Agency isn't something Canada hands newcomers along with healthcare and a job. It's something they have to claim for themselves—and Maiwand Rahyab thinks the country's next chapter depends on it.

Maiwand Rahyab is founder and CEO of Resilient Societies, an organization protecting civic space and democracy in Canada and around the world. Drawing on his own journey to Canada as a refugee from Afghanistan, he argues that true belonging requires more than access to basic services—it requires the space to contribute, and the agency to matter. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum.

Rahyab spoke at The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging in April 2026.

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Susu, boxhand, meeting turn, partner—the informal banking systems built by marginalized communities have names most Canadians have never heard, and don't recognize as a legacy already thriving here.

Dr. Caroline Shenaz Hossein is Canada Research Chair of Feminist Political Economy and founder of the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective. Drawing on more than a decade of research into rotating savings and credit associations, she shows how these community-run economies build the trust and belonging that formal institutions often fail to offer. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum.

Dr. Shenaz Hossein spoke at The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging in April 2026, in Toronto.

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Community isn't the soft stuff around democracy—it's the load-bearing wall holding it up.

Amanda Munday is executive director of New Majority, a nonpartisan organization that activates young and first-time voters. Drawing on her own experience building a co-working and childcare space after hitting a wall of policy inaction, she shows how community infrastructure—not political access—is often what turns advocacy into real change. This special episode of The Conversation Piece features content from The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging, supported by The Belonging Forum.

Munday spoke at The Walrus Talks: Power and Belonging on April 9, 2026.

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