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July-August 2020

Labour opposes the arms trade

Trade unionists, workers, and peace activists unite against humanitarian crisis

Scott Neigh

Simon Black was watching the news on television with his one-month-old daughter on his lap. A report came on—a bombing of a school bus in Yemen by coalition forces led by Saudi Arabia, which killed dozens of children and injured dozens more. Black had one of those moments that sometimes happen to new parents, a […] More »
May-June 2020

Inside Canada’s Airbnb crisis

First, it came for our housing, now it's coming for our neighbourhoods

Nicole Beier

Just this past year, Canadian news was constantly covering stories of vacation rentals, made possible by platforms such as Airbnb, taking the housing supply hostage. When Airbnb first launched its platform in 2008, allowing anyone to rent out their home to tourists, they unleashed a swarm of people who were desperate to “live like a […] More »

Invisible labour and tangible risk

On working through a pandemic

Nisa Malli

Lately, all of my labour—domestic, creative, and income-earning—has shrunk to the space of a studio apartment. My office now doubles as my kitchen table, my gym, and my sick bed. It is a home which felt small even when I had access to third spaces for work, leisure, and exercise (such as cafes, parks, libraries […] More »
March-April 2020

Perfuming my daughter

The scent of sandalwood was a way to connect with my culture and home— I followed its roots to learn more

Nehal El-Hadi

When my daughter was born, I would place tiny dots of sandalwood oil behind her perfect little ears and in the folds of her delicate neck. She was the best smelling baby around; the combination of the natural scent of infant and sandalwood was heady, divine, something you could live in forever. It’s an unusual […] 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 »
January-February 2020

The fare evasion blame game

How talking about skipping turnstiles keeps transit commissions unaccountable

Anna Bianca Roach

“Smile! You’re on fare evader camera.” Such is the message of the Toronto Transit Commission’s (TTC) ad campaign, which was rolled out in May 2019. The campaign follows a scandal that broke a few months earlier, when Toronto’s auditor general released a report estimating that the TTC had lost upwards of $60 million from fare […] More »
September-October 2019

Going Green

The Green Party brings what they've learned from their provincial successes to the national playing field

Rob Csernyik

In the spring of 2019, Newfoundlanders Adam Denny and Jonathon Brown came together after learning they both had a similar vision in mind: a provincial Green party. Their province, which was hit hard by the cod fishery collapse in 1992, has increasingly been focused on developing an offshore oil industry. Even though that too has […] More »
September-October 2019

10 things every voter should care about this election, 1-5

Mainstream media only shows us a handful of issues, but federal leaders should be held accountable to much more

various

  1. The Rise of the Alt-Right Andrew Scheer formally addressed the United We Roll convoy in February, a protest that began as a pro-pipeline demonstration and grew to represent racism and xenophobia characteristic of the worldwide yellow vest movement. In May, Conservative MP Michael Cooper read a passage from the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto […] 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 »
September-October 2019

What happened to Justin Trudeau, the feminist?

After four years of the current PM's leadership, we look back on past promises and party lines

Kaila Jefferd-Moore

In 2015 Canadians broke a record: 88 women were elected to the Canadian House of Commons. Fifty women were among the 184 Liberal MPs elected. Trudeau went on to appoint his cabinet with gender parity. Because it was 2015. But a male appointing an equal cabinet with representation based on the binary does not a […] More »
September-October 2019

Politicians… they’re coming for you

David Moscrop

Dear Citizens, They’re coming for you. For your brains. You hear that and you think of George Romero. Dawn or Day or Night of the Living Dead. But this is worse. I’m not talking about zombies. I’m talking about politicians. Zombies will come for you and they’ll chew on you for a bit, but that’s […] More »