The Breach

Hi there! We’ve been here for a second, but we figured this is a great time to re-introduce ourselves. To newbies: we’re The Breach, an award-winning independent media outlet delivering journalism for transformation. We cover politics, labour, climate, social movements, and more: breachmedia.ca

Toronto’s mayoral race between Olivia Chow’s cautious progressivism and Brad Bradford’s right scapegoating politics is close. As @desmondcole.bsky.social argues, even if Chow pulls it off, she’ll need left-wing councillors at city hall like Chiara Padovani to push her. youtube.com/shorts/KGUNQ...

Chiara Padovani is challenging Toronto’s longest-serving councillor and looking to shift the city’s politics to the left. @desmondcole.bsky.social meets the tenant organizer who believes in a new approach: organizing, public ownership, and democratic socialism. www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Eq...

Canada’s central bankers are warning us: we’re running out of workers. A Bank of Canada report cautions that the federal government’s harsh crackdown on immigrants has put us on the road to serious labour shortages. youtube.com/shorts/mbFGK...

Mark Carney just formed an AI Council meant to provide independent advice on Canada’s AI strategy—but nearly every appointee is entangled with private interests that want to use public money for a dangerous AI buildout. Marcus Werner breaks it down. youtube.com/shorts/vqaw5...

The democratic socialists from @copevancouver.bsky.social just elected a dozen candidates in Vancouver’s city elections. How did the party go from nearly dead to reshaping Vancouver politics? Here’s 10 things the party did to rebuild. youtube.com/shorts/z0Pzy...

Doug Ford’s war on bike lanes isn’t about traffic—it’s part of a global right-wing backlash to vilify urban residents and defend fossil fuel interests. @desmondcole.bsky.social reports from the frontlines of the showdown in Toronto. breachmedia.ca/doug-ford-bi...

4 years ago they were writing obituaries for @copevancouver.bsky.social. Now the municipal party is poised for a comeback. @jameshasaface.bsky.social explores how COPE rebuilt around a younger, engaged base and democratic socialist vision. breachmedia.ca/vancouvers-s...

No more dismissive comments about the Alberta referendum—like that Canada would be “better off without Alberta.” @harshawalia.bsky.social argues that the left must take the Alberta referendum seriously, as a sign of a growing far-right. breachmedia.ca/alberta-refe...

The BC Supreme Court says Canada needs a legal pathway for “compassion clubs” that aim to reduce overdose deaths by supplying safer drugs. Lawyer DJ Larkin and @desmondcole.bsky.social discuss the harm reduction organizers who risked jail time to challenge the law. breachmedia.ca/bc-activists...

Avi Lewis is a Jewish politician refusing to be silent about Israel’s genocide—and now he’s being threatened with violence. @judred.bsky.social writes that the lack of uproar reveals just how powerful the pro-Israel consensus remains among Canada’s elite. breachmedia.ca/im-familiar-...

Danielle Smith is blaming immigrants for Alberta’s overcrowded schools and understaffed hospitals. Bronwyn Bragg sits down with Saima Desai to bust the immigration myths in the Alberta referendum. breachmedia.ca/immigration-...

As youth unemployment rises, it is hard to find a decent job—unless you want to enlist. Gabriela Calugay-Casuga explores how the Carney government is making military jobs more attractive while it cuts the public sector and abandons a pledge to fund youth climate jobs breachmedia.ca/no-youth-job...

At Canada’s biggest annual AI summit in Montreal, journalist Marcus Werner went to ask politicians, executives, and protesters alike: is the public demand for AI real, or is it manufactured hype to sell Canadians on immensely profitable tech? breachmedia.ca/at-canadas-l...

Carney’s investment summit advanced a right-wing corporate agenda—from airport privatization to tax breaks to environmental deregulation—while dressing it up as patriotic. Martin Lukacs joins @desmondcole.bsky.social to break down what happened breachmedia.ca/how-mark-car...

Mark Carney is inviting the world’s billionaires to “peer into Canada’s shop window” during the Canada Investment Summit. Gulf despots are among his most hotly-courted buyers, explain Anthony Fenton and @desaima.bsky.social—despite their gruesome human-rights abuses. breachmedia.ca/gulf-billion...

As the public backlash to AI and data centres swells, pro-AI politicians are trying to anxiously spin. Marcus Werner debunks the PR push underway to justify public handouts to tech oligarchs. www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE-B...

"In sum, Carney seems to be planning to sell off public infrastructure we need to help fund private infrastructure we don’t—with our money covering the risk, while investors make off with the profits."

Mark Carney says his glitzy investment summit will attract major capital to Canada. But as Nikolas Barry-Shaw & Martin Lukacs write, what Carney may be putting on the table is Canada itself—and a fire-sale of the country’s essential public infrastructure. breachmedia.ca/mark-carneys...

New NDP leader Avi Lewis pledged to take the party leftward, reconnect it to social movements, and democratize its inner workings. @desmondcole.bsky.social joins Lewis in the Toronto Beaches—East York by-election to take a look at the party’s rebuild. youtu.be/l7wXEkLGHiw

Is Doug Ford finished? Read my 5,000 plus word feature on his corrupt and disastrous reign as Ontario's premier in the Breach: breachmedia.ca/the-rise-and...

Doug Ford earned the nickname “Teflon premier,” for the way his many scandals never seem to stick to him. But his non-stick veneer may be evaporating. @blivesey.bsky.social examines eight years of Ford in power—and the corruption that might finally take him down. breachmedia.ca/the-rise-and...

The leader of the world’s biggest far-right network has plans to visit Canada this month to shore up support for Hindu nationalism. But hundreds of organizations have joined the call for him to be barred from the country, reports @desaima.bsky.social

Reporters @drugdatadecoded.ca and David Slater sit down w/ @desaima.bsky.social to unpack how they uncovered a secret network set up by Canadian universities to crack down on pro-Palestine activism. They reveal how schools suppressed students & withheld public documents.

As Mark Carney oversees a massive military buildup, Canadians are getting hit with a barrage of propaganda. Martin Lukacs debunks the myths the country’s elite are peddling to justify this generational theft of public money. youtu.be/mrDNHxsBgmg

A Nova Scotia man spent 18 months in prison over an online username that belonged to someone else The Crown prosecutor in his case has a history of convictions involving weak evidence and lying witnesses What are the consequences for prosecutors who pursue these cases? Our latest @breachmedia.ca

A Nova Scotia man was wrongfully sent to jail by a prosecutor—and this isn’t the first time it’s happened. @desmondcole.bsky.social unpacks why we need independent reviews of shady prosecutions in the criminal justice system. youtube.com/shorts/blflv...

A new investigation by @drugdatadecoded.ca and David Slater reveals how universities in Canada coordinated to spy on and violently remove their students’ anti-genocide encampments. Then, they denied the existence of records, delayed their release, and deleted chats. breachmedia.ca/canadian-uni...

This article from @breachmedia.ca has aged EXTREMELY well breachmedia.ca/mark-carneys...

Watching CBC News, you might not even make the connection between this year's extreme wildfire season, and fossil fuel-induced climate change. Tara Mahoney sits down with @desmondcole.bsky.social to discuss gaps in the public broadcaster’s climate coverage. breachmedia.ca/why-is-cbcs-...

The @dulfbc.bsky.social is in court, arguing Canada’s laws violate the human rights of users who are dying from toxic drugs. If successful, their case could open a pathway for safe supply. But if they lose, two activists face life imprisonment, reports Stephanie Harrington.

Thanks to an AI program, Black prisoners in Ontario jails are being put in maximum security. @desmondcole.bsky.social reveals how the province is using an automated program that critics say is racially biased. youtu.be/s1HaG1p9p9g

Ontario jails are using an AI tool that claims to predict prisoners’ behaviour. And it’s disproportionately placing Black prisoners in maximum security. An investigation by @desmondcole.bsky.social reveals the province knew the tool would discriminate against Black people—and used it anyway.

Over 850 wildfires are burning across Canada, engulfing several First Nations in smoke. In 2023, @emmapaling.bsky.social spoke to Indigenous activists who had one piece of advice for governments on how to halt the now-annual fires: stop building pipelines. breachmedia.ca/first-nation...

Canada’s universities are broke—and easy prey for consulting firms peddling austerity. @jameshasaface.bsky.social & Kyla Perry investigate the Nous Group, an Australian consulting firm that has earned a name for “restructuring” that cuts jobs, services, and faculties at Canadian schools.

Five years into the Breach, will you help us take our journalism to the next level? There are just 48 hours left in our major campaign for 500 people to become regular supporters at $5/month. We’re two-thirds of our way there—will you help us make it? Sign up now: bit.ly/4x8vurl

Mark Carney is overseeing a massive expansion of AI data centres in Canada, and it’s raising all kinds of concerns. Marcus Werner reports on the fast-growing movement that’s rising against the wave of planned data centre projects—and in some cases, already winning. breachmedia.ca/inside-the-r...

In the face of manufactured controversy, Winnipeg’s Nakba exhibit is a breakthrough. El Jones speaks to the Palestinian advocates who helped make the exhibit happen and who finally see their history reflected in a major Canadian institution. breachmedia.ca/the-nakba-ex...

Physician Anjali Menezes resigned from Hamilton’s police board, and she’s calling for it to be dismantled. As @desmondcole.bsky.social reports, Menezes says her colleagues acted as cheerleaders for police instead of holding them to account—a problem with police boards across Canada.

The Liberal Party has a secret to ruling Canada: campaign on the left, then govern on the right. From Mackenzie King to the Trudeaus to Mark Carney, Martin Lukacs breaks down a century of Liberals posturing as progressives—only to serve as faithful servants of the corporate elite.

The Liberal government is planning to strip workers of their most important power—the right to strike. @unifor.org's Graham Cox & @desmondcole.bsky.social discuss how the Carney government’s using Trump to tilt the playing field in favour of the corporate elite. breachmedia.ca/gutting-the-...

As Carney's Liberals adopt a raft of right-wing policies, the country’s largest Conservative gathering showed signs of confusion and reactionary disarray. Haniel Sorensen reports from within the Conservative Party’s identity crisis. breachmedia.ca/inside-canad...

Join The Breach in Toronto for the launch of our new book and to celebrate our 5 year anniversary! Hosted by @desmondcole.bsky.social ft. @judreb.bsky.social, Mathew Green & Martin Lukacs, w/ tunes by DJ Durga (aka @desaima.bsky.social ) & DJ Heebiejabi. RSVP: www.eventbrite.com/e/book-launc...

Ontario premier Doug Ford is destroying health care services for people who use illicit drugs. @desmondcole.bsky.social explains why closing safe injection sites contradicts all evidence—and is a death sentence. youtu.be/qFF9CpwCdDc

Quebec is the “eye of the storm” of Mark Carney’s deportation blitz. As @desaima.bsky.social & @desmondcole.bsky.social report, CBSA agents are increasingly confronting migrants in workplaces and schools and rushing deportations before legal options for asylum seekers have played out.

Canada’s police are becoming deadlier and less unaccountable, but are still getting more and more money. El Jones and @desmondcole.bsky.social explore why police violence, surveillance and budgets keep expanding, while basic services and supports are getting starved.

Canada's police are becoming more deadly and less accountable, but their budgets and powers keep expanding Professor and poet El Jones joins me on our latest @breachmedia.ca podcastto discuss the possibility of defunding an institution that does so much harm breachmedia.ca/canada-polic...

We can’t do it without you. We need 500 new regular supporters to help build journalism for transformation. Support a people-powered alternative to the corporate media: bit.ly/4x8vurl

The left is faltering in our response to antisemitism, argues Jordy Cummings. It must show up with principled, consistent solidarity. Anything else is a betrayal of the left’s historic responsibility—and a missed opportunity to win Jewish people to anti-Zionism. breachmedia.ca/the-lefts-op...