Matthew Behrens

Matthew Behrens is a freelance writer and social justice advocate who coordinates the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network. His column "Taking Liberties" examines connections between national security and civil liberties. Behrens has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. "national security" profiling for many years.

Columnists

May 25, 2020

Canada continues to put refugee lives in danger

Matthew Behrens

Canada's armed forces continue to participate in actions designed to make it harder for refugees to reach asylum. Could we imagine an unarmed sea force that instead works to help those in distress?

Columnists

Apr 29, 2020

The terrorism of stalking and the futility of resilience

Matthew Behrens

As beneficiaries of a system that constantly produces stories of violence against women, men need to do far more to confront increasingly weaponized misogyny.

Columnists

Apr 21, 2020

Rejecting the death instinct in a pandemic age

Matthew Behrens

Expressions of creativity and the thousands of mutual aid groups that have sprung up in communities during this crisis remind us of what it means to be human. All represent what we can and should be.

Columnists

Feb 28, 2020

The virus 'threatening' Canada starts with a D, not a C

Matthew Behrens

Modest-sized groups acting in solidarity have illustrated how fragile the Canadian state actually is, a lesson that, once learned, cannot be unlearned.

Columnists

Jan 29, 2020

Why is Canada still deporting Roma people to persecution?

Matthew Behrens

Ottawa Roma refugee Celina Urbanowicz received a deportation order last year after living in Canada for 23 years. She faces violence and persecution if she is forced to leave the country.

Columnists

Dec 12, 2019

A forgotten Canadian returns home from the war on terror

Matthew Behrens

Canadian Khalid Awan paid one of the heaviest imaginable prices for the system of racial profiling, mass arrests and indefinite detentions that targeted racialized communities after 9/11.

Columnists

Nov 21, 2019

An act of institutional femicide: remembering the life of Michele M

Matthew Behrens

The last three weeks of 58-year-old single mother and abuse survivor Michele M's life were spent on the run from a multi-generational history of male violence against women and children.

Columnists

Oct 17, 2019

The biggest winner in Canada's election is the military

Matthew Behrens

No matter who takes the reins of Parliament next week, perhaps the biggest winner in Canada's 2019 federal election will be a conglomerate of military industries and the war department.

Columnists

Sep 25, 2019

Genocide, fairytales, and the expendables of election 2019

Matthew Behrens

Most election climate solutions are largely about avoiding system change and instead "adapting" to climate catastrophe, a climate apartheid strategy that benefits those with the necessary resources.

Columnists

Jul 24, 2019

Mercury poisoning, Muskrat Falls and Canada's toxic divide

Matthew Behrens

The crisis of Canada's toxic divide has come into sharp focus in Labrador, where the plans are to push the Muskrat Falls megadam to full operations by the fall.

Matthew Behrens

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