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Challenging Power: Corporate Control, Policing, and the Price of Inequality
Join authors and activists Sandy Hudson and Nora Loreto for a vital conversation on the forces shaping inequality and injustice in Canada today.
Drawing from their latest books, Defund: Black Lives, Policing, and Safety for All and Corporate Control: Canada in Decline, Sandy and Nora will unpack the structural roots of economic disparity and state violence. From the outsized influence of corporate power over Canadian democracy to the urgent demand to reimagine public safety beyond policing, this event will explore the deep interconnections between capitalism, governance, race, and social control.
Defund is a fiercely argued, deeply informed examination of why defunding the police is the only way to support a model of security and protection that increases public safety overall Time and again we see police respond to minor calls with escalation, wrongful arrests, even murder. Reform programs are often poorly implemented and their impacts short-lived. Calls to “defund” the police have rung out across the nation, yet the actual meaning of the phrase remains unclear. In Defund, longtime activist and the founder of Black Lives Matter Canada, Sandy Hudson, elucidates what defunding the police actually means and why it matters, by exploring today’s criminal landscape and the patterns and structures that result in safer, well-resourced communities.
In Corporate Control, Nora Loreto dives into the corporate web spun around Canada’s economy, society, and politics. Corporate profits are at a record high, and the divide between the rich and the poor has never been wider. Canadians are struggling with affordability, the housing crisis, and wages that don’t cover basic needs. The combination of these forces is a pressure cooker that politicians have promised to tackle, except they can’t: they are too restricted by corporate power to confront the roots of the problems Canadians face.
Sandy and Nora Talk Politics is one of Canada’s premier news analysis podcasts. With more than 8000 listeners per weekly episode, Sandy and Nora have helped to influence how Canadians look at politics, society, the economy and social movements.
This event is free to attend. Books will be available to purchase from Octopus Books. Thank you to Spark Beer for hosting! Come early to grab a table and enjoy a delicious pizza & pint.