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 August, in place of our featured presentations, we will have discussions on our five core values, focussing on one each Sunday. At the moment there are 13 Oasis communities in North America. All of them, including our own community, Toronto Oasis, are founded on these five core values:

People are more important than beliefs.
Reality is known through reason.
Meaning comes from making a difference.
Human hands solve human problems.
Be accepting and be accepted.

What do these values mean to each of us? How similar or different are our interpretations of what they mean? Are there limitations and exceptions to the “rules” implicit in each of these values? Should the wording of any of these values be modified to better communicate the underlying core value? Let’s discuss!!

This Sunday we’ll focus on the core value: Meaning comes from making a difference. Toronto Oasis volunteer, Kristen Gane, will introduce the topic and moderate the discussion.

Our featured musician will be Cassie Norton, a Toronto-based singer-songwriter, violinist and climate activist. She has recorded two full length albums as a solo artist, Little Strength (2009) and Quiet Wilderness (2010). Cassie and her band released their first EP: Lullaby for the End of Time in February 2019. When she isn’t busy making her own music, Cassie shares her love of music with others through teaching. She teaches a variety of private and ensemble classes at Regent Park School of Music, and through her private studio. Cassie is also the music director of Toronto Oasis. Her website is: https://www.cassienorton.com/

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

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.

This August, in place of our featured presentations, we will have discussions on our five core values, focussing on one each Sunday. At the moment there are 13 Oasis communities in North America. All of them, including our own community, Toronto Oasis, are founded on these five core values:

People are more important than beliefs.
Reality is known through reason.
Meaning comes from making a difference.
Human hands solve human problems.
Be accepting and be accepted.

What do these values mean to each of us? How similar or different are our interpretations of what they mean? Are there limitations and exceptions to the “rules” implicit in each of these values? Should the wording of any of these values be modified to better communicate the underlying core value? Let’s discuss!!

This Sunday we’ll focus on the core value: Reality is known through reason. Toronto Oasis volunteer, Clive Hannah, will introduce the topic and moderate the discussion.

Also, this Sunday, we will be featuring some live music from Moonfruits. Their website is: https://moonfruits.ca/

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

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

The slides are available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12sR53092TNq2naYBEDo2ZatvEBwNb5tZamG2Vz5rrHE/edit?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.

This August, in place of our featured presentations, we will have discussions on our five core values, focussing on one each Sunday. At the moment there are 13 Oasis communities in North America. All of them, including our own community, Toronto Oasis, are founded on these five core values:

People are more important than beliefs.
Reality is known through reason.
Meaning comes from making a difference.
Human hands solve human problems.
Be accepting and be accepted.

What do these values mean to each of us? How similar or different are our interpretations of what they mean? Are there limitations and exceptions to the “rules” implicit in each of these values? Should the wording of any of these values be modified to better communicate the underlying core value? Let’s discuss!!

This Sunday we’ll focus on the core value: People are more important than beliefs. Toronto Oasis organizer, Tania Akon, will introduce the topic and moderate the discussion.

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.

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

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.

With twelve hundred years of history, Spain’s Camino de Santiago is one of the world’s great pilgrimage roads. After a steep decline through much of the twentieth century, the Camino has experienced an amazing reflowering since the 1980s.

This Sunday, our featured speaker, Robert Ward, will offer a brief introduction to the Camino for novices, then compare the meaning and experience of the contemporary pilgrimage to the ancient, before looking at some of the changes the Camino has undergone in the twenty years since Robert’s first pilgrimage.

Robert Ward was born and lives in Toronto. He is the author of Virgin Trails, an atheist’s guide to the sacred places of the Virgin Mary, and All the Good Pilgrims: tales of the Camino de Santiago (available on Amazon and Indigo). Since 1999, he has walked the Camino “about seven times.”

Robert Ward’s website: https://robertward.ca

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

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

This meeting has been recorded:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lwjV-ZL2WDBHDqdx1evRAPJ9pXJtSc6E/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.

We will watch a TED talk by James Randi. Dan Cooperstock, a Toronto Oasis organizer, will be introducing the topic and leading the discussion.

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

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.

“Just because I dunk a basketball doesn’t mean I should raise your kids” (Charles Barkley)

Athletes and other celebrities are routinely held up as “role models” for children, youth, minorities, and others. According to this popular idea, members of underrepresented or disadvantaged groups simply need to see “someone like themselves” doing something spectacular – winning Olympic medals, sitting in the Supreme Court, serving as US vice-president – to demonstrate that such success is possible. Simple problem, simple solution? No, it’s not an individual’s lack of imagination that’s the problem, it’s a systemic problem, and celebrity role models are not the answer.

Our featured speaker on this topic will be Helen Lenskyj, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto, where she taught sociology. Helen grew up in Australia and has lived in Toronto since 1966. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in 1983, and was a professor from 1986 until retiring in 2007. As well as writing books, she enjoys swimming and kayaking. Her website is www.helenlenskyj.ca; TWITTER: https://twitter.com/helenje63185798

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

This meeting has been recorded:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aGOUUjN9rvfGk4BkyNQyEh3eULlBgloy/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.

We will watch a TEDx talk by Ginger Gosnell-Myers, the City of Vancouver’s first Indigenous Relations Manager. Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer, will be introducing the topic and leading the discussion.

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

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.

What does modern neuroscience say about the age-old question of ‘free will’? What kind of ‘free will’ is possible? What kind of ‘free will’ is worth believing in? Although the mechanical metaphor of computing pervades popular discussions of the brain, in fact the evidence suggests that brain activity is much more chaotic: you can never think the same thought twice. So, your choices may depend predictably on your current state of mind, but still seem unpredictable or ‘free’ to those around you and to yourself.

Our featured speaker on this topic will be Dr. Mark Reimers. He works as a computational neuroscientist: studying brain function by applying statistical methods to look for patterns in large-scale and high-resolution recordings of brain activity and behavior. He applies these methods to understand normal brain function in memory and to shed light on mental illness.

Dr. Reimers has worked at the US National Institutes of Health, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics in Richmond, and now does research and teaches at Michigan State University. His broader aim is to ground our understanding of feeling and thought in the facts of biology.

Dr. Reimers was the leader of the Richmond Humanists in Virginia for five years, and now leads the UU Forum in Lansing, and speaks frequently at humanist and science outreach events in Michigan.

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

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

This meeting has been recorded:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10SLWfMbeZHL2wyTX9VSvZKSAIM7_r68K/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.

We will watch a YT video talk by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer, will be introducing the topic.

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

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 will be Elka Enola. As an anglophone, born in Montreal long before French was declared the official language of Quebec, Elka’s experiences learning, using and teaching French took some peculiar turns, not the least of which, was discovering that only Quebec calls their language ‘French’.

Elka was born in Montreal in 1941 where her first language was Yiddish, her second English and her third was French. Her grandfather, who lived with them, only spoke Yiddish, so, until his death, only Yiddish was spoken at home. Then she and her brother would speak in English while her mother and aunt continued in Yiddish. How Elka reached the place of fluency in French is quite a convoluted story that she will share.

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

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

This meeting has been recorded:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BApWH5x9vCYtU9oTumxmf356cBNKwa1l/view?usp=sharing