Appropriation 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!

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

The huge rise in international students in Canada — most of them from Punjab, India — has become one of the biggest stories in the country.

She 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. 

Mandalena 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.

In 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. 

♩♪ But Spotify, it’s nearly killed us Ticketmaster’s ground us to dust The companies got too large Now monopolies are in charge ♩♪

Not only do Canadian prisoners work for for-profit businesses, but they’re sometimes doing the most dangerous and nauseating work around