You Will Not Kill Our Imagination: Author Saeed Teebi on Palestine, writing and imagination
Needs No Introduction
In episode five, we are pleased to welcome award-winning author Saeed Teebi who speaks to us about his powerful new book, You Will Not Kill Our Imagination: A Memoir of Palestine and Writing in Dark Times. In our annual focus on the power of storytelling, we discuss what it means to be a Palestinian writer in these times, the challenges of writing against dehumanizing narratives, complicity in the attempted erasure of Palestinian life, identity and art through both violence and silence and how imagination, story and writing become profound acts of resistance in a time of genocide. On the...
info_outline
Bills C-2 and C-12: How Canada’s border security acts endanger refugee rights
Needs No Introduction
In episode four, we welcome co-executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, Karen Cocq, advocacy and media relations coordinator at The Refugee Centre in Montreal, Alina Murad and President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, Aisling Bondy. We discuss the Carney Government’s new border security acts, Bill C-2 and its questionable make-over with the recently tabled Bill C-12, how they effectively rewrite Canada’s approach to refugee rights and protections, whether this new security regime is a response to the Trump tariff demands or an opportunity to continue...
info_outline
Crisis or scandal? The deliberate dismantling of Ontario's public college system
Needs No Introduction
In our third episode we welcome support staff president for the Ontario Public Service Employees Union Local 418 at St.Lawrence College. Amanda Shaw, second vice president of OPSEU Local 415 at Algonquin College, Martin Lee and from George Brown College, member of OPSEU's part-time and sessional divisional executive, Ben McCarthy. We discuss the mass layoffs and program and campus closures across Ontario's 24 publicly funded colleges, impacts on college workers, students, and wider communities, what this means for the future of public post-secondary education and how what has been publicized...
info_outline
On September 20: Draw the line for people, for peace, for planet
Needs No Introduction
In this episode we welcome, climate justice and Indigenous rights organizer from Stellat’en First Nation and senior advisor at the David Suzuki Foundation, Janelle Lapointe; member services and movement building manager with Climate Action Network Canada, Lauren Latour and Canada organizer for World Beyond War, Rachel Small. We discuss the Draw the Line National Day of Action taking place across Canada on September 20, the reasons for this historic cross-movement coalition and the urgency of drawing the line now in this moment of converging and overwhelming crises, for people, for peace and...
info_outline
Lawless: The complete decriminalization of abortion… only in Canada
Needs No Introduction
In our season nine premiere, we welcome Martha Paynter, nurse, scholar and author of . We discuss Canada’s complete decriminalization of abortion (the only country to do so), the fascinating and often fraught history that brought us to this point, abortion as a public good, the influence of the anti-choice lobby here and the overturning of Roe vs. Wade in the US, and what it takes to make abortion truly equitable when decriminalization is not enough. Reflecting on the need to understand abortion as a public good, Paynter says: “We have these major cultural forces that just reiterate...
info_outline
Palestine and the weaponizing of hunger and the climate crisis
Needs No Introduction
In episode nine of the Courage My Friends series, we welcome visiting professor and dean of the faculty of agriculture and veterinary medicine at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University, Dr. Ahmed Abu Shaban. We discuss the weaponization of already fragile food systems in Gaza, the acceleration of the climate crisis through conflict and Palestinian resilience under occupation. Reflecting on the nexus of food, climate and occupation, Abu Shaban shares: “My father passed away in 2021 and we had a farm in Gaza. This farm was destroyed several times. And this farm is an olive trees farm. And...
info_outline
Labour Fair 2025: Labour now: Union responses to the polycrisis
Needs No Introduction
In episode eight, we return to the George Brown College Labour Fair and a discussion with Ontario Federation of Labour president Laura Walton and chief steward and second vice president of OPSEU/SEFPO Local 556 Jeff Brown. We discuss the multiple issues facing the labour movement, union priorities and, in this age of polycrisis, what exactly we are working for. Speaking to the upcoming federal elections, Walton says: “I think we all can agree it's not going to be an NDP federal government. It's either gonna be Liberals or Conservatives. And I call them cancer and chemo; one's gonna kill you,...
info_outline
Labour Fair 2025: Building a workers' first emergency response to the tariff crisis
Needs No Introduction
In episode seven, we are pleased to feature executive director of the Workers’ Action Centre, Deena Ladd. In her keynote address for the 33rd annual Labour Fair at Toronto’s George Brown College, No One Left Behind: Building a Workers’ First Emergency Response to the Tariff Crisis that Unites Us, Ladd discusses the current trade war, the dangers facing workers and a solidarity-driven plan that puts workers first. Reflecting on what’s needed in a workers’ first approach to the tariff crisis, Ladd says: “Our communities are already in trouble. And we know that the tariffs imposed are...
info_outline
Labour Fair 2025: The critical need for labour education
Needs No Introduction
In episode six, we feature the opening discussion of the at Toronto’s George Brown College. Under this year's theme, What Are We Working For? JP Hornick, president of OPSEU/SEFPO, (Ontario Public Service Employees Union), speaks on the critical need for labour education, labour organizing amid the changing nature of work and the crisis facing Ontario colleges. Reflecting on the need for labour education Hornick says: “These are the spaces where we learn how to organize, where we learn how to build community – it provides the critical analysis that people need to understand why there are...
info_outline
Rebranded fascism, higher education and the burden of conscience
Needs No Introduction
In episode five, we are pleased to welcome back Henry Giroux, scholar, cultural critic and author, most recently of The Burden of Conscience: Educating Beyond the Veil of Silence. We discuss the rise of authoritarianism in the US and around the world as an updated fascism, its attack on democracy and higher education and the urgent need for solidarity, critical pedagogy and resistance in the face of the unspeakable. Reflecting on the necessity of higher and critical education in these times, Giroux says: “Education is the glue. Education is the bridge that stands between fascism and...
info_outlineEpisode two welcomes research director of the Yellowhead Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University, Eva Jewell and director of education, outreach and public programming at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, Kaila Johnston. As we enter National Truth and Reconciliation Week, we discuss Canada’s progress on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and the meaning of reconciliation and reclamation in this settler-colonial state.
Reflecting on Canada’s progress on reconciliation, Johnston says:
“It's been the low hanging fruit or the easy Calls to Action that have been addressed to date … A lot of the work that I have seen is through grassroots organizations and others who've been working away at the Calls to Action.”
Speaking about two key aspects of reconciliation, Jewell says:
“The first is for Canadians. They have to reconcile with themselves and with what their country has done … And then there's the work that we have to do as Indigenous Peoples … and that is reclaiming, recreating our world through our language practices, our cultural practices, our political practices, repopulating our political systems that were destroyed by Residential Schools.”
About today’s guests:
Dr. Eva Jewell is Anishinaabe from Deshkan Ziibiing (Chippewas of the Thames First Nation) in southwestern Ontario, with paternal lineage from Oneida Nation of the Thames. Her research is in areas of care, cultural reclamation, and accountability in reconciliation. Dr. Jewell is an assistant professor in the sociology department at Toronto Metropolitan University and research director at Yellowhead Institute.Follow Yellowhead Institute's work on yellowheadinstitute.org.
As the director of education, outreach, and public programming, Kaila Johnston oversees matters related to the support of educators, development of resources, establishment of outreach initiatives, as well as public engagement on residential schools and their legacy. Prior to joining the NCTR, Kaila worked with the TRC as a statement gatherer and coordinator to support statement gathering activities. She holds a BA (Hons.) in Criminal Justice from the University of Winnipeg and a MSc in International Crimes and Criminology from Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. Follow the NCTR at:
https://www.facebook.com/nctr.ca
https://www.instagram.com/nctr_um/
https://ca.linkedin.com/company/nctr-um
Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute
Image: Eva Jewell, Kaila Johnston / Used with permission.
Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.
Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)
Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.
Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca.
Host: Resh Budhu.