OCAP | Speaking Series

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty is a direct action anti-poverty organization that fights for more shelter beds, social housing, and a raise in social assistance rates.

poverty, homelessness, housing, social assistance, ontario works, odsp, anti-poverty. ocap. ontario coalition against poverty, shelters,

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October 20, 2017 In Public Housing, Speaking Series

Speakers Series: Social Housing – Don’t Board It Up, Build It Up!

Social Housing: Don’t Board it Up, Build it Up!
Thursday, November 16 | 6pm-8pm | CRC, 40 Oak St.
[Free event with meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens]
Facebook Event

Speakers: Beric German, Gaetan Heroux & Yogi Acharya

Beric is a long-time anti-poverty activist, a member of OCAP and, previously, the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee.

Gaetan has been organizing against poverty and homelessness for nearly three decades and is the author of Toronto’s Poor: A Rebellious History.

Yogi is an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.

What is the history of public housing in Canada?
How has it come under attack?
How can we win it back?

Join us as we discuss these and other important questions that will help us understand the current housing crisis and talk about the upcoming National Housing Day of Action.

The monthly Speakers Series is where we discuss issues critical to the success of poor people’s movements. It’s where we build our capacity to fight to win.

September 28, 2017 In Speaking Series

October 19: OCAP Speakers Series: Canada 150 – Promise of Reconciliation or Ongoing Colonization?

Thursday, October 19 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | CRC – 40 Oak Street
[Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens.] | Facebook Event

Why are indigenous people disproportionately poor and homeless? What are the frontlines of indigenous struggle today? How do we fight colonialism?

Join us as we discuss these and other questions that form the terrain of indigenous struggle for sovereignty and self-determination today.

Speaker: Denise Baldwin
Denise is the IDU Outreach Coordinator for the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy. The Oahas IDU program is unique, as it is the only IDU program that is Indigenous based in the entire province. For the past 8 years, she has had the pleasure, along with her peers, of building the program from the ground up. Denise has over 20 years’ experience working within the urban Indigenous and on reserve communities in several capacities. Denise currently resides in the Barrie area, and is a citizen of the Chippewa’s of NawashFirst Nation.

The monthly Speakers Series is where we discuss issues critical to the success of poor people’s movements. It’s where we build our capacity to fight to win.

September 1, 2017 In Speaking Series

Speakers Series: Winning Decent Incomes – Social Assistance and the Fight for $15

fight for fifteen rally. "McJobs hurt us all" banner in front

Thursday September 21^st
40 Oak Street (Parliament and Gerrard)

Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens.

Why is social assistance so low? What lessons can we learn from the fight to raise minimum wage? How do we win decent incomes for everyone? Join us at the September Speakers Series to find out.

Speakers:

Pam Frache is the Ontario Coordinator for the Fight for $15 and Fairness and an organizer with the Workers’ Action Centre. Previously, Pam has worked for the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Federation of Students. She is a long-time Toronto-based social justice and labour activist.

Yogi Acharya is an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the Raise the Rates campaign.

The Speakers Series is a monthly event where we discuss issues critical to the success of poor people’s resistance.

July 5, 2017 In Speaking Series

Tomorrow: Speakers Series: Poverty & Disability

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Thursday, July 20 | 6pm | CRC (40 Oak Street) | Facebook Event
[Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens]
[ASL-English Interpretation Provided]

Is disability biological, or is it created and reinforced by society? Why are some disabled people considered more deserving than others? Do non-disabled people have a role to play in disabled people’s struggles?

Join us as we discuss these and other questions that look at the connections between disability and poverty in our society, and what that means for our struggles.

Speaker: A.J. Withers, author and organizer
A.J. Withers is a long time disability and anti-poverty organizer with OCAP. They are the author of Disability Politics and Theory, stillmyrevolution.org, and the forthcoming book A Violent History of Benevolence: Interlocking Oppression and the Moral Economies of Social Working (with Chris Chapman).

The monthly speakers series focuses on topics central to poor people’s issues and organizing. A new topic is presented every month and all events are open to the public. Come on out, invite your friends and please share widely!

June 1, 2017 In Speaking Series

Speakers Series: Canada’s War on the Poor: At Home & Abroad

CanadianImperialism-1
Thursday, June 15 | 6pm | CRC (40 Oak Street) | Facebook Event
[Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens]

Hardly anyone who attends the Speakers Series will be surprised that Canada’s benevolent self-image crumbles when confronted with reality. But exactly what the carefully crafted ‘Canadian’ brand masks is worth discussing. The June Speakers Series will do just that, unraveling along the way the connections between the war on the poor at home and abroad.

Speaker: Todd Gordon

Todd is the author of Imperialist Canada and co-author of Blood of Extraction: Canadian Imperialism in Latin America. He is also a member of the Toronto New Socialists and is involved in the Organizing Committee Against Islamophobia.

May 1, 2017 In Speaking Series

Speakers Series: I, Daniel Blake – Movie Screening

I,Daniel Blake Thursday, May 18 | 6pm | CRC (40 Oak Street) | Facebook Event
[Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens]
Watch the Film Trailer

Join us for our monthly speakers series focusing on topics central to poor people’s issues and organizing. A new topic is presented every month and all events are open to the public. Come on out, invite your friends and please share widely!

This month we are excited to screen I, Daniel Blake, the newest movie by the renowned film-maker Ken Loach. The film chronicles the calculated brutality of the social assistance systems in the UK, which parallel those in place here in Ontario.

Stay for the post-film conversation, details to be announced soon.

April 13, 2017 In Speaking Series

Speakers Series: The Trouble with the Housing Bubble

Housing Bubble Thursday, April 20 | 6pm | CRC (40 Oak Street) | Facebook Event
[Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens]

April’s topic is: The Trouble with the Housing Bubble

– What are the reasons behind the current housing crisis?

– How are people fighting evictions and exploitative landlords?

– What are our rights as tenants?

Join us for a conversation over good food as we strategize around these and other questions to build the fight for public and affordable housing.

Speakers: Gideon Kalman-Lamb & Kelly Bentley

Gideon is a PhD candidate in political science at York University, where he studies the political economy of capitalism, socioeconomic inequality, and housing.

Kelly is a long-time housing activist and tenant-rights organizer.

Come for the meal at 6pm and stay for what promises to be a a very informative and engaging session!

March 1, 2017 In Speaking Series

Speakers Series: Fighting Back in the Age of Trump

Thursday, March 16 | 6pm | CRC (40 Oak Street) | Facebook Event
[Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens]

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Join us for our monthly speakers series focusing on topics central to poor people’s issues and organizing. A new topic is presented every month and all events are open to the public. Come on out, invite your friends and please share widely!

This month’s topic is: Fighting Back in the Age of Trump
– What does the Trump victory mean for poor people’s struggles here?
– How can he be defeated?
– If Trump is our enemy, is Trudeau our friend?

Join us for a conversation over good food as we strategize around these and other questions to build a movement of capable of stifling the rise of Trump and all that his ilk stand for.

Speakers: Zabia Afzal & John Clarke

Zabia is community organizer in the Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood and PhD student at York University.

John is organizer at the OCAP.

Come for the meal at 6pm and stay for what promises to be a a very informative and engaging session!