The Hatchet is a weekly podcast and newsletter dedicated to exposing power and money in Canada. Hosted by Arshy Mann, The Hatchet delivers important, original and fascinating journalism about how this country actually works, in a way that no one else can.
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com Vancouver is a funny place. It’s without a doubt the most beautiful city in the country, probably also the continent and maybe even the world — at least when the sun’s shining. The rainy season, which lasts around eight months of the year, can turn it into a dreary, inescapable limbo. It’s a place filled luxury car dealerships, high-end watch stores and other markers of flamboyant wealth. But also absolutely ...
The episode delves into the untold story of the 17,000 Chinese men crucial to building the Canadian Pacific Railway, highlighted through the rare diary entries of Duke Sang Wong. It vividly recounts the extreme dangers, exploitation, and rampant discrimination faced by these laborers, who were paid meager wages and often died from the harsh conditions. The narrative also examines the escalating anti-Chinese sentiment in Canada, from early political movements to discriminatory laws like the Head Tax and the Chinese Immigration Act, revealing the immense human cost of nation-building.
This episode delves into the harrowing experiences of Chinese railway workers in Canada through the unique diary of Duke Sang Wong, the only known written account. It vividly describes the brutal working conditions, including dangerous dynamite blasting and exploitation by labor brokers, alongside the rise of organized anti-Chinese racism in British Columbia. The narrative culminates in the implementation of discriminatory federal policies like the head tax and the Chinese Immigration Act, offering a poignant look at a dark chapter in Canadian history.
Most countries have a founding myth of some kind, a moment in time that serves as an anchor for the grand national story. For the United States, it’s the American Revolution and the founding of the republic. France’s history goes back centuries, but their national narrative begins with the storming of the Bastille. Which is why Bastille Day is their most important holiday. England has the Norman invasion and the Battle of Hastings. And Mexicans usually trace their history back to the fall of Ten...
During my lifetime, there have only been a handful of times that quote unquote Canadian nationalism has been a potent force of any kind. The first, actual wave of Canadian patriotism I ever encountered was in the year 2000. That’s when Molson put out their “I Am Canadian” ad. You know the one I’m talking about. And for many people, that kind of came to encapsulate what it meant to be Canadian. Even though, at the end of the day, they’re paper-thin slogans from a beer company’s advertising campai...
The Hockey Canada trial has been going on for two months now. And during that time, the Canadian media has meticulously covered every twist and turn that’s taken place in the London, Ontario courthouse. Five men — Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote and Carter Hart — have been accused of sexually assaulting a twenty-year-old woman, who is only being identified as E.M., after a Hockey Canada gala in 2018. All of them have pled not guilty and the judge is set to render a verdict...
It’s so hard to know where to start a story. Choosing a starting point shapes the entire message and moral of whatever story you’re trying to tell. And that’s especially true when it comes to something like the recent Israeli and American bombardment of Iran. The simplest way to start would be to parrot what most Western governments and the mainstream media have been saying. For them, you need to begin with the fact that Iran was months, maybe even weeks, away from developing nuclear weapons. An...
Arshy and Jordan sit down to give a quick update about how things have been going, a sneak peak at some upcoming projects, and the future of The Hatchet . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com/subscribe
We’re now a month-and-a-half removed from the last federal election. And it feels like we’re finally starting to get a sense of how this government is going to, well, govern. Domestically, there’s been legislation on resource development and a lot of new powers for cops and border guards. Plenty of increased spending on defence and tax cuts. And internationally, Mark Carney has been doing a lot of hobnobbing with foreign leaders. Especially this week, where he’s been hosting the G7 summit in Alb...
Point Roberts is one of the most unique places in North America. It’s a tiny spit of land right across the American border from the Vancouver suburb of Delta. But because it’s surrounded on three sides by water, it’s not connected to the rest of Washington state. It’s a community built by both Canadians and Americans — a physical manifestation of what the relationship between our two countries can look like when it’s at its best. But tensions are at a boiling point right now. And the biggest cas...
What does Danielle Smith want? The American threat has led to some strange bedfellows between the premiers and the feds. Leaders as different as Wab Kinew, Doug Ford and Mark Carney all seem to be on the same page. But not the Albertan premier. She’s been the odd woman out during the past few months. She maintained friendly contacts with the Trump administration, she argued against the use of export controls on Albertan energy and she’s has been openly hostile to the new prime minister. And then...
The last time we spoke with John Rapley, economic columnist for the Globe and Mail, it was right after Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister, creating a crisis for the Trudeau government. Remember that? It feels like quite a long time ago. Here’s some of what’s happened since then — Justin Trudeau announced his resignation, Donald Trump began to joke about Canada as the 51st state, and then everyone realized that he wasn’t joking, Mark Carney creamed Chrystia Freeland in a Liberal leade...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com Final thoughts on one of the strangest elections in Canadian history from the team at The Hatchet. If you’re in Toronto, make sure to drop by our election watch party at the Dock Ellis.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com For the first and only time this election, the major federal party leaders (and Yves-François Blanchet) stepped onto a stage and debated each other in English. None of the major parties have released a fully-costed platform. And both Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre have done everything possible to avoid being subjected to the indignity of being interviewed by real journalists in their native language. And so...
Brookfield has been in the news constantly over the last few weeks. The Conservatives attacked the company for moving the headquarters of one of their subsidiaries to New York City. The NDP have accused it of avoiding taxes through offshore havens. And Prime Minister Mark Carney, the former chairman of Brookfield Asset Management, has found himself on the defensive because of his association with the company. But what these political attacks miss is a far more important story. It’s a story of a ...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com It’s week two of the federal election and Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives are off to a rocky start. There’s been reporting in most major news outlets about turmoil behind-the-scenes. And high ranking staffers have been openly criticizing his campaign and pushing for a change in direction. The drama has pretty much eclipsed everything else for the federal Conservatives,...
With the American government regularly threatening annexation on a weekly basis, there’s one question that I’ve had on the top of my mind — what does the Canadian military think about all of this? We’re well past the point where anyone can argue that this is a joke or that Trump isn’t being serious. I don’t think it’s a surprise for anyone that the Canadian Armed Forces are almost entirely dependent on the United States. And partially because of that fact, senior Canadian commanders often have a...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com The federal election is here! And I think we all know this is going to be a wild one. The last few months have already been some of the strangest in modern Canadian history. But worry not, The Hatchet is here to help understand everything you need to know about this race. In addition to our in-depth coverage, we’re also launching a weekly podcast that will air during th...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com There’s a line about Canada that gets tossed around a lot. It comes from Harold Innis, the father of Canadian economic history, who said that Canadians have been relegated to “hewers of wood and drawers of water.” An…
This was the week where Doug Ford finally became Prime Minister. Okay, so technically it’s Mark Carney who was actually sworn in as PM. But for a few weeks, Doug Ford appeared to be leading the nation. After all, it was Ford that was invited down to the Washington for a meeting with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The feds just sort of tagged….along. And there were two people in particular that I wanted to hear ruminating on this moment, two of the longest-standing Fordologists in the land, t...
This is starting to get ridiculous. One day we’re being tariffed to all hell, and the next day, the Trump administration says that they’re putting the trade war on pause for another month. But what we have to understand is that, from the American perspective, this is an effective strategy. Tarrifs are a tax that consumers end up paying for. So by continually pushing off the date that they come into effect, the U.S. avoids the economic pain — but Canada’s economy remains in a state of perpetual t...
There’s been a surge of Canadian nationalism over the last month, and understandably so. I’ve been feeling it too, I think it’d be hard not to. You really couldn’t grow a better villain in a lab than Donald Trump to actually rally Canadians in this way. And with that has come a good amount of talk of both Canadian history and the need for modern-day nation-building. That’s a good impulse. This is not the first time that the United States has presented itself as an existential threat to our count...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit hatchetmedia.substack.com We all knew that if Donald Trump got reelected, things would get chaotic pretty fast. But what I don’t think anyone anticipated was just how much Canada would be in the new administration’s cross-hairs. And there’s been one question no one really seems to be able to give a definitive answer to — why us? During the election campaign, Trump would rant and rave about Mexico and China and even Europe, but Canada ...
It’s been a weird month. When we first launched The Hatchet , we spent a lot of time talking about the kinds of stories that we wanted to cover and the kind of work that we wanted to do here. Something we did not anticipate was having to seriously entertain the notion of American annexation. But here we are. And so on today’s episode of The Hatchet , we’re going to talk about the tarrifs, the history of Canada-U.S. integration, the future of continentalism and whether or not we can survive Trump...
In 1969, Quebec and Newfoundland worked together to build a hydroelectric generating station in Labrador at a place called Churchill Falls. It would go on to produce an enormous amount of energy. But the deal they struck has haunted Newfoundland ever since. Because Quebec gets to buy electricity at an absolutely rock bottom price, which hasn’t changed in more than fifty years. And they then turn around and sell that same electricity to the US for as much as fifty times more than what they paid. ...
When Paul Watson was arrested in July of last year, it made headlines around the world. The presidents of France and Brazil called for his immediate release. But here in Canada — Watson’s birthplace and where much of his activism has centred — the reaction was strangely muted. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau never said a word about his case. While there was some news coverage of his case, it was nothing like the attention his arrest received in other countries. Which is surprising. Not only is Wat...
You’ve probably heard some of the controversy swirling around ArriveCan; how one of the contracts to help build it went to a company owned by a federal government employee. And especially how the whole thing cost $60 million to make, even though, you know, it was a pretty basic app. But ArriveCan was also the beneficiary of a specific strategy that the federal government has been implementing for nearly three decades. It’s known as the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business. And the idea i...
So everyone seems pretty worried about a potential trade war with the United States. And for good reason — the US is our biggest trading partner by far. And I bet that over the next couple of days and weeks, a lot of journalists are going to head over to the StatsCan website to look up numbers of just how much money flows between the two countries. If they do, they might find themselves looking at a chart that shows Canadian foreign direct investment. It shows how much Canadian firms, individual...
Support us at hatchetmedia.substack.com I think we all know that the Canadian economy isn’t doing great. In the years after the pandemic, inflation surged and everyday people had to deal with ever-rising prices on all kinds of staple goods. The former governor of the Bank of Canada Stephen Poloz said recently that it’s likely that Canada’s already in a recession, and we just don’t know it yet. And now, even the people in charge of the economy are in chaos. Chrystia Freeland, the finance minister...
An open secret among Canadian Sikhs is only now being spoken about publicly. For years, Indian officials have used visa approvals to extort and blackmail their critics in Canada. They’ve coerced Canadians to spy on their fellow citizens or denounce their political beliefs in writing, in exchange for the privilege of being able to visit loved ones in India. It’s just a small part of the foreign interference machine that India has built on Canadian soil. Featured in this episode: Stewart Bell ( Gl...
