Show Up Toronto - July 8, 2025
Hi comrades,
Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another set of great community organizing and advocacy events here in the city! For new folks, a reminder that the website is the most up-to-date source of truth for events. If I find out about things that I missed in between emails I add them to the site. If you want to get event notifications, the Bluesky and Mastodon accounts for this project post automated event alerts a few hours before each event starts. And finally, you can add the Show Up calendar feed to your personal calendar if you want to see everything that's happening all at once.
If you find this newsletter useful, I would love for you to:
- Tell a friend to sign up
- Tell me if you go to an event
- Tell me about other organizing events in the city I may have missed
Thank you for showing up.
Jenny
Take heart: More than 500 Uber drivers in Victoria, BC have unionized! This is the first time gig workers in Canada have managed to have a union certified. If you want to find out about how to support precariously-employed workers here in Toronto, check out the Worker's Action Centre.
Take action: The Ripple Community Collective comes together every week to cook for their neighbours and clean up Dufferin Grove Park. This week they're making burrito bowls for over 50 people! If you can volunteer time, household items and clothes for their free store, or funds, email or transfer ripplecommunitycollective@gmail.com and include the message "CCM" (Community Care Meal).
⭐️ = events updated since the last newsletter
Events this week
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
4-8PM — Community Care Tuesdays @ Dufferin Grove (Dufferin Grove Park)
Hosted by Ripple Community Collective - Join Ripple Collective every Tuesday for an evening of nourishment, connection, and shared stewardship. There will be food prep, a free store and community meal, and park clean up. Care for the community together!
⭐️ 6-8PM — Harm Reduction Advocacy Collective Tuesday Meeting (College St United Church)
Hosted by Harm Reduction Advocacy Collective - Harm Reduction Advocacy Collective is hosting an open working group meeting for anyone who’s interested in planning International Overdose Awareness Day and joining other active working group. This a great way to get involved in organzing and learn new skills!
7-9PM — Civic Hacknight - Bikespace Project Updates (Hybrid)
Hosted by Civic Tech Toronto - Civic Tech Toronto's weekly hacknights bring together Torontonians who want to improve the city through design, tech, and data. tech, and data. This week will feature an update on BikeSpace, a community-built web app that lets people report the issues they find when trying to park their bikes in the city that launched from Civic Tech TO in July 2017.
7-9:30PM — Shut it, Uncle Bob: Talking to Racist Family, Friends & Loved Ones (Virtual)
Hosted by Rania El Mugammar - Part 1 of a two-part pay-what-you-can workshop series on having hard conversations. This workshop explores strategies and tactics for addressing racism from loved ones in meaningful and impactful ways. Participants will engage with a variety of scenarios that manifest implicit or overt bias. Common behaviors and tactics for dismissing conversations about race and minimizing the harmful impact of racist behaviors, beliefs and language will be explored.
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
⭐️ 12-12AM — No Pride in Genocide 24H Online Multilingual Screening (Virtual)
Hosted by Queer Cinema for Palestine - On the 20th anniversary of the Palestinian-led Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, join for a special 24h global online screening of the powerful QCP 2025 No Pride in Genocide program of 8 stellar short films online and subtitles in 16 language. Host your own living room screening with friends and family around the world!
⭐️ 6-7PM — Learn how to Speak up to City Council for Bus Lanes! (Virtual)
Hosted by TTC Riders - On July 16, Mayor Chow and City Councillors will be voting on whether or not to approve dedicated transit lanes for more reliable, accessible, and fast transit on Bathurst and Dufferin Streets. This is a crucial moment where your voice is needed to win better transit. Sign up to this training session and learn how to speak to the Mayor and City Councillors and be a voice for a better commute!
⭐️ 6-8PM — Volunteer to Demand School Meals for All (Christie Pits Park)
Hosted by Progress Toronto - Mayor Chow and Toronto City Council have voted to expand school meals, but to feed all students, the Ford government must match the city’s investment. We urge the provincial government to provide funding for a universal school meal program to ensure students do not go hungry. Join Progress Toronto in speaking to residents across Toronto on the street, at farmers’ market, and festivals to help them tell the Ford government to fund school meals.
⭐️ 6:15-8PM — Door Knocking for Palestine (Dufferin Station)
Hosted by Davenport 4 Palestine - Join Davenport 4 Palestine in knocking on doors to mobilize neighbours to sign a petition and call the MP Julie Dzerowicz to demand that Canada end its complicity in genocide. Meeting at Dufferin station and buddying up - no experience needed! RSVP by emailing at davenport4palestine@gmail.com.
⭐️ 6:30-9:30PM — My Friend Omar (1992 Yonge St)
Hosted by Amnesty International - Join Amnesty International for a free screening of My Friend Omar, a powerful documentary that exposes the vulnerability of migrant workers in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, a system the UN has warned makes workers vulnerable to contemporary forms of slavery. The screening will be followed by a group discussion on how to raise awareness and demand change.
7-9PM — Bill 5 Explained: What it Means and What We Can Do Now (Virtual)
Hosted by Ontario Nature - Join Ontario Nature to discuss how to get Bill 5 overturned. This free webinar will focus on the implications of Bill 5 for Indigenous rights, environmental protections and democratic transparency. Attendees will leave feeling empowered to work for a more resilient and prosperous Ontario that respects Indigenous rights, upholds democratic processes and strengthens environmental protections.
⭐️ 8-9:30PM — Resource Movement Info Session (Virtual)
Hosted by Resource Movement - Resource Movement is a community of young people in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver with wealth and/or class privilege working toward the redistribution of wealth, land, and power. This info session is a chance to meet with two experienced RM members, get an overview of how RM works, ask questions, and explore how you might want to plug into this movement.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
3:30-5PM — Parkdale Community Meeting (1499 Queen St W)
Hosted by PARC Toronto - Like many neighbourhoods across Toronto, Parkdale is facing the impacts of overlapping crises, from housing insecurity and mental health challenges to the contaminated drug supply. PARC and the Parkdale Residents Association are inviting local residents and businesses to come together for an open community meeting not in blame, but in solidarity. This is a space to share concerns, highlight what's working, and begin a conversation about how we can strengthen support for everyone in our community.
6-8:30PM — Uptown Climate Futures: (Re)indigenization (Earl Bales Park, 4169 Bathurst)
Hosted by Uptown Climate Conversations - With Indigenous-led knowledge sharing and facilitation, Uptown Climate Fugures will explore what it means to respectfully foster belonging on these lands while serving as allies to Indigenous sovereignty in what is currently Canada. Part 3 of a low-cost conversational workshop series designed to convene community, create a cohort feel, and amplify the voices of people in Uptown Toronto with a focus on BIPOC youth ages 15-30.
⭐️ 6-8PM — Cross-Border Cosmopolitans (779 Bathurst St)
Hosted by A Different Booklist - Join A Different Booklist for a talk with author Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey and their book Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America. This book will address how the Black, Red, & Quebecous Power Movements inspired U.S. & Canadian Intelligence services to infiltrate the Black Liberation Movement across North America and Southern Africa.
Friday, July 11, 2025
6-8PM — Toronto Spring Monthly Meeting (Trinity-St. Paul's United Church, 427 Bloor St W)
Hosted by Spring Magazine - July edition of Spring Magazine’s monthly chapter organizing meeting in Toronto. Come hear about current campaigns and actions and discuss key political issues and socialist strategies and tactics for becoming effective organizers.
Saturday, July 12, 2025
⭐️ 12-2PM — Volunteer to Demand School Meals for All (Yonge & Eglington)
Hosted by Progress Toronto - Mayor Chow and Toronto City Council have voted to expand school meals, but to feed all students, the Ford government must match the city’s investment. We urge the provincial government to provide funding for a universal school meal program to ensure students do not go hungry. Join Progress Toronto in speaking to residents across Toronto on the street, at farmers’ market, and festivals to help them tell the Ford government to fund school meals.
⭐️ 1-4PM — Resistance Arts, a Conversation with El-Funoun (Virtual)
Hosted by Palestinian Youth Movement - Join the PYM’s Resistance Arts Committee for a discussion with El-Funoun that is rooted in political clarity, history, and the realities we face now. The struggle for Palestine lives in every form of resistance, including art.
3-4:30PM — Covid Cautious Grief Space (Virtual)
Hosted by Forest Floor Findings - This peer space is for anyone who is STILL taking precautions against COVID and other airborne illnesses to protect themselves and others and is grieving. A suggested donation will go to Sunduq Al Sudan, an umbrella initiative that supports mutual aid groups carrying out critical humanitarian work in response to the crisis in Sudan.
Sunday, July 13, 2025
12-4PM — 2SLGBTQ+ Self-Defense Workshop (519 Church)
Hosted by The 519 - Free self-defense workshop for anyone above 18+. Faciliated by martial artist and self-defense instructor Chris James.
⭐️ 12-2PM — Little Palestine at Streetsville Square (Streetsville Square, Mississauga)
Hosted by Streetsville 4 Palesetine - Introducing Little Palestine in Mississauga! Every Sunday this July, Streetsville 4 Palestine is setting up at Streetsville Square to share resources, connect with community, and honour Palestinian culture and resistance. Come by, take a flyer, start a conversation — Palestine lives in every act of outreach.
2-3:30PM — Strong Towns Toronto’s Monthly Meeting (The 519, 519 Church St)
Hosted by Strong Towns Toronto - Monthly meeting to meet other urbanism-minded folks in the city who want to engage in grassroots advocacy around transit and housing.
5-7PM — Born Sacred: Poems for Palestine (315 Roncesvalles)
Hosted by Another Story Bookshop - Join Another Story Bookshop for the Toronto launch of Smokii Sumac's Born Sacred, a collection of 100 poems offer a witnessing of the escalation of colonial violence, both current and historical, across oceans, lands, cultures, and people, and the reckoning one has in the face of a genocide. This is a reflection honouring the shared histories of Indigenous Peoples of North America and of the people in Palestine.
⭐️ 5-6:30PM — Spring Labour Caucus: Workers and defending free speech for Palestine (Virtual)
Hosted by Spring Magazine - As Palestine solidarity has come under attack, so have people’s livelihoods. Those who speak out against Israel’s genocide in Gaza risk retaliation in the workplace. The recent firing of paramedic Katherine Grzejszczak for her social media comments supporting an anti-war demonstration is the latest sign that the limit on free speech for Palestine is hurting workers. This discussion will focus on why and how we must fight for free speech for Palestine and for other worker causes.
Monday, July 14, 2025
⭐️ 12:30-1:30PM — Weekly Phone Zap for Palestine (Virtual)
Hosted by Toronto Zaps For Palestine - Join with organizers from coast to coast in calling, emailing, and faxing demands to elected officials to stop Canada's complicity in the genocide.
7-10PM — Witnessing and resisting: on the front lines of ethnic cleasing in Masafer Yatta (Downtown Toronto and online)
Hosted by The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education - Amidst the ongoing genocide in Gaza and continued Israeli attacks across the region, much of the world's attention has been diverted away from the worsening situation in the West Bank. Toronto based activist Anna Lippman has recently returned from spending three months on the front lines of settler and State violence in Masafer Yatta, or the South Hebron Hills, in the occupied West Bank. Anna will share her experiences and perspective as a Jewish Canadian standing against her own people.
Down the road
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
⭐️ 3-5PM — Volunteer to Demand School Meals for All (Trinity Bellwoods Farmer’s Market)
⭐️ 5:30-7PM — Black & Indigenous Youth Share Circle (21 Cecil St)
6:45-9PM — Housing Now (Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles)
7-9PM — Civic Hacknight - Connecting Canada (Hybrid)
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
⭐️ 6:30-9PM — Land Back from Turtle Island to Palestine (Available upon registration)
7-9:30PM — Be So For Real: A Workshop for Confronting Misinformation, Disinformation & Polarization in Your Circles (Virtual)
Friday, July 18, 2025
⭐️ 1-8PM — ASL Pride Social (High Park)
Saturday, July 19, 2025
⭐️ 8:30PM-2AM — Strange Love: Fundraiser Concert (The Wych, 1150 Davenport)
⭐️ 1-3PM — Steeped in Peace: A Feminist Gathering for Disarmament & Connection (Virtual)
⭐️ 1-3PM — Volunteer to Demand School Meals for All (BIG on Bloor)
⭐️ 5-7PM — Noname Book Club Toronto – Krik Krak (779 Bathurst St)
Sunday, July 20, 2025
⭐️ 12-2PM — Little Palestine at Streetsville Square (Streetsville Square, Mississauga)
Monday, July 21, 2025
⭐️ 12:30-1:30PM — Weekly Phone Zap for Palestine (Virtual)
⭐️ 6-7:30PM — Creators4Humanity Information Session (Virtual)
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
⭐️ 7-9PM — Civic Hacknight – A Network Status Map for the TTC (Hybrid)
Saturday, July 26, 2025
10PM-2AM — RIØT: An Anti-Genocide Artistic Protest (Buddies in Bad Times)
Sunday, July 27, 2025
⭐️ 9AM-5PM — Run for Palestine (Budapest Park)
⭐️ 12-2PM — Little Palestine at Streetsville Square (Streetsville Square, Mississauga)
Monday, July 28, 2025
⭐️ 12:30-1:30PM — Weekly Phone Zap for Palestine (Virtual)