CONTENTS

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

Support CSJ

Your generous support of the Centre for Social Justice in the past is deeply appreciated. Your contribution is of vital importance to the struggle for a peaceful world, and social and ecological justice in Ontario and Canada.

We could not keep the Centre’s programs going without your financial support. The neoliberal austerity agenda is on the verge of taking another hard right turn with the rise of Trump and Poilievre, and with the Business Council of Canada demanding a massive ramping up of military spending well past even NATO targets. We need to join the growing protest movements against climate change and inequality and the New Cold War with its proliferation of spending on weapons. It is imperative to find new routes to peace, meeting human needs, and alternative political agendas. 2026 is going to be a crucial year for social justice.


We want to thank all of you who have helped us fund our programming at the Centre for Social Justice. Without your support we could not continue to be such a key part of building a new politics in Ontario and Canada. Donations can be made online at www.socialjustice.org/donate, and please consider joining our monthly plan.

Build Social Housing

Millions of Canadians are struggling with rising rents, unaffordable housing, and the threat of eviction. With over 61% of low-income renters facing financial hardship and social housing making up only 3.5% of total housing stock, the federal government must act now to ensure all Canadians have access to affordable, secure, and healthy homes.

The federal government wants to efficiently build affordable housing via Build Canada Homes (BCH). But what could be more inefficient than enabling corporations to destroy 15 affordable housing units for every affordable housing unit built? That’s exactly what’s being done by not protecting Canada’s existing affordable housing with rent control, banning fixed term leases, and other necessary tenant protections.

We call on the federal government to implement ACORN Canada’s 2025 National Housing Platform, which outlines key demands to address the housing crisis and protect tenants across the country.

acorncanada.org

Caregivers Emergency Meeting

When: Friday, December 26th, 4pm
Where: United Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St

Are you a Caregiver or Home Care Worker on a work permit? Are you concerned about the recent IRCC announcement about the pausing of the PR pathways for Caregivers?

luma.com | Facebook

Cuban Revolution – 67th anniversary

When: January 3rd, 7pm
Where: 25 Cecil St
Tickets: $20 (dinner included)

Guest speaker: Victor Manuel Garcia Sanchez, Consul General for Cuba
Live music: Cassava, Life to Liberation

CCFA | Facebook event

What IS Wrong with Line 6?

When: January 6th, 6pm
Where: Jane/Finch Centre, Unit 50A

The Finch West LRT (Line 6) trains are running at nearly half the speed of the 36C Finch West bus — despite over $3.5 billion being spent on the project. Instead of faster trips, many riders are now facing longer commutes.

Facebook | instagram.com

Booklaunch: A Labour of Love

When: Tuesday January 6th, 7pm
Where: 25 Cecil St

Guest speakers: Andrea Babbington, Rosemarie Powell, Sid Ryan.

mailchi.mp | Facebook event

The Battle for a Shorter Working Day – a play

When: January 14, 15, and 16th, 7:30pm
Where: Steelworkers’ Hall, 25 Cecil St

There was a time when workers sweated through ten or twelve-hour working days. How did we end up with more time off the job? By unions demanding it, again and again.

It all began in 1872. That year a movement for a nine-hour day burst onto the public stage in cities and towns across central Canada. Toronto was the site of one of the most famous incidents in that campaign when the printers went on strike against almost all the city’s newspapers.

eventbrite.ca

Cybernetic Circulation Complex

When: Friday January 23rd, 7pm
Where: College Street United Church, 502 Bathurst St

Big Tech firms dominate the global economy. But what value do they actually produce? In Cybernetic Circulation Complex: Big Tech and Planetary Crisis (Verso, 2024), Nick Dyer-Witheford and Alessandra Mularoni argue that the role of firms like Amazon and Google, Palantir and Uber, is in the speeding up and automation of the circulation of commodities. Big Tech aims to subject everything, from advertising and shopping, to logistics and financial services to the level of control and predictability that capital has secured in industrial production.

tickettailor.com

Introduction to Socialism

When: Sundays, February 15 to April 5

Curious about socialism? Interested about if it is really possible and taking a sober look at the problems it will face? Want to discuss how to begin affecting change right now?

In these uncertain and dangerous times, The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is a space to listen, discuss and challenge the contemporary relevancy of socialism.

tickettailor.com

Working-Class Priorities as the Principle for Climate Action

By Soutrik Goswami

The global climate emergency is no longer a distant warning – it is an unfolding catastrophe. Longer heatwaves, recurring cyclones, changing rainfall patterns, and rising sea levels are already reshaping lives across South Asia. A UN report notes that over the past 50 years, 130,000 lives in India have been lost due to extreme weather events. Between 2001 and 2019 alone, it is estimated that more than 20,000 people died from heatwaves – though the real figure is likely much higher.

Source: The Bullet No. 3236

COP 30: Entrenching the Crisis of Climate Politics

By Brian Ashley

As the dust settles after COP30 in Belém, Brazil, the scale of the failure becomes impossible to ignore. The world is on a path toward catastrophic warming, ecological systems are collapsing, and millions across the Global South face annihilation, not in the distant future, but today. The world’s political and economic elites arrived in the Amazon to negotiate when the 1.5°C target had already slipped out of reach, and they left with little more than symbolic gestures. No binding emissions cuts. No serious plan to phase out fossil fuels. No meaningful climate finance for adaptation. No accountability for the destruction already unleashed.

Source: The Bullet No. 3237

Ontario Government is Privatizing Surgeries While Pushing Public Hospitals into Deficit

By Ontario Health Coalition

Ontario’s public hospitals have been pushed into deficit and ordered to find cuts, while the government of Doug Ford shunts hundreds of millions of public dollars away from them to for-profit clinics, the Ontario Health Coalition warned on December 11 on the heels of the province’s announcement of plans to privatize thousands of orthopedic surgeries.

Source: The Bullet No. 3238

Sessional College Faculty member organizer

The key objectives of this organizing work include outreach to part-time and sessional members, and to identify natural leaders within college departments and areas.

We are bargaining our first contract in a time of unprecedented cuts to our public education system. Members need to understand the crisis of the college system, and the importance of banding together to win together. The Organizer’s primary role is to have 1-on-1 conversations with members to educate them on the current landscape and to get them plugged into bargaining.

opseu.org