This week on rabble radio, we feature a segment from our most recent Off the Hill political panel. This month, our theme was 'Off the Hill: Pride in Canada – The fight continues.'

Our panel featured NDP MP Blake Desjarlais; rabble columnist Charlotte Dalwood; podcaster Shawn Dearn; professor Fritz Pino; and activist Martine Roy.

About our guests

MP Blake Desjarlais (he/him) was born in ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton) and raised on the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement. Prior to his election as the Member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach, Desjarlais was a community activist and national director of the Métis Settlements General Council. Desjarlais made history in September 2021 when he was the first openly Two-Spirit person ever elected to the House of Commons and the first Indigenous representative from Edmonton.

Charlotte Dalwood (she/they) is a Student-At-Law at Prison & Police Law in Calgary, AB, and an incoming Master of Laws student at Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. She holds a Master of Arts in Religion from Yale University and is a monthly columnist on legal and 2SLGBTQ+ issues for rabble.ca. Their first book, Until At Dawn We Wake: Gender, Madness, Theology is forthcoming from Quoir in 2025.

Fritz Pino is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Regina. Her work focuses on queer and trans philosophies and theories; racialized LGBTQ immigrant communities; decolonial approaches to social work research; and more. Her work aims to create culturally-grounded interventions and approaches by centering the cultural knowledge and practices of marginalized groups and communities.

Martine Roy serves as the regional director for 2SLGBTQ+ Business Development in Québec & Eastern Canada for TD Bank and is committed to bridging the gap between the 2SLGBTQ+ community and the workplace. In the past, Roy served as a member of the board of directors of Pride at Work Canada for 10 years and served as president of Fondation Émergence until 2015. In 2017, she was awarded the Medal of the National Assembly of Quebec, and in 2023, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada for her tireless efforts as a leader, activist and advocate for diversity, inclusion and equity in Canada's 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

Shawn Dearn is an award-winning podcaster, broadcaster and strategic communications executive. He is co-founder at Montreal-based social impact entertainment firm, Secret Agents, and Shawn is the host of Queer Legends: An Oral History Podcast. Shawn spent the last two years researching and conducting interviews for an eight-part documentary series about Canada's LGBT Purge, which is now streaming everywhere you get your podcasts.

Check out the entire panel on rabbleTV or rabble's YouTube channel!

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