Category: News

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

This Sunday we’ll be watching a TED talk by Lizzo, and several YouTube video clips featuring Lizzo, an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and flautist (Lizzo – Wikipedia). The themes are self-acceptance, self-love and non-judgment. The video clips were selected and will be introduced by a Toronto Oasis organizer, Tania Akon.

Also, this Sunday, we will be having live music! Our guest musician will be Wesley Blondin-Doan, whose stage name is Kid Grit. Kid Grit’s folk songs are quiet and pensive reflections of a life lived. From the depths of isolation possible in a digital age, to the heights of exaltation, living and growing up in nature. His music travels through the processes of life and how we heal, through gentle whisperings, swelling warm harmonies, and sometimes painful personal admissions – attempting to find peace and truth in the smallest of things. 

https://kidgrit.tumblr.com/Music
youtube: youtube: youtube.com/channel/kidgrit
vimeo: vimeo.com/kidgrit
facebook: facebook.com/kidgrit

Please RSVP on meetup:

https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/285653118/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

Culture shock can make for some really good comedy. Join us this Sunday as we watch some culture shock themed YouTube video comedy clips, curated by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer. After that, we’ll get a chance to share and reflect on some of our own culture shock experiences.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydchbtb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

Our featured speaker this Sunday, Catherine Francis, will give a talk on how to spot fraud and protect yourself from becoming a victim.

Catherine Francis holds a Bachelor of Arts (1981) and Bachelor of Law (1985) degrees from the University of Toronto and was called to the Ontario Bar in 1987. Catherine is a long-time partner at Minden Gross LLP, a mid-sized downtown Toronto law firm, practicing principally in the areas of commercial and insolvency litigation. Her website is: https://www.mindengross.com/our-people/details/catherine-francis

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydchblb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

We will watch and then discuss a YouTube video of an interview of author and science writer Florence Williams. In this interview she talks about the topic she explores in her recently released 2022 book: Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey.

Florence Williams is a contributor to Outside Magazine and a freelance writer for National Geographic, the New York Times, O-Oprah and other publications.

The topic & talk was selected and will be introduced by a Toronto Oasis organizer, Tania Akon.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydchbcb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

Moving somewhere new has the potential to be a remarkable adventure, but it can also be fraught with challenges and surprises! Whether it’s the other side of the country, or across the ocean, making a big move means expecting the unexpected.

Join us this Sunday as five Toronto Oasis participants share their unique stories of relocation. As always, following the presentations, there will be time for a lively discussion on the topic.

This topic was suggested by and will be introduced by Kristen Gane, a Toronto Oasis volunteer.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydcgbgc/

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

We will watch and then discuss a TED talk by Canadian comedian, actress, former late night talk show host, and YouTuber Lilly Singh. The talk was selected and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

This Sunday, we will also be featuring some live music!! Our guest musician will be Georgia Hathaway.

Inspired by the wild places, both inner and outer, Georgia’s blues-y folk songs are both intimate and expansive, haunting and joyful. She invites you into her world of organic expressions, weaving animal calls, nonsense syllables, and evocative lyrics, and combining delicate vocals with rootsy resonator and picked guitar. Through musings on mushrooms, butterflies, and the shape of feet, her music speaks about personal transformation, life, death and rebirth, and living for the moment.

Georgia Hathaway’s website: Georgia Hathaway Violinist — Music & Meditation

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydcgbwb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

We will be watching and then discussing video clips about The Great Resignation that explain what this phenomenon is and some of the possible reasons behind it. The video clips were selected and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis Organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydcgbnb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

Thailand notoriously has a lese majesty law to prevent criticism of the monarchy. This has led to way more trouble than you would expect, including frequent coups, thousands of freethinkers forced to flee the country, 10 Thai political refugees recently assassinated (2017-2020), the persecution and dissolution of prodemocracy political parties, and a population of people with liberal views forced to live under dictatorship.

In 2020 mass youth-led protests began and the taboo against criticizing the monarchy has been dramatically broken, leading to freer speech. The protests have died back down due to COVID and repression, but permanent changes in attitude seem to have occurred. This may seem like an obscure topic, but Thailand is in fact a large country (by population it is almost twice as large as Canada), and so what happens there is important. The story is also a great object lesson about the importance of free speech anywhere.

Our featured speaker on this topic will be Ann Norman from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Ann has been involved with the Thai pro-democracy and human rights movement since about 2014. For several years, she was Executive Director of the Thai Alliance for Human Rights, and is now on the board of Act4Dem, which is an organization run by a famous Thai dissident, Junya Yimprasert.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/rpgzssydcgbfb/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This meeting has been recorded: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sw1FE4Vzzc3D3SXWVlEaCFgowbAazlU-/view?usp=sharing

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

For our featured presentation this Sunday, we will be watching YouTube videos about the placebo effect by Stanford professor Alia Crum and Howard Fields who received his MD and PhD in Neuroscience at Stanford. The videos were selected by and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/bhgwksydcfbkc/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please RSVP on our Meetup for this event to get access to the Zoom link. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm and you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social. Followed by an extended discussion for a half hour. Volunteers please join by 10:30 am.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video by Caitlin Doughty, a mortician who posts very interesting, entertaining, and compassionate videos on all topics related to death and caring for the deceased. She recently visited a facility near Seattle where human bodies can be composted after they die. The video is a lovely exploration of the technology, and what it can mean for people and the environment. It was selected and will be introduced by Lola Bradford, a Toronto Oasis participant.

Please RSVP on meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/bhgwksydcfbbc/

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!