rabble.ca is an alternative, left-leaning English-language
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
online magazine founded in 2001. It features podcasts, videos and a
discussion board
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
called ''babble''.
History
Judy Rebick
Judy Rebick (born August 15, 1945) is a Canadian writer, journalist, political activist, and feminist.
Early life
Born in Reno, Nevada, Rebick and her family moved to Toronto when she was 9. She became a socialist activist in the 1970s, joining th ...
and
Mark Surman
Mark Surman is a Canadian open internet activist and the executive director of the Mozilla Foundation. He is a leading advocate for trustworthy AI, digital privacy, and the open internet. Before joining the Mozilla Foundation, Mark spent more tha ...
founded rabble.ca on April 18, 2001. The launch coincided with the
Summit of the Americas
The Summit of the Americas (SOA) is an international summit meeting that brings together the leaders of countries in the Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from the OAS under pressure from the United States after the Cuban Re ...
in
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, and rabble covered the Summit during its first week of operation.
Anti-globalization
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globalist m ...
activist Jaggi Singh became one of the website's most active contributors. Due to his participation in protests at the
Summit of the Americas
The Summit of the Americas (SOA) is an international summit meeting that brings together the leaders of countries in the Organization of American States (OAS). Cuba was expelled from the OAS under pressure from the United States after the Cuban Re ...
he was jailed for offences including possession of a weapon. Rabble, along with other left-wing organisations and activists, wrote an
open letter
An open letter is a Letter (message), letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally.
Open letters usually take the form of a letter (mess ...
calling for his release.
Upon its launch, the website raised $200,000, which included $120,000 from the
Atkinson Foundation
The Atkinson Charitable Foundation is a major Canadian charity established in 1942 by Joseph E. Atkinson (1865–1948). It is a non-governmental, and non-profit organization.
History
Joseph E. Atkinson (1865–1948) was the founding chair of the A ...
.
On September 7, 2008, rabble.ca launched a multi-author election blog. The blog featuring authors such as
Maude Barlow
Maude Victoria Barlow (born May 24, 1947) is a Canadian author and activist. She is a founding member of the Council of Canadians, a citizens' advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada. She is also the co-founder of the Blue ...
and the
Council of Canadians
The Council of Canadians is a Canadian non-profit organization that advocates for clean water, fair trade, green energy, public health care, and a vibrant democracy. The organization is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario with regional offices in H ...
Judy Rebick
Judy Rebick (born August 15, 1945) is a Canadian writer, journalist, political activist, and feminist.
Early life
Born in Reno, Nevada, Rebick and her family moved to Toronto when she was 9. She became a socialist activist in the 1970s, joining th ...
,
Naomi Klein
Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...
Doris Anderson
Doris Hilda Anderson, (November 10, 1921 – March 2, 2007) was a Canadian author, journalist and women's rights activist. She is best known as the editor of the women's magazine ''Chatelaine'', mixing traditional content (recipes, décor) w ...
, Ann Shin and Sandra DeLaronde were among the original contributors at the launch of the website.
Judy Rebick retired in 2006 and was replaced by
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
member Kim Elliott.
Former ''
Financial Post
The ''Financial Post'' was an English Canadian business newspaper, which published from 1907 to 1998. In 1998, the publication was folded into the new ''National Post'',"Black says Post to merge with new paper". ''The Globe and Mail'', July 23, ...
'' columnist Murray Dobbin is the guest senior contributing editor for ''rabble.ca''.
The advisory committee of ''rabble.ca'' is composed of Dave Mitchell, Fred Wilson, John Urquhart,
Linda McQuaig
Linda Joy McQuaig is a Canadian journalist, columnist, non-fiction author and social critic. She is best known for her series of best-selling books that challenge the dominant free-market economic ideology of recent decades. Her books make the c ...
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' praised ''Rabble'' for its use of the Internet to propel activism, while journalist Colby Cosh dismissed it as "a hobby for Judy Rebick ..on the Canadian left" and a "vanity web project".