In the months since winning its third consecutive majority, Doug Ford’s government has proposed or passed a flurry of laws with the potential to reshape Ontario. But with aggressively vague names like the “Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act,” it can be hard to keep track of which bill does what — let alone all the ways they’ll impact the lives of the people who call the province home. On this episode of Sources , PressProgress Ontario reporter Eric Wickham asks The Trillium ’s Jack Ha...
Jun 27, 2025•56 min
Racialized immigrant women are some of the most disadvantaged workers in Canada, with an employment rate significantly lower than racialized immigrant men and non-racialized immigrant women. Often, certifications and work experience from their home countries aren’t recognized, pushing many into low-wage, precarious jobs. If they experience harassment or unsafe working conditions, reaching out for help is made more complicated by language barriers, systemic racism and unfamiliar bureaucracy. Comm...
May 30, 2025•33 min
Alberta separatism is making headlines again, this time driven largely by figures associated with far-right politics and the Freedom Convoy who are disgruntled about the federal election results. Groups within the province are now organizing a petition for a referendum and it looks increasingly like they may succeed at putting a question about Alberta independence on the ballot in some form or another next year. How likely is it that the Alberta independence movement could achieve its goals? How...
May 15, 2025•30 min
Far-right parties are on the rise across Europe. Germany’s recent federal election saw a dramatic and concerning rise in support for the Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, a far-right party that is considered a right-wing extremist organization and a threat to democracy . The AfD’s recent campaign was emboldened following endorsements by foreign billionaire Elon Musk and words of support from US Vice President JD Vance . As European far-right political parties like the AfD grow and build organ...
May 02, 2025•38 min
Who is lobbying Pierre Poilievre? An interactive map from DeSmog shines a light on the links between Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and various corporate lobbying interests and right-wing advocacy groups. The map connects the dots between top figures in Poilievre’s Conservative party, including Poilievre's top advisor Jenni Byrne and Campaign Chair John Baird, with big names like Elon Musk, Stephen Harper and Koch Industries -- no wonder top Conservative Party officials voted down a resolu...
Apr 21, 2025•35 min
As Justin Trudeau announced that he’s stepping down as Liberal leader, and many are saying that a federal election is just around the corner, one community is getting organized to make sure they’re needs are heard by politicians. A Mass Organizing Call for members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community in Canada is taking place on March 9. Its organizer is hoping that this event will help people push back against rising hate, and make sure their concerns are heard by politicians before the next fede...
Mar 07, 2025•16 min•Ep. 34
As education workers in Ontario experience unprecedented levels of violence in the workplace, staff shortages and burnout, experts say education is in crisis under Doug Ford. Educational assistants, custodians, secretaries, lunch supervisors, maintenance staff overwhelmingly agree there is not enough personnel in schools to do jobs properly and many now find themselves doing the work of multiple staff members. But there could be a simple solution to the compounding issues affecting education in ...
Feb 21, 2025•19 min•Ep. 33
Canada and the United States walked back from the brink of a full-blown trade war after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada. While Trump has granted Canada a temporary 30-day "pause" on his threatened trade war, if he makes good on his threats, Canada's economy could be facing an apocalyptic scenario with food and gas prices skyrocketing, hundreds of thousands of job losses and communities across Canada getting hollowed out as key industries shut do...
Feb 06, 2025•46 min•Ep. 32
While Ontario is gearing up for Doug Ford’s early election , many Ontarians are struggling to make ends meet. With one-in-three residents struggling to put food on their table, Kingston, Ontario just declared a food insecurity emergency — the third city in Ontario to recently declare this kind of emergency, following Toronto and Mississauga . In their announcements, all three cities asked the provincial government to increase the amount of money the province gives recipients of social assistance...
Jan 30, 2025•24 min
Duncan Kinney is an Edmonton-based journalist and editor of a digital publication focused on Alberta politics called The Progress Report. From scrutinizing police budgets, shining a light on how police handle the city's unhoused population or drug poisoning crisis and exposing partisan connections between senior officers and Alberta's governing United Conservative Party, it's undeniable Kinney plays a role as a critical watchdog of Edmonton Police. But Kinney has also been a thorn in the side of...
Jan 02, 2025•19 min
Residents of Jasper Alberta are finally returning to the town that made international headlines after it was devastated by a monster wildfire in July. Nearly a third of the town was damaged or destroyed, and the spot is currently closed to tourists for the foreseeable future. How do we prevent climate change disasters in the future? It’s complicated, according former Alberta Firefighter Matt Rieger, who spent years on the front lines battling blazes while stationed at bases across the province. ...
Aug 30, 2024•34 min
Canada’s expert on the rising costs at the grocery store (no, not that one) joins host Stephen Magusiak to discuss his latest project, the Grocery Tracker , which monitors the price of food staples Eric Wickham is a data journalist for the Toronto-based Hoser. He co-hosts and produces the Big Shiny Takes podcast. Wickham recently wrote about the Loblaws boycott . He also produces Sources. Support the show...
Jun 23, 2024•34 min
The foreign interference commission published its preliminary report — but the Sikh community in Canada says the inquiry largely overlooked India despite their role as a major threat of foreign interference in Canada. In the foreign interference commission’s final report it was revealed that "India directed foreign interference activities related to the 2019 & 2021 general elections.” The commission also revealed that CSIS considered India a “clear second to (China) in terms of the level of ...
May 14, 2024•51 min
Canada has been seeing an unusual wave of anti-LGBTQ+ protests over the last year. These rallies and marches targeted drag storytime events at libraries , they targeted local school board meetings – in fact, they even targeted high schools and elementary schools in residential neighborhoods . This organized wave of hate climaxed with a so-called “one million march for children” which took place in cities across Canada last September. Now the pendulum is swinging the other way, and 2SLGBTQIA comm...
May 11, 2024•24 min
Capital gains – what are they and why is everyone talking about them? This year’s federal budget, released on April 16, is rolling out changes to the way capital gains are taxed in order to make wealthy Canadians “pay their fair share.” According to Finance Canada, these changes are targeted at the wealthiest of the wealthy – Canada’s top 0.13%, a group of approximately 40,000 Canadians with average incomes of 1.4 million dollars. As one can imagine, the capital gains tax changes are already gen...
Apr 29, 2024•52 min
Author and journalist Jeremy Appel joins host Stephen Magusiak to discuss (almost) all things Jason Kenney: his quest for power, his influence in building the Conservative Party of Canada, his undoing, and, most recently, the conclusion of a massive 5-year RCMP investigation surrounding his campaign to take over Alberta's United Conservatives. Once a key figure in building Stephen Harper's conservatives, in the end Kenney failed to win over the grassroots in Canada's conservative heartland. We d...
Mar 15, 2024•49 min
You might know Ed Broadbent as the former leader of Canada's federal NDP. But Broadbent was more than just a political party leader -- he also spent a lifetime seeking social and democratic change outside partisan politics in academia and civil society, both in Canada and around the world. On this episode of Sources, PressProgress Editor Luke LeBrun is joined by Luke Savage, a contributor to Jacobin and co-author of Broadbent's book Seeking Social Democracy , to explain and remember Ed Broadbent...
Feb 22, 2024•59 min
Canada’s spy agency is investigating the nomination of an Ontario Conservative MP, according to evidence from a recent investigation by PressProgress Associate Editor Rumneek Johal. Questions surround the nomination of MP Arpan Khanna, who was allegedly favored by the party establishment with ties to figures including Jason Kenney, Stephen Harper and Pierre Pollievre. Rumneek joins Stephen Magusiak to talk about what happened with the Oxford nomination in 2019, and why CSIS would be looking into...
Feb 13, 2024•27 min
Francis Hébert-Bernier, a reporter with Quebec’s independent news outlet Pivot , speaks about the historic public sector strikes currently underway in the province. These strikes are part of the Common Front movement where multiple public sector unions are bargaining at once with Premier Francois Legault's government. These are the largest strikes in the history of Canada and North America. Read more from Francis Hébert-Bernier: “The government is deliberately discouraging us from working in the...
Dec 08, 2023•18 min
Dr. Roberta Lexier joins Stephen Magusiak to discuss her recent OpEd in Medicine Hat News, where, as a Jewish Canadian, she strongly condemned the violence and oppression happening to Palestinians in Gaza. In this episode we explore the narratives that dominate mainstream media and politics in Canada. Support the show...
Nov 30, 2023•45 min
Social media companies are enforcing an Indian Law that censors social media content critical of the Indian government and its ongoing crackdown in the Punjab state. Canadian Sikhs have found themselves in the crosshairs of this aggressive campaign of censorship, harassment, and intimidation. The campaign has escalated on Facebook since the assassination of BC Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, which was tied to the far-right nationalist Modi government, with posts being blocked and acc...
Oct 10, 2023•34 min
Dark money networks from out of province have set their sights on Manitoba. Emily Leedham joins Stephen Magusiak to discuss her investigative series into the Canada Growth Council, a registered third party advertiser tied to Alberta and Saskatchewan conservatives, oil lobbyists, and an obscure religious sect known as the Plymouth Brethren. Support the show...
Sep 18, 2023•26 min
Far-right groups are planning a convoy to Toronto to “Save the Children,” and it’s already spinning out of control. PressProgress Editor Luke Lebrun joins Host Stephen Magusiak to talk about the convoy movement’s latest conspiratorial obsession , and what they have planned for the fall if they can get along enough to organize it. Support the show...
Aug 22, 2023•39 min
Researcher Kurt Phillips with Canadian Anti-Hate Network joins Stephen Magusiak for a look at the recent wave of anti-LGBTQ2SA+ protests and hate crimes happening in Alberta and across Canada. From acts of vandalism, mobbing town councils and school board meetings, and chemtrail conspiracy theories, we take a look at what its about and where its coming from. Support the show...
Jul 06, 2023•36 min
PressProgress Ontario Reporter Mitchell Thompson joins Stephen Magusiak to talk about the Toronto mayoral race, and one unlikely candidate who stands out in the crowded field of conservative hopefuls. Though still a long shot, former Toronto Sun columnist Anthony Furey has seen some momentum in the polls with his right wing populist positions and some big endorsements from right wing media figures like Conrad Black and Jordan Peterson. Support the show...
Jun 15, 2023•27 min
As funding for charter schools in Alberta increases rapidly, public schools are under attack. Rumneek Johal is joined by Wing Li with Support Our Students to discuss the rapid expansion of Charter schools in Alberta under conservative governments, and how they almost exclusively cater to elites using public funds, at the expense of everyday Albertans. Support the show
May 23, 2023•33 min
Stephen Magusiak is joined by journalist Jeremy Appel to discuss what we know so far about the right wing group that appeared on the Alberta political landscape after the Coutts border blockade. Did Take Back Alberta come out of nowhere? We look at who their supporters are, who leads them, and what they’re trying to accomplish. Support the show
May 16, 2023•32 min
The PressProgress team is joined by investigative reporter Sam Harper with Pivot to talk about the common threads and the common funders behind the right-wing networks that stretch across Canada. We talk conspiracy theories, astroturf campaigns, Alberta dark money in Quebec, secret societies, and where the right-wing think tanks like The Fraser Institute fit into the bigger picture. This panel discussion was part of the 2023 Progress Summit in Ottawa. Check out Pivot https://pivot.quebec/ Subscr...
Apr 27, 2023•42 min
Today’s episode of Sources features an interview with Faiz Shakir, Executive Director of the labour news site More Perfect Union and Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign manager. More Perfect Union was founded in 2020 to tell working class stories through video journalism. In just a few years, More Perfect Union has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers and millions of views. PressProgress talked to Shakir about the importance of labour journalism especially as inequality between the rich and poor...
Mar 23, 2023•15 min
How workers at an Amazon packing facility made history by unionizing, and lessons learned to pave the way forward, with Amazon Labour Union President Chris Smalls in his first trip to Canada. Support the show
Mar 10, 2023•18 min
