Event starts at 6 pm ET, via ZOOM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86594784918?pwd=IqZDrDIoV9uLNPVdnPgyxj6OxXMa1b.1

Since the January 20^th election of Donald Trump, politics in the United States has been turned on its head. The result is a chaotic mix of seemingly contradictory political impulses, including neo-fascist authoritarianism and imperialism, but also a return to great power politics, diplomacy, and the possibility of conflict de-escalation.

As a key member of the Western political bloc, and close historic ally of the United States, Canada has experienced a particularly rude awakening. Our “neighbour to the south” is now talking openly about turning Canada into the 51^st State, while levelling devastating tariffs on Canadian imports and instigating a trade war.

These political changes are unfolding upon the backdrop of emerging multipolarity. The ascendancy of the BRICS bloc, the collapse of NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, and the ongoing genocide in Palestine all present unprecedented challenges to Canada’s traditional, U.S. – dominated foreign policy. In this discussion, our panellists will reflect on the challenges of this political moment and their implications for Canada’s domestic security and our place in a rapidly changing world.

Speaker Bios

Yves Engler

Dubbed “Canada’s version of Noam Chomsky” (Georgia Straight), “one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left” (Briarpatch), “in the mould of I. F. Stone” (Globe and Mail), “part of that rare but growing group of social critics unafraid to confront Canada’s self-satisfied myths” (Quill & Quire), “ever-insightful” (Rabble), “Chomsky-styled iconoclast” (Counterpunch) and a “Leftist gadfly” (Ottawa Citizen), Yves Engler (yvesengler.com) has thirteen published books. His latest (with Owen Schalk) is Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy.

Muhannad Ayyash

Professor Muhannad Ayyash was born and raised in Silwan, Al-Quds, before immigrating to Canada, where he is now Professor of Sociology at Mount Royal University. He is the author of A Hermeneutics of Violence (UTP, 2019), and has recently finished writing another book, Lordship and Liberation in Palestine-Israel. He has published several academic articles on topics such as political violence, vaccine apartheid, anti-Palestinian racism, and Palestinian decolonial movements in journals such as the European Journal of International Relations, the European Journal of Social Theory, Distinktion, and Critical Sociology. He has co-edited two books, the most recent with Jeremy Wildeman titled, Canada as a Settler Colony on the Question of Palestine. He is also the author of multiple book chapters, and has written opinion pieces for Al-Jazeera, The Baffler, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, and The Breach, among others.

Radhika Desai

Dr. Radhika Desai is Professor at the Department of Political Studies, and Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. She is the author of Geopolitical Economy: After US Hegemony, Globalization and Empire (2013), Slouching Towards Ayodhya: From Congress to Hindutva in Indian Politics (2nd rev ed, 2004) and Intellectuals and Socialism: ‘Social Democrats’ and the Labour Party (1994), a New Statesman and Society Book of the Month, and editor or co-editor of Russia, Ukraine and Contemporary Imperialism, a special issue of International Critical Thought (2016), Theoretical Engagements in Geopolitical Economy (2015), Analytical Gains from Geopolitical Economy (2015), Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today’s Capitalism (2010) and Developmental and Cultural Nationalisms (2009).

She is also the author of numerous articles in Economic and Political Weekly, International Critical Thought, New Left Review, Third World Quarterly, World Review of Political Economy and other journals and in edited collections on parties, political economy, culture and nationalism.

With Alan Freeman, she co-edits the Geopolitical Economy book series with Manchester University Press and the Future of Capitalism book series with Pluto Press.

She serves on the Editorial Boards of many journals including Canadian Political Science Review, Critique of Political Economy, E-Social Sciences, Pacific Affairs, Global Faultlines, Research in Political Economy, Revista de Economía Crítica, World Review of Political Economy and International Critical Thought.

Kevin MacKay

Professor Kevin MacKay is a faculty member in the School of Communications and Global Studies at Mohawk College of Applied Arts and Technology. He researches, writes, and speaks on the topics of societal collapse, systemic risk, and political transformation. In 2017 he published Radical Transformation: Oligarchy, Collapse, and the Crisis of Civilization. He is currently working on a book titled A New Ecological Politics, with Oregon State University Press.

Kevin is also a union leader in OPSEU-SEFPO, serving as Vice President of the Mohawk College faculty union and as a delegate from OPSEU-SEFPO to the Canadian Association of University Teachers. He has served three terms on the provincial executive of OPSEU-SEFPO College Faculty and was a member of the 2017 provincial bargaining team that won academic freedom for faculty at 24 Ontario colleges. Kevin is also a member of Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War and Executive Director of the Sky Dragon Community Development Co-operative.