Prisoners’ Justice Film Festival brings stories of resistance, healing, and liberation to screens across London

The Prisoners’ Justice Film Festival (PJFF) has a historic legacy in London, running from 2012-2016. This year, our organizing collective finally brought it back, screening five films in the first week of August as a lead up to International Prisoners’ Justice Day on August 10.  On that date in 1974, Eddie Nalon died by suicide at the Millhaven Maximum Security Prison near Kingston, Ontario, after being repeatedly subjected to solitary confinement — a practice which has been called a form of torture by the UN. One year later, prisoners at Millhaven stopped all work and went on a hunger strike…

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Punk Rock Flea Fest celebrates ten year anniversary

The Punk Rock Flea Fest celebrated a ten year anniversary in late September, kicking off with an exhibition opening at TAP Centre for Creativity on September 24. It featured an array of live music, local vendors, and afterparties. While the Punk Rock Flea Markets happen seasonally, the distinctive Punk Rock Flea Fest ten year anniversary celebration was bigger, louder, and with more live music and local venue involvement.  For the exhibition opening, Victory Tattoos from the Old East Village provided affordable flash tattoos on site to gallery visitors, while local indie-fuzz garage rock band La Rent played songs from their…

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Council of Canadians candidate survey reveals local candidate stances

As an organization, the Council of Canadians (CoC) has long held the powers that be to account since its founding in 1985 by Maude Barlow, Mel Hurtig, ecologist David Suzuki and author Margaret Atwood. The CoC’s main focus remains the expansion of public health care, climate justice, the protection of democracy, and the protection of water as a human right, an increasingly important electoral issue with the expansion of water-consuming AI data centres. The CoC remains active locally in London, Ontario, demanding the best of the powers that be. As municipal elections approach, the Coc’s grassroots advocacy seeks to provide…

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How the support sector went from community care to just a ‘business’

A big cityscape repeating pattern in bright pastel colours

This story was written by Emmanuel Akanbi as part of a joint collaboration between Antler River Media Co-operative and The Philanthropist Journal, funded by the Rideau Hall Foundation. At the beginning of her support-work career, Makayla Pegg felt optimistic about the work she was doing. “A lot of newer people were very young then. Fresh out of school, very idealistic, looking for an opportunity to better what they were seeing in the world,” she says. Pegg started her career in Northern Ontario, at a residential living centre for youth with dual diagnosis, commonly referred to as “high-acuity” patients. Many of…

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“It’s affecting us the most”: Gabriel Badejo’s The Sickling brings sickle cell crises to light

Man carries a replica of himself in a hospital gown in his arms. The text says "The Sickling" in all caps.

Growing up as a Nigerian immigrant, my parents were acutely aware of the sickle cell crisis facing Nigeria. So much so that when I turned 17, my dad made sure to tell me that when I start dating, I need to get my blood tested to figure out if I was a carrier. At the time, sickle cell anemia was more of an idea that my parents were fanatical about than an active risk to my health. Going into health research in university, I would learn more and more about how common it was in Nigeria. Sickle cell anemia is…

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PERSPECTIVES: “Beneath Gaza’s Stars” and “Midnight Thoughts in Gaza” rewire my associations with my own memories

This piece is a companion to the article: “I want people to understand”: Writers in Gaza publish zines through volunteer-led Coastal Lines Press I read Coastal Lines Press zines Beneath Gaza’s Stars by Heba Ali and Midnight Thoughts in Gaza by Mohammed Al-Bardawili with a deliberate slowness, trying to build pictures in my mind, trying to open my heart further and further like training a muscle.  I needn’t have tried so hard. Their words surrounded me with their sights, sounds, and thoughts in a way that rewired my associations with my own memories.  Pain, when woven into language, becomes a…

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