
More Than Facebook: Mutual Aid Organizing in Ottawa During COVID-19
By Ashton Starr Thousands of people around Ottawa connected on social media to request help and offer assistance to strangers during the first spike of COVID-19 in March, 2020. They were forming COVID-19 support groups, mutual aid networks, and “caremongering” groups. Membership in these Facebook gr
Protest Against Ottawa Police Violence Met with Arrests
By Matteo Cimellaro On November 19, demonstrators rally at Ottawa City Hall to demand action against police violence and institutional racism. They quickly move on to Nicholas Street and Laurier Avenue, a significant intersection due to its proximity to the highway, city hall, and courthouse. They h
A Tale of Two Budgets: Community organizations campaign for a bolder municipal budget
Photo: Ottawa City Hall Credit: Mike Foote/Creative Commons by Josh Lalonde Budgets are typically not exciting documents: rows and columns of numbers do not make for a page-turner. They are, however, intensely political documents. They express in concrete form what an organization’s priorities
Who are the Uyghurs? : Canada’s role in China’s modern day genocide and slave labour
by Olivia Hnatyshyn October 23, 2016, was the last time Mehmet Tohti was able to talk to his mother. As a Uyghur Muslim originally from Kashgar, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People’s Republic of China, Tohti left his mother and seven siblings at the age of 26 to move to Turkey,
Union Busting: What to Look For and What You Can Do
by Megan Devoe For decades now, Canadian unions have fought to create safe and equitable workplaces for Canada’s workers. Through their work, huge strides have been made to improve the state of employee rights in Canada. Unfortunately, union busting, it seems, has existed for just as long or even lo
Surviving Zoom University: Carleton Students Grapple with Mental Health, Safety, and Socializing During Pandemic
by Abby Adair On September 2, the first influx of students began arriving on the Carleton campus to start their very first year of university during an ongoing global pandemic. (Among them was the intrepid Leveller correspondent bringing you this very article!) Over the course of a week, students mo
All (Ottawa) Cops Are Bad
Photo: Ottawa police reading an arrest script to peaceful protesters at the We Are Related action, promising that “force will be used, if necessary.” (Credit: Screenshot from a video by Nanokazii/Victoria Marchand) O n November 23, Ottawa police shut down a protest before its members co
Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh: Agreement ends six weeks of fighting with Azerbaijani victory
by Josh Lalonde A ceasefire agreement has been signed between Azerbaijan and Armenia, bringing an end to six weeks of fighting over the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Now, to really understand how the fighting started, check out The Leveller‘s previous coverage of the conflict. But for now let’s s
Conflict in Ethiopia: Thousands of refugees flee fighting amid fears of civil war and regional destabilization
Photo: Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF) soldiers on an African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia Credit: AMISOM Public Information/Tobin Jones by Josh Lalonde On the morning of November 4, while the rest of the world was busy watching the American presidential election, Prime Minister of
What’s going on in Bolivia? Democracy, Indigenism, & Resource Extraction
Illustration: Crystal Yung by Mike Hermida & Tim Kitz The election of Luis Arce on October 18 is the latest chapter of drawn out tensions in Bolivia, where the spectre of suspected foreign intervention hangs over recent democratic convulsions. The current turmoil centers around the 2019 ouster
Drive-By Headpats by Matriarchal Terrorists Continue: Future Clipping from 2025
Photo: Pussy Riot, a Russian performance-art protest-punk group, are widely acknowledged as an important precursor to the Militant Matriarchal Front. Their influence extends to costuming, as shown in this early appearance by Pussy Riot at Red Square in Moscow in 2012. Credit: Denis Bochkarev/Wikimed
Canada & the Arms Trade: Fuelling war in Yemen & beyond
Photo: A Light Armoured Vehicle (LAV) made by General Dynamics Land Systems Canada Credit: General Dynamics Land Systems by Josh Lalonde A UN Human Rights Council report recently named Canada as one of the parties fuelling the ongoing war in Yemen by means of arms sales to Saudi Arabia, one of the w