CSJ Newsletter
October 16, 2025
CALLS TO ACTION
Give RentSafe Toronto Some Teeth!The RentSafeTO program is one of the most important tools the City of Toronto has to hold landlords accountable and protect tenants' right to safe, healthy housing. But ACORN members are experiencing the gaps that leave tenants with a lack of meaningful enforcement.
We need a RentSafeTO program that truly protects tenants. These are practical, proven improvements rooted in the experiences of low- and moderate-income tenants. They are key to ensuring RentSafeTO delivers on its promise.
acorncanada.org
EVENTS
A Future Without Poverty
When: October 17th, 12pm
In collaboration with the National Dialogue on Poverty, 45 organizations from across Canada are proud to lead this important national gathering.
The story of poverty in Canada is one of persistent inequity and unmet Treaty and human rights obligations. While existing programs have shown that poverty prevention and reduction are possible, our current approaches are not yet pathways to true poverty eradication or equitable outcomes.
zoom.us
The Power of Nonviolent Defence
When: October 17th, 5:30pm
Where: 60 Lowther Ave
Join us for a consultation amongst friends on the new Canadian Coalition for Nonviolent Defence, moderated by Isaiah Ritzmann and Richard Sandbrook.
scienceforpeace.org
Gender Equity and Labour in 2025
When: Saturday Oct 18th, 9am
Where: IBEW Hall, 1377 Lawrence Ave E
"Gender Equity and Labour in 2025: Where do we go from here?" is hosted by the Toronto & York Region Labour Council's Women's Committee and continues the long-standing tradition of Sisters of the Roundtable events.
labourcouncil.ca
Troublemakers School
When: Saturday, October 18th, 9am to 4pm
Where: East End United Church, 310 Danforth Ave
Registration: $28 / $55
Troublemakers Schools are day-long mini-conferences that cover organizing skills and highlight real-world examples of taking on the boss, and winning!
labornotes.org
Speak up for better transit
When: October 18th, 12pm
Where: Etobicoke Olympium, 590 Rathburn Rd
City Councillors want to know which public services you want to see more investment in as they craft the City Budget for 2026. RSVP here if you're interested in speaking up for more investment in frequent, reliable, and affordable transit!
ttcriders.ca
Anti-Capitalist Book Fair
When: October 19th, 10am
Where: Tranzac Club
Join the Second Annual Anti-Capitalist Book Fair, this year at a bigger space and with a much bolder lineup (to be announced soon)!
instagram.com
Leo Panitch School Fundraising Party
When: Sunday, October 19th, 4pm
Where: College Street United Church, 452 College St
Tickets: PWYC $0-30. No one turned away for lack of funds.
The Leo Panitch School warmly invites you to our very first annual fundraising party. Gather together with us as we celebrate three years of providing community-based socialist education!
All are welcome at this family-friendly event featuring live music, delicious food, raffles, prizes, activities for the kids, and much more! Make sure to bring along cash as there will also be beverages, merchandise, and plenty of books on offer. All proceeds of the afternoon will go directly to providing working-class educational opportunities here in Toronto and beyond.
tickettailor.com
NO to Bill 33
When: October 20th, 10am
Where: Queen's Park (south lawn)
JOIN US for a mass mobilization on the first day that the Ontario Provincial Legislature resumes to send a clear message to Doug Ford and Paul Calandra on their first day back:
- NO TO BILL 33
- NO TO POWER GRABS
- NO TO TAKING OVER SCHOOL BOARDS
- NO TO THE ELIMINATION OF DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEES
- NO TO PRIVATIZATION
- NO TO POLICING-IN-SCHOOLS
facebook.com
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
DSA Orientation
When: October 20th, 9pm
In this one-hour session, you will listen to a brief presentation outlining the DSC's mission, structure, and activities, and learn how to get involved in your local Chapter. Following the presentation, we will have a discussion period and the organizers will answer any questions you may have.
democraticsocialists.ca
Wednesdays for Palestine
When: Every Wednesday, 5pm
Where: Danforth Ave. and Pape St.
Join thousands of Canadians across the country to protest Israel's genocidal violence and Canada's complicity.
instagram.com
Raise the Rates! Freeze the Rent!
When: October 23rd, 11am
Where: Queen's Park
Tell Doug Ford it's time to raise the rates, freeze the rents & bring in FULL rent control!
After a 4-month summer break, MPPs are heading back to Queen's Park — and we'll be there to welcome them back to work.
noticenorthyork.ca |
docs.google.com
Bill 5s and Critical Minerals
When: Thursday, October 23rd, 12:30pm
Please join us for another installment of our Critical Minerals Seminar Series entitled The Bill 5s and Critical Minerals: The Implications for Indigenous Sovereignty.
This roundtable will feature interventions from Dr. Dayna Scott (Osgoode), Dr. Gabrielle Slowey (Politics, York), and Ryan Fleming (Political Science, U of T). Dr. Anna Zalik (FEUC, York) will chair the session.
zoom.us
Fundraiser for Medical Aid in Gaza
When: Friday October 24th 6:30pm
Where: 58 Cecil St
Tickets: $100
Join us for an evening of solidarity and support. All proceeds will go to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to provide lifesaving care in Gaza.
eventbrite.ca
ARTICLES
Mobility as a Project for a Dignified Life
By Katarine Flor
“What best defines public transport today is exhaustion.” This is the opening quote of the documentary short film Tarifa Zero: cidade em disputa (Fare-Free Public Transport: An Urban Battle), summing up not only what millions of Brazilians experience in their everyday lives but also the brutal logic that structures Brazilian cities. It is a system that depletes the time, energy, income, and health of those who have to rely on public transport to work, study, access leisure, or simply live.
Source:
The Bullet No. 3200
Trump's America: Echoes of a Fascist Past
By Henry A. Giroux
The irony is unbearable. US President Donald Trump has saturated public life in lies, turned immigrants and Black citizens into targets of contempt, and made corruption and violence the new grammar of governance. He pledges loyalty to dictators, surrounds himself with sycophants and thugs, and wields state power as a weapon – abducting foreign students, persecuting immigrants, and declaring war on political dissent. Even in moments of tragedy, he traffics in cruelty, grotesquely blaming the left for Charlie Kirk's death before the alleged suspect, Tyler Robinson, was even arrested.
Source:
The Bullet No. 3201
Palestinian Civil Society Reacts to the Trump-Netanyahu Genocidal Plan
In response to the so-called Trump Plan, a scheme primarily designed by Israel's fascist government to save it from its unprecedented global isolation, in the midst of the ongoing, livestreamed US-Israeli genocide against millions of Palestinians in Gaza, and recognizing the diversity of political positions among Palestinian parties, the Palestinian popular and civil society consensus on the following 5 fundamental points remains solid.
Source:
The Bullet No. 3202
Allan Gardens, Toronto: Protest and Public Space
By Bryan Palmer
For centuries, various Annishinaabe First Nations – among them the Mississauga, Ojibwe, and others – inhabited territories on the northern shores of Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes that constitute part of the border of Canada and the United States. Canada's leading industrial province, Ontario, and its largest city, Toronto, were created through processes of colonization consolidating British dominance in the northern reaches of the Americas in the aftermath of the United States War of Independence, which commenced in 1775. This colonization, rooted in longstanding and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous Peoples, was marked by the creation of Upper Canada (Old Ontario) in the Constitutional Act of 1791.
Source:
The Bullet No. 3203