Audio

The past and present of medical colonialism in Canada

Talking Radical Radio

Samir Shaheen-Hussain is a pediatric emergency physician who practices in Montreal and an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University. He also played a central role in the #aHand2Hold campaign, which won a victory against one aspect of medical colonialism in Quebec in 2018.

The struggle for Black lives in northern Ontario

Ra’anaa Brown and Shana Calixte are residents of Sudbury, Ontario. Brown is the co-president of Black Lives Matter – Sudbury, and Calixte is the group’s Director of Community Relations. Scott Neigh interviews them about what the struggle for Black lives looks like in northern Ontario and about their conference coming up on February 27 and 28, “Here to Stay Baby”: A Northern Intersectional Caucus.

A community's fight to stop a high-level radioactive waste storage facility

Talking Radical Radio

Michelle Stein and Bill Noll are members of Protect Our Waterways – No Nuclear Waste, a group of concerned residents of South Bruce, Ontario, who have come together in opposition to the proposal to put a high-level radioactive waste storage facility in their community. Stein and her husband raise cattle and sheep on their farm, which sits next to the proposed site. And Noll is a retired engineer who lives right across from the site.

Centring BIPOC youth in questions of sexual health and rights

Talking Radical Radio

Sarah Edo works with a publication called Nuance. pihêsiw is part of the Native Youth Sexual Health Network (NYSHN). In the context of this year’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Week (SRH Week), Scott Neigh interviews them about what it means to centre Black, Indigenous, racialized, and migrant youth in questions of sexual health and rights.

Organizing workers, and how to do it better

Talking Radical Radio

Nick Driedger lives in northern Alberta and has been involved in organizing workers for almost 20 years. He has been part of a number of different unions, including the Candian Union of Postal Workers and the Industrial Workers of the World, and he currently works for the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees. He is also a contributor at Organizing Work, a website with a grassroots focus committed to honest, strategic discussions about the nuts and bolts of organizing.

Practical prison abolition politics in health care contexts

Talking Radical Radio

Claire Bodkin and Sara Alavian are both physicians in Hamilton, Ontario. They are also part of an ad hoc group of health workers from different parts of Canada with an interest in prison abolitionist politics. Scott Neigh interviews them about what it means to think about prison abolition in the context of health care, and about the zine that the group will be releasing on February 1, Caring for People Who Are Detained: A Handbook for Healthcare Workers + Trainees.

Tenant organizing in a Winnipeg neighbourhood

Samantha Smith, Leslie Scott, and Robert Crooks are renters and current or former residents of the West Broadway neighbourhood in Winnipeg. They are also active members of the West Broadway Tenants Committee, a grassroots group of renters. Scott Neigh interviews them about the committee’s work organizing for tenant justice and building tenant power to oppose evictions, excessive rent increases, and abuse from landlords.

Pushing for a fundamental reassessment of Canada’s foreign policy

Talking Radical Radio

Bianca Mugyenyi is a long-time activist in multiple movements and she is currently the director of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute (CFPI). Yves Engler is also a long-time activist and writer, and he is a fellow at the CFPI. Scott Neigh interviews them about the organization’s work to present a critical challenge to Canadian foreign policy across a broad spectrum of issues.

A radical design collective in Winnipeg

Talking Radical Radio

Terry McDowell has been working as a graphic designer in Winnipeg for the last ten years. He is a member of Strike Poster, a 14-member closed collective of graphic designers and artists of all sorts committed to a range of radical left politics. Scott Neigh interviews him about the intersection of politics and design, and about Strike Poster’s contributions to struggles for justice and liberation in Winnipeg.

Bringing questions of justice to the heart of struggles for climate action

Talking Radical Radio

Laura Hamilton is a climate activist who lives in Waterloo, Ontario. She began working on climate issues as a co-founder of Divest Waterloo, a group with an initial focus on encouraging divestment from fossil fuel industries. But as their understanding of the climate crisis deepened, the group came to realize that only an approach that centres justice would have a shot at making the kinds of changes that we need.

A grassroots freedom school for African Nova Scotian youth

Talking Radical Radio

Rachel Zellars is an African-American academic, lawyer, and community organizer who has lived in Canada for more than a decade and a half, and in Halifax for the last couple of years. Wendie Wilson is an African Nova Scotian teacher, artist, writer, and community advocate whose family has been in the province for at least eight generations. Scott Neigh interviews them about the African Nova Scotian Freedom School that they were part of organizing this past summer.

Fighting racism at an Alberta university

Talking Radical Radio

Renae Watchman, Michael Truscello, and Leah Hamilton are faculty at Mount Royal University, a small undergraduate institution in Calgary. They are also members of the Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition, a group of faculty dedicated to a wide range of anti-racist work on and beyond campus. Scott Neigh interviews them about what racism looks like in the academy, and about what it means to oppose it.

Supporting gay and bi men's health

Talking Radical Radio

Michael Kwag is the director of knowledge exchange and policy development at the Community-Based Research Centre (CBRC). Scott Neigh talks with him about the CBRC's use of research, community-level interventions, and advocacy to promote the health of gay, bi, trans, Two-Spirit, and queer men.

Standing up for students and public education in Alberta

Talking Radical Radio

Medeana Moussa is an entrepreneur and mother of four who lives in Calgary, and she is the executive director of Support Our Students (SOS) Alberta. Wing Li holds a PhD in neuroscience, has two children, and is the communications director for the group. SOS Alberta is a grassroots, nonpartisan network focused on standing up for the rights of students to an accessible and equitable public education system.