rabble radio

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: How just is Canada’s justice system?’ 

Our panel featured poet and activist El Jones; and rabble’s own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg.  

About our guests

El Jones is a poet, author, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies (2022) and Live from the Afrikan Resistance! (2014).

Karl Nerenberg is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker, working in both English and French languages. He is rabble’s senior parliamentary reporter.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

By now, we’ve all heard about the poor working conditions Amazon workers face globally. So, why then, are there only two unionized Amazon factories in North America? 

Labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga talks to Félix Trudeau, the president of the first union to be certified at an Amazon warehouse in Canada, about his efforts unionizing his colleagues and what other Canadian workers can learn from their experiences. 

About our guest 

Félix Trudeau is the president of the first union to be certified at an Amazon warehouse in Canada. The union was created in May 2024 and is a part of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN). Trudeau and his colleagues have entered their first round of collective bargaining with Amazon. Members continue to mobilize to secure the first collective agreement in the history of the multinational. 

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Well, it’s official: Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. 

So… now what? 

For those in and out of the States, the news comes as a bit of a shock. Despite the presidential race being a tight one, particularly over the past few weeks, there were those who held out hope that Kamala Harris and her “new way forward” was going to win out. 

But no. Instead, the convicted felon with a history of sexual abuse toward women won. 

This week on rabble radio, rabble editor Nick Seebruch joins parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg by phone from France to discuss what Trump’s win means for America, Canada and beyond. 

Karl Nerenberg is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker, working in both English and French languages. He is rabble’s senior parliamentary reporter. 

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Photo by: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Thomas et al v. Canada is a class action lawsuit which was filed in the Federal Court of Canada in 2020 on behalf of Black Canadians employed in the Public Service of Canada.

The action seeks to address and dismantle the systemic racism and discrimination within the Public Service of Canada. Specifically, for Black individuals who applied for employment with the Public Service and were denied entry based on their race, and those who were employed but were denied promotions based on their race (including those who have been employed within the past five decades). 

rabble.ca and labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casusa have been following this story as it develops, and this week Calugay-Casuga sat down with Bernadeth Betchi, a representative plaintiff who shared why seeking justice through the court is meaningful to her. 

Bernadeth Betchi is a representative candidate for the Black Class Action lawsuit. 

In 2023, Betchi ran for the position of president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE). Her candidacy was historic, she was the first Black woman to ever put her name forward for the position. Betchi is also a co-founder of the Ottawa-Gatineau Black Breastfeeding week, which aims to bring awareness to the realities of Black parents and their access to support when it comes to breastfeeding. Outside of organizing, Betchi is a PhD candidate in her fourth year of studying philosophy, feminist and gender studies.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Last year, the big headline to come out of the COP28 conference held in Dubai, was the news that an agreement had been made amongst participating countries to transition away from fossil fuels. 

With Canada being the fourth-largest oil producer in the world and the fifth-largest producer of natural gas, where does this leave us? And what are we expecting to see come out of the upcoming COP29 conference in November? 

Today, Andréanne Brazeau from the David Suzuki Foundation sits down with rabble editor Nick Seebruch to talk about COP29, the work the foundation does to research and report on climate progress (and regress), and how Canadians can participate in climate action. 

The David Suzuki Foundation is a national, bilingual non-profit organization headquartered in Vancouver, with offices in Toronto and Montreal. Through evidence-based research, education and policy analysis, the Foundation works to conserve and protect the natural environment and help create a sustainable Canada. 

Andréanne Brazeau is a senior policy analyst based in Québec. Her expertise is in climate governance in Quebec, Canada and internationally; public policy related to the environment, climate, energy and consumption; sustainable transportation; international climate negotiations and the just transition.

Brazeau has held various positions in policy analysis, government relations, communications, research and advocacy before joining the David Suzuki Foundation. She has worked for Équiterre, the UNESCO Chair in the Prevention of Violent Radicalization and Extremism at the Université de Sherbrooke, ENvironnement JEUnesse, the Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes and the Young Diplomats of Canada.

To read material from the David Suzuki Foundation, visit their website here or catch up on the latest from the foundation on rabble here. 

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

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: Catching up on Canadian and U.S. politics.’ 

Our panel featured  NDP MP Niki Ashton; rabble columnist and policy analyst Chuka Ejeckam; poet and activist El Jones; and rabble’s own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg.  

About our guests

Niki Ashton is NDP Member of Parliament for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski in Manitoba.

El Jones is a poet, author, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies (2022) and Live from the Afrikan Resistance! (2014).

Chuka Ejeckam is a writer and policy researcher. His work focuses on inequity and inequality, drug policy, structural racism, and labour. He is also a columnist for rabble.

Karl Nerenberg is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker, working in both English and French languages. He is rabble’s senior parliamentary reporter.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

Monday, October 7, 2024 marked the one year anniversary of the deadly Hamas-led attacks in Israel-Palestine, which was followed by Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. 

Over the past year, activist organizations, groups and citizens worldwide have done their part to call for an end to this genocide. One such organization is Independent Jewish Voices (IJV).  

Today, Louise Smith from IJV sits down with rabble editor Nick Seebruch to talk about the work IJV does to promote peace in the Middle East, how solidarity with Palestine does not equal  antisemitism, and how all forms of oppression are connected. 

“There are a lot of really strong voices in the Jewish community that are invested in confusing people about anti-semitism and anti-zionism. And the Israel Lobby and funders of the Israeli state, they really want people to be so afraid of being accused of anti-semitism that they stop protesting any of the humanitarian violations committed by the state of Israel. 

And we really need to make a distinction between people who are critical of Jews for being Jewish or Jewish conspiracy theories that are focused on Jewish people or perceived Jewish traits and separate that from legitimate criticism of state decisions. It is very normal for people to criticize state actions, state policies; and that shouldn’t be any different for the state of Israel.” 

 – Louise Smith

Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) is a grassroots organization grounded in Jewish tradition that opposes all forms of racism and advocates for justice and peace for all in Israel-Palestine. IJV has active chapters in cities and on university campuses across Canada. Learn more about IJV here. 

Louise Smith grew up in and lives in Toronto, on Dish with One Spoon territory. She is proudly Jewish and organizes in solidarity with Palestinians as part of Independent Jewish Voices and the Jews Say No to Genocide coalition. 

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

To tip or not to tip? 

Tipping culture has become a large conversation in Canada over the past few years, as both customers and service workers across the country struggle to meet the demands of the cost-of-living crisis. Receiving tips to supplement a small paycheque becomes all the more necessary. Meanwhile, giving generous tips feels all the more harder. 

So how would you react to knowing that a portion of the tips you’re giving are not even being collected by the people who are serving you – but rather, upper management. 

This is called tip theft, and in one Atlantic province it’s perfectly legal. 

Nova Scotia is one of the only provinces in Canada without anti-tip theft legislation, and organizers at the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre are trying to change that. 

This week on the show, rabble labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga sits down with community organizer Syd Blum to talk about their work organizing workers in Nova Scotia and trying to bring the issue of anti-tip theft to the attention of the provincial government. 

Syd Blum (she/they) is a community, political, and union organizer living in Mi’kma’ki / Nova Scotia. They are the organizer for the Halifax Workers’ Action Centre, a community legal worker at Dalhousie Legal Aid, and the vice-president of IASTE Local B-778. 

They were previously a head organizer with the ACORN Tenant Union, where they led successful campaigns for a rent cap and anti-eviction policies in Atlantic Canada, and a union-cooperative developer. They have a profound commitment to building a strong labour movement in Nova Scotia, fighting for a union at home, at work, and in our communities.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

This week, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Alistair Hepburn, executive director of ACTRA Toronto. The two discuss the do-not-work notice placed on Mr. Beast’s Beast Games in Toronto and other actions ACTRA is taking to protect Canadian performers. 

Alistair Hepburn is the executive director of ACTRA Toronto, the largest branch of ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), the union representing performers in the film, radio, television, and new media industries.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

This week, rabble editor Nick Seebruch sits down with Off the Hill co-hosts to review how rabble’s monthly panel series came to be and where we hope to go in the future. 

Robin Browne is Off the Hill’s co-host. Robin is a communications professional and founder of the 613-819 Black Hub, living in Ottawa. His blog is The “True” North.

Libby Davies is Off the Hill’s co-host and author of Outside In: a Political Memoir. She served as the MP for Vancouver East from 1997-2015, and is former NDP Deputy Leader and House Leader.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca.