Episode 178 – A 2021 look-back
In this episode Sandy and Nora look back at 2021 and ask: did we learn anything? Also, omicron.
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Episode 176 – F u c k the P o l i c e
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about police violence in Quebec City, Hamilton and Wet’suwet’en and ask what it will take for people to demand and end to policing. Plus, they talk COVID variants and a peculiar CBC report.
Episode 173 – Fighting the extremes
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about how extremes are changing how we politically debate, and how deep political education and organizing are our only hope.
Episode 172 – Beyond binary thinking
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the way in which social media platforms force us into binaries, which is a disaster for leftwing organizing, which requires us to talk through nuance.
Episode 171 – Canadian media’s TERFascist love-in
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the alarming space in Canadian media that TERFascist ideas are receiving, and ask what the end game is in platforming transphobia.
Episode 169 – Confronting systemic, institutional racism
In this episode, Sandy and Nora discuss how systemic racism operates within democratic structures, and the need for renewal. They talk about the Green Party, the NDP and more broadly within the left.
You can check out Nora’s new podcast here: https://shows.acast.com/take-back-the-fight/episodes/take-back-the-fight-series-teaser
Episode 167 – Canada’s democratic deficit
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about how Canada’s democracy is in crisis and is it time for a new left political party? Plus we deconstruct the media establishment’s obsession with The Two Michaels.
Episode 166 – Fascism and the status quo
In this episode, Sandy and Nora discuss the winners and losers in #elxn44 — and what everyone needs to learn about the success of the PP party.
Episode 165 – Conspirelection debate-o-thon
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the legacy of 9/11 in Canada, and how the English-language debates reveal more about the state of Canada’s democracy than pundits and politicians will admit.
Episode 163 – Promises, promises, protests
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about how the election is going — and how none of the major parties are acting as if we have just surviving a global pandemic. We also talk about the ongoing struggle at Fairy Creek.
Episode 161 – All the issues they will miss in #Elxn44
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the important issues that the current federal election should cover, but near certainly will not.
Episode 160 – Can the Left do rhetoric better?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the need for left-wingers to identify, engage with and create rhetoric. Plus, Sandy has information about Ontario police destroying documents and we talk about the BCCLA.
Episode 159 – Is Canadian intelligence interfering in university research?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the federal government’s recent decision to vet all scientific research funding as a matter of national intelligence agencies. Plus, they talk about tuition fees in Newfoundland and Labrador and the importance of physical space for activism and organizing.
Episode transcript.
Episode 156 – Not withstanding the carceral option
In this episode Sandy and Nora talk about crime and punishment, and why society gets nowhere when it throws people into the criminal justice system. Plus, they talk about the Notwithstanding Clause and wtf is up with the Green Party?
CW: discussion of child suicide in the second half of the episode.
Episode 150 – TRIPS waver, CEWS grift and getting real about vaccine passports
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about COVID-19 — again — and how the world that politicians want us to think we’re living in is not the world we are living in.
Episode transcript here.
Episode 142 – How many more will die?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about medical racism, bill C-7 passed into law and … the Queen.
You can see the Disability Filibuster here.
Episode 139 – the Liberals’ crime reform legislation
Last week, the Liberals introduced Bill C-22 – the Liberals’ long-awaited amendments to Canada’s criminal code. Sandy and Nora discuss the changes, how they are a mixed bag of good and bad, and how the Liberals never take seriously the concerns of Black and Indigenous communities.
Episode 137 – Canada’s terrorist list is a mistake
In this episode, Sandy and Nora explain why many on the left have been critical of the recent decision to place several new groups on Canada’s terrorist list, including the Proud Boys. The episode starts with a round-up of news we are watching this week.
Episode 132 – Finding optimism at the end of 2020
In this episode, Sandy and Nora look back at 2020 and try to say so-long to 2020 with a bit of optimism and lots of anger.
Episode 130 – free tuition, UOttawa sucks and organizing the Christians
This is Part 1 of Audience Appreciation Night – Sandy and Nora take questions and comments from listeners and talk about policing, education, organizing and pacing yourself for the long haul of radical action.
You’re invited! Sandy and Nora Listener Appreciation Night
Join us on Sunday, Nov. 29 at 8:00 EST, 5:00 PST for a live video chat as we celebrate the almost end of 2020.
Get your ticket! The event link will be emailed to all ticket holders on Sunday afternoon.
Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/sandy-and-nora-listener-appreciation-night-tickets-130749805187
Episode 125 – Thinking big
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the need for conversations about big thinking. How can we use the pandemic to build new projects, new economies and new ways of organizing ourselves?
Correction — Nora forgot Saskatchewan at a certain point in the episode. When you catch it, you can tell yourself you won.
Episode 121 – surfing the second wave. Of anxiety.
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the second wave — how it’s being talked about, how it’s not being covered, and how we need to reject individualist narratives about what will save us. We also talk about the tragic death of Joyce Echaquon in Joliette, and how medical racism needs to be combated by government, unions and popular movements.
Video of Seth Cardinal Dodginghorse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h47zK6b6B0Y
In this episode, Nora mispronounces Atikamekw. It’s Ah-tee-ka-mik. Nora apologizes for this.
In this episode for the ambient sound of LA. That window gets closed at minute 15.
Episode 118 – pulling the forest fire alarm
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the inexplicable inaction from everyone with power to take the climate crisis seriously. It is an episode of rage and some jokes. But mostly rage.
Episode 112 – How do we know what we know?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about how changing the way you think about the world can help you make better political predictions. By understanding how power operates, we can anticipate how power will react, and pivot our demands accordingly.
Episode 106 – ok, so what now?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about how to seize this moment and make sure that our political demands are met. COVID-19 has changed Canada’s status quo, and already politicians are resisting calls for widespread change.
Episode 103 – abolish the police
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about how society could abolish the police and create new services that would keep more people safe and offer more services to people who need them. Also, Sandy explains a conversation with a CBC producer.
Full transcript can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T9MH4OsPoa1c1DxcdHxS9Yq0gEWWEuxQsS4N4NttZBs/edit?usp=sharing
Episode 102 – a she-cession? Really?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora explore the narrative that has emerged about how the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt women in particular. They argue that recessions always hurt women and that framing this one as being somehow unique erases the racial and classed dynamic of who is most injured.
Episode 98 – policing in the fog of covid-19
In this episode, Sandy and Nora examine how police power seems to be growing unchecked while we all ride out the pandemic.
Episode 97 – Education in the time of coronavirus
In this episode, Sandy and Nora argue that the pandemic has exposed how higher education’s obsession with money has damaged its capacity to work in the public interest. Education under coronavirus: what should it look like?
Episode 93 – fighting despair in quarantine
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about our new normal, and what politicians must do to start helping Canadians weather the storm.
Episode 90 – are partisan politics anti-democratic?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora debate whether or not partisan politics are anti-democratic. Sandy says no, Nora says yes. Will they reach a conclusion?
Episode 89 – fight attacks on education
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the importance of fighting attacks against education. They also talk about how Justin Trudeau has failed in dealing with Wet’suwet’en and solidarity actions.
Episode 88 – hope and joy in our movements
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the importance of hope and joy. How do we find hope when it feels like nothing we do can change the status quo.
Episode 86 – a. c. a. b.
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about police and the various shenanigans they’re up to across Canada. We also talk briefly about the commemoration of the Islamophobic attack of January 29 2017 and Ryerson University’s attempt to shut down the Ryerson Students’ Union.
Shout-out to Unifor workers who have put their bodies on the picket line this week and who felt the force of Regina police, a group we forgot to mention in our round-up.
Episode 83 – hockey, whiteness and Canadian identity
Hockey is Canada and Canada is Hockey. This adage is seemingly lodged in the brains of a few too many people in Canada, making an adult discussion about misogyny and racism in sport an almost impossible discussion. Sandy and Nora break down how Don Cherry entered sainthood, Jessica Allen dodged being fired, and how the right-wing mob is clinging to a Canada that never has existed.
Episode 77 – debate night and the fall of Canada’s old order
Sandy and Nora stayed up very late to bring you a hot-off-the-press analysis of the only English-language federal election debate. You’ll hear why Jagmeet Singh won and why no one should consider voting Liberal if they’re progressive.
Episode 76 – climate change and gun violence in #elxn43
In this episode, Nora and Sandy look at how climate change and gun violence are being used (or ignored) by the parties to seek support.
Episode 75 – #BlackFaceTrudeau and Canadian white supremacy
It feels like so long ago: Justin Trudeau in Blackface hit the election cycle like an atomic bomb. What did journalists miss? How bad was the coverage? And what does this affair tell us about who Canada really is?
Episode 74 – a truly boring election
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about Andrew Scheer’s racist/homophobic candidate problem, each of the party’s strategies to win and why Brampton is such an important place.
LIVE SHOW ALERT!!
Here’s everything you need to know about our upcoming live show in Toronto on Oct. 12. See you there! https://www.facebook.com/events/1957725264331031/
Episode 70 – we need more time off
To celebrate the summer, Sandy and Nora talk about time off: vacations, sick days, taking days off just because you have a right to not work from time to time — get your hammock and the coldest drink you have, and think about all the things you would do with more time off work.
Episode 66 – arresting the left, protecting the right: the problem with police
There has been a recent burst of street violence perpetuated by the same individuals, looking to fight with social activists. The response from the police – indifference and violence against the targets of this violent – reminds us that we need to understand the role that police play in society, and they they aren’t there to protect us.
To read the report back from what happened in Hamilton, please go here (image is from here too) https://itsgoingdown.org/hamilton-pride-2019-reportback/
Episode 57 – Fighting Québec’s religious symbol ban
In this episode, Nora explains what the CAQ’s religious symbol ban is, where it comes from and how organizing is going to stop it.
Since we recorded this, nothing has changed from the legislative side. A rally was held in Montreal this past weekend to oppose the religious symbols ban. More voices have come out to oppose the ban.
Episode 56 – the unbearable whiteness of Canadian media
Talking about systemic racism in Canadian media is a bottomless well of content. This week, Sandy and Nora discuss Pam Seattle’s apology, CityNews’ apology and why apologies aren’t going to fix the racism that is embedded in Canada’s media landscape.
This week’s photo is from a 2002 cover of Maclean’s Magazine. Same as it ever was.
Episode 54 – global terrorism’s white face
This has been a difficult week, especially if you have been watching the rise of organized white supremacists for years. In this episode, Sandy and Nora dissect how the media and politicians have failed so badly at grasping this threat, and conclude with things that are giving them hope.
Episode 45 – Doug Ford reduces tuition fees, smashes OSAP, screws student
Just in time for Sandy and Nora’s first show of 2019, Doug Ford wages war on higher education. Sandy and Nora break down this announcement and offer arguments for how to push back against a Liberal frame that is just as much to blame.
This is part one of two — tuition fees and grants. In part two, they breakdown voluntary student unionism and how to mount an effective fightback.
Episode 44 – we get angry
2018 was the kind of year that you can only salute by paying homage to anger. In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about anger and how it can be used to ignite and inspire social change.
Episode 37 – Sandy and Nora vs. The Munk “Debate”
Live from Toronto on Nov. 2, Sandy and Nora take on The Munk Debate. From Frum and Bannon to Bay Street’s continued colonial exploitation of locations across the globe for mining, they tie together extremely obvious links that everyone in the mainstream media somehow forgot the week prior to this debate.
Special thanks to the Black Liberation Collective at Ryerson, volunteers at CJRU and Noah for capturing this sound, staff at the Ryerson Student Centre and the folks who arrived early enough to help us set up and take down the chairs. It was greatly appreciated.
This is part one of two parts. The second part, the Q&A, is Episode 38.
Episode 35 – How to fight hate in Toronto
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the fallout from the Toronto election, and how progressives need to think about fighting the rising visibility of hatred in the GTA.
And: MARK YOUR CALENDARS
You’re invited to a live show in Toronto on Friday, Nov. 2. Please RSVP here so we can order enough food: https://www.facebook.com/events/1874457432673162/
Episode 34 – Kavanaugh (and wtf CBC?)
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the feminist movement, and how distorted our lens on Kavanaugh is due the absence of an effective feminist presence in social movement organizing. They also touch on Quebec politics and CBC’s decision to not air a debate because John Tory wont agree to debate Jen Keesmaat one on one.
Note from Nora: much to my embarrassment, I misstate Tori Stafford’s name in this episode, and I couldn’t edit it out. The overall intervention was important enough to leave with the error, which I regret.
Episode 31 – Constitutional crisising in Toronto
Sandy and Nora are back! They took some time off so that things could get really, really bad so that their debut episode for the 2018-19 season could be full of gasping, laughter and doom.
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the electoral crisis that Doug Ford’s PC government has plunged Toronto into, Section 33 of the constitution and how the broad left should be fighting back.
Episode 28 – The War of the Car
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the recent wave of cyclist deaths in cities and rural areas across Canada and how cars are making everything very, very, very angry.
Update to something that Sandy mentions in the show: the foolish scramble crosswalk is not longer at Bay and Bloor Sts. in Toronto. Tant mieux!
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
We are recording a live show in Hamilton! Come join us on Thursday, July 26. You wont want to miss it!
Event information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/245123882945036/
Reserve your ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/voice-words-action-feminist-popular-education-tickets-48065416956
Episode 26 – HAPPY CANADA DAY TO …
It’s the Canada Day episode! Nora and Sandy talk about all the things that they’re thinking about for Canada Day. Are you thinking about the same things we’re thinking about? Tune in to find out. Also, please consider donating to:
https://www.gofundme.com/justice-for-olando-brown
We will add the GoFundMe for Jon Styres when we have the link.
This is a duplicate page trying to fix a bad link.
Episode 23 – is the left failing to train new activists?
Where do young activists learn their skills? In this episode Sandy and Nora talk about the student movement and how the left needs to renew itself through targeting training (education, campaigns, jobs) for young people.
Episode 22: it’s time to shittalk #ONELXN
With just over one week to go, the Ontario election is spinning out to be the most exciting one to watch in a generation — if by exciting we mean hilarious, which we do!
Sandy and Nora take time with each party and examine all the reasons for why they cannot be taken seriously, and give many kudos to the grassroots activists running for the ONDP. They are making this shitshow very worth it.
Episode 21: Canada’s racist border policies
Sandy and Nora talk about Canada’s borders: from refugee claimants from the United States to CBSA, where innocent people are housed in maximum security facilities, Canadians need to start asking questions about what their government is doing to families who are seeking Canada for a better life.
Episode 20: Profits, pipelines and progressive confusion
After many requests from friends, Sandy and Nora have finally decided to talk about pipelines.
Episode 9: Injustice and Tina Fontaine
In this podcast, Sandy and Nora talk about the Raymond Cormier trial, his acquittal, and the racist, colonial systems at play that consistently deny justice to Indigenous women and girls, like Tina Fontaine.
There can be no justice on stolen land.
Episode 8: From Me too Us: the limits of the Me Too movement
This episode explores the Me Too movement. From Patrick Brown, to the poisonous and pervasive sexism within politics, to broader movement issues and questions, we take a tour of the state of feminism today.
This issue deals with the matter with a mix of humour and anger: our best survival tools. Skip the first 15 minutes if you don’t want to hear about all the ways in which Patrick Brown’s press conference was a disaster.
Episode 7: No justice for Colten Boushie — Canada’s white supremacy problem
This episode starts off featuring Jade Tootootsis, Colten Boushie’s cousin, at a press conference following the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in Colten’s death. Jade reminds people to get organized and be mobilized to fight for justice.
Sandy and Nora talk about colonialism, injustice and how nothing will change if people don’t heed Jade’s call: that nothing is possible unless we organize ourselves.
Episode 6: police, racism and journalists who just don’t get it
On the long-awaited Episode 6, Sandy and Nora talk about financial literacy curriculum, Nazis in the Toronto Library and police in schools, and how on each story, journalists keep getting it wrong.
Episode 5: Scheming Liberals and their Schemey Schemes
Has there ever been a scheme with a progressive veneer and a regressive outcome that the Liberals haven’t loved?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about the Ontario budget, Liberal Schemes and how progressives need to resist Liberal logic that is intended to confuse Canadians into supporting them. Specifically we talk: free tuition fees, the basic income, pharmacare and the racist implications of the marijuana policy discussions.
Episode 3: The white supremacy episode
2017 might just be the year where mainstream Canada reckons with white supremacy — or maybe not. From Justin Trudeau being a white supremacist to marches promoting hatred happening across Canada, Sandy and Nora make the necessary connections of these flashpoint events to broader systems and structures of white supremacy. With M103, the anti-Islamophobia motion soon to be debated in the House of Commons, it’s critical to understand this debate in the context of white supremacy.
The White Supremacy episode: from “should I punch a Nazi?” to: “here are the range of ways to disrupt, bother and challenge Nazis in the streets”
Episode 2: “Feminist” Trudeau provides progressive cover for sexist Trump
In this episode, Sandy and Nora talk about Trudump: the meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump. Spoiler: feminism was used to hide deeply unfeminist cross-border cooperation plans.
Episode 1: How can anyone think Toronto road tolls are progressive?
In this episode, Sandy and Nora examine the arguments that some progressive men have made about the road tolls that had been proposed on the DVP and the Gardiner Expressway.
They also sign on for the first time in what will certainly be, an historic show.
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