Faced with escalating death tolls, some reactionary figures are pushing hard to pin the blame for COVID-19 on China instead of their own ineptitude. On this week’s episode of The Alberta Advantage, journalist and editor-in-chief of the Canadian left journal Passage Davide Mastracci examines how the “blame China” narrative serves to inoculate neoliberal politicians and spokespeople from critique, while contributing to a long history of anti-communism— with important consequences for those of us seeking social and political transformation.

On this week’s episode of Out of Left Field, the Victoria socialists are joined by National Observer‘s Matthew Klippenstein, a chemical engineer who’s spent his career in decarboniztation, to talk about climate science and climate change, renewable energy and politics.

On a special bonus episode, Canadian filmmaker and author Mark Sakamoto joins the show to discuss Good People, his new CBC documentary series that explores problems like homelessness, gun violence and opioid addiction and scours the planet for the places and solutions that offer hope.

Filipinos in Alberta are bearing the brunt of COVID-19 in Alberta as outbreaks in meatpacking plants and continuing care facilities hit our province. Around 60-80% of the workers in the Cargill meatpacking plant, the largest workplace outbreak in Canada, are Filipino. And now they’re feeling unfairly blamed because of the government statements on the matter. On a new episode of The Progress Report host Duncan Kinney talk about this and the ‘Healthcare for All’ campaign with Migrante Alberta director Marco Luciano.

Listen to “Saison spéciale confinement – Épisode 8 – Les femmes et les enfants d’abord” on Spreaker.
On this week’s episode of the popular leftist, feminist french-language podcast Les Ficelles, hosts Amélie, Robin and Solène welcome columnist
Manal Drissi to discuss parenting in a time of pandemic.

As the provincial government moves towards deconfinement even as the rate of infection in Montreal continues to accelerate, Ricochet explains why it’s far too early to return to business as usual in Quebec’s metropolis.

In the light of credible sexual assault allegations from former staffer Tara Reade, the Democratic Party still has time to replace Joe Biden with another nominee. On a new episode of his popular Youtube show Left Politics, History and Culture Kingston academic Christo Aivalis explains why, although he personally prefers Bernie Sanders, the goal now should be to replace Biden with a quality candidate that lacks his personal scandals and obvious cognitive decline.