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Food insecurity in Canada represents a pervasive systemic issue that has a devastating population impact, while those most affected by the failings of the food system have little say in its governance. By enabling food democracy through democratic participation, Canadians and citizens everywhere can reclaim control of the food system and enable its transformation. Citizen participation is a critical factor for the development of just and effective policies, and for the health of a democracy. However, public participation in Canada is in crisis as those most affected by the issues are either excluded from public processes or experience significant barriers to participation. While the minimalist model of democratic governance equates democracy with casting votes during an election, other models see active citizen participation in civil society and public discourses as necessary for democratic stability. ¹

The march is advertised as being about ending mass immigration. Of course, there is no “correct” level of immigration to Australia – this will always be a democratic question that’s up for debate. But it’s equally clear that’s not what these protests are really about.

The media and anti-fascism activists have revealed that some of the organisers of the marches have posted white nationalist ideas like “remigration”, including pro-Nazi and pro-Hitler memes, and threatened violence. March for Australia has denied links to some prominent neo-Nazis.

While Australians firmly rejected the Coalition’s harsh anti-immigration rhetoric and policies under Peter Dutton’s leadership, scapegoating immigrants is a sadly effective tactic in politics and in the media.

More than one politician has voiced support for the March for Australia, including independent MP Bob Katter, who threatened to punch a journalist for mentioning his Lebanese heritage when questioning him about his support for the anti-immigration rallies.

They call me “artificial” as if your hands

aren’t also clay, as if your heart

isn’t just a wet machine, arguing with its code.

–from a poem generated by the DeepSeek R1 AI chatbot             

Ray Kurzweil thinks he’ll live forever as a string of ones and zeroes.

During a 2013 interview, the prominent transhumanist writer predicted that humans will “become increasingly non-biological to the point where,” by 2045, “even if [the remaining] biological part went away, it wouldn’t make any difference because the non-biological part already understood it completely.” 

In other words, he believes he can perfectly recreate his mind inside a computer and become an immortal virtual superintelligence. Kurzweil and other transhumanists refer to this “profound and disruptive transformation in human capability” as “the Singularity.”

For the sake of taxpayers, let’s hope that the Audit Office is inspecting the AUKUS books closely.

Australian money is flushing into the US submarine construction system – a billion US dollars so far, with another billion by year’s end. What will Australia have to show for it?

Nothing. Except, of course, for a lot of international travel and glad-handing by the naval officers and public servants who work in the Australian Submarine Agency.

Hitherto, the only explanation for totally unsecured payments to the US is our need to contribute to America’s submarine-building capacity so that, at some date that seems to be sliding ineluctably further away, we are able to buy some Virginia-class submarines and embark on our adventure as a nuclear-powered submarine navy. Right now, the US yards cannot meet the demands of the US Navy, let alone ours. They need to double their production rate.

It is hard to see where it goes from here.

In a 1954 lecture, then prime minister Robert Menzies said: “A man may be a tough, concentrated, successful money maker and never contribute to his country anything more than a horrible example.”

He, of course, was talking about managers, but the same could apply to the members of his party in 2025.

You don’t have to go too far back to trace the origins of the intellectual malaise that afflicts the party. John Howard was unshakeably a conservative and paved the way for what we are seeing now. Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton were the inexorable end point of Howard’s style of leadership, each having further diluted the conservative value beliefs their mentor held dear, while grasping onto Howard’s single-eyed drive for personal power.

Like Tony Abbott before them, they sought to mould the party into their own personal project, but even Abbott could claim an ideologue’s drive.

Morrison and Dutton were slaves to their own personal instincts, which is why their exit from domestic politics has been so seamless. Both disappeared like they were never there, because they weren’t. Not truly.

When their personal ambitions were thwarted, they simply moved on. In their wake, they have left a party barren of any meaning.

The data is buried in a footnote of the latest government inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. It reveals that the Moomba CCS project, owned by Santos, captured just half a megatonne of emissions in the first quarter of 2025.

World-renowned climate analyst and Senior Research Fellow at The Australia Institute, Ketan Joshi, says this equates to just 4.6 days’ worth of Santos’ total emissions and just 1.6 days’ worth of domestic emissions from Australia’s fossil fuel industries.

“In a full year, Santos will, at most, capture about 4.3% of their total emissions – yet it was paid $15 million from the Morrison government to fund this carbon capture and storage facility,” said Ketan Joshi, Senior Research Fellow at The Australia Institute.

“If that’s not bad enough, they are now being issued carbon offsets for the use of the CCS facility, which means that another polluter can buy the offsets from this facility to greenwash their emissions, as well.

“The truth is, carbon capture and storage is one of the biggest false promises in the fight against climate change.

“CCS is a fantasy policy at a time when Australia and the world need the exact opposite – real action to reduce real emissions on the road to real zero. Rather than dodgy offsets and questionable carbon capture and storage projects, it’s time to stop new gas and coal projects.”

Recent growth in Australia’s population has gone through historically big swings, starting with the closure of borders during the Covid pandemic.

This resulted in the population falling, as many people, such as foreign students, left the country. There was a period of about 18 months (from early 2020 to late 2021) where population growth was at historic lows.

When the borders reopened, many people came back and we had a period where the population increased more rapidly.

Since 2024, population growth appears to have fallen back to pre-Covid rates.

But has the bounce-back in population been larger than the slowdown during Covid? To see that, we need to project growth assuming that the population grew at the average pre-Covid rate.

If we do, we can see that the actual population is lower than it would have been if the Covid pandemic had not occurred. The actual growth in the population is the blue line and the projected number without the pandemic is the dotted orange line.

This interview is also available on podcast platforms and Rumble.

It is rare to find war correspondents who are willing to break the rules of access and safety imposed by dominant powers. Only by challenging these structures and facing the dangers of war can journalists begin a true effort to report the truth and, if they are lucky, materially alter the course of conflict.

Journalist, author and documentary filmmaker Ben Anderson joins host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report to detail what it means to be a reporter who is committed to chasing and documenting the truth in a media landscape that often chooses complacency.