In Canada, the policies affecting disabled people do not always follow a consistent approach. Alfiya Battalova says our narratives around disability shape our policies – and some key laws reveal a profound tension in Canada’s approach to disability rights and social responsibility. Alfiya Battalova is Assistant Professor in Justice Studies at Royal Roads University.

How narratives about disability influence government policies

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg was built to educate Canadians about stories of global injustice. Yet in the more than 10 years since it opened, it has not meaningfully acknowledged the dispossession of Palestinians in 1948 that resulted from the founding of Israel. But now the CMHR has announced an exhibit titled Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present to launch next year. Jonah Corne is an associate professor in the department of English, Theatre, Film and Media at the University of Manitoba. He joins us to talk about the significance of this move.

Nakba exhibit at Canadian Museum of Human Rights to launch in 2026

As students across Alberta returned to class this fall, families were met with a slate of changes targeting queer and trans kids, ushered in by the United Conservative Party government. These changes were largely driven by the movement for parental rights. Heather Ganshorn is research director for Support Our Students Alberta and author of the report, Challenging Parental Rights. She talks with us about links between the parental rights movement and the push to privatize education in Alberta.

Parental rights movement and the attack on public education in Alberta

On December 2, the OneBC party released its documentary Making a Killing: Reconciliation, genocide and plunder in Canada. Since then, the writer and producer of the film Tim Thielmann, has been fired along with two other senior staff.  MLA Dallas Brodie has herself been removed as interim party leader.  But the documentary lives on, with Dallas Brodie voicing Thielmann’s script and interviewing all the guests. We talk about the film with Sean Carleton, professor of history and Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba.

OneBC’s documentary Making A Killing fuels residential school denialism

The Gitxaała & Ehattesaht First Nations have launched a court challenge to BC's free-entry mining regime. In a precedent-setting decision released last week, the BC Court of Appeal has affirmed that BC’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act creates legally enforceable obligations on the province to reform the mining permit process. We talk with Jamie Kneen of MiningWatch.

Court rules in favour of First Nations challenge of BC mining regime

Solar farm projects in Alberta have stalled because of new provincial regulations. Yet some Canadian researchers are saying photovoltaic systems now produce the lowest-cost electricity in history and using them in agriculture increases crop yields. We speak with Joshua Pearce, co-author of a new study on agrivoltaics.

Dec 11 Solar panels on farm lands can increase crop yields

As hundreds of First Nations leaders gathered last week in Ottawa for their annual December meeting, the federal-provincial memorandum of understanding for a new pipeline to Asian markets was high on the agenda. The Assembly of First Nations chiefs voted unanimously on Tuesday to demand the withdrawal of the deal and expressed full support for First Nations on the British Columbia coast strongly opposing the initiative. Anna Johnston is a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law and author of a brief on the legal and historical risk of a Northwest coast pipeline. management. We speak with her about the MOU and the risks of pursuing a new pipeline from Alberta to the BC coast.

Legal and historical risks of new pipeline to the Northwest coast

Next week Vancouver City Council will consider Mayor Ken Sim’s controversial proposal to fast-track a new Filipino Cultural Centre without community consultation. Also on the agenda, Vancouver’s Social Housing Initiative, plans to radically change the current plan for the Downtown Eastside and much more. We speak with Redeye’s Ian Mass.

City Beat: Controversy over Mayor Sim’s Filipino Cultural Centre proposal 

Forty progressive economists and policy experts gathered in Ottawa in September for an economic summit called Elbows Up: A Practical Program for Canadian Sovereignty. Marc Lee is a senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and he was both a presenter and participant in the Summit. We speak with Marc about his takeaways from the summit and the need for Canada to make a generational investment in non-market and public housing.

Canada needs a generational investment in non-market and public housing

In the wake of a serious grizzly bear attack on schoolchildren near Bella Coola, there are calls from some quarters for the province to revisit its ban on the grizzly bear hunt. The BC Wildlife Federation has called for a new trophy hunt on grizzlies.  Tandeep Sidhu is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Manitoba. We speak with him about the human dimensions of wildlife conflict and management.

Calls for grizzly hunt in wake of attack based on poor science

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