TO. Greenspiration Events - mark your calendars
angela bischoff
greenspi at web.ca
Tue Nov 4 15:55:38 EST 2008
Toronto Greenspirational Events
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ELIMINATION NOT DISCRIMINATION: FREE EDUCATION FOR ALL!
Rally and March
The Committee for Just Education calls on all our allies to join us as
we walk through the University of Toronto and demand "Free Education
for All" as part of the Canadian Federation of Students Day of Action.
Wed. Nov. 5th 10:30 AM
New College Quad (grassy area at the corner of Huron and Wilcox)
While the university administration is moving towards the
"deregulation" of fees and corporatizing our campus, education is
becoming even more inaccessible. Post secondary fees are rising to
drastic levels and students are leaving the university with
unmanageable debt. Meanwhile the administrations are forging stronger
links with corporations and are acting in the interest of these
businesses rather than in the interest of the student population. At
the University of Toronto, this comes at a time when there is a
clamp-down on student organizing by way of the freezing of student
union funds, the laying of criminal charges against student activists
and a host of other repressive tactics to police student dissent.
These actions that have been taken by university administrations
across the country disproportionately affect those of us who already
face marginalization while attending post-secondary education.
It is critical for students and community members to stand up against
this corporate takeover of our university and demand that education
not be a privilege for a few but accessible to all. The CJE and our
allies will march on November 5th to demand that our university be a
place that does not discriminate against marginalized groups, but a
place where all groups have a right to attend and participate.
The Committee for Just Education Demands:
1. Equal access to education through the elimination of all fees.
2. That the U of T administration and Toronto Police immediately drop
all proceedings against students and organizers and stop the policing
of dissent on campus.
3. Student, worker, and faculty parity on university decision-making
bodies, including the Governing Council.
** for more information email fightfees at gmail.com
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Blockade: Algonquins Defend the Forest, 1989-2008
Panel discussion and film screening
WEDNESDAY, November 5, 7:00pm, 2008
OISE (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), Room # 2-211
University of Toronto
252 Bloor Street W (@ St. George Subway Station)
Hear from Barriere Lake Algonquin community representatives, following an
intense summer of marches on Ottawa, sustained calls for public support,
protests in front of Premier Charest's office, an occupation of local MP
Lawrence Cannon's office, and culminating in a one-day blockade of Highway
117 that resulted in 9 arrests and the deployment of riot police and tear
gas. A short film of the recent blockades will be screened.
Since the Department of Indian Affairs ousted their Customary Chief and
Council in March 2008 and used the Surete du Quebec to forcibly impose the
authority of a minority community faction, the Algonquins have been
organizing to roll-back the quiet coup d'etat. They are campaigning to
make the government honour a number of agreements, including the
Trilateral, a internationally praised land co-management and
resource-revenue sharing deal the Algonquins signed with Canada and Quebec
in 1991. It remains unimplemented.
Community spokespeople from Barriere Lake: Norman Matchewan and Marylynn
Poucachiche are teachers in Barriere Lake's Algonquin elementary school
and Barriere Lake's youth spokespeople.
***Donations of money are encouraged to support the community's campaign –
they need money for gas to travel. Click here for a full list of community
needs and to make an online donation:
<http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/03/donations.html>http://barrierelakesolidarity.blogspot.com/2008/03/donations.html
For more information Contact:
Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG)
Research – Education – Action on Social and Environmental Issues
<http://www.opirguoft.org/>www.opirguoft.org
<mailto:opirg.toronto at utoronto.ca>opirg.toronto at utoronto.ca / (416)-978-7770
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The Centre for Women's Studies in Education at OISE-UT
presents:
the 12th Annual Dame Nita Barrow Lecture
Wahu Kaara
WOMEN, POWER AND POLITICS:
COUNTERPLANNING FOR NEW LIFEWORLDS:
Resistance to a Racialized Market Patriarchy
November 5th, 2008 7p.m.
George Ignatieff Theatre 15 Devonshire Place
Free admission
Reception to follow at Seeley Hall, Trinity College
Wahu Kaara is a long-time political activist and leader
who brings a range of feminist analyses and alternative
women- and justice-centred perspectives to her work.
She ran for parliament in Kenya in 2002 and 2007 and
was a delegate to the country's Constitutional
Conference, which in 2004 completed drafting a new
national constitution whose deeply democratic
proposals were rejected by the government. She has
served as Director of the Kenyan Debt Relief Network,
Chair of the Steering Committee of the East African
Coalition on Economic, Social, Cultural Rights,
Co-ordinator of the debt campaign of the African
Women's Economic Policy Network and Member of
the Steering Committee of the World Social Forum,
which was hosted in Nairobi, Kenya in January 2007.
See Nov. 1 Toronto Star article on Wahu:
Nancy J. White,
BRINGING KENYA'S MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
<http://www.thestar.com/article/526281>http://www.thestar.com/article/526281
Also: see video of last year's lecture by Malawi's
Seodi White: "Women's Rights, HIV/AIDS, and the
Appropriateness of the Response Lived realities from
Malawi and Southern Africa" Nov. 8, 2007
<http://mediacast.ic.utoronto.ca/20071108-CWSE/index.htm>http://mediacast.ic.utoronto.ca/20071108-CWSE/index.htm
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CONNECT FOOD: Exploring Healthy Food Choices in our City
Thursday, November 6, 2008
from 6:30 pm
at the Center for Social Innovation,
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 400.
Pay what you can.
Explore the health, ethical and social dimensions of food choices. Enjoy a
range of ‘nutritious and delicious’ food sampling stations. Participate
in activities and stimulating discussions with local experts. Bid on
green and healthy items at our silent auction
This event supports the prevention initiatives of Women's Healthy
Environments Network (WHEN) in addressing environmental links to health.
For further information go to
<http://www.womenshealthyenvironments.ca/>www.womenshealthyenvironments.ca
or call 416-928-0880.
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Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival: Nov 6-15
How did you first learn about mental health? Was it from Jack Nicholson
or Jim Carrey? Have you seen psychotic ship captains, grandmothers in
attics or nymphomaniacs from Mars?
At the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival we explore the cinematic
representations of mental illness and addiction. We give award-winning
films from around the world a real life perspective and then we talk
about them with the filmmakers, people with personal and professional
experience with mental illness and addiction and with the audience.
This year's line up includes a Hong Kong detective movie, a documentary
about the Dream Machine that offers a drugless high, and on Remembrance
Day a German film about a soldier who returns from a peace keeping mission
in Afghanistan where things were not very peaceful.
For the whole line up visit our website at
http://www.rendezvouswithmadness.com.
Tickets are $10 (opening night film and reception $25) and are available
at Ticket Web at (1-888-222-6608 or
http://www.ticketweb.ca/snl/EventListings.action?orgId=20643
Group tickets and passes are available at Workman Arts at 416-583-4339.
Rendezvous with Madness is produced by Workman Arts
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Science for Peace & Canadian Pugwash, Global Issues Project, invite you to a:
Public Forum on Fresh Water Problems: Emerging Threats and Priorities.
7.30pm - 9.30pm on Fri. Nov 7, 2008
at the George Ignatieff Theatre, Larkin Building, 135 Devonshire Place,
University of Toronto
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WAR-FREE SCHOOLS PUBLIC FORUM
A public forum challenging Harper's plan to recruit Canada's youth to war
in Afghanistan
Friday, November 7
7:00pm
Multi-purpose Room, Student Centre, Ryerson University
55 Gould Street
Khaled Mouammar (moderator): President, Canadian Arab Federation
Andria Hill-Lehr (keynote speaker): Mother, grandmother, writer and
counselling therapist, Andria has been a vocal opponent of Canada's
mission in Afghanistan, questioning its efficacy and long-term
consequences, and the government's motives behind the mission. Andria is
also the author of A Mother's Road to Kandahar, the story of her eldest
son's decision to join Cadets, and then the Reserves, and his deployment
to Afghanistan in 2006.
Abbie Bakan: Member, Educators for Peace and Justice; and Professor of
Political Studies, Queen's University, Kingston
Javier Davila: Member, Educators for Peace and Justice; and activist in
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF)
Leslie Doucet: Aboriginal rights activist whose son enlisted in the
Canadian Armed Forces
Ausma Malik: Former Vice-president (Equity), University of Toronto
Students' Union
Ali Mallah: Vice-president, Canadian Arab Federation; and Vice-president
alternate, Workers of Colour, Canadian Labour Congress
Hamid Osman: President, York Federation of Students; and member, Afghan
caucus, Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Michael Skinner: PhD candidate, York University; researcher at the York
Centre for International and Security Studies; and member, Afghanistan
Canada Research Group
Rinaldo Walcott: Canada Research Chair of Social Justice and Cultural
Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of
Toronto
Organized by
Educators for Peace and Justice (EPJ)
EPJ is a broad coalition of peace, solidarity and anti-racist groups and
individuals.
Email: epj.elementary.secondary at lists.riseup.net
Web: <http://www.operationobjection.org/>www.operationobjection.org
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Pens Against Poverty
Saturday, Nov. 8 @ 9am-12noon
Church of the Epiphany & St. Mark, 201 Cowan St.
INFO/RSVP: Gail Turner, 416.531.8677; email g_turner at rogers.com
This event is sponsored by KAIROS Toronto Central & the Church of the
Epiphany and St. Mark.
Free admission. Donations welcome.
Pens Against Poverty is a skills-building workshop on communicating
effectively with elected representatives. Is it really worthwhile to add
your name to that on-line petition, postcard or form letter? Why are
personalized messages important? What makes a letter effective? What
response can you expect? What next?
These and other topics will be covered. Workshop includes hands-on
practice in composing actual letters to be sent to your MP or MPP.
Guest speaker: Murray MacAdam
Diocesan Consultant on Social Justice & Advocacy.
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Tar Sands Showdown
book launch with author Tony Clarke
Tues. Nov. 11, 7 p.m.
Koffler Institute, Multifaith Centre
569 Spadina Avenue (North of College St, South of the Spadina Subway Station)
Free
Canada's oil patch is booming. The Alberta tar sands have become the
number one foreign oil source for the United States, replacing Saudi
Arabia.
Within the next 15 years, Canada will be pumping four to five times more
crude than today from the tar pits of northern Alberta into the US market.
The tar sands are key to the claim that Canada is the new "energy
superpower".
As the new backbone of Canada's economy, the tar sands are bound to define
and shape Canada's role and destiny as a nation in the twenty-first
century. What is lacking is independent, reliable information on the host
of
questions raised by the tar sands - and thoughtful analysis of the issues
they raise. What is the real cost to Albertans and to Canadians? How far
are we willing to go to fuel America's oil addiction? What will the
ecological and social impacts be? What can be done to build an alternative
energy future in an age of global warming?
Tar Sands Showdown provides a tool for stimulating public discussion and
debate about these important issues.
Tony Clarke is the director of Polaris Institute, which is designed to
enable citizen and social movements to develop tools for education and
action on major environmental policy issues for more effective
participation in democratic social change. In 2005 he was awarded the
Right Livelihood Award (alongside Maude Barlow) for his long-standing work
on trade, justice and water issues.
Event sponsored by: Polaris Institute, Kairos, Council of Canadians,
Greenspiration, and Students Against Climate Change
For more info: <greenspi at web.ca>, ph. 647 342 1964
http://tarsandswatch.org/
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BODY of War
The true story of an anti-war hero
A film by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro
Featuring original songs by Eddie Vedder
Film screening
Tuesday, November 11
7:00pm
Bloor Cinema
506 Bloor Street West
Advance tickets: $11
At the door: $15
- About the movie -
Body of War is an intimate and transformational feature documentary about
the true face of war today. Meet Tomas Young, 25 years old, paralyzed from
a bullet to his spine - wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a
week. Body of War is Tomas' coming home story as he evolves into a new
person, coming to terms with his disability and finding his own unique and
passionate voice against the war.
The film is produced and directed by Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, and
features two original songs by Eddie Vedder. Body of War is a naked and
honest portrayal of what it's like inside the body, heart and soul of this
extraordinary and heroic young man.
- Solidarity -
This is a solidarity event with all proceeds going to Iraq Veterans
Against the War (www.IVAW.org). This event has many local ties to Toronto:
the funds raised will support the legal cases of US Iraq War resisters
seeking refuge in Canada, and who are resisting Stephen Harper's attempts
to deport them to the US.
Historically, the Canadian government has provided sanctuary to war
resisters, but something has changed with the current government. There is
a legal and political battle underway to keep the resisters in Canada. If
deported, they face jail time for not participating in a war that has been
deemed illegal under international law.
Organized by
Body of War Toronto
For more information and to reserve tickets, please visit
<http://www.bodyofwartoronto.com/>www.bodyofwartoronto.com.
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No Cops in Schools Campaign - Organizing meeting
Wednesday, November 12th
6:30 p.m.
Room: 8-192
OISE (Just above St. George Subway Station)
252 Bloor Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6
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The Tyranny of Oil
Thur. November 13th, 2008
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Earth Sciences Centre (5 Bancroft Avenue, Room 1050), University of
Toronto, Canada
** This event will also be streamed live at
<http://www.therealnews.com/>www.therealnews.com. **
In The Tyranny of Oil, Antonia Juhasz exposes an industry that thrives on
secrecy. She shows how Big Oil manages to hide its business dealings from
policy makers, legislators, and most of all, consumers. Juhasz then
provides a clear set of meaningful and achievable solutions, including the
break-up of Big Oil.
Cover charge: $8 at the door or help us build The Real News Network by
becoming a Member at $10 a month (or $120 a year). With your membership
you can get in free and receive a copy of the Antonia Juhasz's book.
The Real News Network is the missing link in the independent media
landscape. TRNN questions assumptions and challenges the official version
of events; it follows verifiable facts to rational conclusions.
We are a non-profit video news and documentary service based in
Washington, DC and Toronto. We are building a 24/7 news and documentary
service on the Web and a one-hour news and debate show on television. We
are building to compete with cable news for an audience in the millions.
<http://therealnews.com/permalinkedgraphics/oise/invitation-08.html>http://therealnews.com/permalinkedgraphics/oise/invitation-08.html
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Transportation Futures:
Ontario's Inaugural Road Pricing Forum
http://www.rccao.com/events
Thursday, November 13, 2008
NEW Location: InterContinental Hotel Toronto-Yorkville (220 Bloor Street
West, Toronto)
Traffic congestion. Lost time. Crumbling roads. Increasing emissions.
Few transportation choices. And insufficient government revenue streams
available to fix these problems.
Most Canadians agree that there is an urgent need to bring predictability
and ease of mobility to the country's transportation network -- especially
near large urban centres. Can road pricing play a role in improving
mobility, air quality and the state of the nation's transportation
infrastructure? Or is it just a cash grab?
Find out the real answers at Transportation Futures, the first Ontario
transportation forum to rationally discuss road pricing policy
development, public acceptance, technology, governance and investment.
Five international experts will showcase their country's approach to road
pricing, including:
· Reg Evans on London's Congestion Charging Scheme
· Nicolas Mery on France's Variable Tolling System
· Germa Bakker on Holland's "Different Payment for Mobility" Plan
· James Whitty on Oregon's VMT-Based Road Charging Pilot Project
· Martin Rickmann on Germany's Satellite-based Toll Collection System
for Heavy Trucks
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You're invited to a series of informal weekly meetings at Metro Hall to
discuss the Metrolinx Regional Transportation Plan for the GTHA (a.k.a.
The Big Move). The draft plan is set for approval at the end of November,
and it's a far-ranging, ambitious project -- do you have any questions?
All meetings at Metro Hall, 55 John St. @ King, about three blocks from
Union Station. Remaining start times TBA.
Here are the suggested themes for discussion over the next month:
Tues. Nov 4 Room 303: Network, corridors and technologies
Start time: 6pm (early due to interest in US election results)
Tues. Nov 11 Room 303: Fare integration, and effect on capacity
Tues. Nov 18 Room 303: Goods movement, railways and highways
Tues. Nov 25 Room 303: Budget and timeline for The Big Move
Metrolinx will be asked in advance to respond to a series of questions --
either in written form or by sending representatives to join the
discussions.
Ed Drass plans to send out regular updates on the meetings, with
additional details of the submitted questions. To ensure you receive
these, send a note to <transit at eddrass.com>
Likewise contact Ed if you wish to help in the organization of these
sessions.
Also see http://transitforum.ca
An excellent source of news and public meetings is
http://transit.toronto.on.ca/
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Annette Street - Symbolic victory for cyclists
Last week cycling advocates witnessed the potential of a strong political
push for bicycling at City Council. Despite an initial setback at the
Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting, pro-cycling councillors
voted to reverse the committee's decision to install sharrows, and instead
directed staff to install full bike lanes instead. Ward 13 residents and
Annette Street users can now expect a full bike lane to be painted from
Jane to Runnymede.
A great deal of thanks must go out to the over 200 people who sent in
letters in favour of the bike lanes - this was the necessary support City
Council needed to reverse the committee decision. While it's tough to hear
that this amount of effort was needed to approve 700 metres of bike lanes,
it's comforting to know that this effort was not in vain.
To read more about the decision, and about the 2009 bicycle infrastructure
budget, see this
<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081103.GRIDLOCK03/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/>article
from Monday's Globe and Mail.
For more on-going updates visit the World 19 web site by
<http://www.world19.com/annette.htm#lanes_pass>clicking here
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