December 10th Human Rights Day panel discussion: The ongoing struggle for rights in Canada

Our final episode of this Courage My Friends season features a December 10th Human Rights Day Panel Discussion, the first of a series of events celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Community Worker Program at Toronto’s George Brown College. Community workers and human rights advocates, Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat, Samira Mohyeddin, Diana Gallego, Desmond Cole and Diana Chan McNally discuss the meaning of human rights in Canada 77 years after the UN adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, critical issues facing us today and the power of solidarity-driven, rights-based organizing.

Speaking to Canada’s approach to human rights, Pitawanakwat says:

“A big wakeup call was a couple of days ago when the UN passed the International Day Against Colonialism and Canada abstained. Because Canada is very much still rooted in this colonial mechanism and ideology here … In Anishinaabe culture, we don't rely on the idea of rights, rights are a European construct. We rely on the idea of responsibility … If we relied on human rights, we would be in a dismal place, which is where we are today."

According to Chan McNally:

“Every time you see an encampment that is someone exercising their right to housing by literally making their own tent.We have downloaded the responsibility directly on homeless people to ensure their own rights. And criminalizing even that action of survival ... It's ludicrous, ludicrous to me.”

Speaking to the importance of community work, Cole says:

“People are doing it in this school and in this program. The reason that I always say yes, when you ask me to come here … I was homeless myself more than 20 years ago when I moved to this city. Somebody who took a community worker program referred me to a youth shelter and changed my life. For real.”

On the role of independent journalism, Mohyeddin reflects on her upcoming documentary about the pro-Palestine student encampment at UofT:

“Our corporate media was vilifying these young people.

And you know, my motto for journalism has always been to ‘Make mad the guilty and appall the free.’ And I think that if we operate from that place, even as citizens, we can really make a change.”

On the power of solidarity, Gallego says:

“The system want us being isolated. Solidarity is a word they trying to penalize … Solidarity is going and bringing the power that the Indigenous community have with the Palestinian movement. Bringing the solidarity of the unions back to us, back to the people.Being a community worker … Being the first face that a refugee is seeing in Canada and seeing the welcoming and seeing the support, means a lot.”

About today’s speakers: 

Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat is an Anishinaabekwe, Indigiqueer and member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded First Nation. As an Indigenous Birthworker, jingle dress dancer, artisan and radical educator, she is committed to principles of Indigenous Liberation and self determination. Her journey as a Birthworker began on the prairies where she practiced Harm Reduction and perinatal outreach for over a decade. She holds an undergrad degree from University of Victoria social work program and has a Masters in social work from university of Toronto with a trauma specialization. Olson Pitawanakwat  currently co-leads Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction and Native Arts Society, both 2spirit/Queer/Trans led initiatives.

Desmond Cole is a journalist, radio host, and activist. His debut book, The Skin We’re In, won the Toronto Book Award and was a finalist for the Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. It was also named a best book of 2020 by The Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, CBC, Quill & Quire, and Indigo. Cole’s writing has appeared in the Toronto Star, Toronto Life, The Walrus, and the Ottawa Citizen, among others. He lives in Toronto.

Diana Gallego is a Colombian trained lawyer with a background in advocacy, human rights, and social justice. In 2002, she was forced to flee Colombia with her husband and son, an experience that deepened her commitment to working with immigrants and refugees. She is a graduate and former faculty with Community Work from George Brown College in Toronto and joined the FCJ Refugee Centre in 2015, where she is now one of the Co-Executive Directors.  Gallego served as president of the Canadian Council for Refugees, from 2023 to 2025. She also serves on the Inland Protection steering committee of the CCR, focusing on the social and economic integration of refugees and family reunification as primary areas of her advocacy. 

Samira Mohyeddin is a multi-award winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. She has a Master of Arts in Modern Middle Eastern History from the University of Toronto and a graduate of genocide Studies from the Zoryan Institute. For nearly a decade, she was a producer and host at CBC Radio and CBC Podcasts. She resigned from the CBC in November 2023 and founded On The Line Media, where she brings audiences intimate conversations and informed commentary with a focus on critical and contextual journalism. Mohyeddin was the 2024 - 2025 inaugural journalism fellow for the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto and is the 2025 PEN Canada Ken Filkow Prize recipient. She is currently in production on a documentary about the Palestine solidarity student encampment at the University of Toronto.

Diana Chan McNally (she/they) is an alumni and former faculty of the Community Worker program at George Brown College (Toronto) and is a community worker in downtown Toronto. As someone with lived-experience of social services and of being unhoused, Chan McNally’s work focuses on human rights and equity issues for people who are homeless. Chan McNally is the founder and Coordinator of the Ontario Coalition for the Rights of Homeless People and works with human rights organizations The Shift and Maytree.

For Community Worker Program and application information, please visit  Community Worker Program at George Brown College

Donate to the 50th Anniversary Community Worker Program Student Bursary

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute. 

Image: Diana Gallego, Samira Mohyeddin, Brianna Olson Pitawanakwat (Photog. Mahihkan Studios), Desmond Cole (Photog. Gage Fletcher), Diana Chan McNally (Photog. Gage Fletcher) / Used with permission - Photographer, Gage Fletcher

Panel Recording: Prof. Ben McCarthy

Introduction to Session: Prof. John Caffery

Community Worker Program 50th Anniversary Organizing Committee: Prof. John Caffrey, Dr. Rusa Jeremic, Prof. Berti Olinto, Dr. William Payne, Stefan Kallikaden, Dr. Bill Fallis, Prof. Emeritus Bob Luker, Prof. Resh Budhu

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.