Rabble

As we wrap up another year of independent journalism at rabble.ca, we’re excited to take our community on a journey through some of the best content we’ve shared in 2024. 

From the most compelling episodes of rabble radio to some of our personal favourite columns, to the top stories in Canadian politics and more, join us now on a trip down memory lane before we head full-steam into 2025. 

Best of rabble radio 2024

Last week, we shared an interview which featured clips of interviews over the past year – starting in January when then-Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow Madison Edward-Wright sat down with Ted Rutland to talk about his research work on anti-Black racism and policing in Montreal and ending with a Louise Smith from Independent Jewish Voices Canada. Solidarity with Palestine conversation with Louise Smith from Independent Jewish Voices Canada on how solidarity with Palestine does not equal antisemitism. 

Also featuring clips from activist and award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist Brandi Morin, Patricia Chong and Karine Ng from the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance, and Joyce Arthur from the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. Listen to “Best of rabble radio 2024” here. 

Best of columns 2024 

In 2024, our expert columnists covered an array of critical issues such as housing and climate change, the disturbing rise of far-right movements across the nation and labour fights happening in and out of Canada. 

From Cathy Crowe’s critique of Canada’s housing policies, to Charlotte Dalwood’s powerful defense of trans rights in Alberta and Judy Rebick’s insights on youth activism for Palestine, rabble.ca remains a vital platform for diverse voices tackling the issues that truly matter.

On Monday, we released our “Best of columns 2024.” Read that piece here.

Off the Hill: The ups and downs of 2024 and lessons for 2025

In our final political panel of the year, Member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway Don Davies, economist Jim Stanford, activist and writer Clayton Thomas-Müller, activist and professor pk mutch, and rabble’s labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga came together to discuss the top news stories they followed this year – as well as what hopes and goals they have for their work and activism in the new year. Co-hosted, as always, by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.

Watch the full recording of that panel here. 

Still to come…  

In his upcoming note to rabble readers, Nick Seebruch reflects on the highs, lows and pivotal moments of 2024, offering a thoughtful review of the year through the lens of the editor of rabble.ca. From major political events to key social issues, Seebruch will provide an insightful summary of how these stories have shaped our collective narrative. Don’t miss his reflections, coming December 27.

Also, be sure to check out rabble.ca’s annual tradition with parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg’s “A year in Canadian politics” piece on December 30. Nerenberg’s comprehensive analysis will examine the political landscape of 2024, exploring the critical moments and emerging trends that have defined Canadian politics this year. 

Both pieces are essential reading as we look back on a year full of change and challenges, and prepare for what lies ahead in 2025.

Priorities for rabble.ca in 2025… 

These wrap-up pieces are just a taste of the high-quality, independent journalism you’ve come to expect from rabble.ca. But to keep delivering the stories that challenge the status quo and amplify the voices that matter, we need your support.

Next year, as Canada heads into a federal election, rabble.ca will be an essential source for independent, fact-based journalism that holds power accountable and amplifies diverse voices. Your support ensures we can continue to provide thoughtful, in-depth coverage and analysis that goes beyond the spin of mainstream media, empowering voters with the information they need to make informed decisions.

If you haven’t already, consider supporting rabble.ca during our winter fundraiser by becoming a monthly donor or giving a one-time donation.   

And as always, thank you! 

The post Sharing the news that matters to you, in 2024 and beyond… appeared first on rabble.ca.

Let’s cut right to the chase: What the analysis made public yesterday by the Chief Actuary of Canada shows is that if Alberta were to split from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) it would only be entitled to 20 to 25 per cent of the CPP investment fund, or about $120 billion to $150 billion.

In other words, the 2023 report by the Lifeworks consulting firm commissioned and heavily promoted by the United Conservative Party Government that concluded Alberta would be entitled to walk away with 53 per cent of the $575-billion investment fund, about $334 billion, turns out to be just as it appeared, too good to be true.

So the complaint by Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner’s spokesperson that “we received their interpretation of the legislation, but it did not contain a number or even a formula for calculating a number” turns out to be not completely accurate. 

Yes, the government received the report. And, yes, the report didn’t do the math for readers. Nevertheless, upon reading it, Alberta Finance Department experts should have had no difficulty coming up with the conclusions above.

Now that the Office of Chief Actuary Assia Billig has publicly released the report, Alberta voters can read it for themselves. Its title may not be all that riveting, but the conclusions of Chief Actuary Position Paper – Subsection 113(2) of the Canada Pension Plan are both clear and persuasive. 

Section 113(2) of the legislation that created the Canada Pension Plan, by the way, “outlines the calculation that the Minister of Finance shall apply in determining the amount that would be transferred to the Government of Alberta,” the position paper explains. So figuring out what it means, quite literally, is the money question! 

A very helpful commentary was posted yesterday afternoon on social media by University of Calgary economics professor Trevor Tombe, who is cited in the report as being one of many experts Billig’s staff consulted who reached similar conclusions.

In particular, the report pointedly endorses the conclusion published by Dr. Tombe in December 2023, that the LifeWorks estimate of Alberta’s entitlement was wrong, and the right number is in the 20- to 25-per-cent range. 

If the same approach were applied to both Alberta and Ontario, Dr. Tombe noted in that 2023 paper, “then it would result in more assets being paid out than actually exist within the CPP.” Needless to say, such an outcome would not just strain Confederation, it would be politically impossible in Canada outside of Quebec, which with its own grandfathered pension has no dog in this fight.  

“The Chief Actuary’s position, although independently developed, is consistent with the findings of the IAP and the method presented in Dr. Tombe’s paper,” the position paper states – the IAP being the Independent Advisory Panel of actuaries created by her office to gather independent views. 

While it may not seem completely reassuring, it is said here the Finance Minister’s press secretary can probably be forgiven for not properly understanding the position paper, which, while clearly written, requires a certain level of actuarial expertise not typical of political staffers. 

Anyway, the Chief Actuary sided with the majority of experts when it came to rejecting the LifeWorks claim the province would be entitled to as much interest as it would have collected if it had set up its own pension plan in 1966.  

This does not mean the UCP’s pension scheme is not viable, Dr. Tombe noted in his Bluesky commentary, but it does indicate the much smaller contribution rates claimed by the government are not possible. 

Responding to a commenter, Dr. Tombe concluded that “reading carefully the various pieces of analysis now publicly available would lead to the conclusion that the LifeWorks interpretation will not withstand careful judicial review.” This is an opinion, but obviously a well-informed and important one. 

Mount Royal University political science professor Duane Bratt weighed in on Bluesky with the opinion that “the Smith government will quietly abandon the APP when there is a change in the federal government. The APP rears its head when there are Liberals in Ottawa, and buries its head when the Conservatives are in office.”

I am not so sure. The UCP brain trust has been singularly focused on the huge sums that could become available to prop up Alberta’s oil and gas sector if it got its paws on CPP assets, so don’t expect this divisive scheme to go away any time soon. 

The post AB not entitled to 50% of Canada Pension Plan: Chief Actuary report appeared first on rabble.ca.

Had the United Conservative Party (UCP)’s John Middleton-Hope won Wednesday’s by-election in Lethbridge-West, one wonders if Health Minister Adriana LaGrange would have invited him along yesterday to help her make her long-overdue announcement of the government’s funding agreement with Alberta doctors? 

Alas for the UCP, Middleton-Hope was not the winner of the by-election. The Alberta NDP’s Rob Miyashiro was, so Premier Danielle Smith had to satisfy herself by publishing a longish post on social media congratulating Middleton-Hope for losing the election.

There was nary of a word of congratulations for the winner, of course, but that’s how the UCP rolls. Alberta Conservatives are poor losers. But it’s always worth keeping in mind that, as Smith’s government illustrates daily, they’re worse winners!

Smith’s note congratulating the loser for his loss included this interesting phrase: “While we did not come away with a win, our candidate and the UCP gained a higher percentage of votes than we had earned in the 2023 General Election.” 

Let’s pause for a moment to examine this bit of hyperbole:

On Wednesday, Middleton-Hope captured 44.9 per cent of the vote, an increase of a whopping 2.4 per cent over the 42.5-per-cent accumulated UCP candidate Cheryl Seaborn in the 2023 general election. 

By this standard, the UCP would also be entitled to boast that Mr. Middleton-Hope’s tally also topped party standard-bearer Karri Flatla’s 44.3 per cent in the 2019 general election. 

Another way to describe this phenomenon, of course, would be to say that no matter how many people vote in Lethbridge-West – 13,561 on Wednesday compared to 22,635 in the 2023 general election – the UCP just can’t seem to get past 45 per cent. There are about 37,000 eligible voters in the riding nowadays. 

Indeed, the last time a Conservative candidate got more than that – 48 per cent – the winner was Progressive Conservative Clint Dunford, the premier was named Ralph Klein, and the year was 2001. Dunford passed away in 2021. 

On Wednesday, Miyashiro, the winner, captured 53.4 per cent of the ballots cast, compared with the 53.9 per cent taken by former MLA Shannon Phillips in 2023 – so, a Conservative might argue, this was a percentage loss almost as huge as the increase posted by Middleton-Hope!

Pay deal for family docs is finally official – almost 

Getting back to LaGrange’s announcement, the deal agreed to by the government and the Alberta Medical Association (AMA), which bargains collectively for the province’s physicians, will provide a new payment option to family docs who have a full-time practice with 500 or more patients. It is expected to increase pay for many physicians.

This may in fact make it a little easier to recruit more doctors to Alberta. 

The big mystery that went unacknowledged in the government’s press release yesterday is why a deal has that was first announced by the government on April 17 has been sitting on a desk in the provincial Treasury Department for almost long enough to bring a baby to term while AMA leaders pleaded with the government to sign and implement what they’d agreed to. 

“This agreement should have been done back in May when the premier promised it would be signed within a couple of weeks,” NDP Health Critic Sarah Hoffman remarked yesterday. 

Speculation has been that the government didn’t want to reveal anything that might impact ongoing negotiations with other health care workers such as nurses, medical technologists and care aids, not to mention civil servants, municipal employees, schoolteachers and other education workers. An additional $250 million a year for physician compensation might well have an impact on their demands. 

The agreement still hinges on the willingness of a minimum of 500 doctors to take part in the new funding formula, so while the deal is done, it’s not really a done deal just yet. 

UCP claims Chief Actuary’s CPP pullout estimate is missing

According to a political aide to Finance Minister Nate Horner, a report by the Chief Actuary of Canada on the UCP’s scheme to pull Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan is missing an estimate of how much the province would be entitled to get from the CPP’s huge investment fund. 

“We received their interpretation of the legislation, but it did not contain a number or even a formula for calculating a number,” the CBC quoted press secretary Justin Brattinga saying yesterday.

Just a suggestion, but before we all freak out, perhaps someone should put in a call to the office of Chief Actuary Assia Billig to see what’s going on. 

There has been, for one thing, some stuff taking place in Ottawa in the past few days related to federal government financing, and the finance minister who asked the Chief Actuary to deliver the report is no longer on the job.

Moreover, even without a need to replace a federal finance minister in a hurry and deliver a financial update, the week before Christmas seems like a peculiar time for the Chief Actuary’s estimate to have been expected by the province.

One thing that can be safely assumed is that with or without the Chief Actuary’s full report, the UCP’s estimate that Alberta, with about 11.5 per cent of Canada’s population, is owed 53 per cent of the CPP fund is both preposterous and obviously politically motivated. 

Meanwhile, the UCP continues to refuse to provide any details of what the 94,000 Albertans who filled out the government’s flawed online survey last fall on replacing the CPP with an Alberta pension plan had to say. It’s not hard to guess why. 

The Sovereignty Act: Sound and fury, signifying nothing

If you have time this holiday season, it would be well spent reading the latest post on the University of Calgary Law Faculty’s blog, in which Professor Emeritus Nigel Banks and Assistant Professor Martin Z. Olszynski examine the Smith Government’s use of its Sovereignty Act to try to try to derail the federal greenhouse gas emissions cap. With a Shakespearean flourish, they find the government’s legal strategy to be “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5, in case you missed the performance.)

“Such motions, even when implemented, can do nothing to better the legal position of the province when faced with federal statutes and regulations with which it does not agree,” the authors conclude. “This is indeed political theatre.”

The post Danielle Smith congratulates the loser of the Lethbridge-West by-election appeared first on rabble.ca.

Premier Doug Ford is introducing new legislation aimed at giving local police services and municipalities increased legal authority to dismantle unhoused encampments. 

Bill 242, which will amend Ontario’s Trespass to Property Act, will allow courts to weigh aggravating factors of reoffense and likelihood of reoffense to impose harsher sentences. 

The Ford government says this is aimed at preventing an increasing number of encampments in the province from reemerging once they have been dismantled. 

According to The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, there were at least 1,400 encampments across Ontario in 2023. 

The proposed bill also gives local police services the authority to ticket people for the consumption of illegal drugs in public space with penalties of up to $10,000 in fines or up to six months of jail time.

Harini Sivalingam, Director of the Equality Program at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, said the proposed amendments will criminalize and punish vulnerable individuals that have nowhere else to go. 

“Homelessness is a crisis, not a crime,” Sivalingam said in an interview with rabble.ca. “These measures will only further criminalize people for being unhoused.”

Ford said he is willing to use the notwithstanding clause, which allows governments to override certain Charter rights for up to five years, to push the legislation through, should the bill face resistance from the courts. 

Potential use of notwithstanding clause alarming, advocates say

Sivalingam said she’s concerned about the government’s willingness to use the notwithstanding clause to enact legislation that may infringe upon Charter rights. 

“The Ontario government is willing to override basic human rights of Ontarians and invoke the notwithstanding clause to keep this legislation, once it’s passed, from being overturned by the court,” she said.

Sivalingam said that the bill, as it stands, could violate Section 7 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which is the right to life, liberty and security of the person. 

“When there is no shelter space for people to go to overnight, evicting them or dismantling encampments – the courts have already said that this violates people’s rights,” she said.

In January 2023, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that a Waterloo Region municipal bylaw could not be used to evict unhoused people from an encampment, as it violated their Section 7 Charter rights. 

Sivalingam said a similar legal challenge could be mounted against Bill 242 – but not if it is passed using the notwithstanding clause. Still, she said courts have a role to play in making people aware of the violation.

“It’s very dangerous to use the Charter overlay to try and circumvent or get around court decisions,” she said. “And it’s also easy to threaten or override the freedoms of vulnerable and marginalized groups.”

“But it’s important information for people to know – that your rights are being violated – so that they can make informed electoral decisions,” she added.

Unhoused people could be displaced

The Encampment Support Network Parkdale (ESNP) is a volunteer-run group of housed and unhoused community members that advocates and provides support for people living in encampments in Parkdale, a neighbourhood in Toronto.  

Joey D’Angelo, who’s been a member of the ESNP since the summer, said the proposed legislation has many people living in encampments worried about where they’ll go next. 

“That just gets discussed like kitchen table discussion,” they said in an interview with rabble.ca, when asked about what encampment residents are planning to do. “It’s hard to say where someone will go.”

D’Angelo explained that some residents are waiting on housing or shelter placements, but many may be forced to move further out of the city centre, which comes with its own risks. 

“There is a concern that a secluded area is actually really dangerous for a person,” she said. “They’re not close to the city centre’s resources. They’re not within community. It runs the risk of someone dying and no one knowing or someone needing help and no one knowing.”

D’Angelo also expressed their concern about where unhoused people will be allowed to consume drugs, pointing to the government’s decision to close down 10 of the province’s 19 supervised consumption and treatment service sites. 

Read More: Ontario to go ahead with consumption site closures despite auditor general’s report

“A population of people who are unhoused rely on the safe consumption sites as a place to be able to safely consume,” she said. She said the decision to close consumption sites is “at battle” with the criminalization of public consumption. 

Diana Chan McNally, a community support worker who’s been working with unhoused people in Toronto for over 10 years, called the legislation “cruel” and “severe”. 

“We’ve just seen that supervised consumption sites will be shut down,” she said in an interview with rabble.ca. “And now we’re criminalizing public drug use, understanding that we’ve taken away the spaces where people could actually go.”

McNally said the bill, if passed, leaves no place for unhoused people to exist – and punishes them for it. 

“You don’t have a private space of your own. Now you’re being told that you can’t exist in public space either,” she said. “Well that means you would likely be thrown into jail and have harsher sentences, without an offer of shelter.”

McNally also emphasised that the legislation won’t remove encampments, just displace them to less harsh municipalities. 

“What’s going to happen if this gets rolled out is that municipalities who take a harder line on this – and there are some where they absolutely just don’t want homeless people – they will push them out,” she said. “And, you know, the cities that don’t want to punish people will suddenly have lots more people within their borders that they will have even less resources to support.”

Bill 242 could also infringe on protest rights

Sivalingam warned that the bill could be used as a tool to suppress protest efforts.  

“The focus of this has been to deal with unhoused encampments,” Sivalingam said. “But a corollary effect of it is that this can also be used as a tool to suppress protest.” 

Like unhoused people, protesters could be subject to fines of up to $10,000 for trespassing, especially if they continue to offend or are considered likely to reoffend. 

“It definitely has an impact on protest rights and freedom of expression,” Sivaligam emphasised, “even if the legislation is being introduced as a way of dealing with unhoused encampments.”

This year, a number of pro-Palestinian encampments were erected on university and college campuses across the country to protest educational institutions’ investments in Isreal. At the University of Toronto, protesters remained in an encampment on campus for over 60 days before being ordered to leave by an Ontario Superior Court Justice. 

Lack of housing the core issue, say advocates

In October, 13 Ontario city mayors asked Premier Doug Ford to use the notwithstanding clause to override the Ontario Superior Court decision that prevents them from dismantling encampments if local shelters are at capacity. 

Harini Sivalingam said that while she empathises with communities that are struggling with encampments, Bill 242 – and the use of the notwithstanding clause – is not the solution to the problem. 

“This is not the right approach to dealing with the homelessness crisis, which really is a housing problem,” Sivalingam said. “People living in encampments need a housing solution. You don’t actually solve the housing crisis long term by criminalizing people who have nowhere else to go.”

McNally said that over 10 years, she’s seen more diversity in people who are accessing her services – but it’s become more difficult to help them get access to housing. 

“It’s increasingly common to see people you would never expect to end up on the street,” she said. “The largest group of people that I’m seeing now are people who are over the age of 70.”

“More I’m seeing young people who can’t find a job,” she continued. “The demographics have diversified so much that I don’t think people really realize just who’s ending up homeless.”

The post Ford willing to use notwithstanding clause to pass bill aimed at dismantling encampments appeared first on rabble.ca.

On December 20, Lee Lakeman, one of Canada’s greatest feminists passed away after weeks in palliative care.  I met Lee when I was President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) in the early 1990’s.  NAC was an extraordinary coalition of women’s groups and women’s committees from unions and churches.  Pretty much every feminist group in the country was a member and there were many differences.  Lee represented Rape Relief one of the most radical groups.  

Several people warned me that Lee was impossible to work with but feminist performance artist Louise Garfield from the Clichettes told me not to listen to the warnings and to get to know Lee who was a warm and loving friend. So I did.

Lee established one of the first women’s shelters in Canada in the early 1970’s by moving into her basement with her son and opening the rest of her house to women fleeing male violence.  She later joined Rape Relief in Vancouver, probably the most radical activist anti-male violence group in the country.  Rape Relief is a collective but as in many collectives there are still leaders and Lee was one.  Her story in Ten Thousand Roses, my oral history of the feminist movement in Canada tells of a group of women who struggled with direct action and going to court, who hired any woman who wanted to work there and stayed very grass roots, refusing government funding so that they wouldn’t get co-opted.

Lee’s interview in my oral history of feminism in Canada Ten Thousand Roses: The Making of a Feminist Revolution tells some of that story:

“The Rape Relief collective was also in constant debate about whether or not we should assist the state in jailing men, and under what circumstances.  A number of women split with us over that..It is perfectly acceptable for me to support a woman in taking a man to court and giving the court material to convict him, and at the same time I can fight for better and more just sentences.  But in those days it was either or.”

Rape Relief also was one of the first groups to take a tough position against trans women working as counsellors or even volunteers in their group. In 2000, I testified in a famous BC Human Rights case—that of Kimberly Nixon, a trans woman who was rejected by Vancouver Rape Relief as a volunteer because she wasn’t born female. Nixon is today seen as a pioneer and a hero of the trans movement. I didn’t agree with the argument Vancouver Rape Relief made at the time, but I did think that they should be able to decide their volunteer criteria, given that they work with traumatized women. 

I came to disagree with Lee on her view that trans women do not belong in the feminist movement at all and that ruined our friendship but my admiration for Lee and her activism remains. Lee’s last piece of writing was to respond to me on the trans issue  but even that article was respectful.  

My favourite memory of Lee is when we were fighting together for a stronger rape law. In 1991 the Supreme Court had struck down the Rape Shield Law because of the section that made it illegal for the defense to question the victim on her sexual history.  Kim Campbell, then the Justice Minister in Brian Mulroney’s government, was desperate to bring in a new law as soon as possible. NAC was invited to meet with the Minister and we invited activists in the anti-violence movement, including Lee to be part of that meeting. Our first meeting was with the bureaucrats including the Deputy Minister. We wanted consent defined in the new law.  The bureaucrats said they agreed it would strengthen the law but that there wasn’t time to work it out and the Minister wanted to move quickly. Lee asked the bureaucrats to leave so that we could discuss among ourselves. I couldn’t believe her nerve to ask the Deputy Minister to leave a meeting he had organized but I supported her and they did. We decided to push the Minister to our amazement, she agreed to change the draft the bureaucrats had written in consultation with the LEAF, the feminist legal group who was also at the meeting.  

I wrote her while she was in palliative care and she wrote back with love and appreciation. That was Lee. Even while dying she wrote: “I have a lot to say but not much time to say it in. I found and find the divisions between us painful, exciting, interesting and important. But of all the things I could say, I want to communicate what a great friend you were to me at key moments in my life.” And I hope I communicated the same to her. Whatever our differences, I know that Lee fought ferociously her whole life for a better world for women. I will cherish her memory.

The post Remembering feminist Lee Lakeman appeared first on rabble.ca.

We’re almost ready to say goodbye to 2024 and usher in a new year. Before we do, however, let’s review some of the biggest news stories of this year. 

Our columnists kept us up-to-date this year on Canadian agricultural news, Indigenous issues, labour and environmental fights and much more. Without further ado, let’s dive in! 

Cathy Crowe – Is Finland’s Housing First really the miracle cure for Canada?

In this piece, Cathy Crowe criticizes Canada’s reliance on the Housing First model, arguing that it has failed to address homelessness and housing issues over the past 20 years, while advocating for a return to a robust national housing program. Crowe highlights Finland’s success in combining Housing First with affordable, mixed-income housing and a strong social safety net, and calls for Canada to prioritize building inclusive, supportive housing for all. 

Read the full column here.

Under Danielle Smith’s leadership, the Government of Alberta is attempting to legislate trans people out of existence.  Credit: Canva Credit: Canva Charlotte Dalwood – Trans Albertans aren’t going anywhere

In 2024, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced her government would be enacting an array of anti-trans policies and legislation – specifically around health care, sports and education and gender identity at school. 

On rabble.ca throughout the year, Dalwood, along with rabble staff and other columnists and freelancers spoke to a number of 2SLGBTQIA groups why this proposed legislation is incredibly harmful – and in some cases deadly. 

In this column, Dalwood writes: “The time has come for every Canadian with a conscience to stand up and be counted. You are either for the Government of Alberta’s death-dealing policies, or for a future that has trans people—trans children included—in it. There is no middle ground.” 

Evelyn Lazare – Climate change and human health

From food security to air quality, so many of the basic human needs we take for granted as available in Canada are at risk in the face of climate change. 

In Lazare’s column, she argues that the time to understand, prepare and adapt to the effects of climate change is now. Read her full column here. 

Erin Blondeau – Fascist movements are growing strong in Canada

In February, Blondeau argued that if social solidarity is not rebuilt, the far-right (led by Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party) could gain more support, leading to a decline in human rights and climate policy. 

In this column, Blondeau also critiques the Conservatives’ messaging, which resonates with many working-class voters, especially younger ones, by highlighting elite failures while ignoring their own role in fostering division.

Blondeau writes: “It’s time to intentionally rebuild and strengthen our communities that are being severed by capitalism, conspiracies and fascism. Of course, this is no easy feat when we are continually disoriented by political gaslighting and paid disinformation campaigns while struggling simply to pay rent and buy food. But perhaps it is one small step we can take toward resistance.”

The Palestine solidarity encampment at Columbia University on April 21, 2024. Credit: عباد ديرانية / Wikimedia Commons Credit: عباد ديرانية / Wikimedia Commons Judy Rebick — Today’s youth uprising for Palestine will bring fundamental change

“I have no question that this recent youth uprising will be as transformative as was the youth uprising of my generation.”

In this piece, rabble founder and columnist compares the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) protests at universities this past year to the anti-war protests of the 1960s and 70s – both causes led by students. Rebick explains that, like the anti-war protests she was involved with as a young person, the BDS protests will be remembered for shifting public opinion towards the Palestinian cause and for being a defining moment in the lives of many future life-long activists.

Read Rebick’s full column here.  

Lois Ross – Depth of Field: Celebrating sustainability one farm at a time

This column showcases The Depth of Field documentary project, supported by the National Farmers Union: a unique series of 40 mini-documentaries based on the stories of small farmers across Canada. The documentary series highlights diverse farming practices, from small-scale operations to urban micro-farms, emphasizing the importance of sustainable agriculture and the impact of food choices on the planet.

Learn more about that project, and Ross’ take on it, here. 

Natasha Darling – Canadian writer explores coming-of-age through sex work  

This year, as a part of her column, Natasha Darling submitted an array of book reviews on new works by Canadian sex work-activists. In this review of All Hookers Go To Heaven by Angel B.H., Darling praises the author for expertly blending magical realism with the exploration of sex work, queerness, and the challenges of capitalist society. 
Read Darling’s full book review here.

A bee on a flower. Credit: Scotty Turner Credit: Scotty Turner Ole Hendrickson – A unified approach on biodiversity and climate

In this piece, Hendrickson outlines a report from Policy Horizons Canada, which highlights potential future disruptions, titled Disruptions on the Horizon, with a focus on climate change, biodiversity loss, and misinformation. 

With the report and his own experience in the public service addressing biodiversity loss and climate change, Hendrickson emphasizes the interconnectedness of environmental issues and critiques current policy approaches, suggesting that governments should adopt a more holistic, ecological perspective. In the column, Hendrickson also recognizes the importance of empowering Indigenous governance to address these challenges. Read the full version of this piece here.

Shreya Kalra – How I stay hopeful during messy times

“The world can often feel like a pressure cooker ready to burst. Where’s hope to be found in all this messiness?”

In this personal column, Shreya Kalra shares how, despite the world being a complicated and oftentimes scary place, she chooses to remain hopeful. Read her full column here. 

Tom Sandborn – Stop the impunity! The ruling class is getting away with murder

In late stage capitalism, “getting away with murder,” isn’t just a metaphor.

Work-related accidents, disease, and even death have been on the rise around the world the past years. What small gains have been made in workplace safety are due to organized workers putting pressure on the system – so for the sake of the safety of all, Sandborn suggests this pressure continues. Read his column here. 

If you’d like to review more of the top stories of 2024, please check out our latest Off the Hill panel, listen to ‘Best of rabble radio 2024,’ or read Nick Seebruch’s “Year in Review” coming soon.

The post rabble’s best columns of 2024 appeared first on rabble.ca.

This week, the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) released the finalists for the 2024 winners selection. We are so pleased to announce rabble.ca has made finalist in three categories!  

Best Video Content (Media) – Off the Hill: The influence of U.S. politics in Canada

Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies, Off the Hill is rabble.ca’s live monthly panel which breaks down important national and international news stories through a progressive lens. This webinar series invites a rotating roster of guest activists, politicians, scholars, researchers and more to discuss how to mobilize and bring about progressive change in national politics — on and off Parliament Hill.

In January 2024, we dove into the explosive world of U.S. politics with NDP Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay Charlie Angus, senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Stuart Trew and rabble editor Nick Seebruch to discuss the many ways our neighbors south of the border influence Canada.

This has been our highest-registered and most viewed panel of this year so far. Watch that panel here!

Best Blog Column/Videocast/Podcast (Media) – Charlotte Dalwood: There’s no such thing as ‘parents’ rights’

Over the past two years, the term “parental rights” has become a rallying cry for anti-queer activists – one that is garnering the support of mainstream politicians.

But as rabble columnist Charlotte Dalwood explains, while parents have a right to raise their children in accordance with their own values – most notably their religious values – they do not have the right to override their children’s own rights under the Charter, notably their children’s rights to life and security of the person.

You can read Dalwood’s column here. 

Best News/Sports Site (Media): rabble.ca

Since 2001, rabble has made a name for itself as a go-to place for progressive news and views in Canada. We cover the stories of transformative change and offer the perspectives and analysis that are often missed by other media.

Congratulations to the other publications who were also nominated! We wish you the best of luck! We’re so excited to be the company of such a diverse and thriving media landscape. 

COPA winners will be announced February 2025. 

If you’d like to support independent media today, consider making a donation here during our winter fundraiser. Every little bit counts!

The post Canadian Online Publishing Awards 2024: rabble is a finalist in three categories appeared first on rabble.ca.

If you are wondering what to buy friends for the holiday season, I have a recommendation. The new book by Alex Himelfarb Breaking free of neoliberalism: Canada’s challenge should be essential reading for anyone who cares about social justice and how our world is unfolding in 2025.

We all know that old slogan – if you want to know where you should be going, you have to know where you’ve come from. Himelfarb is in a unique position to remind us of where we have been as a country. For decades he served in senior positions in the federal public service, ultimately as Clerk of the Privy Council, the top civil servant position in Canada. He saw his role as a thought leader providing advice to the government of the day, including the implications of policies they were considering.  And once he retired, he worked with many NGOs and helped guide the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives as it analyzed and challenged the corporate agenda of greed and austerity.

The frame for his analysis is based on the crucial thinking of the Italian revolutionary Antonio Gramsci – that in this time of “interregnum” there is an intense struggle for power that matches other epochs in our history. He traces the 1980’s with Reagan, Thatcher and free trade; the 2008 collapse of the financial markets; and today the post-COVID restructuring along with the new trade wars and massive increase of income inequality. And in each era distinct class interests attempt to shape the “hegemony of ideas”.  Today we call that the narrative wars, and the sad reality is that right-wing authoritarianism is winning across the world, as demonstrated in the electoral successes of hardline conservatives nearly everywhere.

Of course, Himelfarb is very conscious of why neoliberalism had a bigger hill to climb in Canada than in the US. Whether it was Mulroney or the dramatic 1995 budget of Paul Martin that drove down funding for public services, there were always constraints and resistance by popular movements and civil society. Often the right-wing ground-breakers were to be found at the provincial level, slashing taxes and gutting labour rights while championing a resistance to federal programs.

People like Harper would take things to the next level, and while neoliberalism has been dealt several blows, no government has succeeded in finally putting it out of its – our – misery. It’s a theme that is repeating today, with Preston Manning as a key advocate and conservative premiers acting as shock troops in the drive for provincial rights to undermine the integrity of federal programs.

His examination of the impact of former US President Bill Clinton’s trade deals, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Third Way policies, and the similar pattern of former US President Barrack Obama’s decisions offers important insight into today’s mood of anger. The Tea Party launched in 2009 was no accident – it was a well-funded effort by wealthy business magnates like the Koch brothers to re-assert business supremacy and derail social justice initiatives. Here the so-called Freedom Convoy that occupied Ottawa in the winter of 2022 and spread to cities across this country, showed how deep the anger at government had grown and how raw our differences.

One section near the end of the book is entitled “The Assault on Our Collective Toolkit and the Political Imagination.” It is a brilliant reminder of how the establishment – media, think tanks, economists, politicians and CEO’s – helped marginalize any consideration of collective solutions to thorny problems like housing, lack of medicines, and soaring prices driven by soaring profits. People forget that in the 1970’s Canadians built a mass movement for housing that won rent controls, sweeping investment in non-market housing and measures to curb speculation.

The late Marvyn Novick, who played an invaluable role in social justice efforts in Toronto for many decades, once remarked that the best role for intellectuals like himself was to provide working people with the confidence to believe that they could fight for what they deserve.

In his final chapter, Alex Himelfarb does exactly that. He calls for us to embrace an optimism of the will and find alternatives that build a new spirit of solidarity. It’s about finding the path to common cause, even as we acknowledge our diverse interests. When we look back at the history of this country, it was in those moments when people united around key demands for justice that we were able to shape a better outcome. These are uncertain times, but when we have a clear idea of how we got here we can surely make the path by walking together to a better tomorrow.

The post Breaking free of neo-liberalism – If you dare appeared first on rabble.ca.

In a refreshing sign of intelligent life on the Great Plains of Alberta, voters in the Lethbridge-West by-election sent New Democrat Rob Miyashiro to the provincial Legislature in Edmonton yesterday. 

Judging from the unofficial numbers on the Elections Alberta website, the vote appeared to be a squeaker until about 11 p.m. when results of the first of two advance polls rolled in, swamping the hopes of United Conservative Party candidate John Middleton-Hope, who up until then had appeared to be within 200 votes of Miyashiro.

With all advance poll results having reported by about a quarter after 11, the final unofficial tally was 7,239 votes for Miyashiro to 6,089 for Middleton-Hope, a difference of 1,150 in the NDP candidate’s favour. Official results will be posted by Elections Alberta on Saturday. 

So, obviously, the Opposition NDP did a far better job of organizing its supporters to get their votes in early than did the governing United Conservative Party (UCP). 

The UCP’s effort to schedule the by-election a few days before Christmas, presumably on the theory many NDP-inclined students at the University of Lethbridge in the riding would be out of town with their families, also didn’t work. 

And if the UCP thought running a former Lethbridge police chief would do the trick for them, that flopped too. Middleton-Hope is a current member of the Lethbridge City Council. Miyashiro is a former city councillor. 

Mount Royal University political science professor Keith Brownsey said last night the by-election results “are a very good indication of NDP strength.”

“The NDP focused on economic issues,” Dr. Brownsey told AlbertaPolitics.ca. “There was also, anecdotally, a lot of concern over pensions” – that is, Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to replace the Canada Pension Plan with an Alberta pension.

Miyashiro replaces former NDP cabinet minister Shannon Phillips, who resigned her seat on June 10 after representing the Lethbridge-West voters since the 2015 general election. In her decision to leave politics, she cited the refusal of the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team to charge Lethbridge police officers who spied on her and circulated profane and insulting memes about her. 

“I can take being criticized on a political level,” she said at the time of her resignation. “What I can’t take is what happened from the LPS, given that it is so far outside the acceptable norms of the rule of law and the institutions of liberal democracy, for which they have never been held accountable and have never shown a whiff of responsibility.”

Naturally, the by-election was described repeatedly in media as a crucial first test of NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi, the former three-term Calgary mayor who was overwhelmingly chosen by party members in June to replace former premier Rachel Notley. 

While Nenshi has been criticized for his low-key approach to the party’s province-wide voter engagement strategy up to now, last night’s results would suggest that it isn’t doing any harm and may be working. 

The 13,561 ballots cast amounted to about 37 per cent of the riding’s approximately 37,000 eligible voters. 

While the turnout in the riding was over 60 per cent in the last two general elections, this is a significant turnout for a by-election,Brownsey observed. “Some by-elections, as we have seen recently, are a good indication of how voters are feeling.” 

Miyashiro won a clear majority, 53.38 per cent of the vote, in the only NDP riding south of Calgary. That matched Ms. Phillips’ 53.92-per-cent showing in the 2023 general election.

Of the votes cast, only 233 were for the Alberta Party’s Layton Veverka, the only other candidate to contest the by-election. So the Alberta Party, it is fair to say, continues having difficulty getting on the political radar in this province. 

The post Alberta NDP wins Lethbridge-West by-election appeared first on rabble.ca.

The provincial Auditor’s report was very damning yet again. Particularly on the development of Ontario Place as “not transparent or fair.” The report noted keeping the Science Center where it is and making repairs was far less expensive Than moving and building a new one. 

The Auditor General (AG)’s report comments about the Science Centre include that it was done: “without proper planning.” It could also have included: “eliminated public consultation.”   

The CEO of Infrastructure Ontario jumped to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s defense. 

“The government’s vision would have the best benefits to taxpayers,” he said. 

The AG’s report shows that claim is complete bunk. When Ford announced a multi-billion dollar, 50 kilometer underground tunnel for Hwy 401, he was roundly criticized for it. The Board of Trade quickly jumped to Ford’s defense that time, calling it “bold leadership” because its members would profit handsomely. Showing again Ford’s cozy relationship with big business.

Since first being elected in 2018, Ford has repeatedly shown he lets nothing stand in his quest to benefit private corporations. Certainly not democratic principles or norms. 

Ford has repeatedly shown his disdain for democracy in the same alarming pattern as the former Mike Harris government. 

Democracy is a big issue. At every turn, Ford has eliminated public hearings and any kind of public input. Ford has implemented Ministerial Zoning Orders 114 times overriding local democracy. Ford’s creation of “strong mayor powers” is a prime example of subverting democracy, where mayors now have the power to override decisions by democratically elected councilors.   

Ford replaced the Ontario Municipal Board with the Ontario Land Tribunal Where a lone provincial appointee has the power to decide on appeals overriding locally elected officials again.    

When he was premier, Mike Harris repeatedly subverted Democracy to change all our non-profit public power systems into for -profit corporations  by eliminating referendum voting rights anytime a public asset was to be changed  or sold.

It seems that conservative government’s normal operating procedure is to bypass and eliminate democracy to the benefit of the private sector. They have done this a few ways. During an election they never tell the people and never get a mandate to do things like privatizing public assets and services. 

Conservatives love claiming they are “cutting red tape” making it sound good but eliminating laws and regulations requires public input and approval. Regulations that were put there to protect people and the environment but conservatives see it as just getting in the way of profit making. The prime example now is Ford’s Building Highways Faster Act getting rid of environmental assessments. This bill is another example of how whenever they pass new legislation, they give themselves and their ministers more power to rule by decree with no transparency and no public input whatsoever.   

Mike Harris did this repeatedly with his legislation particularly with his three bills in 1998 on hydro deregulation, and now Ford has repeatedly done this. The prime example being Ford’s Bill 165 Keeping Energy Costs Down Act giving themselves more power to rule by decree and the removal of “procedural fairness” entirely.  

Another example is Bill 218 Supporting Ontario’s Recovery Act which shielded private owners of long-term care facilities from being sued for negligence where so many died during the pandemic from neglect. Now Ford has shielded himself from being sued for removing bike lanes where people will likely be injured or killed with Bill 212. Ford has closed safe injection sites likely causing more deaths. 

The most serious threat to the public’s health and safety is Ford’s cancellation of the most effective low-cost way of detecting disease risk to the public, wastewater testing.  Ford saved a few bucks, while spending over $100 million on advertising telling us what a great job he is doing. Ford has campaigned on two slogans “for the people” and “getting it done.” Ford has gone to great effort and money, clearly showing he’s “getting It done” for wealthy people. If only Ford put this much effort and money into solving the healthcare, housing, education and affordability crisis.  

The big questions now are,: will $200 persuade you to ignore the dangers to you and your family? Will you ignore the damage to our environment and trampling of your democratic rights caused by Ford? 

The price we’ll pay for voting for Ford is far too high.

The post Doug Ford is bulldozing democracy appeared first on rabble.ca.

Teamsters Canada is fighting corporations such as CN that are trying to destroy the constitutional right of workers to bargain collectively. An interview with Paul Boucher the president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference. Plus: Joe Glazer singing  ‘Union Train.’

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. 

The post How rail companies are breaking collective bargaining appeared first on rabble.ca.

It’s hard to believe, but it’s already time to say goodbye to 2024 and ring in a new year. Before we do, however, we’d like to take the next half an hour to review some of our favourite interviews of this year. It’s become a tradition at rabble radio, after all! Let’s dive right in.

2024 at a glance…

In January, then-Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow Madison Edward-Wright sat down with associate professor at Concordia University Ted Rutland to talk about his research work on anti-Black racism and policing in Canada – and specifically, in Montreal. In this clip, Rutland will take us through a brief history of policing in Quebec and give us a temperature check of the situation today.

At the end of her term as Jack Layton Journalism for Change fellow in 2023, Kiah Lucero covered the Kearl mine tailings leak, and how the Alberta Energy Regulator and Imperial Oil both failed to report those leaks for a disastrous nine-month period. Brandi Morin, an award-winning Cree/Iroquois/French journalist, released Killer Water, a documentary which shines a light on the environmental impacts of Alberta’s oil sands industry. Morin shares with Lucero the grave ways the community of Fort Chipewyan has been impacted by the Kearl mine tailings spill.

May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, and this year we were very excited to share with our listeners a two-part discussion on the history of Asian labour in Canada. Kiah Lucero sat down with Patricia Chong and Karine Ng from the Ontario and BC branches of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance. In this clip, we’ll hear them dive into the concept of a “model minority” and how all racial justice fights are intertwined.

This year, a major win for the pro-choice movement – and indeed a win for women’s health across Canada – came in the form of an announcement by the Liberal federal government that crisis pregnancy centers and charities must now clearly reveal to their clients whether they offer abortion or abortion referrals. This new policy will prevent anti-choice pregnancy crisis centers from misleading women to try to deter them from having an abortion. In the months leading up to this policy being announced, Joyce Arthur, the founder and executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, joined rabble editor Nick Seebruch to talk about belief-based denial of care and the state of abortion rights in Canada.

And finally, listeners, the last clip we wanted to highlight today came from a conversation between Nick Seebruch and Louise Smith from Independent Jewish Voices Canada. Solidarity with Palestine was a huge topic of conversation this year on the podcast and on rabble.ca, and in this interview Smith and Seebruch  outline the important work Independent Jewish Voices Canada does to advocate for peace and justice in Israel-Palestine and explain how all forms of oppression are connected. In this clip, Smith aims to dispel the myth that solidarity with Palestine equals antisemitism and criticizes the Jewish groups in Canada which tout that sentiment.

Did we miss a favourite interview of yours from 2024? Let us know on social media or by leaving a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or YouTube!

Thank you for listening to rabble radio!

Our show would not be possible without listeners like you. So thank you!

From all of us here at rabble, we want to wish you and your communities a very merry holiday season and a safe and happy new year!

If we’ve caught you in the giving mood and would like to support our show today, please visit rabble.ca/donate.

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. Or, if you have feedback for the show, get in touch anytime at editor@rabble.ca.

The post Best of rabble radio 2024 appeared first on rabble.ca.

On Wednesday, migrant workers and students across Canada highlighted the crucial role they play in the Canadian economy through the ‘Day Without Migrants’ campaign. Led by the International Migrants’ Alliance of Canada (IMA), protests occurred in eight Canadian cities including Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. 

The ‘Day Without Migrants’ coincided with International Migrants day which was established by the United Nations to recognize contributions of migrants all over the world.

Members of IMA and other migrants are saying they are essential to Canada’s economy and society but recent immigration policy changes indicate the government does not value their contributions. 

Released in October, the federal government’s Immigration Levels Plan revealed the Liberals are lowering their targets for new permanent residents and, for the first time ever, new temporary residents. Canada will now be aiming to give permanent status to 395,000 people in 2025, a 105,000 decrease from the country’s previous target. Other measures, including a cap on international student intake and tighter restrictions on who can receive a temporary work permit, are expected to reduce the number of temporary residents by more than 445,000 people per year in 2025 and 2026.

Migrant workers and their supporters have been posting photos as part of the IMA selfie campaign on social media. The posts aim to highlight the reliance Canada has on immigrants. 

“Without migrants, long-term care would look very grim,” reads one image on IMA’s facebook page. 

“We are workers! We are not slaves!” another image reads. 

Migrants are being scapegoated for a crisis caused by government policy, said Gabriel Allahdua, member of the migrant workers’ steering committee for the Canadian Council of Refugees. Allahdua said Canada relies on migrants and should not turn their backs on them when it is popular to do so. Looking at international students as an example, he said immigrants contribute billions of dollars to the economy.

Analysis from Global Affairs Canada found international students contributed $30.9 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2022. Internal documents from the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities showed international students provided 28 per cent of the revenue at publicly assisted colleges in the 2021-2022 school year. Statistics Canada data shows the cost of tuition for undergraduates with Canadian citizenship this school year was a little over $6,500 in tuition. International undergraduates paid more than $35,400 in tuition.

“Even the government has admitted that they are cash cows for the education system,” Allahdua said. “A couple of months ago, [international students] were saviors. At a time when Canada was suffering from a labor shortage, international students worked up to 40 hours [per week]. This is double what they normally would work.”

Immigrants are a major driver of the economy

Mehakdeep Singh, a protestor participating in an encampment of graduated international students, said recent immigration changes are insulting because they push out the very people who have saved Canada from a recession.

“If you worked to uphold the economy of a country you call home, and your government suddenly went back on their word, would you simply accept that?” Singh said in a press release. 

Singh said it is unacceptable that Canada has brought forward this “use-and-throw” policy.

“We are asking for Canada to honour the sacrifices we made during COVID and to honour their promise of a pathway to permanent residency,” he added.

When the new immigration targets were announced in October, it was not only migrants who were concerned. The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) released a statement saying business owners’ heads were spinning.

“CFIB is already receiving panicked calls from small business owners, including many who are heartbroken to have to say goodbye to their foreign workers who are already in Canada and whose visas are soon to expire,” said CFIB president Dan Kelly in a press release.

He added that the cut to permanent immigration levels is also troubling even if the unemployment rate is on the rise.

“There are still 379,000 persistent vacancies in the private sector,” Kelly said. “And while we are experiencing housing pressures right now, any look at Canada’s demographics reveals we will struggle to maintain a strong workforce without robust immigration.”

Alex Paterson, spokesperson for the Bank of Canada, said the bank does not have comments on whether tightening immigration is an appropriate response to high housing prices. He did note, however, that the bank’s governor has previously said the figures in the Immigration Levels Plan could imply a lower GDP growth forecast coming in January.

While there is concern about immigration restrictions dampening economic growth, immigration minister Marc Miller and the government say these restrictions are necessary to bring down the cost of housing. 

‘Housing crisis was not caused by immigration,’: IRCC

Michelle Carbert, spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), pointed to a 2023 study by the Bank of Canada which indicates housing supply has not been able to keep pace with population growth. As such, increasing demand has driven up prices.

“It’s important to note that the housing crisis was not caused by immigration,” Carbert said. “We are pursuing strategies that support Canada’s continued need for immigration while also addressing our current housing situation. For the federal government, this means aligning our immigration policies with measures taken to address infrastructure and housing challenges.”

The Parliamentary Budget Officer found that if the new immigration measures affect the population as planned, the housing supply gap could close by 534,000 units in 2030.

Carbert said the international student cap has already brought down the volume of temporary residents in university towns and recent reports show those same towns have seen rent prices stagnate.

“The levels that we put forward this year are ones that are still ambitious. They still plan for a growing economy,” minister Miller said during a House of Commons committee meeting on November 25. “But it isn’t everyone that has the right to bring in whoever they want, whenever they want.”

The post ‘Day without migrants’ shows the need to uphold migrant workers’ rights appeared first on rabble.ca.

On the longest night of the year, a procession of wicked creatures fiercely takes over the horizon on their galloping ghost horses. Hooves smash the midnight sky, echoing through the empty streets. Families huddle together in candle-lit rooms as the smell of a crackling Yule log lingers in the air. There are lessons to learn in these moments of quiet and togetherness. The figures in the sky are spirits from another realm, harbingers of death and destruction to come.

This is the Wild Hunt—an ancient Yuletide legend that has captured the minds of poets, academics, and folklorists for centuries. Interpretations of the story are varied. Some say it is led by Odin, the Norse god, along with his ghost riders, to capture the souls of those who cause harm. Others say it is an army of women blessing good homes or cursing the cruel and greedy. Legendary folklorist Jacob Grimm modified the folk tale in the 1835 book, Deutsche Mythologie, taking his own liberties and twisting it to suit his personal beliefs. According to folklore historian Ronald Hutton, Grimm manufactured his own telling of the Wild Hunt legend, veering from disjointed folk stories common in Pagan societies, towards themes of racial superiority, nationalism, and militarism.

Upon reading about the wild hunt, I found myself asking—what moments of teaching do we have in our modern era? When politicians attack teachers and ban books and disregard the desire to change as “too radical”? The pain and discomfort that we experience in our day-to-day lives have been normalized, but a pause and some contemplation over this year’s solstice could help us emerge from the darkness differently. We have been severed from our connection to the planet and its lifeways, with capitalism and imperialism keeping us distracted and divided. Taking a moment to pause gives us an opportunity to rethread that connection.

Disconnection

Capitalism is a deeply individualistic system that has normalized disconnection and apathy toward suffering. We can see this hyperindividualism illustrated all times of the year, but especially now with the contradictions of Canadian Christmas. Pop culture and movies brand the holiday season as a time of gift-giving, of counting blessings, and of gratitude for family. And yet, these customs don’t apply to everyone. Christmas hampers are gathered for those “in need”, but for the rest of the year those people are nothing more than a nuisance—or the test subjects of forced institutionalization and psychiatric incarceration. Politicians smile in photo ops with their canned goods to deliver to the poor but then go on to advocate for policies that criminalize poverty. Would the ghost riders of the wild hunt give this hypocrisy a pass?

Blustery, dangerous and deadly cold, Canada does not have a solution for its people on the streets, despite considering itself a nation of tolerance. In reality, people are turned away from overflowing shelters. Even finding a space to offer refuge is a struggle for extreme weather shelters, not because there is a shortage of space but because neighbouring residents often oppose it. In 2023, the Cowichan Valley community centre on Vancouver Island used one of its rooms as an emergency shelter from the cold, but parents whose children play sports in the nearby arena objected. In a moral panic, the local hockey association and others argued their reasons for opposing the shelter. The potential for death and human suffering mattered less than their discomfort in witnessing the depths of poverty caused by late-stage capitalism.

Cold is extremely dangerous and people die without shelter, but the state does nothing meaningful to solve it. In 2023, a story broke in the CBC that revealed how common frostbite and amputation is among people living on the street in the cold winter months, with a dramatic spike in amputations in 2021 and 2022. Being in community and camping together reduces the risk of death and violent assaults for unhoused people, especially in winter. The Canadian Human Rights Commission released a report in February 2024 explaining that encampments are a way for unhoused people to “claim their human rights and meet their most basic needs.” Knowing this, police still obey orders to violently displace unhoused people by conducting inhumane raids and brutal street sweeps on encampments. Breaking up encampments, disposing of personal items and tents, and relocating people perpetuates trauma among already marginalized and stigmatized communities, and can even lead to death. Violent displacement does not solve poverty. It does not solve homelessness.

This cruelty is avoidable, if only political will existed. Where is the political will? Any progress made toward alleviating poverty has been violently incremental, causing what Friedrich Engels referred to as social murder. In the Yuletide wild hunt, murderers’ souls would be swept up as the ultimate form of cosmic justice. In our world, it seems as though justice never comes.

Polarization

Though harmful and violent dogma should be challenged and critiqued, we should also realize that disputes among us—the working class—only benefit fascist politicians and billionaires.

While we are busy battling over ideology (sometimes, with good reason), the ultra-rich keep getting richer and benefitting from the resurgence of neo-fascism, brought in by theatrical and deceitful politicians. Authoritarian figures like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, John Rustad, and Pierre Poilievre use fascist tactics like undermining and defunding education, attacking the free press, encouraging ultranationalism, and scapegoating immigrants and Indigenous peoples, to keep their voter base in a constant mode of distrust and division. This keeps the power balance working in their favour. This isn’t the first time in human history where oligarchs thought they could rule society in whatever way they pleased. In the medieval period, there would have been communal uprisings and revolts against this type of oppression.

Of course, it’s not just far-right politicians who are to blame for the current state of affairs. Liberal-leaning politicians like Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh use progressive language and co-opting of collectivist values to hide their pro-corporate interests that only benefit the elite. Politicians who do advocate for causes that challenge the social hierarchy have limited power and influence in the colonial establishment, and can even find themselves kicked out of caucus if they express views that do not align with the party leadership, as was the case for MPP Sara Jama who spoke out against Israeli violence in Gaza.

No, the Liberals won’t make us eat bugs as the Conservative Party claims; they do not care what we eat, or if we eat at all. Food insecurity in Canada has become so severe that the 18th century disease scurvy has re-emerged. Canada’s political parties are sending us messages about how bad the future will be unless we cast our vote for them, but things are bad enough now. No party is offering the real, transformative solutions we need to navigate the polycrises that are threatening our survival as a species.

We cannot succumb to their identity politicking any longer.

The climate crisis is perhaps the most existential manifestation of political abandonment. Scientists have known for decades that pollution from capitalist industry, the military industrial complex, and unfettered consumerism has a devastating warming effect on our planet that is leading to biodiversity collapse. And yet they have done nothing to adequately stop the problem. As our animal kin and the planet warn us of the coming ecological disasters, the billionaire class continues to pollute and destroy the earth as they see fit. But one day perhaps, they will understand that climate change will transcend class borders.

Our wild hunt is social uprising

The cruelty and barbarism that the world is experiencing—from wars and genocides to the class struggle at home in Canada—has unleashed something that oligarchs perhaps did not intend: a deep rage at the machine, the whispers of class consciousness. In 2024, students around the world occupied universities to demand divestment from the Israeli apartheid machine. It was no business as usual while Palestinians are slaughtered in Gaza and while our nations fund ecocide, scholasticide, and genocide.

On December 5, Amnesty International concluded Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide. Amnesty International asks the questions we should all be asking: what have our political leaders done? What are the worldly institutions doing to end this genocide and hold its inflictors accountable? We must demand justice.

In the words of Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnes Callamard, “No war criminal should ever be allowed to walk free, undisturbed. Fearless. Let’s put all our instruments into action.”

National tribunals, international criminal court, universal jurisdiction. The wild hunt is coming.

There are other forms of resistance brewing, too. All across the country, Canada’s United Postal Workers (CUPW) are fighting the ‘gigification’ of essential public services, writes striking letter carrier, Kieran Delamont. Though the media and Canada Post attempt to paint the strike as “greedy”, it is more than just a dispute over wages—it is workers taking a principled stand against the oppression of the capitalist system that insists on the ongoing erosion of workers’ rights. CUPW is fighting for job security, rather than the precarious gig economy that prioritizes profits for CEOs over the wellbeing and sustainability of workers. The Labour Minister and the Canadian Industrial Relations Board has ordered postal workers to return to work without meeting the demands of the union, which it describes in a recent statement as the right to “fight for fair wages, safe working conditions and to retire with dignity.”

Do not listen to the billionaires and ideologues who seek to divide: it should not be “woke” to stand in solidarity, to care for each other, to want our relatives to live long and dignified lives, to reconnect with the earth. It should not be “radical” to reclaim what we are owed: profits from the products we produce, safe and affordable housing, access to healthy outdoor spaces, free public transportation that can take us anywhere, free education, free baby formula and other essential items, and the ability to thrive in this world that we have built. Us, the workers—not Justin Trudeau of the Leaurentian elite; not Pierre Poilievre, the career politician.

Us—the plumbers, the aestheticians, the teachers, the doctors, the nurses, the electricians, the factory workers, the caregivers, the janitors, the community leaders, the mental health workers, the writers, the knowledge-keepers.

This winter solstice is the darkness before a period of renewal. May we show the oligarchs that we will one day soon lead our own wild hunt, to restore our connection with the planet and with each other.

The post Yuletide lessons for our political moment appeared first on rabble.ca.

As we reflect on the year gone by, and dare peek into the year ahead, it can be difficult to determine upcoming trends or directions. One thing which I think is becoming increasingly clear is the importance related to food and climate change.

Increasingly important are also reputable sources of information on food security and agricultural issues. As we round the bend headed into 2025, this final column of 2024 provides a glimpse into some of the dependable resources that showcase upcoming issues we should keep in mind.

CBAN – the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network

Count on CBAN – the Canadian Biotechnlogy Action Network,  to continue throughout 2025 to be on the forefront of alerting the public to all things related to genetically modified seeds and foods. CBAN alerts have provided lots of grist for my columns in the past, and have helped to chronicle successful campaigns against GMO wheat, tomatoes, salmon and more. This coalition of organizations from across Canada is also the bell weather for upcoming food security issues. The latest alert from CBAN has us double-checking what our “greens” might be made of in 2025. You can read more about the latest incursion of a gene edited vegetable brought to you by none other than Bayer — (formerly knows Monsanto).

COG – Canadian Organic Growers

The Canadian Organic Growers is an excellent resource for updates on organic farming, sustainability, and food security issues. Through its newsletters COG provides information for both organic farmers and champions of the organic food production movement. Stay connected with webinars, seed saving initiatives, news reports, and more via the COG website.

The ETC Group

This organization is yet another trailblazer when it comes to informing about next-level issues related to biodiversity, technology, and sustainability. In many cases, because the researchers in this group are so far advanced in monitoring trends, some of the fact sheets and reports have the feel of science fiction. But make no mistake, whatever the ETC Group reports on is already reality, both here at home and around the world. The web content, reports, and podcasts provided by ETC Group are harbingers of the near-future.

The Group’s website states: ‘ETC Group monitors the impact of emerging technologies and corporate strategies on biodiversity, agriculture and human rights.’ The ETC Group is definitely worth following throughout 2025!

Food Secure Canada

This is yet another national organization which is working to provide information and systems change when it comes to food security and food sovereignty. For more than 20 years Food Secure Canada has been initiating conversations related to the quality and affordability of food,  the right to healthy food, and has also long supported initiatives such as the national school food program. Food Secure Canada works with First Nations and settler communities across Canada to promote sustainable food systems and to advocate for policy changes that will encourage access to affordable, healthy food, within a sustainable food production system. There are several reports and information sheets on its website. I am looking forward to hearing more from this organization in 2025.

Farmers for Climate Solutions

This innovative coalition is farmer and rancher led and focuses on climate change solutions that are practical and can be adapted to most agricultural operations in Canada. The research and practical guides that Farmers for Climate Solutions provide show that there are in-field methods to help mitigate climate change.

As noted on its website: “We develop and advocate for policies that better support the adoption of low emission, high resilience approaches in agriculture. We employ a farmer-led task force model, where farmers, climate scientists, agricultural economists, and other experts work together to advance science-based policy proposals that are grounded in on-farm experience.”

Farmers for Climate solutions has also created a mentorship program through which valuable on-farm practices can be applied. FaRM-the Farm Resilience Mentorship Program  is a farmer-to-farmer learning hub. This and more is explained in detail on the website.

Just Food

If you live in the Ottawa area, you likely already know the treasure trove of information provided by this small but mighty non-profit organization. As noted on its website: “Just Food is a local, non-profit, community-based organization that works on both rural and urban food and farming issues in Ottawa and the surrounding region.”

I have watched this organization grow over more than two decades. It now works with growers and consumers on bridging initiatives such as Savour Ottawa, provides a community garden space, as well as the opportunity for learning provided through its incubator farm projects, and also provides local food markets throughout the year. Nestled on a parcel of land rented for the long-term from the National Capital Region, Just Food provides information on buying local, on community gardens and greenhouses, seed initiatives, farm start-ups, food strategies and more generally.

I would wish for one of these initiatives for every urban community in Canada.

The National Farmers Foundation

Last but not least is the National Farmers Foundation (NFF), a charitable organization dedicated to supporting “research and education to drive policies and decisions that deliver social and economic justice for farmers, eaters, and the earth. Among the current priority areas are farmland ownership and control, climate change and seed sovereignty.”

The NFF provides important research and educational programs that support young farmers, as well as anyone interested in learning more about food sovereignty and food security. It has a series of webinars available from its website on cooperative land trusts as well as regenerative agriculture and has supported special projects focused on its mandate. The NFF works in partnership with the National Farmers Union and is administered by a volunteer board of directors. It has just released its 2023-2024 Annual Report.

These are but a few of the food-focused organizations that should help to keep us all informed heading into 2025. There are many more, but this I think is a good start to the new year!

The post Resources for food security and agricultural knowledge for the new year appeared first on rabble.ca.

2024 was a big year – from a shocking U.S. election, to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, to a shifting political scene in Canada (and more!) there was much to discuss in our December Off the Hill political panel. 

In our final Off the Hill of the year, our panel reviewed the highs and lows of 2024 in Canada, the U.S. and globally, and considered the lessons learned which should be taken into 2025. 

This panel featured NDP Member of Parliament for Vancouver Kingsway Don Davies, economist Jim Stanford, activist and writer Clayton Thomas-Müller, activist and professor pk mutch, and rabble’s labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casuga. Co-hosted by Libby Davies and Robin Browne.

About Off the Hill

Since 2019, Off the Hill has been rabble.ca’s live monthly panel. Through this series, we break down important national and international news stories through a progressive lens.

This webinar series invites a rotating roster of guest activists, politicians, researchers and more to discuss how to mobilize and bring about progressive change in national politics — on and off Parliament Hill. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.

Join us the third Wednesday of every month at 7:30pm ET. The live, digital show is one hour long – 45 minutes of moderated discussion followed by 15 minutes of audience participation.

Want to help projects like this going? rabble runs on reader support! Visit rabble.ca/donate today.

The post Off the Hill: The ups and downs of 2024 and lessons for 2025 (FULL VIDEO) appeared first on rabble.ca.

The Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa surely isn’t the only Canadian venue with more than a whiff of panic in the air these days. 

Consider the likely conversation in Premier Danielle Smith’s office in the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton. 

According to Environment Canada, periods of snow are forecast in Ottawa today with more flurries tonight. What the hell is the United Conservative Party’s strategic brain trust going to do if Justin Trudeau decides to take a walk in the stuff? 

Conservative Alberta politicians have made a cottage industry out of blaming everything bad that’s happened in Canada on members of the Trudeau family for more than 40 years now. It’s pretty much an involuntary reflex, requiring no thought, and it still seems to work. 

Plus, ever since Gerry Butts quit as Trudeau the Younger’s chief political advisor in February 2019, the prime minister has been obligingly painting targets on his own back at which Alberta Conservatives can aim their pot-shots. 

Even with the clock running out on the Liberal Government and the possibility looming of a blowout for the erstwhile Natural Governing Party on the scale of the 1993 election’s rout of Kim Campbell’s Conservatives, it’s hard to imagine a replacement for Trudeau who would make as good a whipping boy, or girl, from the UCP perspective.

Mark Carney? Well, he could turn out to be another Michael Ignatieff, one supposes, but he’s obviously smart. As a politician, as opposed to an inscrutable central banker, his talents are not fully known. But he seems to have the Conservatives worried.

And even if he was as bad as Professor Ignatieff – who headed back to Harvard after the 2011 federal election, just like the Conservatives predicted he would – how would that be worse than the fall for which Trudeau appears to be headed? 

Chrystia Freeland? If she manages to finagle her you’re-fired/I-quit moment into a crack at the PMO, we’re soon going to learn she’s basically the Liz Cheney of Canada! Indeed, if you’ve been paying attention, that’s been obvious for years. 

To channel Freddy Lee “Ted” Morton, Firewall Manifesto signatory and worst premier Alberta never had, Freeland would be every federal Conservative’s worst nightmare, a Liberal so far to the right that Pierre Poilievre would look woke!

And if Trudeau surprises everyone and asks the Governor General to call an election, the apparently inevitable ascent of Poilievre to the PMO would potentially be even worse news for the separatists in Smith’s office, if not for the ones expected to show up momentarily in Quebec City.

Do you seriously think Poilievre would let the UCP pilfer the Canada Pension Plan unopposed if he wants to retain any hopes of being re-elected, no matter how massive his majority turns out to be?

Remember, it took a Nixon to go to China. It might take a Poilievre to finally stomp on Smith.

Meanwhile, belligerent joint statements from the Premier’s Office continue, although readers will notice that yesterday’s failed to mention Trudeau by name. Nerves? 

Edmonton police commissioner drops plan to work from Portugal

Well, so long John McDougall, outgoing chair of the Edmonton Police Commission who sought to serve his last two years on the police oversight and governance body from Portugal, known for its gentle breezes and generous tax laws. 

The Internet may work in Portugal, but it turns out that McDougall won’t – at least not for Edmonton’s putative “guardian of public trust.”

After sparking a brouhaha with his plan to Zoom in from Portugal, McDougall said yesterday he would resign immediately. “It is clear that my residency would be an unwelcome distraction from the important work of the commission, which is not fair to the citizens who rely on us to provide governance and oversight of the Edmonton Police Service,” he said in a statement. 

Like his change of address, this decision also seems either not to have been communicated to or not understood by Emergency Services Minister Mike Ellis, who earlier in the day told media he expected McDougall to resign after he’d officially moved to Portugal. 

At any rate, the prospect of a provincially appointed Alberta official Zooming in from the Iberian Peninsula while the snow flies in Alberta appears to have been too much even for the cheekily entitled UCP. 

Lethbridge-West by-election is today 

Today is the day of the provincial by-election in Lethbridge-West, held by the NDP until the resignation of former MLA Shannon Phillips last summer. 

The NDP is favoured to win, according to some pollsters, but it’s said here that’s no sure thing.

Both parties’ candidates have strong ties to the southern Alberta city’s civic politics – the NDP’s Rob Miyashiro is a former city councillor and the UCP’s John Middleton-Hope is a current one. Bet on Layton Veverka of the Alberta party, the only other candidate in the race, to finish in third place.

The by-election is bound be seen as a test of Leader Naheed Nenshi’s low-bridging approach to the leadership of the NDP, even if the outcome masks other strengths and weaknesses of the Opposition Party’s strategy.

The post If Trudeau takes a ‘walk in the snow,’ Danielle Smith will surely miss him appeared first on rabble.ca.

Charlotte Dalwood has lived a remarkable life. She is a trans woman who identifies not only as a woman and a schizophrenic, but also as a spiritual seeker, former evangelical, former Anglican clergy and currently a member of a Reform Jewish community at Temple B’Nai Tikvah in Calgary.

(I can think of no other modern figure who has made such an adventurous traverse of religious identities with the exception of Karen Armstrong, a former nun, biographer of Mohammed and the Buddha and instructor at a Jewish college. Armstrong’s vitally important book on religious fundamentalism The Battle for God  addresses some of the same themes that Dalwood covers and would be a useful companion read.)

Dalwood is a profound thinker with a supple, erudite mind.  She shares some of the wisdom and lyrical prose she has earned and honed along the way in this book of strong, beautiful essays. Some rabble readers may have read her work earlier here. They will welcome the arrival of this collection and will join me in urging others to engage in the complicated, nuanced reflection this brilliant collection invites.

Dalwood describes this book as their “… loving farewell to the Christians who raised me,” but it is far more than a post-Christian “Mommy Dearest.” While she is clear about the ways that both her evangelical family and church, and later the Anglican hierarchy, failed her as she grappled with her trans identity and the florid delusions she attributes to her schizophrenia, this is not a bitter book. It is by turns funny, fond, and profound, and every sentence is shapely, every argument compelling.

It will be a challenging read for believers in any theology, not because it dismisses the human concerns that inform faith systems, as too many secular critics do. Rather, the author insists on her right and obligation to wrestle with these concerns as an heir to tradition and re-cast these theologies in the light of her own lived experience and extensive erudition. Think of their work as a kind of radical theology of freedom, or as a post-modern philosophy enterprise informed in part by the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil.”

When they first experienced what she understands now as psychotic delusions, Dalwood thought she was the reincarnation of great Jewish prophet Ezekiel. She is careful to insist that she does not romanticize her psychotic episodes; for her, psychosis is not the same as genuine religious experience. And yet she also insists that it is ableist to assume that the Divine will not reveal itself to those who are seen as disabled. The schizophrenic experience is not genuine communication from God, but it is, she suggests, adjacent to it, and folks like her who have experienced psychosis may have a clearer intuition of what the face of God is than “normal” people.

This careful, nuanced parsing of the issue at hand is typical of Dalwood’s approach. Some readers may share this reviewer’s unease about the author’s relatively uncritical acceptance of some of the categories of medical model psychiatry and may want to turn to other sources for a more radical critique on this point from the self-described “escaped lunatics” of the mental patient’s liberation movement like Irit Shimrat.

Yet here too, Dalwood displays the nuance and complexity of her intellectual method. She accepts psychosis as a category, but clearly opposes involuntary “treatment,” and in one passage says that time in a psych hospital is worse than hell. I am reminded of a wonderful headline in the newspaper of the Vancouver Mental Patients’ Association,  the Nutshell, “The Myth of Mental Illness, the Reality of Feeling Horrible.”

Dalwood is a fearless essayist, taking on many difficult and thorny current debates, including the conflicts between trans people and the malevolent chorus of anti-trans voices that range from Donald Trump’s MAGA movement to a controversial current within feminism, the trans exclusionary radical feminist, or TERFs.

On this topic, too, Dalwood can be polemic without being thoughtless or hateful, an ability often sadly missing in her critics. Dalwood refuses to be silenced by her critics, and progressive readers have reason to be grateful. Whether you agree with all her positions or not, this is an author who has produced a book that is good to think about, with challenging analysis and lucid, lapidary prose. Buy some copies and give them to your friends and family, especially if that circle includes people wrestling with angels. Highly recommended.

The post Wrestling with angels the remarkable mind of Charlotte Dalwood appeared first on rabble.ca.

Between December 16-20 in Geneva, countries will be debating a legally-binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights. The law is intended to ensure that corporations, particularly transnational companies, uphold their human rights responsibilities. While the draft law emphasizes the prevention of human rights abuses, it also refers to access to justice and remedy for victims. 

The law is to prevent human rights abuses by transnational corporations rather than current voluntary frameworks like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It would require countries to overhaul weak legal systems that have prioritized corporate profit over human rights. 

First proposed in the UN Human Rights Council by Ecuador in 2013, the treaty has been championed by developing countries across Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, while seeing resistance from developed countries in North America and Europe, as well as Russia, China and Gulf States. But with the introduction of EU’s due diligence legislation, it is expected that the EU will show growing support for the treaty.

One of the key areas of the treaty draft, Article 6 explicitly calls for state regulation of all business enterprises including transnational corporations to prevent human rights abuses. The language is important: prevention would require a paradigm shift on how corporations are currently able to act, requiring more stringent human rights assessments before projects can even hit the ground.

Ben Vanpeperstraete, senior legal advisor at the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), has been following the development of the treaty for eight years—first with the Clean Clothes Campaign and now with ECCHR. He was also involved in developing the EU’s corporate sustainability due diligence legislation. 

Vanpeperstraete explained that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines for mineral supply chains, such as gold, have been endorsed by Western countries and seen as a way to globally move away from hard law toward voluntary standards that are not enforceable. 

“There’s lots of distress, especially from the economic south, on the concept of human rights due diligence” Vanpeperstraete told rabble, referring to the erosion of the UN’s legal norms that have increasingly resulted in voluntary guidelines. He also explained that there is a concern around the treaty not placing sufficient attention on access to justice. “There is indeed some fear that the treaty will become a due diligence treaty.”

Countries are also divided on whether the law is going to address only transnational corporations, or all companies. 

The International Federation of Human Rights has observed that the draft law still lacks clarity on distinguishing between human rights causes directly linked to corporations’ activities and supply chains, and other human rights impacts to which a company contributes. 

Civil society organizations have also been critical of the treaty process. 

At last year’s negotiations, Global South countries and human rights organizations including Via Campesina—a French organization representing small-scale farmers and pastoralists around the world—denounced a “non-democratic and non-transparent methodology” that attempted to shift the focus of the law away from transnational corporations to all businesses. This broadening of scope has been supported by Global North countries and the business lobby, while being criticized by Global South countries and all African states. 

Human rights groups also expressed concern about industry influence on the negotiations from powerful corporate lobbies like the International Chamber of Commerce, International Organisation of Employers, and the US Council for International Business. In vague language that has been echoed in Canada’s own rare statements on the treaty, the business lobby has called for a “collaborative” approach on developing a law that holds them accountable for causing mass displacement, depending on slavery, polluting rivers, and murdering activists. 

This year, the treaty talks have already come under fire from Ecuadorian human rights organizations and international coalitions when Ecuador, the Chair, unilaterally moved the talks from October to December. Many Global South countries and civil society observers are left out of the room this year, as countries opposing the legally-binding nature of the treaty remain.

Given the wide applicability of a law preventing human rights abuses by transnational corporations, this treaty could well be one of the most important international laws in development today. 

A rude arrival

You wouldn’t know this treaty was important based on Canada’s engagement thus far. Until 2021, Canada was absent from negotiations and, since arriving, has been criticized for undermining treaty progress and justice for victims of corporate abuse.

Leading up to this year’s negotiations, Beatrice Olivastri, CEO of Friends of the Earth Canada, stated that “Canada has been missing in action … relying instead on voluntary principles for Canadian business activities affecting human and environmental rights overseas.”

Shane Moffatt, Director of the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA), has denounced countries dragging their feet for a decade on the Binding Treaty in comparison to the relatively fast progress on the global plastics treaty. 

Describing Canada’s engagement as “lukewarm” and “throwing cold water on talks to move toward a treaty”, Moffatt told rabble.ca that Canada’s lack of constructive engagement has not been reflective of responsibilities to countries in the Global South. 

Seven years late to the negotiations, Canada stated that the treaty “has not yet attracted the level of engagement and support needed to progress toward real consensus,” and supported an alternative framework that could turn the international law into yet another voluntary guideline. 

“Our concern is that Canada has been named as one of the countries opposing a Binding Treaty,” Brent Patterson, coordinator of Peace Brigades International-Canada (PBI), told rabble.ca PBI is following the treaty talks in Geneva this month. 

“We are also mindful that Canada has not prioritized and advocated for the inclusion and protection of environmental defenders in international spaces, perhaps because of the repression of the Wet’suwet’en land and water protectors,” Patterson added.

Patterson was hopeful that language around human rights defenders will be strengthened in the draft law and that environmental rights defenders will also be included. 

But heading into negotiations this month, the Canadian government has not made any public statements on the importance of this global treaty.

The position of Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Office in Geneva was assumed by Peter MacDougall in August this year, but he has not published any statement on the international treaty.

Neither Global Affairs Canada nor the office in Geneva responded to rabble’s questions by the time of publication. 

Canada’s regime of impunity

Canada’s apathy toward transnational corporate crime is reflected in domestic law. 

Canada was supposed to introduce a law by the end of this year to eliminate slavery from Canadian supply chains and to strengthen the ban on the importation of goods produced by forced labour. This law has not been passed. 

The Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT) requested a response from Trudeau’s government, but as of October, members have not received a response. The CIIT stated that it “finds the government’s inaction deplorable.”

CIIT members did not respond to rabble.ca by the time of publication. 

Efforts to introduce broader corporate due diligence law and mandate the prevention of human rights abuses have been made by Canadian mining and corporate accountability watchdogs. A proposal by MiningWatch under the Harper government in 2009 was ignored and never moved forward. A more recent model law by the CNCA was supported by over 50,000 Canadians, adopted in full and tabled in Bill C-262—but it has still not passed. 

In the lead-up to the treaty talks in Geneva, the CNCA has called on Trade Minister Mary Ng to commit to introducing corporate due diligence law, and strengthen the powers of a key leadership position meant to keep Canadian corporations in check. 

Launched in 2019, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), has a mandate to “look into complaints about possible human rights abuses from people, organizations, and communities.” The position is currently held by Masud Husain.

But the scope of CORE is limited to Canadian multinationals in mining and garment manufacturing, leaving out many other destructive sectors where Canadian companies are contributing to social and environmental harms—like timber and forestry, agriculture, and tech manufacturing. 

CORE’s most recent report cites 22 active complaints currently under review, with the majority of new cases related to mining. The exploitation of Uighur labour in Canadian clothing manufacturing and mining supply chains makes up the majority of cases currently being reviewed by the CORE. 

Human rights and labour rights activists have criticized the Ombudsperson’s role as ineffective because it lacks investigatory powers. In a 2021 report, the Parliamentary Subcommittee on International Human Rights recorded that both the Ombudsperson (at the time Sherri Meyerhoffer) and corporate representatives argued that there is no need to expand CORE’s powers because increasing investigative powers into human rights abuses would create a “combative process.”

In Parliamentary sessions last year, Meyerhoffer stated that “it would be helpful for Canada to put in place human rights due diligence legislation” without any comment on the international Binding Treaty. 

Five years since its inception, CORE is currently under federal review.

CORE chose not to respond to rabble’s questions, while Global Affairs did not provide information on the CORE review or the status of the Canadian human rights due diligence law by the time of publication.

With the negotiations in Geneva approaching, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng was in the Philippines negotiating a free trade agreement as Canada strengthens economic and military alliances against China in the Pacific.

Minister Ng has not responded to CNCA’s letters and statements on the Binding Treaty, and did not respond to rabble.ca by the time of publication.

In the absence of a legal framework committed to prioritizing human rights, life and dignity over profit, Canada’s diplomatic inaction and corporate clientelism has contributed to the death of activists like Mexican environmental defender Mariano Abarca and the unresolved murders of mining workers protesting the strongman tactics of Torex Gold in Guerrero, Mexico. In Colombia, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) helped shape the country’s Mining Code to benefit Canadian gold mining companies as they fuelled a war economy by collaborating with brutal right-wing paramilitary groups. Across the Atlantic, Barrick Gold has been fighting against efforts to hold the Canadian company accountable for murders in Tanzania based on jurisdiction. 

The dense language and bureaucracy of UN processes don’t exactly make for sensational headlines. But the impacts of decisions made in treaty talks in Geneva will be widely felt on the ground where migrant workers are contracted by multinational mining companies to pull cobalt and gold from the earth, where fishermen refuse the pollution and militarized patrol of rivers in traditional homelands, and where the memories of murdered and martyred activists like Berta Cáceres continue to fuel resistance against colonial imperialism—where human rights abuses are ordinary tragedies and honouring human dignity has been optional.

The post Canada continues undermining  binding treaty on transnational corporations and human rights appeared first on rabble.ca.

Robin Browne is no stranger to fighting institutional racial bias. He’s been doing so inside workplaces, city council chambers, committee meetings, and courtrooms for years.

His latest chapter in this fight came earlier this summer in a defamation case he brought against co-founders of the Federation of Black Canadians (FBC) in 2020. 

The FBC co-founders counter-sued Browne also for defamation, but Browne felt that he had case law, and the truth, on his side. However, he felt his chances of succeeding were undermined from the start when he found out who his judge was.

As stated, Browne is no stranger to fighting bias and racism in the courtroom. In 2020, Browne was involved in an incident where a 10yr-old Black boy was racially harassed by two white boys, one of whom allegedly assaulted him.

Browne made several public statements in support of the Black boy and his family and found himself named in a counter defamation suit by the parents of the white child who allegedly assaulted the Black child.

When Browne’s small-claims proceeding with the Federation of Black Canadians began, he discovered that the judge in that case, Deputy Judge Ian R. Stauffer was listed as the lead lawyer in the other case, representing the parents of the other white boy.

Browne was immediately concerned about this judge’s ability to remain unbiased against him in this current case.

“I was like, whoa this guy can’t be the judge on my trial and be the lawyer in that other case,” said Browne in an interview with rabble.ca.

Reasonable apprehension of bias

Browne emailed the court to alert them to the potential conflict of interest and was stunned to learn that the court forwarded his concern with the judge to rule on his own potential conflict. The judge replied that he was comfortable presiding over the case as he said he had no personal involvement in the case as it was handled entirely by his associate and that he understood that the file had been concluded with respect to his office’s involvement. 

The trial in Browne’s defamation case, set for three days in April 2024, stretched into five days ending on August 19, 2024. On that day, Browne presented a formal motion for the judge to remove himself from the case, which the judge again declined to do. Browne’s motion argued the legal concept that the judge’s role in both cases could create a reasonable apprehension of bias on the part of the judge, in the mind of a “reasonable person”.

In declining to remove himself from the case, the judge again said it was his firm that was involved in the previous case rather than him personally and that it was his understanding that the matter involving the client his firm was representing had been resolved. However, Browne would find out that neither was true when he read the judge’s ruling – finding against Browne and awarding each defendant the maximum small claims award of $35,000 each, plus $16,000 in combined expenses.

Despite claiming he had no involvement in the case in both his February email to Browne and his verbal reply to Browne’s August 19 motion, in his decision, the judge said, “In open Court I told Browne quite clearly that I had had no involvement in that case, other than an initial discussion with the Defendant parents of the white child, the child who had not caused the alleged injury to the minor Black Plaintiff. After the initial interview, the file had been assigned to a junior lawyer at TSLLP.” (TSLLP is the judge’s law firm Tierny Stauffer LLP.) And regarding his claim that the file had been completed, the clients TSLLP was representing actually settled their matter one week after the judge emailed Browne.

The judge also said this in his decision:

“In the current Motion before me, I placed myself in the position of a reasonable person who was given the facts as described above. Would that person see a reasonable apprehension of bias on my part? That is, could I proceed to render Judgment in the various cases involving Mr. Browne, with any concern as to fairness in my adjudication process? All of the parties in the present set of cases before me are Black. The witnesses were all Black. The question of any bias by me, based on race, is not an issue.”

“What was really telling when I was presenting the motion is that he was interrupting me as he often did and asking ‘are you accusing me of actual bias?’” Browne explained.

“I had said already twice, I’m not arguing actual bias. I’m arguing reasonable apprehension of bias,” Browne went on to explain.

In legal terms, a judge should recuse himself if a reasonable person could have a reasonable apprehension of bias given the possible conflict of interest. That is, is there any doubt the judge could render an impartial judgment in Browne’s case.

“The question wasn’t one of racial bias on the judge’s part in my defamation case. The issue was if a reasonable person could have a reasonable apprehension of bias given the conflict of interest caused by the judge’s involvement in both cases,” said Browne, adding, “This whole concept of the reasonable person clearly is being interpreted as a reasonable white person”.

A perfect storm of judicial racial bias

Browne said there are several systemic issues which contribute to judicial racial bias. The first is the deeply held belief in the legal profession in the impartiality of judges, even regarding cases involving race, despite most judges being white. Second, is judges’ resistance to accept anti-racism training as they see such training as indoctrination by outside forces. Third, there’s no race-based data on judges’ rulings. Furthermore, unlike lawyers, judges aren’t bound by their professional rules of conduct to actively perform conflict checks to avoid presiding over trials where conflicts exist with the parties involved.

The Principles of Judicial Office for Judges of the Ontario Court of Justice simply says judges must “avoid any conflict of interest, or the appearance of any conflict of interest, in the performance of their judicial duties.” The Principles list no requirement for judges to tell the parties involved whether they’ve done a conflict check, OR the result.

According to Browne, the judge’s decision is a symptom of all these issues. 

Also, Browne could not find one instance on CanLii, the website that posts Canadian court deicsions, in this judge’s 20-year plus career of him handling a case that involved racial issues.

“All he appeared to hear was me calling him racist when I had never said that,” said Browne.

Another issue is that there appears to be a double standard regarding claims of bias made against white and Black judges. The Superior Court of Justice’s list of Often Cited Cases in Divisional Court includes only one case regarding an accusation of reasonable bias – against a Black judge.

Browne plans to appeal the decision but has concerns that the decisions of even more senior appeals court judges may be tainted by their racial biases for the reasons outlined above. Browne also has concerns about fairness when he and other community groups head to trial in their small claims suit against the Ottawa Police Service Board in May 2025.

Browne is also concerned about how this case could impact another essential element to the effectiveness of the justice system: the public’s faith in it.

“Why should people, especially Black people, have faith in a justice system that is so blatantly unfair,” Browne said. 

Browne said this is why it’s so important for the Government of Canada to fully implement the recommendations of Canada’s Black Justice Strategy that aims to transform Canada’s justice system from “one that punishes the poorest and most marginalized members of our society, and that carries a history of racism and oppression, to one that is fair and equitable and free from discrimination; in other words, a justice system that is truly just.”

While the judge ruled against him in this case, Browne does not see this as a loss, but rather another victory in his campaign to expose anti-Black bias in Canada’s institutions.

“I get a chance now to expose this and publicize this very powerful anecdote which will support the call to mandate the collection of race-based data on judicial decisions,” said Browne.
Editor’s note: Robin Browne is a volunteer host of rabble’s webinar series Off the Hill.

The post The ongoing battle against racial bias in the justice system appeared first on rabble.ca.