Needs No Introduction

In the third episode of the Courage My Friends podcast, Series III, Dania Majid, director of the Tenant Duty Council Program at the Advocacy Center for Tenants Ontario (ACTO); John Ecker, director of Research and Evaluation at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness; and Haydar Shouly, senior manager of Shelters and Shelter Programs with Dixon Hall discuss the current crisis of housing insecurity and homelessness facing our most vulnerable communities.

Ecker describes some of the ingredients of the housing crisis: "In Toronto we're seeing an emergency shelter system that's stretched to the limit, which is turning people away because there aren't enough beds available. ..We're seeing a significant increase in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness or homelessness lasting six months or longer in Toronto…About half of people accessing emergency shelters can be defined as chronically homeless. We're also seeing a burnt out workforce that is leaving the homeless system for other opportunities.

We're seeing a social housing wait-list that continues to grow due to the lack of housing stock that is being created. Rising rental costs, which is even pushing people out of not just the housing market, but the rental market as well. There's a lack of rental control measures put in place by the provincial government, allowing landlords to increase rent without that typical government oversight on units that were built after 2018."

Reflecting on how the pandemic impacted Toronto shelters, Shouly recalls: "So I remember early 2020, probably February, March 2020 when we started to feel the heat of this pandemic. We had 91 people at Heyworth House, a hundred people at 351 Lake Shore. And we were talking about 2 to 3 feet apart. And that was just not feasible anymore. It was a disaster to keep people in that kind of environment. So collectively as a sector, and the city obviously led that, we moved clients from the traditional shelters and respites to hotels. The city secured a number of hotels to create that kind of social distancing that we were talking about in early 2020. It was really difficult. It was complicated to try to make that move. To transport people to a hotel. And trying to use the city's transport vehicles or taxis... It was a really challenging kind of reality. But with that action, I think we managed to keep the numbers of positive cases low and we managed to create social distancing in those programs. But I think moving people from where they were in congregate settings into more isolated rooms in hotel programs, we actually created new sets of challenges.."

Speaking to the financialization of the housing market, Majid says, "Companies like Blackstone, and they're definitely not the only one, they do see housing as an investment vehicle, and that's their primary lens on housing.

So what we've seen these types of companies doing is what I call "home hoardership"; they are just accumulating homes just for the sake of accumulating these homes.

It deprives people like first time home-owners and renters from accessing these homes. And it's driving the cost of the housing up. What we're seeing in Canada has been happening in the United States for a lot longer and it's a little bit more terrifying when you start putting the pieces together and it's technically already here.

About today's guests:

Dania Majid is a staff lawyer and director of the Tenant Duty Counsel Program at the Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, a legal aid clinic in Ontario. Prior to joining ACTO, Dania was a legal analyst with the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, and a lawyer with the Human Rights Legal Support Centre and Neighbourhood Legal Services. She is also the founder and executive member of the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association and the Toronto Palestine Film Festival and sits on the steering committee of the Hearing Palestine program at the University of Toronto. Dania is also the lead author of ACLA's 2022 report "Anti-Palestinian Racism: Naming, Framing and Manifestations."

John Ecker, PhD is the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. In this role, he has been fortunate to collaborate with a number of community partners on their research and evaluation activities. He attained his Ph.D. in Community Psychology from the University of Ottawa where he received advanced training in qualitative and quantitative analyses, as well as program evaluation theory and practice. His research interests are varied and include homelessness, housing, Housing First, community integration, and LGBTQ2S studies. In his spare time, John is an avid tennis player/fan and has a love of pop culture.

Haydar Shouly, is Senior Manager of Shelters and Shelter Programs with Dixon Hall in Toronto. Haydar spent more than 18 years in the Community Development, Housing & Homelessness sector with stints in Youth Homelessness Supports, Housing Advocacy, Food Security and Newcomer Settlement sectors. Most recently, he has been working and advocating to enhance the well-being of marginalized and vulnerable populations in our community. In the past 14 years, Haydar's work at Dixon Hall has been focussed on building strategic responses to homelessness in the City of Toronto, primarily in partnership with the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) Division.

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

Image: Dania Majid, John Ecker, Haydar Shouly / Used with Permission

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (voice of Tommy Douglas); Kenneth Okoro, Liz Campos Rico, Tsz Wing Chau (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 second episode of the Courage My Friends podcast, Series III, Jhoey Dulaca (caregiver and organizer with the Migrant Workers' Alliance for Change), Ethel Tungohan (Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism) and Chris Ramsaroop (activist and organizer with Justicia for Migrant Workers) discuss temporary foreign workers in Canada, the multiple and barriers they face and the struggle for recognition, rights and belonging.

Speaking to the situation facing foreign migrant workers, Dulaca says, "In the beginning it was a dream. It's not what happens in reality. The promise of Canada is when you get in, you are allowed to apply for permanent residence. That's the selling point, why I came here… They allow you to come here, but they won't allow you to have permanent status. And with permanent status, you are exercising your rights."

Dulaca continued: "A lot of these people are tied to their employers. When I was working as a caregiver, I was tied to my employer and I couldn't do anything. If I was being abused, I couldn't just go and look for [other] work. Just like the farm workers, they're tied to their employers and the system is made for them to shut up. First and foremost migrants come here to support their family. ..That's what makes it hard for workers to stand up for their rights."

As Tungohan says, the situation facing these workers is structured into the system itself: "The thing about Canada that I find very perplexing is that it's always been constructed as a liberal immigrant receiving state. And to a certain extent that's true, but only for certain groups of people. So the easiest way to think about Canadian immigration policies is that there's citizen-track immigration and non-citizen- track immigration. And I would argue that temporary labor migrants tend to fall [in] the latter group."

On speaking to the need for organized resistance, Ramsaroop says: "It's about the role of power and asymmetrical power imbalances..There are no industry specific regulations. And coupled with this constant threat of deportation and permanent loss of work, this is why workers are .. working at heights without protections, being sprayed with pesticides and chemicals, working at a peace-rate system which has numerous and multiple forms of injuries on their bodies.So it is critically important to see this as structural violence .. This is an entire system that's been built to meet the needs of the employers, not thinking about the needs of workers. And this is why trying to build power across the industry and across all forms of temporary work is necessary and essential to change the power imbalance that exists."

About today's guests:

Ethel Tungohan is the Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism, and associate professor of Politics and Social Science at York University. She has also been appointed as a Broadbent Institute fellow. Previously, she was the Grant Notley Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alberta's Department of Political Science.

Her research looks at migrant labor, specifically assessing migrant activism. Her forthcoming book, "From the Politics of Everyday Resistance to the Politics from Below," won the 2014 National Women's Studies Association First Book Prize. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Politics, Groups, and Identities, and Canadian Ethnic Studies. She is also one of the editors of "Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility," which was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2012. Dr. Tungohan specializes in socially engaged research and is actively involved in grassroots migrant organizations such as Gabriela-Ontario and Migrante-Canada.

Joelyn Dulaca is a careworker organizer with Migrant Workers Alliance for a Change which is a coalition of migrant careworkers, healthcare workers, farmworkers and international students. A former careworker herself, who had to work away from her children to chase the Canadian dream; she had experienced the struggles of working as a live-in caregiver and is now dedicated to organize caregivers to fight for better immigration, labour laws and permanent status for all.

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.

Chris 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.

Image: Ethel Tungohan, Jhoey Dulaca, Chris Ramsaroop / Used with Permission

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (voice of Tommy Douglas); Kenneth Okoro, Liz Campos Rico, Tsz Wing Chau (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 third season, JP Hornick, President of OPSEU/SEFPO and Dr. Naheed Dosani, Palliative Care Physician and Health Justice Activist, discuss the current crisis facing public healthcare in Ontario and the alarming turn toward the privatization of our healthcare systems by those prioritizing profit over patients.

In speaking to the ways in which the healthcare crisis is both the result and rationale for erosion and greater privatization, JP Hornick says: "...you've got a kind of perfect storm that COVID maximized a crisis that was already existing. Decreased funding, unanticipated service costs, then you throw in on top of that supply-chain issues, particularly around PPE, but also, tools and resources. And then you've got an ongoing problem with recruitment and retention of staff. These are the new realities that hospitals have to tackle at the same time, trying to care for patients. And they're not allowed to carry deficits. So in the absence of additional funding, it means that the choices that hospitals regularly resort to are service cuts in order to try and balance budgets.But all this comes back to a very simple thing. It is a failure to adequately fund healthcare, both before and during the pandemic. And then the deterioration of the public system that results is used as an excuse in itself for increased privatization."

According to Dosani: "...often conversations like this can get tucked away in the category of health policy. This is about much more. This is about our way of life. This is about our way of being. This is really an attack on the common good that is so core and foundational to what it means to be Canadian…Public healthcare is a national treasure that makes us unique on the world stage. That really allows us to say to each other, I care about you.

And I care about you so much that I will pay into a collective pool with you to care for you. Even if I don't get sick, I care for you. And that doesn't just emanate in the healthcare world and the healthcare sphere that affects the way we treat each other. We care for each other. We communicate with each other…And that is worth saving. That is worth protecting."

About today's guest:

Prior to being elected president of OPSEU/SEFPO (Ontario Public Service Employees Union), JP Hornick was chief steward for more than a decade within the College Faculty Division, representing instructors at Ontario's 24 public colleges. She chaired the College Faculty bargaining teams in 2017 and 2021-22.

JP grew up in a family of public service workers – educators, correctional workers and many more. She is a labour educator and previously served as the coordinator of the School of Labour at George Brown College. She has served as chair, treasurer and director on several community boards and has been on the front lines of activism to advance issues of equity, women's rights, LGBTTIQQ2S rights, anti-racism and decolonization.

JP was elected OPSEU/SEFPO President in April 2022 on a platform that includes strengthening union democracy, building bargaining power, ensuring financial responsibility, fostering an inclusive union culture, and deepening connections to the labour movement and community.

As a palliative care physician and health justice activist, Dr. Naheed Dosani is dedicated to advancing equitable access to healthcare for people experiencing structural vulnerabilities like poverty and homelessness. He founded the Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH) Program at the Inner City Health Associates, serves as the Health Equity Lead at Kensington Health in downtown Toronto and provides palliative care at St. Michael's Hospital at Unity Health Toronto. He is also an assistant professor with the department of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Dosani is the recipient of numerous awards including the Meritorious Service Cross for Humanitarianism from Canada's Governor General (2018), a humanitarian award from the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (2019) and the Early Career Leader award from the Canadian Medical Association (2020). In 2022 he received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from Ontario Tech University.

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

Image: JP Hornick and Naheed Dosani / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Kenneth Okoro, Liz Campos Rico, Tsz Wing Chau.

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 final episode of our summer series, climate justice organizer and activist Aliya Hirji and National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, Mari Dolcetti-Koros, discuss the global climate crisis, its impacts on our younger populations and the ways in which youth are organizing and taking leadership in securing a truly just and sustainable world for us all.

In speaking to the need for youth leadership, Hirji says:

"I think I hear a lot from world leaders, the phrase like "young people are leaders of the future", but the truth is that we are the leaders of right now. There's so much on every scale - local, national, international - so much of this climate action and this ambition and real progressive ideas that are coming from young people. I think young people have an insane amount of optimism and passion and drive that you may not see from other generations. … I think that our optimism and our outlook on life is really unique. And because we have so much of our lives ahead of us, well, hopefully ahead of us, that's going to be affected by the climate crisis, I think that we take it very seriously and that we are incredibly motivated to do something about this. And given that young people are going to be incredibly affected by the climate crisis, .. people of color, marginalized communities - I think that leadership needs to be held by the most affected people…"

Connecting a just transition to student debt, Dolcetti-Koros says,

"I think it's really important to acknowledge that the reality of the exorbitant cost of tuition in Canada right now, and the student debt crisis, which is in the billions of dollars just in federal debt, is very much tied to a form of classism. And when we're imagining and building a world beyond capitalism, we really need to take stock and evaluate and I would say democratize the access to knowledge and evaluate different forms of knowledges that have been subjugated; particularly Indigenous knowledges. I think a lot of folks are doing this work. A lot of scholars are doing this work. And there are lots of avenues or bridges to explore when thinking about how we evaluate our education system and how we can imagine a different, better, stronger one that is a pillar of a just and livable future."

About today's guest:

Aliya Hirji is a 17-year-old Indian-Canadian woman and climate justice activist in pursuit of a socially inclusive response to the climate crisis. She often works in the climate divestment movement, challenging individuals, governments, banks, and more to divest from fossil fuels. She is very passionate about ensuring the climate justice movement is anti-racist, anti-patriarchal and anti-colonial. In 2021, Aliya was recognized by Corporate Knights as one of Canada's Top 30 Under 30 Sustainability Leaders. She is about to start a dual arts degree with Sciences PO and UBC, where she wants to study Politics and Environmental Sustainability. Aliya is also working with Banking on a Better Future.

Marie Dolcetti-Koros is the National Chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students, back with the Federation after completing a first term as National Treasurer. Marie studied Contemporary Philosophy and Political Science in Halifax, starting in the student movement with the King's Students Union. One of her first experiences of student organizing was taking over the lobby of the main administrative building on campus with Divest Dal. Marie finds energy and strength in knowing that young people are an integral part of shaping a just and livable future. She firmly believes that education is a public good and that free and accessible education for all is possible.

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

Images: Aliya Hirji (photographer, Joshua Best) and Marie Dolcetti-Koros / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (Podcast Announcer), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth.

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

Host: Resh Budhu

For the first segment of this special two-part episode, climate justice activist and originator of Land Back, Bryanna Brown discusses the critical need for Indigenous rights and ways of knowing and youth leadership to combat a climate crisis rooted in systems of colonial oppression and capitalist greed.

Making the connection between climate and colonialism, Bryanna Brown says:

"One quote that Indigenous Climate Action uses that I really like is: 'Colonialism caused climate change; Indigenous Rights are the solution.' We are left out from so many spaces and so many decision making processes and tables throughout history. Because our culture is to protect the land. I think Indigenous Peoples are very important to be investing in, in terms of being able to come up with solutions, not false solutions, actual solutions to the climate crisis. But because of the colonial violence that we continue to experience and because it is a culture of honoring profit over people; it's really, really hard to get a say when your values are rooted in protecting the land and protecting something of non-market value. And it's not just the responsibility of Black, Indigenous, People of the Global Majority to do that; allies are really, really, really important. There's so many things that we need to deconstruct or decolonize, or just eliminate entirely from our practices and systems and policies to be able to get to a place of having ways to come together to find solutions."

Reflecting on the power of Land Back, Brown says:

"I was really, really impressed by how it had gained so many different definitions, but very similar definitions across organizations … And I think it's extremely important that it is about the collective energy of Indigenous Peoples and our allies, Black and Indigenous Peoples and People of Color who are protecting the land throughout the world. I was really surprised that it was a global movement. And something that I really noticed was the solidarity that began to grow amongst so many people because of it. And for me, it was really about consent and Free Prior and Informed Consent over our land and our body."

About today's guest:

Brown is Inuk and Mi'kmaq from Nunatsiavut, Labrador. She is the originator of the Land Back movement and advocates for the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples, as well as Black and People of Colour communities and land ownership and reclamation as a means of environmental protection and self-determination. Bryanna is a traditional storyteller, knowledge-keeper and public speaker. She is on the National Steering Committee and Climate Policy Advisory Council of Indigenous Climate Action and is currently working with the Keepers of the Circle and the Climate Emergency Unit with the David Suzuki Foundation to establish a Just Transition campaign in Newfoundland and Labrador. She consults on anti-human trafficking and advocates for the rights of women, Indigenous Peoples Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and environmental injustice in relation to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and persons with disabilities.

The Courage My Friends podcast series is a co-production between The Tommy Douglas Institute (at George Brown College), rabble.ca, with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation.

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

Image: Bryanna Brown / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (Podcast Announcer), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth.

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

Host: Resh Budhu

In the sixth episode, Linda McQuaig and Ian Thomson discuss the rising fortunes of the billionaire class amid shrinking incomes and opportunities for the vast majority before and during the pandemic.

In speaking about the impacts of billionaires on our democratic systems, McQuaig says, "this accumulation of wealth in the hands of billionaires... It's not just that it's tremendously unfair, which of course it is, it's that it gives them so much political power that they get to effectively control the world… The wealthy corporate elite now has so much power that it can effectively block any kind of collective action. And that's exactly what they're doing. The reason that there isn't progress on climate change isn't that the public is resistant. The public would actually like there to be action on climate change. It's the immensely powerful interests in the fossil fuel industries that are single-handedly blocking that.... it's not just unfair they have all that money; it's detrimental to the survival of the human race… So when I talk about a wealth tax, I'm not just talking about it so we can get money from them. I'm talking about a wealth tax that will curb their political power, economic and political power. So they can't control things and prevent us from taking the collective action we need to take."

According to Thomson, and the most recent Oxfam International report Inequality Kills "Whether it's from the climate disasters that are taking lives. Whether it's the vaccine inequality that means that COVID-19 is taking more lives - these are deaths that could be easily prevented if we had a more equitable vaccine distribution. And people are also being pushed to the brink of extreme hunger and actually are dying of starvation. These are the sorts of real-life impacts of this extreme wealth inequality, largely in the lowest income countries, but also lower income people in all countries are suffering from. And when you take the numbers, you just see that actually people are dying every four minutes due to inequality. The numbers are so staggering that it is hard to wrap your head around what kind of suffering this is bringing about."

About today's guests:

Award-winning journalist and activist Linda McQuaig is also the author of best-selling books, including: Shooting the Hippo: Death by Deficit and Other Canadian Myths; It's the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet; The Trouble with Billionaires (co-authored with Neil Brooks) and most recently The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada's Public Wealth. A long-time and powerful voice of dissent against economic injustice and extremes of wealth, Linda has been described as "an indispensable public intellectual" and "an irritant to Canada's 1%" one of whom, Conrad Black, even suggested that she be "horse-Whipped".

Ian Thomson leads Oxfam Canada's work on government relations, corporate engagement and feminist policy influencing in Canada and internationally. Prior to joining Oxfam, he coordinated the human rights and natural resources program of a national ecumenical coalition and chaired the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability. He is a board member of MiningWatch Canada and the Maquila Solidarity Network, and holds engineering degrees from Queen's University and the University of Toronto.

The Courage My Friends podcast series is a co-production between The Tommy Douglas Institute (at George Brown College), rabble.ca, with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation.

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

Image: Linda McQuaig and Ian Thomson / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (Podcast Announcer), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra,

Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth.

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

Host: Resh Budhu

In the fifth episode, historian, researcher, celebrated writer and executive director of Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research, Vijay Prashad discusses the standard of double standards that have long plagued the relationship between the power-holding centres of the Global North and the world's majority of the Global South.

Vijay Prashad describes the Tri-Continental Institute for Social Research as: "associated with this project of internationalism. And our agenda as a research institute is essentially to amplify the voices of movements. To bridge the gap between movements and intellectual activity and to create a kind of intellectualism that develops its confidence, its clarity from the lessons learnt by people in struggle. .. We see ourselves rooted in a very long tradition that goes back to early scholarship in the 19th century ... Dadabhai Naoroji who in the 19th century contested British colonial claims about a mission civilization in Britain ... We see ourselves in the tradition of the Pan-African scholars; people of course like WEB DuBois, later Walter Rodney, CLR James, and so on. People who tried to make the argument very strongly about not only how the histories of parts of the world were set aside, not only that; but even the kind of values that begin to dominate in the stories we tell ourselves. Values that essentially shaped the world through the eyes of the West."

In speaking of the Global North's attitude toward the Global South amid converging crises, Prashad says, "To my mind, the callous attitude towards the pandemic is equivalent to the callous attitude towards arms-sales is equivalent to the callous attitude to climate change is equivalent to the callous attitude towards austerity. It's all one and the same. And it comes from this sense of superiority and this sense of being somehow immune from the challenges of the world."

About today's guest:

Executive Director of Tri-Continental 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.

Check out Tri-Continental publications discussed in this interview:

CoronaShock and Patriarchy

A Plan to Save the Planet

The Courage My Friends podcast series is a co-production between The Tommy Douglas Institute (at George Brown College), rabble.ca, with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation.

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

Image: Vijay Prashad / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (Podcast Announcer), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote).

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth.

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

Host: Resh Budhu

In the fourth episode, we discuss the upcoming report from the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation on Mental Health and Wellness in the Workplace with project leads Jon Weier and Tom Parkin.

In speaking to the necessity of this report, Jon Weier says "..this is really a systemic issue. Mental health impacts or mental distress is something that affects many, many workers. We specifically are looking at how this is related to the workplace and to the idea of work. But of course, as you and others have pointed out on this podcast and in other places, mental health distress over a number of issues is really becoming almost a defining factor of our age. And I think as a result, this kind of research and this kind of examination and understanding of the impacts of our society more broadly on mental health is a really, really important direction to be going right now in this research."

"It's not just that people struggle with mental health effects because of the workplace though, the research is clearly there. But people who are not working, people who are struggling with paying the bills, people who are raised in households where they don't have enough food. People who live in households where there's just a lack of income. The research over and over again showed that these were neighborhoods that had higher levels of depression, anxiety, mental health distress, than in more affluent neighborhoods. So if we're going to say, yes unions should be involved in this; the kind of unionism probably the three of us believe in, isn't just about the union's own members, but about a broader social agenda," says Tom Parkin.

About today's guests:

Jonathan Weier is a professor in The School of Labor and The School of Liberal Arts and Sciences at George Brown College. An established historian and educator, policy professional and commentator on social and labor movements, his research focuses on voluntary organizations, trade unions, political parties and other efforts by workers, social activists, and reformers to achieve progressive political, social and economic goals. Jon has been active in the labor movement and in Left politics for over 20 years and is currently a board member and the academic advisor for the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation.

Tom Parkin is Principle with Impact Strategies and former Managing Director of Ontario's Worker's Health and Safety Center. A frequent political columnist and media commentator, Tom has contributed to print, radio and television news media across Canada.

The report on Mental Health and Wellness in the Workplace will be released by the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation

The Courage My Friends podcast is a co-production between The Tommy Douglas Institute (at George Brown College), rabble.ca, with the support of the Douglas Coldwell Layton Foundation

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

Image: Jon Weier and Tom Parkin / Used with permission.

Excerpt from "Home" by Warsan Shire

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth

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

Host: Resh Budhu

In the third episode, we speak with Loly Rico of the FCJ Refugee Centre and Rachel Bryce, from the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers about the multiple issues facing those fleeing poverty, destabilization, the borderless crises of conflict and climate change and the responsibility of Canada to provide asylum.

"Refugee is defined as someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on five grounds. Those grounds are: race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. But as you so rightly point out, climate is not one of those," says Rachel Bryce.

"I think that Canada being a signatory country is violating the Refugee Convention. Because the convention says that anyone who shows up at your borders, you must provide access for protection. And with the Safe Third Country Agreement, they don't provide that. They just limited the access for protection to too many people," says Loly Rico.

About today's guest:

Loly Rico is executive director of the FCJ Refugee Center in Toronto, which she co-founded with her husband, human rights activist Francisco Rico-Martinez, who sadly passed away last year. From her own experience as both a refugee to Canada from El Salvador through her work, including as past president of OCASI, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and the Canadian Council for Refugees, she is a steadfast and powerful voice on anti-trafficking and refugee rights and status.

Rachel Bryce is the co-chair of the Climate Migration Working Group for the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers or CARL. She has worked at landings, LLP, a leading immigration refugee and human rights law firm in Toronto since January, 2021. And before that in the international migration law unit of the UN migration agency in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as the International Development law organization in the Hague, the Netherlands. She holds a Juris Doctorate, Masters of Global Affairs joint degree from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. CARL Climate Migration Report

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

Image: Loly Rico and Rachel Bryce / Used with permission.

Excerpt from "Home" by Warsan Shire

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth.

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

Host: Resh Budhu

In the second episode, we speak with Ashlee Cunsolo, a leading voice on climate change and ecological grief, about the growing issue of ecological grief, how it is being experienced and the power that can come from mourning.

"For so many people all over the world and particularly Indigenous Peoples all over the world, this connection to the environment, this grieving over the loss of more than humans - whether they're plants or animals or ecosystems - that kinship with other beings and then grieving other beings is certainly not new," Cunsolo says.

Cunsolo continues: "If we are facing 'code red for humanity' - if we are facing 1 million species at a risk of extinction and decline; that is an era of loss and damage. And that is an era of grief. And we're going to be called to grief-work. And we're going to have to do this together. And do it hopefully in a way that doesn't cause more harm, but actually might bring us together for big ethical and political changes. And for really uniting people to create a different future."

About today's guest:

Ashlee Cunsolo is the founding Dean of the School of Arctic and Sub-Arctic Studies of the Labrador Institute of Memorial University, a former Canada Research Chair, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Artists, Scholars, and Scientists. She is a leading voice internationally on climate change, mental health and ecological grief, a regular contributor to media and policy and editor of Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Grief and Loss. She is a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, and partner, living and learning as a guest on the homelands of the Innu and Inuit in Labrador, Canada.

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

Image: Ashlee Cunsolo / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased

Intro Voices: Chandra Budhu (General Intro./Outro.), Nayocka Allen, Nicolas Echeverri Parra, Doreen Kajumba (Street Voices); Bob Luker (Tommy Douglas quote)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Resh Budhu, Breanne Doyle (for rabble.ca), Chandra Budhu and Ashley Booth.

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

Host: Resh Budhu