Bangladesh planned to start sending Rohingya refugees back to Burma on November 15th. There are rumours of delays. There are rumours it has already started. The UN has described the genocide in Burma as ongoing. They have said that the conditions in Burma are not conducive to the voluntary, safe, dignified, and sustainable return of refugees. BUT The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has made a deal with the governments of Bangladesh and Burma. The UNHCR has agreed to assess if the refugees that Bangladesh wants to send back, are going willingly. This means the UNHCR is helping to facilitate a process of repatriation, even though they know it is not safe to go back. This repatriation process has sparked terror in the camps. Some refugees have fled into hiding, a few have attempted suicide. Canada is on the executive committee of the UNHCR. Canada is the 8th largest donor to UNHCR. Canada needs to stop this process now.

Dispenasry workers face fines, arrest, and up to 2 years in jail for the crime of working (and paying taxes) in a grey/black market venture. Please help workers caught in this regrettable, structural failure under Ontario's Conservative Government, and its failed MJ distribution scheme. More arrests, this time in Ottawa and Windsor, maybe Leo Lucier could get you some respondents: https://sputniknews.com/us/201811091069661388-cannabis-shops-raided-ontario/ TO police raided 5 dispensaries, 19 October: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cannabis/article-toronto-police-raid-and-shut-down-five-marijuana-dispensaries-vow-to/ 6 arrested in Hamilton, Oct. 25: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hamilton-police-execute-warrant-georgia-peach-cannabis-dispensary-1.4880436) And four more arrests Tues, 6 Nov, in Essex, ON: https://theprovince.com/news/local-news/opp-lay-cannabis-act-charges-after-raid-on-pot-shop-in-essex/wcm/f65698d7-ea66-49b3-8a03-23220ced72ed

Racialized youth are disproportionately impacted by Canada’s criminal justice system. Racial disparities exist within Canada’s policing, courts, and correction services but are rarely discussed. According to Statistic Canada’s (2018) correctional statistic from 2016-2017 Indigenous youth account for 46% of incarcerated youth. Black Canadians are one of the fastest growing populations in federal prisons. Our justice system is rooted in injustice and continues to criminalize, victimize, and marginalize racialized youth. As a nation we need to move past punitive approaches to youth criminality and towards holistic approaches. Racialized youth deserve a justice system that is inclusive, equitable, and truly just!

To celebrate cultural identity of 7000 years old Indus Valley civilization

107 municipalities receive funding through the Provincial Gas Tax Program. The Provincial Government cancelled an estimated $364 million per year in promised funding to these municipalities without notice in their 2019 Provincial Budget[1], putting our public transit service at risk[2]. Municipal public transit in Ontario has been underfunded since 1998 when the Harris government cut the fifty per cent subsidy of the net operating costs of municipal transit agencies [3]. Instead agencies have received a much smaller amount of funding through the Province’s gas tax program since 2004 [4]. To make life affordable, we need good public transit. We need more funding for our municipal public transit systems, so we can have lower fares and better service. The Provincial Government has quietly announced that they are going back on their promise to honour the previous government's commitment to double funding for municipal transit [5][6]. This increase in funding is critical in supporting a growing number of municipal transit systems across Ontario, serving over 90% of Ontario’s population [7], that connect our communities. It’s also imperative that long-term stable funding is reinstated for our transit systems to serve our communities well. Together we can hold the new government to their promise to double their contribution to municipalities and urge them to re-instate stable operating funding. Supporting Organizations: ActionKeele - North York Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet (CUSP) - Thunder Bay CodeRedTO - Toronto Environment Hamilton Hamilton Transit Riders Union Friends of Sudbury Transit Healthy Transportation Coalition - Ottawa Keep York Moving - York Region London Transit Riders Alliance London Environmental Network Scarborough Transit Action Network South Etobicoke Transit Action Committee Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA) Transit Action Alliance of Guelph (TAAG) TTCriders - Toronto [1] https://budget.ontario.ca/pdf/2019/2019-ontario-budget-en.pdf [2] https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2019/01/2018-19-gas-tax-funding-by-municipality.html [3] https://www.blogto.com/city/2016/04/the_year_it_all_went_down_the_tubes_for_the_ttc/ [4] http://www.octn.ca/uploads/userfiles/files/Kevin%20Dowling%20-%20Gas%20Tax%20Introduction.pdf [5] https://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2017/01/enhanced-gas-tax-program.html [6] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-gas-prices-fuel-tax-1.4665386 [7]http://www.octn.ca/uploads/userfiles/files/Questions%20and%20Answers%20on%20the%20Provincial%20Gas%20Tax%20MTO%20March%202017.pdf

Israel is an apartheid state that illegally occupies Palestinian land. Decades of United Nations Resolutions have done nothing to compel The State of Israel to comply with international law. As Educators, we do not wish to profit from the illegal seizure of Palestinian land, and the human rights abuses committed against Palestinian men, women and children. Please Boycott, Divest, and Sanction our pension plan holdings of all Israeli companies, and companies that do business with the state of Israel.

This a Latin-american humanitarian crisis and chaos. We as Canadians have to step up and support a fair process to people needing real protection and entry into Canada. These people are escaping from gangs violence, government corruption and prosecution with the support of the US government who provides all the weapons and Trump has developed a hate campaign to stop these people in need of protection and violating their most basic human rights. Human Rights declaration: Article 14-Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. We have to call for the Canada embassy in these countries to process valid refugees claims and allow them entry into Canada. They are not criminals, and are fleeing violence and deplorable economic hurdles. This is the time for Canada to just stay silent and complicit and act now and oppose this madness that has raised and has become part of the normal since the election of Donald Trump.

On Thursday October 11 Grassy Narrows leader Steve Fobister Sr. passed away after many decades of fighting mercury poisoning in his body and fighting denial from government. Steve’s grieving family says that "Steve always wanted the government to admit that he had been poisoned by mercury. Now we take up his fight to honour him. Trudeau and Elliott, will you admit that Steve was poisoned, and will you compensate Grassy Narrows fairly for our mercury crisis?" I am sad to hear that 48 years after mercury pollution was discovered in Grassy Narrows’ river no government has ever acknowledged that even one person in Grassy Narrows has been poisoned by mercury. This denial and environmental racism must end. I join Steve’s family in demanding that you admit now that Steve Fobister Sr. was poisoned and killed by mercury! I am shocked to learn that 94% of Grassy Narrows people receive no compensation for the mercury crisis which continues rob them of their loved ones and to ravage their health, culture, livelihood, rights, and environment. All must be compensated until they enjoy the same quality of life they enjoyed before mercury and the same wellbeing that others in Canada take for granted. Commit to compensate all Grassy Narrows people fairly for the ongoing mercury crisis which all governments have denied and neglected for so long! I further call on you to act quickly to fulfill your governments’ promises to: 1. Fully clean up Grassy Narrows’ river, 2. Build a care home and treatment center for mercury survivors in Grassy Narrows, 3. Comprehensively reform the Mercury Disability Board. The survivors of this avoidable disaster deserve the best possible health care and support including a Mercury Home and Treatment Centre so that their sick loved ones can be treated with dignity, close to their families. This is an issue that matters deeply to me and millions of other people, and I will be following this closely to see that mercury justice is delivered to Grassy Narrows.

In 2017, over 1,200 people died of preventable overdose in Ontario - hundreds more than 2016. [1] That's three people every day - dead. Emergency room visits because of opioid use have also skyrocketed over the past year, at 7,512 visits, a 69 per cent increase over the 4,427 visits in 2016. But there is a solution. Overdose prevention and safe injection sites are proven to save lives. In Ontario, several such sites have saved over a thousand lives in the past year; not a single person has died at these sites. These sites reduce public injection; reduce drug paraphernalia litter; and do not increase drug-related crime. Meanwhile, they could save millions in healthcare costs - and thousands of lives. [2] The time for "review" is over. The Ontario government must move forward immediately with approving and funding overdose prevention sites across the province, in addition to urgently needed supports and rehabilitation. SOURCES: [1] https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/opioid-overdose-deaths-surpass-1200-in-ontario-for-2017-new-data-show [2] https://betablog.org/overdose-prevention-site-reduce-public-injecting/ [3] https://www.catie.ca/en/pif/fall-2018/harm-reduction-action-supervised-consumption-services-and-overdose-prevention-sites

LinkMentalHealth is a free website that connects people in the GTA to mental health services that’s best for them, regardless of what they can afford. If you, your spouse, or your parents, work full-time, OR you are a post-secondary student, you likely have mental health insurance coverage. Yes students, YOU HAVE COVERAGE! We’re here to help connect you to the best therapy option for you, based on gender, ethnicity, specialization and what you’re going through. **What if I don’t work, study or have coverage?** For those without coverage, we can also help connect you to free therapy programs that are available. Worried about the wait times of these programs or therapists? We display those too, and some have no wait times at all. **Are you an organization or representative that wants to support this cause and contribute your logo?** Contact us at [email protected] to sign your company, student union, or organization up and be our partner. You get your logo on our banners, and then we get your help to spread the word using #TorontoDoesTherapy.

Stephen Bannon is scheduled to speak in Toronto on November 2nd. He's the former Special Advisor to US President Donald J. Trump who is responsible for some of the worst of recent American domestic policies, including the Islamophobic and racist Muslim Ban. Allowing his participation in the Munk Debates at one Canada’s most prestigious venues (Roy Thomson Hall), with ticket prices up to $200, normalizes his hateful, xenophobic opinions and activities, and incites his violent followers. We must outright reject Stephen Bannon’s ideas and the notion that he occupies an acceptable pole on a debate spectrum. Stephen Bannon was CEO and Chairman of Breitbart News which he solidified into the online destination of white supremacists, anti-semites, and misogynists, spreading lies and conspiracy theories to further the alt-right agenda. Inviting people who bolster white supremacists is in direct opposition to the necessary work Canada must do to be accountable to people of colour and Indigenous communities. Since being ejected from the White House and Breitbart, Bannon has adopted a global campaign to build up ultra-racist, nationalist, austerity-driven, anti-immigrant candidates and parties across Europe and Latin America. He is advising the likes of Viktor Orban, President of Hungary, who has adopted authoritarian rule over the courts, media, and immigration among other sectors and military dictatorship apologist and misogynist Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Bannon’s activities are directly linked to the murderous policies promoted by these political parties. In addition, Mr Bannon was charged for domestic assault, battery and dissuading a witness for attacking his then-wife, Mary Piccard. Charges were stayed after Piccard failed to appear in court after being threatened by Mr Bannon’s lawyer. Mr Bannon’s debating partner is David Frum, the George W. Bush-era speechwriter who coined the term, “Axis of Evil”. This is in itself is sufficient indictment against the debate—that the debater representing the “liberal” position is a man responsible for shilling for the Iraq War, which resulted in the deaths of over a million people. We urge Munk Debate advisors, the board of Aurea Foundation, and all individuals and organizations connected with the Munk Charitable Foundation, to oppose this event in the strongest terms, and cancel the event immediately. People in Toronto are urged to join us at Roy Thomson Hall at 5 pm on November 2nd, 2018 whether the event is cancelled or not. Click here for updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/1401207076681549/ **Munk Debate Advisors/Aurea Foundation Directors** Financiers: Kenneth Whyte, Colin Chapin, Anthony Munk Lawyers: J. Robert Pritchard, David A. Steele Intellectuals: Devon Cross, Margaret MacMillan, Janice Stein Journalists: Andrew Coyne Other high-profile individuals: Melanie Munk, Nigel Wright

This is important so that ODSP and OW clients can live a reasonable life and be able to afford decent food all month long and to ease the stress of struggling to pay bills. ODSP and OW clients deserve to have a decent roof over their heads especially with winter coming on.