CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES
4. EMPLOYMENT

Support CUPE 3903 workers

Tell President Lenton and six members of the York University Senior Administration to support wages, job stability and protections that provide an accessible, high quality education to all!

weareyork.ca

Save Seniors’ Programs

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) School Trustees are considering the elimination of the General Interest and Seniors Daytime programs.

These important programs provide adult learners opportunities to pursue new interests, acquire new skills which assist them at work, improve existing skills, stay fit and learn together with other members of their community.

What happened to the TDSB’s commitment to life-long learning? What happened to the TDSB policy of opening the doors of its facilities to people of all ages?

cupe4400.org

Join 230 Fightback at City Hall

When: March 21st, 10:30am
Where: City Hall

Come out to City Hall, on Thursday, March 21! The developer KingSett Capital bought up the property at 214-230 Sherbourne well over a year ago, with the intention of building a luxury condo tower. 230 Fightback challenged this, confronting KingSett and demanding of City Hall that social housing be built there instead.

Under community pressure and, with the prospects for its investment not looking as solid as it had hoped, KingSett agreed in principle to sell the property back to the City. A delegation that we took to the office of Mayor Olivia Chow was told that she agrees with the idea of building housing on the site that will meet the needs of the community but it was clear that there was no firm plan of action to ensure the developer turns over the site.

230fightback.com

Cobalt Blues

When: March 21st, 11am

A conversation on the politics of resource extraction and education in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

zoom.us

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

When: March 21st, 12pm
Where: Metro Hall, 55 John St

Join the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR) and Toronto & York Region Labour Council (TYRLC) at Metro Hall on March 21st to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

IDERD is an opportunity to organize in the name of racial justice. Housing, policing, transit, good jobs, etc. impact all of us, but we know that those impacts are felt differently when you are a racialized person living in Toronto. We have an opportunity to present our new mayor and city council with practical and impactful policy proposals, tools and solutions that will benefit all Torontonians.

eventbrite.com

CUPE 1230 Solidarity

When: March 21st, 12pm
Where: Harbord and Huron Streets (Robarts Common)

U of T library workers demand a fair contract now! Join student casual, part-time, and full-time library workers at the CUPE 1230 Solidarity Rally tomorrow, March 21st from 12-1pm, outside of Robarts Common.

Twitter poster

[Hamilton] EdTech Inc., Revisited

When: March 22nd, 11:30am
Where: Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship, McMaster Univerity, Hamilton

Join Dr. Tanner Mirrlees for a talk on the rise of the EdTech industry. Using a political economy of communication framework, Mirrlees presents an overview of the EdTech industry and probes the forces and relations underpinning the digitization, commercialization, platformization, automation, and globalization of higher education. Offering a counterpoint to techno-deterministic and techno-optimistic narratives about EdTech, Mirrlees considers the ethical and social dimensions of the EdTech industry’s impact on teacher labor, student learning, and the public education sector as a whole.

libcal.mcmaster.ca

Assessing the Pandemic’s Impact on Women

When: March 22nd, 12pm

The COVID-19 pandemic upended women’s economic gains in two short months, wiping out 35 years of progress. What’s happened since? This webinar presents the findings of the CCPA’s Beyond Recovery project which has tracked the labour market experiences of women workers for the last three years – with a particular focus on women working in hard-hit industries and in Canada’s care economy.

Zoom.us

Protest Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party Fundraiser

When: March 22nd, 6pm
Where: 175 Derry Rd E

The Conservative Party opposes a Gaza ceasefire, arms embargo, and sanctions against extremist settlers, neglecting crucial steps towards justice.

Twitter poster

IAW: Advancing Material Change

When: March 22nd, 6pm

A hybrid panel with transnational legal experts and activists on organizing within and beyond law schools and institutional settings. This event is organized as part of Israeli Apartheid Week by a coalition of law students from the University of Toronto, Lincoln Alexander School of Law, and Osgoode Hall. It was born out of resistance to the culture of silence on our campuses, as well as the legal profession’s active crackdown on law students demonstrating their solidarity for Palestine.

docs.google.com

Fundraiser for Gaza

When: March 23rd, 6:30pm
Where: CSI, 192 Spadina Ave

All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Crips for eSims for Gaza, a collaboration between Jane Shi, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Alice Wong to raise funds to get eSims into Gaza.

Why eSims? Purchasing eSims allows people within Gaza to connect to the outside to communicate with their families and also show the world what’s happening within Gaza.

Facebook event

Shut It Down for Palestine

When: March 24th, 12:30pm
Where: Yonge and St. Clair.

Join us this Sunday as we take our movement for Palestine city-wide!

We must keep the pressure up and make sure our demands to cut ties with genocide are amplified across Toronto and heard far and wide.

Twitter.com

50th Anniversary of Bain Co-op!

When: March 24th, 1pm
Where: 100 Bain Ave, #29A

Hey Bainers…there’s a community get together in the community centre on Sunday, March 24 between 1pm and 4pm to brainstorm ways to celebrate the co-op’s 50th Year Anniversary, which is this year!

Facebook event

Keep Cops Off Our Pickets

When: March 25th, 12pm
Where: Sentinel Rd, York University

Rank-and-file members of CUPE 3903 in collaboration with Scholar Strike Canada and No Pride in Policing Canada are organizing a rally to combat the policing of our picket lines!

Book launch: Towers of Ivory and Steel

When: March 25th, 4:15pm
Where: 15 King’s College Circle

Towers of Ivory and Steel is a comprehensive study of how Israeli higher education institutions are complicit with violations of Palestinian rights. From tailored vocational degree programs for military and secret police to university scholars across disciplines who design their research to service military rule, Israeli academic institutions are imbricated with the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

Author Maya Wind investigates the complicity of Israeli universities in Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid. She will be in conversation with Esmat Elhalaby, rosalind hampton, and Natalie Rothman.

eventbrite.ca

Canadian Foreign Policy Hour with Yves Engler

When: Mondays at 6pm

Join 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

Book launch: Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy

When: March 27th, 7pm

Yves Engler will discuss his new book, Canada’s Long Fight Against Democracy. It is an important overview of Canadian-backed coups since 1950 from Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran to Patrice Lumumba in Congo, Salvador Allende in Chile and Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. While Canadian officials and the mainstream media regularly frame conflicts with geopolitical competitors as motivated by a belief in “democracy,” Yves debunks the notion and reveals the corporate and military interests that drive Canadian foreign policy.

Zoom.us

Struggles of Farmworkers

When: March 19-31
Where: The People’s Forum in New York City

Grassroots farmworker organizations from the United States and Canada will convene a People’s Tribunal on the Struggles of Farmworkers in North America from March 29-31, 2024. The Tribunal is being hosted by the Food Chain Workers Alliance at The People’s Forum in New York City.

The Tribunal will be open to the public for our opening session on Friday March 29th from 2:30-3:30pm and for our hearings taking place between 10:00am to 7:30 on Saturday March 30th.

docs.google.com

Instead of ‘Civil Discourse’ We Have Civil Terror

By Judy Haiven

Last week, the CBC ran an interview on its flagship program, The Current, with Randy Boyagoda, a professor at the University of Toronto (U of T). Dr Boyagoda is neither Jewish nor Palestinian. He is an English scholar with several novels and critical essays under his belt. Recently, the University of Toronto appointed him to the position of Provostial Advisor on Civil Discourse. He was appointed to help promote and safeguard “civil discourse” on the U of T campus regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict. On radio, Boyagoda mentioned Palestine and Israel only to admonish “people with intensely held views” on both sides to find some common ground for “civil discourse.”

Source: The Bullet No. 2962

In Iran Another Farcical Vote Takes Place

By Saeed Rahnema

On March 1, the Islamic regime in Iran staged new ‘elections’ for the twelfth Parliament and the sixth Assembly of Experts. While the Islamist fundamentalists who took over the popular 1979 Revolution that toppled the dictatorial monarchy in Iran had no interest in a republic or any form of democracy, at the outset they could not disregard the main demand of the revolution for a representative government. In the revised draft of the constitution that they concocted “the absolute sovereignty of the jurist,” the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini and after him, Ayatollah Khamenei, ruled as despots.

Source: The Bullet No. 2963

TTCriders Campaign Manager

TTCriders is a grassroots advocacy organization that organizes transit users to take collective action for better transit. We campaign for fully accessible, frequent, dignified public transit that connects all Toronto neighbourhoods.

Salary range: $56,160 – $61,160.
Salary commensurate with experience.
Start date: Early April 2024.
Full time 12-month contract position.

ttcriders.ca