Punch Up Collective

Acorn's Healthy Homes Meeting
2025-06-24 18:00 - 20:00 (America/Toronto) | tom brown arena, 141 Bayview Station Road, Ottawa, K1Y 4T1
Fight for Landlord Licensing
REMINDER that ACORN’s BIG citywide Healthy Homes Meeting is right around the corner!

Landlords have had free reign for far too long. ACORN will be presenting and pushing our landlord licensing campaign – a tool to keep landlords accountable for their horrific neglect of our units.

We’ll be listening to ACORN members’ horror stories, answer trivia questions on shocking stats from our State of Repairs report, listening to guest speakers (Hardi Rath-Wilson, Tenant Lawyer; Ricardo Tranjan, Researcher & Author), and City councillors will be there to hear tenant concerns head on.

You won’t want to miss this

Picnic Lunch at Britannia Park
2025-06-23 12:00 - 14:00 | Britannia Beach Park, 102 Greenview Avenue, Ottawa, K2B 8J8
Be a part of the conversation: we need to get governments to move forward – meaningfully – on sustainable energy development.
We will be part of a nation-wide “climate Sun Day” on September 21st. Communities across the country will talk about alternative sources of energy currently being developed and point to ways to ramp up progress in this area.
Planning is underway to make this an event that grabs the attention of the public and decision-makers.
Come picnic together on June 23rd and share ideas on how to make this a success.

Indigenous Peoples's Day Pop-up market and free museum admission
2025-06-21 11:00 - 17:30 | Bytown Museum, 1 Canal Lane, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day at the Bytown Museum with an Indigenous Pop-Up Market and a day full of engaging, family-friendly programming and free museum admission!
Shop handmade goods from local First Nations, Inuit, and Métis artists and makers Take part in fun craft making Learn about Indigenous medicines and history through touch tables and guided tours Watch a traditional dance showcase

Located in the heart of downtown Ottawa, the Bytown Museum is located on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation. As a museum in the heart of Ottawa, we recognize our responsibility to tell fuller stories of the land, its peoples, and its histories — past, present, and future.

Amnesty Book Club presents Vinh Nguyen
2025-06-20 19:30 - 20:30 | Online
Join Amnesty International’s Book Club for a live online event for World Refugee Day with Vinh Nguyen, Canadian author of the memoir The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse, in conversation with host Pacinthe Mattar.
Register for the free Zoom presentation
With the Fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, the U.S. war in Vietnam ended, but the refugee crisis was only beginning. Among the millions of people who fled Vietnam by boat was Vinh Nguyen, along with his mother and siblings, and his father, who left separately and then mysteriously vanished.
Decades later, Nguyen goes looking for answers. What he discovers is a sea of questions drifting above sunken truths. To find his father—and anchor himself in the present—Nguyen must piece together the debris of history with family stories that have been scattered across generations and continents, kept for years in broken hearts and guarded silences.
Vinh Nguyen is a nonfiction editor at The New Quarterly, curating an ongoing series on refugee, migrant, and diasporic writing. He is the co-editor of the academic books Refugee States: Critical Refugee Studies in Canada and The Routledge Handbook of Refugee Narratives, and the author of Lived Refuge: Gratitude, Resentment, Resilience. His writing has been short-listed for a National Magazine Award and has received the John Charles Polanyi Prize in Literature. In 2022, he was a Lambda Literary Fellow in Nonfiction for emerging LGBTQ writers.
Pacinthe Mattar is an award-winning journalist, writer and producer. Her work, featured on CBC News, and in The Walrus, the Toronto Star, Al Jazeera, Buzzfeed, Chatelaine and more, centres the lived experiences that are too often excluded from the mainstream.

Queer Death Salon - End of Life and Disability
2025-06-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Zoom
We will be joined by Carrie Batt, founder of SEOL CARE for a presentation and discussion about disability at end of life. Carrie trains people with disabilities, their loves ones, and service providers on how to develop a disability informed approach to end of life and grief support. She also offers disability competent end of life care and bereavement support services to the disability community.
This 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.
Attendees are welcome to come with questions, stories, or special objects to share with the group.

Canada & Gaza: What are our moral and legal obligations?
2025-06-16 19:00 - 21:00 | First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, 30 Cleary Ave, Ottawa
Human rights activists have tried everything from determined demonstrations to private meetings with politicians to get Canada to act. It is all useful. But we have not been able to convince Canadians or our politicians that Canada can and should do something to stop the genocide in Gaza. The Ottawa Forum on Israel Palestine invites you to a public meeting in Ottawa to discuss what we can and should do. Read more.….
“The genocide in Gaza is the moral issue of our time,” says Holocaust survivor and best selling author Gabor Mate M.D. Whoever says “genocide” has to act. By avoiding the word, we avoid responsibility.
Facing the greatest crime of the 21st century, The Ottawa Forum on Israel Palestine (OFIP) wants to increase the pressure on Prime Minister Carney to live up to our legal and moral responsibilities. We invite anyone in Ottawa to attend a public meeting on June 16th, 2025.
Instead of just “preaching to the choir”, the meeting aims to help “arm the choir” with knowledge and confidence. Three experts will help the audience better understand the issues involved and the challenges we face. If the meeting is successful, it will reinforce our confidence to act – to speak to our friends, to write letters, to lobby politicians. In short, to be able to increase pressure on our civic and political leaders to speak out and take action on this urgent issue.
The speakers

Iyas Salim, Adjunct professor, Carleton University – Dr. Salim grew up in Gaza where he still has both friends and family. He will share first hand information from Palestinians living the nightmare that Israel is inflicting on them and the options they face.
Peggy Mason, President Rideau Institute – A former Canadian ambassador, she will examine Canada’s legal obligations under international and humanitarian law. What responsibility does Canada have to put into effect decisions/judgements of the International Court of Justice, the UN Security council or the ICC. How well is Canada living up to its LEGAL obligations?
Senator Yuen Pau Woo – What are the contradictory pressures facing the Carney government? Is there an evolution in our government’s position, what are the debates, the pressures, and how can we can push forward to a stronger position? Why is the Canadian parliament so quick to say “genocide” in some cases, but so reluctant to do so in the face of overwhelming evidence from Gaza?

Cost?
There is no charge for the event. However, we gladly accept donations.
Registration?
You can register in advance by using this link: https://bit.ly/4kAVSDa or at the door (if there is still room).
Free on site parking for about 100 cars. Carshare, come early or take OC transpo.

Solidarity with the Ramsook brothers
2025-06-16 18:00 - 20:30 | Rideau Hub, 815 St Laurent Blvd - Room 215, Ottawa
Garick and Ramesh Ramsook came to Canada with the hope of improving their lives and that of their families. They were employed by Polat Construction, a company located in the Ottawa area. The brothers worked to support Canada’s construction industry, a vital industry particularly during the current housing crisis that exists.

Employed under Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program, they were subjected to wage theft, occupational hazards and workplace harassment. The Ramsook brothers, along with other migrant and Canadian workers organized their workplace with the Carpenters Union. Shortly thereafter, the workers were terminated. Since their termination, the workers have endured hardship.

This, however, is not a story of migrants falling through the cracks. Four migrant workers, including the Ramsook brothers, filed successful applications with the Ministry of Labour alleging wage theft under the Employment Standards Act. Across the province of Ontario under the Ford government, the province has failed to enforce decisions of the Ministry of Labour to the tune of over $60 million dollars. Polat Construction was found guilty and compelled to return
over $140,000 in wages.

The Ramsook brothers have appealed part of the decision to the OLRB to request further remedies and are awaiting a decision regarding their appeal.

The federal government has found that Polat Construction violated the rules of the TFW program. Currently the employer is on the feds’ non-compliant list. The company was fined $161,000 with a five-year ban from employing temporary foreign workers. Despite these stiff penalties, the federal government has failed to enforce monetary penalties for non-compliance, to the tune of 40% or $4.5 million dollars since 2017.

The Ramsook brothers have decided to return home. Both the provincial and federal government have failed them. To honour their courage, sacrifices, and their demand for dignity, fairness and respect, we would like to invite you for a discussion and fundraiser to show solidarity with these comrades.

Registration: https://forms.gle/ZVRKh9rGkNKs5TRR8

Zoom link for meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/280034454

Article backgrounder: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/they-came-from-jamaica-for-work-now-theyre-homeless-and-out-thousands-of-dollars-in-lost-wages/

"The Other" screening + panel
2025-06-14 17:30 - 20:30 | Somerset West Community Health Centre, 55 Eccles Street, Ottawa, K1R 6S3
Join us for a screening of The Other. The award-winning documentary on peace-builders and co-resistance fighters in Palestine-Israel will be followed by a panel discussion featuring the director, Joy Sela, and members of the Canadian Friends of Standing Together coalition (C-FoST), Karen Golden and Raja Khouri. Meet like-minded individuals committed to achieving a just and sustainable peace in Palestine-Israel.

Arms Embargo Now! Ottawa Protest
2025-06-14 14:00 - 17:00 | Human Rights Monument, 220 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ottawa Join us on Saturday June 14th, at 2pm, at the Human Rights Monument to demand this government implement a full and immediate arms embargo on the genocidal zionist regime and finally recognize Palestine, without condition!

This week, a UN meeting is being held in New York to discuss recognizing a Palestinian state. The time to recognize is long overdue and we call on this government to do so without condition. But recognition alone means nothing if western governments continue their shameful complicity in Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. While countries discuss this around a table, countless families are left buried under rubble, and many more are deprived of food, water, and medical aid.

Recognition will mean nothing as long as Canada continues to profit from the export of the military equipment used to slaughter the people of Gaza. We need an arms embargo now!

DATE: Saturday, June 14
TIME: 2PM
PLACE: Human Rights Monument

NO TYRANTS
2025-06-14 14:00 - 15:30 | US Embassy, 490 Sussex St, Ottawa
We don’t put up with mad tyrants.
NO TYRANTS is an international day of action and mass mobilization in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies. We’ve watched as they’ve cracked down on free speech, detained people for their political views, threatened to deport American citizens, and defied the courts. They’ve done this all while continuing to serve and enrich their billionaire allies.
On June 14—Flag Day in the US—Donald Trump wants tanks in the street and a made-for-TV display of dominance for his birthday. A spectacle meant to look like strength. But real power isn’t staged in Washington. It rises up everywhere else.
On Saturday, June 14, we’re taking to the streets internationally. We’re not gathering to feed his ego. We’re building a movement that leaves him behind.
On June 14, Indivisible Ottawa is STANDING UP and saying NO TYRANTS in solidarity with hundreds of Indivisible groups in the US, Indivisible Abroad, Democrats Abroad, concerned Canadians and allies around the world to say no tyrants, no dictators and NO KINGs in the US.
Bring friends, family, colleagues, signs and, if you can, dress as Tr*mp clowns (or one of his cronies.) Think bad blonde wig, orange face, long red tie, and get creative!
A core principle behind all No Kings/No Tyrants events is a commitmen to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.

Sign & Mask-Making - Prep for June 14 NO TYRANTS Ottawa
2025-06-10 17:00 - 19:00 | Broadway Bar & Grill, 1896 Prince of Wales Dr
Come join us as we make signs and masks to get ready for the June 14 international day of action in response to increasing authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies. We’re encouraging everyone to get creative as we seek to protest and ridicule the increase of TYRANNY emanating from Washington.
This is also a great opportunity to learn more about Indivisible Ottawa and meet with others interested in promoting equality and democratic values both in the US and abroad. We’ll have some supplies, but please bring whatever materials you may have for making signs, masks and costumes!

Pique
2025-06-07 14:00 - 2025-06-08 02:00 | Club SAW, 67 Nicholas St, Ottawa, K1N 7B9
Pique summer edition — the boldest annual instalment of Debaser’s celebrated music and multi-arts festival series — takes over downtown Ottawa’s Arts Court complex. Featuring dynamic performances, thought-provoking exhibitions, and interactive installations across indoor and outdoor stages, Pique is a convergence of creativity and innovation that bridges international cultures with local communities.
Celebrated for its curatorial eclecticism, Pique brings together techno innovation, queer cabaret, laid-back indie/alternative, glitch punk, collisions of tradition and futurism, participatory installations and lots more to the festival’s summer edition.
Pique is all-ages. Tickets to Pique are pay-what-you-can. Suggested range of $45-75 includes taxes and fees.

Meet the MacDonald-MacLaren Tenant Union!
2025-06-07 09:00 - 15:00 | Minto Park, 315 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
In February 2025, Concorde Properties, led by Jordan Tannis, served eviction notices to the tenants of 17 MacDonald and 53 MacLaren in Centretown.
In the months since, the developer has forced entry into tenants’ units, harassed them, and done construction work on the building without permits, including tearing down people’s balconies while they were in their homes. Tenants say their building hallways are littered with dangerous construction debris and smoke detectors disconnected, among other safety concerns.
The tenants have formed a union to fight the renoviction and need the support of their community. Come out to Minto Park on Saturday, June 7 to meet the tenants, and find out more about how to support their fight. And follow @fightoftheconcorde on Instagram to keep up with the renoviction nightmare.

Women in Black Vigil
2025-06-06 13:00 - 14:30
Jewish women will stand in silent vigil across from the Israeli embassy at 50 O’Connor Street Friday June 6 between 1pm-2pm holding empty pots with one sign reading:
Stop the starvation
End the war
Save the hostages
End the occupation
Women in Black is a world-wide independent network of women committed to peace with justice and actively opposed to injustice, war, militarism and violence.

Big Gay Screening
2025-06-04 18:00 - 21:00 | DARC Microcinema, 67 Nicholas St, Ottawa, K1N 7B9, Canada
It’s time to get GAY! DARC’s annual BIG GAY SCREENING will be taking place on Wednesday, June 4th! 🌈
This FREE screening, presented in partnership with Qu’ART, will feature short films by queer Canadian artists celebrating queerness, exploring queer narratives, and highlighting the vastness of queer experiences.
Don’t miss this opportunity to support for talented artists from the 2SLGBTQIA+ community! Get your gays together (and allies and loved ones) and join us for this celebration of queerness at the Digital Arts Resource Centre! 🏳️‍🌈

Just Voices Spring Concert 2025
2025-05-31 19:00 - 21:00 | First Unitarian Congregation of Ottawa, 30 Cleary Ave, Ottawa
Join us for a celebration of song and social justice!Guest Performer MARIA HAWKINSAdmission – $5 – $20 Pay what you can.
Benefiting the Ottawa Food Bank

Collaborative zine making night at the Ottawa Trans Library
2025-05-31 17:00 | Ottawa Trans Library, 1104 Somerset St. West, Ottawa, Ontario, K1Y 3C8, Canada
Come work on zines with us as we work on the next issue of The Dragon Flyer, the Ottawa Trans Library’s community zine. Write, draw, scan, cut, and paste with us on our community zine or your own project, or just come hang out with us. We are collecting stories, jokes, poems, art, and more from the trans and non-binary community in Ottawa and our friends and families.
The zine workshop is a collaborative event to discuss, share, and work on zines together.
Come tell your story. We will provide paper, templates, and whatever art supplies we have. No experience necessary. All ages welcome, children under age 13 must be accompanied by an adult.
Masking the day of the event is encouraged. Accessibility note: There are two stairs at the door entrance. We have a ramp we can bring out for the door on request. There’s a washroom but it’s not large enough for many mobility devices.

Telling Your Queer Story
2025-05-29 19:00 - 2025-05-30 21:00 | Zoom
Taking place over TWO SESSIONS May 29th and May 30th from 7-9 pm eastern each day.
Facilitated by Jeffrey Canton and Hosted by Queer Community Deathcare
We often share anecdotes about our daily experiences as 2SLGBTQIA+ without realizing their potential as stories. This workshop will teach you how to transform these “moments of being” into a compelling work of art.
By focusing on one or more meaningful life experiences, you’ll learn to shape a written piece that highlights the importance of these moments and connects deeply with readers. As a storyteller, Jeffrey Canton also wants to encourage participants to tell their stories aloud – perhaps making a video of you relating your story

Working for a Liveable World: A Climate and Labour Solidarity Teach-In
2025-05-28 18:00 | mcnabb park, Mcnabb park, Ottawa, K1R 7C5, Canada
New date!! (Due to weather)
Join us for a teach-in to explore the rich and ever-growing history of solidarity between the environmental and labour movements. We will be sharing stories from historians, labour and climate activists of successful or ongoing campaigns that build a sustainable future and worker power.
We’ll have a bake sale with proceeds going to Labour 4 Palestine! Bring a blanket or chair!
Can’t wait to see you there!

National Day of Action for Climate Justice
2025-05-28 11:00 | Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier, Ottawa
Landlords are cashing in on green retrofit funding, low- and moderate-income tenants are once again left behind—facing sky-high rents, no AC, broken windows, and unaffordable energy bills.

On May 28th, ACORN members will take action nationwide to demand real climate justice for tenants.

What we’re calling for:– Full Rent Control in every province– A national ban on fixed-term leases– Tenant protections in all retrofit funding: affordability, cooling, and anti-eviction guarantees– Transparent agreements between funders, landlords, and tenants– National energy poverty programs like OESP in every province– City-wide max-heat bylaws to protect tenant health

We’ll be taking the opportunity to launch our new report:“Crumbling Apartments in a Warming World: How Tenants are in an Energy Cost Crisis”
The findings are clear: tenants are suffering while the government hands out funding with no strings attached. Let’s fight for tenant rights, climate safety, and affordable homes.

Join us in cities across Canada on May 28th. Bring your voice. Bring your neighbours. Bring the heat!!

Shut Down CANSEC
2025-05-28 07:00 | EY Centre, 4899 Uplands Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Join us May 28 at 7 am at the EY Centre to protest yet another display of imperialism and war profiteers hell bent on perpetuating genocide and destruction of the earth. For them, mass murder is a lucrative business, and governments, like Canada, pave the way.
We (not the threat) will protest weapons companies (actual threat) whose revenues STEADILY INCREASE as trade continues and human rights violations persist.

Film Screening and Panel Discussion: Working for Freedom
2025-05-22 19:00 - 21:00 | Arlington Five, 5 Arlington Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Join filmmakers and people with lived experience of working in Ontario prisons for a viewing and panel discussion of Working for Freedom.
Cost: pay what you can (proceeds go to Prisoner Legal Supports)

"It takes a village to kill a child": The complicity of science and tech in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians
2025-05-22 18:30 - 20:00 | Online
Researchers from No Tech for Apartheid and Science for the People Canada have documented the use of science and technology in the production of military equipment currently being deployed against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Canadian companies are manufacturing parts for the F-35 jets currently being used to bomb Gaza, while tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon provide cloud services to the Israeli occupation. Join us to learn how science and tech workers in North America are complicit in genocide and how people working in and outside of these companies can help shut down the war machine.
Register here.
Speakers
Hasan Ibraheem is a Syrian organizer with No Tech For Apartheid and ex-Google software engineer. Based in NYC, he’s recently written a letter to workers at Google, Amazon and Microsoft titled, “Does My Code Kill Palestinians?”. Hasan encourages everyone to read this letter, especially aspiring tech professionals.
Derek Rasmussen is a legal researcher and peace activist who has done essential work to expose Canadian weapons-part manufacturing companies’ roles in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. Derek is one of the co-authors of the SftP report, “It Takes a Village to Kill a Child” and has also published on this topic in Breach Media.

Learn about Ottawa’s radical history on a walking tour
2025-05-22 08:00 - 2025-10-20 17:00 | The streets of Ottawa-Gatineau
Learn about Ottawa’s radical history on a walking tour
Take your radicalism outdoors this summer so you and your friends can learn from previous generations of troublemakers on a radical historical walking tour.
My name is Brian McDougall. Since 2014, I’ve given hundreds of radical tours to visitors, residents, and local activists.
Why do we need to know our history? It’s true that history doesn’t repeat itself, and it can’t provide us with ready-made formulae to guide us today. But, knowing the inspiring stories about how others fought for social justice – whether they won or lost – helps to sharpen our ability to think through the strategic and tactical issues we face today.
Peoples’ History Walking Tours:

Building the Rideau Canal and the making of the Ottawa working class
Protest, strike, and rebellion in the history of Canada’s capital
An unauthorized history of Parliament Hill: From Indigenous land to headquarters of Canada’s elite
Indigenous peoples and colonialism in the history of Canada’s capital
From sacred site to industrial wasteland: colonialism and class struggle in the Chaudière District
More than taverns and brothels: French Canadian, Irish, and Jewish struggles against oppression in Lowertown
The rise and fall of federal public service militancy in Ottawa-Gatineau, 1965-2023
Colonialism and resistance in Canada’s capital: lessons from Indigenous, Irish, Black South African, and Palestinian struggles
Failure to revolt? Why Winnipeg had a general strike in 1919 while Ottawa’s was aborted

How good are the tours? In 85 reviews on Trip Advisor, 79 tour participants rated their experience 5 stars out of 5. You can read their comments here: https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g155004-d7035441-Reviews-Peoples_History_Walking_Tours-Ottawa_Ontario.html
What does a tour involve? Tours are given in English, last from 3 to 3.5 hours, and mainly take place in the center of Ottawa, May to October.
Who leads the tours? I do. I’m a former university teacher and federal public servant, land long-time socialist, trade unionist and social justice activist in Ottawa-Gatineau. I’m currently active with the Palestinian solidarity caucus and the national education committee of my public service union: the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.
How much does a tour cost? Tours cost $35 per person and require a minimum of four participants. Groups can be as large as 20, with those of 10 or more eligible for a discount.
How do you book a tour? Organize a group and select a preferred day and time. (Tours are organized on demand.) Then send me an email brian.phwt@gmail.com or book through my website https://ottawahistorytours.com Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have questions.

Book Launch: Unsilenced – Poems for Palestine
2025-05-20 11:00 | A720 Loeb Building, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S 5B6, Canada
Panelists:
John P Portelli, Editor
Firoze Manji, Publisher
Leila Marshy and other contributing poets
Prof. Nahla Abdo
Moderated by Adrian Harewood

Film Screening and Discussion: The Lab
2025-05-18 14:00
Join us for a screening and discussion of the 2013 documentary The Lab that dives into the weapons industry of “israel”. This will be a hybrid event with an option to gather in person in Ottawa, or join virtually. We will show the documentary and close with a discussion. Masks will be made available.
To get the location or link, register here.

International Day Of Action - 77 years of ongoing Nakba
2025-05-17 14:00 - 17:00 | Human Rights Monument, 220 Elgin Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Join us on Saturday May 17 at 2pm at the Human Rights Monument to mark the 77th year of ongoing Nakba under apartheid israel’s genocidal conditions. For 77 years, the Palestinian people have been subjected to genocide, siege, occupation, and forced displacement, enduring brutality at the hands of the zionist colonial project. In the past 57 days alone, the zionist entity has imposed a complete siege on Gaza, barring the entrance of any food, water or medicine despite dire conditions and international outcry.

Yet, despite decades of zionist aggression, Palestinians continue to resist, fighting for their land, their liberation, and their return. As the genocide in Gaza intensifies, violence across our land escalates, and attacks on our movement grow, now is the time to show that the masses stand with Palestine.

This Nakba 77 March, let us join thousands across the globe to demand:
1) An end to the genocide in Gaza;
2) A full and immediate two-way arms embargo on Israel;
3) The release of all Palestinian political prisoners;
4) Lifting the siege on Gaza and allowing immediate humanitarian aid and reconstruction;
5) An end to the Zionist occupation of all Palestinian land

Blocking for Events
2025-05-17 12:00 - 14:00 | Online
Community Solidarity Ottawa will share its current methodology for neutralizing far right agitators at events, and protecting event attendees. There will be an opportunity for general discussion among attendees, allowing them to ask questions, discuss current trends in far right tactics and rhetoric, and exchange tips and tricks for neutralizing their attempts to harass and intimidate community members.
Register here.

Queer and Trans Solidarity With Palestine
2025-05-16 19:00 - 21:00 | St. Paul Amphitheatre, 233 Main Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S1C4, Canada
Join us for a community event (panel discussion with invited speakers) to learn about queer and trans solidarity with Palestine!
May 16, 2025 • 7pm – 9pm
Doors open at 6:30pm
St. Paul University Amphitheatre, 233 Main St.
Featuring:

Maša Davidovic (Ottawa)
Maria Fakhouri (Ottawa)
Natalie Kouri-Towe (Montreal)

Speakers at this event will address the following questions:

Why do so many queer and trans people identify with and support the struggle for Palestinian liberation?
What are some examples of present and historical connections between these struggles?
What is pinkwashing and how does Israel use it to legitimize apartheid, occupation, and genocide?
Why is connecting the queer, trans, and Palestinian struggles a powerful strategy for building an even stronger liberation movement?

Book Launch: Red Flags by David Camfield
2025-05-13 19:00 - 20:00 | Octopus Books, 116 Third Ave, Ottawa, Canada
Join us for the launch of Red Flags: A Reckoning with Communism for the Future of the Left by author, social justice activist, and labour studies prof David Camfield. David will be joined in conversation by queer activist and labour organizer Genevieve Latour.
Tues May 13th, 7pm-8pm. Doors open at 6:30pm.
Octopus Books, 116 Third Ave.
RSVP via email: events@octopusbooks.ca
An anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian introduction to the history of the USSR, China, and Cuba that asks: Were they actually on the road to communism?
Red Flags traces the path from the 1917 Russian Revolution to the construction of the world’s first “actually existing socialist” society: the USSR. It also looks at the post-revolution societies created along the same lines in China and Cuba. Using the intellectual tools of historical materialism, Red Flags argues that they were not in fact moving towards communism because the social relations remained fixed in class exploitation. The workers were never liberated.
At a time of burgeoning anti-communism from both conservatives and liberals, this book is an accessible, vibrant synthesis of the history of communism that draws on the latest research to develop a rigorous analysis of the contradictions and uneasy truths the left needs to confront if it is to build a genuinely liberatory alternative to capitalism.
David Camfield is a professor in the Labour Studies Program and the Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba. He is the author of Future on Fire: Capitalism and the Politics of Climate Change, We Can Do Better: Ideas for Changing Society, and Canadian Labour in Crisis: Reinventing the Workers’ Movement and has written many articles on Marxism and left politics. David is on the editorial board of Midnight Sun and hosts the podcast Victor’s Children.
Genevieve Latour (she/her) serves on the national executive of the Canadian Associate of Professional Employees (CAPE), to which she was elected in 2023 as part of the Members for Change team with a mandate to radically transform the union. Dedicated to building power in our communities and forging links among grassroots movements and labour organizations, she is active with Queers for Palestine as well as queer and Palestine solidarity initiatives within her union.
