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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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

access-denied-superlrpink
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!

January 17, 2017 In Speaking Series

Speakers Series: Bursting at the Seams: Film Screening & Talk

Thursday, February 16 | 6pm | CRC (40 Oak Street) | Facebook Event
Free Event with a meal, childcare, wheelchair access and tokens
*****
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: Bursting at the Seams

Bursting at the Seams is the title of a 20-minute film on the crisis of brutal overcrowding in Toronto’s homeless shelters. We premiered the movie outside Mayor John Tory’s luxury condominium in November. Mayor Tory is now proposing a further cut to shelters and housing, which will have serious consequences. The cuts can be reversed and we can fight Tory’s austerity agenda.

Come join us, watch the movie, learn about the problems with the City’s so-called “Housing-First” policies that are, counter-intuitively, fueling the crisis, and hear updates on the fight to win desperately needed shelter and housing for everyone.

Speakers: Beric German and Yogi Acharya

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

Yogi Acharya is an organizer with OCAP.

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

September 30, 2016 In Speaking Series

This Thursday – OCAP Speaking Series #10: Out in the Cold

out-of-the-cold

Audio from event now uploaded, click here to listen! http://chirb.it/8LazKr

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

CRC at 40 Oaks

40 Oak Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A2C6

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Join us for our monthly free speaking series on topics central to organizing around poor people’s issues! 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: Out in the Cold: The Crisis in Toronto’s Shelter System

As the dangerous level of overcrowding in Toronto’s homeless shelters worsens, the City is moving in to close one of the largest shelters in the downtown in an effort to clear the area for upscale redevelopment. What happens next depends on us.

Join us to find out!

Speaker: Cathy Crowe, Street Nurse & long-time organizer around issues of homelessness, along with an OCAP Member

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