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March-April 2020

Halifax’s Books Beyond Bars

Supporting inmates through literature

Michal Stein

For 15 years, a group of volunteers has been lugging tote bags of books from their library in the north end of Halifax to the women’s side of the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility, or Burnside Jail, in Dartmouth’s Burnside Industrial Park. The group is Books Beyond Bars, an anti-capitalist, non-hierarchical collective that runs a […] More »
March-April 2020

Canada is failing its Deaf artists

What we can learn from other countries about reducing barriers and improving access

Adam Pottle

Clin D’Oeil Village hosts the Deaf Party every night until 3 a.m., the air vibrating with purple and green lights and pounding bass. Mechanical bulls, vintage arcade games, Deaf musicians and DJs, and food vendors surround the enormous dance floor at the village’s centre. On that dance floor, and all throughout the village, thousands of […] More »
January-February 2020

Dear She-Ra: an ode to activist organizing across generations

Megan Kinch

Dear She-Ra (Princess of Power), Glimmer, and Bow, Hi, She-Ra. I’m a long-time fan of your work, but this is my first time writing to you and the Best Friend Squad. There’s been a reboot on Netflix which seems laser-focused on my child-of-the-1980s demographic (the fact that I have a six-year-old daughter who also loves […] More »
January-February 2020

Spotlight on The Alberta Advantage podcast

Podcast gives a left-wing perspective on local politics

Ben Cohen

The Premier of Alberta is a Conservative. Every single seat in the province bar one went blue in the last federal election. Despite the severe lack of representation in government, those with leftward ideologies still exist in Alberta. Where can they turn to hear friendly voices? The Alberta Advantage podcast. The bi-monthly podcast was born […] More »
September-October 2019

50 years after Stonewall & Bill C-150

We take a look at what what's being left out of the shiny rainbow picture

Dorian Fraser

2019 marks 50 years since the Stonewall rebellion, now regarded as the watershed moment in American and even global (Euro-American-centric) queer liberation. A hot summer night at the mafia-run Stonewall Inn in New York City became a six-day-long riot after queers refused to submit to police violence, and its anniversary is now celebrated as the […] More »
September-October 2019

Why I don’t vote in colonial politics

Abstaining is both important and inherent to me; here's why

Andrea Landry

“Indigenous nations are their own sovereign nations.” It’s a rhetoric stated consistently in a variety of arenas, both political and non-political. It is a truthful rhetoric at that. Being Anishinaabe, and also raising an Anishinaabe/Nehiyaw/Nakoda daughter, has further affirmed the truth that we are, 100 percent, our own sovereign nations as Indigenous Peoples. It has […] More »
September-October 2019

Shake Up The Establishment

Helping voters become informed on climate change issues

Talia Wooldridge

What happens when two bio-medical science graduates, a philosophy PhD candidate, and an arts major commiserate over climate change in Canada? Positive activism is born. In April 2019, a group of University of Guelph students and recent graduates, Manvi Bhalla, Janaya Campbell, Taro Halfnight, and Cameron Fioret, were commiserating over Canada’s response to climate change. […] More »
November-December 2018

Dear Future Great-Grandchild… Forgive Us

The world we'll leave behind won't be a pretty one

Michael Polanyi

DEAR FUTURE GREAT-GRANDCHILD, I will likely never meet you. I will never know the mid-21st-century world in which you will live. I hope you will be blessed with the opportunities and joys that I have experienced: the magic of visiting a pristine lake, the friendliness and generosity of neighbours, an array of vocational opportunities, and […] More »
July-August 2018

This art series is a post-capitalist fantasy

Artist Dana Prieto seeks to hold Canadian mining executives accountable for extractivism in Argentina

Jillian Morgan

Glazed in black, the beauty of Dana Prieto’s hand-crafted ceramic vessels forces the viewer’s attention—but what they wouldn’t be able to tell at first glance is that the artwork may contain traces of arsenic, cadmium, and mercury. Prieto, an Argentine visual artist based in Toronto, describes the vessels as an “inhospitable gift,” made with soil from […] More »
July-August 2018

Dear free speech warriors: Faith Goldy isn’t your martyr

The far-right commentator is not a heretic—and we need to stop acting like she is

Tyler Hellard

Dear Free Speech Warriors, Socrates had ideas—about life and government and religion—and he liked to express them to anyone willing to listen. Or who just happened to be standing nearby. He was tried, convicted, and killed for this behaviour. Faith Goldy has ideas—about life and government and religion—and she likes to express them to anyone […] More »

How a treasure hunt helped unveil the injustices present in the mining industry

On the floor at the world's largest mining conference, activists asked the tough questions

Caitrin Pilkington

When people talk about fantasy worlds, they often mean worlds populated with dwarves, elves, and magic. But in a way, stepping onto the convention floor of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) conference did feel like a fantasy. As the biggest mining conference on Earth, it’s frequented by some of the wealthiest in […] More »