Weekly Climate Prayer Vigil on Parliament Hill
2023-12-21 12:00 - 12:30 (America/Toronto) | Parliament Hill, Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A9, Canada
Join people from diverse faiths for a weekly climate prayer vigil on Parliament Hill at the Centennial Flame. Thursdays noon-1 pm. We will be praying for the Canadian federal government to stop all subsidies and other financial support for the fossil fuel industry. An initiative started by Reverend Jessica Hetherington.

Ottawa Solidarity for Gaza New Year's Eve vigil
2023-12-31 23:00 - 2024-01-01 00:00 | Human Rights Monument, 220 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
While thousands of people are getting ready to celebrate the New Year, we will be at the Human Rights Monument on New Year’s Eve to remind ourselves that there is nothing to celebrate when a genocide unfolds before the eyes of the entire world. We will be here to tell the people of Gaza that we have not forgotten them and that we share their suffering. We will gather to commemorate the tens of thousands of innocents killed in Gaza, and the only countdown we will accept is the one towards achieving a permanent ceasefire and the end of their occupation. Bring your flags, koufeyyes and signs & stand with us in solidarity for the people of Palestine
#Countdown2Ceasefire

OPIRG-Carleton Bursary and Grant Period - Deadline Extended
2024-01-08 08:00 - 2024-02-07 23:30 | Online
OPIRG Carleton, your social justice resource center on campus offers student and community bursaries and grants to support student research and accessibility needs. This year we are offering the following grants and bursaries:
Terry Cottam Graduate Research Bursary
Undergraduate Student Bursary
Indigenous Student Bursary
International Student Bursary
First Generation Student Bursary
Caregiver Student Bursary
Accessibility Research Grant
Emergency & Legal Name Change Grants
Applications will be available on our website and in our office starting January 8 and due February 7th. For more questions and to submit applications, email admin@opirgcarleton.org

OPIRG-Carleton Working Group Applications - Deadline extended
2024-01-08 08:00 - 2024-02-07 23:30 | Online
Working groups are collectives—groups of people working together towards a common goal while sharing responsibilities and decisions equally. They function autonomously with funding and programming support as needed from OPIRG – Carleton. Together with our volunteers, working groups are the heart of OPIRG-Carleton.
New and existing working groups can fill out applications on our website and in our office starting January 8 and ending February 7, 2024. For more questions and to submit applications, email admin@opirgcarleton.org

L'heure de conte drag/Drag Story Time avec La Dorris
2024-01-13 10:00 - 12:00 | Social Innovation Atelier, 95 Clegg St, Ottawa
*English below*
Samedi le 13 janvier à 10h00 à l’Atelier d’innovation sociale
Venez entendre des contes et des histoires pour enfants en compagnie de LaDorris! Il y aura des lectures de contes, de la musique et beaucoup de plaisir Cette activité est pour les enfants et leurs parents et se déroulera en français et en anglais.
Détails à propos de l’accessibilité:
– Para Transpo dépose les passagers.ères à l’entrée principale
– Près des arrêts d’autobus d’OC Transpo
– Toilettes non genrées et accessible aux fauteuils roulants
– Table à langer dans une des toilettes
– Espace sans odeur
Si vous avez des besoins d’accès spécifiques autres que ceux énumérés ci-dessus, veuillez nous en faire part et nous essayerons de trouver une solution afin de les satisfaire.
Lien pour y participer gratuitement: https://tinyurl.com/4958uwu9
//
Saturday, January 13th at 10AM at the Atelier
Come and hear children’s tales and stories with LaDorris! There will be story readings, music and lots of fun This activity is for children and their parents and will take place in French and English.
Accessibility Details:
– Para Transpo drops off at the main entrance
– Close to OC Transpo bus stops.
– Gender-neutral/wheelchair-accessible washroom
– A changing table in one of the washrooms
– Scent-free space
If you have specific access needs beyond what is listed above, please let us know and we will work together to meet them.
Link to register for free: https://tinyurl.com/4958uwu9

Worker to Worker solidarity: The role of unions in fighting Israeli apartheid
2024-01-13 14:00 - 16:00 | Online
Join us for this important webinar. It’ll be made up of panel presentations and discussion with labour activists and organizers from Palestine, Europe, US and Canada on building a worker-led movement against Israeli apartheid.
Speakers to be announced soon.
Register in advance here: https://us02web.zoom.us/…/WN_tT2e6F-VSM-mehCYtoEsaQ….

Ottawa: 100 Days of Genocide
2024-01-15 15:30 | Human Rights Monument, 220 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Join us this Monday the 15th of January at 3:30pm at the Human Rights Monument to demand liberation and justice for the Palestinian people in a targeted march.
As we reach 100 days of the genocide against the Palestinians, we stand firm in our calls for an immediate ceasefire, the end of the siege on Gaza, and an end to Canadian complicity in the unfolding genocide.
Despite City of Ottawa Bylaw’s tactics of intimidation, we remain committed to the cause and will continue to fill the streets until our demands are met.

The Leveller Story Meeting
2024-01-15 19:00 | Online
Do you want to be involved in power-challenging, community-based journalism?
Story Meetings are where you can pitch article ideas, help brainstorm content, or be assigned a story. They’re also a way to learn about the Leveller and introduce yourself.
Learn how to get involved and sign up to our newsletter as a contributor for updates in you inbox.
Our next story meeting is Monday, 15 January at 7pm on Jitsi!

RESOLUTION 2024
2024-01-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Arts Court Theatre, 10 daly ave, Ottawa, K1N 7B9, Canada
Resolution is a public screening featuring a selection of works created by DARC members during the previous year.
Join us in Arts Court Theatre on Thursday, January 26th at 7PM. Artists will be in attendance to participate in a brief Q&A with the audience followed by a reception at Arts Court Studio.
RESOLUTION 2024 features works by Sarah Blumel and Anisa Cameron, Alexander Cruz, Jason Dai, Conor Devries, Chantal Gervais, Rachel Gray, Tyler Nykilchyk, Conrad Osei-Bonsu, and Miles Rufelds.

Moving from Despair to Community: Early Childhood Educators and Palestine
2024-01-18 19:30 - 20:30 | Online
Thursday, January 18th
7:30pm – 8:30pm EST
Register on Zoom
We, the Early Years Liberation Collective, are offering a safe space for the early years
community to be in solidarity for a Free Palestine.
We are a group of educators, advocates, activists, and creators who are all part of the early
years community. Our work is grounded in our values as early childhood educators, joining in
the struggle against inequity, powerlessness, and oppression. Our goal is to create life-affirming
conditions within our communities and our global world, through collective action and education.
Description:
In the face of the unyielding genocide of Palestinians, our commitment to a free Palestine
remains unwavering.
We have seen an entire climate emerge to silence pro-Palestine activism. This is not a new
occurrence, but has been getting stronger and increasingly visible. From the criminalization of
resistance and peaceful demonstration, the implementation of shadow bans on social media,
people being put on lists for speaking out, the strain on relationships, to the silence in
classrooms, playrooms, and at dinner tables. The suppression of solidarity and the risks we
encounter are undeniably real. Amidst these risks, we find ways to resist, care, gather in
community, learn and unlearn, take collective action, and speak the truth to reclaim power, while
holding an ethic of care, equity, and justice in our practice.
As witnesses to the genocide in Palestine, which has been visible on social media for many
months, it may be possible that feelings of hopelessness and despair contribute to a decrease
in motivation to advocate for positive change and the feeling that what we are doing might not
be making a difference.
Through this session, we want to convey the importance of ongoing engagement with advocacy
for a free Palestine, and emphasize that this must be a collective effort to stand against
oppression and injustice. We will offer some ideas for action to advocate for a free Palestine,
and encourage participants to imagine their own advocacy actions. Our intention is that
participants leave the session with a greater sense of community, a curiosity to seek further
knowledge, and the motivation to continue supporting Palestinian liberation.
This session will address ways that our ECE values, which regard all children as precious, can
serve as instruments of change, while providing a different narrative that challenges the
common messaging and misinformation about Palestine.
We invite you to join us to learn together and gather in community on January 18th from 7:30 –
8:30 pm. EST on Zoom. Register here!

Potluck for Palestine
2024-01-19 18:30 | Happy Goat Coffee Company, 35 Laurel Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Please join us in enjoying some food and raising some money for Palestinian Youth Movement – Ottawa.
As you may be aware, in a clear attack on Freedom of Expression (Section 2, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) Ottawa Bylaw has handed out almost $6000 in tickets for the use of small megaphones at recent demonstrations. We condemn this futile attempt to chill Palestinian solidarity in our city.
PWYC/Donation
All proceeds to Palestinean Youth Movement’s legal defense against Ottawa Bylaw
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Queer Death Salon - Covid Grief
2024-01-23 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
Queer Death Salon is a community space for all 2SLGBTQIA+ people to come together to discuss death, dying and grief. It is a facilitated drop-in discussion space, with the purpose of building connection, skill, and resources for 2SLGBTQIA+ people navigating end of life in our personal lives and in our communities.
This month, Kirthan from That Good Night is accepting my handover and is facilitating the topic of Covid Grief from an anti-carceral, anti-capitalist, pro-liberation lens.

Free training in non-violent direct action and upcoming climate protests
2024-02-03 09:00 - 17:00 | ON
Learn more about nonviolent direct action and Last Generation Canada’s next round of nonviolent climate protests which will take place in Ottawa between February 5 and 16. Join Last Generation Canada for a free, one-day nonviolent action training session on either Saturday February 3 (location TBA) or Saturday February 10 (Ottawa Quaker House, 91a Fourth Avenue) at 9 am – 5 pm. Visit lastgenerationcanada.ca or contact Michael Polanyi at michaelfdpolanyi@gmail.com for more information.

IJV Ottawa presents Israelism
2024-02-04 18:00 - 21:30 | Club SAW, 67 Nicholas St, Ottawa, K1N 7B9
Independent Jewish Voices Ottawa is pleased to present the 2023 documentary film Israelism.
Join us for a screening of the film, followed by a Q+A with the director!
When: Sunday, February 4, 2024. Doors open at 6pm, film begins at 6:30pm.
Where: Club SAW, 67 Nicholas St., Ottawa ON.
Tickets: Sliding scale by donation from $0-$18, with proceeds going towards event expenses. Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/ijv-ottawa-israelism-screening-tickets-804953506607
Accessibility Information: The main entrance to Club SAW is wheelchair accessible and has an automatic door. The three public bathrooms in Club SAW are all-gender. There is a wheelchair accessible bathroom equipped with an automatic door. For community safety and to ensure inclusion, we ask that masks be worn at this event. Masks will be provided
About the film: When two young American Jews raised to unconditionally love Israel witness the brutal way Israel treats Palestinians, their lives take sharp left turns. They join a movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel, revealing a deepening generational divide over modern Jewish identity. ISRAELISM uniquely explores how Jewish attitudes towards Israel are changing dramatically, with massive consequences for the region and for Judaism itself. www.israelismfilm.com
We hope to see you there!
IJV Ottawa

Emergency Rally for Trans Youth
2024-02-05 16:45 - 19:00 | Sir John A MacDonald building, 144 Wellington St., Ottawa
All children and youth deserve access to life-saving, gender-affirming care and support. Unfortunately, Alberta premier Danielle Smith seems to disagree. Recently, she proposed the most restrictive anti-trans laws in Canada targeting trans youth.
Parents, youth, and caring community members are speaking up in opposition to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s egregious restrictions on the rights and freedoms of transgender youth and their families, her restrictive policies on sexual health education and interference in families’ healthcare.
Smith is coming to Ottawa on February 5th to speak at a right-wing event. Let’s show her that we won’t tolerate this assault on the rights and freedoms of transgender youth and their families.
Please join us and many other community advocates and organizations as we let Danielle Smith know how we feel about her egregious attacks on trans youth and families!
Please arrive early if you can, and please share this callout far and wide! The more people who are there earlier, the stronger our message will be!
If you are available to volunteer (we still need folks as marshals and to serve in care roles), please contact us at communitysolidarityottawa@gmail.com
As always, review the Safety Plan to see how to best keep yourself and your friends safe. In particular:

Do not give interviews to far right media outlets or “independent journalists”
Don’t debate far-right trolls. Drown them out with chants and noise! Especially if they are filming or livestreaming and looking for content.
Do not film supporters without their permission, and do not livestream. Do film the far right, fake journalists, and the police in order to protect yourself and your friends.
Protect your identity. Mask up, and use signs, flags, umbrellas, etc., to protect yourself from being photographed by far right activists or fake news outlets.
Do not talk to the police
Maintain situational awareness, and watch each others’ backs
Try to arrive and leave as a group
Check the weather, drive safely and dress appropriately! Give yourself plenty of time to arrive!

Online Book Launch Discussion for the 3rd Edition of The Regulation of Desire
2024-02-06 15:30 - 17:30 | ON
I invite you to attend this on-line launch event and discussion for the 3rd edition of The Regulation of Desire: Queer Histories, Queer Struggles organized by the Historical Materialism Sexuality and Political Economy Network.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hmspen-book-launch-gary-kinsman-s-the-regulation-of-desire-3rd-ed-tickets-806787030727?aff=oddtdtcreator
Tuesday 6th February 2024
20.30 GMT/ 15.30 EST/15.30 EDT 3:30pm in Ontario.
Historical Materialism Sexuality and Political Economy Network Presents….
A Book Launch Discussion of Gary Kinsman’s Third Revised Edition of
The Regulation of Desire: Queer Histories, Queer Struggles
https://www.concordia.ca/press/regulationofdesire.html
Save 20% by using the code “Kinsman20” at checkout!
Gary Kinsman will be in Conversation with OmiSoore H. Dryden and Alan Sears
Gary Kinsman is a queer liberation, anti-oppression, Palestine solidarity, and anti-capitalist activist and the co-author of The Canadian War on Queers: National Security as Sexual Regulation. He is a member of the No Pride in Policing Coalition, Scholar Strike Canada and Queers4Palestine – Toronto.
OmiSoore H. Dryden is the James R. Johnston Endowed Chair of Black Canadian Studies in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and the co-editor of Disrupting Queer Inclusion: Canadian Homonationalisms and the Politics of Belonging.
Alan Sears is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Toronto Metropolitan University. He is a long-time queer socialist activist. His books include The Next New Left: A History of the Future; The Democratic Imagination: Envisioning Popular Power in the Twenty-First Century (co-authored with James Cairns); and Retooling the Mind Factory: Education in a Lean State.
In solidarity,
Gary

Labour Action and Palestine Solidarity
2024-02-07 16:00 - 18:00 | 214 Teraanga Commons (formerly Residence Commons), Carleton University, Ottawa
CUPE 4600 and Labour For Palestine – Ottawa will be hosting an educational event for union members. Come learn about the importance of union solidarity in the fight for Palestinian human rights.
Why is Palestine a labour issue? What can unionized workers do to support Palestinians? What has the role of unions been in the fight against apartheid? Find out on February 7th!

#profitdoesntcare: Rally for public health care
2024-02-13 12:00 - 13:00 | Terry Fox Statue (Wellington and Metcalfe), 90 Wellington Street, Ottawa, K1P 5L1
Join us on Parliament Hill on February 13, 2024 to send a loud message to our leaders: our public health care system needs to be protected and expanded.
Join more than one hundred health care workers, labour and community activists, and patient advocates fighting to save Canada’s public health care system as part of the Canadian Health Coalition’s lobby days. With three weeks to go before the deadline to table pharmacare legislation, we must turn up the heat in MP offices, at their doorstep, and in the street.
Join us for a rally for pharmacare now and an end to health care privatization!

International Solidarity for Palestine: Lessons from Law and Labour
2024-02-13 12:00 - 13:30 | webinar
Join Labour for Palestine & ACEP-CAPE for Palestine for a webinar featuring South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada Riaz Moe Shaik, former UN Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk, and Dr. Katherine Nastovski on international solidarity, labor activism, and civil society resistance for the Palestinian liberation movement.
Speakers will cover a range of topics to empower us in our activism. Professor Lynk will share what is going on in Gaza and Palestine right now, drawing on his decades of expertise in labour and Palestine as a lawyer, academic, and Special Rapporteur.
Dr. Nastovski will discuss labour activism for Palestine then and now, and what’s worked in the past, what’s changed, and how we can move forward in this moment in time.
The High Commissioner will speak on the ongoing ICJ case against Israel, providing an overview of what’s unfolded in the courts, and how we can apply it to our own labour activism.
The webinar will be moderated by ACEP-CAPE for Palestine member, Greer Brabazon.
Advance registration required. Space is limited.

Queer Death Salon - Loss by overdose or tainted supply
2024-02-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Online
Queer Death Salon is a virtual community space for all 2SLGBTQIA+ people to come together to discuss death, dying and grief. It is a facilitated drop-in discussion space, with the purpose of building connection, skill, and resources for 2SLGBTQIA+ people navigating end of life in our personal lives and in our communities.
February’s Queer Death Salon is for people who have lost someone or multiple people to overdose or tainted supply.
Some questions to consider:
How are the people around me showing up to this moment?
How is my grief (in)validated by the media and my communities?
What do I wish were better understood about my situation and the people I’ve lost?
Participants are invited to bring related questions and stories of their own.
Automatic closed captioning is enabled. Follow the link in bio for more information on format and accessibility, and to get the zoom link.

Bring Them Home: Free the Canadian Muslim Men, Women and Kids Illegally Detained in NE Syria
2024-02-14 11:30 - 12:30 | Foreign Affairs Canada, Ottawa
Join a Valentine’s Day Vigil at Global Affairs Canada (125 Sussex Ave.) to free two dozen Canadian Muslim men, women and children are illegally detained under conditions akin to torture in “Guantanamo in the Desert,” a vast sandscape of arbitrary detention camps and prisons holding over 50,000 detainees, over half of them children.
While Canada has brought home several dozen of the detainees only after public pressure and court action, it has refused to bring the remainder home. Canada has also tried to forcibly separate Canadian children from their non-Canadian born mothers.

The Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria (AANES), which holds the detainees, has begged the international community to repatriate their citizens and empty these camps and prisons. While much smaller and less resourced countries than Canada have taken back their citizens (and Canada itself funds the repatriation of Iraqis) it has spent years in court trying to prevent the final return of the remaining two dozen Canadians.

One of the detainees is Jack Letts. As an idealistic and compassionate 18-year-old, Jack traveled to Syria to assist victims of the Assad regime’s brutal war against its own people, and was caught up in the chaos that followed. He condemned ISIS in messaging from within the IS ‘state’, was prosecuted for opposing their teachings, and after risking his life to escape, has been held almost 7 years in brutal conditions.

Jack has not been charged with any crime, and no evidence has been presented that he did anything wrong. In January 2023, the Federal Court of Canada concluded neither he nor the other men seeking repatriation had been involved in violence or illegal acts. If they were, then they would no doubt be happy to face a fair, transparent, open opportunity to face any allegations in court.

In fact he has been victimized by the wrongs of others: a victim of a libelous press, slanderous politicians and an Islamophobic political climate under which horrific yet baseless allegations have been thrown against him with no meaningful and safe opportunity to respond; a victim of a cowardly UK government that illegally stripped him of his citizenship, and of a Canadian government that promised to bring him home and has subsequently spent years refusing to do so; a victim of arbitrary detention and conditions tantamount to torture; a victim of extended periods of solitary confinement; a victim of a world that headlines hate and profits from dehumanization.
Arbitrary Detention is a crime. Complicity in torture is a crime. Canada must end its involvement in these crimes by bringing everyone home.

WHY VALENTINE’S DAY?
Before flower sellers and Hallmark Cards discovered it, St. Valentine’s Day was a time to remember all those unjustly persecuted and jailed. St. Valentine was a priest who was persecuted, tortured, jailed and decapitated by Roman Emperor Claudius because Valentine defied the prohibition on conducting marriages for young people. Claudius was concerned that married men would be less willing to give their lives in battle. Valentine’s last note from prison, “from your Valentine,” eventually became the basis for Valentine greetings.

DARC Night School: Being Masters of Our Stories
2024-02-15 18:00 - 20:00 | Digital Arts Resource Centre, 67 Nicholas St.
In the spirit of Black History Month, our speaker, Patrick Kabeya, will delve into the transformative power of storytelling and explore the unique perspective of being an African creator. From ancient oral traditions to modern mediums, we will celebrate the rich tapestry of African narratives and examine the role of creators in shaping and reclaiming these stories.

Nonviolent Direct Action, Creative Protest and Planning Effective Campaigns Workshop
2024-02-17 12:00 - 18:00 | ON
Space is limited, so register by sending an email to tasc@web.ca
We will send location details (we will be in an accessible space) after you have registered. Please let us know specific issues you would like to have covered in the workshop. We’ll send some video clips to help get you prepared for the day.
We request that participants be masked to protect yourselves amidst the high rates of respiratory viruses and in support of those immunocompromised members of the community who otherwise cannot attend such indoor gatherings. HEPA filters will be running throughout the day.
Presented by Homes not Bombs and the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Ottawa Quakers
WHY THIS WORKSHOP?
Protests are common in Ottawa – Gaza, climate catastrophe, anti-racism, solidarity with LGBTQ2+, anti-poverty – and while many of us are comfortable showing up as long as someone else is organizing them, we tend to forget that there is an artistry and skills set to them, especially those that may involve some level of confrontation or that turn out unexpectedly. Having those skills to fall back on can ensure your safety and keeping the message focused.
Just as we wouldn’t send someone into surgery without training, having training for political protests and nonviolent direct actions is critical to protect you, your message, and your community. The workshop will include discussion, role plays to prepare you for real-life situations, video samples, laughter and, importantly, joy, because to come together to say “NO” to the injustices of the world is an opportunity for us to live in the best of ourselves.
This in-depth interactive workshop, facilitated by a Homes not Bombs trainer with decades of experience conducting trainings in schools, prisons, faith groups, anti-globalization convergences, and other venues, will provide you with the knowledge, skills, and legal/political/theatrical literacy you need to carry out successful, creative nonviolent direct actions that go beyond the “Demonstrations 101″ box.

Voices Unveiled: Unpacking Israel's Apartheid
2024-02-18 19:00 - 21:00 | 312 laurier Ave
This event is organized by the Amnesty Ottawa-Gatineau Community Group to explore the oppressive and discriminatory system of apartheid implemented by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The public is welcome to join in-person (312 Laurier Ave East, Ottawa) or online (https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6ON1F4OOR8O8_WtYTa3GWw) on 18 FEBRUARY 2024 at 6pm EST. Our wonderful panel of speakers from the Palestinian Youth Movement, Independent Jewish Voices, Labour for Palestine, and Amnesty International will share their deep insights into this topic and will answer questions from the audience. We look forward to learning more about Israel’s system of Apartheid, and more importantly, what can be done to move towards a future where everyone’s human rights are respected.

Reasonable Cause to Suspect: Book Launch and Discussion on a Hidden Human Rights Case
2024-02-21 19:00 - 21:00 | First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, 30 Cleary Ave, Ottawa
A Book Launch and Discussion on the obstacles preventing the repatriation from Northeast Syria of over two dozen arbitrarily detained Canadian Muslim men, women, and children.

With:

Sally Lane, whose son Jack Letts has been wrongfully defamed by an inflammatory UK media and illegally held almost 7 years under conditions the UN calls “akin to torture”
Monia Mazigh is the author of Hope and Despair: My Struggle to Free My Husband Maher Arar, Mirrors and Mirages, Hope Has Two Daughters, Farida, and Gendered Islamophobia.
Alex Neve, a Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Member of NE Syria August 2023 Delegation
Matthew Behrens of Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, who has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. “national security” repression for over 25 years.

Presented by Justice and Equality Action Group, First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa and Stop Canadian Involvement in Torture, with support of Octopus Books, who will be selling books on site.

Background
Guantanamo in the Desert – where 50,000 Muslims are off-shored in NE Syria, beyond reach of law & rights, respect & dignity. Over two dozen Muslim Canadians – men, women & kids – are illegally detained there under conditions the UN calls akin to torture because Ottawa either refuses to repatriate them or has offered to repatriate children only if they are forcibly separated from their mothers. There is no clean water, nutritious food or proper medical care. The men’s prison cells are packed with bone-thin prisoners, many with amputated limbs.

In January, 2023, a Federal Court judge called on Ottawa to repatriate them, noting: “Canadians are dying or at risk of dying every day this matter is adjourned.” Over one year later, Canada still refuses, going all the way to the Supreme Court to block their return, thereby participating in the illegal practice of forced exile.

Freedom to Read 2024: Discussion with Author Lawrence Hill
2024-02-23 18:00 - 21:00 | Ottawa Public Library – Nepean Centrepointe, 101 Centrepointe, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Freedom to Read Week is an annual event, taking place February 18-24, 2024. This week provides Canadians with the opportunity to discuss book challenges, censorship, representation in literature, intellectual freedom, access to information and the literary community’s and library’s role. It serves as an opportunity to reaffirm Canadians commitment to intellectual freedom and the fight for on-going access for all against all threats to that access either through book challenges, the digital divide or otherwise.
The Ottawa Public Library’s (OPL) Mission is to inspire learning, spark curiosity, and connect people; our core values are Community, Inclusion, Integrity, Intellectual Freedom, and Literacy. This is why it is important to us to participate in Freedom to Read Week. OPL takes a stance against limitations of lawful freedom of expression, including freedom to read.
Lawrence Hill will discuss his lifelong literary passion for dramatizing neglected corners of Black history in Canada. He will explore the challenges of censorship that he and other writers have faced, and share thoughts about the title change of The Book of Negroes in the United States as well as the burning of images of The Book of Negroes in the Netherlands. He will discuss how increasing opposition to use of the N-word in literature affects Black writers and all readers.
Meet and Greet with Lawrence!
Time: 6:00-6:45pm
Book signing and meet and greet
Time: 8:15-9 pm
This is a hybrid event: the program is in-person, but we will also stream live on OPL’s YouTube page.
Registration is for the in-person portion of the event.
LAWRENCE HILL is the author of eleven books of fiction and nonfiction, including the internationally bestselling The Book of Negroes and The Illegal. His latest novel is Beatrice and Croc Harry. He has received the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Canada Reads (twice), a Canadian Screen Award, ten honorary doctorates and is a member of the Order of Canada.
Hill has volunteered with Crossroads International, The Black Loyalist Heritage Society, The Ontario Black History Society, and in federal penitentiaries. Hill is writing a novel about the African-American soldiers who built the Alaska Highway in British Columbia and Yukon during World War Two.

7th Annual A7G Round Dance
2024-02-24 16:00 - 23:55 | Horticulture Building, Landsdowne Park, 1525 Princess Patricia Way, Ottawa
We are honoured to have many invited singers joining us from Saskatchewan, Alberta and Unceded Algonquin Territory to honour us with songs for our 7th annual ceremony. We are extremely proud to be able to offer this for the community once again and would like say Miigwetch to all of our funders and sponsors for making this possible. Miigwetch to our round dance committee for volunteering their time to organize as well.

Details:
: Horticulture Building (Landsdowne Park) – 1525 Princess Patricia Way, Ottawa, Ontario
: 4pm-Midnight
: Saturday, February 24 2024
:There is paid underground parking on site & Public Transportion is also available.
: Feast Bundles are encouraged
: Singers can register on the day of the Round Dance
Violence, intimidation, drugs and alcohol will not be tolerated!

Agenda:
4pm: Pipe Ceremony
5pm: Feast
6pm: First Song
11pm: Giveaway and Midnight Snack

Save Our Gaza Families: 3-Day Silent Vigil for Family Reunification
2024-02-26 - 2024-02-28 | Parliament Hill, Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A9, Canada
We (Gazan Canadian League) are holding a peaceful, silent vigil at the O’Connor and Wellington entrance to the House of Commons at Parliament Hill, Ottawa in support of Palestinian Canadians seeking reunification with their families from Gaza.
Our family members in Gaza are dying and the Canadian government is not doing enough to bring them to safety.
It will commence on Monday Feb 26th and go until Wednesday Feb 28th. We will be there for three days from 9am to 5pm
Our point of assembly is at the intersection of O’Connor & Wellington.
We welcome everyone who would like to show peaceful support to Palestinian Canadians who are desperately working to bring their families to safety.
Let’s come together to demand the Canadian Government deliver on its promises. Our families deserve safety and security in the face of Israeli bombardment and starvation.
Endorsed by the Rural Refugee Rights Network

Science Fiction and Social Movements: Prof. Krys Maki in conversation with Aric McBay
2024-02-27 19:00 - 21:00 | Social Innovation Atelier, 95 Clegg St, Ottawa
Join Professor Krys Maki for an exciting conversation with organizer and author Aric McBay. They’ll discuss Aric’s new novel Inversion, social movements in science fiction, and how utopian writing can help us imagine better futures.

“On a mysterious green world renewed by fire, vibrant collectivist communities have long lived in harmony with both its strange ecosystem and each other—until the day imperialist forces arrive.” [Read more at https://www.aricmcbay.org/books/]

“A masterful worldbuilding feat.” —Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“Aric McBay’s Inversion is a masterpiece of utopian resistance…” —Octavia Cade, author of The Impossible Resurrections of Grief

Krys Maki (they/them) holds a PhD in Sociology. Their areas of research include feminist movements, collective organizing around gender-based violence, poverty and social inequality, and critical surveillance studies. Prior to joining the School of Social Innovation at Saint Paul University they completed a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa on labour organizing and movement building within women’s shelters. In 2021, they published their first book Ineligible: Single Mothers Under Welfare Surveillance with Fernwood Publishing. Outside of academia, Krys worked as the Director of Research and Policy at Women’s Shelters Canada, a national non-profit network of violence against women shelters (2017-2022). Their scholar activism is deeply informed by their work as a long-time organizer and activist with labour, anti-poverty, and feminist movements.

Aric McBay is an organizer, organic farmer, and author of seven books including the social movement manual Full Spectrum Resistance and the climate fiction novel Kraken Calling.

Public Rally: Scrap the Chalk River Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF)
2024-02-28 - 2024-03-01 | Westin Hotel, 11 Colonel By, Ottawa, ON, Canada
WE WILL NOT STAND IDLE.
We will be gathering in solidarity at the annual Canadian Nuclear Association conference outside of the Westin Hotel in Ottawa from February 28th through March 1st from 9-5 to make it loud and clear to the Canadian nuclear industry and energy ministers present that we do not consent to the Chalk River Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) project and we do not want nuclear waste in our watershed! Whether you come for one day or for every day, your presence makes a difference.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has failed to uphold its duty to consult, neglecting the constitutionally protected and inherent rights of Indigenous Peoples. We will not stand idle. We must come together to defend the Kichi Sibi and our rights as Indigenous Peoples.
Graphics and photos for banners can be downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/…/11c7fsArVk8RX58qGWtYJi…
Have questions? Contact Kacie McLaren at kmclaren@kebaowek.ca
