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OTTAWA —  Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney says when it comes to calls from within the province to separate from Canada, political leaders shouldn’t let the “small minority dominate the agenda.”

“I don’t think any political leader should ever let the tail wag the dog, let the small minority dominate the agenda for the 10 or 15 per cent of Albertans who are hardcore separatists,” he told reporters Friday on the sidelines of the Canada Strong and Free Network conference, an annual gathering of Canada’s conservative movement.

However, he warned about the dangers of exacerbating frustrations among Western Canadians if they feel there will never be a federal government that understands the importance of the West’s resources.

As Alberta premier from 2019 to 2022, Kenney said he tried to channel those frustrations into reforms within the federation.

He said the push for separation has been unsuccessful in Alberta’s political history.

“That movement is a lot of bark and very little bite. I don’t think we should spend a lot of time obsessing over it.”

Kenney stepped down as leader of Alberta’s United Conservative Party in 2022 following dissatisfaction among party members over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and after only narrowly winning a leadership review.

He now works in the private sector and also serves on the board of Postmedia, which owns National Post.

A rise in Western separation was recently noted by polling firm Angus Reid Institute, which released a survey suggesting that around 30 per cent of those living in Alberta and Saskatchewan answered they would vote to leave the Canadian federation either to form their own country or join the United States, should the Liberals win this month’s election.

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Successive public opinion polls suggest the Conservatives to be tied or trailing the Liberals in the national election campaign that culminates on April 28.

Concerns about western separation have also risen in light of U.S. President Donald Trump repeating that he wants Canada to become its”51st state,” which federal leaders have rejected.

Before the federal election was called, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who succeeded Kenney, presented a list of demands she said the next prime minister must fulfill or risk an “unprecedented national unity crisis.”

They included repealing Liberal policies including the Impact Assessment Act, known as Bill C-69, which critics say has created a intractable approval process for energy projects; the cap on oil and gas emissions; and the net-zero electricity grid and electricity vehicle mandates.

Smith presented the list after meeting with Liberal Leader Mark Carney, shortly after he was sworn in as prime minister after winning the party’s leadership race in March. She also spoke at the conservative conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

Smith told reporters after her speech that whether a re-elected Liberal government poses a threat to national unity depends on how Albertans react, adding that relations with Ottawa have soured and Carney has existing “damage” to repair.

Kenney, who before becoming leader of the Alberta UCP served as a cabinet minister under former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper, said on Friday he sees public opinion polls that show uptick in support for the idea of Alberta separating from Canada as a “proxy” for residents’ frustrations.

“I’m an unconditional Canadian patriot, and I believe the vast majority of Albertans are,” he said.

Those threatening to leave because they disagree with an election outcome is not only “counterproductive,” but also “unpatriotic,” he added.

At the same time, Kenney said leaders in Central Canada should not outright dismiss those sentiments because the concerns people have about Ottawa’s attitudes towards Western Canada’s energy resources are “legitimate.”

“Sadly, in Canada, we can never take national unity for granted,” he said, pointing also to Quebec, where polls suggest the separatist Parti Québécois were leading.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who also spoke at the conference, said on Friday that he will see where discussions around national unity go after the election.

He said it’s fair to ask the Liberals, “What are you going to do differently so that, you know, a certain portion of people, significant portion of people, in a region in this country, don’t feel disenfranchised by the policies that have been enacted over the last number of years?”

“The question can come to me in a post-April 28 environment, but for today, I think it’s a fair question for the leaders of the federal parties, as to what might you do differently to ensure that all Canadians feel that they’re being respected by not only their national government, but by all regions.”

National Post

staylor@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

OTTAWA — Mark Carney says his cabinet has left “instructions” for officials to help prepare the next government for upcoming negotiations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

Friday, the Liberal leader put his election campaign on hold for the third time in three weeks to convene a federal Canada-U.S. relations cabinet meeting in Ottawa.

After the meeting, the prime minister told reporters that the meeting was to discuss the whirlwind of tariff announcements by the United States over the last week.

He said the federal government has also begun preparing negotiations for a new trade and security agreement with the U.S. after the April 28 vote.

“We left instructions for officials to ensure that the next government, whichever government Canadians choose, will be in the best possible position for negotiations with the United States. Which, as the president and I have agreed, will began from the start of May,” Carney told reporters in a brief statement. He did not take questions.

In French, he specified that the instructions included preparing regulations, statistics and ways to respond to the U.S. administration in order to ensure “effective” negotiations.

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During his first call with Trump two weeks ago, Carney said the president and he agreed that both countries should begin negotiations for a new economic and security agreement.

Carney’s comments strongly suggested he believes the Canada-U.S.-Mexico (CUSMA) free trade deal is effectively dead amid the historic trade war between Canada and the U.S.

Friday, Carney also told reporters that the whirlwind of tariffs on nearly all countries announced by Trump in the last week is having a concerning impact on the global economy and on Canada.

“A really marked tightening in financial conditions, the initial signs of slowing in the global economy, impacts that we’re starting to see unfortunately in the Canadian economy, particularly in the Canadian labour market.”

Last week, Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs ranging from 10 per cent to over 50 per cent on all imports depending on their country of origin.

Canada and Mexico were the only countries exempted due to CUSMA and previously announced U.S. border levies of 10 to 25 per cent on all goods not covered by the free trade agreement.

Those tariffs were on top of 25 per cent U.S. tariffs on all foreign-made auto imports, including Canadian-made vehicles not covered by CUSMA.

But after the stock market began cratering and amid concerning trends in the 10-year U.S. bond market, Trump mildly backtracked earlier this week, bringing the “reciprocal” tariffs down to 10 per cent across the board. Canada and Mexico were unaffected by that announcement as well.

On April 9, Canada began enforcing its 25 per cent counter-tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles, which Carney said would stay in place as long as the American border levies remained.

National Post

cnardi@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

Jen Gunter, a Winnipeg-born gynecologist and bestselling author, says she's had enough with the United States, but she’s also prescribing a stark warning for Canadian voters concerned about the future of their own reproductive health care.

Welcome to National Post’s campaign Power Meter, where we will track the shifting tides of the election. As the race unfolds, we’ll rank parties, candidates and other characters based on momentum, performance, and public perception. Who’s gaining ground? Who’s losing steam? Keep checking in as we measure the moments that could shape the outcome.

THE NDP: The NDP are languishing in the polls more than ever with only a wretched eight per cent support, according to a recent Leger survey . If current trends hold, the polling aggregator 338Canada projects that the NDP will only win eight seats, which would mean it loses official party status. And just as troubling for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is that he appears to be doomed in his own riding. 338Canada says Singh’s Liberal opponent has a 94 per cent chance of beating him. Even more embarrassing for Singh is that he’s currently polling in third place in his own Burnaby Central constituency, according to the polling aggregator.
POWER METER RATING: EXISTENTIAL FEAR

HECKLERS: If you’re resigned to the notion that one person can’t make a difference in the world, then take note of the chain of events that followed a heckler’s shout on Tuesday at Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s rally in Calgary. First, Carney was accused of agreeing with the protestor’s characterization of a “genocide” being carried out in Gaza (“I’m aware. That’s why we have an arms embargo (on Israel)” said Carney), before walking back his comments on Wednesday and arguing that he actually hadn’t heard the man properly. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took notice and accused Carney of attacking Israel.
POWER METER RATING: INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT

CAMPAIGN PAUSES: For the third week in a row, Liberal Leader Mark Carney has paused his campaign to fly back to Ottawa and resume the role of prime minister. The first two weeks at least had a plausible rationale, when big tariff news from the U.S. was hitting Canada, but this week is a little more suspicious. As many commentators have pointed out , playing the role of prime minister has worked in Carney’s favour and his campaign hasn’t missed an opportunity to get that positive PR.
POWER METER RATING: CONVENIENT

National Post

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Racquel Hilbert, the Saskatchewan Party MLA who called federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh a terrorist in the provincial legislature last month, has been removed from additional MLA duties, the party says.

Saskatchewan's Serious Incident Response Team says a teenager on Kawacatoose First Nation was trying to get an RCMP vehicle to stop when a second RCMP vehicle hit him.

The climate crisis is a global threat. Rising temperatures have already led to the devastation of ecosystems and drastic biodiversity loss.

Floods, tornadoes and forest fires destroy wildlife habitats and displace human populations.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that between 17,000 to 100,000 marine species go extinct each year due to rising global temperatures.

Scientists have warned that if global temperatures rise on average above 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to levels before the Industrial Revolution (1850-1900) the effects will be devastating and irreversible.

According to the UN, the first 12-month period to exceed an average global temperature of 1.5 degrees was February 2023 to January 2024.

With how pressing and urgent the climate crisis is, it has received little attention in the 2025 federal election.

Between imposed tariffs from the US and the threats made by Donald Trump to Canada’s sovereignty, most of Canada’s major political parties have made few statements on the environment.

Here is what each party is promising in terms of their environmental platforms.

The Liberal Party

In a media statement released on April 7, the Liberals are promising the following if elected:

• Conserve nature and biodiversity, including by creating at least 10 new national parks and marine conservation areas, and 15 new urban parks
• Connect Canadians with nature by making access to National Parks and Historic Sites free for this summer
• Bolster Indigenous stewardship, including by establishing a new Arctic Indigenous Guardians program, and funding Indigenous-led conservation and protection projects
• Protect our freshwater, including by investing $100 million in a strategic water security technology fund to advance Canadian R&D, AI, monitoring, and data tools
• Enshrine First Nations’ right to water into law
• Protect nature where it protects us, including by implementing nature-based climate solutions which deliver measurable carbon sequestration and biodiversity benefits, while supporting community resilience
• Clean up, maintain, and protect wildlife in and around our coastal waters, including by investing an additional $15 million to modernize the location, retrieval, and responsible disposal of the ghost gear threatening marine mammals and birds and
• Champion nature conservation internationally, including by stopping illegal wildlife trade across our borders with modern digital solutions

NDP

In a media release from March 31, the NDP made the following promises on climate change and the environment:

• End the Consumer Carbon Tax—for good
• Keep the industrial carbon price
• Keep the emissions cap in place—and protect workers as we transition
• Eliminate oil and gas subsidies—redirecting $18 billion from corporate handouts to real help for families
• Introduce a Border Carbon Adjustment—so overseas polluters don’t undercut Canadian workers, and clean industries like Canadian steel and cement stay competitive

Furthermore, they also committed to ending public subsidies and tax breaks for oil and gas companies. 

Additionally, the NDP have committed to funding energy saving retrofits for Canadian homes including heat pumps and providing unspecified support for Canadian manufacturers of those products.

Green Party

The Green Party in their platform is the only party to commit to converting the Canadian economy to 100 per cent clean energy.

They also commit to making a Youth Climate Corps.

Other commitments include:

• Stop giving public money to oil and gas companies and invest it in clean energy instead
• Hold big polluters responsible for the climate damage they cause
• Create strict, science-based limits on Canada’s total pollution
• Make companies prove they have real plans to deal with climate risks

The Bloc Québécois

In their 2025 party policy platform, the Bloc Québécois lay out the following priorities for the environment:

• Each federal decision will be assessed based on its alignment with the international Paris Agreement’s objective of limiting global temperature increase to 1.5°C
• Eliminate subsidies for the oil and gas industry and impose emissions caps
• Proposing a tax on excess oil and gas profits to be reinvested into a climate change mitigation fund

The Conservative Party

The Conservative Party has made few public statements on the issue of the climate crisis. They also did not respond to a request for comment as of time of publication.

The Conservative Party Policy Declaration of September of 2023 states the following:

“We believe that there should be no federally imposed carbon taxes or cap and trade systems on either the provinces and territories or on the citizens of Canada. The provinces and territories should be free to develop their own climate change policies, without federal interference or federal penalties or incentives.”

A media release earlier this month from the Conservative Party outlining their “Economic Action Plan” sees goals for heaving investment in the oil and gas sector, while also reducing environmental protections to increase the rate of development.

Those policies include:

Repealing C-69 along with Bill C-48, lift the cap on Canadian energy and scrap the industrial carbon tax, to get major projects built, unlock our resources, and start selling Canadian energy to the world again, bringing home good jobs and billions of dollars in lost investment, and putting Canada First–For a Change. 

Creating a National Energy Corridor, a pre-approved transport corridor for pipelines, transmission lines, railways and other critical infrastructure to rapidly build the projects our country needs and move Canadian resources from coast to coast, bypassing the US and making us less reliant on the American market.

Creating a One-Stop-Shop to safely and rapidly approve resource projects, with one simple application and one environmental review within one year. This will make sure we can rapidly approve the projects Canadians need more of now: mines, roads, LNG terminals, hydro projects, and nuclear power stations.

Rapidly approving Phase 2 of LNG Canada to double gas production and accelerate at least nine other projects currently snarled in red tape.

Pre-permitting Shovel-Ready Zones for development, to eliminate delays and red tape so we can start building again.

The post Election 2025: On the climate crisis appeared first on rabble.ca.

Gaston Pettigrew, who served during WWII's Battle of the Atlantic, was hoping to receive 100 birthday cards in time for his 100th birthday on April 11. He received more than 1,700, which are now plastered throughout his residence.

Saskatchewan is the province that wants to leave Canada the most if Liberals win the upcoming election in Canada, a new poll finds.

Around 33 per cent of residents from the central prairie province “say they would vote to leave federation, whether to form their own country or to join the United States,” if Liberals form the next government, according to the survey by nonprofit Angus Reid Institute .

As the federal election approaches and Canada-U.S. relations remain tense amid a trade war and talks of Canada becoming the 51st state, the topic of secession, particularly in the west, has also come up recently. The leader of the Reform Party of Canada Preston Manning said “a vote for the Carney Liberals is a vote for Western secession — a vote for the breakup of Canada as we know it,” in an article he penned in the Globe and Mail .

Liberal leader Mark Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre both spoke out against Manning’s remarks. Carney said Manning’s “dramatic comments” were “unhelpful,” while Poilievre said he disagreed with him . “We need to unite the country,” said Poilievre.

Despite the candidates not seeing eye to eye with Manning, Canadians did seem to base at least some of their answers in the survey on potential election results. The recently released data from Angus Reid shows that who the winning party will be matters greatly to residents of Saskatchewan in particular. Saskatchewan’s 14 federal ridings have remained entirely Conservative for the past two elections. That could be why the predominantly Conservative province is the most likely to plan an escape route if Liberals win.

The percentage of residents from Saskatchewan who said they would vote “yes” to leave Canada to become an independent country went from 20 per cent, initially, to 33 per cent, if Liberals won. Meanwhile, the percentage of residents who believed the province should join the United States went from 17 per cent, initially, to 23 per cent, if Liberals won. (To the south, Saskatchewan shares its borders with American states North Dakota and Montana.)

Residents from Alberta and Quebec were tied at a close second (30 per cent) when it came to wanting to become independent if Liberals won. The provinces that followed were British Columbia (17 per cent), Ontario (13 per cent), Manitoba (12 per cent), and Atlantic provinces, which were grouped together, at 10 per cent.

Alberta had the highest percentage when it came to wanting to join the U.S. if Liberals won, at 27 per cent, followed by Saskatchewan at 23 per cent. British Columbia, Ontario and Manitoba were in the middle, at 19, 16 and 15 per cent, respectively. On the lower end of the spectrum were the Atlantic provinces (12 per cent) and Quebec (11 per cent.)

While the numbers coming out of Saskatchewan are “significant,” according to the Angus Reid report on the survey, the “vast majority still say they would vote no (to becoming independent or joining the U.S.) in each province.”

The survey also points to a possible underlying reason behind Saskatchewan wanting independence. Only one quarter of its residents said they felt that the province was respected by the rest of Canada. In both prairie provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta, “legislation has been passed in recent years to increase autonomy and reject federal influence,” per Angus Reid.

However, the report from Angus Reid explains that “while threatening separatism is evidently seen as a good bargaining chip, few Canadians appear to actually want to leave federation, whether it’s to join the United States or to have their province become its own nation.”

The survey was conducted online from March 20 to March 24, using a randomized sample of 2,400 Canadian adults. “The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to region, gender, age, household income, and education, based on the Canadian census,” the institute said.

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Beginning Friday, Canadians over the age of 14 who will be in the United States for 30 days or longer will have to register with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Trump administration says it's just enforcing laws that essentially have been on the books for decades.

Health officials in Prince Edward Island have confirmed two cases of measles, the province's first reported cases since 2013.

The Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown, part of the University of Prince Edward Island, has apologized to its former artist-in-residence, after he stepped away from the position over a dispute with one of his paintings.

Christopher Griffin had resigned from the unpaid position this week after the AVC asked him to remove one of his paintings from the campus or leave his residency, which he had taken up in November after moving to Prince Edward Island from Ottawa.

The painting, The Crossing, bears a resemblance to Washington Crossing the Delaware, an 1851 oil painting by Emanuel Leutze that depicts General George Washington with the Continental Army on the night of Dec. 25, 1776, during the Revolutionary War. However, instead of soldiers, the boat in Griffin’s version contains 10 lemmings.

“A couple of American faculty members had expressed concern that the painting had a political meaning,” Griffin wrote in a Facebook post, before announcing his resignation. The CBC reported that the college said they received three complaints, of which two were from American members of the faculty.

Yesterday in an email to National Post the college said: “The University of Prince Edward Island recognizes the importance of balancing freedom of expression and a supportive learning environment, and that learning can sometimes be uncomfortable. UPEI reaffirms its commitment to free expression, critical thinking, and public dialogue.”

This morning it released a second statement: “The Atlantic Veterinary College acknowledges that asking the artist Christopher Griffin to choose between taking down his painting or leaving his residency was a mistake. The decision did not reflect our institutional values, and we regret the hurt and frustration it caused. Art plays an essential role in education and public life — it challenges us, encourages dialogue, and fosters understanding. We fell short of our responsibility to protect that role.”

The AVC said it had offered a direct apology to Griffin and offered to reinstall the painting, adding: “We are also reviewing our internal processes to ensure future decisions uphold our commitments to free expression and inclusive discourse. We remain committed to creating space for meaningful conversations — even, and especially, when they are uncomfortable.”

Griffin told National Post the apology came as a pleasant surprise when he awoke to it this morning.

“They extended an olive branch and an apology and that’s really all I could ask for,” he said. “That’s tough to do and I’m happy they took that step.”

He was astonished the news of the story had spread across the country, with coverage in Winnipeg, Lethbridge Alberta, CTV News, CBC and elsewhere. “I thought it might make the local Charlottetown news,” he said. “I had no idea it would spread beyond P.E.I., that’s for sure.”

He added: “The reactions and the support from Canadians across the country has … really reinforced my belief that we actually are a strong country and we will survive. So that’s a good thing.”

Dear fellow Canadians, I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from across the country, and the impassioned...

Posted by Christopher Griffin Art Studio on Friday, April 11, 2025

Griffin’s work has often featured animals, but his focus began to change after Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president in January.

“When my country was threatened by the government of the United States of America … I felt like I had to do something. I had to react,” he recently told CBC News . “My role as an artist is to communicate, so I came up with the concept of creating a body of work based on our national anthem.”

Those works included a polar bear, titled Strong and Free, and an elephant sporting a tiny Canadian flag. Griffin also recently posted to his Facebook page a “Made in Canada” logo he created for the Dominion Skate Company in Brampton, Ont., as a college student in 1987. It reads: “Canadian to the Core.”

He noted that other artworks have also taken inspiration from the same painting, including Shimomura Crossing the Delaware by Roger Shimomura , which hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, and George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page from an American History Textbook, 1975, by Robert Colescott .

On the reason for the lemmings, he explained: “Lemmings are mythologized as participating in mass suicide by jumping over a cliff or into water. I felt this was an appropriate symbol to use in my painting to express my bewilderment at the self-destructive behaviour of the government to our south. However, I took great care to not create cartoonish or buffoonish creatures. I wished for them to have a dignity and a solemnity, because I care about them, and I do not wish them ill.”

He noted that the lemmings in his painting have the option to land on the other shore or turn around before it’s too late. He also pointed out that the myth of them as creatures bent solely on self-destruction is just that. “It’s not true.”

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Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Liberal Leader Mark Carney wore his prime minister hat today as he met with the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations, while Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre re-upped his party’s economic platform in St. Catharines, Ont.

Trent University’s undergraduate students union is asking the school not to invite Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal back to campus after he used the n-word while speaking to a class last month. 

In episode seven, we are pleased to feature executive director of the Workers’ Action Centre, Deena Ladd. In her keynote address for the 33rd annual Labour Fair at Toronto’s George Brown College, No One Left Behind: Building a Workers’ First Emergency Response to the Tariff Crisis that Unites Us, Ladd discusses the current trade war, the dangers facing workers and a solidarity-driven plan that puts workers first.

Reflecting on what’s needed in a workers’ first approach to the tariff crisis, Ladd says:

“Our communities are already in trouble. And we know that the tariffs imposed are gonna have a ripple impact, far worse than the pandemic’s … We desperately need a government strategy that has learned from these past economic crises to ensure that no one gets left behind … To make sure that when you are providing supports, that they first of all have to be adequate. That they’re not institutionalizing poverty. That they’re accessible … And that they’re structured in a way that doesn’t unintentionally punish people after the fact.”

About today’s speaker:

Deena Ladd has been working to improve wages and working conditions in sectors of work that are dominated with low-wages, violations of rights, precarious and temp work for over 30 years. She has worked to support and develop grassroots training, education and organizing to build the power of workers with groups such as the Fight for $15 and Fairness Campaign, Decent Work and Health Network, the Migrant Rights Network and Justice for Workers. Ladd is one of the founders and executive director of the Toronto Workers’ Action Centre. The Workers’ Action Centre organizes to improve wages and working conditions with low-waged workers, women, racialized and immigrant workers in precarious jobs that face discrimination, violations of rights and no benefits in the workplace.

Clip: Migrant Workers Alliance for Change

Audience Questions read by: Resh Budhu, Ben McCarthy

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

Image: Deena Ladd  / Used with permission.

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

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

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 post Labour Fair 2025: Building a workers’ first emergency response to the tariff crisis appeared first on rabble.ca.

*Audio of pro-Palestine demonstration at the Vancouver Art Gallery on March 18, 2025*

The Freedom of peaceful assembly – or, in other words, to protest – and the freedom of association are among the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Protest has been a vital aspect of Canada’s democracy and social fabric since the country’s formation, playing a key role in advancing Indigenous rights, environmental causes, 2SLGBTQ+ and feminist issues, and labour rights.

This past week alone, people in various cities across the country came together to protest against the threats to Canadian sovereignty made by US President Donald Trump.

And sure, we might not all agree with every protest which happens in our cities and communities (the Freedom Convoy of 2022 comes to mind). But as stated in our Charter, as long as the protests do not include hate speech, become violent, incite violence, or pose a danger to public safety, we have decided – as a country – that the right to protest is more important than agreeing with every protest that is organized.

It is crucial that we are able to express our opinions, criticize our governments and institutions, and participate in public discourse.

Which is why the City of Toronto’s recent survey and proposed bylaw about demonstrations near vulnerable institutions is sounding some alarm bells.

This week on rabble radio, Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow Ashleigh-Rae Thomas sits down with Samira Mohyeddin to talk about what this bylaw is and why it is being considered, why the right to protest is so important, and the “Palestine exception.”

About our guest

Samira Mohyeddin is an award winning journalist and producer. For nearly ten years she was a producer and host at CBC Radio and CBC Podcasts. She resigned in November of 2023 and founded On The Line Media. Samira has a Master of Arts in Modern Middle Eastern History and Gender from the University of Toronto and Genocide Studies from the Zoryan Institute. She is currently working on a documentary about the People’s Circle for Palestine student encampment at the University of Toronto.

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.

*Protest audio courtesy of Jase Tanner. 

The post Protecting the right to protest and the ‘Palestine exception’ appeared first on rabble.ca.

The turmoil in the United States is encouraging US scholars to think about moving to Canada. What would that mean to them and scholars in Canada? An interview with the president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, Peter McInnis. The LabourStart about union events. And singing: “A Woman’s Place is in Her Union.”

RadioLabour is the international labour movement’s radio service. It reports on labour union events around the world with a focus on unions in the developing world. It partners with rabble to provide coverage of news of interest to Canadian workers.

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