Quick Links
Quick Links
This is a list of the OPIRG-Toronto action groups for the September 2016-August 2017 term. Please contact them if you are interested in getting involved with the work they do, or contact us at opirg.toronto@gmail.com if you have any questions.
ANAKBAYAN TORONTO
Anakbayan Toronto is a chapter of Anakbayan-Philippines and a member organization of Bayan Canada. We are a comprehensive, national democratic organization bringing together Filipino youth and students from all walks of life, educating, organizing, and mobilizing them for the cause of bringing forward the rights and welfare of our communities in Canada and in the Philippines.
We believe youth are agents of social change, we work and build solidarity with, among others, migrant, LGBTQ+, workers, and cultural groups and organizations in Canada as well as internationally. Anakbayan organizes educational discussions and workshops on current events of political and social justice topics, and have supported research in the Filipino communities in Canada.
Contact Info:
For more information please check out our website , we are also on Facebook, and you can email us at anakbayan.toronto@gmail.com
DECOLONIZE NOW
Decolonize Now is a new group working towards building a joint mass movement lead by Black and Indigenous people, and People of Colour. We work to draw public attention to the connections between our issues and contextualize these crimes within the historic and ongoing colonial assault on the earth and our peoples and to take a stand together.
For the first stage of our movement we have launched mass divestment campaign called Divest to Decolonize: Invest in Justice, targeting banks as the first step of our decolonization movement.
We are actively working within our communities on decolonizing projects, which strengthen our communities such as planting and tending sustainable gardens, holding workshops/skill-shares, and providing access to healing. Decolonize Now supports the work of other anti-colonial groups whose principles coincide with DecolonizeNow’s values, and seek to build relationships and support indigenous peoples worldwide, particularly those whose land we are on who continue to defend their traditional territories and ways of life here on Turtle Island.
Contact Info:
Twitter
Facebook
Email: decolonizenow6@gmail.com
MINING INJUSTICE SOLIDARITY NETWORK
The Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) is a Toronto-based activist group that organizes to draw attention to and resist the negligent practices of Canadian mining companies, who comprise over 75% of mining businesses worldwide. In solidarity with affected communities and in response to their calls for support, we:
Educate… the Canadian public on mining injustices in Canada and around the world.
Advocate… for stronger community control of mining practices, and in support of self-determination in mining-affected areas.
Agitate… against corporate impunity and in support of substantive regulatory change.
In the spring, we attend mining company annual general meetings to present statements from impacted communities, while simultaneously holding protests outside challenging the company’s narratives. During the rest of the year, we hold film screenings, educational events, speaking tours and workshops to raise awareness of mining injustice. We also respond to calls from impacted communities for support. This fall, we are launching a research project tracking violence committed by Canadian mining companies around the world. We are looking for long-term volunteers for this project to do research on a particular country. If you are interested in getting involved in any of these activities (or have ideas of your own), please contact us at mininginjustice@gmail.com. We hold new volunteer orientations on a regular basis.
Contact Info:
E-mail: mininginjustice@gmail.com
Website
Facebook
Twitter
RISING TIDE TORONTO
Rising Tide Toronto’s mission is to challenge environmental injustice and the root causes of climate change from an anti-colonial framework. Our goal is to help mobilize communities on and off campus against extraction projects, pipelines and corporate interests that harm marginalized communities and the environment, and which disrespect Indigenous sovereignty. We strive to outreach to and include students and community members from frontline communities directly impacted by climate change and environmental injustices.
Contact Info: risingtidetoronto@gmail.com
PRISONER CORRESPONDENCE PROJECT TORONTO
Prisoner Correspondence Project Toronto is a small collective that coordinates a penpal program, connecting queer, gay and trans people who are in prisons with queer, gay and trans people on the outside. In addition, we coordinate a resource library (which is currently being revamped). Our collective is made up entirely of queer, gay and trans people, with various intersecting identities including racialized, disabled, survivors, working class, and more. While the Montreal collective has been around for longer, the Toronto chapter has been organizing for around 4 years.
We aim to make prisoner justice and prisoner solidarity a priority within queer and trans movements on the outside. This is a project for queer, gay and trans communities both on the inside and the outside. Our hope is that people from these communities benefit from the project by:
Contact Info: priscopro.toronto@gmail.com
STUDENTS AGAINST ISRAELI APARTHEID
Who are we?
Students’ Against Israeli Apartheid is a Palestine solidarity network of students, faculty, and community members that works to raise awareness on and off campus about Palestinian struggle for self-determination, Israeli Apartheid, and Canada’s complicity in Israel’s apartheid policies. We support the Palestinian civil society’s 2005 call for Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel until it ends its occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands, dismantles the wall, gives full and equal rights to Palestinians within Israel and respects the right of return for all Palestinian refugees.
To work towards these goals, SAIA organizes workshops, lectures, actions and film screenings throughout the year, including the International Week Against the Wall, and the annual international conference Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). SAIA also works to challenge U of T’s complicity with Israeli violations of international law through its ongoing divestment campaign.
Contact Info:
Email: saia.opirg.uoft@gmail.com
Facebook
TORONTO QUEER ZINE FAIR
The Toronto Queer Zine Fair Collective seeks to make space for traditionally marginalized voices in the zine community. While accepting applications from all self-identified queer and trans folks, TQZF chooses to prioritize the voices of trans women, trans women of colour, queer people of colour, indigenous and two-spirit folks, and non-binary folks. The Toronto Queer Zine Fair is an alternative zine fair focusing on the radical and political history/philosophy of zines and giving a platform to those often under-represented in zine culture. We began to organize the Toronto Queer Zine Fair in 2013 as a direct response to the lack of accessibility, queer and trans visibility, and focus on zines represented in the “zinefests” organized annually in Toronto and the GTA (Greater Toronto Area).
Contact Info: torontoqueerzinefair@gmail.com
TORONTO STREET MEDICS
Toronto Street Medics are people who view health as a strategic resource for all struggles for justice and dignity. We believe that health and healthcare is political. We believe people’s health is impacted by systems of capitalism, racism, heteropatriarchy, ableism and ongoing colonization. So while we continue our struggle for a world free of oppression, and joyful with justice, we have come together to support those on the frontlines fighting for justice for us all. We will be providing preventative health care, emergency first aid and aftercare to those engaging in direct actions and different forms of mobilization in the Greater Toronto Area. We will provide care to all in attendance according to our abilities and regardless of an individual’s choice of tactics. We also aim to provide street medic training to communities on the frontlines of resistance, and prioritize Indigenous, Black, queer and trans people of colour struggles.
Contact Info: torontomedics@gmail.com
WOMEN’S COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR A FREE WALLMAPU
The Women’s Coordinating Committee For a Free Wallmapu [Toronto] is an indigenous Mapuche grassroots organization based in Toronto, Turtle Island.
Our goal is to link the struggles of indigenous sovereignty (specifically the Mapuche Peoples of so-called southern $hile) with that of other indigenous, anti-capitalist/anti-colonial, community based struggles across Turtle Island, by creating awareness through events, protests, publications, etc….
We work to build our communities and solidarity across different struggles in the hope of seeing our Mapuche Territory in liberation.
Contact Info:
For more information, visit our website.
Email: wccc_98@hotmail.com