More than one-third of long-term care homes in Ontario are currently experiencing a COVID outbreak. At Tendercare Living Centre in Scarborough, 73 residents have died, the worst-affected long-term care residence in Ontario. Seniors across the province are living in abysmal conditions. Staff are working without adequate PPE, and 2 have died in the past week. Why is this happening?

Ontario's vaccine rollout is ramping up, but at our current rate it will take 5 years for 80% of adults in Ontario to get vaccinated. What's going wrong, and what can be done to fix it?

Guests:

Deanna Kunz, personal support worker

Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth [@nilikm], primary care physician and co-host of the podcast RxAdvocacy

What has Canada gotten right in our COVID response? What have we gotten wrong? And how should we move forward from here?

Guests:

Ryan Imgrund [@imgrund], biostatistician and consultant

Dr. Vivian Stamatopoulos [@DrVivianS], professor at Ontario Tech University, long-term care researcher and advocate

This week on the Radical Reverend, we look back at 2020 and forward to 2021 through a Marxist lens.

Guests: 

Alex Grant [@alexg_fightback], editor at Fightback

Drew Garvie [@GarvieDrew], leader of the Ontario wing of the Communist Party of Canada

Ben Nolan [@BenNolan], doctoral candidate in political theory at UMass, Amherst and a Du Bois Center fellow

This week we're talking all about Mary. Who was she? We most often see Mary depicted as a white woman, but she was actually a teenage Palestinian girl. Pregnant outside of wedlock and living in an occupied territory, Mary stood up to power in a society that typically stoned girls like her to death. We discuss Mary as a feminist hero, take a contemporary perspective on the Immaculate Conception, and share the wisdom we draw from her story that informs our lives today. 

Guests:

Rev. Jodi Fisher, United Church clergy

Rev. Christine Smaller, Minister at Glebe Road United Church

The US presidential election was called more than a month ago but Trump still hasn't conceded. Do any of his legal challenges to overturn the election results have a chance of succeeding?

The Trump administration is executing prisoners during the transition period, breaking a norm that has lasted 130 years. Why is Trump doing this? Do average Americans actually support the death penalty?

Under a Supreme Court that leans heavily to the Right, what will happen to Roe v. Wade? Is there any hope of the Biden administration making truly progressive changes, or will any progressive legislation be hamstrung by the courts?

Canada has just begun administering its first COVID vaccines to a small group of high-risk seniors and frontline healthcare workers. Will vaccines eventually be mandatory for everyone? What do our laws say about balancing the common good and individual rights?

Guests:

François Tanguay-Renaud [@FTanguayRenaud], law professor and co-director of the Jack and Mae Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University

David Slavick [@DavidSlavick], political strategist and host of The Popular Show

On November 30, 2020, Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo CM presented testimony to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario against granting university status to Charles McVety's Canada Christian College. Its open homo/bi/transphobia, Islamophobia, and antisemitism violates the Ontario Human Rights Code. In the first part of the show you'll hear Cheri's testimony.

In the second part of the show, The Radical Reverend hosts an interfaith panel discussion about it, along with other progressive faith issues including how we can confront white supremacy and male supremacy in our religious institutions.

Update: On December 7, 2020, Bill 213 passed allowing Canada Christian College to be granted university status.

Guests:

Jodi Fisher, United Church clergy

Shams el-Din Rogers, Muslim teacher, activist, and artist

The status quo is in crisis. COVID is exposing the worst of capitalism. 

The mainstream media isn't talking about the strikes happening around the world, but we're seeing the fightback happening.

Small businesses are getting squeezed during this pandemic while corporate chains are seeing skyrocketing profits. The climate crisis is getting worse. Systemic racism is embedded in our institutions, and mass support for defunding the police hasn't led to major policy changes. The Left needs to be putting forward radical solutions, otherwise people will look for them from the Right. So how do we build a mass socialist movement?

Guests:

Alex Grant [@alexg_fightback], editor at Fightback

Sid Lacombe, with International Socialists, on the editorial board of Socialist Worker

Some of the most exciting activism that's happening right now is feminist. 

How do we build the power to make the changes that feminist activists seek to make in society? First we need to understand the history of what it took to gain the rights we have now. They were not handed to us from benevolent leaders; it took breaking the law, civil disobedience, intense fights, and activism in the streets.

Guests:

Nora Loreto [@NoLore], journalist, author of Take Back the Fight, and co-host of the Sandy & Nora Talk Politics podcast

Andrea Houston [@DreaHouston], journalist for Xtra

Check out Nora's new book, Take Back the Fight: Organizing Feminism for the Digital Age

https://fernwoodpublishing.ca/book/take-back-the-fight

November 20 is the Trans Day of Remembrance, a day to mourn and honour the lives of those who have died as a result of anti-trans violence. Rev. Dr. Cheri DiNovo C.M.'s Bill 74 made the Trans Day of Remembrance officially recognized in Ontario, and requires that the members of the Legislative Assembly observe a moment of silence.

This episode, we play Rev. Junia Joplin's Trans Day of Remembrance sermon, originally delivered to Trinity-St. Paul's United Church on Sunday, November 15, 2020.

Then, trans activist Susan Gapka joins us to talk about two trans women who died this year in Toronto, Julie Berman and Coco.

Plus, Alex Grant, on the importance of alternative community radio.

Guests:

Rev. Junia Joplin [@jrjoplin], Baptist minister

Susan Gapka [@SusanGapka], community and political organizer

Alex Grant [@alexg_Fightback], editor at Fightback

Now that Biden has won the presidency, will we see the Democrats pivot away from progressive politics? With Republicans in control of the Supreme Court and likely to maintain control of the Senate, is there any hope for policies that address police violence, imperialism, or the climate crisis?

What's the way forward for the left? Can progressives take over the Democratic Party or should they split to form a third party?

And in the absence of policies that meaningfully improve people's lives, how can we find ways of building mutual aid networks?

Guests:

Andray Domise [@AndrayDomise], journalist and assistant editor at MacLean's

David Slavick [@DavidSlavick], lawyer and former Democratic Party strategist