With this budget, the NDP has maintained a long-standing right-wing trajectory by increasing funding to policing at the expense of things that actually keep people safe. The “justice” budget is a shameful expansion of criminalization that—regardless of the government’s supposedly progressive bluster—will result in even more Indigenous people being policed, jailed, and criminalized.

On February 29, the Shuar Arutam People (PSHA) of Ecuador filed a complaint against Vancouver-based Solaris Resources Inc. before the British Columbia Securities Commission over its repeated failure to disclose material information to shareholders regarding its Warintza mining project, a large-scale copper and gold mine which overlaps with PSHA’s titled territory.

While the administration of Peruvian President Dina Boluarte prioritizes the growth of the mining sector, with the full-throated support of the Canadian embassy, organizations like Red Muqui are clear: in a time of increasing environmental pressure, those who stand to gain the most from mining are not those who will pay the biggest price.

In his 2021 memoir, Life in the City of Dirty Water, Indigenous activist Clayton Thomas-Muller defines a warrior as someone who is “not defined by fighting. They are defined by fighting for.” Imagine what could happen if we all fought for an education system laser focused on creating just, sustainable, and democratic societies.

On November 28, Panama’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the 20-year contract granted to Canadian mining company First Quantum is unconstitutional. The decision came after weeks of nationwide protests forced the government to announce a referendum on First Quantum’s contract for December 17. Now, however, the court seems to have decided the fate of the mine.

Those seeking an economic and industrial policy agenda that will reduce inequality, empower workers, and support a just transition in Manitoba can look to capital spending, legislative reform, and opportunities in the Crown corporation sector as areas where progress is possible, even if the narrow fiscal policy battle may have been temporarily lost.

Food theft isn’t an indicator of criminality, but of a failing social system that creates the conditions to leave individuals with no alternatives. Police in our grocery stores shouldn’t signal a need to crack down on food theft, but rather inspire questioning about why police are in our grocery stores in the first place, and what can be done to get them out.

Wab Kinew’s victory over Heather Stefanson in the recent Manitoba provincial election is a moment of progressive hope in what has become a dispiritingly conservative Canadian political landscape. The win was the result of Kinew’s NDP campaign focusing resolutely on Stefanson’s health care record while leaving very limited lines of attack for the governing PCs.

It has been decades since NDP governments anywhere in Canada have undertaken such a bold approach to governing, and this particular NDP government faces fiscal constraints. Nevertheless, this is the kind of reform program that the incoming Manitoba NDP government should commit to doing. Implementing such an agenda will take vision, determination and courage.

On August 20, 2023, Ecuador held two major referenda, one regional and one national. As Owen Schalk explains, the results of these votes indicate an overwhelming preference for environmental preservation over the expansion of mineral and oil extraction—as well as the nation’s desire to move away from the right-wing, pro-business policies of Guillermo Lasso.