CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

Petition to Enforce the Canada Health Act

Petition to the Minister of Health

Whereas:

– Ontario’s Doug Ford government has redirected thousands of surgeries from public hospitals to private, for-profit clinics and hospitals, and

– The private MRI/CT and cataract surgery clinics are extra-billing patients, charging user fees, and manipulating patients — particularly elderly patients — into paying thousands of dollars when they go in for care, and

– Patients are reporting exorbitant charges of $4,000, $8,000, even up to $11,000 for cataract surgery in Ontario’s private clinics, as well as hundreds of dollars for access to primary care in private for-profit nurse practitioner clinics, and

– The Canada Health Act bans user fees and extra-billing of patients & requires that our medical care be funded by taxes (OHIP) and provided without financial barriers, based on Canadians’ medical need not how much money a person has, and

– No patient should be forced or manipulated into paying for their cataract and other surgeries, MRIs and CTs, and primary care – in fact these charges are just what the Canada Health Act was set up to prevent, therefore

We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to uphold and enforce the Canada Health Act.

ourcommons.ca

News Media and the Far Right

When: November 6th, 5pm
Where: George Vari Engineering & Computing, 245 Church St

The influence of news coverage on the rise of far-right ideologies is undeniable. Capitalism’s Safety Net investigates how the liberal media—often seen as a force for democracy—can, in fact, reinforce authoritarian, ultra-nationalist, xenophobic, racist, and reactionary politics. By tracing the connections between dominant ideology, capitalist crises, and the political economy of the news industry, this book exposes how mass media systems often serve to legitimize far-right movements while undermining radical left-wing alternatives. Moving beyond media critique, it offers a deeper analysis of how the capitalist mode of production shapes the very frameworks through which information, power, and ideology circulate.

Speakers:
– Dr. Peter Milonas, Ontario Tech University and Toronto Metropolitan University
– Dr. Anna M. Agathangelou, York University
– Dr. John Simoulidis, York University
– Dr. Tanner Mirrlees, Ontario Tech University

hcaao.org

Delivering Medical Aid to Gaza

When: November 6th, 6pm
Where: St. Andrew’s United Church, 117 Bloor St E
Tickets: $0 – $20

Join us for this engaging conversation with Dr Loubani as he takes us through his recent assignment in Gaza with the GLIA foundation

eventbrite.ca

20th Anniversary of the Workers’ Action Centre

When: Thursday, November 6th, 7pm

The Workers’ Action Centre is best known for its $15 minimum wage campaign.

Its most recent campaign is “Fight Back Against Wage Theft.”

mailchi.mp

NorthStar – website launch party

When: November 7th, 6:30pm
Where: Hope United Church, 2550 Danforth Ave

November 7 will mark a new chapter in the expansion and professionalization of The North Star. Our project is growing, and we’re proud to invite you to a special evening to unveil a brand-new website.

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BDS Leafletting

When: Every Saturday, 1-2pm
Where: Dufferin Mall, 900 Dufferin St (south entrance by Marshalls)

End the Occupation! Build the Boycott! This is your friendly reminder of D4P’s weekly BDS leafleting taking place every Saturday from 1 to 2 pm at Dufferin Mall. Meet outside south entrance to mall, 900 Dufferin Street by Marshalls. No prior experience necessary! We can buddy you up if it’s your first time.

instagram.com

Tenant Organizing Training

When: November 8th, 7pm

This two-hour session has a strong focus on practical skills you can immediately use to start organizing your neighbours and other tenants in your city.

democraticsocialists.ca

Gaza Square

When: Every Sunday, 11am to 1pm
Where: 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

Protecting Public Education

When: November 9th, 5pm
Where: Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Ave

Featuring Elected TDSB Trustee Debbie King, Elementary Teachers of Toronto President Helen Victoros, and our own Eric McCall.

eventbrite.ca

Migrant Workers Assembly

When: Sunday November 9th, 6pm

What do you need to know about the upcoming Immigration Levels Plan, the federal budget and long immigration processing times? Are there more raids? What about expiring permits? How does all this impact you?

Join November’s Migrant Assembly to discuss all these updates and hear how migrants like you are taking action to fight the cuts. This assembly is led by migrants – don’t get scammed by immigration consultants and other people who want to make money off of our struggles by spreading misinformation.

migrantworkersalliance.org

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

Divided Power

When: November 10th, 7pm
Where: Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles Ave

Reconciliation, as set out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, is a process of understanding the Canadian state’s genocide against Indigenous Peoples and creating a new relationship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers based on mutual respect and dignity. Given the racism and paternalism embedded in the Canadian state and related institutions, building such a relationship is a monumental task, but in addition, there is a major structural roadblock in the way: federalism, the political system that organizes Canadian governance.

eventbrite.ca

The People of Canada will Love Us Again

When: Tuesday November 11th, 5pm
Where: Friends House, 60 Lowther Ave

With special guest Senator Yuen Pau Woo.

President Trump’s comment at his October meeting with Prime Minister Carney about the “mutual love” between Canada and the United States was interpreted by many media observers as striking a more “positive tone”. In fact, it masks a deeper problem in bilateral relations, in that many of our policy, business, and civil society leaders are clinging to a belief in enduring US beneficence towards Canada and the maintenance of US primacy in world affairs. For all the talk about “rupture” and “diversification,” Ottawa has not advanced a coherent foreign policy vision that allows for greater Canadian strategic autonomy. Is there a better way?

scienceforpeace.org

Fund Our Schools – phone zap

When: November 12th, 8pm

Calling all concerned parents and education workers! Underfunding of education has resulted in $6.3 billion of cuts. Those are having an impact on our kids, our students and the workers inside our schools.

We want those responsible to know that they need to stop Bill 33, supervision of our school boards – which are ploys to distract us from chronic underfunding. Join us on this Phone Zap to call MPPs to tell them to FUND OUR SCHOOLS.

fundourschools.ca

Booklaunch: Lessons from the Zapatistas

When: Wednesday Nov 12th, 7pm

The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is proud to host Lia Pinheiro Barbosa and Peter Rosset for the online launch of their new book Lessons from the Zapatistas: From Armed Insurgency to People’s Autonomy.

Lessons from the Zapatistas is essential reading for anyone interested in liberation, democracy and radical social transformation. It tells the story of the Zapatista insurgency, including the contemporary breadth and depth of their territorial autonomy, tracing how an Indigenous uprising burst forth from southern Mexico’s Lacandon Jungle to stage the 21st century’s first and most electrifying example of autonomy in action.

tickettailor.com

CLiFF Toronto

When: November 15th, 5pm
Where: Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave

9 powerful shorts on work, justice & protest. Real stories, real voices. CLiFF 2025 – cinema with a conscience. Free and open to all!

eventbrite.ca

Crisis and Resistance

When: November 20th, 7pm

Ontario’s higher education sector faces a perfect storm of austerity, rising precarity, and eroding academic freedom. This has provoked a sustained wave of resistance, marked by near-continuous faculty, staff, and student-worker strikes over recent years–exemplified by the recent OPSEU support staff strike.

Learning from these Ontario struggles and from successful, militant unionism in the United States, this event argues for a new strategic direction. We will explore the structural challenges and strategic issues that higher education workers face and consider the potential for a path forward based on commitments to wall-to-wall organization and new forms of sectoral solidarity and joint action.

socialistproject.ca | Register

CBC Blurs Out Fascist Link

By Lev Golinkin

Graham Platner’s problem is that he lives just a tad too far south. If the Democratic Senate candidate from Maine wanted to make all the hubbub about his Nazi tattoo go away, all he’d have to do is move to Canada. The furor over Platner’s Totenkopf, or Death’s Head, tattoo stands in striking contrast to Canada, where both Nazi symbols and a shameful history of aiding Nazis is hushed over or, quite simply, blurred out.

Source: The Bullet No. 3210

Patients Demand Government Reimburse Wrongful Charges at Ford’s Private Clinics

By Ontario Health Coalition

Patients who have been wrongfully charged for surgeries and diagnostic tests at private clinics were joined by more than 160 supporters at the Ontario Legislature on October 29 for a “Day of Action” to demand answers and action. When he announced his government’s plans to vastly expand privatization of Ontario’s public hospitals’ surgeries and diagnostic tests, Premier Doug Ford said that no patient would ever have to pay with their credit card, only their OHIP card. When asked if patients would have to pay anything if they had surgery at a private clinic, he swore it would be “100 per cent” covered. “We’re never gonna waver from that.”

Source: The Bullet No. 3211

The Sharm el-Sheikh Farce: Trump’s Gaza “Peace Plan”

By Saeed Rahnema

Right after two years of massacre, genocide, and destruction of Gaza’s cities, villages, farmlands, industries, and infrastructure by Israel – in retaliation for Hamas’s criminal and foolish attack on October 7, 2023 – an absurd political spectacle was staged with about thirty world leaders under US president Donald Trump’s direction. A ceasefire, presented as the first stage of “peace,” was declared, and Hamas was forced to surrender its last card – the living and dead hostages – to Israel, in exchange for the release of about two thousand Palestinian prisoners. Neither Israel nor Hamas was truly willing to accept this agreement.

Source: The Bullet No. 3212

We’re Coming For You And Your Rotten System

From inside Kshama Sawant’s historic tenure in Seattle City Hall comes a blueprint for twenty-first-century socialists, a counterpoint to the common strategies of mainstream progressives today. Jonathan Rosenblum, who worked in Sawant’s office and alongside community activists, weaves together intimate story-telling and political analysis to show how and why the movement succeeded where other progressive outsiders – such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – have failed.

Source: LeftStreamed