.We don't just meet with Indigenous people, we meet with politicians, educators, community leaders, different organizers and frontline activists so that we can assess the needs of everyone living in so-called Canada. The principles around this are really just to highlight the holistic nature of the work that we do. And ensuring a future for all really does mean for all. It's not exclusive."

About the speakers:

Ana Guerra Marin, communities director and just transition lead, started her career in Colombia, listening to and empowering oil, gas and mining workers at various work sites through forming partnerships and understanding worker issues. As Marin delved into the extractive industries, she became more aware of how important it is to address the environmental and socio-economic impacts she was witnessing, and how urgent it is to create long-lasting solutions rooted in community-based initiatives that focus on the most vulnerable persons.

This started a 15-year career focused on helping communities achieve self-determination through social and environmental justice in Latin America and Canada. As a white, cisgender, immigrant woman with invisible disabilities, Marin recognizes her position in the world and challenges societal ideas by creating transformative change through a praxis informed by intersectional and Black feminism, womanism, critical race theory, Indigenous Peoples' knowledge, decolonization, and critical consciousness.

Dara Wawaite-Chabot, Indigenous lead researcher, is a single parent who studies political science full-time at the University of Ottawa and works part-time for Iron & Earth. They support their small family by creating art and working remote contracts fighting for environmental justice in so-called Canada.

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

Image: Ana Guerra Marin and Dara Wawaite-Chabot / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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

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

Special Thanks fo Joel Ornoy, Iron and Earth

Host: Resh Budhu.

In our fifth episode of this season of Courage My Friends, we revisit the George Brown College Labour Fair. This year, the theme of the fair is: The other P3s: pandemic, privatization, precarity,,, and planet!!

In this episode, we share the panel discussion on 'Gig Workers and Precarity in the 21st Century.' Moderator Jon Weier is joined by panelists Simran Dhunna and Jobanjeet Kaur of the Naujawan Support Network and Jennifer Scott from Gig Workers United. The groups discusses the tribulations faced by those working in precarious and gig jobs, increasingly exploitative employment structures and organizing for the rights and dignity of vulnerable workers.

Reflecting on the meaning of exploitation for precarious workers, especially international students and immigrant workers, Kaur says:

"Exploitation involves taking from workers that is rightfully ours. Wage theft, sexual harassment, inadequate job training, threats of deportation are all the forms of exploitation because they rob us of our earnings, safety and dignity.Sometimes people just take it as we are not being paid and it's just exploitation of our money or something. No, it's also the exploitation for the dignity of a worker. Because we go there professionally, work and put in the hours and everything, and it's like they take our dignity away when they refuse to pay us."

Speaking to the situation facing gig workers in Ontario, Scott says:

"Gig workers are misclassified workers. And so that means that we don't have basic workers' rights and protections … because apps, you know, our bosses, are disrupting employment standards and putting downward pressure on wages, on employment standards, on working conditions, not just for gig workers, but for all workers in the delivery and logistics sector … Bill-88 was something that apps like Uber and other bad bosses lobbied quite aggressively for … because it creates a standalone piece of legislation with separate and lesser protections, which really reinforces the narrative that apps use, that gig workers are not real workers."

When it comes to organizing workers, Dhunna says:

"There's the legal realm and then there's the realm in the streets. We don't rely on lawsuits or kind of the legal system to build our power, but it is a reality. It is a tool and a weapon that is used by employers just as they have done with Bill-88, and with other legal mechanisms to silence workers. And it's not something that's going to intimidate workers, of course. We're thankful for some of the support that's come from other labour organizations and publications like Briar Patch, because this is kind of the way we've begun to connect with groups … that are waging similar struggles across the country."

About our guests:

Simran Dhunna is currently studying medicine at Queen's University. She is a member of Naujawan Support Network.

Jobanjeet Kaur is a former international student who immigrated from Panjab in 2018. She was an active organizer in the Alpha College protests, and is now a member of Naujawan Support Network.

Jennifer Scott is a gig worker and the President of Gig Workers United CUPW. She began delivering on apps in 2017 as a bicycle courier. She was a member in the Justice for Foodora Couriers CUPW campaign where workers won the right to unionize with 90% of workers voting YES to their union.

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

Images: Simran Dhunna, Jobanjeet Kaur, Jennifer Scott / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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.

Our latest episode of Courage My Friends takes its inspiration from friend and guest William Woolrich as he begins his search for a living kidney donor. He and Candice Coghlan, education and outreach coordinator for the University Health Network Ajmera Transplant Centre and host of the Living Transplant podcast, discuss the search for and ultimate gift of living organ donations.

Speaking to how non-related or anonymous donors can help shorten the organ transplant waiting list, Coghlan says:

"So these are people who have no connection to the recipient at all. They don't know them, but they decide to step forward out of the goodness of their heart, and they donate either a portion of their liver or a kidney to anyone who is in need, who would be a compatible match to them. ..For kidneys also, they can donate into the Paired Exchange Program.. that happens through the Canadian Blood Services; where if someone has a donor who is a healthy, great candidate, but they're not compatible with their recipient, they can go into this "chain" we call it, and they can swap kidneys… There's an algorithm that happens about three times a year that matches people across the country with donors. And so these anonymous donors can also donate into that pool. Which means not only is someone getting a kidney, but it's taking someone off that wait-list as well."

As Woolrich begins his search for a living kidney transplant, he reflects on the meaning of living organ donations:

"[Even] if you aren't a match for me, you might be matched for someone. And, you know, I can't describe the gift that you would be giving to someone that you may not ever meet. ..you have managed to save their life. I mean, how many of us can say that, that we managed to save a life somehow. And this does that. So I really, really encourage people to get involved. .. Look at the resources that Candice mentioned, that you're going to post, Resh on the podcast. And really consider it. Because it does mean the world to someone. And I think that it provides that sense of altruism, a reward even to the giver as well. There is a feeling that someone can get, that I'm sure is indescribable from having saved a life."

If you are interested in finding out more or becoming a donor for William or someone else, please visit these links:

Welcome to the Ajmera Transplant Centre (uhn.ca)

Living Donor Transplant Program Donor Health History Form (uhn.ca)

GREAT ACTIONS LEAVE A MARK | UHN

[email protected]

And check out the Living Transplant Podcast (uhn.ca) hosted by Candice Coghlan.

About our guests:

William Woolrich has had kidney disease since he was a teenager as a result of an autoimmune disorder. More recently, he has needed to go on peritoneal dialysis and is hopeful of a transplant. He earned his Doctorate in Education in 2019 from York University. Although currently on long term disability, he is a full-time professor at George Brown College in the Social Service Worker program. He is married and the father of two.

Candice Coghlan is the education and outreach coordinator for the Centre for Living Organ Donation at UHN's Ajmera Transplant Centre. She is also the host of the Living Transplant podcast. Coghlan not only works in the world of organ donation, but her passion also comes from her lived experience. When Coghlan was 24 years old, she was a crash start onto hemodialysis, with no prior knowledge of renal disease. She did both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. After 15 months, Coghlan's mother became her kidney donor, giving her a second chance at life. Since then, Coghlan has accomplished many things, including finishing her degree, getting married, travelling, and welcoming a healthy baby girl in 2021.

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

Image: William Woolrich and Candice Coghlan / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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, Jaime Kirkpatrick, senior program manager of Blue Green Canada, discusses the need for a Just Transition, what it should look like for labour, and how Canada is doing in its move toward a clean energy economy.

Speaking to joint climate and labour demands and the idea of a Just Transition, Kirkpatrick says:

"Blue Green and a number of allies have been advocating ...the idea of buying clean..You're keeping people employed here at home. You're keeping plants up and running … It's 100 per cent about keeping jobs, reducing the carbon, building out a future together … If everyone is struggling to get by, you are living paycheck to paycheck and if that paycheck disappears, you're in deep trouble. And that's why we talked about the care economy … the importance of good union jobs and all of these things that don't always necessarily seem to be connected, but they very much are … Change is inevitable, but justice is not."

About the speaker:

Jamie Kirkpatrick is the senior program manager for Blue Green Canada, an organization founded in 2010 by an alliance of Canadian labour unions, environmental groups, and civil society organizations. Blue Green Canada advocates for working people and the environment by promoting solutions to environmental issues that have positive employment and economic impacts. Kirkpatrick has over 25 years of campaign, research, and leadership experience, running successful campaigns related to climate change, public transit equity, air quality, and protecting natural spaces. Prior to moving west to Saskatoon, Jamie was the chief of staff to Toronto city councillors' Mike Layton and Shelley Carroll. Jamie is a graduate of the University of Toronto with an Honours BA focused on environmental studies and environment and resource management where he studied under the late Jack Layton.

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

Image: Jamie Kirkpatrick / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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.

The second episode of this season, features a recording of the keynote address delivered by past president of the Canadian Labour Congress, Senator Hassan Yussuff at George Brown College's 31st annual Labour Fair.

Anchoring a week of labour focused discussions and speaking to George Brown College students and faculty, the Senator focuses on this year's theme, 'The other P3s: pandemic, privatization, precarity,,, and planet!!'

Reflecting on federal workers delivery of CERB during the pandemic, the Senator says:

"Those workers, six weeks it took them to create that program, to build it from scratch and to make sure it was working so we can get people money ... That's never happened in the history of this country ... Everybody always says, 'The public service cannot perform to the speed of the private sector.' Well, guess what? In the pandemic, it was the public service that was there looking after Canadians and meeting the needs of Canadians.. we need to recognize that because these are working men and women in our country that we need to celebrate."

In terms of workers' rights during and after the pandemic, the Senators asks:

"How is it that we asked workers to go to work day in and day out and that workers don't have access to paid sick days in this country? ... Many of the workers who are working in grocery stores and other places are in precarious jobs ... It speaks to the need for reform to our employment standards. How we can get those workers to be treated in a fair way and of course to have fundamental rights when they go to work. Because the dignity of work is fundamental to the kind of economy we want to build in this country."

The Senator remarks on one of the hypocrisies of the gig economy:

"Why does the corner-store person who operates a business and employs people have to contribute to EI and CPP for their employees, but yet a corporation as large as Uber, as an example, doesn't have to contribute because they say 'The people who work for us are not our employees.' How is that right? And how is it fair? How could you tell the corner-store that they have to comply with employment standards, but yet none of that applies to a large corporation such as Uber? I think it speaks volumes to the challenges we face."

Speaking on the possibility for change, the Senator says:

"I learned a long time ago that without tension, there is no change.If you want the status quo to remain, do nothing. If you want it to change, you'll create some tensions. And it's necessary, by the way. That's how we achieve change. And the systems that are wrong and are unfair to working people in this country can be changed."

The video recording of the Senator's address is also featured on rabbleTV.

About the speaker:

Hassan Yussuff was appointed to the Senate of Canada to represent Ontario in June 2021 and sits as a member of the Independent Senators Group.

Senator Yussuff is one of Canada's most experienced labour leaders. An immigrant from Guyana, he has had a long and accomplished career as a union activist, recently serving two terms as the president of the Canadian Labour Congress from 2014-2021; the first person of colour to lead Canada's labour movement. In addition to his work in Canada, Yussuff is a prominent international activist. In 2016, he was elected for his second term as president of the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, an organization uniting 48 national organizations and representing more than 55 million workers in 21 countries. Yussuff has also served on numerous task forces and organizations, including the Government of Canada's NAFTA Council and its Sustainable Development Advisory Council, and co-chair of the Task Force on Just Transition for Canadian Coal Power Workers and Communities.

Senator Yussuff is a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce, the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, and the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs.

Introduction to Senator by George Brown College president, Gervan Fearon.

Session Moderator, Susan Heximer.

Student Vote of Thanks: Danesh Hanbury.

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

Image: Senator Hassan Yussuff / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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 the first episode of our fourth series, we welcome CLiFF (Canadian Labour International Film Festival board members, Lorene Oikawa and Derek Blackadder and George Brown College faculty and organizer with the Labour Fair, Kathryn Payne.

We discuss the importance of bringing labour education to post-secondary and wider communities through the 31st annual Labour Fair at Toronto's George Brown College (organized by the School of Labour and the Tommy Douglas Institute) and its collaboration with the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF). This episode sets the stage for the re-airing of major Labour Fair events on this podcast as well as on rabbleTV over the coming weeks.

Reflecting on the Labour Fair at George Brown College, Payne says:

"The Labour Fair initially was meant to make sure that working class students .. had some knowledge of the unions in their sectors so .. they could find folks who could help them out and who could represent them. And also teach them the basics of organizing. Right? I mean, the main thing that we are always teaching is that we are stronger as a collective.…Our theme this year is P3s, so Pandemic, Privatization, and Precarity. But in our conversations, both with teachers and amongst each other, we've also sort of added a fourth P, which is the Planet."

Speaking to the importance of CLiFF in these times, Blackadder says:

"Its ongoing relevance is that it shows working people a mirror. .. it lets them look at a film that represents them in some way, shape or form.That will allow them to ..make that connection that in that bigger world, workers have a great deal more in common, than they do those things that divide us."

Oikawa points to issues that demand attention:

"There's still that issue about workers' rights, workers' safety, having fair wages, safe workplaces for workers - ongoing, still needs scrutiny. Environmental issues… That's the brilliance of CLiFF. A number of issues will continue to be reflected in the films that we show at our labor Film Festival, but have been shown as well….There's never a point where, 'oh, we're done. We don't need to know our history.' We have to continue to know our history."

About today's guests:

Lorene Oikawa is on the board of the Canadian Labour International Film Festival and helps organize screenings in British Columbia. She started volunteering for CLiFF in its inaugural year, 15 years ago. She is past president on the board of the National Association of Japanese Canadians and a human rights activist. Lorene is a fourth generation Japanese Canadian and a descendant of survivors of the forced uprooting, dispossession, incarceration, and exile from 1942 to 1949. She is a co-editor of the book, Honouring Our People: Breaking the Silence. She was the first Asian Canadian executive vice president for the BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU).

Derek Blackadder spent over 30 years working for several trade unions in a variety of roles. He currently volunteers with LabourStart, writes the Webwork column for Our Times Magazine, is Co-Chair of the Northumberland (ON) Coalition for Social Justice and is a contributor to RadioLabour. He combines his commitment to the labour movement and his love of film by serving on the board of the Canadian Labour International Film Festival (CLiFF).

Kathryn Payne is a full-time educator in the School of Labour at George Brown College in Toronto. Her areas of interest include labour and working class culture, women's work, diversity and sexuality studies, colonialism, and neoliberalism. Her work for the School of Labour is multifaceted: she designs curricula, liaises with union educators, teaches General Education courses at George Brown, and helps organize the annual George Brown Labour Fair. She has also been active in the sex worker rights movement, queer activism and was one of the founding members of George Brown's Positive Space Campaign.

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

Image: / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy); Injila Rajab Khan and Danesh Hanbury (Street Voices)

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.