Show Up Toronto - October 14, 2025
Hi friends and neighbours,
I hope you had yesterday off, and were able to enjoy the day with loved ones. I appreciated this post from the Migrant Worker's Alliance with notes from migrant poultry workers describing their working conditions, so often unseen and out of mind. They are organizing for Farm Worker Justice and could use your support.
The City launched its budget consultation for 2026, hosting a series of in-person meetups as well as virtual meetups and surveys throughout the month of October. The consultations are all on the Show Up calendar, but here's the official City page if you want to take a look. Social Planning Toronto has a ton of resources about how to engage with this process, including handy explainers and guides for talking to City Hall. Have your say!
Thanks for showing up.
Jenny
Take action: It looks like the weather is finally starting to think about getting colder, and the housing crisis doesn’t take the winter off. All Peoples Fighting Oppression is putting on one of their free markets in Moss Park on November 9th for unhoused residents in the area, and they’re collecting warm clothing, boots, blankets, tents, and winter gear to prepare. If you have any gear to spare, they’ll do pick-ups across the GTA, and you can also send funds directly to allpeoples111@pm.me.
⭐️ = events updated since the last newsletter
Events this week
Tuesday, October 14, 2025 🔗
6:30-8:30PM — The Future of Public Education Town Hall (16 Spadina)
Student Voices In Action Ontario - An important town hall about the future of public education and why it matters. Bill 33 shifts decision-making power and this is a critical moment for public education. Join parents, students, educators, and community members to learn what’s at stake, speak up, and stand together for democratic, locally accountable schools. Your voice matters!
7-9PM — Civic Hacknight – Sovereign Markets for Any Nation (Hybrid)
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, Wingham Rowan will discuss how multinational platforms have displaced traditional markets for labour, finance, goods, services, and content, and how governments need to develop a new type of market system in response. Followed by breakout group sessions to work on projects.
7-9PM — Budget Consultation In-person Meeting: Downtown (92 Front St E)
City of Toronto - Join Mayor Olivia Chow, Budget Committee Chair Shelley Carroll and Members of Council to share your ideas about the City’s 2026 Budget. This is your chance to participate in building a city that works for you.
Wednesday, October 15, 2025 🔗
1-2PM — Land, Power, and Belonging: Unpacking Environmental Racism in Canada (Virtual)
Sustainability Network - This presentation explores the layered realities of environmental racism in Canada through a critical lens that connects colonisation, whiteness, and racialized geographies. Participants will engage with the concept of therapeutic landscapes—spaces often celebrated for healing and wellbeing—but interrogate who truly feels safe, welcome, and restored in these environments.
1-3PM — Creating Conservation Easement Agreements (Virtual)
Ontario Nature - For 30 years, organizations across Ontario have been protecting land using Conservation Easement Agreements (CEAs). Learn from land trusts and conservation authorities about their experiencing creating, registering, managing, amending and enforcing these agreements. This first of five webinars reflecting on the lessons learned about CEAs will focus on the creation of CEAs as legal contracts and as instruments registered on land titles.
6-7:30PM — Draw The Line Against Transphobic Violence (Virtual)
Egale - Draw the Line Against Transphobic Violence is a free, 90-minute, instructor-led webinar that will help participants recognize harmful dynamics, and build skills for fostering cultures of consent, gender inclusion, and healthier relationships overall. This session is designed for students, educators, administrators, and staff in both secondary and post-secondary schools in Canada. Join Egale in creating awareness that leads to action towards building inclusive schools.
7-9:30PM — Anti-oppression for Artists & Cultural Producers (Virtual)
Rania El Mugammar - This workshop for artists explores the language, theories and practices of anti-oppression within a critical understanding of culture as a product of colonial, racial, gendered and intersecting violence. The session is rooted in the question “what is the role of the artist in our times?” Artists will examine the power dynamics that shape access to resources in our cultural landscape. The anti oppression framework will be used to critique institutional dynamics as well as personal artistic practices.
Thursday, October 16, 2025 🔗
⭐️ 10-11AM — School Zone Safety Summit (Toronto City Hall)
Councillors Mike Colle and Paula Fletcher - Come for a summit on school safety zones, with experts from SickKids, city Transportation staff, advocates, and community members concerned with Ford’s plan to remove safe speed cameras. Families welcome! RSVP by emailing speedcamerasummit@gmail.com.
⭐️ 12-1PM — Rally to ban AGIs (20 Prince Arthur Ave)
MPP Jessica Bell - Let's stop corporate landlords from using and abusing AGIs, and send a clear message to the Conservative government that it's time to protect tenants and keep housing affordable! Bring your neighbours, your signs, and your voice.
⭐️ 2-3:30PM — Pushing for climate action at the municipal level: Strategies for collaboration (Virtual)
The Climate Reality Project - How can community groups effectively work with their local governments to push for local climate action? When community groups organize at the local level, they can catalyze meaningful change. This session will explore how groups across Canada have advanced climate action within their municipalities and built strong relationships with elected officials. Come learn practical strategies for building trust with local governments, identifying champions, and creating partnerships across sectors to move climate solutions forward.
⭐️ 5-6:30PM — The Next Big Bills: Inside Carney’s Policy Playbook (Virtual)
Canada’s National Observer - Get ahead of the fall policy agenda! This virtual panel features seasoned journalists and a former Privy Council clerk to break down what’s expected to follow from the major projects legislation — from what it means for businesses, communities and the environment, to what it says about Carney’s legislative playbook.
5:30-7:30PM — Basics of Harm Reduction (LAMP Community Health Centre)
Etobicoke-Lakeshore Shelter Support Coalition - Part 2 of the Unhoused People Are Our Neighbours Too workshop series. "Harm reduction" might sound like a scary phrase...but it doesn't have to be! Join this workshop to learn about how harm reduction actually saves lives and helps curb the impact of the toxic drug crisis on the streets. Come with an open mind and bring your raw questions to experts who understand this controversial topic firsthand.
6-8PM — Hands Off Our Education Organizing Call (Virtual)
Canadian Federation of Students Ontario - Bill 33 poses a significant threat to post-secondary education and undermines ALL levels of education. This is all part of Doug Ford’s anti-education strategy — manufacturing an underfunding crisis to give the government an opportunity to introduce heavy oversight. Bill 33 is a continuation of the government’s agenda to defund public education, opening the door to privatized and corporatized education in this province. It’s time to get organized, win back student power, and say: Hands Off Our Education!
⭐️ 6:30-8:30PM — Gen Z Revolution (40 St George St)
Revolutionary Communist Party - From Morocco to Madagascar, when faced with capitalist cuts, political crises, and unjust wars wars, Gen Z shows the way forward by shutting it down. Join the Revolutionary Communist Party for a presentation and discussion.
Friday, October 17, 2025 🔗
6:30-10PM — A Better Economy is Taking Root (CSI Spadina)
Doughnut Economics Collective Toronto, WeAll Canada, and the Canadian Purpose Economy Project - Explore how Purpose economies, Doughnut economies, and Wellbeing economies relate to each other and you and meet others who want to work towards creating a regenerative and distributive economy.
7-11:59PM — Punk for Peace (347 Keele St)
Four bands. One night. One cause. Toronto’s punk community is coming together once again for a night of raw energy, loud guitars, and solidarity with Ukraine. This benefit show isn’t just about music, it’s about standing with people who are fighting for their lives, their home and their country. All proceeds from Punk for Peace go directly toward urgently needed medicines and frontline supplies in Ukraine.
⭐️ 7-9PM — Reimagining Housing as a Commons (569 Spadina Cres)
Housing Commons Research Centre - Introducing the Housing Commons Research Centre, a virtual space dedicated to advancing community-led housing in Canada and beyond. Featuring voices from Toronto’s Chinatown CLT, the Downtown Eastside CLT, Mutual Aid Organizers, and the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, this conversation will together organizers, practitioners, and researchers imagining housing as a commons.
9PM-1AM — Material Moves: Fundraiser for Palestine (Three Dollar Bill)
Queers 4 Palestine, Queer Muslim Network, and DJs Against Apartheid - Join for a DJ night and dance party fundraiser for mutual aid in Palestine and Tkaronto! Pull up for genre-blurring global, gay club, techno, hardgrooves, bass, breaks, and more in support of the Sameer Project and the Toronto Community Justice Fund.
Saturday, October 18, 2025 🔗
9AM-4PM — Toronto Troublemakers School (East End United Church, 310 Danforth Ave)
Labor Notes - Troublemakers Schools are day-long mini-conferences that cover organizing skills and highlight real-world examples of taking on the boss, and winning! Workshops and panels will cover topics like beating apathy, turning an issue into a campaign, how to be an effective steward, stories of strikes and job actions in Toronto, and much more!
9AM-1PM — Gender Equity and Labour in 2025 (1377 Lawrence Ave E)
York and Toronto Region Labour Council - October 18th is Persons Day in Canada, which marks the day in 1929 when the historic decision to include women in the legal definition of “persons” was handed down by Canada’s highest court of appeal. Join Toronto & York Region Labour Council’s Women’s Committee on this day to ask: where does Labour go from here in 2025?
⭐️ 10AM-8:30PM — One-Day Change Makers (CSI Spadina)
Say No to LNG - Contrary to what the oil and gas industry would like us to believe, Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) isn't clean energy! Join Say No to LNG for a unique, one-day event that brings together people from all different backgrounds to challenge this myth. Work with other small groups of like-minded people to design and prototype creative educational/storytelling projects, with support and guidance from experts. All welcome! You don't need to know anything about LNG, just bring your skills and creativity.
10:30AM-12:30PM — Guided Birding and Plant Walk Fundraising (High Park)
Madina and Mariam - A birding and plant walk guided by to raise funds for several families in Gaza. An art sale will also be held at the end of the walk. Mariam (she/they) is a second-generation Egyptian living in Toronto. They are a PhD student studying pyschology, focusing on understanding how QPOC experience Radical Hope using artistic methods. Outside of school and work, Mariam is an earthworker, birder and loves textile art. $15 or PWYC.
12-5PM — Wrongful Conviction Day (245 Church St)
Pen for Justice TMU - Students, get excited for Toronto Metropolitan's Wrongful Conviction Day event hosted by Pen for Justice - Youth for Innocence! This event brings together students, professors, lawyers and exonerees to discuss wrongful convictions in Canada and the United States.
12-2PM — Budget Consultation In-person Meeting: Etobicoke (590 Rathburn Rd)
City of Toronto - Join Mayor Olivia Chow, Budget Committee Chair Shelley Carroll and Members of Council to share your ideas about the City’s 2026 Budget. This is your chance to participate in building a city that works for you.
1-4PM — Collage Workshop: Creative Collage as Expression of Collective Refusal (183 Queen St E)
183 Gallery - Join collage artist David "widge" Widgington to create a collective collage about what you refuse to accept in your neighbourhood, in region or around the world : gentrification, homelessness, homophobia, gender inequalities, racism, billionaires, etc. Bring magazines, images, a pair of scissors anything that may be useful for you or others to cut and paste into the collage. Cut-out material, scissors and glue will be available to share. Please bring a non-perishable food item for the food bank!
1-2PM — BDS Leafletting (900 Dufferin St)
Davenport 4 Palestine - Join Davenport 4 Palestine for the weekly BDS leafleting campaign at Dufferin Mall. Meet outside south entrance and buddy up – no experience necessary!
1-4PM — No Climate Justice without a Free Palestine: Teach-in (Available upon registration)
Climate For Palestine Toronto - Join Climate For Palestine Toronto for a 3h teach-in to discuss the intersections between the Climate Justice movement and the movement for a liberated Palestine! You will hear from three speakers about the deep intersections between the two crises and learn about current campaigns to end Canadian complicity in genocide both here on Turtle Island and in Palestine.
1-3PM — Overdose Response Training (1265 Military Trail)
Organizing Scarborough Queer Youth - Are you a young person living in Scarborough? Interested in learning how to respond to overdose? Join a free opioid overdose response and naloxone training event. In a city growing increasingly hostile to harm reduction, we keep us safe. Food, Presto ticket, and Naloxone kit provided.
⭐️ 1-2:30PM — Demanding Just Care: Fighting Governments’ Medical and Social Abuse of Disabled Children and their Families (Virtual)
Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice - While governments around the country give profits over to big corporations, disabled children, their parents, and families face the consequences of up-to 24 hour medical care with little if any in-home help. When parents reach out for help, their children may be taken by child welfare or they may be targeted by police and the very organizations meant to support their families. Even the act of seeking care, accountability, and justice can result in parents being threatened to be barred from seeing their child. Learn about their plight, and hear their calls for compassion and justice.
⭐️ 5-7PM — Parkdale Tenant Meetup (Capital Espresso)
Parkdale Housing Justice Network - Are you a tenant in Parkdale? Join the Parkdale Housing Justice Network to discuss common issues and ways to can support one another across the neighbourhood. Whether you’re already organized in your building or you’re wanting to get started—all tenants welcome.
Sunday, October 19, 2025 🔗
10-11AM — Virtual Tech Worker’s Coalition Coffee (Virtual)
Tech Worker’s Coalition Canada - Drop by for a virtual coffee hour on Sunday mornings to chat with fellow tech workers about what’s on your mind and to learn more about the Tech Worker’s Coalition. TWC considers anyone who is involved in the production and maintenance of digital technology to be a tech worker, whether you are a bike courier working at a food delivery app service, a designer, a software engineer, a product owner, a data labeller or a content moderator. Hope to see you there!
⭐️ 10AM-6PM — Toronto’s Annual Anti-Capitalist Book Fair (Tranzac Club)
Anti-Capitalist Book Fair - The Second Annual Toronto Anti-Capitalist Book Fair is coming soon, and it’s even bigger than last year, with more publishers and organizations. Come find ideas that will change the world!
12-6PM — Special General Membership and Supporters Meeting (Location TBA)
Alliance of Workers and Students - A special general membership meeting for the Alliance of Workers and Students to take decisive steps in consolidating the formation, including ratifying the constitution and by-laws, approving annual program and quarterly plan, adopting an educational curriculum, and conducting elections. This meeting is an opportunity to practice democratic centralism and take collective responsibility for the work to get organized for class struggle.
⭐️ 1-3PM — Friends and Families for Safe Streets Peer Support Meeting (401 Richmond St W, Room 215)
Friends and Families for Safe Streets - Peer support group meetings for adults over the age of 18 who are bereaved through the death of a family member or friend by road violence, and for those who are recovering/have recovered from traumatic injury in a collision with a vehicle. If you are struggling in the aftermath of road violence, you are not alone. Virtual option available.
4-7PM — Leo Panitch School Fundraising Party (College St United Church)
Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education - The first annual fundraising party for the Leo Panitch School. Gather together to celebrate three years of providing community-based socialist education. All are welcome at this family friendly event featuring live music, delicious food, raffles, prizes, activities for the kids, and much more! All proceeds of the afternoon will go directly to providing free working class educational opportunities here in Toronto and beyond. PWYC, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Monday, October 20, 2025 🔗
10AM-12PM — Policing-Free Schools Province-Wide Rally (Queen’s Park South Lawn)
Policing-Free Schools - Join Policing-Free Schools for a mass mobilization on the first day that the Ontario Provincial Legislature resumes, to send a clear message to Doug Ford and Paul Calandra: NO to Bill 33, NO to power grabs, NO to taking over school boards, No to policing in schools, and YES to properly-funded, supported, and resourced public education.
⭐️ 12:30-2:30PM — Weekly Phone Zap for Palestine (Virtual)
Toronto Zaps For Palestine - Join with organizers from coast to coast in calling, emailing, and faxing demands to newly elected officials to stop Canada's complicity in the genocide and in ensuring the safe return of Canadians that participated in the Flotillas.
6:30-9PM — TWC Canada Book Club Pt 2 (BAAA!, 300 Campbell)
TWC Canada - The Tech Worker’s Coalition invites you to join in for a book club series to read No Shortcuts by Jane McAlevey, a seminal text on labour organizing. The second session will cover chapters 3 and 4. Whether you’re worried about burnout or layoffs or concerned about the moral direction of the industry, the best way to channel your energy is through collective action. Open to all who are interested in learning more about labour organizing – you do not have to be a tech worker!
9-11PM — DSA Orientation (Virtual)
Democratic Socialists of Canada - In this one-hour session, you will listen to a brief presentation outlining the DSC's mission, structure, and activities, and learn how to get involved in your local Chapter. Following the presentation, we will have a discussion period and the organizers will answer any questions you may have.
Down the road
Tuesday, October 21, 2025 🔗
5:30-7:30PM — Bill 212 Anniversary Ride and Rally (361 University Ave)
6-8PM — Justice 4 Workers Toronto Organizing Meeting (720 Spadina,)
6-9PM — New transit’s moving in: How to deal with rent and evictions (720 Bathurst St)
6:30-7:30PM — Greater Toronto Health Coalition Online Meeting (Virtual)
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 🔗
7-9PM — Civic Hacknight – The Story of CanadianRecalls.ca (Hybrid)
5:30-7:30PM — Supporting People on the Streets (LAMP Community Health Centre)
Thursday, October 23, 2025 🔗
7-9PM — Budget Consultation In-person Meeting: North York (5110 Yonge St)
11AM-1PM — Queen’s Park On Notice (Queen’s Park)
Friday, October 24, 2025 🔗
7-9PM — Policing Black Lives: Revised and Expanded (468 Queen St W)
7-9PM — Budget Consultation In-person Meeting: Scarborough (150 Borough Dr)
4-6PM — The Labour of Architecture (1 Spadina Cres)
6:30-5PM — Red October: A Conference of Socialist Ideas in Action (TMU Student Centre, 55 Gould)
⭐️ 6:30-8:30PM — Fundraiser for Medical Aid in Gaza (58 Cecil St)
⭐️ 6:30-8:30PM — October HVAC Session (1 Spadina Cres)
Saturday, October 25, 2025 🔗
⭐️ 10-11:30AM — All Eyes On Sudan (Virtual)
1-4PM — Repair Cafe Toronto (185 Fifth St)
⭐️ 2:30-5PM — VOW’s 2025 Annual General Meeting (Hybrid)
⭐️ 6:30-9PM — Abolition: Cross-Movement Gathering and Discussion (St Andrews United Church)
Sunday, October 26, 2025 🔗
7-8:30PM — We're Coming for You and Your Rotten System (Friends House, 60 Lowther)
8-11PM — Virtual Screening: Severed (Virtual)
12-6PM — Resist and Rebel: Taking on Carney and the Canadian state (Steelworker’s Hall, 25 Cecil St)
⭐️ 5-7:30PM — Song on the Frontlines: Singing for De-escalation (310 Danforth Ave)
⭐️ 7-8:30PM — How to Apply for Permanent Residency on Humanitarian Grounds (Virtual)
Monday, October 27, 2025 🔗
12-2PM — Budget Consultation Virtual Meetings (Virtual)
⭐️ 6-8PM — Help Shape Toronto’s Green Spaces for the Future (Thorncliffe Park Community Hub)
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 🔗
⭐️ 7-8:30PM — Road Salt Pollution in Ontario Webinar (Virtual)
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 🔗
8-10PM — Resource Movement Info Session (Virtual)
⭐️ 6-8PM — Child Care Townhall (202 Shuter St)
7-9PM — Budget Consultation Virtual Meetings (Virtual)
7-8:30PM — US, Mexico & Canada: How Do We Resist a War on Good Jobs? (Virtual)
⭐️ 7-9PM — Canada, First Nations, Mexico & the US: How do we Resist a War on Good Jobs? (Virtual)
Thursday, October 30, 2025 🔗
⭐️ 6-8PM — Zine workshop: Living near transit hubs (Scadding Court Community Centre)
Saturday, November 1, 2025 🔗
2-4PM — Noname Book Club Toronto – Assata (24 Cecil St)
Sunday, November 2, 2025 🔗
⭐️ 1-3:30PM — The Encampments Film Screening (560 Palmerston)
Tuesday, November 4, 2025 🔗
7-9PM — DSA Orientation (Virtual)
For the full up-to-date event listing, visit the Show Up Toronto website. If you find this newsletter useful, I would love for you to:
- Forward it to a friend
- Tell me if you go to an event
- Send me other organizing events in the city I may have missed
You can reach me by replying directly, or by emailing organize@showuptoronto.ca.