Stay ConnectedCOMMONS is a documentary podcast that proves Canada is anything but boring. Each season, host Arshy Mann guides you through the country’s dark underbelly, bringing you stories about crime, corruption and all manner of misdeeds.
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Copyright: © 2022 CANADALAND
What do you do if you think a city councillor is exploiting his public platform to make money on the side?
Listener Matt Alexander emailed us with this quandary. He points out that Greater Sudbury Councillor Robert Kirwan takes money from local businesses to write promotional posts for a Facebook group he runs. This raises a lot of questions for Matt, but he doesn't know what to do about it.
We look into Matt's complaint and how potential conflicts like this one are dealt with.
Go to our website for our full correspondence with Robert Kirwan.
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Earlier this summer, we spoke to Monia Mazigh about CSIS agents making unannounced visits to Muslims. Now, one of those men joins us.
After studying and teaching English in Egypt, Juned Moid* was visited by CSIS agents, denied entry into the US and had his passport renewal delayed. He doesn't know why.
We also speak to Ken Stone, an activist and political commentator, who launched a complaint against CSIS after two agents showed up at his door, asking him about an op-ed he wrote in the Hamilton Spectator. He tells her about the three-year process of trying to resolve the complaint through the Security Intelligence Review Committee.
*A pseudonym to avoid career problems
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We check in with Maggie Cywink about the upcoming inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. Maggie’s sister Sonya Cywink was murdered over 20 years ago and the case remains unsolved.
Maggie says the announcement felt like a photo op for the Liberals.
She first spoke to us back in December when the inquiry was announced:
http://www.canadalandshow.com/podcast/families-mmiw-what-can-we-do-tomorrow/
Plus, a TweetBeat in which a Liberal MP tells a vegan to eat a steak.
To see screenshots of the full exchange between MP Wayne Easter and animal/environmental advocate Richelle Benoit, go to our website:
canadalandshow.com/commons
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Abdirahman Abdi, a Somali man in Ottawa, is dead after witnesses say he was beaten by cops.
There’s been a lot of attention on police violence against Black people in the U.S. lately. But Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, says Canada’s policing style has a lot of the same problems as the American system when it comes to dealing with racialized and Indigenous populations. Read Akwasi's piece in the Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/a-hard-truth-canadas-policing-style-is-very-similar-to-the-us/article30942053/
Karmen James Omeasoo, a rapper who performs under the name Hellnback, talks about some of the troubles Indigenous men face with the Winnipeg police and the RCMP.
Christien Levien, a criminal lawyer at Wiley and Levien, talks about how his own bad experience with police as a teenager led him to creating the app LegalSwipe to help other racialized kids stand up to cops.
The song sampled in the show is Hellnback’s “Caught Up,” produced by Stomp.
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Muslim men have been telling Monia Mazigh about getting unannounced visits from CSIS agents at home or the workplace. The intelligence agency says the conversations are voluntary, but some people are accusing them of intimidation.
Monia is the national coordinator for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. She tells Supriya and Vicky about these visits and discusses Bill C-22, the legislation that the government tabled to create parliamentary oversight of national security agencies, including CSIS.
Read Monia's Huffington Post piece about this tactic here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/monia-mazigh/canadian-security-intelligence-service_b_10812800.html
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Supriya 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 across the ocean?
Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, talks about why shifting global markets matter for everyone.
Freelance journalist Steven Zhou gives some social context to the vote.
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The government’s declared that ISIS is committing a genocide against the Yazidi people. So what are we doing about it?
Yazidi-Canadian Dalal Abdi talks about her journey to Canada and her family's life back in Iraq and Turkey.
Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith talks about voting against the majority of his party to declare a genocide earlier in the week.
Stephanie Carvin, assistant professor at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, tells us how using the word "genocide" affects Canada’s obligations abroad.
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Toronto MPP Cheri DiNovo thinks the NDP needs to return to its roots: unabashedly socialist and anti-capitalist, with an eye towards social justice and the environment. So now she's launched an unofficial leadership campaign, choosing not to pay the $30,000 fee required to enter the race.
DiNovo was the first person within the NDP to speak out against the Party after their collapse during the 2015 election. She talks to Vicky and Supriya about money in politics, the missteps of the NDP and why Veuve Clicquot and high fashion aren't at odds with socialism.
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“Are these… 18th century working conditions?” Gabriel Allahdua asks. Gabriel came from St. Lucia to work on a farm as part of the Temporary Foreign Worker program.
He describes the long hours, difficult working conditions and his disappointment over speaking to a Parliamentary committee that’s reviewing the TFW program.
Justicia for Migrant Workers put us in touch with Gabriel.
Are Canadian politicians bending gender norms? Jerald Sabin, a research associate at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, talks about a study on masculinity in the last election, co-authored by Kyle Kirkup.
And a new segment where Supriya gets mad at Twitter.
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We sent the Syrup Trap's Winnie Code to the Conservative Convention in Vancouver. She explains how the convention was a bit like an informercial and gets the official party line on whether or not Justin Trudeau is handsome.
Plus, a discussion about whether the Conservative Party can build credibility when it comes to environmental policy. Featuring Mark Cameron of Canadians for Clean Prosperity and Jason Thistlethwaite, assistant professor at University of Waterloo's environment faculty.
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