Hey rabble readers!
Spring is being welcomed in Quebec with a Popular Protest (Manifestation populaire) against austerity and the petro-economy this Saturday, March 21, called by Printemps 2015 organizers. Stand against austerity and a fossil fuel economy! Get all the details here.
Journalist Chris Hedges was to speak at Toronto's protest against C-51 last Saturday. Weather delayed his flight, but rabble.ca caught up with him for an exclusive interview. Get his thoughts on C-51 and the corporate state, then read the text of his address, which we present here.
On February 18, a panel discussion was held in Ottawa to mark the release of Parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg's new book, Harper vs. Canada: Five Ways of Looking at the Conservative Regime. Listen to the discussion, featuring Karl Nerenberg, Maude Barlow and author Mark Bourrie, here.
Canada's annual reading reality show, Canada Reads, battled it out this week and we were watching! Which books were booted and which one came out the winner? Catch up on all the action with our books intern, Lauren Scott, who has been covering the series all week!
This year's Canada Reads competition was about literature's capacity to break barriers, but literary culture in Canada faces a number of challenges itself. Read Lucia Lorenzi's wonderful take on what Canada Reads would look like if it really took "breaking barriers" seriously.
In a three-part series, food security activist Jesse Bauman breaks the myth that poor people can't cook, discussing why low-income families eat less healthy food, the silly things that are offered as advice, and why it is a problem to make food literacy the explanation for food insecurity. Find the series here.
In Ottawa next week? Don't miss "The Inconvenient Truth about Harper's Canada" with Michael Harris and Donald Gutstein! Get your tickets online from Octopus Books -- or get two free tickets when you purchase a copy of Party of One by Michael Harris or Harperism by Donald Gutstein before 6 p.m. on March 24. Come by one of Octopus Books' two locations for this special offer!
Join #FierceVoices, a community series in Vancouver organized by rabble.ca and Women Transforming Cities. The first event in the series looks at critically examining media using an anti-oppressive lens, featuring speakers Jarrah Hodge and Jen Sookfong Lee. Come on out Wednesday, March 25, for an evening of speakers, glue and glitter!
Love and friendship on the picket line: This week in labour news
Victory! Alberta backs off of Bill 45. Good times: OkCUPE creates extra solidarity. New strikes, information pickets, and a lot more. It's here in the weekly labour roundup.
By Ella Bedard
Non to austerity in Quebec: Demonstrations scheduled for Saturday
Quebec's Printemps 2015 protests will be Saturday, March 21. Stand against austerity and the petro-economy!
By David Gray-Donald
The Israeli election is a game-changer
The Israeli election did not witness a major shift in political forces. However, did it still represent a positive change?
By Jeff Halper
To whom it may concern: The University of Toronto strike in open letters
The best way to put the strike in context is to read. Many groups have composed open letters as the strike has gone on. We've assembled them here.
By Ella Bedard
Faisal Kutty: I am not a terrorist
Faisal Kutty has been a vocal critic of anti-terror legislation Bill C-51. On February 23, a testimony was given about him to the Senate Committee.
By Faisal Kutty
Temporary foreign workers face deportation come April 1
Under new legislation, temporary foreign workers will be forced to leave after four years of employment to give way to priority hiring for Canadian employees.
By Fatima Syed
Human rights ignored in Omar Khadr's 13-year imprisonment
The tragedy of Khadr's years of abuse, torture and continued incarceration, is a dreadful reminder of what is at risk when fundamental rights are awarded to some, denied to others.
By Kathleen Copps
Making space for civil society groups at government tables: Nigel Martin speaks
Nigel Martin speaks about creating space for civil society activist voices in global governance organizations like the UN.
By Joanne Penhale
Exclusive: Chris Hedges on Bill C-51 and the corporate state
Journalist Chris Hedges was to speak at Toronto's protest against C-51. Weather delayed his flight, but rabble.ca caught up with him for an exclusive interview.
By H.G. Watson
In Canadian literary culture, breaking barriers must go beyond the books themselves
This year's Canada Reads competition was about literature's capacity to break barriers, but literary culture in Canada faces a number of challenges itself.
By Lucia Lorenzi
Chief Isadore Day calls for Annual Day of National Dialogue on Ending Racism in Canada
Last month, Chief Isadore Day, Serpent River First Nation, wrote an open letter to Parliament asking that April 12 be set aside as an Annual Day for a National Dialogue on Ending Racism.
By Maya Bhullar
The 2015 Alternative Federal Budget would 'deliver the good'
Canadians need more than a zero. They need safe food, clean water, and affordable housing. The Alternative Federal Budget demonstrates that we can afford to meet those needs and deliver the good.
By David Macdonald, Kate McInturff
The shitty things we do to each other in activist communities
How call-out culture verges on the abusive and the language we use around conflict enables us to push out members of our communities at will.
By Laura Brightwell
'Ugly fruit' finally breaks through to supermarket shelves
It's taken a long time, but the powerful, yet unsung food movement is finally seeing mainstream success as Loblaws-Weston puts 'cosmetically challenged' fruit in the produce aisle.
By Wayne Roberts
Campaign to end tampon tax takes aim at economic discrimination
Menstruation products are subject to GST even though they are essential for many Canadians. This underlines the fact that many Canadians who menstruate already face systemic economic disadvantages.
By Jill Piebiak, Kathleen Fraser
Victory for health-care workers in Nova Scotia's Bill 1 deal
Last week, Nova Scotia workers put a stake through the heart of the McNeil government's grand ambition to make workers pay full price for generations of political maladministration and malfeasance.
By Stephen Kimber
Battle lines being drawn over corporate trade deals in U.S.
U.S. grassroots activists are organizing against the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trade Promotion Authority, which increase corporate power and reduce the power of people to govern themselves.
By Amy Goodman
Civic literacy and the assault on Canadian democracy
The extent to which the institutions of democracy can be assaulted and eroded is directly proportional to the level of civic literacy. In Canada, the need to increase it has never been higher.
By Murray Dobbin
Luis Hernandez Navarro on the indignation of Mexico's crisis
Eminent journalist Luis Hernandez Navarro was in Toronto this week to speak about the crisis in Mexico after the deaths and kidnappings of student teachers last fall.
By Rick Salutin
Corporate rights protections: A primer on investor-state dispute settlement
Getting up to speed on corporate rights protections? Jim Stanford has prepared some background notes on the quasi-judicial kangaroo court system that is investor-state dispute settlement.
By Jim Stanford
I am the 1%: How tech nerds can save the world
I line up for smartphones on launch day. I listen to gadget podcasts. I know the speed of my SSD drive. I am the one per cent. That is‚ the one per cent of people who are tech nerds.
By Wayne MacPhail
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