Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130329-1600-t13645692001.mp3

On Thursday, March 28th an Idle No More teach-in was held in Moot Court in the law faculty at the University of Windsor. On Friday’s program I welcomed two of the panelists, Andrea Landry, First Nations activist and a key organizer of various Idle No More actions and an MA student here at UWindsor in the Social Justice  Communication program, and Jode Kechego who is a senior policy analyst advisor at Anishinabek Nation. AND as always on the last Friday of the month Rockin Robbee was on in the second half hour as well.

 Idle No More may have moved along on the conveyer belt of the news cycle; however, the issues, the people, and the movement have not disappeared.  About 80 people attended the teach-in:

Jode Kechego outlined the history of treaties and made a  key point that treaties gave Canada rights to the land from First Nations and that First Nations people have inherent rights.

Andrea spoke on her involvement with the movement as a key organizer and how she grew to learn from her elders about the injustices and dysfunctions in her community wrought by colonialism and the destruction of culture her communities faced.

Tara Williamson spoke primarily on the media and INM and the importance and influence of social media in its speed and accessibility.

And Lorraine Land spoke on the how legislation passed in the omnibus bills should concern non-indigenous people because of the harm that will ensue from the gutting of environmental regulations and the blatantly undemocratic process by which the bills were created and passed. (no consultation, buried in a budget bill).

Jode Kechego and Andrea Landry at the CJAM studio

We started off talking about the teach-in, how it come about and what was it like to collaborate with the each other, and on to Landry’s own personal journey to discover her culture, the spiritual element of Idle No More, de-colonization, and social media:

Download: landry-and-kechego-before-break.mp3

In this segment my guests discussed the impact of rampant economic development. How much is enough and what of the concept of balance between what we need vs what we want?: 

Download: landry-kechego-after-break.mp3

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Rockin Robbee was in the studio for another last Friday of the month gig

Robbee during a Feb 24th on-air performance

You Got to be Carefully Taught:

Download: you-got-to-be-carefully-taught.mp3

Eddie Vedder’s Society: 

Download: society.mp3

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130322-1600-t13639644001.mp3

Dr Kerry Preibisch was a researcher with the Rural Women Making Change  research project. Her research includes “international labour migration and global agro-food systems; gender, migration and development; and im/migrant communities in rural Canada.” She was on the phone from Guelph and described her research, the particular challenges for women migrant workers and how Canada has always relied on marginalized people to do agricultural work:

Download: women-migrant-workers-rebroadcast.mp3

Ian Clough and I spoke on the action at Klinec Manufacturing on March 21st and a general labour issues:

Download: clough-chislett-commentary.mp3

Featured CD

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Sample track: Ringing of Revolution:

Download: phil-ochs-ringing-of-revolution.mp3

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130315-1600-t1363359601.mp3

Giant piles of black material began to rise on the Detroit side of the river over the last few months and local environmental activists have exposed the piles as petroleum coke, or petcoke. This material is produced when oil is refined and in this case what is being refined by Marathon Oil in Detroit is Tar Sands bitumen which produces far more petcoke than conventional oil.

 As has been well reported by local responsible journalists, the piles of petcoke produce dust and there are  concerns over the leaching of this material into the already over-stressed Detroit River. Local concerns are rightly over who is responsible for the storage of the stuff, what use will it be put to, and who is responsible to regulate the storage of it.

 In the meantime, I think we have to take a sort of longer look at Alberta Tar sands production responsible for the piles of petcoke on the riverfront, and at the fact that the Tar Sands production, itself a crime against humanity, is leaving a long trail of  environmental effects right across North America – and petcoke is a big part of that trail. Because, as listeners heard on Friday, petcoke is burned in power plants and, in the words of our guest, is the “dirtiest of dirty fuel.

 On the phone from Washington DC was Lorne Stockman, Research Director with Oil Change International, an organization that works to “expose the true costs of fossil fuels and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy.” He “has worked on oil campaigns as campaigner, campaign coordinator, researcher and author for over ten years. For the past three years, he has worked as a consultant with Greenpeace UK, Platform and Oil Change International as researcher and author of numerous reports and briefings studying investor risk in tar sands and other marginal oil sources.”

Click image to read full report: Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands

Lorne is also the author of  The Next Gulf: London, Washington and Oil Conflict in Nigeria with Andrew Rowell and James Marriott [, and he] holds a Master’s Degree from King’s College London.” He authored the January 2013 report on petcoke: Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands.

Click image to read full article

In a recent Monthly Review article, Jim Hansen, the noted climate change forecaster and activist, is quoted as saying that “coal and unconventional fuels” as “death trains” which will break the carbon budget. We’re worried locally about petcoke, but really it doesn’t matter where it’s burned as it is the shared global environment that is ultimately at risk. Here is the full quote from the article:

Hansen and his coauthor Pushker A. Kharecha demonstrated in a 2008 article in Global Biogeochemical Cycles that the burning of the remaining conventional oil and gas is consistent with climate stabilization at or below 2°C (450 ppm atmospheric CO2). But this is true only if accompanied by a phase out of coal-fired plants without carbon capture and sequestration technology (a technology which is not yet feasible), and provided there is no recourse to unconventional fossil fuels—such as tar sands oil, shale oil and gas, and methane hydrates. Hansen considers coal and unconventional fossil fuels as “death trains,” not only because these are the dirtiest of fuels, but also because their use will break the carbon budget. Canada’s tar sands, he says, contain 240 gigatons of carbon while U.S. shale contains a further 300 gigatons. If we burn it all on top of conventional fuels there is no hope of avoiding the planetary tipping point. (Italics added)

The interview began with an overview of what petcoke is and how it is turning “US refineries into coal factories”.

The discussion includes the risks of a high sulphur and carbon material like petcoke being burned and pumped into the atmosphere. It’s important to understand that petcoke is a by-product of refining and is being dumped onto the coal market:

Download: stockman-and-petcoke.mp3

In the U.S. “Dirty Energy Money is an interactive tool that tracks the flow of oil, gas and coal industry contributions to the US Congress.” Click image for more

The Koch brothers have become synonymous with power in politics and now there is a third Koch brother, Charles, and his Oxbow Carbon company that seems to be at the centre of the ‘petkoch’ industry. Stockman explains and wraps up with a sense of the impact the report has had since its January release:

Download: koch-brother-connection.mp3

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Returning to the program since he was on last July is Ryan Herriot, a UWindsor 4th year medical student, and local campaigner for Canadian Doctors for Refugee Care and that organization, along with the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, has been fighting the Harper regime’s abolition of the Interim Federal Health Program administered by Citizenship and Immigration Canada – without consultation I must add.

Herriot gave us an update on the situation since a successful rally at the Windsor CIC location last year and an important recent legal development:

Download: ryan-herriot.mp3

Since Herriot will be moving from Windsor in the near future, and if you are interested in becoming involved in the refugee issue, you can contact him through his blog by clicking the image below:

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Featured CD:

Click image for more on this Windsor artist

Track played on air: “All the Birds”: 

Download: allison-browm-all-the-birds.mp3

]]> http://windsorshakeup.com/2013/03/18/march-15-2013-petcoke-producing-storing-and-burning-it-is-all-bad-ryan-herriot-and-refugee-health-care-in-canada/feed/ 0 opirg Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor Click image to read full report: Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands Click image to read full article In the U.S. Dirty Energy Money is an interactive tool that tracks the flow of oil, gas and coal industry contributions to the US Congress. Click image for more Ryan-Herriot Click image for more on this Windsor artist http://windsorshakeup.com/2013/03/12/march-8-2013-international-womens-day-foreign-dancers-face-exploitation-in-windsor-natashas-story/ http://windsorshakeup.com/2013/03/12/march-8-2013-international-womens-day-foreign-dancers-face-exploitation-in-windsor-natashas-story/#comments Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:08:38 +0000 opirg http://windsorshakeup.com/?p=1939 ]]>

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130308-1600-t1362758400.mp3

We pass them all the time on Wyandotte St, downtown, on Huron Church, over on Seminole and various other locations without much thought. Mostly they are nondescript looking places, others though feature signs with provocative images, drink specials and lap dances. I’m talking of strip clubs. Rarely do we think of the human being inside working on stage, her person-hood reduced to objectified body parts.

 The women who work this trade face long hours, arduous work, low pay, and are often pressured into illegal activities. Increasingly, these workers are coming from other countries.

In my capacity as a worker advocate at the Windsor Workers’ Action Centre, I met a young woman who came in looking for help. She had come over on a contract and Work Permit for a specific club in Windsor and knew what here hourly rate would be, the cost of room and board and that was about it. She later found out she would be required to pay an additional $500 a week for “taxes” and if she was to earn enough to make it all worthwhile she was faced with many hours of overtime and risked being pressured into illegal activity to earn extra money.

‘Natasha’ in the CJAM studio ( Photo: Doug MacLellan & click image for gallery of his work)

She left that place for another and faced more exploitation, had her passport held by the employer, and was injured on the job ending up with a medical bill. She sought legal help last year and has applied for another work permit to work in the hospitality industry out west.

 Last year, CBC in Windsor reported that “  At least 22 foreign adult entertainers in Windsor, Ont., will have to leave the country when their temporary foreign worker visas expire within the next 11 months”, because “[c]hanges announced by Ottawa on July 4 [2012] now make it illegal for a an employer to hire any temporary foreign worker “linked to the sex trade” — and that includes strippers.”

On Friday’ s International Women’s Day program, CJAM Program Director Sarah Morris and I spoke with ‘Natasha’ ( her name was changed for security and privacy reasons) about her experiences and we began with her life in her home country:

Download: life-as-a-dancer-in-europe.mp3

In this segment ‘Natasha’ describes her decision to come to Canada and here experience in Windsor:

Download: experience-in-windsor.mp3

In this segment ‘Natasha’  describes her sense of insecurity when she quit one exploitative job for another. Pressure to be an escort or prostitute was intense and not in her experience as a dancer in European cities.

She described her hopes to stay under a new Work Permit. Mostly, she wanted listeners to understand that she is a human being with feelings who is here to make a better life for herself:

Download: in-windsor-pt-2.mp3

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Featured CD

Click image for more on this Windsor artist

Track played on air: “Something Holy”:

Download: allison-brown.mp3

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Host disclaimer: I am a former union activist when I was working for a wage, and today I sit as a member at large on the labour council that Dino is president of and also I am president of the Windsor Workers’ Action Centre which receives some funding from CAW Local 444

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130301-1600-t1362153600.mp3

In the studio was CAW Local 444 and Windsor & District Labour Council president Dino Chiodo and he was in to have a conversation about the coming attack on a key union provision through a private member’s bill in Parliament very soon: the Rand Formula.

Briefly the Rand formula was a key factor in creating labour peace after the 1945 strike Ford strike in Windsor, and enabled unions to collect dues from all members of a workplace thereby creating equality in representation and giving unions financial stability and a solid structure with which to process grievances and organize workers.

Dino Chiodo in the CJAM studio

Without it, the ability of unions to function will be severely compromised. The provincial Conservative labour critic, MPP Randy Hillier, is pushing from the provincial end to make union membership voluntary as well so it’s important to remember that federal and provincial labour codes are under attack from more than one front so to speak.

Here Chiodo speaks about the formation of  unions, and the challenges facing workers and their union representatives:

Download: chiodo-and-unions.mp3

Conservative MPP Randy Hillier, in a letter to the Windsor Star, stated that he “… tabled a bill which formed the basis of our proposal. The bill would have allowed workers to opt out of a bargaining unit, its union and its collective bargaining agreement altogether. Workers would then bargain directly with their employer like the other 70 per cent of Ontario workers already do; they would be entirely independent of the union and its bargaining agreement. The proposal would be consistent with the intent behind the Rand Formula and would not change the way free riders are handled.” Chiodo responds: 

Download: chiodo-re-hillier.mp3

Caller sample – taking apart unions will hurt non-union workers as well:

Download: caller-comment.mp3

Featured CD

Click image for more on this Windsor band

Sample track played on air: See It My Way:

Download: see-it-my-way.mp3

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130222-1600-t1361548800.mp3

Wisconsin activists Melissa and Brian Austin were in Windsor on Saturday, February 16th to talk about their involvement with the Wisconsin Uprising 2 years ago and the documentary film “We Are Wisconsin”. The film was screened that Saturday at the CAW Local 200/444 hall and Brian and Melissa were on hand from their home in Madison, Wisconsin to talk about their experience with the occupation of the state capitol building as well as their involvement with the film and subsequent activism.

What’s remarkable is that Brian Austin is a Madison police officer and a member of Cops4Labor who spent some nights at the state capitol as a protestor and days spent as a police officer – so a pretty remarkable departure from the usual image of the police on the other side of a protest line…

Melissa and Brian Austin Feb 16, 2013 (Photo: Paul Chislett)

 The film blurb states that “When a Republican Governor’s bill threatens to wipe away worker rights and lock out public debate, six (extra)ordinary citizens join the growing protest at the Wisconsin State Capitol, and spend the next twenty-six days building a movement that not only challenges the bill, but the soul of a nation.” It truly is a moving record of what the people of Wisconsin did when their rights were being stripped away and I urge you to see it.

 On the program I had a couple of segments to share: first I sat and talked with the Austins about their experiences and I think you’ll come away agreeing that they are two very articulate spokespersons in the fight for democracy and justice: 

Download: melisa-and-brian-austin.mp3

In the second half hour I have Brian speaking after the film screening on how things are now two years later, especially the aftermath of the recall effort and continuing organizing in the state:

Download: post-film-comments-by-brian-austin.mp3

The Austins delivered a warning as we in Ontario face a coming assault on the rights of workers to form unions (an impending private members bill in Parliament to take apart the Rand formula, and in Ontario the continuation by the liberals of weak labour laws, or in Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or Michigan Gov. Snyder style by Tim Hudak if he is elected.

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Rockin Robbee was also in on this last Friday of the month program and he played a couple of tunes starting with Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World:

Download: rr-rockin-in-the-free-world.mp3

Robbee covered Seeds and Stems Again Blues:

Download: rr-seeds-and-stems-aagin-blues.mp3

An original composition by Robbee: For All We Know:

Download: rr-for-all-we-know.mp3

Featured CD

Click image for more on this Detroit connected band

Sample track played on air: These Stones Will Shout:

Download: the-raconteurs.mp3

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130215-1600-t1360944000.mp3

Sandwich activists John Elliot and TJ Travis (Photo: Paul Chislett)

February is Black History Month and the Sandwich Town section of Windsor is a good place to start in order to understand and take to heart the Black reality in our community. From the Underground Railroad to the dire straits the community is in today, there is a long and important history in Sandwich that needs to be celebrated so that a future vibrancy can exist.

What’s the deal for Sandwich? (Photo: Paul Chislett)

On the program Friday were two Sandwich community Black activists, John Elliot, Executive Director of Sandwich Teen Action Group, and Terrance (TJ) Travis, co-founder of the Bloomfield Free School and Outreach Centre. Both men’s lives are deeply rooted in Sandwich and they are both a living example of the future of Sandwich: 

Download: elliot-and-travis.mp3

Sandwich First Baptist Church is a significant community historical site. (Photo: Paul Chislett)

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Featured CD

Click image for more on this fantastic Detroit artist

Track played on air: “Like Janis”:

Download: rodriguez.mp3

Click image for more on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130208-1600-t1360339200.mp3

On the program  I spoke with David Heap, a prominent Palestinian rights activist who was aboard the Canadian Boat to Gaza and is a member of Gaza’s Ark.

This new project will attempt to raise money to build a boat in Gaza that will then set sail with goods made in Gaza to area ports in an effort to again highlight the gross human rights violations suffered by the Gazan people by Israel, and send a message that the people of Gaza have not given up and are struggling for justice and dignity.

Video: Embroidery makers of Gaza

The blockade of Gaza by Israel has practically destroyed the economy there, and on top of this Israel launched two attacks on Gaza in 2008-09, and again just last year killing over 1400 in 2008-09 and hundreds more last year.

I spoke to David Heap via Skype from Nice, France where he is on a teaching assignment: 

Download: david-heap.mp3

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‘HUNGRY’ –dedicated to Samer Issawi and the other Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli incarceration. By Doc Jazz

 His website reads:

 “Thanks to supporters from around the world, the song ‘HUNGRY’ which is dedicated to Samer Issawi and the other Palestinian hunger strikers in Israeli incarceration has been rising in the HipHop Charts on Soundclick.“

Minutes before going on air for the 2013 CJAM/CKUT Homelessness Marathon (Photos: Paul Chislett)

On Wednesday evening CJAM provided a live remote to the Windsor Workers’ Action Centre as part of CKUT’s 11th Annual Homelessness Marathon.

Local media has been focusing on a supposed increase in the number of panhandlers in the downtown core (Windsor Star & Windsorite.ca). In a city where millions are being spent on a new aquatic centre and with the eleimination of the Community Maintenance and Start-Up Benefit, life is tough for people on the streets.

Many on social assistance are panhandling to make ends meet. During the discussion, Rob points out that since there is nowhere to go for a meal after 6PM, the money he makes panhandling during the day goes towards buying pizza or a hamburger in the evening. He rents a housekeeping room with no kitchen, so the extra cash makes it possible for him to better survive the nights.

Several Windsor residents who all live in poverty and panhandle as a way to make ends meet came together to tell us their stories:

Download: 629-cjam_ckut_homelessness_marathon_live-20130220-2230-t1361399400.mp3

Lorne worked to get us on the air from the Windsor Workers’ Action Centre in downtown Windsor

Ron on the right and Rockin Robbee took part

Click Image for more info on OPIRG Windsor

Listen to entire program here:

Download: 68-the_shake_up-20130201-1600-t1359734400.mp3

On Friday I spoke to David MacDonald, senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives about his take on the recent data release by StatsCan which indicates growing inequality in Canada. The release also generated a firestorm of sorts in the mainstream media setting the data either as, in the words of the national Post’s Terrance Corcorran  adding “…nothing to the ongoing ideological debate over inequality or any meaningful new analysis, [but] [just] … reinforce[d] StatsCan’s recent role as one of the country’s leading class warfarists”, or, according a recent Globe and Mail editorial, we should be thankful for the 1% for the taxes they did pay.

Occupy Windsor was all about inequality. (Photo: Paul Chislett)

MacDonald emphasized that the statistics released show that in Canada’s three largest cities: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal the bottom 90% make less than they did 30 years ago, and that even in Calgary “where the action is” economic growth has had little effect on income after adjustments for inflation.

In Windsor there has been a modest gain for the lower 90% of a few hundred dollars over 30 years while the top 1% have done better. In short, the StatsCan figures are the “definitive data” on the trickle down theory where indeed a few drops have made it to the 90% while the richest have siphoned off the most:

Download: david-macdonald.mp3

Globe and Mail Editorial

Terence Corcoran Jan 28, 2013

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: January 28, 2013

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Featured CD

Click image for more on this band

Track segment played on air: “Set Me Free” :

Download: ko-and-the-knockouts.mp3