Alert! Radio was Canadian Dimension’s weekly podcast which ran from September 2005 - May 2012. It was recorded and broadcast first on CKUW 95.9 FM at the University of Winnipeg, and later on 101.5 UMFM at the University of Manitoba. It was also available on the Rabble Podcast Network.

Our show covered politics, economics, issues of social and environmental justice; featured interviews, commentaries, profiles of people in the news; had features on music, media, the arts; as well as special shows dedicated to new ideas or significant events.

Our entire show archive is presented here.

• Episode 185 (September 8th 2011)

  Alert! discusses Jack Layton’s impact on the NDP and contemplates what the future holds for politics, the NDP, Québec and the Left in his absence. Featuring Judy Rebick, Murray Dobbin, Sam Gindin, and Simon Tremblay-Pepin. Kevin Whittaker talks about the support staff strike at McGill University.

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• Episode 184 (May 4th 2011)

  Canadian Dimension editors and regulars reflect on the outcome of the federal election and discuss how we must fight the Harper majority: John Cartwright (Toronto & York Region Labour Council); Eric Darier (Quebec Greenpeace); Leo Panitch (Socialist Register); Dennis Pilon (Political Scientist); Andrea Levy (Historian); Judy Rebick (Rabble.ca); Geoff Bickerton (CUPW); John Clarke (OCAP); Richard Sanders (COAT), Clayton Thomas Muller (IEN).

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• Episode 183 (April 28th 2011)

  Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias reflects on how the social media has transformed public discourse and its likely impact on the federal election. Quebec commentator Pierre Beaudet discusses the NDP surge in Quebec and the future of the Bloc Quebecois and the Liberal Party. South African academic Patrick Bond talks about the upcoming UN Conference on Climate Change in Durban and some of the events being planned by oppositional forces.

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• Episode 182 (April 20th 2011)

  Roger Rashi talks about the Cochabamba + 1 Conference on Climate Justice (April 15-17) organized by Alternatives and Canadian Dimension magazine; Sean Devlin, the moving force behind shitharperdid.com talks about its creation and impact; Jim Silver talks about his new book, Poverty and Public Housing.

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• Episode 181 (April 13th 2011)

  Roger Annis, coordinator of Canada Haiti Action Network, exposes Michel Martelly’s questionable background and talks about where Haiti is going under its new president. Economist Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., explains how the debt ceiling imposed by the US Congress almost shutdown the federal government and comments on Obama’s concessions to the far right. Saul Landau talks about his new film “Will The Real Terrorists Please Stand Up” and comments on how he got the Cuban exile community in Miami and retired FBI and CIA agents to candidly talk about their efforts over the past 50 years to assassinate Fidel Castro and bomb Cuba in an effort to bring down its government.

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• Episode 180 (April 7th 2011)

  Alex Neve of Amnesty International discusses the Harper government’s human rights record. Economist Sheila Block discusses a new study about Canada’s colour coded labour market. Derrick O’Keefe of the Canadian Peace Alliance discusses the controversy over the real purpose of the Libyan intervention.

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• Episode 179 (April 1st 2011)

  Political Scientist Dennis Pilon gives Harper’s critique of coalition government a failing grade; Legal authority Paula Mallea gives Harper’s Tough on Crime Agenda a failing grade; Military analyst Bill Robinson looks at Canada’s military spending under Harper in historical perspective; award winning journalist Helen Fallding who broke the story about No Running Water on northern reserves talks to Alert about the conditions she found in northern Manitoba and the efforts by First Nations to pressure the Harper government to correct this racially based injustice.

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• Episode 178 (March 24th 2011)

  CAW Economist Jim Stanford discusses the defeat of the Harper government and the electoral options as the election campaign is about to take off. Publisher James Lorimer talks about the likely impact of lifting the ban on foreign investment in the Canadian book publishing industry. Researcher and educator Marita Moll reflects on whether nuclear energy is still an option after Fukushima.

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• Episode 177 (March 17th 2011)

  Political Scientist Dennis Pilon explores the prospects of the projected May Federal Election and Why a Liberal-NDP Alliance is NOT in the cards. Sean Smith examines the results of the February Irish elections and the rise of the United Left Alliance which could change the face of Irish Politics.

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• Episode 176 (March 10th 2011)

  There’s a widespread consensus that the world is facing another food crisis. The only question is what is causing it and what to do about it. ALERT invited Robert Pollin to discuss these questions. Robert Pollin is a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and founding co-director of its Political Economy Research Institute. What is the state of the fightback against the frontal attack on public sector unions in Wisconsin? And can Wisconsin happen in Canada? Canadian Dimension’s labour columnist, Herman Rosenfeld Herman takes up these questions. The proposed Enbridge pipeline that would carry tar sand oil from Alberta across northern BC to a port in Kitimat where it would be transferred onto supertankers and shipped to China is hotly disputed by the 30 First Nations whose territories the pipelines would cross. Alert talks with one of their leading spokesman, Toghestiy, hereditary chief of Fireweed Clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation.

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• Episode 175 (March 2nd 2011)

  Sarah.k Granke of FemRev gives a short history of IWD on this, its 100th anniversary and talks about the new feminist movement in Canada. York University’s David McNally talks about how the fightback against government meltdown and austerity policy will emerge and the challenges ahead for the revolutionary movements in the Middle East. Andrea Harden Donahue, Energy and Climate Change Campaigner for the Council of Canadians talks about how the campaign again the tar sands is building momentum in Europe and may scuttle the Canada-EU trade deal. Darren Shore, Communications Coordinator of the VOICES-VOIX Coalition talks about the Harper Hit List being compiled of organizations and individuals purged by the Harper administration for advocating ideas that conflict with government policies.

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• Episode 174 (February 24th 2011)

  Award winning author and film maker Saul Landau talks about the significance of the attack on Wisconsin public sector unions led by Governor Scott Walker and the importance of the fight-back. Palestinian writer and activist Adam Hanieh gives an in depth explanation of the causes of the Arab revolt, where they are headed and the interest of the US in restricting its aspirations.

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• Episode 173 (February 17th 2011)

  CKLN Board Member Joeita Gupta describes the steps the Ryerson radio station is undertaking in its appeal against the CRTC revocation of its licence. Award winning economist John Loxley reviews the issues surrounding the global economy as the G20 nations prepare for the latest round of meetings in Paris next month.

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• Episode 172 (February 10th 2011)

  Mordecai Briemberg gives his take on the U.S., Egyptian and Canadian interests in the outcome of the Egyptian uprising. Jim Stanford explains what kind of a federal budget Canada needs and why further cuts in the corporate income tax is the wrong way to go. Steven Staples points out what there is about the perimeter security deal that we should be worried about.

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• Episode 171 (February 3rd 2011)

  Egyptian Canadian Mustafa Henaway delves into the background of the uprising in Egypt and Tunisia and explores possible outcomes both within these countries and in the region. (NOTE: This interview was recorded hours before the violence broke out in Cairo.) Journalist and blogger Murray Dobbin assesses how Stephen Harper has changed Canada over his five year regime.

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• Episode 170 (January 27th 2011)

  Yves Engler shows how the NDP’s Middle East policy is so unbalanced as between Israel and the rights of Palestinians. In Brussels at the latest round of the Canada-EU free trade negotiations, Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stewart Trew talks about how European opposition to the tar sands and GM grain imports could scuttle a deal. JP Laplante explains why the Harper government so vehemently opposes requiring Canadian mining companies to follow Canadian human rights and environmental laws in their operations in the global south. Christine Leclerc describes the unique Enbridge pipeline poetry project.

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• Episode 169 (January 20th 2011)

  Murray Dobbin explains what lies behind the sudden surge of CEO salaries and bonuses. Independent Journalist Kai Hasserliis gives a behind the scene report on the Sudan independence referendum. Canadian Labour Congress researcher Chris Roberts brings us up to date on the Harper government’s retreat on pension reform.

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• Episode 168 (January 13th 2011)

  Canadian Dimension editors reflect on the critical developments in 2010 what happened and equally important, what did not happen; and look ahead to expectations for 2011. Mitch Podolak uncovers new political songs for Music is the Weapon.

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• Episode 167 (December 2nd 2010)

  Montreal journalist Paul Jackson says that the Haitian People will not accept election results determined by the USA as Haiti’s most popular party, Fanmi Lavalas, headed by the exiled former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was frozen out of the election. Eco-feminist Terisa Turner on her way to Cancun, discusses what she expects will happen at the UN’s latest conference on Climate Change. James Mulvale of Basic Income Earth Network talks about why the Guaranteed Annual Income has resurfaced as a way to finally eliminate poverty in Canada.

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• Episode 166 (November 25th 2010)

  Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of Canadian Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN) talks about Monsanto’s new plant breeding program at the University of Manitoba and reviews the impact of genetically modified crops over the past decade. Richard Sanders, coordinator of the Ottawa-based Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, talks about the failed NATO mission in Afghanistan and predicts that its role there will not end in 2014. Roland Penner, former Attorney General of Manitoba, talks about the highly secretive RCMP espionage operation and internment plan known as PROFUNC (PROminent FUNCtionaries of the Communist Party), which was established in 1950 and ran for over 30 years. The plan to round up 50,000 Canadians believed to be communist sympathizers was exposed on the CBC¹s Fifth Estate in October of the year.

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