(Originally published at The Media Co-op.) Jody Chan is a poet, care worker, and organizer based in Toronto. They won the 2021 Trillium Award for Poetry and have published multiple books, including the forthcoming the madness belongs to the people (Brick Books, 2026). They got their start in grassroots political work in the student fossil …
(Originally published at The Media Co-op.) Norman Nawrocki got his start in grassroots political work as a Vancouver high school student protesting the Vietnam War in the 1970s. From there, he got involved in a broad spectrum of issues as a university student, and then in community publishing and community organizing in the working-class neighbourhood …
(Originally published at The Media Co-op!) For people who value things like social justice and the common good, the world is a pretty grim place right now. Many of us are feeling the need to do something, to get active, to make change. And it is not unusual to encounter generic exhortations telling us to …
(Originally published at The Media Co-op.) Chris Ramsaroop is based in Toronto and has organized with Justicia for Migrant Workers for two and a half decades. Jusitica primarily organizes with people who come to Canada as part of the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), though according to Ramsaroop they also work with migrant workers brought …
This week, I’ve been thinking about how difficult it is for most of us to find out about grassroots things, even those happening in our own communities. So. I’m not as connected to grassroots networks in my own city as I used to be — these days, most of my involvement is focused on non-local …
Like a lot of people in this country, this week I’ve been thinking about the federal election – and in particular, about being honest with ourselves about what’s coming in its wake. So. In the federal election held earlier this week, thanks in part to the threats made by the authoritarian ruler to the south …
(This was supposed to go up a week ago – it was ready, I just got swept up in other things and forgot. Please enjoy it now!) I’ve been thinking, this week, about a book – Deyohaha:ge: Sharing the River of Life edited by Daniel Coleman, Ki’en Debicki, and Bonnie M. Freeman (Wilfred Laurier University …
This week, I’ve been thinking about figuring out how to act in the world when we genuinely don’t understand what’s happening in the world. Last Sunday night, I was reading an article about one particular aspect of the instabilities in the global economy caused by the authoritarian regime in the United States. As I was …
I’ve been thinking, this week, about how we talk about the people who rule us. I think often we have trouble recognizing the fact that most of the people with power in our society — the political leaders, the business magnates, and so on — are just ordinary people. Sure, once in awhile one comes …
This week, I’ve been thinking about a couple of things I observed at a recent community meeting. So…the other week I went to a community meeting. I don’t want to say too much about who called it or what it was about or anything like that. I will say it was put together by an …