[opirgyork] TODAY: Stop Racial Profiling + Save the Schoolhouse & ReBuilding Bridges Full Schedule

[OPIRG York]

*1. Stop Racial Profiling! – Stop Racist Policing! (TODAY)*

On November 14, 2012, join us as we speak out against the continued racial
profiling and racist policing directed at affected communities here in
Toronto.

Our struggles to be free from racist police harassment and unconstitutional
violations of our rights has resulted in many studies and much talk, but in
the neighbourhoods, nothing has changed – police still harass, intimidate,
illegally search, arrest, and brutalize the people, and especially Black
and racialized youth.  The Toronto Police Services Board's words have
proved empty and hollow, and the "new way of doing business" looks exactly
like the old one.

>From TAVIS to Form 208 cards, the security they talk about doesn’t mean
safety for us.  It’s time to find real solutions to neighbourhood problems!


On November 14, 2012, join us in saying – enough is enough!

No more illegal detentions and searches!

Stop racial profiling and racist policing!

Speak out in front of 40 College Street before the Toronto Police Services
Board meeting on November 14, from 1230PM -130PM

*Event endorsed by:* Justice IS NOT Colour-Blind Campaign, Law Union of
Ontario, Rights Watch Network, Network for Pan-African Solidarity, Nation
of Islam (Toronto), the office of Jagmeet Singh, and OPIRG York

To endorse please email speakoutnovember14 at gmail.com.

********************

*2. Save the School House Shelter Defend the Downtown East! **(TODAY)*

*Wednesday, November 14th
9am
Moss Park (Queen and Sherbourne)
*Free Breakfast, Rally and March*

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/events/289020987881979/?context=create

In June, the City of Toronto's 'Community Development and Recreation
Committee', including local councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, voted to close
down the School House on George St, a 55 bed men's harm reduction shelter.
On Wednesday, November 14th the issue of the School House Shelter will be
brought back to City Hall for a final report on how the money that should
be spent keeping the shelter open, will instead be re-shuffled in the
system.

In the mean-time, all shelters remain overcrowded, harm reduction
programming is scarce, the Provincial cut to Community Start-Up will throw
more people on to the streets, and winter is about to set in.

The closing of the School House is a gateway for the re-development and
gentrification of the entire Downtown East. On George St alone,
politicians and slumlords have let buildings that should have been
converted to affordable housing long ago, instead sit empty and catch
fire. They talk about 'cleaning up the neighborhood' but instead of
building housing, keeping shelters open, and providing more and better
services, they cut services, reduce shelter beds, and blame the poor. They
talk about 'mixed income' neighborhoods, and yet no one looks at mixing up
Rosedale, only the Downtown East is the target.

We can not let this shelter be closed, and we will not let poor people be
pushed and priced out of the Downtown East. OCAP has said from the
beginning that we will not simply watch the School House be cleared or sit
empty while people die on the streets. We have brought our community
together to fight for this space, and on November 14th we are not backing
down.

Get involved, join OCAP and the Downtown East Committee:
416-925-6939 / ocap at tao.ca / www.ocap.ca

Twitter: @OCAPtoronto
#SaveSchoolHouse

Fact Sheet on the School House Shelter: http://www.ocap.ca/node/1020]
*
*
*ALSO: THURSDAY + THIS WEEKEND **-  OPIRG YORK EVENTS:*
*
*
********************

*I ♥ Heart Alt Media Fundraiser - Opening Concert for ReBuilding Bridges
Conference by OPIRG York and OPIRG Toronto*
https://www.facebook.com/events/425473674183054

*Date*: Thursday November 15th
*Location*: Bike Pirates
1292 Bloor Street West (near Lansdowne Station)
*Time*: Doors at 9 PM

$5 suggested donation. No one turned away for lack of funds!

*Snacks will be provided!
*Drinks for purchase
*Venue is accessible

*Please write to rebuildingbridgestoronto at gmail.com for any
accessibility/childcare and billeting needs!

Opening event of the ReBuilding Bridges conference for OPIRG York and OPIRG
Toronto: https://www.facebook.com/events/293407270768607/

Thursday, November 15th- SAVE THE DATE!

*Performances: *

- Houses for Birds (http://soundcloud.com/housesforbirds) (
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Houses-for-Birds/314337625257503?ref=ts&fref=ts
)
- Lee Reed (http://leereed.bandcamp.com/)
- Test their Logik (http://testtheirlogik.com/)
-DJ Zehra (will DJ after the performances)!



*ReBuilding Bridges Conference- FULL SCHEDULE November 17-18th *

Rebuilding Bridges is a convergence of community organizers, educators,
radicals and activists from across different social movements, intent on
engaging in conversations and discussions about our political work.
*
*
*ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE.*

Rebuilding Bridges is a convergence of community organizers, educators,
radicals and activists from across different social movements, intent on
engaging in conversations and discussions about our political work.

***Please write to rebuildingbridgestoronto at gmail.com for any
accessibility/childcare and billeting needs!***

*WORKSHOPS & PANELS: Saturday November 17th and Sunday November 18th, 10
am-5 pm*
*Saturday: Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street*
*Sunday: Bahen Centre, 40 St. George Street*
*
*
*WEBSITE: *rebuildingbridgesto.wordpress.com
*FACEBOOK EVENT: *https://www.facebook.com/events/293407270768607/
***Please continue to check these two online versions for any changes,
updates, etc.*


*SATURDAY NOVEMBER 17th SCHEDULE*

*WORKSHOPS: 10-12pm*
*Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street, north of College Street*
*
*
*1. Mad Positive or Mad Patronizing? Access and Accommodation with/in Mad,
Disability, and Allied Social Justice Movements*
*Sidney Smith room 2111 (2nd floor)*

This presentation will critically reflect on the experiences of two
activists from Toronto-based Mad communities in an effort to challenge the
ways words like “access”, “accommodation”, “inclusion”, and “barriers” are
thrown around and distorted within activist spaces including Mad,
Disability, and allied social justice movements. Drawing on our lived
understanding of and engagement with Mad culture and survivor ethics, we
will discuss possibilities for Mad positivity and different ways we create
accessible, accommodating, and inclusive spaces and relationships. We will
also describe Mad positivity gone wrong – and how mainstream and community
efforts at Mad positivity sometimes perpetuate patronizing attitudes and
actions.
-
Presented by:
E. Carvalho and A. Triest- E. Carvalho and A. Triest are activists,
scholars, and workers in the Mad community in the Greater Toronto Area.
 They have been involved in local community peer support and advocacy
efforts for anywhere from 3-7 years (they don't have accurate memories for
time), depending on what you count.  They usually avoid labels, but are
proudly crazy, creative, and talk over each other quickly.  They don't
always agree but create stimulating and lively environments for challenging
and difficult discussions for themselves and others.


*2. Activist Anti-Oppression: Moving Beyond Workshops and Mission Statements
*
*(a facilitated discussion)*
*Sidney Smith room 2105*

This session will provide space at Rebuilding Bridges for a conversation
about anti-oppression politics and practice in Toronto. This session will
review the history of anti-oppression practice and how it came to be used
as a way of raising consciousness and changing behaviour in many activist
spaces.  We invite facilitators of anti-oppression workshops, past
participants and anyone interested in the practice/theory of
anti-oppression that emerged in radical movements in the past 15 years.

Participants will have a chance to share their experiences with
anti-oppression work – including with the standard 2 hour workshop or
half-page mission statement. But this session will encourage activists to
step back from their particular work and further reflect collectively on
their ideas, struggles, and successes in putting anti-oppression more fully
into practice. Some of the questions we'd like to explore in this process
are:

Where have we felt the limitations and/or promises of anti-oppression work?
What kinds of resistance have we felt to this work? How has it been
derailed or made counter-productive to building communities of resistance?
What is the relationship between anti-oppression and broader platforms of
action against - for example - the state, capitalism, or colonialism?

How can anti-oppression be done differently to reconcile the disconnect
between its theory and practice? And to this end, from where can we draw
inspiration? What kinds of projects would we like to see in the future?
-
Presented by:
Timothy Luchies and Sharmeen Khan

*LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED: 12-1pm *
*Sidney Smith room 2127 *
*
*
*WORKSHOPS & PANELS: 1-3pm*

*1. These past 20 years: Radical Queer History in Toronto.*
*Sidney Smith room 2105*

Our city is facing an important moments of our history when it comes to
radical LGBTTQ2I resistance. With the recent scandals behind Pride
Toronto’s dismissal of political groups into their parade, and the
relentless racism and classism of our immigration system, radial activists
and organizers today need to draw on the past experiences and successes of
those who began fighting for justice to continue the fight for freedom and
justice of LGBTTQ2I individuals and communities.

This panel discussion will showcase activists, artists and community
organizers that over a spam of 20 years have been organizing for change for
and inside the LGBTTQ2I community in the city of Toronto. We will hear from
first-hand accounts of people involved in the bathhouse riots, the AIDS
Crisis, Black and South Asian LGBT activists amongst other important
moments in our LGBT history. With an understanding of how issues of racism,
poverty, gender inequality, ableism and xenophobia impacts our queer/trans
community on the daily, this panel hopes to bridge the gap between previous
incarnations of queer resistance and current organizing efforts.

*2. Final Cut: Revolution*
*Using video in our activist communities *
*Sidney Smith room 2111*

Either for promoting an event or a cause or for recording and visualizing
demos and actions, video making has become an important tool for our
activist communities. This workshop aims to bring a critical and radical
analysis of video making on the videos that have been produced recently
along with reviewing the history and techniques of video making in the
context of direct action. Particularly, recent videos around migrant
justice and indigenous sovereignty will be reviewed and analyzed. Simple
video making skills and resources will be shared. A guest co-facilitator
will discuss their experience of video making for activist groups.

Co-presenters of this workshop along with participants will be trying to
answer these questions: What is video making in activist communities? Why
we need video-making techniques? When we are making videos? Who is making
videos? For whom we are making videos? How we make a video? What is the
value of our videos?

This workshop will be followed by a series of video making workshops, such
as hands on camera, light, sound, location, how to edit your movie using
Final Cut Pro and imovie, sponsored by OPIRG-Toronto throughout the year.
-
Presented by:
Sardar Saadi and Owen Shepperd - Art for Justice action group

Sardar Saadi is a Toronto-based activist and researcher who is organizing
with No One Is Illegal and OPIRG-Toronto and interested in the ways in
which activist communities are using different forms of art, particularly
video-making, in their work. Originally Kurdish from Iran, he has been
actively involved with Kurdish self-determination movement in Middle East.
He is currently studying anthropology in the graduate level at University
of Toronto.

Owen Sheppard is a Toronto-based cultural worker who helped found the
Liberation Cooperative Organization (LCO), an international independent
media collective dedicated to building the practice of equality and
solidarity through media training and production. LCO volunteers publish
the quarterly journal Liberation and organize video, print media, and
photography trainings in marginalized communities both in Toronto and
Nairobi, Kenya.


*WORKSHOPS & PANELS: 3-5pm*

*1. WEAVING STORIES OF RESISTANCE*
*Art as a process of movement building*
*Sidney Smith room 2111*

Learn how to re-purpose unused posters to make rad notebooks. And in the
process, we'll be exploring how our experiences of belonging and community
might shape how we imagine of our movements of today and tomorrow.
-
Presented by:
Radical Design School (RDS)- Radical Design School combines art and
activism to produce creative events and actions. Since it's launch in the
fall of 2011 with a free eight-week workshop series, RDS have been helping
to build a community of skillsharing that supports our friends and allies
in grassroots social movements. http://www.radicaldesignschool.net/


*2. Taking care of communities: building accessible and inclusive movements
- Who is in our movements? How do we think about inclusion? Who determines
who is or isn’t valuable?*
*Sidney Smith room 2127*

We want to facilitate a discussion about how activist and community
organizing is structured and how relationships of inclusion and exclusion
operate. We are hoping to have serious conversations about building
inclusive and accessible movements that addresses activist burnout and
self-care.  With these conversations, we hope to address the often
taken-for-granted practices that often prioritize some people and
communities over others.

The goal of this discussion is to shed light on the diverse ways many
people participate in radical and revolutionary activist work, yet many are
often excluded from organizing spaces implicitly or explicitly.  With this,
we would like to hear proposals on different models of radical
accessibility and self-care. This not only means hearing from what
individuals do, but also hearing about different community models that
adopt a radical, cooperative politics in disability justice and self-care.

Coming out of this discussion, we want to work towards a model of
organizing where value in our movements can be radically revisioned, moving
beyond the limitations of contemporary capitalism that addresses
exploitation and oppression in our lives.
-
Featured Speakers: A.J Withers, arti mehta

A.J. Withers has been doing anti-poverty and radical disability organizing
for over a decade and is the author of Disability Politics and Theory and
the If I Can't Dance is it Still My Revolution zine series and website (
still.my.revolution.tao.ca).

arti mehta is a queer, brown, femme, working class, chronically ill settler
who spends her days working at the Centre for Women and Trans People at
York and her evenings concocting politicized burlesque routines,
teaching/learning about transformative justice, building femme communities
and bedazzling everything she can get her hands on.


*SUNDAY NOVEMBER 18th SCHEDULE*

*WORKSHOPS & DISCUSSION TIME: 10-12pm*
*Bahen Centre*
*40 St. George Street*
*
*
*1. Brick by Brick: Discussion circle on prison abolition*
*Bahen Centre room 2155 (2nd floor)*

While the crime rate steadily decreases, prisons continue to expand. A
Conservative agenda of more punitive sentences, harsher crime legislation
and increased criminalization of of poor, indigenous and communities of
colour is clear, but how do we fight back? We invite those interested in
prisoner support and prison abolition work, and those who are organizing or
have already worked on these issues, to share their ideas and stories, and
propose strategies for building a larger anti-prison movement in Toronto.
Coming out of this discussion, we hope to incorporate new people into
current organizing and begin to develop a network of organizations working
against prisons, to support each other with events and campaigns.
-
Presented by:
OPIRG-Toronto and OPIRG-York - We have invited an amazing group of prison
abolition activists to participate in this discussion!

*2. Fighting Where You Stand*
*Bahen Centre room 2165*

Under the now-familiar watchword of austerity, the past several years have
witnessed simultaneous cuts to our social services, pensions, jobs and
wages -- while politicians of all stripes and colours continue to siphon
public money into tax cuts and subsidies for their wealthy friends,
continued war and occupation abroad and a massive expansion of the
Prison-Industrial-Complex at home. Federal legislation has drastically
reshaped this country's immigration policies, in a disgusting affront to
human dignity intended to appease the wishes of the corporate class. In
Ontario, devastating cuts to OW and ODSP and a looming restructuring of the
education sector will soon take effect. And, of course these policies of
austerity are not confined to this country -- as the continued tragedy
unfolding in Europe starkly demonstrates. Yet, faced with a common enemy,
people around the world are beginning to rise up. Massive social uprisings
have broken out in Spain, Greece, Chile and Quebec -- speaking truth to the
lie of inevitability that nominally shrouds the neoliberal capitalist
agenda. Though they may appear to outsiders as spontaneous outbursts of
rage, these inspiring examples of resistance are in fact the product of the
tireless work of thousands of organizers preparing the conditions for
social rupture to occur.

This workshop will outline how radical organizers can map their own social
terrain in order to determine which struggles are most strategic, practical
and viable to engage in -- and how we can ensure that they fit into a
broader revolutionary, anti-capitalist mass movement. We will employ a
variety of examples, ranging from campus and workplace organizing to
community projects such as Cop Watch, tenant organizing and
anti-gentrification campaigns in order to identify multiple strategic
points of intervention in the battle against austerity.
-
Presented by:
Common Cause-  Common Cause is an anarchist organization with branches in
Toronto, London, Hamilton and Kitchener/Waterloo, with members active on
many front lines of the class struggle.


*LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED: 12 -1pm*
*Bahen Centre room 2175*
*
*
*WORKSHOPS & PANELS: 1-3pm*
*
*
*1. Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: How and Why to Organize Against
Israeli Apartheid on Campus*
*Bahen Centre room 2155*

This workshops will explore the history and challenges of talking about
Palestine and advancing BDS politics on campus. Through facilitated
discussion, people will gain empowering tools to organize on and actualize
BDS in their groups and communities.

-
Presented by:
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (Toronto and York)

*2. Building Alliances for Collective Resistance; Strategies for Organizing
Against the Erosion of Health Care Services for Migrant Workers, Refugee
Claimants, International Students, and Undocumented People*
*Bahen Centre room 2165*

This roundtable is centered around the challenges that migrant workers,
refugee claimants and undocumented people, as well as international
students, come up against in obtaining access to health care services, such
as the threat of losing work, exorbitant service and treatment charges, and
deportation. Through our roundtable we aim to create a space where we can
discuss these challenges, share our knowledge and experiences, learn from
each other, and build upon one another's strengths. Speakers will talk
about their organizing efforts, the specific issues they focus on,
challenges they face, positive/transformative changes that have resulted
from their advocacy work, and will reflect on how to create strategic
alliances with other social justice movements. Following these
presentations the discussion will be opened up to the audience for
questions, comments and a strategizing session about how to develop a
movement towards health equity in Canada.
-
Presented by:
Onar Usar, Nadia Kanani, Health for All, No One Is Illegal Toronto,
Justicia for Migrant Workers, Philippine Women's Centre

Onar Usar is an international student working towards her PhD in Critical
Disability Studies at York University. Her academic and political work
include critical examination of the experiences of psychiatric system
survivors in higher education, international students’ access to heath care
in Canada, and exploration of the connections between disability, queer,
and anti-racist movements and scholarship.

Nadia Kanani is a student in the PhD program in Gender, Feminist and
Women's Studies at York University. Her research and advocacy work includes
deconstructing representations of disability, race, gender, sexuality and
citizenship in Canada, critically analyzing Canadian immigration and health
care policy, and working towards building inclusive community spaces.

Malika Sharma- Health for All: http://www.health4all.ca/
No One Is Illegal Toronto: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/
Charie Siddayao- Philippine Women's Centre
Justicia for Migrant Workers


*CLOSING PANEL ON AUSTERITY & RESISTANCE: 3-5pm*
*Bahen Centre room 2175*
*featuring David McNally and speakers from the Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty (Toronto), Solidarity Against Austerity Coalition (Ottawa), Poverty
Makes us Sick (Kitchener)*

Austerity has become a catch phrase in the last few years as governments
implement cuts to programs and organizers fill the streets to resist. While
the impact of austerity has been felt differently from community to
community, the question of how to strategically build alliances remains an
important task for communities.

While the fight against the government’s anti-poor, anti-immigrant,
anti-native and anti-workers agenda for many years, this panel will
highlight the different strategies and politics coming from grassroots
resistance.  With cuts to social programs, anti-union legislation and tax
breaks to corporations, several different communities have responded with
diverse tactics and strategies.

This panel will hear from different activists across Ontario to hear their
analysis of fighting austerity and how collaboration and alliances can be
built. Organizers will share insight from their experiences with various
movements against city cuts, gentrification, anti-union legislation and tax
breaks for the rich. The panel will also discuss how to keep the momentum
going as marginalized communities are faced with continued hardship.
-
Presented by:
OPIRG- Toronto
OPIRG-York

*MORE INFORMATION ABOUT REBUILDING BRIDGES: *

We are in a time of intense uprising, social unrest and student strikes,
but our movements remain fragmented and our campaigns mostly
one-dimensional. How have our movements lost out on valuable cross-movement
collaborations in the past? What can we learn from each other?

Though we may employ different tactics or prioritize
certain issues, we all envision and work towards dismantling a system built
on exploitation, colonialism and oppression, and building a better, more
just world. Let’s start speaking and sharing with each other!

Both the Toronto and York PIRGs will be celebrating our anniversaries
through reflecting on our history of work in this city. With a mandate for
education, action and research on social and environmental justice, OPIRG
is bridging gaps everyday between different movements and campus and
community based organizing. Rebuilding Bridges is about connecting and
reconnecting movements, sharing skills and knowledge and building people
power. We are stronger when we work together towards grassroots social
change!

Please contact us at rebuildingbridgestoronto at gmail.com, if you have any
questions about the conference, accessibility needs, childcare needs,
billeting, etc.

Please e-mail us to join the organizing committee or to volunteer with
Rebuilding Bridges.

******
Check out the work that we do!

OPIRG Toronto: www.opirgtoronto.org
OPIRG York:  www.opirgyork.ca


****************

*THE TAR SANDS COME TO ONTARIO -- NO LINE 9!*

*THE TAR SANDS COME TO ONTARIO -- NO LINE 9!*
*Resistance, education and alternatives*

Sat. Nov 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George St., University of Toronto
Lunch provided, building is accessible

Special guests will include Maude Barlow (Council of Canadians) Art
Sterritt (BC Coastal First Nations, Executive Director) Wes Elliott
(Haudenosaunee land defender) and Vanessa Gray (Aamjiwnaang First Nation)
as well as resource people on labour and environmental justice issues.

Join us for a day of discussion and organizing for action to stop tar sands
pipelines in Ontario as part of the OPIRG Building Bridges Conference.
http://rebuildingbridgesto.wordpress.com/?s=bridges%2C+OPIRG

*PROGRAM*
10:00 Workshops: The tar sands impact: environmental injustice at home and
abroad.
* Tar sands in our communities
* Tar sands and workers: the climate jobs alternative
* Climate justice and the Global South
* Tar sands and structural causes of climate change and capitalism
* How to defeat Line 9

*12:45 Keynote Panel:* Tar Sands Pipelines: Resistance, Solutions and
Solidarity
Guest speakers: Maude Barlow (Council of Canadians) Art Sterritt (British
Columbia Coastal First Nations) and Wes Elliott (Haudenosaunee land
defender).

*3:00 Stopping the Pipelines: A Realistic Goal*
A People’s Assembly with action-oriented breakout sessions.
Face Book Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/505545582789129/

*What is Line 9?*
First Nations’ land defense is catalyzing resistance across Canada to the
tar sands menace. In Ontario, this threat is posed by Enbridge’s Line 9
pipeline, which could soon be pumping corrosive and toxic tar sands across
the province.

Line 9 cuts through Toronto, north of Finch. Tar sands in Line 9 would
violate indigenous land rights, menace natural environments, and threaten
Toronto and communities across the province. And exploitation of Canada’s
tar sands escalates climate change, posing a deadly threat to all the
world’s peoples. No Line 9!

Part of the OPIRG Rebuilding Bridges conference a joint effort by both
OPIRG York and OPIRG Torontorebuildingbridgesto.wordpress.com

Co-Organizers: Center for Social Justice, Climate Justice Working
Group/Science for Peace, Common Frontiers, Council of Canadians-Toronto,
Latin American Caribbean Solidarity Network, OPIRG-Toronto/York, St.
Paul-Trinity Public Witness Circle, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity

*For more info: *boliviaclimatejustice at gmail.com. www.t.grupoapoyo.org
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