By: Michael Romandel In Toronto, one of the main ways that working class people find work when they find themselves out of a job and need to pay bills is through various temporary agencies. These agencies play the role of middlemen between corporations and workers. Corporations use them for a number of reasons, though they all add …
By: Noaman G. Ali “I’ve been living here for three years, and last night was the first time I’ve seen anyone come to fix the laundry room,” says a 33-year old resident of 3400 Eglinton Avenue East. The laundry room in the basement of the Markham and Eglinton area building is full of washing machines …
by Harshita Singh In 2014, the Toronto Community Housing Corporation issued its annual Performance Report, a document which measures whether TCHC reached its own targets in providing repairs and “sustainable living” conditions for tenants. Last year’s report included a section for Resident Satisfaction. This new section meant to examine whether there was an “increase …
by Harshita Singh “Two people have been killed since I moved in here. Of course I feel unsafe. I feel more safe in the street than in my home.” This is how Maryam*, a woman in her early twenties and a three-year resident of 3171 Eglinton Avenue—one of the TCHC high-rises at the intersection …
by Nathaniel Jote and Liam Fox The University of Toronto and CUPE 3902, which represents student and contract teaching staff on campus, are currently negotiating new collective bargaining agreements. Negotiations seem to have stalled, however, and Units 1 (mainly TAs) and 3 (mainly sessional lecturers) are readying for a possible strike. At a townhall last …
Radio BASICS August 25/2014 In this feature interview we talk to inmate Ryan Jordan about systemic racism, racial discrimination, racial divides between administration and inmates and a racial division between who gets privileges and who gets punishments within Canada’s “Correctional Institutions”. Incarcerated since 2003, Jordan speaks from his experiences as a grievance clerk for other …
By M. Cooke At 77 years old, most people are concerned with spending time with their family and having enough money for their retirement. In July, 2013, the Canadian government gave Djaber Kalibi and his family something worse. Upon returning from a trip to France, the Canadian government confiscated his passport and gave him a …
by M. Cooke “You don’t have to go to Kahnawake to combat crime. The government is trying to make us [indigenous people] look worse in the eyes of their public,” says John Kane, host of radio program “Let’s Talk Native” on WWKB 1520 out of New York. The Mohawk radio personality believes that the police …
by Steve da Silva One of Toronto’s inner suburbs has become a focal point in the ongoing struggle in Venezuela between the Bolivarian transition to socialism and the fascist resistance that has been developing over the last month. With its face to the bustling city moving past it on Dufferin, just a little south of …
This is an interview by Camila Uribe-Rosales of BASICS with Oscar and R (who prefers to remain anonymous), two Latin American youth who migrated to Canada from El Salvador and Mexico, and their experiences in the Canadian education system. EARLY YEARS O: I was born in El Salvador. My parents migrated here. I didn’t speak …
