Students Against Israeli Apartheid - Carleton U

On March 31, 2011, CHUO 89.1 FM Ottawa (Canada) The Train's Denis Rancourt interviewed Morgan Meloche and Mariful Alam about the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) campaign of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) of Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

The main topic was SAIA-Carleton's highly successful university Board of Governors (BOG) action of Tuesday that was widely reported in Ottawa media: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE.



[Note: All six executive officers of Hillel Ottawa were invited for a full-hour interview (individually or together or any number) to present the Israel side. After explaining that they could be accommodated in any way regarding scheduling, Chelsea Sauvé, Leah Labib, Jennifer Hadad, Adam Moscoe, Alex Izso and Sam Levine declined the interview.]

Related background article:
The Canadian Zionism Question

Brain surgery 101 -- with Dr. Waleed AlGhaithy, neurosurgeon

On March 24, 2011, The Train's Denis Rancourt interviewed Dr. Waleed AlGhaithy about brain surgery, medical education, the evolution of professional training, human rights politics, cancer treatment, polar bear death, surviving bullets through the head, and life-changing developments.

The goal of the show was to allow the listener to learn enough about brain surgery to be able to perform emergency intervention using common household tools. It's not that difficult and you may need these skills when you least expect it...

Enjoy the humour and the social analysis!

Media links for some topics discussed with Dr. AlGhaithy:
National media story about U of O medical scandal
Brain-induced death of German zoo polar bear
Medical malpractice lawsuit Ottawa Hospital

Sandra Ruch on the Canada Boat to Gaza (Freedom Flotilla II) campaign

On March 17, 2011, The Train's Denis Rancourt (CHUO 89.1 FM) interviewed activist organizer Sandra Ruch by phone from Toronto about Palestine, Canadian Israel policy and the upcoming Canada Boat to Gaza that will be part of the Freedom Flotilla II in May 2011.

Sandra Ruch is a Jewish Canadian woman who lived in Palestine for two years - which lead to her becoming a committed activist for Palestinian human rights.

The conversation far-reaching, deep, hopeful, and rich with personal experience.

Sophie::: Teenage mother's fight against the CAS to be with her son

[Photo: Sophie at her weekly protest with Foster Care Council of Canada chair John Dunn.]

On March 10, 2011, The Train's Denis Rancourt interviewed social activist Jane Scharf and teenage mother Sophie live in studio about their fight against the Children's Aid Society (CAS) after it took possession of the baby in hospital.

Sophie is a teenage mother (runaway survivor of the CAS) who unjustly had her baby boy taken from her in hospital after birth by the Children's Aid Society (CAS) of Ontario - the vicious corporation that has effectively replaced residential schools in Ontario.

Sophie has help from her school-day friends and from her "team" of activist supporters. She now pickets the courthouse and the CAS building every week and is starting a "parent's fight back" support group.

Related essay by Denis Rancourt:
On the prison of delayed fertility

Link to Youtube:
Pregnant Women are Smug

Universite Populaire A Montreal (UPAM)

On March 3, 2011, The Train's Denis Rancourt interviewed founding organizer of the Universite Populaire A Montreal (UPAM) Anne Goldenberg.

The UPAM was both an academic squat free school and a strike action at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal (UQAM) that sustained itself in the critical meltdown strike and government tutelage period of November 2007 to March 2008.

Anne guided us through this exciting experiment in self-organized free education. Anne has gone on to organize large conferences using this self-organized model in which the schedule is spontaneously created by the student-teachers and there are no professors.