In our second episode of the season we are joined by co-leaders of the Indian Residential School Records Project, Pulitzer and Peabody award-winning journalist Connie Walker and former Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Kimberly Murray. We discuss the scheduled destruction of 38,000 records containing the testimonies of Indian Residential School survivors, the resilience and courage of survivors, intergenerational survivors, families and communities to preserve the truth in the face of denial and historical erasure and the meaning and right to truth in the project of national reconciliation.

Describing the 38,000 files set to be destroyed next year, Walker says:

“There’s information about the persons of interest or the alleged abusers in residential schools. There’s information about the scale of abuse at individual schools. That is what we’re talking about when we’re thinking of what is about to be lost in the IAP hearings.

It’s really, in some ways, the most complete truth that could ever be understood about Indian residential schools. ”

According to Murray:

“It’s going to erase the history. It’s going to erase the truth. … if we fast-forward decades from now ..my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren might not know about Indian Residential Schools, ’cause we’re slowly erasing that history. And this is part of that erasure. And when we think about the growing denialism that’s happening in this country, the misinformation, disinformation that’s being put out there.. protecting these records is an antidote to that denialism .. that this happened. ”

Connect with the Indian Residential School Records Project about their work, or if you have information regarding records filed through the Independent Assessment Process under the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. 

If you have made an Independent Assessment Process (IAP) claim, or Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) claim for residential school abuse and wish to have your record preserved at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, visit My Records, My Choice 

About today’s guests:

Kimberly Murray is Queen’s University’s National Scholar in Indigenous Legal Studies in the Faculty of Law. She is the former Executive Director of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and was the federally appointed Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites Associated with Indian Residential Schools. Murray is a member of the Kanehsatà:ke Mohawk Nation, holds an LLM and LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School, and has been bestowed several Honorary LL.Ds.

Connie Walker is a Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist and host of the acclaimed podcasts Stolen and Missing & Murdered. Her work has exposed the crisis of violence in Indigenous communities and the devastating impacts of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian Residential Schools.

Walker is currently an Assistant Professor and Velma Rogers Research Chair at Toronto Metropolitan University where she is leading the Indian Residential School Records Project to preserve testimonies and accounts from Indian Residential School Survivors. Walker is a member of the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan.

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

Image: Kimberly Murray and Connie Walker  / Used with permission.

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

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

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, The Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Nick Seebruch, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post What Is Reconciliation Without Truth? Protecting Residential School Survivor Records appeared first on rabble.ca.

In the season 11 premiere of the Courage My Friends podcast series, we are pleased to welcome environmentalist, feminist, peace activist and Senior Researcher with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Tamara Lorincz and climate policy researcher and advocate with Greenpeace Canada, Keith Stewart.  As we head into the Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice, we discuss Canada’s accelerating shift toward a militarized economy, what this looks like and how this is not only failing to address our true security needs, but is coming at considerable cost to our sovereignty, people and planet

On claims that militarization is about protecting our sovereignty, Lorincz says:

“Since Canada became a member of NATO in 1949, our military has become deeply integrated into the US military. We actually have no sovereignty over our military policy because .. it’s dominated and influenced by Washington. And we also really have no sovereignty over our budget because of this demand that we reach a 5% target… already 70% of our military procurement dollars are buying American weapons systems. So Americans control our weapons. Americans really control our military. Canadians should really see ourselves as basically a troop of the US military… It’s really Washington, DC that is influencing this massive militarization, increase of military spending in Canada. ..And so this is what our women’s groups have been calling for.. for Canada to withdraw from NATO and to instead really work with the UN community on the greatest security challenges that we’re facing: poverty, inequality, and the climate crisis.”

According to Stewart:

“One of the new things that’s surprising to me, was the way in which the tech military alliance is really worsening this problem. ..Amazon Web Services ..work very closely with companies like Palantir and Anduril, which are heavily involved in military tech and surveillance technologies. .. Amazon itself is also very involved in autonomous weapons systems, which is basically allowing AI to sort of pick targets without human input… So Amazon lobbied the federal government 65 times in the last year on military spending. ..They met with the head of the Canadian Armed Forces… with the Minister of Defense, the Minister of AI, the Minister of Finance. This isn’t business as normal. You don’t get these types of meetings at this high level, this many of them, unless the government is interested in what you’re selling and it costs a hell of a lot ..[And] it’s all happening behind closed doors without anybody noticing.”

About today’s guests:

Tamara Lorincz is recently graduated with her PhD in Global Governance at the Balsillie School for International Affairs at Wilfrid Laurier University. She has a Masters in International Politics & Security Studies from the University of Bradford and a Law degree and MBA specializing in environmental law and management from Dalhousie University. She’s a senior researcher with the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Canada. Her research focuses on the climate and environmental impacts of the military. She’s a long-time environmentalist, feminist and peace activist and a mother with two teenage boys.

Keith Stewart has been a climate policy researcher and advocate for over 30 years, including the last 16 years with Greenpeace Canada. He has a Ph.D. from York University and teaches a course on energy and environmental policy at the University of Toronto.

Also check out:

CVOW – 1000 Women+ Call for Care Not Warfare

Seniors’ Climate Witness

Global Week of Action for Peace and Climate Justice

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

Image: Tamara Lorincz, Keith Stewart  / Used with permission.

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

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

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, The Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Nick Seebruch, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post The carbon bootprint: How Canada’s war economy fuels the climate crisis appeared first on rabble.ca.

This week, we welcome and spotlight community worker, homelessness advocate, and candidate for Toronto City Council, Diana Chan McNally. We discuss Chan McNally’s run to become City Councillor for Toronto’s Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park, top-of-mind issues for the Ward and the city, provincial encroachment on municipal government and her vision of bringing community work to municipal politics.

Chan McNally says:

“Part of why I’m running too, I also very much do not appreciate the provincial encroachment on municipalities. I have a history of fighting Ford. I have won resources from Ford, including $54 million for rents for people on the streets. Managed to win that from his government And I am ready to just let it rip against this guy because of his constant encroachment on our autonomy municipally, not just here, across the entire province. Strong Mayor powers. He’s appointing regional councils instead of having them elected. The trustees, cutting them and then putting them under supervision. All of this is about taking away local democracy. It makes me so angry that I want to fight back as well and defend the city against what he’s doing.”

About today’s guest:

Diana Chan McNally (she/they) is a former graduate and faculty member of the Community Worker Program at George Brown Polytechnic in Toronto, a long-time front-line worker, and a housing and harm reduction advocate. Chan McNally is currently running for Toronto City Council in Ward 4 Parkdale—High Park.

Visit Diana Chan McNally’s campaign at https://www.dianachanmcnally.ca/

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

Image: Diana Chan McNally / Used with permission

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Diana Chan McNally: Bringing community work to Toronto’s City Council appeared first on rabble.ca.

This week, we welcome and spotlight community worker, homelessness advocate, and candidate for Toronto City Council, Diana Chan McNally. We discuss Chan McNally’s run to become City Councillor for Toronto’s Ward 4, Parkdale-High Park, top-of-mind issues for the Ward and the city, provincial encroachment on municipal government and her vision of bringing community work to municipal politics. 

Chan McNally says:

“Part of why I’m running too, I also very much do not appreciate the provincial encroachment on municipalities. I have a history of fighting Ford. I have won resources from Ford, including $54 million for rents for people on the streets. Managed to win that from his government And I am ready to just let it rip against this guy because of his constant encroachment on our autonomy municipally, not just here, across the entire province. Strong Mayor powers. He’s appointing regional councils instead of having them elected. The trustees, cutting them and then putting them under supervision. All of this is about taking away local democracy. It makes me so angry that I want to fight back as well and defend the city against what he’s doing.”

About today’s guest: 

Diana Chan McNally (she/they) is a former graduate and faculty member of the Community Worker Program at George Brown Polytechnic in Toronto, a long-time front-line worker, and a housing and harm reduction advocate. Chan McNally is currently running for Toronto City Council in Ward 4 Parkdale—High Park. 

Visit Diana Chan McNally’s campaign at https://www.dianachanmcnally.ca/

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

Image: Diana Chan McNally / Used with permission

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Diana Chan McNally: Bringing community work to Toronto’s City Council appeared first on rabble.ca.

Today’s episode of the Courage My Friends podcast series features the keynote discussion from the 34th annual Labour Fair at Toronto’s George Brown College. Founding representative of the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council Sean Smith and member of the Parkdale Housing Justice Network (PHJN) Matt Whitfield, discuss the crises of labour precarity and housing insecurity, how these are the outcomes of systems rigged against workers and communities and methods of effective grassroots and labour organizing toward the building of working peoples’ cities.

On the housing “crisis”, Whitfield says:

“ The system is rigged … After years of skyrocketing housing prices and rental costs, I think it’s safe to conclude the housing system is not designed to provide people with affordable homes, no matter what politicians or developers or landlords might say. Instead, the housing system seems to be designed to extract as much wealth as possible from people who need a place to live.”

Reflecting on lessons from labour history, Smith says:

“ It’s funny, in Saskatchewan, people think co-op is like a big evil conglomerate like Walmart because they’re everywhere. But it’s the lifeblood of these small towns. And what it was is that the people had to find a system to unrig the system, and how they did that was by forming their own community and said, ‘You guys, your superstores, your Walmarts, you do your stuff. We’ll take care of ourselves.’ And workers did the same … that was workers’ ways of trying to collectively come together, form cooperatives. Collectivization, to work together to become a ‘we’ to take on the boss … A famous Irish trade unionist Jim Larkin said: ‘They’re only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise.’”

About today’s speakers: 

Sean Smith is a retired airport worker and founding representative of the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council; the collective voice for Toronto Pearson’s 50,000 workers and 6 largest airport unions.

Matt Whitfield got his start in activism as a resident at the Occupy Toronto encampment in 2011. A long-time Parkdale resident, Whitfield’s been connected to tenant organizing in his building and neighbourhood for several years. In 2020 and 2021, he participated in a decentralized Parkdale-wide “Keep Your Rent” campaign, withholding all rent payments for fifteen months. He is currently an active member of the Parkdale Housing Justice Network (PHJN), a grassroots neighbourhood organization focused on resisting gentrification, building tenant power, and supporting our unhoused neighbours through mutual aid and collaborative action. Whitfield is also a member of the steering committee for the upcoming second annual People’s Assembly on Housing Justice, an event that brings together advocacy and activist groups from across Toronto.

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

Image: Sean Smith, Matt Whitfield / Used with permission

Student Thank You: Anusua Bose

Panel Recording: Prof. Ben McCarthy

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu. 

The post Labour Fair 2026 Keynote: New modes of organizing for a working peoples’ city appeared first on rabble.ca.

Today’s episode of the Courage My Friends podcast series features the keynote discussion from the 34th annual Labour Fair at Toronto’s George Brown College. Founding representative of the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council Sean Smith and member of the Parkdale Housing Justice Network (PHJN) Matt Whitfield, discuss the crises of labour precarity and housing insecurity, how these are the outcomes of systems rigged against workers and communities and methods of effective grassroots and labour organizing toward the building of working peoples’ cities.

On the housing “crisis”, Whitfield says:

“ The system is rigged … After years of skyrocketing housing prices and rental costs, I think it’s safe to conclude the housing system is not designed to provide people with affordable homes, no matter what politicians or developers or landlords might say. Instead, the housing system seems to be designed to extract as much wealth as possible from people who need a place to live.”

Reflecting on lessons from labour history, Smith says:

“ It’s funny, in Saskatchewan, people think co-op is like a big evil conglomerate like Walmart because they’re everywhere. But it’s the lifeblood of these small towns. And what it was is that the people had to find a system to unrig the system, and how they did that was by forming their own community and said, ‘You guys, your superstores, your Walmarts, you do your stuff. We’ll take care of ourselves.’ And workers did the same … that was workers’ ways of trying to collectively come together, form cooperatives. Collectivization, to work together to become a ‘we’ to take on the boss … A famous Irish trade unionist Jim Larkin said: ‘They’re only great because we are on our knees. Let us rise.’”

About today’s speakers:

Sean Smith is a retired airport worker and founding representative of the Toronto Airport Workers’ Council; the collective voice for Toronto Pearson’s 50,000 workers and 6 largest airport unions.

Matt Whitfield got his start in activism as a resident at the Occupy Toronto encampment in 2011. A long-time Parkdale resident, Whitfield’s been connected to tenant organizing in his building and neighbourhood for several years. In 2020 and 2021, he participated in a decentralized Parkdale-wide “Keep Your Rent” campaign, withholding all rent payments for fifteen months. He is currently an active member of the Parkdale Housing Justice Network (PHJN), a grassroots neighbourhood organization focused on resisting gentrification, building tenant power, and supporting our unhoused neighbours through mutual aid and collaborative action. Whitfield is also a member of the steering committee for the upcoming second annual People’s Assembly on Housing Justice, an event that brings together advocacy and activist groups from across Toronto.

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

Image: Sean Smith, Matt Whitfield / Used with permission

Student Thank You: Anusua Bose

Panel Recording: Prof. Ben McCarthy

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Labour Fair 2026 Keynote: New modes of organizing for a working peoples’ city appeared first on rabble.ca.

In episode six we welcome national director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sandra Schwartz and CPAWS economic analyst, Jason Wong, lead author of  the CPAWS white paper, Widely Enjoyed but Inadequately Valued: Understanding the Economic, Environmental and Health Benefits of Canada’s Protected and Conserved Areas. 

We discuss the first of its kind report that offers a new way of valuing conservation and the protection of our lands and waters, not as barriers to economic growth,but as long-term and essential green infrastructure that enriches our lives,our communities and our economy.

Explaining the reasons for the report, Schwartz says:

“The point was actually to have a different way to talk to decision-makers, to businesses and to Canadians about the value that Nature brings us … We wanted to make sure as an organization that governments better recognize … Nature itself is an essential infrastructure that supports communities. It supports their wellbeing. It supports long-term prosperity as well … So this was a first report, a first of its kind in Canada … Protected areas are not a constraint on growth, but that they are investments and they’re investments that generate measurable returns and reduce long-term risk.”

According to Wong:

“We’re finding that our protected areas contribute around $10.9 billion to Canada’s GDP. As a comparison, the offshore oil and gas industry in that same time period, came in around $8.3 billion … I mean, our protected areas are outpacing some of these well-established and well-regarded extractive industries in terms of how much they contribute financially to the Canadian economy …  we’re talking about keeping the social fabric of a community alive, it’s like, okay, now that I have a job here, I don’t have to move out … the local school there doesn’t have to close … And that directly relates to the fabric, the cohesion of the community that allows it to remain vibrant … From the national level down to the local level, protected areas provide an enormous array of benefits to Canadians.”

About today’s guests: 

National executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sandra Schwartz is a solutions-oriented leader, who has worked in a wide range of public policy, strategic communications and political roles, where she has been a strong advocate for sound environmental policy and has championed progressive ideas for clean energy and tackling climate change.

Schwartz holds Masters degrees in management and in environmental studies, and has a well-grounded understanding of the public and private influences on Canada’s natural heritage, with over 20 years’ experience within the federal government, national associations, and not-for-profit organizations.

Schwartz also has a long history of community service, including as board member on several national non-profit organizations, and as founding member of a prominent women’s network. She also served two terms as an elected trustee on the Ottawa-Carlton District School Board.

She lives in Ottawa and is happiest out enjoying nature with her husband and their two children. She maintains her connection to Canada’s wilderness by visits to parks, where she enjoys camping, canoeing, hiking, and cross-country skiing. 

Jason Wong is an economic analyst with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. 

Wong’s interest in conservation economics stems from a love of exploring and protecting the outdoors. His main interest is in investigating alternative economic approaches that value and safeguard nature.Wong’s interests are centred around research on alternative economic systems as a way to address the structural and institutional issues behind loss of nature and climate change. This includes the braiding of varied knowledge systems into a comprehensive perspective of the world around us. He is always open to intriguing new collaborations and data-informed policymaking. Outside of work, Wong hopes to build his own canoe one day and to explore more of Canada’s nature by water.

Wong is lead author of the CPAWS’ report, Widely Enjoyed but Inadequately Valued: Understanding the Economic, Environmental and Health Benefits of Canada’s Protected and Conserved Areas

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

Image: Sandra Schwartz, Jason Wong / Used with permission.

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu. 

The post From ecosystems to economics: How Canada’s conserved and protected areas contribute billions to the economy appeared first on rabble.ca.

In episode six we welcome national director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sandra Schwartz and CPAWS economic analyst, Jason Wong, lead author of  the CPAWS white paper, Widely Enjoyed but Inadequately Valued: Understanding the Economic, Environmental and Health Benefits of Canada’s Protected and Conserved Areas.

We discuss the first of its kind report that offers a new way of valuing conservation and the protection of our lands and waters, not as barriers to economic growth,but as long-term and essential green infrastructure that enriches our lives, our communities and our economy.

Explaining the reasons for the report, Schwartz says:

“The point was actually to have a different way to talk to decision-makers, to businesses and to Canadians about the value that Nature brings us … We wanted to make sure as an organization that governments better recognize … Nature itself is an essential infrastructure that supports communities. It supports their wellbeing. It supports long-term prosperity as well … So this was a first report, a first of its kind in Canada … Protected areas are not a constraint on growth, but that they are investments and they’re investments that generate measurable returns and reduce long-term risk.”

According to Wong:

“We’re finding that our protected areas contribute around $10.9 billion to Canada’s GDP. As a comparison, the offshore oil and gas industry in that same time period, came in around $8.3 billion … I mean, our protected areas are outpacing some of these well-established and well-regarded extractive industries in terms of how much they contribute financially to the Canadian economy …  we’re talking about keeping the social fabric of a community alive, it’s like, okay, now that I have a job here, I don’t have to move out … the local school there doesn’t have to close … And that directly relates to the fabric, the cohesion of the community that allows it to remain vibrant … From the national level down to the local level, protected areas provide an enormous array of benefits to Canadians.”

About today’s guests:

National executive director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sandra Schwartz is a solutions-oriented leader, who has worked in a wide range of public policy, strategic communications and political roles, where she has been a strong advocate for sound environmental policy and has championed progressive ideas for clean energy and tackling climate change.

Schwartz holds Masters degrees in management and in environmental studies, and has a well-grounded understanding of the public and private influences on Canada’s natural heritage, with over 20 years’ experience within the federal government, national associations, and not-for-profit organizations.

Schwartz also has a long history of community service, including as board member on several national non-profit organizations, and as founding member of a prominent women’s network. She also served two terms as an elected trustee on the Ottawa-Carlton District School Board.

She lives in Ottawa and is happiest out enjoying nature with her husband and their two children. She maintains her connection to Canada’s wilderness by visits to parks, where she enjoys camping, canoeing, hiking, and cross-country skiing.

Jason Wong is an economic analyst with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Wong’s interest in conservation economics stems from a love of exploring and protecting the outdoors. His main interest is in investigating alternative economic approaches that value and safeguard nature.Wong’s interests are centred around research on alternative economic systems as a way to address the structural and institutional issues behind loss of nature and climate change. This includes the braiding of varied knowledge systems into a comprehensive perspective of the world around us. He is always open to intriguing new collaborations and data-informed policymaking. Outside of work, Wong hopes to build his own canoe one day and to explore more of Canada’s nature by water.

Wong is lead author of the CPAWS’ report, Widely Enjoyed but Inadequately Valued: Understanding the Economic, Environmental and Health Benefits of Canada’s Protected and Conserved Areas

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

Image: Sandra Schwartz, Jason Wong / Used with permission.

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post From ecosystems to economics: How Canada’s conserved and protected areas contribute billions to the economy appeared first on rabble.ca.

This latest episode of the Courage My Friends podcast series features “The Radical Labour of Care” panel discussion with: Indigenous midwife, leader, and educator, Claire Dion Fletcher; crisis outreach worker, case manager, and advocate in Toronto’s Downtown East, Lorraine Lam; and program director of the Latinx Womyn’s Program at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape, Grissel Orellana. It is moderated by Eliza Chandler, associate professor in the School of Disability Studies and executive director of the Office of Social Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

This latest session of TMU’s Transformation Café series was hosted at the 34th annual Labour Fair at George Brown Polytechnic. Under this year’s Labour Fair theme, “Building a Working Peoples’ City,” the panel discussed the essential, but undervalued labour of care, interventions in the increasingly inaccessible, unaffordable and hostile city and building practices of mutual aid, community safety and collective survival toward caring and liveable cities.

Fletcher explains:

“My work is very grounded in an Indigenous feminist perspective, and that self-determination of our nations cannot be fully realized unless all members of our nations are included.And that means we must address the gendered nature of colonization. And that sovereignty of our nations cannot happen without sovereignty of our bodies. And so this has led me to a deep commitment to reproductive justice”

According to Lam:

“The root of care for me is really about compassion.And the original Latin meaning of the word compassion comes from two different words … “to suffer” and “with.” And so for me, the radical root of care … is really about compassion, which is different from pity. ‘Cause you can walk by someone and have pity on them. You can have sympathy for them. You might even get empathy for them. But the goal is really about: what does it mean to suffer with? And I think that’s what pushes us towards thinking about solidarity.”

Orellana says:

“The frontline work as labour, it’s so devalued. When we’re doing so much caring, so much support, so much healing going on, so much advocacy … And I find it difficult … I mean, I’ve been working in the field for a long time. But more Latin American people are coming in. And every time I sit down with a person it is like when I came here 38 years ago, it’s the story over and over again … But we are all needed, needed, needed. We’re all important and beautiful.”

About today’s guests: 

Eliza Chandler (she/her) is an associate professor in the School of Disability Studies and executive director of the Office of Social Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University whose work is grounded in disability arts. As a scholar, curator, and organizer, she explores how disability arts reshape cultural spaces through critical access, disability justice, and disability-led creative practice. Chandler’s work highlights disability arts as a vital site of political, aesthetic, and world-making knowledge.

Claire Dion Fletcher (she/her) is a Lenape- Potawatomi and mixed settler registered midwife. Fletcher is current vice-president of the Canadian Association of Midwives and past co-chair of the National Council of Indigenous Midwives. She is an assistant professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University Midwifery Education Program. Her teaching focuses on Indigenous midwifery and social justice issues. Fletcher is deeply committed to increasing diversity in the midwifery profession through Indigenous-led education. 

Lorraine Lam (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian daughter of a solo parent, with an education in music, sociology and social work. For over a decade, she has worked in Toronto’s Downtown East, walking alongside community members navigating homelessness, drug use, incarceration, poverty, racism, and systemic injustice. Her work is shaped by these communities that have taught her to centre harm reduction, anti-oppression, and trauma-informed practices. She is currently a caseworker at Amadeusz, supporting individuals with firearms-related charges, and she serves on the board of Building Roots and organizes with Christians for a Free Palestine: Toronto and Shelter & Housing Justice Network. Lam also co-authored a chapter in Displacement City (University of Toronto Press, 2022) Find her at www.lorrainelam.me, IG: @lorrainelamchops, X: @lorrainelamchop, Bluesky: @lorrainelamchops.bsky.social and Tiktok: @lorrainelamchops.

Grissel Orellana (she/they) is from El Salvador, Central America and lives in Tkaronto/Toronto. She identifies as Indigenous, from Mestiza ancestry. Grissel is a feminist, a human rights activist/defender, a lesbian femme, a mother, a healer, and a survivor of war and gender-based violence. Orellana has worked at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape for 26 years. She is currently a program director of the Latinx Womyn Program at the Centre, where she continues to triumph for a diversity of Latin American survivors. This program is a space for support, personal growth, collective development and dialogue about our role as Latinx immigrants, political refugees, and survivors of multiple abuse and human rights violations, here in Toronto, Canada. In her work at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape, Orellana is part of a collective that advocates for liberation from all forms of violence.

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

Images: Eliza Chandler, Claire Dion Fletcher, Lorraine Lam, Grissel Orellana (Used with permission)

Tech & Recording Support: Ben McCarthy

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Labour Fair 2026: The radical labour of care appeared first on rabble.ca.

This latest episode of the Courage My Friends podcast series features “The Radical Labour of Care” panel discussion with: Indigenous midwife, leader, and educator, Claire Dion Fletcher; crisis outreach worker, case manager, and advocate in Toronto’s Downtown East, Lorraine Lam; and program director of the Latinx Womyn’s Program at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape, Grissel Orellana. It is moderated by Eliza Chandler, associate professor in the School of Disability Studies and executive director of the Office of Social Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University.

This latest session of TMU’s Transformation Café series was hosted at the 34th annual Labour Fair at George Brown Polytechnic. Under this year’s Labour Fair theme, “Building a Working Peoples’ City,” the panel discussed the essential, but undervalued labour of care, interventions in the increasingly inaccessible, unaffordable and hostile city and building practices of mutual aid, community safety and collective survival toward caring and liveable cities.

Dion Fletcher explains:

“My work is very grounded in an Indigenous feminist perspective, and that self-determination of our nations cannot be fully realized unless all members of our nations are included. And that means we must address the gendered nature of colonization. And that sovereignty of our nations cannot happen without sovereignty of our bodies. And so this has led me to a deep commitment to reproductive justice”

According to Lam:

“The root of care for me is really about compassion.And the original Latin meaning of the word compassion comes from two different words … “to suffer” and “with.” And so for me, the radical root of care … is really about compassion, which is different from pity. ‘Cause you can walk by someone and have pity on them. You can have sympathy for them. You might even get empathy for them. But the goal is really about: what does it mean to suffer with? And I think that’s what pushes us towards thinking about solidarity.”

Orellana says:

“The frontline work as labour, it’s so devalued. When we’re doing so much caring, so much support, so much healing going on, so much advocacy … And I find it difficult … I mean, I’ve been working in the field for a long time. But more Latin American people are coming in. And every time I sit down with a person it is like when I came here 38 years ago, it’s the story over and over again … But we are all needed, needed, needed. We’re all important and beautiful.”

About today’s guests:

Eliza Chandler (she/her) is an associate professor in the School of Disability Studies and executive director of the Office of Social Innovation at Toronto Metropolitan University whose work is grounded in disability arts. As a scholar, curator, and organizer, she explores how disability arts reshape cultural spaces through critical access, disability justice, and disability-led creative practice. Chandler’s work highlights disability arts as a vital site of political, aesthetic, and world-making knowledge.

Claire Dion Fletcher (she/her) is a Lenape- Potawatomi and mixed settler registered midwife. Fletcher is current vice-president of the Canadian Association of Midwives and past co-chair of the National Council of Indigenous Midwives. She is an assistant professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University Midwifery Education Program. Her teaching focuses on Indigenous midwifery and social justice issues. Fletcher is deeply committed to increasing diversity in the midwifery profession through Indigenous-led education.

Lorraine Lam (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian daughter of a solo parent, with an education in music, sociology and social work. For over a decade, she has worked in Toronto’s Downtown East, walking alongside community members navigating homelessness, drug use, incarceration, poverty, racism, and systemic injustice. Her work is shaped by these communities that have taught her to centre harm reduction, anti-oppression, and trauma-informed practices. She is currently a caseworker at Amadeusz, supporting individuals with firearms-related charges, and she serves on the board of Building Roots and organizes with Christians for a Free Palestine: Toronto and Shelter & Housing Justice Network. Lam also co-authored a chapter in Displacement City (University of Toronto Press, 2022) Find her at www.lorrainelam.me, IG: @lorrainelamchops, X: @lorrainelamchop, Bluesky: @lorrainelamchops.bsky.social and Tiktok: @lorrainelamchops.

Grissel Orellana (she/they) is from El Salvador, Central America and lives in Tkaronto/Toronto. She identifies as Indigenous, from Mestiza ancestry. Grissel is a feminist, a human rights activist/defender, a lesbian femme, a mother, a healer, and a survivor of war and gender-based violence. Orellana has worked at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape for 26 years. She is currently a program director of the Latinx Womyn Program at the Centre, where she continues to triumph for a diversity of Latin American survivors. This program is a space for support, personal growth, collective development and dialogue about our role as Latinx immigrants, political refugees, and survivors of multiple abuse and human rights violations, here in Toronto, Canada. In her work at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape, Orellana is part of a collective that advocates for liberation from all forms of violence.

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

Images: Eliza Chandler, Claire Dion Fletcher, Lorraine Lam, Grissel Orellana (Used with permission)

Tech & Recording Support: Ben McCarthy

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute of Labour and Social Justice and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Labour Fair 2026: The radical labour of care appeared first on rabble.ca.

In the latest episode of the Courage My Friends series, we welcome organizer with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network Kara Anderson and welcome back Canada organizer for World Beyond War and coordinator of the Arms Embargo Now Campaign, Rachel Small. We discuss Canada’s radical turn toward militarism and its ramping up of defence spending, the many and deep connections between militarism and mining in the mining capital of the world and solidarity organizing against the march to war. 

Reflecting on Canada’s increased defence spending, Small says:

“ Canadian military spending had already doubled from $20 billion to over $40 billion over the past decade … And then last June, Carney gave it an extra $9 billion overnight and then committed to doubling it again over the next decade. So … the number that’s kind of being floated around is that the new defence spending would amount to $150 billion per year in the next decade … It’s vastly more than the federal government spends on all health and social transfers to all the provinces and territories combined. It’s an enormous flow of funding that’s pretty unprecedented in Canada since at least World War II. This is an enormous gift to Trump. It’s Canada literally doing precisely what Trump demanded Canada do.”

On the link between militarism and mining, Anderson says:

“The playbook for mining is the ways in which colonization itself has perpetuated itself … What is the premise for going into other countries? It’s to get resources. And how do you do that? You do that through violence. Like the OG colonial ways. But I think that just reinforces why it’s so important to shut things down, like mining … mining is so central to a lot of the violence, the militarization that we see in the world today… You go in, you use violence to take the land, .. and then you use that to make weapons. And then these weapons, again end up in opposite parts of the world, blowing things up … these weapons also end up back in the same communities from which they were mined and they’re used to further suppress these communities. ”

About today’s guests: 

Kara Anderson is an organizer with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, as well as a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto working on food justice. 

Rachel Small works as the Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War, a global grassroots organisation and network working to abolish war and the military industrial complex, is a founding member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition, and coordinates the Arms Embargo Now Campaign. She has done grassroots organizing within local and international social/environmental justice movements for nearly two decades, with a special focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian extractive industry projects.

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

Image: Kara Anderson, Rachel Small / Used with permission.

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu. 

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Mining, militarism and organizing against the march to war appeared first on rabble.ca.

In the latest episode of the Courage My Friends series, we welcome organizer with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network Kara Anderson and welcome back Canada organizer for World Beyond War and coordinator of the Arms Embargo Now Campaign, Rachel Small. We discuss Canada’s radical turn toward militarism and its ramping up of defence spending, the many and deep connections between militarism and mining in the mining capital of the world and solidarity organizing against the march to war.

Reflecting on Canada’s increased defence spending, Small says:

“ Canadian military spending had already doubled from $20 billion to over $40 billion over the past decade … And then last June, Carney gave it an extra $9 billion overnight and then committed to doubling it again over the next decade. So … the number that’s kind of being floated around is that the new defence spending would amount to $150 billion per year in the next decade … It’s vastly more than the federal government spends on all health and social transfers to all the provinces and territories combined. It’s an enormous flow of funding that’s pretty unprecedented in Canada since at least World War II. This is an enormous gift to Trump. It’s Canada literally doing precisely what Trump demanded Canada do.”

On the link between militarism and mining, Anderson says:

“The playbook for mining is the ways in which colonization itself has perpetuated itself … What is the premise for going into other countries? It’s to get resources. And how do you do that? You do that through violence. Like the OG colonial ways. But I think that just reinforces why it’s so important to shut things down, like mining … mining is so central to a lot of the violence, the militarization that we see in the world today… You go in, you use violence to take the land, .. and then you use that to make weapons. And then these weapons, again end up in opposite parts of the world, blowing things up … these weapons also end up back in the same communities from which they were mined and they’re used to further suppress these communities. ”

About today’s guests:

Kara Anderson is an organizer with the Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, as well as a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto working on food justice.

Rachel Small works as the Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War, a global grassroots organisation and network working to abolish war and the military industrial complex, is a founding member of the Jews Say No to Genocide Coalition, and coordinates the Arms Embargo Now Campaign. She has done grassroots organizing within local and international social/environmental justice movements for nearly two decades, with a special focus on working in solidarity with communities harmed by Canadian extractive industry projects.

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

Image: Kara Anderson, Rachel Small / Used with permission.

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

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

Courage My Friends podcast organizing committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.

Host: Resh Budhu.

The post Mining, militarism and organizing against the march to war appeared first on rabble.ca.