CONTENTS
CALLS TO ACTION
Justice for Grassy Narrows
Grassy Narrows – Asubpeeschoseewagong – First Nation is taking Canada and Ontario to court over the mercury contamination of their life giving river in northern Ontario.Ever since the 1960’s, when the local paper mill dumped 10 tonnes of mercury waste into the river, the poison has claimed the lives and health of generations of community members, and prevented Grassy Narrows from exercising their fishing rights under Treaty 3 safely.
Grassy Narrows is carrying on their inspiring struggle for mercury justice – please donate to support their legal action.
raventrust.com
Organic, Local Garlic Annual Fundraiser
The Ontario Health Coalition works to improve our provincial public health care system. We are committed to saving local healthcare services, stopping cuts and privatization and keeping our community hospitals vibrant.Every year we sell Ontario-grown organic and heirloom varieties of garlic to raise funds. It’s garlic season and our Annual Garlic Fundraiser is kicking off. We have managed to keep our prices at $16 per bag, which is a pound of garlic, again this year. The bags are organza, tied with ribbon and a little booklet describing the garlic varieties, the farmers, where the funds go, and with a bonus recipe. What we are asking people to do is to go around your workplace or community group and collect orders and the money to pay for them and send them in.
By ordering garlic with us, you are supporting this vital work. You are also supporting local organic and heirloom farmers by purchasing fresh, Ontario-grown garlic.
ontariohealthcoalition.ca
EVENTS
Understanding Bill C-70
When: Thursday, September 12th, 4 pmThe Canadian Foreign Policy Institute will be co-hosting a September 12 webinar on the Countering Foreign Interference Act, a troubling new law rushed through parliament. “Understanding Bill C-70: Moving Beyond a National Security State” will feature Senator Yuen Pau Woo, Professor Midori Ogasawa.
zoom.us
Take Back the Night
When: September 12th, Rally 6pm; March 7pmWhere: Chrisite Pits Park
TRCC is celebrating 40 years of activism, solidarity, and resiliency through Take Back The Night‼ Join us on Thursday, September 12 at Christie Pits Park. Our rally featuring speakers and poets will start at 6:00 p.m. We’ll have ASL interpreters on site and volunteers and attendants to support access needs.
instagram.com
Digital Day of Action for Migrant Farmworkers’ Health and Safety!
When: September 13th, 12pmJoin us at 12-1pm on Friday Sept 13 by Zoom or anytime during the day!
We provide a handy toolkit you can use to call, email, or Tweet at your elected officials and demand better for migrant farmworkers.
docs.google.com
Save Our Sites
When: September 13th, 1pmWhere: 260 Augusta Ave
Join us on Friday, September 13, from 1-2 pm for a rally to “Save Our Sites” from the Ford Conservatives’ dangerous plan to shut down supervised consumption sites across Ontario, including the Kensington Market Overdose Prevention Site.
The rally is being organized in collaboration with The Neighbourhood Group, St. Stephen’s-in-the-Fields, Friends of Kensington Market, and MPP Jessica Bell.
On August 20, the Ford Conservatives announced they are shutting down 10 supervised consumption and treatment sites in Ontario. They also plan to restrict needle exchanges and ban municipalities from requesting federal permission for the regulated distribution of safe drugs to people in need.
jessicabellmpp.ca
Public Healthcare, Not Greenbelt Highways!
When: Saturday, September 14th, 1:30pmWhere: 16635 Yonge St
@StopSprawlYR invites you to tell Ford we demand public healthcare, not greenbelt highways! Meet on the sidewalk and in the green space between the plaza and Yonge Street.
x.com
Gaza Square
When: Every Sunday, 11am to 1pmWhere: 371 Wallace Ave
We’ll be at Gaza square once again this Sunday morning with hot chocolate and coffee, buttons and posters, lawn signs and colourful chalk! Come say hi and meet your fellow neighbours/organizers as we make our presence known and continue to build safety in our community!
Instagram poster
Say No To Racism! Yes to Immigrant Justice!
When: Sunday, September 15th, 1pmWhere: City Hall, 100 Queen St W (at Bay St.)
Right-wing politicians are scapegoating immigrants for the housing and affordability crisis, diverting attention from corporate greed and government policy failures. All workers, including migrants and immigrants, are suffering from decades of cuts to healthcare, housing, education, and social services. The elite want us divided — citizen against newcomer — so we don’t unite against billionaires, landlords, and climate criminals profiting from our crisis. The federal Liberals are mirroring Conservative tactics, shutting down immigration avenues. Regularization — permanent resident status for undocumented people — was promised in December 2021 but still has not been delivered, while migrants remain underpaid, exploited, and excluded.
We must act now to halt the tide of xenophobia before it entrenches further, as it has in the United States and Europe. Those of us who believe in fairness and justice must flood the streets in the thousands, rejecting immigrant scapegoating and distraction.
actionnetwork.org | JFAAP get on the bus
Weekly Phone-zap for Palestine
When: Mondays at 12pmWeek after week, we’re keeping the momentum going with our Monday lunchtime zaps.
Our collective action is making waves, but we need to ensure our elected officials continue to feel the pressure until real change happens.
Instagram poster | Register at zoom
Climate change asks us questions that climate science cannot answer
When: September 16th, 6pmWhere: CSI, 192 Spadina Ave
As co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project, Dougald Hine has spent two decades in the middle of public conversations about climate change, collaborating with scientists, artists and activists. In 2014, the New York Times introduced Dark Mountain to its readers as “changing the environmental debate in Britain and the rest of Europe”. But by the start of this decade, he had become increasingly concerned about what was missing from the way we talk about the climate crisis – and that the ways we were responding to the crisis were in danger of making everything worse.
His new book, At Work in the Ruins, grew out of the questions this led him to ask. Amitav Ghosh calls it “essential reading for our turbulent times”, while Brian Eno writes that it “demands we stare into the abyss and rethink our securest certainties about what is actually going on in the climate crisis.”
eventbrite.com
Mask Off Maersk
When: September 16th, 6pmWhere: It’s Ok Studios, 468 Queen St W.
Join us in the next phase of our fight to end this genocide and enact a people’s arms embargo!
Logistics companies, with Maersk as the industry lead, are the invisible profiteers of the current genocide in Gaza.
instagram.com
Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler
When: Mondays at 6pmJoin author Yves Engler on Mondays for a weekly news roundup and interactive discussion about Canada’s role abroad. This weekly session will delve into the latest developments on subjects ranging from military affairs and Canada’s role in Ukraine to its contribution to Palestinian dispossession, and the exploitation of African resources. Join Yves for a critical take on Canada’s foreign policy. Questions, comments, and criticisms are all welcome.
zoom.us
Grassy Narrows River Run 2024
When: Wednesday, September 18th, 12pmWhere: Downtown Toronto, Grange Park
On September 18th, 2024 we invite you to walk with Grassy Narrows youth and community members to show that we are with them on their path to achieve mercury justice and freedom!
Grassy Narrows people are powerful leaders in the movement for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice. They have shown that together we can fight for justice against all odds and make real gains. But so much is still needed to right the wrong of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows.
freegrassy.net
Workshop: How to Meet with Elected Officials
When: September 19th, 6:30pmElected officials want to hear from you on transit issues affecting your community! Join the first workshop in our transit advocacy workshop series as we gear up for Fall advocacy. This workshop will offer training on how to meet with your local elected officials, and opportunities to do so with TTCriders as we push MPs to invest more resources in the TTC.
This workshop will be hosted with Gideon Foreman, policy analyst at the David Suzuki Foundation.
ttcriders.ca
ARTICLES
Israel’s Genocidal Campaign: The Struggle Continues
By Achin VanaikThe assassination of Ismael Haniyeh only confirms that Israel has no interest in ending its genocidal and terrorist campaign on Gazans, in particular, and Palestinians, more generally. Over 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank (WB) as illegal settlers, backed by the Israeli army and police have extended their capture of more territory. It should be crystal clear by now that Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza is not any ‘unbalanced’ or ‘disproportionate’ reaction to the 2023 October 7 Hamas attack, that liberal and right-wing apologists for Zionist Israel, whether Western or Indian, have tried to make out. That Hamas action has served as the much-awaited excuse for Tel Aviv to carry out its own longstanding ambitions to establish an unchallengeable, but quietly accepted, status as the world’s only remaining settler-colonial apartheid state.
Source: The Bullet No. 3037
Iran’s New President: Another Islamist and More of the Same
By Saeed RahnemaFollowing the mysterious helicopter crash on May 20th that killed Ibrahim Raisi, the president of Iran’s Islamic regime, a hasty presidential election was put together. Raisi, a hardline “Principlist” cleric, also known as the Ayatollah of Death because of his membership in the committee that decided on the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, was part of the Supreme Leader Khamenei’s project to “homogenize” the political system by removing the remaining so-called Islamist “reformists”, a.k.a. the loyal opposition. Needless to say, the secular progressive opposition was never part of the power structure.
Source: The Bullet No. 3038
Transforming the City: Municipal Politics, Socialist Strategy
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is pleased to present “Transforming the City,” a discussion of municipal politics, socialist strategy, and organizing to win. From unprecedented Palestine solidarity actions and struggles against police violence to massive climate strikes and marches against healthcare privatization, recent years have seen a growing number of people taking to the streets, causing Toronto to re-emerge as a site of popular struggle.Presentations by: Steven Tufts, Shelagh Pizey-Allen, and Jonathan Rosenblum.
Source: LeftStreamed
The Gaza Genocide and the Canadian Left
This pamphlet gathers a number of important contributions on the struggle in Palestine that have emerged from the Canadian left since October 7, 2023. A preface is written by Niko Block, the collection’s editor.Source: Socialist Interventions Pamphlet