June 19 Action Blast

Action Blast
Written By Tilman Lewis

Dance for Community Justice, June 25

Image description: Toronto Community Justice Fund. Moskitto Bar & DJ Zehra. Tuesday June 25 7:30pm-midnight. Tranzac Club. When things become too much, dancing helps. Mottled green and red background with a watermelon cartoon flying like a kite.

When things become too much, dancing helps. Come out on Tuesday, June 25, 7:30 p.m. at the Tranzac Club. Gather, dance, and bid in the silent auction to raise funds for the Toronto Community Justice Fund. Live music with Moskitto Bar. Soca tunes with DJ Zehra.

This fund is helping cover the legal and financial costs of those arrested for participating in Palestine solidarity in the GTA. The need is growing — more than 50 people have been arrested for actions in support of Palestine.

Sliding scale: $25-50. To make an additional donation, please send an e-transfer to surjto.fundraising@gmail.com with the note "TCJF Fundraiser." To purchase solidarity tickets to help others to attend, email tcjfsilentauction@gmail.com.

Abolitionist Pride, June 30

Image description: No Pride in Policing Coalition presents From Tkaronto to Palestine and Beyond! @ Grange Park Sun, June 30, 2-7 p.m. Militant fist and draped flag juxtapose Pride colours with Palestinian flag.

No Pride in Policing Coalition invites you to attend Abolitionist Pride: From Tkaronto to Palestine and Beyond at Grange Park on Sunday, June 30, from 2 to 7 p.m.

Pride March begins at 2 p.m. Opening Ceremony with speakers, drumming, chants and a DJ. Picnic follows from 4 to 7. Also seeking volunteers.

From the NPPC website:

As a queer and trans, Black, racialized, Indigiqueer and two spirited coalition, we say NO to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, the Congo and Sudan and everywhere else in the world where lives, including those of queers and trans, are being annihilated...

Israel and its Zionist regime continues to bomb Gaza, Rafah and other parts of Palestine with the help of the U.S. Canada, Britain, Germany and other Western Nations. At the same time, we who are queer and trans in Canada are facing ongoing attacks on our lives from queerphobia, transphobia and government officials determined to undermine our right to exist….

Together, we will chant, memorialize, and celebrate. We in NPPC know that no one is free until Palestine, the Sudan, Congo, and Haiti are all free! We march for freedom and Liberation. We march for a liberated Palestine! From Tkaronto and Beyond!”

Toronto Disability Pride March, July 13

Image description: 13th Annual Disability Pride March. July 13 1-5 p.m. March Queen’s Park to Grange Park; access van, ASL, Sighted Guides. Info: tdpm.org. Qs: accesstdpm@gmail.com. Live feed @TorontoDisabilityPrideMarch. Please wear a mask! Collage, TDPM in ASL; logo

Join Toronto’s 13th annual Disability Pride March to bring recognition to the struggles and value of people with disabilities in the fight against ableism and other forms of oppression. Meet July 13 at 1 p.m. and join the 2 km march from Queen’s Park to Grange Park. Learn more info and stay tuned for updates on the event website and Instagram channel.

The march organizers are also still looking for marshalls and volunteers. If you’re available to be an access volunteer, email accesstdpm@gmail.com. To support as a marshall or provide other general volunteer support, email torontodisabilitypride@gmail.com.

More Actions and Resources

Act

  • Is National Indigenous Day, June 21, a paid day off for you? Celebrate Indigenous resistance and resurgence, while moving some earnings to Free Grassy, No More Silence, Native Youth Sexual Health Network, Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction — or another Indigenous Justice organization that’s dear to you.

  • Join Palestinian and Jewish families and their allies in demanding that TDSB trustees take active steps to end anti-Palestinian racism in our schools by signing this petition.

  • Join Palestinian Youth Movement Toronto and take action on June 22 at 2 p.m. in Yonge & Dundas Square to demand the end of the genocide, a two-way arms embargo, and lifting the siege on Gaza. We will not rest until our demands are met and until we see Palestinian liberation!

  • Don’t forget to join the final June lunch-time phone zap on Monday, June 24 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. Let’s gather together and demand our elected officials, institutions, and communities take action for a #FreePalestine!

Attend

  • It’s not too late to sign up for Full Spectrum Resistance! On June 22-23, join for a two-day teach-in for activists of all kinds, inspired by the work of Aric McBay. Learn effective strategies for success at this workshop hosted at OCAD University. Tickets are $0-$50.

  • Reserve your spot for "Palestine Will be Seen," a FREE viewing event and community conversation at 634 Vaughan Road. "Where Olive Trees Weep" will be screened on June 25 at 5:30 and "Israelism" on June 26 at 5:30.

  • Join Disability Justice Network of Ontario on July 4, 11 a.m. at Matt Cohen Park (across from Chrystia Freeland’s Office) for a Community Gathering in Toronto to talk about the low proposed rates, access requirements, and other barriers of the coming Canada Disability Benefit.

Read/Watch/Listen

  • Read in The Conversation how Canada is silencing and criminalizing dissent by limiting how public space is used and who it’s for in this call for solidarity on National Indigenous Peoples Day.

  • Listen to the Canadaland Commons podcast The Crucible of Confinement to hear Zakaria Amara discuss his life in prison, his journey of rehabilitation, and his life on the outside.

  • In The Narwhal, Denise Balkissoon interviews Ingrid Waldron about Canada's recent pledge to tackle environmental racism.

  • Spend some time with the Yellowhead Institute's solidarity reading list on settler colonial contexts: From Askiy to the Sea.

Tilman Lewis
Next

May 22 Action Blast!