20 APR 2023 · The pandemic has highlighted and further entrenched deep rooted structural inequalities embedded in the social, political and economic fabric of capitalist society. Inequalities framed through systems of white supremacy and racial domination have manifested themselves in a number of ways including differential levels of exposure to the virus, the execution of the vaccine roll outs, and unevenly shared financial hardships and other burdens. With a particular spotlight on the experiences of Personal Support Workers working in the heart of the COVID storm in Long Term Care facilities, this episode focuses on the ways in which systemic racism manifests itself in the Canadian context - unearthing how the ongoing racialization of the Canadian labour market has impacted workers. Speakers: Debra Slater An anonymous Personal Support Worker Moderated by Salmaan Khan Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

19 APR 2023 · Over the years, Social Justice Week not only showcased brilliant artists, scholars and activists, it also provided students with skills building workshops and offered them concrete advice on how to go about making progressive change in their immediate communities and the wider world. These words of wisdom came from people with a track record of positive impact as community leaders. People like Angela Robertson. Angela Robertson is a lesbian feminist author and activist working on issues affecting low income, Black, racialized, women’s and LGBTQ communities. She is widely respected for implementing life-transforming programs for women in Toronto, and has served as a board member for many influential community organizations. She is currently Executive Director of Queen West - Central Toronto Community Health Centre. Among other publications, she co-edited ‘Scratching the Surface: Canadian Anti-Racist Feminist Thought’. She has been a board member of Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention; Houselink Community Homes; and the Stephen Lewis Foundation. In this episode from SJW 2014, Angela Robertson unpacks the concept of intersectionality. She shares strategies for creating a more just world and reflects onthe importance of building alliances. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

30 MAR 2023 · This episode features Robyn Maynard’s keynote talk, Toward 21st Century Black Liberation, from Social Justice Week 2018. Robyn Maynard is the author of Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present, a critically-acclaimed national bestseller. Maynard has a long history of involvement in grassroots movements against racial profiling, police violence, detention and deportation. Building on Policing Black Lives, Robyn Maynard provides an overview of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization, and punishment of Black lives in Canada. Drawing on examples from Canada’s immigration, child welfare, and criminal justice systems, the event explored the still-living legacy of slavery across multiple Canadian institutions. It was part of the Mandela ECI Lecture series, a unique series of keynote talks by renowned Black public intellectuals and artists. The series was presented by Social Justice Week in collaboration with TMU’s Office for Equity and Community Inclusion. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

27 MAR 2023 · This episode features an interview with author and Street Nurse, Cathy Crowe. This event, called Strategies for Change: Tackling Homelessness in Canada, focuses on activists’ calls for real change to end homelessness across the country. Cathy Crowe is a long-time Street Nurse and is the author of Dying for a Home: Homeless Activists Speak Out; and A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse. She was a Distinguished Visiting Practitioner based in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University. In this episode, from Social Justice Week 2021, she discusses her work as a street nurse and the recent encampment evictions by police of unhoused people who were living in Trinity-Bellwoods park in downtown Toronto. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

16 MAR 2023 · This episode presents a keynote talk by M. NourbeSe Philip from Social Justice Week 2017, called Black Be/longing: At the crossroads of art, culture, and human rights. It was part of the Mandela ECI Lecture series: A unique series of keynote talks by renowned Black public intellectuals and artists. The series was presented by Social Justice Week in collaboration with TMU’s Office for Equity and Community Inclusion. This talk spotlights one of Canada’s most important contemporary writers and revolutionary thinkers, M. NourbeSe Philip, whose aim has always been to make us see what has gone unseen. As an award-winning poet, essayist, novelist and playwright, she writes about memory upon the margin of history, in the shadow of empire, and at the frontier of silence. Her writing engages in genre-breaking exploration of memory, history and the transatlantic slave trade. In this talk, Philip draws from her latest book Blank to explore questions of belonging, race, politics, art, and the so-called multicultural nation. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

9 MAR 2023 · This episode presents a keynote talk by Dr. Cindy Blackstock from Social Justice Week 2013, called Truth Telling and Actions. Dr. Cindy Blackstock is a member of the Gitksan First Nation with over 25 years of social work experience in child protection and Indigenous children’s rights. She is currently Executive Director of First Nations Child & Family Caring Society of Canada, and a Professor in McGill’s School of Social Work. In this talk Dr. Blackstock details the ways in which governmental policies and the law have been systematically used to create and perpetuate deep-seated inequalities that harm the lives of First Nations children. Eliminating these entrenched forms of discrimination requires sustained pressure from Canadians. Dr. Blackstock busts common myths and offers advice to Canadians on how to move forward and become part of the solution. First Nations Child & Family Caring Society: https://gate.sc/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffncaringsociety.com%2Fwhat-you-can-do&token=a5ab9-1-1678375876699 Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

2 MAR 2023 · For the first time in Canadian history we have a self-identified “feminist” Prime Minister, as well as a federal cabinet made up of 50% women. Yet gender inequality and sexist exploitation continue to be a daily lived reality. The global pandemic has brought with it an increase in domestic violence, massive job losses for women, and increased domestic workload. This panel, which took place during Social Justice Week 2020, seeks to critically engage with the past, present and future of feminism and feminist organizing in Canada. Panelists share their views on the state of modern feminism, the barriers to broad based mobilization, and the ongoing challenges involved in building an organized and intersectional movement against patriarchy. Panellists: Beverly Bain Nora Loreto Harsha Walia The discussion was moderated by Vicky Mochama. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

23 FEB 2023 · In 2020, Social Justice Week celebrated its 10th anniversary with a special opening night event called Beyond Pipelines and Prisons: Infrastructures of Abolition. In today’s episode we bring you highlights from this event. It features two extraordinary feminist, anti-colonial thinkers in dialogue about how to build the infrastructures that can take us beyond planetary social and ecological collapse: Winona LaDuke is an international thought leader in the areas of climate justice, renewable energy, and environmental justice. She is a rural development economist working on issues of economic, food, and energy sovereignty, and is the author of six books. She leads several organizations including Honor the Earth. Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences and Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the City University of New York. She is Co-founder of many organizations including the California Prison Moratorium Project and Critical Resistance. She is the author of Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California. Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Winona LaDuke are both deeply invested and active in on-the-ground social transformation. They have built vital infrastructures for survival and flourishing in their respective communities. Both are also active in struggles against the expansion of toxic and colonial infrastructures like pipelines and prisons. In this event moderated by Shiri Pasternak, an assistant professor in the department of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University, Leduke and Gilmore draw on their respective lived experience in urban communities and on remote Indigenous reservations. Together they discuss what a decolonized, ecologically and socially just future might look like. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

17 FEB 2023 · The talk addresses important questions such as: What is the relationship between the land, education and resistance to colonialism? Why should we imagine alternative worlds and broaden political possibilities? All of this was discussed by Christi Belcourt, who is a multi-award-winning Métis visual artist, author, environmentalist and advocate for the lands, waters and Indigenous peoples. She is a lead organizer for the Onaman Collective, a group that focuses on resurgence of language and land based practices. She was also the lead coordinator for Walking With Our Sisters, a community-driven art project that honours murdered and missing Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit people. In this talk, Belcourt explores the need for people to organize for the earth and waters, and the importance of preserving traditional knowledge. She also discusses ways to organize outside the systems of government and institutions. Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo

9 FEB 2023 · In this episode, we present a roundtable discussion called Revitalising Traditional Foodways & Cultural Connection: Black and Indigenous Food Sovereignty from Social Justice Week 2021. This discussion was organized by members of TMU’s Urban Farm. It focuses on creating Black and Indigenous Food sovereignty and food security through revitalizing and implementing traditional food systems. Creating sustainable urban agriculture requires us to understand our relationship to food and medicine in modern urban environments. Reclaiming the land, food knowledge and food systems will empower and sustain the future of our communities. Speakers: Andrea “Peachtree” Boucaud Hansel Igbavboa Kailee Cripton-Eser Kaitlin Rizarri Sam Howden Nicole Austin Host: Kiké Roach Editor: Eunice Addo