Canada is a big, interesting, and complicated place and COMMONS is committed to bringing you thoughtfully crafted and illuminating stories that will challenge everything you think you know about this country.  We make a complex scripted podcast that’s unlike anything else available in this country and cover stories from all across the nation. We want to keep doing this work, but we need your support.   This week we’re going to tell you a little bit about the work that goes into making this show and about what’s next for Canadaland. Click here to see we’re hoping to do with your support.  

This is the story of Canada’s first-ever video game union. And the lengths that the industry went to try to stop it in its tracks

The huge rise in international students in Canada — most of them from Punjab, India — has become one of the biggest stories in the country.

She expected to face opposition from tech companies and governments that are hostile to workers. But what she didn’t anticipate was that one of the biggest obstacles in her path would be a labour union. 

Mandalena Lewis is one of far too many flight attendants who have been harassed or assaulted on the job. And her story is just one example of a culture of sexism and abuse that she alleges pervades the airline industry.

In 2006, Zakaria Amara was arrested and imprisoned for planning what could have been one of the deadliest terror attacks in Canadian history. A ringleader of the so-called “Toronto 18,” he’s one of the most infamous Canadian convicts of the last few decades. 

♩♪ But Spotify, it’s nearly killed us Ticketmaster’s ground us to dust The companies got too large Now monopolies are in charge ♩♪

Not only do Canadian prisoners work for for-profit businesses, but they’re sometimes doing the most dangerous and nauseating work around