Show Notes
Following up on my conversation with Toronto comedian Nour Hadidi: I'm haunted by one detail from the harassment campaign against her.It's about how she posted the clip of Al Jazeera bureau chief Wael Al-Dahdouh refusing Christiane Amanpour's question, "Do you wish Hamas had never committed October 7th?" by dismantling its premise entirely. I look at Adam Johnson's research on the "Do you condemn Hamas" formula as a media disciplining strategy, Frantz Fanon's analysis of the colonized intellectual required to perform Western values before being heard, Charles Cobb's history of the nonviolence demand inside the civil rights movement, and communications scholar Zohar Kampf's empirical study of adversarial ethnopolitical interviews. Kampf identifies six options for interviewees facing the condemnation ritual, and only one of them doesn't feel like caving. Sources Al Jazeera Journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh Slammed CNN — YouTube Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi — Citations Needed podcast Noura Erakat — Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine — Stanford University Press Frantz Fanon — The Wretched of the Earth — Grove Press Charles Cobb — This Nonviolence Stuff'll Get You Killed — Duke University Press Zohar Kampf — "Do You Condemn?" chapter in The Discourse of Indirectness — John Benjamins Edward Said — Covering Islam — Penguin Random House Ramzy Baroud — My Father Was a Freedom Fighter — Pluto Press The Onion — Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas Order Antifascist Dad
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On September 18, students at a suburban Paris high school went on strike against deplorable conditions and in solidarity with their underpaid teachers. Within weeks, high school students across France were blockading their schools over faculty shortages, crumbling buildings, overloaded classes and Parcoursup, the algorithmic placement system that chooses professional pathways for them at 15. By October 17, the children-led revolt had drawn up to 800,000 people into the streets alongside university students, unions and veterans of the gilets jaunes. They were met with brutal militarized police force. I spoke with Danielle Duncan, an American professor of Internet culture and English in Paris, on October 15. She walks me through the stratified French school system, conditions in the banlieues, the memes mocking police infiltration, why the street rhetoric is antifascist, and who in French politics is speaking to the moment. I open with a timeline through October 20 and close on how reactionary centrists are reframing the uprising as a story about property damage and "ultra-left violence". My interview with Michael Löwy on the same topic but from a revolutionary history perspective, is up on Patreon now. Socials
Another TO election episode, gearing up for October 26! Diana Yoon is running for Toronto City Council in University-Rosedale. Yoon came to tenant organizing through climate work, helping ACORN secure a climate grant to survey tenants before and after energy retrofits, and later joined the board of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations. Her professional work is in co-op housing policy, including the federal Co-op Housing Development Program. We also talk about what she hears about homelessness at the door, and why she rejects jails and involuntary treatment as responses. I bring her a puzzle from Etobicoke: city land at 5207 Dundas West, leased to Tricon and Kilmer on confidential terms, where the “affordable” units are priced at up to full average market rent. What's going on with Toronto housing, and what can socialists do about it?
Many cities on Turtle Island are hoping Mamdani fever comes to town. But Toronto is seriously considering rolling out the red carpet for a right wing populist climbing in the polls. I'm joined by Inori Roy, Features Editor at The Local, to discuss her in-depth profile of Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford, published just 2 weeks before the October 26 election. We discuss her data-first method, the weaknesses of Canadian investigative journalism, the gap between feelings and facts about crime in Toronto, and Bradford's shift from bike-lane councillor to right-wing fear-monger. We cover allegations from former staffers, the campaign's response, his Al-Quds Day stance and pro-Israel base, and whether his campaign represents a backlash to the Mamdani model of municipal politics. Inori Roy is a Toronto-based journalist and Features Editor at The Local. She holds a Master's in investigative journalism from City University of London. She has led data-driven investigations into long-term care and road safety, and her work has appeared in The Walrus, the Toronto Star, The Narwhal, Unearthed, and CBC. Sources Brad Bradford Seems Angry—He’s Betting Torontonians Are Too (The Local) Inori Roy’s work at The Local Who’s Actually Running Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes? (The Local) Who Is Watching Over Ontario’s Most Vulnerable Seniors? (The Local) The Deadly Inequality of Toronto’s Vision Zero Rollout (The Local) Toronto Police Service shootings dashboards Toronto’s Al-Quds rally goes ahead after judge dismisses Ontario’s injunction bid (CP24) Toronto council passes bubble zone bylaw restricting protests (The CJN) Max Haiven, The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to 21st-Century Fascism (MIT Press, open access) Socials
On September 20th, Yom Kippur, Canadian Army veteran Sean Ward opened fire outside the Sons of Jacob Synagogue in Belleville, Ontario. An hour later, and before the first news report, NDP leader Avi Lewis posted a personal prayer of atonement, reflecting on how antizionist Jews had failed to stop a genocide committed in the name of Jewish safety. I trace how pro-Israel commentators, Liberal MPs and the Globe and Mail linked Lewis's prayer to the shooting, even as reporting showed Ward was likely a second-wave QAnon antivax conspiracist who appeared to blame Jews for COVID. I also look at CBC anchor Neil Herland's twisted account of a protest against Mark Regev, Public Safety Canada's new conflation of antizionism with antisemitism, and Yoni Goldstein's National Post column, which broadcast a thinly-veiled call for vigilante violence against Lewis. If you're a progressive or leftist and you haven't yet lent a hand (in whatever way you can) to your fellow Palestinians and antizionist Jews, now's the time. Because right now, attacking critics of Israel as antisemitic is becoming indistinguishable from attacking the political alternative to capitalism and imperialism, at this precarious moment for the climate and ourselves.
My guest today is Jennie Worden, running a fantastic socialist campaign for Toronto City Council in my very own Ward 19, Beaches–East York. On the agenda: what choral music teaches about community. What tenant organizing teaches about shared struggle. Why Brad Bradford, our former councillor now running for mayor, is such a heel (my word not Jennie's), and what we have to do to repair the damage of 15 years of austerity at City Hall.On Patreon this week is my summary of the attacks on Avi Lewis that followed his Yom Kippur post. I think it’s a crucial issue because right now, attacking critics of Israel, genocide and neocolonial brutality as antisemitic is the same thing as attacking the political alternative to capitalism and imperialism at the last moment in which we can bring the planet back from the brink. Sources Jennie Worden for Beaches–East York: campaign site Beach Metro: Jennie Worden answers our question (Sept 2026) Beach Metro: Erskine-Smith on his decision to run for Beaches–East York councillor Toronto Life: The Good Liar: Meet Toronto's worst landlord CP24: Owner and director of 500 Dawes Rd. fined for fire safety violations Mayor Olivia Chow: Update on actions to protect tenants at 500 Dawes CP24: Ford instructs Attorney General to seek injunction against Al-Quds rally CBC: Al-Quds Day rally proceeds after judge rules against Ford government's injunction CP24: NDP leader Lewis criticized over Yom Kippur post CBC: Lewis says he was "absolutely not" holding all Jews responsible CBC: Synagogue shooter's online username alluded to killing Jews, friend says Ricochet: National Post crosses dangerous line with column on NDP leader The Breach: I'm familiar with death threats. They show Avi Lewis is having an impact Socials