Between the Lines

There is a lot of money to be made through eviction. That is why landlords draw from a playbook of legal and extra-legal tactics to renovict tenants-claiming to improve units, only to kick existing tenants out and jack up the rent for new ones. Now, displacement has become a harrowing reality plaguing urban landscapes. How do we explain this phenomenon? How did we get here and how do we organize to stop evictions? What strategies can renters use to hold their ground? Countering the narrative that the renovicting landlords are just a few bad apples acting in bad faith, Cole Webber and Philip Zigman expose the structures of displacement enabled by the state and perpetuated by rental housing reforms. The system hasn't broken down, it is working as intended to increase landlord profits at the expense of the working class. As tenant organizers themselves, the authors have seen firsthand that knowledge of the law alone will not protect tenants from renoviction. Rather, tenants must organize collectively to fight back and stay in their homes.

Les années 1970 ont vu naître un mouvement féministe radical qui a bouleversé la pensée politique : Working for Nothing rassemble pour la première fois les textes fondateurs du collectif Wages for Housework.

Once known for peacekeeping, Canada is becoming a militarized nation whose apostles--the New Warriors--are fighting to shift public opinion. New Warrior zealots seek to transform postwar Canada's central myth-symbols. Peaceable kingdom. Just society. Multicultural tolerance. Reasoned public debate. Their replacements? A warrior nation. Authoritarian leadership. Permanent political polarization. The tales cast a vivid light on a story that is crucial to Canada's future; yet they are also compelling history. Swashbuckling marauder William Stairs, the Royal Military College graduate who helped make the Congo safe for European pillage. Vimy Ridge veteran and Second World War general Tommy Burns, leader of the UN's first big peacekeeping operation, a soldier who would come to call imperialism the monster of the age. Governor General John Buchan, a concentration camp developer and race theorist who is exalted in the Harper government's new Citizenship Guide. And that uniquely Canadian paradox, Lester Pearson. Warrior Nation is an essential read for those concerned by the relentless effort to conscript Canadian history.

Fun & Games & Higher Education ranges from Wayne's World to hot-rodding, from automobility to the popular phenomenon know as the tailgate party, from German sociologist George Simmel to Canadian Media Guru Marshall McLuhan-all in the interests in exploring North American obsession with play-and particularly the intersection between education, work, and leisure.

Based on years of practical experience in small towns, Carrel argues for municipal autonomy-for turning what are now "colonies" of the federal and provincial orders of government into independent, mature, and fully democratic entities. For Carrel, the citizen is the sole legitimate source of political power, and the best tool for citizen empowerment is the controversial tool of the referendum.This is the story of how a small municipality broke the rules of local government. It also recounts the author's irreverence for the status quo and his ideas on the rebuilding of citizenship at the community level.

McLuhan's Children is an inside look at Greenpeace's rise to global prominence through its savvy use of mass media imagery. From the flamboyant, guerilla-theatre approach to the emergence of environmentalism as a dominant international issue.

Crisis and Contagion is a selection of fourteen interviews conducted by Ian McKay of the Wilson Institute at McMaster University. Interviews with Nancy Fraser, Mike Davis, Mack Penner, Andreas Malm, and Merrill Singer explore capitalism's organic crisis and the ways it has made this and future pandemics inevitable. Nora Loreto, Tithi Bhattacharya, Chandrima Chakraborty, Merlin Chowkwanyun, and Sanjay Nepal discuss the experiences of ordinary people in the pandemic. J. Michael Ryan, Laura Spinney, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky explore the long-term effects and likely historical legacy of a pandemic that has changed millions of lives-and, maybe, the trajectory of human civilization. These scholars propose that to understand the impact of Covid-19, we have to understand the conflictual history of capitalism-and to ward off future pandemics, we need to start building a post-capitalist alternative to the disease-generating and highly unequal global neoliberal order. As capitalist forces work to shove what we have learned from the Covid-19 pandemic down the memory hole, Crisis and Contagion offers a must-read for those wanting to seize this moment of change and revolution.

Based on the firsthand stories of dozens of women leaders in the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), Women United examines what workplaces were like for women, how they became involved in the union, and the challenges women faced, sometimes at great personal cost. From struggles for representation in their union to their fight for affirmative action and childcare, and work against gender-based violence and harassment, Peggy Nash and Julie White show how these feminist activists were joined in struggle not only by their union sisters, but also by their sisters from the broader women's movement, who learned from them about the importance of women's workplace rights. Nash and White document the decades-long struggles of generations of women activists in the CAW, who, despite their few numbers, managed to build a better, more inclusive union. A testament to the union's motto that "fighting back makes a difference," Women United makes an important contribution to feminist, labour, and social history.

Crime doesn't happen in a vacuum, but in the complex world we all live in. In Troubling Criminology, professors Michael C. K. Ma and Mike Larsen untangle the discipline of criminology in a series of insightful conversations. Rather than presenting a fixed canon of knowledge, this book encourages readers to draw on their own experiences and perspectives, fostering dialogue and collaborative thinking. It examines how crime, justice, and deviance are socially constructed, shaped by historical and cultural contexts, and influenced by power, inequality, and systemic oppression. Perfect for students and educators alike, this book is not just a textbook-it's an invitation to join an ongoing conversation about what criminology means today to help us envision a more just future.

With eleven brand new comics created by legendary and upcoming writers and comics artists, Partisans flips a new page in the popular understanding of anti-Nazi and anti-fascist resistance. Through vivid illustrations and compelling narratives, Partisans brings to life the struggles and triumphs of those who resisted fascism. Within these pages, readers will encounter stories of resistance from the rugged mountains of the Balkans to the urban landscapes of occupied Europe. This comics collection reminds us that the fight against fascism is far from over and that the courage and sacrifices of those who came before us continue to light the way. Partisans is a must-read for anyone interested in history, social justice, and the transformative power of history and art.

On November 16, 1980, the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser strangled his wife in their Parisian apartment, in a period when she was thinking of leaving him. What do we know about Hélène Legotien today? Almost nothing, except that she was murdered by her illustrious spouse. In a sense, Althusser killed her twice, first, by his own hands and second, by dominating the public space to talk about himself. What then is the political significance of this femicide and the discourse about it which has taken shape in the public space? Delving into the writings of the murderer and his allies in the French intelligentsia, Killer Althusser reasserts the patriarchal violence of the murder, masculine solidarity, and the complacency of a cultural elite.

Banging on the Walls of the Tank is a collection of reflections and analysis written over eighteen years in Gaza by Palestinian academic and activist, Haidar Eid. Providing an insider's perspective on the blockade of Gaza since 2007, the Israeli attacks in 2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021, the Great March of Return, and the ongoing genocide committed by the apartheid Israeli state, Eid's essays examine political alternatives, opportunities for resistance, and prospects for a just peace after more than a century of dispossession.

In a series of interviews with Louise Toupin, groundbreaking feminist thinkers Silvia Federici and Mariarosa Dalla Costa return to the movement they co-founded in 1972-the International Feminist Collective. The feminist collective originated the radical and controversial demand for wages for housework. From these powerful roots, they continue to explain how their political thinking developed over time, formulating an intersectional critique of neoliberal capitalism with a crisis of social reproduction at its heart.

Despite decades of activism by feminists and their allies, women and their children continue to be killed by their partners and former partners in shocking numbers, leading the federal government to describe intimate partner violence (IPV) as an epidemic in Canada. Why have we failed to respond effectively to a social problem that affects millions of women and children?  After working for more than three decades with survivors, frontline workers, and the systems they turn to for help, lawyer Pamela Cross provides an in-depth look at intimate partner violence in Canada. And Sometimes They Kill You untangles what intimate partner violence is, the barriers to its eradication, and what we could be doing to eliminate those barriers. Told in an engaging and accessible fashion, the book weaves together Cross' personal experiences and reflections on what she has learned with the heartbreaking stories of victims, survivors, and the alarming but convincing data. Cross offers practical and hopeful ideas for how each of us can engage in the vital work of eradicating intimate partner violence. This a call-to-action for the all-of-society, revolutionary response to gender-based violence needed to build communities that are safe and healthy for everyone.

One of CBC Books Best Canadian Nonfiction Books of 2024 There have been many things written about Canada's violent siege of Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawà:ke in the summer of 1990, but When the Pine Needles Fall: Indigenous Acts of Resistance is the first book from the perspective of Katsi'tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, who was the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) spokesperson during the siege. When the Pine Needles Fall, written in a conversational style by Gabriel with historian Sean Carleton, offers an intimate look at Gabriel's life leading up to the 1990 siege, her experiences as spokesperson for her community, and her work since then as an Indigenous land defender, human rights activist, and feminist leader.  More than just the memoir of an extraordinary individual, When the Pine Needles Fall offers insight into Indigenous language, history, and philosophy, reflections on our relationship with the land, and calls to action against both colonialism and capitalism as we face the climate crisis. Gabriel's hopes for a decolonial future make clear why protecting Indigenous homelands is vital not only for the survival of Indigenous peoples, but for all who live on this planet.

Welcome to class. Today, we'll be learning how to become (effective) troublemakers.  In this classroom, no one gets in trouble for defying authority. Designed for educators and facilitators from the union hall to the lecture hall, Roles of Resistance outlines revolutionary lesson plans on how to fight the power with people power. The thirteen lesson plans in this book created by John-Henry Harter and Mark Leier can be used independently or combined to create a semester-long course. Sections include units on teaching political economy, labour history, and social activism based on democratic, experiential teaching, including role-plays, simulations, and games. The tried and tested classroom activities in this teacher's guide-successfully applied in high schools, universities, and union classrooms-are bound to create a vibrant learning experience, enriching debates, and providing the main tool we need to change the world: collective action.

In a series of illuminating essays, the renowned Harry Glasbeek unpacks how law has been used to ensure that workers' aspirations are kept in check. Law at Work uncovers how the legal system, through its structures and mechanisms, legitimizes and reinforces the exploitation of workers. Using historic and contemporary examples, Glasbeek illustrates how conscious manipulations of law are part and parcel of how law protects capitalists at the expense of workers. He proves how the very laws designed to safeguard rights and freedoms often act as invisible shackles, compelling readers to reflect on their own struggles as they navigate a world where the legal system fails to serve their interests. These manipulations are made to look innocent because the underlying structures and ideology which give rise to specific rules are not challenged or challengeable. This thought-provoking book is an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the hidden dynamics of worker oppression, empowering readers to question prevailing narratives and envision a future where the law truly serves the interests of all.

If everyone-from Emmanuel Macron to Jeff Bezos, and even Coca Cola-is green, why is the environmental crisis growing at an alarmingly rapid rate? The world is already experiencing the impact of climate crisis, but we are not equally responsible for its violent effects. Some of those who claim to be helping the planet are actually making things worse. To avoid being duped by false allies and to create an ecology for the 99%, we must discuss a radical topic: the exit from capitalism. Ecology for the 99% provides inspiration for building grassroots environmental movements through a lively discussion of the most persistent capitalist myths. It presents compelling evidence for why carbon market policies will fail, why a capitalist economy cannot be based on renewable energy sources, and why we should be protesting against overproduction, not overconsumption. Ecology for the 99% is an antidote to apathy and a bulwark against false leads. Time is running out, we can't afford to take any wrong turns.

In this singular firsthand account, a former migrant worker reveals a disturbing system of exploitation at the heart of Canada's farm labour system. When Gabriel Allahdua applied to the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program in Canada, he thought he would be leaving his home in St. Lucia to work in a country with a sterling human rights reputation and commitment to multiculturalism. Instead, breakneck quotas and a culture of fear dominated his four years in a mega-greenhouse in Ontario. This deeply personal memoir takes readers behind the scenes to see what life is really like for the people who produce Canada's food. Now, as a leading activist in the migrant justice movement in Canada, Allahdua is fighting back against the Canadian government to demand rights and respect for temporary foreign labourers. Harvesting Freedom shows Canada's place in the long history of slavery, colonialism, and inequality that has linked the Caribbean to the wider world for half a millennium-but also the tireless determination of Caribbean people to fight for their freedom.

The climate crisis is here, and the end of this world-a world built on land theft, resource extraction, and colonial genocide-is on the horizon. In this compelling roadmap to a livable future, Indigenous sovereignty and climate justice go hand in hand. Drawing on their work in Indigenous activism, the labour movement, youth climate campaigns, community-engaged scholarship, and independent journalism, the six authors challenge toothless proposals and false solutions to show that a just transition from fossil fuels cannot succeed without the dismantling of settler capitalism in Canada. Together, they envision a near future where oil and gas stay in the ground; where a caring economy provides social supports for all; where wealth is redistributed from the bloated billionaire class; and where stolen land is rightfully reclaimed under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of Indigenous peoples. Packed with clear-eyed analysis of both short- and long-term strategies for radical social change, The End of This World promises that the next world is within reach and worth fighting for.

In this inspiring history of a union, labour historian Andy Hanson delves deep into the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and how it evolved from two deeply divided unions to one of the province's most united and powerful voices for educators. Today's teacher is under constant pressure to raise students' test scores, while the rise of neoliberalism in Canada has systematically stripped our education system of funding and support. But educators have been fighting back with decades of fierce labour action, from a landmark province-wide strike in the 1970s, to record-breaking front-line organizing against the Harris government and the Common Sense Revolution, to present-day picket lines and bargaining tables. Hanson follows the making of elementary teachers in Ontario as a distinct class of white-collar, public-sector workers who awoke in the last quarter of the twentieth century to the power of their collective strength.

According to the World Health Organization, one in three women will be sexually or physically assaulted in her lifetime. These rates are very similar for non-binary people and other feminized people, too. This is rape culture, and young adults are living through it here and now. Fired Up about Consent is a practical, survivor-informed primer for young people who want to learn how to build joyful, mutually satisfying sex lives and relationships. In these pages, author Sarah Ratchford defines rape and sexual assault, busts the myths behind toothless messaging and outdated advice, and provides sex-positive scripts on how to ask for and offer a clear, enthusiastic, and freely given "Yes!" Along the way, Ratchford touches on topics such as #MeToo, gender identity, masturbation, virginity, porn, sex work, reporting assault, and more, all through a radically inclusive and intersectional lens. The message is loud and clear: not only is consent sexy, it's mandatory-and everyone deserves frank and empowering literacy around it. Only with empathy, compassion, and resistance can we move forward into a new culture of consent.

Half a world away from her home in Manitoulin Island, Ethel Mulvany is starving in Singapore's infamous Changi Prison, along with hundreds of other women jailed there as POWs during the Second World War. They beat back pangs of hunger by playing decadent games of make-believe and writing down recipes filled with cream, raisins, chocolate, butter, cinnamon, ripe fruit - the unattainable ingredients of peacetime, of home, of memory. In this novelistic, immersive biography, Suzanne Evans presents a truly individual account of WWII through the eyes of Ethel - mercurial, enterprising, combative, stubborn, and wholly herself. The Taste of Longing follows Ethel through the fall of Singapore in 1942, the years of her internment, and beyond. As a prisoner, she devours dog biscuits and book spines, befriends spiders and smugglers, and endures torture and solitary confinement. As a free woman back in Canada, she fights to build a life for herself in the midst of trauma and burgeoning mental illness. Woven with vintage recipes and transcribed tape recordings, the story of Ethel and her fantastical POW Cookbook is a testament to the often-overlooked strength of women in wartime. It's a story of the unbreakable power of imagination, generosity, and pure heart.

Public transportation is in crisis. Through an assessment of the history of automobility in North America, the "three revolutions" in automotive transportation, as well as the current work of committed people advocating for a different way forward, James Wilt imagines what public transit should look like in order to be green and equitable. Wilt considers environment and climate change, economic and racial inequality, urban density, accessibility and safety, work and labour unions, privacy and control of personal data, as well as the importance of public and democratic decision-making. Based on interviews with more than forty experts, including community activists, academics, transit planners, authors, and journalists, Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars? explores our ability to exert power over how cities are built and for whom.

For over a decade, Julie Lalonde, an award-winning advocate for women's rights, kept a secret. She crisscrossed the country, denouncing violence against women and giving hundreds of media interviews along the way. Her work made national headlines for challenging universities and taking on Canada's top military brass. Appearing fearless on the surface, Julie met every interview and event with the same fear in her gut: was he there? Fleeing intimate partner violence at age 20, Julie was stalked by her ex-partner for over ten years, rarely mentioning it to friends, let alone addressing it publicly. The contrast between her public career as a brave champion for women with her own private life of violence and fear meant a shaky and exhausting balancing act. Resilience sounds like a positive thing, so why do we often use it against women? Tenacity and bravery might help us survive unimaginable horrors, but where are the spaces for anger and vulnerability? Resilience is Futile is a story of survival, courage and ultimately, hope. But it's also a challenge to the ways we understand trauma and resilience. It's the story of one survivor who won't give up and refuses to shut up.

How did a social movement evolve from a small group of young radicals to the incorporation of LGBTQ communities into full citizenship on the model of Canadian multiculturalism? Tim McCaskell contextualizes his work in gay, queer, and AIDS activism in Toronto from 1974 to 2014 within the shift from the Keynesian welfare state of the 1970s to the neoliberal economy of the new millennium. A shift that saw sexuality -once tightly regulated by conservative institutions-become an economic driver of late capitalism, and sexual minorities celebrated as a niche market. But even as it promoted legal equality, this shift increased disparity and social inequality. Today, the glue of sexual identity strains to hold together a community ever more fractured along lines of class, race, ethnicity, and gender; the celebration of LGBTQ inclusion pinkwashes injustice at home and abroad. Queer Progress tries to make sense of this transformation by narrating the complexities and contradictions of forty years of queer politics in Canada's largest city.

From schools to hospitals, from utilities to food banks, over the past thirty years corporatization has transformed the public sector in Canada. Economic elites take control of public institutions and use business metrics to evaluate their performance, transforming public programs into corporate revenue streams. Senior managers use corporate methodology to set priorities in social services and create "market-friendly" public sector cultures. Even social activist organizations increasingly look and act like multinational corporations while non-governmental organizations pursue partnerships with the same corporations they ostensibly oppose. Corporatizing Canada critically examines how corporatization has been implemented in different ways across the Canadian public sector and warns us of the threat that neoliberal corporatization poses to democratic decision-making and the public at large.

When Ann Hansen was arrested in 1983 along with the four other members of the radical anarchist group known as the Squamish Five, her long-time commitment to prison abolition suddenly became much more personal. Now, she could see firsthand the brutal effects of imprisonment on real women's lives. During more than thirty years in prison and on parole, the bonds and experiences Hansen shared with other imprisoned women only strengthened her resolve to fight the prison industrial complex. In Taking the Rap, she shares gripping stories of women caught in a system that treats them as disposable-poor women, racialized women, and Indigenous women, whose stories are both heartbreaking and enraging. Often serving time for minor offences due to mental health issues, abuse, and poverty, women prisoners are offered up as scapegoats by a society keen to find someone to punish for the problems we all have created.

Everywhere you look patriarchal society reduces women to a series of repeating symbols: serial girls. On TV and in film, on the internet and in magazines, pop culture and ancient architecture, serial girls are all around us, moving in perfect sync-as dolls, as dancers, as statues. From Tiller Girls to Barbie dolls, Playboy bunnies to Pussy Riot, Martine Delvaux produces a provocative analysis of the many gendered assumptions that underlie modern culture. Delvaux draws on the works of Barthes, Foucault, de Beauvoir, Woolf, and more to argue that serial girls are not just the ubiquitous symbols of patriarchal domination but also offer the possibility of liberation.

The story of the bloody 1917 Battle of Vimy Ridge is, according to many of today's tellings, a heroic founding moment for Canada. This noble, birth-of-a-nation narrative is regularly applied to the Great War in general. Yet this mythical tale is rather new. "Vimyism"- today's official story of glorious, martial patriotism-contrasts sharply with the complex ways in which veterans, artists, clerics, and even politicians who had supported the war interpreted its meaning over the decades. Was the Great War a futile imperial debacle? A proud, nation-building milestone? Contending Great War memories have helped to shape how later wars were imagined. The Vimy Trap provides a powerful probe of commemoration cultures. This subtle, fast-paced work of public history-combining scholarly insight with sharp-eyed journalism, and based on primary sources and school textbooks, battlefield visits and war art-explains both how and why peace and war remain contested terrain in ever-changing landscapes of Canadian memory.

Knowledge is power and the information behind it must be liberated. Today, more than ever, data has become an important stake in social struggles and the tightening of control over it has not gone without resistance. Social activists around the world are engaging with data in novel ways, whether through investigating tax havens, tracking police misconduct, confronting employers with evidence of wage theft, mapping evictions across the cityscape, or charting the dispossession of Indigenous Peoples of their lands. Social movement groups, labour unions, and community organizations are developing and applying new kinds of technology and programming skills to collect and analyze data in ways that go beyond traditional information access. Drawing on interviews with more than fifty data activists around the world, Mobilizing Data for Justice provides the inspiration that activists need for social justice struggles today. The Data Justice Hub is a collaborative research project that focuses on skills development for social activists.

Cathy Crowe always wanted to be a nurse but she never planned to be a street nurse-a title she continues to use to evoke the horror of homelessness in a rich country like Canada. In Dying for a Home Crowe brings us the voices of ten homeless activists advocating for change. The word homeless conjures many stereotypes, but rarely does it suggest bravery, courage, charisma, or intelligence, qualities demonstrated by each of these determined individuals. The contents of Crowe's nursing bag reveal the hard truth of her specialty. Her vitamins will not prevent the white plague of tuberculosis from taking another life. The duct tape to fix a cardboard shelter, or the bus ticket to get an elderly man to a hot air grate, will not ensure a peaceful night of safety and sleep. Crowe's experience has taught her that the only thing homeless people have in common is being de-housed and forced to live in conditions of poverty. It is this first-hand experience with the disgrace of homelessness that turned her into a housing advocate and introduced her to the ten contributors to Dying for a Home.