This is the story of Canada’s first-ever video game union. And the lengths that the industry went to try to stop it in its tracks
MoreThe huge rise in international students in Canada — most of them from Punjab, India — has become one of the biggest stories in the country.
MoreShe expected to face opposition from tech companies and governments that are hostile to workers. But what she didn’t anticipate was that one of the biggest obstacles in her path would be a labour union.
MoreMandalena Lewis is one of far too many flight attendants who have been harassed or assaulted on the job. And her story is just one example of a culture of sexism and abuse that she alleges pervades the airline industry.
MoreIn 2006, Zakaria Amara was arrested and imprisoned for planning what could have been one of the deadliest terror attacks in Canadian history. A ringleader of the so-called “Toronto 18,” he’s one of the most infamous Canadian convicts of the last few decades.
More♩♪ But Spotify, it’s nearly killed us Ticketmaster’s ground us to dust The companies got too large Now monopolies are in charge ♩♪
MoreNot only do Canadian prisoners work for for-profit businesses, but they’re sometimes doing the most dangerous and nauseating work around
MoreIf we want to truly understand our criminal justice system and Canadian labour, we need to examine how prisoners work.
MoreIn Newfoundland and Labrador, fishing is more than just an industry or a job. It truly is a way of life. It’s at the core of what has made this place what it is.
MoreThe history of the Atlantic fishery can be understood as a power struggle between fishermen and merchants.
MoreThis isn’t just history. It’s prophecy. It’s a vision of what may come if we continue to ignore the ecological limits of this planet in the pursuit of profit.
MoreThe story of Westray is one of managerial malice and the heroism of everyday people. But why is it that governments let this happen over and over again, at the expense of so many lives?
MoreIt’s a story of racism and labour exploitation that goes back decades, even centuries. And it’s a prophecy of what is to come — that the hardships inflicted on migrant farm workers are only a trial run for the rest of us.
MoreTo understand why the situation remains so bad, we need to go back in time to a moment when there was progress and hope. A moment when it looked like things might truly change for the better.
MoreAcross Canada, emergency rooms have been shutting down, leaving desperate people in the lurch. And at the heart of this health care crisis, is a labour crisis.
MoreThe rise of gig work and temp agencies have made employment more precarious than ever
MoreThis season of COMMONS will dig into the fascinating history and ever-changing present of what it means to be a worker in Canada.
MoreIn this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Noor Azrieh sits down with Peter Smith to discuss his reporting on right-wing conspiracy groups like Qanon and Romana Didulo.
MoreCanada’s biggest grocery chains spent nearly 2 billion last year buying up their own stocks.
MoreRichard Marsh was born into the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. He got out of the group he calls a cult and has made it his mission to expose the Brethren for their alleged abuses. Now he’s on the run from Brethren members who’ve been searching for him for years. The man hired to hunt Marsh down? David Wallace.
MoreBut at what point does it go from being harmless entertainment and turn into something more sinister?
MoreRomana Didulo, the self-proclaimed Queen of Canada, is unlike almost any other cult leader Canada has ever seen
MoreMLMs have become such a ubiquitous part of North American life that their tenets are rarely ever questioned.
MoreNearly 1.4 million Canadians and almost 50 million Americans are involved in multi-level marketing.
MoreMary-Jayne Blackmore is one of the oldest children of Winston Blackmore, the most famous polygamist in Canada.
MoreThe media have portrayed the Raelians as not just a cult, but a strange phantasmagoria of extraterrestrials, orgies and clones. But its followers insist it is the only true path forward for humanity.
MoreHe’s often called the Devil of De Courcy Island for good reason.
MoreThe idea of cults has become an omnipresent part of our discourse. But what even is a cult? And why have we become so intrigued by these groups?
MoreUncovering the stories of both devotees and dissenters, this season of COMMONS will go beyond the true crime cliches and will make you question everything you thought you knew about cults.
MoreIn this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Jordan Cornish sits down with Jashvina Shah to talk about her book, Game Misconduct: Hockey's Toxic Culture and How to Fix It.
MoreIn this bonus episode, COMMONS producer Jordan Cornish sits down with host Arshy Mann to discuss our recent season on hockey.
MoreFighting was just his job. But it would end up taking everything from him.
MoreThe Hockey Canada scandal has become one of the biggest stories in the country. And now, hockey appears to be in the middle of a reckoning. But this isn’t the first time. There was another moment, just like this one.
MoreMike Danton was playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the St. Louis Blues. And at the same time, he was trying to hire a hitman to kill his agent, David Frost.
MoreHockey exacts a heavy toll on many boys and young men — on their minds and their bodies. And then they’re told not to talk about any of it outside the locker room.
MoreThe NHL likes to call Willie O’Ree the Jackie Robinson of hockey. And no one can deny how significant it was when he became the first Black player on the ice in an NHL game in 1958. But what the league doesn’t like to talk about is what happened next.
MoreThe Coloured Hockey League wasn’t just a sideshow to the main event of white hockey. And the way that league was targeted by the white establishment is reflective of the racism that Black players faced over the next century.
MoreHockey is a hell of a lot of fun. But right now, the sport is going through a reckoning.
MoreLove it or hate it, hockey is inescapable in Canada. But the sport has a dark side.
MoreWe’re bringing you Arshy’s full interview with Cory Doctorow, complete with all the nitty gritty details around how and why musicians continue to get screwed by Spotify, music labels, ticketmaster and more.
MoreA bonus conversation about the recent testimony by Canada's grocery CEOs in front of a parliamentary committee and our reflections on our Monopoly season.
MoreA closer look at the modern-day supermarket and the ongoing battle between everyday Canadians and grocery CEOs over what’s to blame for our declining standard of living.
MoreThe story behind what happened when Google, one of the world’s great tech monopolies, wanted to make a “smart city" in Toronto
MoreFor almost a century, the Irving family has run New Brunswick like a personal fiefdom
MoreIt’s been a hard few years for Canadian air passengers. And while no one blames the airline oligopoly for COVID or winter storms, air travellers have had to put up with a lot.
More♩♪ But Spotify, it’s nearly killed us. Ticketmaster’s ground us to dust. The companies got too large, now monopolies are in charge. ♩♪
MoreWhile Attawapiskat faced crisis after crisis, the community was sitting on a literal diamond mine run by the world’s most famous mining company.
MoreWhen you look at your pet, you probably see an adorable furball that you’d do anything for. A private equity firm sees dollar signs.
MoreAn unofficial narrative of Canada's telecom overlords.
MoreA frank discussion with Canada's top competition cop.
MoreFor 150 years, Canadian politicians have been talking out of both sides of their mouths. They claim they want to promote competition. And then they pass laws that do the opposite.
MoreWIND Mobile, now known as Freedom, was a small company that tried to break through Canada’s telecom oligopoly. It did not have an easy ride.
MoreThey’re the most hated companies in the country. And yet, they’re unavoidable.
MoreToday, it’s a department store where you might go to buy perfume or cookware. But the Hudson’s Bay Company was Canada’s first, and its most powerful, monopoly.
MoreSome say that they’re a shadowy group that are the true power behind our elected officials, wielding enormous influence that they use to either benefit their friends or crush their enemies.
MoreCanadians are being squeezed at every end. When it comes to cell phone bills, grocery bills, housing, entertainment, we’re all paying more than ever before.
MoreFrom broadband to banking to blueberries (yes, even blueberries), life in Canada is ruled by monopolies.
MoreWhat was all of this for? And is Afghanistan destined for yet another cycle of violence?
MoreStuart Langridge was a model soldier. But when he ended his life after returning from Afghanistan, his parents began to ask questions about what had happened to their son. Instead of giving them answers, the Canadian military went to war against them.
MoreDespite repeated denials by senior government and military officials, there’s evidence that many Canadians knew they were sending Afghans to be tortured.
MoreWhy did so many Afghans join with the Taliban during the years that Canada was fighting in Kandahar?
MoreOperation Medusa has become the most celebrated battle in recent Canadian history. It was hailed as a stroke of military genius that may have vanquished the Taliban once and for all.
MoreAll of a sudden, they see a blast, and chaos surrounds them. What happens next would change their lives—and the Canadian military—forever.
MoreIn the months after 9/11, Canadian special forces were participating in secret operations at the behest of some of the most sinister men in Afghanistan.
MoreThe true story of the end of one of the forever wars through the eyes of the people who were there.
MoreMany Canadian mining companies are pariahs around the world. So why does Canada allow this to happen? And is this industry violent by its very nature?
MorePapua New Guinea is a part of the world that few Canadians ever think about. But for the people of Porgera, their lives have been shaped by the decisions of Canadian companies.
MoreAttawapiskat has become famous across Canada and around the world. Not for the natural beauty that surrounds it, or for the Cree culture of the people who live there. Instead, it’s become a byword for the toxic legacy of Canadian colonialism.
MoreGiant Mine may be a big reason why Yellowknife exists. But for seven decades, it’s been a unique source of suffering for the people in the region.
MoreTwenty-six men were working underground when an explosion tore through the Westray Mine in Nova Scotia. Their friends and colleagues went into the wreckage to try to save them.
MoreBre-X was a national obsession that made many overnight millionaires. It also happened to be the biggest fraud in the history of mining.
MoreFor a century, Canada was one of the world’s leading exporters of asbestos, most of it mined from the small town of Asbestos, Quebec. But during that time, governments and corporations in Canada did everything they could to hide the fact that asbestos is deadly.
MoreThe Klondike Gold Rush was many things: a media conspiracy, a ponzi scheme, a land grab. But above all, it was a humanitarian disaster that stretched over much of the Pacific Northwest.
MoreStories about the dirty business of Canadian mining.
MoreThe destruction of Borneo’s rainforests has been called the greatest environmental crime of our time. But journalists and NGOs have long alleged that one man, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has benefitted from that destruction to the tune of billions of dollars.
MoreEddy Haymour has been called a lot of things in his life. Immigrant success story. Kidnapper. Terrorist. Folk Hero.
MoreThe Toronto Community Housing Corporation is the biggest landlord in Canada, and the second biggest in all of North America.
MoreThe Oka Crisis was the biggest military confrontation on Canadian soil in more than a century. On its face, it was about a golf course expansion. But for the Mohawks who took up arms, it was the culmination of a centuries-long fight for recognition of their sovereignty and their land.
MoreReal estate mania is at an all time high in this country. And in no place is this more true than in Vancouver.
MoreVancouver is obsessed with real estate. But what most people don’t realize, is that it’s been this way from the beginning.
MoreAfricville was one of Canada’s oldest Black settlements, a proud community of more than 400 people. And then the City of Halifax decided to utterly obliterate it.
MoreThe Bridle Path is one of the most exclusive neighbourhoods in Canada, home to the ultra-wealthy and the famous. But behind their locked gates, some of Canada’s elite try to scheme their way into even greater wealth on the property market — not always legally. And their ambitions have a way of becoming problems for the rest of us.
MoreStories about Canada’s real estate obsession.
MoreAlmost a year after the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history, Nova Scotians are still in the dark about what exactly happened. A gunman, dressed in an RCMP uniform, driving an RCMP cruiser killed 22 people.
MoreFor three decades, much of Northern Ontario has been engaged in an unprecedented experiment in policing. It’s called the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Service. And the idea is simple: the old, colonial cops shouldn’t be policing Indigenous territory. Instead, Indigenous people should police themselves.
MoreWhen John and Susan Pruyn came to Toronto, they were hoping to protest against the G20 and then spend some time with their daughter. Instead, they would be caught up in a whirlwind of police misconduct with few precedents in Canadian history.
MoreIn the first of a two-part series on the G20, two mysterious strangers start volunteering with activist networks in southern Ontario. It’s all part of one of the biggest undercover police operations in Canadian history
MoreMyles Gray was an unarmed man who died after seven Vancouver police officers beat him mercilessly. Half a decade after he died, not only does his family not have justice, they don’t even know the names of the people who killed him.
MoreA Toronto police officer shoots and kills two Black men and is accused of beating another, all within a five-year span. He’s never found guilty of committing a crime. And he continues to rise through the ranks.
MoreThirty years later, we know some of what happened to Neil Stonechild. But we still don’t have justice.
MoreHe called himself the General. And he was at the heart of the RCMP's biggest scandal.
MoreThe RCMP is one of the most famous police forces in the world — the red serge and stetson hat are practically synonymous with Canada. But that image obscures the profound power the Mounties have held throughout Canadian history. And the dark legacy of ethnic cleansing and genocide at their core.
MoreWe want to keep doing this work. So this week we’re reflecting on the year behind us and talking about our goals for the future.
MoreJulian Fantino may be the most famous cop in Canadian history, but during his rise, people critical of the police had a way of finding themselves in the crosshairs.
MoreStories about the power the police wield in Canada, and about the lengths they’re willing to go to hold on to it.
MoreIn the final episode in our series about the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis in long-term care, we’re going to tell you a different kind of story. A story of hope. About how the people we treat as disposable, can have lives of joy and dignity. And about one place where they were given exactly that.
MoreFour months after the first outbreak in a Canadian nursing home, over 7000 long-term residents have died of COVID-19. But if you look at the news or social media or our political debates, it seems like we’ve already moved on. Maybe that’s because it feels like this kind of tragedy was inevitable during a pandemic. It wasn’t. And we know that because in some places in Canada, politicians and public health officials made decisions that saved hundreds, if not thousands of lives.
MoreJonathan Marchand is one of the thousands of young disabled people living in long-term care. But Marchand doesn’t want to fix the system. He doesn’t think it can be reformed. Marchand is an abolitionist. For a century and a half, Canada has hidden away disabled people in institutions where they were neglected and abused. Is long-term care just the latest incarnation of this dark history?
MoreAfter a stroke left him locked in his own body, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana has found ways to lead an incredibly full life. Then the pandemic came. It swept through Quebec, leaving a trail of devastation. Today, Rabbi Cahana is one of the thousands of Quebeckers left stranded in the middle of one of the worst disasters in modern Canadian history.
MoreInnis Ingram’s mother is his hero. But today, she’s living in one of the worst hit long-term care homes in Ontario. She has a terminal illness. Dozens and dozens of people around her have died, including her friend and roommate. And she’s had minimal human contact for three months. But even though he can’t be there with her, Innis is determined to get her the care she needs.
MoreWrestling is very real and Stampede Wrestling helped build World Wrestling Entertainment. Damian Abraham, host and creator of The Wrestlers, explains in this week's bonus COMMONS episode.
MoreLong-term care workers are in the vanguard in the war against COVID-19. They’re not the kinds of workers who get movies or TV shows made about them. In fact, their stories are rarely told. But not only are they battling heroically against this pandemic. They’re fighting for recognition and respect within a system built to marginalize them.
MoreOver the last two months, Nova Scotians have endured tragedy upon tragedy. The worst mass murder in modern Canadian history. A helicopter crash and the death of a Snowbirds’ pilot. And all the while, COVID-19 ravaged the biggest long-term care home in Atlantic Canada.
MoreTracy Rowley lost her surrogate mother to COVID-19 in a long-term care facility. But she’s determined that Shirley Egerdeen doesn’t become just another statistic. Tracy’s suing the company that runs the home. But one of the strangest things in this story is exactly who owns them.
MoreOver 1700 Ontarians have already been killed by COVID-19. And the vast majority of them died in long-term care. But if you live in a private, for-profit home, you’re much more likely to die from this virus. The for-profit long-term care industry is politically powerful and deeply entrenched. Is this their moment of reckoning?
MoreThe McKenzie Towne Continuing Care Centre has experienced the deadliest COVID-19 outbreak in Alberta. But some people say that their loved ones were killed by neglect at McKenzie Towne long before the pandemic even began.
MoreWhy did Commons drop everything and focus in on long-term care? Because the vast majority of deaths are happening in those homes. Because we should have known that was going to be the case, but we let it happen anyways. And because the level of suffering, isolation and trauma happening in long-term care today is almost too much for us to face up to.
MoreThey were found abandoned in the facility. The conditions were described as “akin to a concentration camp.” Within two weeks, over thirty of them would be dead. The story of the Résidence Herron in Dorval, Quebec is a national shame. And a preview of the carnage still to come.
MoreIt began as a mysterious disease from a far off place. It turned into the deadliest plague humanity has faced since the Black Death. AIDS has ravaged and reshaped us in so many ways. But in Canada, the battle against AIDS wasn’t just a fight against a virus. It was a fight against a system that didn’t care if some people lived or died.
MoreThere have been books and songs and plays written about Anna Mae Aquash. But she was no folk hero — she was flesh and blood. A young Mi'kmaq woman who took up arms against the United States government, Anna Mae was a revolutionary. But when she was found murdered in the South Dakotan countryside, it tore her movement apart. It took thirty years to find out who pulled the trigger. But that’s not the same thing as knowing who’s responsible for her murder.
MoreIt’s one of the most audacious plots in North American history. Turn a Caribbean island nation into a criminal state — then use the money to fund Neo-Nazis and Klansmen across Canada, the US and Europe. The scariest part? They almost pulled it off.
MoreOur new season is about the people who go to extreme lengths for what they believe in.
MoreA new investigative series about the cocaine smuggling ring inside Vice Media.
MoreThe Harts are Canada’s first family of professional wrestling and one of the most famous dynasties the country has ever produced. And sure, wrestling is scripted. But what happens when reality begins to invade that fiction? The story of the Harts is one of triumph and tragedy that transcends the world of pro wrestling.
MoreGerald Regan was the premier of Nova Scotia, the founder of a powerful political dynasty, and one of the most prolific sexual predators in Canadian political history. Even after his death last November, few in the establishment are willing to recognize, let alone reckon with, his crimes.
MoreFor 150 years, the Olands have been one of Canada’s most prominent brewing dynasties, the makers of Moosehead Beer. But in the last decade, they’ve made the news for much darker reasons. Richard Oland was murdered in 2011. And police and prosecutors believe that he was killed by his only son.
MoreThe Desmarais family is by far the most influential Canadian dynasty of the last half-century. But if you don’t live in Quebec, chances are you haven’t even heard of them. Paul Desmarais had Prime Ministers and Premiers in his pocket and billions of dollars at his disposal. He wasn’t just a Laurentian elite; he was the Laurentian emperor.
MoreThe Sahotas are Vancouver’s most notorious slumlords. For decades they’ve let their buildings rot, leaving their tenants to live in filth and desolation. But the Sahotas are not like any other dynasty you’ve ever heard of. Their story is far stranger, and far darker, than anything you can imagine.
MoreThe Rizzutos are Canada’s first family of crime. For decades, they dominated Montreal’s underworld with an iron fist. With the help of corrupt politicians and police officers, the Rizzutos built one of the most fearsome and lucrative criminal enterprises this country has ever seen. Their reign was long and bloody. But their fall was even more gruesome.
MoreCanada is a big, weird, and complicated place. We want to keep telling you these stories, but we need your help.
MoreThey call themselves the Canadian Kennedys. And they’re one of the most famous political dynasties to ever exist in this country. But the rise of the Ford family has been marred by violence and self-destruction at almost every turn. The story of the Fords is tragic — for them, for everyone who falls into their orbit, and for the people of Toronto.
MoreFor almost a century, the Irving family has run New Brunswick like a personal fiefdom. They own the newspapers, the industry, and, according to some, even the government. So how does a single family come to so thoroughly dominate an entire province? And what happens when that family starts to fracture and split apart at the seams?
MoreCanada is a country ruled by dynasties — political, commercial and criminal. In the first episode of our new series, we bring you the story of an eccentric, billionaire patriarch; his famous, charismatic daughter; a fire-breathing monument the size of the Statue of Liberty; and the battle over one of Canada’s great business empires.
MoreStories about the rich and powerful families who run Canada.
MoreCanoe-borne bandits strike an underwater town. A new generation of wealthy lobstermen is minted. An island disappears. And hellfire engulfs a highway jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive. Just another normal day amidst Canada’s climate catastrophe.
MoreTeck Resources just got approval to build the largest tar sands operation ever. The Frontier mine would have serious and permanent consequences for the local environment, Indigenous peoples and the global climate. So why haven’t you ever heard about it?
MoreEver get the feeling someone is watching you? If you’ve been to an environmental protest recently, you might be right. Private intelligence firms, the RCMP and even Canada’s spies have all been caught collecting information on everyday Canadians speaking out against the oil industry.
MoreOver the past few weeks, Ontario Premier Doug Ford was booed at the Raptors' victory parade, demoted a bunch of star members of his Cabinet amid sagging poll numbers and lost his Chief of Staff, who got caught up in a nepotism scandal. Are we witnessing the downfall of a government, or is this just another month in Ontario?
MoreHas Canada been a casualty of a nefarious campaign by foreign-funded radicals to landlock our country’s energy resources? Is Big Oil the victim of a vast international conspiracy? Naaaah. But there is, of course, another conspiracy afoot.
MoreAn unspeakable tragedy occurs off the coast of Newfoundland. But this isn’t just a story about a nautical disaster. It’s about what happens when a poor province finds immense riches just within reach. And how the promise of oil wealth can twist history around itself.
MoreThe Lac-Mégantic rail disaster was a calamity like we’ve never seen before. The families of the victims never got justice. But the conditions that made it possible have barely changed. And the next time could be far worse.
MoreWhat happens when the oil wells run dry? Environmental damage, government bailouts and a scheme that some are comparing to the subprime mortgage crisis. And all of this is just the beginning.
MoreThe Alberta oil sands. It’s a cold patch of land (which we once almost nuked into oblivion) that’s become Canada’s economic engine. Governments have fought over it for decades. And now it’s one of the most controversial places on the planet. Will it finally tear our politics apart?
MoreA family poisoned in their homes. Bombs going off in the night. Shots fired and inside jobs. The story of Wiebo Ludwig is There Will Be Blood come to life. So was he a man of faith facing down the full might of Big Oil? Or a terrorist with blood on his hands?
MoreIf you don’t understand oil, you can’t understand Canada. We take you to a place unlike anywhere else in the world, where the booms and busts all began. And find out why just a short distance away, children grow up afraid of the very air they breathe.
MoreCanadian companies have committed all kinds of wrongdoing abroad. But this is on a different level. One Vancouver-based company has been accused by the United Nations and Human Rights Watch of using slaves to build a mine with one of the world’s most oppressive governments.
MoreTens of thousands of dollars in suits, luggage, magazines and mustard. An epic booze heist from the legislature. An undercover legislator exposing corruption. And a wood-splitter that’s transfixed a province.
MoreCanada is hockey crazy. But at the heart of the sport is a system of unpaid labour that scars some boys for life. And the teams and leagues are doing whatever it takes to make sure things stay exactly the way they are.
MoreOne of Canada's most notorious white-collar criminals speaks about his crimes.
MoreIt might be small, but it when it comes to graft, Prince Edward Island plays in the big leagues. Inside PEI’s long, strange attempt to become Canada’s online gambling hub.
MoreFor two decades, he's controlled public institutions and bragged about his connections to organized crime. So who exactly is the King of Cabbagetown?
MoreIn the eleven years that Marolyn Morrison was the mayor of Caledon, Ontario, she faced down deep-pocketed developers, mafia enforcers and corrupt federal officials. When millions of dollars are at stake, things get heated.
MoreThe Panama Papers revealed to the world just how deeply enmeshed tax havens are in the global economy. And for 100 years, Canadian banks, businessmen and politicians have worked to build that offshore system, alongside crooks, fraudsters and corrupt officials.
MoreFor years, people could walk into Vancouver-area casinos with tens of thousands of dollars of suspicious cash and walk out with clean money, no questions asked. That money may be fuelling the city's housing crisis and opiate epidemic.
MoreThis season, Commons will be focusing on stories at the intersection of money, influence and politics in Canada. In this episode, we take you to what may be Canada’s most criminal neighbourhood — Toronto’s financial district.
MoreWe speak to someone who might not be let into Canada for trying to bring democracy to Syria.
MoreIf you look at the stats, Canada has a low incidence of hate crimes, but the numbers that we rely on to tell us if we're racist or not are wrong.
MoreThe Liberal government announced that it would be sending around 200 troops to assist in a UN peacekeeping mission in Mali. But what does "peacekeeping" look like today and what do peacekeepers actually do?
MoreCanada has 20 per cent of the world's freshwater and yet some Indigenous communities across the country have not had clean drinking water for decades.
MoreThere's a simple legal mechanism that allows lawyers to whitewash juries. A new bill proposes getting rid of it, but some lawyers are saying that will make things worse. We look back to how we got here.
MoreAs a teen, Elisa Hategan joined Canada's most notorious and well-organized white supremacist group, the Heritage Front. What can we learn from the past about how white supremacists operate today? And what do we do about all these Nazis?
MoreTwo stories take us inside solitary confinement cells across Canada.
MorePart one of a two-part series in which we explore the conditions and consequences of solitary confinement use in Canada.
More“I tried to count up the amount of people that I knew who had died from overdose. I got to fifty, and I just had to stop. You get used to it. It’s like it becomes normal.”
More"Only a few decades after slavery was abolished, you already had, in textbooks in Ontario, the removal of references of history of slavery in Canada, but still many examples of realities of slavery in the United States. This idea of identifying racism as an American phenomenon is an important part of how Canadian racism articulates itself."
MoreEach year, thousands of people are indefinitely jailed in prisons without any criminal charges. Babou was one of them.
MoreWe look back on some notably weird political moments of 2017 and collectively cringe.
More"It was bad enough that I had lost my daughter. But the interaction with the police was even worse." A miniseries on policing.
More“If the police don’t want you to see a file, you’re never gonna know it exists.” Part one of a two part series on Canada’s policing system and police accountability.
MoreLive from Vancouver: We speak with organizers Garth Mullins and Annie Ohana to unpack what it means to resist fascism in BC. Featuring Hadiya Roderique and guest host Sandy Garossino.
MoreBetty Ann Adam is a reporter with the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. She is also a survivor of the “Sixties Scoop”. When she was a toddler, the Canadian government pried her from her mother’s arms. She was raised by foster parents. A modern version of this is still happening to Indigenous children across Canada.
MoreQuebec’s racist bill, unveiled. Plus NAFTA explained by one of its founders, former Mulroney Chief of Staff Hugh Segal. Also, Quebec passes a bill restricting religious symbols, but mostly just the kind worn by brown people. And Vancouver? Commons is headed to your burg! Support us at patreon.com/CANADALAND and see this year’s goals and rewards.
MoreThe Liberals put forth a proposal to tax the hell out of small businesses. At least that’s how it’s being painted by the Opposition. In reality, the proposed changes would have virtually zero impact on the majority of small business owners, but would focus on self-incorporated doctors. And it wouldn’t raise their taxes, per se, but alter how they can claim their family members as employees, and change how the money they park in investments rather than being poured back into their businesses is assessed. Fortunately, we have Laval economics professor Stephen Gordon to make sense of this. And you know what would ease the burden on the beleaguered doctors? Another 65 million Canadians who could share the pain. That’s what author and Globe & Mail columnist Doug Saunders would like to see.
MoreThree Commons hosts, three NDP leadership hopefuls, one sweltering studio. On this episode, just days before the first vote closes in the race, we speak with Niki Ashton, Jagmeet Singh and Charlie Angus about Canada-Indigenous relations, the environment, the economy and the future of the party.
MoreWelcome back to a brand-new season of Commons! To kick things off, the Commons team is profiling each of the four candidates vying to replace Thomas Mulcair as leader of the federal NDP. This week, we speak with Guy Caron. Also, we look at the summer political stories that evolved while we were on hiatus: the Charlottesville tragedy and subsequent events in Canada, the influx of asylum seekers crossing the border and Trudeau’s cabinet shuffle which may have just doubled the bureaucracy for Indigenous peoples.
MoreOn the final episode of the season, the Commons team digs into the rise of the fringe right in Canada. Journalist Evan Balgord has been covering organizations like the Proud Boys, Soldiers of Odin, and the Three Percenters for the better part of the past year. He joins us to discuss the ongoing street protests and what’s driving these groups’ discontent. — In exploring the rise of the right, Commons also interviewed two other people who are closely monitoring this movement. Dr. Barbara Perry, a professor of Social Science and Humanities at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, is the author of In The Name of Hate: Understanding Hate Crimes. Sarah Ali is a member of the Organizing Committee Against Islamophobia. The group, alongside a diverse set of other organizations have been demonstrating against the fringe right on a regular basis. Unfortunately, these interviews were cut from the podcast due to time constraints, but are available as web exclusive downloads here: Dr. Barbara Perry (interviewed by Hadiya Roderique) Sarah Ali (interviewed by Ashley Csanady)
MoreThis week we’re thrilled to welcome legendary broadcast journalist Amy Goodman. Her program, Democracy Now!, was one of the few non-Indigenous media outlets to provide sustained coverage of the Standing Rock camps protesting the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline. With a pro-pipeline president in the White House and a government in Ottawa that’s shown a willingness to green-light our own projects, Goodman weighs in on what we can expect going forward. Also, British Columbians and, well, the British, are both coming to grips with minority governments. And nobody seems entirely sure how they’re supposed to work. Philippe Lagassé, Associate Professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University provides some much-needed clarity.
MoreThe dust has settled, and the Conservative Party of Canada has elected Andrew Scheer — an anti-choice, anti-gay-marriage, anti-refugee, anti-M103 candidate — as their new leader. As the election results trickled in, the Commons team were joined by Conservative consultant Ginny Movat and about 50 loyal listeners at Toronto’s venerable Monarch Tavern to dissect the various campaigns. Proceeds from this event were donated to Newcomer Women’s Services — a Toronto-based not-for-profit that supports new immigrants.
MoreAppropriation is the buzzword in the news this week, as a misguided editorial was followed by a white elite up in arms on social media. In the end, two prominent magazine editors were gone from their posts, and the debate about the under-representation of non-white voices in Canadian media got significant traction. But Commons is a show about politics, so we asked CBC columnist and head of TIFF Cinematheque Jesse Wente how appropriation is represented in the Canadian political sphere. Also, on the left coast, the Green Party is playing spoiler for the first time in Canadian history in the wake of the BC election, the federal Conservative Party is getting ready to choose their new leader, and Commons is throwing a Party to watch and analyze those results live. When somebody says ‘traditional values,’ everybody drink!
MoreOntario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced the rollout of a basic income trial. The program is to be introduced in three Ontario communities this summer, including Thunder Bay. This is widely seen as compensation for living in Thunder Bay. B.C. Premier Christy Clark gives a voter a succinct primer on democracy, while Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil trips on his shoelaces and accidentally drops his writ. In our feature interview, Ashley speaks with Bloodwatch.org founder and Executive Director Kat Lanteigne about her long fight for justice for victims of Canada’s tainted blood scandal, and why she believes the federal government and some provinces are inclined to roll back some of the regulations put in place following the Krever Report.
MoreThe Commons team unpacks the just-released specifics of the Trudeau government’s plan to legalize cannabis. And after twenty minutes or so, all they can think about is snacks. Seriously.
MoreThe Liberals, according to Conservative MP Scott Reid, are trying to "ram through whatever the f**** they want." In other, vaguely sexually-themed Conservative news, Brad Trost isn't down with the "the whole gay thing," while k.d. lang asks if Jason Kenney might be secretly fond of it. Kellie Leitch and Senator Lynn Beyak? Just crapping on Muslims and Indigenous peoples again, respectively. Nothing sexy there.
MoreHaving passed a second reading, the controversial bill C-23 stands to give U.S. border guards greater authority to reject, detain, or search Canadians and permanent residents trying to enter the United States. Speaking of the border, a significant chunk of our shared border with the United States comes in the form of four of the five Great Lakes (bonus points if you can name the one entirely contained within one of the two countries). President Donald Trump’s newly-unveiled budget threatens to decimate the funding of the Environmental Protection Agency and, by extension, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. And the ugly battle for the federal Conservative leadership reached blobfish levels of unattractiveness as accusations of widespread voter fraud reached a fever pitch over the weekend. You can find out more about our exclusive sponsor, Wealthsimple here. Follow the show on Twitter.
MoreThis week, the city of Thunder Bay, ON, agreed to implement the recommendations of an inquest that looked into the deaths of seven Indigenous students. This, despite the fact that no one from city council appeared to have attended said inquest. The case of a Halifax-area cab driver accused of sexually assaulting a heavily intoxicated female passenger was dismissed by a provincial court judge after he claimed that, “clearly, a drunk can consent.” Finally, the Globe & Mail dug deep into a brewing cash-for-access scandal in British Columbia that could have significant ramifications in that province’s upcoming election. … You can find out more about our exclusive sponsor, Wealthsimple here. Follow the show on Twitter.
MoreWelcome back to CANADALAND Commons! New hosts Hadiya Roderique, Ryan McMahon, and Ashley Csanady spend their first episode looking into the mostly manufactured controversy behind M103 – a motion to denounce Islamophobia and racism and a push for the Canadian government to set up a committee to look into the rise of discrimination in the country. Also, refugees from countries on U.S. President Donald Trump’s list of banned countries are taking the extraordinary step of trying to cross the border into Manitoba. On foot. In February. What happens to them when they get here and are they just going to shipped back to the States? Finally, the Sixties Scoop was likely something you didn’t learn about in your high school history class. But the courts last week awarded the now-grown Indigenous children taken from their families a victory. … You can find out more about our exclusive sponsor, Wealthsimple here. Follow the show on Twitter.
MoreMeet the new hosts of CANADALAND COMMONS: Hadiya Roderique, Ashley Csanady, and Ryan McMahon. New episode available Tuesday February 21 and every two weeks thereafter. You can find out more about our exclusive sponsor, Wealthsimple here. Follow the show on Twitter.
MoreWe go behind the scenes in Canadian politics with Lisa and Warren Kinsella, who share stories of Liberal war rooms and "dirty rotten lobbyists."
MoreOn last week's show, Bloomberg's Josh Wingrove predicted energy projects would put an end to the Trudeau government's honeymoon. Now we have a test case.
MoreConservative leadership contender Kellie Leitch calls Trudeau a "Canadian identity denier" and defends her idea of screening immigrants for their values. Plus, a look at the year ahead in Parliament.
MoreOur quest to get to know all the Conservative leadership contenders continues with Tony Clement and Maxime Bernier.
MoreOver the summer, Vicky and Supriya set out to interview all of the candidates for the leader of Conservative Party. Here are their interviews with Michael Chong and Brad Trost.
MoreA listener thinks a city councillor is using his platform to make money. The councillor gets philosophical. We get to the bottom of it.
MoreEarlier this summer, we heard about CSIS agents making unannounced visits to Muslims. Now, one of those men joins us.
MoreWe talk to Maggie Cywink about the upcoming inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. Her sister Sonya Cywink was murdered over 20 years ago and the case remains unsolved.
MoreThere’s been a lot of attention on police violence against Black people in the U.S. How different is Canada's policing system?
MoreVicky and Supriya talk to human rights activist Monia Mazigh about CSIS's unannounced visits to Muslim men's homes and workplaces.
MoreSupriya and Vicky want to know what the Brexit means for us. Does a vote for the United Kingdom to leave the EU change our lives on this side of the ocean?
MoreThe government declared that ISIS is committing a genocide against Yazidis. Vicky and Supriya look into what that means for Canada's obligations.
MoreMPP Cheri DiNovo on why she couldn't sit back and watch the NDP make any more mistakes.
MoreA farm worker wants better conditions for foreign labourers, and is Trudeau bending gender norms in politics?
MoreThe Syrup Trap's Winnie Code checks out the Conservative Convention, where she talks to a crude button maker and interim leader Rona Ambrose.
MoreLibertarian Matt Bufton does not want to be lumped in with Conservatives; a story of a Brenna Kannick's death in remand; the NDP proposed a bill to create gender equity (nearly) on the ballot.
MoreSex and the census, how the last government made poor people disappear and bailing out Bombardier.
MoreThe Conservative Party is getting ready to debate same-sex marriage more than a decade after it became law. BC's Premier is getting rich off party funds. An economist on why Newfounland and Labrador are shutting down more than half their libraries. Desmond says goodbye.
MoreShould a politician's voting record prevent her from speaking up about sexism? Why protestors were living inside the offices of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada across the country. And Mike Duffy's acquitted. Jane Lytvenenko joins Supriya Dwivedi.
MoreNOT SORRY writer Vicky Mochama talks to young women on Parliament Hill about the barriers they face and the work they do.
MoreConservatives jump into the leadership race, Desmond has questions about a Liberal Party flip flop on torture and economist Lindsay Tedds tells us why the Panama Papers matter.
MoreTom Mulcair's leadership review, corrupt Quebec politics and a ton of free advice on how the government can become more open.
More“It’s just the mindsets of the entire police force in which they don’t see us as human and if a life is lost of ours, they just don’t care."
MoreCanada’s arms deal with Saudi Arabia has raised a lot of controversy, but they’re not the only ones getting our weapons or weapons parts. Supriya wants to know who else Canada is selling arms to, what oversight exists to make sure they’re being used ethically and what happens if we do see a reason to break an arms contract. She talks to NDP defence critic Hélène Laverdière, who’s trying to create a Parliamentary sub-committee to oversee arms sales. She also talks to Anthony Fenton, a PhD candidate at York University who studies political economy of Canada and the Middle-East.
MoreSenator Diane Bellemare quit the Conservative caucus, saying pressure to toe the party line is getting in the way of Senators doing their jobs.
MoreWhen Canadian University grads work at Starbucks and immigrant doctors drive taxis, how will refugees get on their feet?
MoreWe talk to a Liberal MP and a criminal defense lawyer about what legalisation means for the people who built the markets.
MoreThe Parliamentary Poet Laureate talks about working for a pioneering black MP, Canada's multitude of black histories and his problem with telephone companies.
MoreWab Kinew talks about systemic racism against Indigenous peoples in Canada and why he's turned to politics to try to make the changes he wants to see.
MoreFollowing the tragedy in Paris, Desmond talks to Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, and Amira Elghawaby, communications director for the National Council of Canadian Muslims, about the backlash Canadian Muslims face when terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam.
MoreA watchdog report released publicly last week said CSE collected info on Canadians and gave it to other countries.
MoreDesmond and Supriya speak to Conservative MP Michelle Rempel about heckling in the House of Commons.
MoreConservative strategist Jim Burnett returns to answer questions like “What is a Conservative today?” and “Did you actually like Harper?" Plus, a young Conservative gives his view on the future of the party.
MoreEditor-in-chief of the Walrus Jonathan Kay and cultural critic September Anderson talk about whether white men are being stifled by political correctness. Oh, and wtf is political correctness anyway?
MoreA difficult interview in which Senator Anne C. Cools dismisses the need to audit senators' expenses and denies that violence is a gendered problem.
MoreAndray is shamed for driving an SUV. Trudeau is shamed for brushing off young people. Desmond is shamed for not watching Game of Thrones.
MoreWe take a look at what goes into getting 3 refugees from Syria to the small mountain town of Jasper, Alberta. And a refugee from Pakistan talks about abandoning her home country.
MoreThree family members of murdered or missing Indigenous women join Desmond and guest host Supriya to talk about their thoughts on the national inquiry and how they've felt let down by First Nations leaders on this issue.
MoreAndray and Desmond speak to a former New Zealand politician about the electoral reform his country went through. Conservative strategist Jim Burnett thinks it would never work in Canada.
MoreAndray and Desmond talk about giving teeth to political satire with Luke Gordon Field, editor-in-chief of The Beaverton.
MoreAndray speaks to University of New Brunswick's JP Lewis and Buzzfeed Canada's Scaachi Koul about the new Liberal Cabinet. JP is full of weird analogies. Scaachi's dubious of the change to come.
MoreAndray wants to know what a party in the opposition can actually do, so he talks to Ray Martin, the former Leader of the Offiical Opposition for Alberta. He also talks about the future of the Conservative Party with Mark Warner - a candidate who was ousted in 2007 - and Tasha Kheiriddin - a conservative who's been critical of Stephen Harper.
MoreAhmed Hussen is the first Canadian of Somali descent to get elected to Parliament. He joins Andray and Desmond in studio to talk about diversity in Parliament and Liberal policies on Bill C-51, the refugee crisis and more.
MoreAndray Domise, Desmond Cole and Supriya Dwivedi broadcast 'live and loose' to a packed room at the Monarch Tavern in Toronto. Feat. Jesse Brown in Toronto, Jen Gerson at Harper HQ in Calgary, Drew Brown in Edmonton, Morgan Baskin in Squamish. Warning: there's some profanity in this episode. Check out tweets from the event at #CL42. Special thanks to RAUR for the livestream.
MoreTiffany Gooch explains why she's voting Liberal, and Luke Savage tells us why he's voting NDP. Plus, Desmond and Andray debate the value of voting.
MoreAndray Domise and Desmond Cole talk campaign ads with Jen Gerson and Scott Matthews. Featuring a special guest appearance from Andray’s grandma.
MoreDesmond Cole follows a Green Party candidate and his volunteers as they door-knock in the riding of Toronto-Danforth.
MoreSeptembre Anderson and Naomi Sayers tell Desmond Cole what they think women's issues are, and what they make of how they're treated in our politics.
MoreCartoonist and conservative commentator J.J. McCullough tells Andray and Desmond why he's voting Conservative in this election. It gets uncomfortable.
MoreWe've never seen one like this before. Desmond Cole is back to talk three-way races, minority governments and party cooperation with Paul Fairie (@paulisci) and Mychaylo Prystupa (@Mychaylo). Plus, Andray Domise is reticent to embrace coalitions.
MoreAndray Domise speaks with former 18-year-old mayoral candidate Morgan Baskin (@MorganBaskinTO) and Generation Squeeze founder Paul Kershaw (@GenSqueeze) about youth in politics. Don't worry. No one asks you to rock the vote.
MoreAndray Domise and Desmond Cole talk to Kyla Ronellenfitsch from the Gandalf Group and David Coletto, the CEO of Abacus Data to help figure out political polling. When should you pay attention to a poll and why and when should you take the results with a grain of salt.
MoreDesmond Cole and Andray Domise talk about the Canadian government's detention of migrants, many of whom have committed no crime, with Renu Mandhane and Syed Hussan.
MoreAndray Domise and guest host Supriya Dwivedi talk government debt, recessions and the Balanced Budget Act with Mike Moffatt of the Mowat Centre, and Aaron Wudrick of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
MoreTo kick off the official federal election campaign, Desmond Cole and Andray Domise talk to Harold Jansen and Gerry Nicholls about campaign financing, party fundraising, and why this campaign is set to be the longest in modern Canadian history.
MoreDesmond Cole and guest host Supriya Dwivedi present The CANADALAND: COMMONS Guide To Debates.
MoreDesmond Cole and Andray Domise talk election fraud, Justin Trudeau, and the TRC.
MorePaul Wells and Heather Hughson talk about what the Senate does, and whether or not it's worth hanging on to.
MoreAndray Domise, guest-host Supriya Dwivedi and Ishmael Daro talk about the Zero Tolerance For Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, the new Quebec secular legislation, and the massacre in Charleston.
MoreRachel Décoste joins to talk diversity quotas, tokenism and equity in Canadian politics.
MoreAndray and Desmond speak with former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith about crossing the floor from the official opposition to the governing party.
MoreWhat is the Prime Minister's Office? How many people work there, who are they, and what do they all do? Just how powerful is the PMO, and is the Prime Minister responsible for what it does?
MoreDesmond Cole talks to Green Party leader Elizabeth May about her plans to get arrested, and more.
MoreDesmond and Andray try to understand the NDP's shocking victory. Guests: professor Melanee Thomas and writer Drew Brown.
MoreKerry Porth, Akio Maroon, and Elene Lam join for a panel discussion on Bill C-36 and more.
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