By Saeed Mohamed On November 3rd, 2015 the City of Toronto published TO Prosperity: Toronto Poverty Reduction Plan, a 48-page interim policy report receiving unanimous City Council approval. For the first time, poverty reduction strategies have been formally introduced into the 2016 City Budget, also marking the first time all levels of government have …
By Sara Jaffri and Harshita Singh An endless supply of alcohol, good music, pool tables, and friendly strangers – these elements seem like a recipe for a fun time. For those of us who frequent bars and pubs, this kind of environment is exactly what we look forward to at the end of a long …
By Basics Editorial Committee “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” – Assata Shakur On Saturday March 26th, over a thousand people gathered for #BlackOut Against Police Brutality to demand justice for Andrew Loku and Alex Wettlaufer …
By Julian Ichim On August 8th, 2015 people across the world will be joining in actions demanding the release of the Craigavon Two, Irish Republican prisoners unjustly imprisoned for the murder of a RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland) police officer. In Kitchener and Toronto local organizers are planning demonstrations and a public event around …
by BASICS Kitchener-Waterloo On June 16, 2014, community members in Kitchener protested the gentrification of the downtown core by marching down King Street and constructing a “tent city” in Victoria Park. Victoria Park’s tent city — a temporary housing facility made using tents or other structures — was set up as a fully functioning community. Food …
by BASICS Kitchener-Waterloo After the recent closure of “The Hot Dog House” — a community outreach initiative that handed out hot dogs and coffee to downtown Kitchener’s poor community — the community came together to rectify the situation. On the afternoon of June 29, 2014, citizens of downtown Kitchener’s poor community handed out pizza in front …
In December 2014, BASICS people’s journalists Shafiq Aziz and Steve da Silva travelled to Mishkeegogamang First Nation, a remote Ojibway reserve located 7 hours north of Thunder Bay as part of a serve-the-people project launched by the First Nations Solidarity Working Group of union local CUPE 3903. Through a look at the housing situation on the reserve, BASICS …
by Nathaniel Jote, Shafiqullah Aziz, Steve da Silva Concerned residents and community members gathered at a vigil on Christmas eve for Jermaine Carby, a Brampton man who was shot and killed by Peel Regional Police three months earlier. The gathering rallied about 50 members at the location of Carby’s murder, near Queen and Kennedy, where …
Michael MacIsaac was killed by Durham Region Police last year on December 2nd, 2013. His sister Joanne MacIsaac was in the studio with Radio Basics on December 1, 2014 to talk about the blatant lies, disrespect and cover ups that the province’s Special Investigations Unit and the Durham Police took part in to ensure that …
by Yumna Siddiqi Immigrant workers are the first to experience the shift in the labour market towards an increase in temporary work, and the reduction of permanent jobs with benefits and legally enforceable health, safety and labour standards. Many immigrant workers obtain temporary jobs through agencies that are unregulated and fly-by-night. R’s experiences shed light …
by Yumna Siddiqi As changes are being considered to the Live-In Caregiver Program that would increase eligibility requirements for participants, decrease the number of applicants accepted, and make it more difficult for participants to obtain permanent residency, it seems timely to reflect on the experiences of caregivers who are presently in the program. B’s story, …
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 …
Provincial Judge upholds constitutionality of bylaw that criminalizes the poor. By: Aiyanas Ormond “Don’t kick us when we’re down,” said Susan Aleck, standing in front of the provincial courthouse in Vancouver. “Let us get up and make ourselves better. Give us some space.” Aleck is one of four members of the Vancouver Area Network of …
Grassroots Women picket elite private school to protest education privatization By: Aiyanas Ormond On Tuesday, September 16, about 30 people picketed St. George’s, an elite private school in Vancouver. The picket, organized by Grassroots Women comes after more than 2 weeks of school closures as teachers in B.C. have been on strike. St. George’s is …
Connecting the Old Canada with the New Canada: a legacy of Racism By Tascha Shahriari-Parsa On May 23rd, 1914, the Komagata Maru steamship arrived in Vancouver with 376 passengers who were fleeing India. There were already over 2000 Indians living in Canada, primarily Punjabis, who faced blatant discrimination. Due to racist government policies to keep …
By: Nooria Alam It has been over five months since the victory of Liberal party leader Justin Trudeau in the Canadian federal elections, ending Stephen Harper’s nine-year rule of tyranny in Parliament. Canadians rejoiced, thinking that there has finally been an end to the racist fear-mongering tactics of the Conservative party leader. But what has …
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 the BASICS Editorial Committee Dennis Edney has spent the last decade of his life defending Omar Khadr. He may have done more than any living person to rescue Khadr from the racist collusion of the Canadian and American governments, which together sought to keep him locked up in military prisons for the rest of …
By Harshita Singh and Nooria Alam On Friday April 22nd, organizers from Filipino groups such as Anakbayan, Migrante and the International Coalition for Human Rights held a silent protest inside the office of the Philippine Consulate General of Toronto, condemning the killings of peasant farmers demanding food relief in the Kidapawan Massacre at the hands …
by Aiyanas Ormond Yesterday Palestine solidarity activists in Vancouver fasted for 24 hours and set up an info table at a busy transit hub to inform people of the situation of Palestinian prisoners and gather support for the campaign to boycott and divest from British security firm G4S. Five activists joined the fast and raised …
By Julian Ichim On August 8th, 2015 people across the world will be joining in actions demanding the release of the Craigavon Two, Irish Republican prisoners unjustly imprisoned for the murder of a RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland) police officer. In Kitchener and Toronto local organizers are planning demonstrations and a public event around …
