Hands Off My Post Office Rally – London, ON

Rallies were organized across Canada on Saturday, to draw support in the Canadian Union of Postal Worker’s (CUPW) on-going struggle to keep Canada Post a public entity. This is a continuation from their 5 week strike in the fall of last year. The union has tried to work with the corporation in order to establish new, innovative ways of delivering the mail, but holds fast to maintaining adequate wages and decent benefits for all employees. The corporation has refused to move on any of the suggestions posed by CUPW’s negotiating team and is pushing the union into another strike position…

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“We’re falling behind”: Canadian Hearing Services workers strike for fair wages, job protections

Posters and signs at the CUPE 2073 strike line on Oxford St

For more than six weeks, over 200 Canadian Hearing Service (CHS) workers have been on strike across the province. Represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local (CUPE) 2073, the sign language interpreters, mental health counselors, audiologists, and other striking staff of CHS are hoping for more support from the public as they approach their sixth week on the lines. CHS is a nonprofit organization based predominantly in Ontario. The organization provides a plethora of services for Deaf and hard of hearing individuals across the country. Since Julia Dumanian became CEO of the company in 2015, service provisions in…

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Workers’ Compensation on first strike in history: wages, workload, and micromanagement primary concerns

Since May 22, over 200 workers have been on strike at the downtown London office on Fullarton Street for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB). Represented by the Ontario Compensation Employees Union (OCEU) Local 1750, London workers are some of the over 3,600 employed by WSIB across Ontario. These workers are responsible for administering the employer insurance program for workers who are injured on the job.  “We are wanting a fair collective agreement. We are looking for increased wages, better workload management, less micromanagement of our workloads,” said Suzanne Flannery, Unit Coordinator for the London Office and head picket…

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ACORN’s Healthy Homes Forum: perspectives on landlord licensing

On May 8, London ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) held a Healthy Homes Forum to talk about the idea of landlord licensing in the city. They invited people from all over the city by canvassing at bus-stops the week before, and attending the May Day celebration held in Victoria Park. Around 40-50 people gathered at the 380 Adelaide St. office where members of the ACORN team reviewed what landlord licensing is. ACORN spoke to how other cities are approaching landlord licensing, dispelled myths about the concept, and attendees shared the issues they face in their own rental…

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“We carry your memory like fire in our veins”: 77th Nakba Day 

Whenever someone asked me my name, it was always followed by: “Are you a refugee or a citizen?” As a child, I would ask: “What is a refugee?” On this year’s Nakba Day — May 15, 2025 — an Al Jazeera article by Ruwaida Amer in Gaza describes the 1948 displacement of her grandparents from their razed village of Beir Daras to Khan Younis, where she was born in a refugee camp. Her grandfather was fifteen years old during the Nakba, married and with a baby son. The baby — Amer’s uncle — died as they fled. He was just…

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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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