Perspectives from Londoners

What can be done to combat the rise of anti-SOGI protests?

For Western University’s April 30th conference “Showing Up: Solidarities and Feminisms in Times of Crisis”, organized by the department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, I had the honour of presenting a paper I had written in the final year of my undergraduate degree about the rise of protests against SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) teaching in schools in Canada during 2023.  In 2024, these protests arose once more, albeit with less popularity, and I suspect they will happen again in 2025. The goal of my essay was to understand what motivates these kinds of protests with the hope…

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Full Circle Cooking

Welcome to full circle cooking! My goal with this series is to bring you recipes which help save on grocery costs and offer some tips on how to get the most out of every ingredient. I’m based in the Antler River area so I’m going to point out deals at specific stores in the city, but the general advice will be universal.  Meat on a budget. $20/lb for a butcher’s cut of steak? What the f#&*??! It’s times like these when we’re reminded that meat being a staple is a relatively modern luxury. But it’s doable on a budget by…

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Doing Philosophy After Gaza

The following piece, written by Western University philosophy graduate student Farid Saberi, emerged from personal reflections of despair surrounding the genocide in Gaza. He shares his thoughts on what this scale of violence means for his field of study.  History is going through one of its darkest hours. Since October 2023, a defenseless population in Gaza has been the victim of an ongoing assault that Amnesty International and reputable scholars of international law have described as  genocide. The storm of misinformation and propaganda has been ruthless. The facts are quite straightforward: there is an occupying apartheid regime backed by Western…

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Poetry and Prose, Roots and Rhythm: Black History SLAM

As the state of the world continues to change around me, it’s been hard to decide how to respond to it. There’s an endless list of things that need attention and many systems to fight to create any sort of change. When responding to a capitalist status quo that places profits above people and the environment at large, it’s hard to feel sane in any one form of response, so I’ve been able to find solace in multiple things at once. Protesting with the community; promoting and engaging in mutual aid; and, most recently through journalism, sharing underrepresented stories and…

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“Six of us, stuffed into one ambulance, to go to a hospital. When we got there, it was sheer chaos”: A Harrowing Story of Getting Shot in Gaza

The following is a partial transcription, edited for brevity, of a talk given at King’s University College on February 24th, 2025 by Tarek Loubani, a Canadian doctor who has been involved in humanitarian medical missions in Gaza. Dr. Loubani recalls the time he was targeted and shot by Israeli forces while treating peaceful protestors during the Great March of Return protests of 2018-2019. He discusses how Israeli forces deliberately target Palestinian medical infrastructure and prohibit medicine and medical practitioners from entering Gaza. I was shot in 2018 in Gaza. When I was shot, and I kind of fell to the…

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A Month on Strike: A Postal Worker’s Perspective From the Line

In the final week of the postal workers’ strike I could hardly go ten paces without someone stopping me on the street to get the latest news and to express their support for our struggle.  Everyone understands that we are living in really trying times. Inflation has exploded over the past 6 years, rents continue to rise, and our wages remain stagnant. The demands that the CUPW negotiating team went to the bargaining table with were meant to have our wages catch up with inflation, ensure any changes to the way we deliver mail will protect our jobs for the…

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Why Picket in Solidarity with Other Workers?

Originally published by the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association on September 19, 2024. When I was a kid, my dad worked as a printer-slotter in a cardboard box factory, and when he was on day shifts, I knew he would be home around the time I got back from school. At one point, he started coming home later as well as leaving earlier in the morning, and he explained to me why: there was a strike by another union (operating engineers) at the same factory, and while his union (Canadian Paperworkers Union) could not strike during their contract, he would arrive…

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Four(4) UWOFA members standing next to a UWOFA banner and a tent

Why attend Labour Day?

Originally published by the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association on August 22, 2024. More than just the last long weekend of the summer, the first Monday of September marks the Labour Day holiday across North America. Since the late 1800s, unions in Canada have been rallying on this date to celebrate their collective achievements and show their unity in working class struggles. In some communities the day is marked by a parade with union banners and marching bands.  In London, the London and District Labour Council holds a picnic with live music, a free BBQ and informative tabling displays…

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