News, Events & Comments

Congratulations to Come As You Are and Red Tent Sisters for being included in Midori, The Traveling Sexpert's Toronto Travel Guide:


"...
Come As You Are
Come As You Are is a multi-award-winning shop carrying goods and sponsoring events for the passionate lover in all of us. It’s a cheerful store full of the best quality sex toys, erotic books, sexy videos and works by local artists on the wall. On weekends, they’re just packed with erotic connoisseurs and giddy couples of all ages and genders.

Red Tent Sisters
For those interested in fertility and all aspects of women’s wellness, including sexuality, don’t miss Red Tent Sisters. I bought a cool inflatable birthing tub from Amy and Kim, the proprietors. I’m not having a baby, silly! It doubles as the best mini back yard pool or beer cooler, ever!"

Labels: Come As You Are, Red Tent Sisters

Well, Taodhg suggested that we repost the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly press release regarding the Free Transit Street Party, so here it is:


2/22/2010. Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly (GTWA) to hold park party to raise awareness and campaign for free and accessible transit. Party and rally to take place Saturday Oct. 2 1-4PM in Christie Pits, Toronto

No Fare is Fair: Park Party for Free and Accessible Transit...

The Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly will be holding a mass rally and family-friendly party at the Christie Pits in Toronto on Saturday October 2 from 1 to 4 PM, to increase the visibility of the GTWA’s campaign for free and accessible transit.

“This is a perfect time for this kind of community campaign,” says York University Professor Leo Panitch. “The public is fed up with cuts to social services and increasing transit costs, while the government spends billions on fighter-planes.” Panitch points out that the campaign can be paid for through a re-allocation of tax revenue, and possibly by floating bonds, given Ontario’s low interest rates.

Community organizer Jennifer Huang points out that for working class and migrant communities, the cost of transit makes life more difficult. “People shouldn’t have to choose between paying for either groceries or transit,” says Huang. Jonah Schein, Davenport candidate for Toronto City Council agrees. “Imagine free and accessible transit,” says Schein. “It seems difficult, but it also seemed difficult to imagine free health care before Tommy Douglas came along.”

The campaign demands that the public is provided not only with fare–free transit, but also for accessible transit. Those with accessibility needs are increasingly finding the TTC not ‘the better way.’ “Accessibility doesn’t just mean an elevator at the end of the platform” says labour activist Peter Brogan. “It means a firm commitment from the city to ensure that those who aren’t ‘able bodied’ have the same right to mobility as everyone else!”

The Greater Toronto Workers’ Assembly was formed after a series of meetings among progressive, labour and community organizations in Toronto in the summer and fall of 2009. Vowing to move beyond the divisions that have hampered progressive change in the Greater Toronto Area, the first Assembly was held in October 2009. The campaign for Free and Accessible transit was crafted by the campaigns committee of the GTWA and endorsed by Assembly members in April 2010.

Since April, a committee of labour activists, academics and community organizers has worked on crafting the campaign, researching and discussing how to pay for fare-free and accessible transit, creating and distributing leaflets and building our capacity to push for a new and better Toronto. “This is a great city” says Schein, who will be speaking to potential constituents at the party, “but another Toronto is possible!”

Labels: Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, No Fare is Fair

From Ana Joanes, director of Fresh: the movie:

.....

It's time to retire the clown.

For decades, Ronald McDonald has peddled a whole brand of junk food that is today spurring a deadly epidemic of diet-related disease. One out of every three American children is now considered overweight or obese, putting our kids at risk for dangerous medical conditions from diabetes to heart disease.

Click here to join thousands of other people in telling McDonald's to retire Ronald McDonald.

Millions of kids across the globe consume the products that Ronald McDonald markets. No marketing icon has done more to hook kids on unhealthy food, influencing brand loyalties and eating habits that can last a lifetime.

FRESH is partnering with Corporate Accountability International, the organization who successfully sent Joe Camel "packing", to call an end to Ronald McDonald's career. Can you sign our retirement card for Ronald McDonald? We'll send your signatures straight to McDonald's headquarters.

President Obama just declared September 2010 "National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month." Let's seize this moment to remove the world's most well-known salesman of junk food.

Even when parents try their best to instill a love of fresh, healthy food in their children, Ronald is around the corner, on the Internet, in schools, children's libraries and hospitals, enticing kids to desire the worst of what the industrial food system has to offer. It's time to stand up for Mom and Dad by giving this clown a rest!

Ronald deserves a break…and so do we! Tell McDonald's to Retire Ronald by signing his retirement card.

We are up against a powerful force; the budgets of even the most well-funded health education initiatives pale in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollars McDonald's spends annually on kids' marketing. The fast food industry will undoubtedly keep working to lure our children unless tens of thousands of people demand that they stop. Retiring Ronald McDonald is an important first step in moving the fast food industry to stop its' predatory marketing to kids. Together, we can create a world where FRESH food, not fast food, flourishes.

Happy eating,

Ana Joanes
Director, FRESH
© 2008 FRESH the movie - New thinking on what we're eating.

Labels: Fresh the movie, McDonald's

An email from the Bike Pirates Facebook group:


We here in the Bike Pirates kitchen have been putting together plans for a Bike Pirates Cook Book, and we want your submissions!

For anyone who doesn't know, Bike Pirates has always had food in it's space, and for the past 2 years has included free meals as a regular part of their programming. Bike politics and food politics overlap in a variety of ways, and free, healthy food helps to keep our volunteers and participants happy and able to focus. Serving a meal also encourages people to sit and chat, share company and creates community among those using the space.

The kitchen is a vegetarian space, where we cook a lot of vegan meals (and desserts) and use produce from local gardens and organic farms whenever possible. What we need are your favourite recipes that are easy to make for large groups of people - we usually cook for about 20.

What We are Looking For
- recipes that use local/native produce!
- recipes that don't involve measuring!
- vegan recipes!
- Easy, yummy baking recipes (including breads, cakes, pies, cookies etc) that are either vegan or gluten-free
- Directions for fun bike-related craft projects
- Suggestions for a great title! (Working title: The Bike Pirates Anarchist Cooking Book)
- Art for the cover or to decorate the pages inside
*Please ensure that any recipe you submit is indeed your own, and hasn't been taken directly out of your favourite cookbook.

The book will be prepared as a zine and each recipe will be on a separate page. We will use the cook book in the kitchen at the shop and it will also be for sale.

You can either send along your recipes to lunch@bikepirates.com or bring in a prepared, unique photo-copy friendly page for the zine to Bike Pirates during any open hours.

Deadline for submissions will be Saturday October 9th, so we have time to prepare the zine before winter craft season.

Labels: Bike Pirates

Now that we'll into Autumn, I know this is a little late. But I can't help but note the - for lack of a better word - synergy as Green Fuse Images is squirmingly happy to have the 2010 Summer cover photo of Edible Toronto...

Another TorontoTheBetter musician mentioned again in a Centre for the Study of Education and Work email newsletter:


SARA MARLOWE & THE PROGRAM - BENEFIT FOR WAR RESISTERS SUPPORT CAMPAIGN

Friday, Sept. 17; 8:00pm - 11:00pm
The Free Times Cafe
320 College St.; Toronto, ON

Cover: $5 or PWYC

Partial proceeds will go to the War Resisters Support Campaign – http://www.resisters.ca

with special guests:

Urban Flute Ensemble – http://www.myspace.com/UrbanFluteEnsemble

Pamela Brennan – http://www.pamelabrennan.com

Labels: Sara Marlowe

On September 3rd Bazant Unique Adornments officially moved to a spacious new studio in the Distillery Historic District. Studio #202 in the Case Goods Warehouse is now my private workshop, showroom and future classroom. While I get settled in I'm offering 15% off on all custom work. Take this opportunity to have your old costume jewelry re-designed into something gorgeous and meaningful to you! For examples of previous custom projects, visit the CUSTOM WORK section of my blog. Call 416-879-6367 to arrange an appointment.

Really, it's a dream come true. I am surrounded by beautiful Victorian Architecture, and tons of talented artists. The streetcar ride down here is so inspiring. I take the 504 King car which goes through the nicest part of Riverdale, as well as east Chinatown and Corktown. I'm still getting the showroom set up, but so far it's really shaping up! Come and see me at the Junction Arts Festival this weekend to see my latest collections and set up an appointment at the new studio.

Labels: artisan, Bazant Unique Adornments, eco-fashion, jewelry, move, new studio

Where:  Free Times Cafe, 320 College St.

When:  Friday, September 17th

Time:   8:00 pm

Cover:  $5 or PWYC

Partial Proceeds go to War Resisters Support Campaign - http://www.resisters.ca/

Featuring

Sara Marlowe & the Program

-a captivating blend of folk, roots, jazz and social justice - newly sprinkled with electronica

with special guests:

Urban Flute Ensemble - www.myspace.com/UrbanFluteEnsemble

jamie thompson - flute - http://www.urbanflute.com/

max scheinin - violin

lucas tensen - cello - http://www.cello-chanting.com/

Pamela Brennan -   http://www.pamelabrennan.com/

“Perfect for near days of summer as for a cold and chilly, blustery day. The tunes are inviting - her sculpted melodies pulling you into the song's midst with the twist of a word.” – Vue Weekly, Edmonton

http://www.saramarlowe.com/

A nice, little email recently received from Tinto Coffee House:


"here are many good things about construction on Roncesvalles Avenue. You can see the progress, it's upgrading some basic services on a permanent basis, and it's also bound to end some day.

Meanwhile it has moved north from the southern tip of Roncesvalles. So Tinto's portion is clearer and less dusty. This means less noise, as well.
Some times there is parking and some time there is none. But it looks there are more times with, than without parking.

It's all very positive and so are we. We are happy to be back on Wednesday 8th. Our good Fair Trade coffee from Latin America is back, so are our home bakes, salads, sandwiches and wraps, our locally supplied ingredients and organic ingredients along with South American wines and local beers. In short, we are back and beating construction blues.

Come share your summer tan with all of us! Hurry before it's gone!"

Labels: Tinto Coffee House

Time	October 16 · 11:00am - 7:30pm
Location	St Paul's' Anglican Church 32 Idylewylde Street Fort Erie, ON
Created By	War Resisters Support Campaign (Canada)
More Info	The War Resisters Support Campaign and the Buffalo chapter of Veterans For Peace are co-sponsoring this important event. Supporters from both Canada and the U.S. will have the opportunity to meet men and women who have chosen to go to Canada rather than participate in the Iraq War. Come and spend a few hours with war resisters and their families. Find out who they are and why they made the choices they did - the personal and legal struggles they face - and how you can help. For more information as it becomes available, see: http://refusingorders.blogspot.com/

NOW in TORONTO at BEIT ZATOUN
Following showings in Montreal, New York, Beyrouth, Jbeil, Zahleh, Copenhagen, Amman, Tripoli, Paris, Tyre and Casablanca.

Imagine a young country where multiculturalism is part of the mental landscape and where differences are life enriching.

Imagine a much older country on the other side of the planet where 19 religious communities are at home on a territory only 1/10 the size of Southwest Ontario.

The link between these two countries is “Hyphen Islam-Christianity”, a multidisciplinary project which voyages into the heart of Lebanon but also into human memory of sharing and diversity.

For Canadians grappling with "reasonable accommodation" among its diverse population groups we can learn much from the example of Christians and Muslims living side by side in Lebanon for more than a thousand years.

Be our guest for a guided tour by the artist who brings her native country in 100 stunning photographs to Canada which welcomed her as one of its own.

Nada Raphael is the photographer and producer of Hyphen Islam-Christianity. Nada studied in Beirut and Montreal and received a Bachelor’s degrees in audiovisual studies, in communication and in journalism. She has variously worked as a photographer, a camera woman, a journalist, a theater director and a project manager.

Nada created a production company named “Electrochocks Productions” in 2003 in Montreal, her adoptive home. She co-produces and directs documentaries covering different topics.

As a photographer she takes a human outlook on events in the Middle East, most specifically in her native Lebanon.

---
Need to know:
- No admission (donations accepted)
- Exhibition hardcover book and show postcards for sale
- Doors open at 6:45 pm
- Sorry, not wheelchair accessible
Tasty refreshments (non-alcoholic) and oliveoil+za'atar dipping.
Contact

Email: info@beitzatoun.org
Website: www.beitzatoun.org
Phone: 647.726.9500

Beit Zatoun is located at 612 Markham Street, right by Bathurst subway.