Ubaka Ogbogu

A student sent me photos she took in my class to memorialize some things I said while teaching. I can't even remember saying these things lol.

Sorry - just saw this. Yes, I do recommend it, but I am not sure how effective it'd be in a large room. I believe there are other portable ones that are rated for larger rooms. I'll see if I can dig up some.

Open letter to Prime Minister Carney from 412 Canadian academics, lawyers, former ambassadors, ministers, public servants, and civil society leaders, urging immediate action to stop the genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people. www.alexneve.ca/blog/prime-m...

Edmonton welcomed me last week at the #RILS conference, and the camaraderie was palpable! Thanks to the organizers for creating space & @ubakaogbogu.bsky.social for hosting. My piece “Two Sides of a Coin: Are a Coin” offered a metaphorical exploration of migration as currency & border as method.

Public health must be reframed as infrastructure for solidarity, not just crisis response. The challenge isn’t that we don’t know what to do. It’s that we’ve been told we no longer need to care. That’s what we must resist.

Change won’t come from awareness campaigns alone. It starts with communities already leading: unionized workers, disabled people, healthcare and elder care advocates who know what's at stake and are still organizing for safety.

We’re now facing more than fatigue. We’re up against a politically convenient indifference. Disinformation and the erosion of collective responsibility have normalized neglect, especially of those deemed “expendable.”

The early push to label COVID as “endemic” was not science. It was politics. It gave cover for institutions to withdraw and seeded public apathy that still shapes resistance to even simple, effective health measures.

These are my comments presented earlier today at a conference on airborne transmission and what to do about it. 🧵

Here's another real life example: the First Nations Health Authority, the first and only provincial First Nations health authority in Canada, is still doing COVID surveillance and prevention programming: www.fnha.ca/what-we-do/c...

To ground this thread in a real-life example: New Brunswick used workplace safety laws to implement ventilation practices informed by the pandemic. This wasn’t a coincidence - workplace safety is a key driver of broader public safety progress.

I can't imagine working in a factory and rejecting workplace safety protections just because you think you'd be okay or because you are just tired of it.

Even if you think you can do without sensible, science-backed COVID protections, you should fight to keep them in place until no one is left behind. Mask not just for yourself, but in solidarity with those who have no choice.

I'm thinking of mutual aid communities, Indigenous nations with communal health traditions, the disability community, and labour unions with strong health advocacy legacies. The privileged left is deeply unreliable.

I think the only viable path for a socially progressive vision of public health is to root its momentum in communities where a culture of safety, health, and collective welfare is already deeply ingrained and resilient.

What she powerfully reveals is that leftism is only skin deep when leftists cut and run simply because they can afford to. If social or political progressivism only advances up to the point where the privileged remain comfortable, then all progress is ultimately doomed.

A Chronically Ill Earth: COVID Organizing as a Model Climate Response in Los Angeles BY VIOLET AFFLECK I spent the January fires in Los Angeles arguing with my mother in a hotel room. She was shell-shocked, astonished at the scale of destruction in the neighborhood where she raised…

In this piece, Violet Affleck has incisively captured the bind social progressives created for themselves with COVID: failing to live up to the actions their own ideals demand. yaleglobalhealthreview.com/2025/05/18/a... 🧵

The NDP is not likely to form government, and in my view, this Liberal platform is a million times better than what the CPC is offering. If the polls show your riding is a close call between the CPC and any other centre/left leaning party, consider voting against the CPC.

Overall, I'd say the platform is socially progressive, economically nationalist, institutionally centrist. I prefer the NDP platform because it places a stronger emphasis on systemic reforms, grassroots empowerment, and economic equity.

Centrist in commitments to strong military rearmament, fast-tracked project approvals, and law-and-order measures (tougher bail, sentencing, and border security). Pro-growth, pro-trade, and aims to keep Canada attractive to capital while insulating it from U.S. volatility.

Deeply nationalist platform. It frames U.S. tariffs as economic warfare, promotes “Buy Canadian” policies, and pushes to unify the internal economy. There is a clear protectionist edge and emphasis on economic sovereignty.

On equity and culture, promises stronger CBC/Radio-Canada, protections for LGBTQ2+ rights, anti-hate measures, Indigenous economic inclusion, & climate justice. Backs the Charter as protection against rising discrimination and global democratic backsliding.

So I read Carney's platform. 🧵
Leans progressive with commitments to public health care, pharmacare, dental care, mental health funding, and universal childcare. Defends reproductive rights, boosts youth supports, & promises green and Indigenous-led infrastructure investments.

The simple metal box that could change the world - Healthy Debate This quiet, repairable metal air cleaner is an inexpensive long-term disease prevention tool for public spaces.

healthydebate.ca/2025/04/topi...

The Gen X Career Meltdown (Gift Article) Just when they should be at their peak, experienced workers in creative fields find that their skills are all but obsolete.

The Gen X Career Meltdown www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Fantastic news.
www.ualberta.ca/en/law/about...

U of A caves to misinformation, renames EDI office - The Gateway This change and its timing doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of optimism that the U of A is truly working towards EDI or even ACB.

The real story behind why @ualberta.bsky.social got rid of EDI.
thegatewayonline.ca/2025/01/u-of...

Over 150 people sign open letters in solidarity with racialized UBC law professors, call on UBC Allard dean to commit to EDI More than 150 racialized legal academics and allies signed two open letters calling on UBC’s Peter A. Allard School of Law to implement equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) practices.

www.ubyssey.ca/news/people-...

Absolutely.

Let me know if you decide to stop by and I'll give you a tour of the law school!