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 but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Over the past 20 years research has resulted in the concept of distinct right brain left brain functionality being discredited. However recent studies have shown that the dual functions of the brain do explain what happens when we dream or have intuition, and the dangers of trying to repress our dreams. In this talk we will learn a little about dreams and a lot about ourselves.

Our featured speaker on this topic will be Phil Cheney. Phil ‘Philosofree’ Cheney is awed by the Cosmos, and excited about human potential. He is a renaissance man who appreciates life, having worked in over 55 countries, including as a university lecturer in his native Australia, trade leader in Thailand, Government budget consultant in Papua New Guinea, software distributor in Zimbabwe, marketer in Germany, Building Construction in China, farm exporting in Japan and author in his current home in Toronto.

Philosofree is a mystic who is curious about integrating science and the metaphysical. He has published 8 books, 5 CDs of original music and won awards for software design and clinical practice in medicine. His education background includes degrees in Economics, Business Administration and Information Technology. Phil prioritizes his wife, daughters and grandchildren, and loves to sing and dance with them.

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

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

This will be an online Zoom meeting. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Our featured speaker will be Tim Mt. Pleasant. Through a non-legal frame of reference, Tim will speak about the emerging challenges of requesting information and receiving health care services about Medical Assistance in Dying within Canada. While health care is constitutionally the responsibility of the provinces and territories, the Criminal Code of Canada, at times, precludes the health care practitioners’ duty to their patients. Tim will speak to MAiD, in Ontario specifically. This will touch on the challenges faced by the conception of palliative care and the prohibitive language that continues within Canada’s Criminal Code concerning the counselling of suicide. Tim will utilize patient and practitioner illustrations to provide an alternative to the single-story that we are sometimes subject to, through popular media and current political discourse. The Philosopher Margaret Pabst-Battin is someone who questioned whether suicide could ever be a “rational act.” She would later participate in her own husband’s request for the cessation of medical treatment while lying by his side in bed after a traumatic downhill biking accident. Tim posits that patients, MAiD practitioners, and a large proportion of the population either support or question what MAiD means to them.

Tim Mt. Pleasant is a First Nations member of the LGBTQ2S+ and Disabled community from Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation and is currently studying Philosophy at Ryerson University. His experience comes from work in the Long-Term Care (10 years), Mental Health/Addictions (8 years) and Public Service Sector during the last 22 years. Tim has an interest in the area of Bioethics and in the values that one assumes when entering various systems, the fluidity of control and capacity, in addition to the new realm of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).

Tim volunteers in areas that allow him to advocate for those with Mental Health or Addictions challenges, including marginalized populations and those that get lost in various systems, specifically within Health Care and Social Services sectors. He has served on the Board of Directors of PFLAG Canada, the Canadian Bioethics Society, ARCH Disability Law Centre, Community Resource Connections of Toronto, Toronto Distress Centres, and the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto. Tim is also a member of and currently sits on the Equity Committee of the Canadian Philosophical Association and Ryerson’s Research Ethics Board. Tim recently completed an Undergraduate placement in Bioethics @ Princess Margaret Cancer Centre / University Health network and is working to complete his final year of Philosophical studies at Ryerson. Tim plans to pursue graduate work in Public Health and Bioethics or Philosophy and Law. This next year will be one where these rather large decisions will be made.

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

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 but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Climate change is the existential threat of our time, but incredible new advancements in science and engineering can still allow us to avoid the worst repercussions of global warming as we work to reverse it over time. Scientists of even ten years ago would not have imagined that in 2020 we would already have solar panels capable of producing clean drinking water for one’s home while simultaneously producing power. Or that labs would be capable of generating jet fuel from landfill trash. We could not have predicted that “smart highways” designed to charge electric vehicles as they drive would be in trial testing. Or, for that matter, the existence of indoor vertical farms managed by hyper-efficient artificial intelligence reducing water use by up to 90 percent and growing crops entirely without pesticides. Join our featured speaker, Marc Schaus, in exploring the new and upcoming innovations in green technology poised to prevent the climate apocalypse―and usher in a sustainable, livable world.

Marc Schaus is a professional research specialist and science writer. He is the author of Post Secular: Science, Humanism and the Future of Faith, and has written articles that have appeared in Areo Magazine, Free Inquiry Magazine, The Huffington Post, Patheos, and the academic journal Antennae. His new work Our Livable World: Creating the Clean Earth of Tomorrow will be out in October through Diversion Books. He currently resides in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

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

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

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

With the decline of pension plans that pay a guaranteed lifetime income starting at retirement, many people have become responsible for financing their own retirement. While governments do provide a base pension, it is typically insufficient to pay for retirement. Fortunately, there are some tools available to help people accumulate savings and invest for retirement while earning an income. In this presentation our featured speaker, Paul Kaplan, will go over the various tools available and how to put them together to successfully fund one’s retirement.

Paul D. Kaplan, PhD, CFA, is director of research for Morningstar Canada and is a senior member of Morningstar’s global research team. Morningstar is a Chicago-based global investment research firm. Paul led the development of many of the quantitative methodologies behind Morningstar’s fund analysis, indexes, advisor tools, and other services. He conducts research on asset allocation, retirement income planning, portfolio construction, index methodologies, and other investment topics.

Many of Paul’s research papers have been published in professional books and publications. He received two awards for articles published in the prestigious Financial Analysts Journal. Many of his works appear in his book Frontiers of Modern Asset Allocation published in 2012 by John Wiley & Sons. He is a coauthor of the book Popularity: A Bridge between Classical and Behavioral Finance published in 2018 by the CFA Institute Research Foundation.

Before coming to Canada in 2012, Paul served as quantitative research director for Morningstar Europe in London, UK, and director of quantitative research in the United States before that. Before working at private companies, he served on the economics faculty of Northwestern University where he taught international finance and statistics.

Paul holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, economics, and computer science from New York University and a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Northwestern University. He has served as a member of the editorial board of the Financial Analysts Journal, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.

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

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

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at:
https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

For more than a century, the International Olympic Committee has classified athletes into two distinct categories: male and female. As the biggest global sporting event, the Olympic media spectacle reinforces stereotypical images of the ‘ideal’ sportsman and sportswoman. High-profile female athletes of all sexual orientations face pressure to look “feminine” – that is, heterosexually attractive, while gay male athletes rarely feel safe enough to disclose their sexual orientation publicly. Women like South African runner Caster Semenya challenge traditional views of sex and gender, and, tragically, endure the consequences of outdated and unscientific attitudes and policies.

Our featured speaker on this topic will be Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto, where she taught sociology. Her work as a researcher and activist on gender and sport issues began in the 1980s, and her critique of the Olympic industry include: Inside the Olympic Industry; Olympic Industry Resistance; Gender, Athletes Rights, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport; and released earlier this year, her most recent book The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach.

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

You can RSVP for this on our Meetup page at:
https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/pzpxrrybchbgc/

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

Unfortunately, our speaker, Tim Mt. Pleasant, is not able to do his talk today.

We will still have our Toronto Oasis Zoom meeting at our usual time, but without the speaker parts.  You are all welcome to join us.

As an alternative, Gretta Vosper has provided us with the links to West Hill United’s Sunday Zoom meeting.  They are “Working on a personal “Tree of Life” meditation”.  It would be interesting to find out what that means.  Their meeting starts at 10:30 am.  Here is the information provided by Gretta on how to join their meeting:

INTERNET

Joining our Zoom gatherings/meetings via the internet:If you do not have the Zoom app downloaded onto your phone, tablet, or computer, you simply click on the meeting link and you will be prompted to download the Zoom app. Once you have done that you will be automatically joined to the meeting. The meeting link for each of our meetings is the same link each week:

Sunday Gatherings, 10:30 EDT: https://zoom.us/j/370030792

If you already have the Zoom app on your phone, tablet, or computer, open the app and join the meeting:

Sunday Gatherings, 10:30 EDT: Meeting ID 370-030-792

TELEPHONE

Here is the call in information for our Zoom gatherings.

• If you are in the TORONTO area, dial in to one of these numbers: 647-374-4685 or 647-558-0588.
• If you are NOT IN THE TORONTO area or calling internationally, 
  you may find a local number which will allow you 
  to call in by telephone without long distance charges here.

Once connected, you will be asked to enter a meeting ID followed by pound – the Number sign # These are the meeting IDs; they are the same each week

Sunday Gathering – 370-030-792 Thursday Morning Coffee! – 561-906-918

TELEPHONE INSTRUCTIONS:
Dial the local Zoom telephone number, when asked, enter the Meeting ID number followed by #. You will then be in the meeting or gathering.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

The Toronto Oasis meeting today (without a speaker) will be an online Zoom meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at:
https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to around 12 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

You can RSVP for this on our Meetup page at:
https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/pzpxrrybchbwb/

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Our featured speaker will be Mark Turi. Based on his personal experience, Mark will be talking about recovering from destructive cults and extremist groups.

Mark holds a BA from Brock University and studies the History of Nationalism and Revolution in Modern Europe. Mark spent 3 years as a member of the Church of Scientology and 7 years active in a fringe political movement. Mark has previously shared his experiences on popular podcasts, YouTube channels, in-person discussions and has been interviewed on German public television.

RSVP on meetup.com to receive the Zoom.us meeting link:
https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/pzpxrrybchbnb/

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

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Our featured speaker will once again be Alex Beckmann. Last Sunday, in part 1 of his talk on the Chernobyl disaster, Alex explained how nuclear reactors work when things are normal – providing us with background information for part 2 of his talk. This Sunday, in part 2 of his talk, Alex will explain what went wrong, leading up to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Alex studied physics in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He did his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in String and Field Theory. He taught physics at the high school and university levels in Ukraine and Germany. Alex still enjoys teaching physics!

RSVP on meetup to receive the zoom link:
https://www.meetup.com/Toronto-Oasis/events/khgwkrybchbfb/

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

This will be an online Zoom meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Our featured speaker will be Alex Beckmann. Alex will talk about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in two parts. This Sunday, in part 1 of his talk, Alex will talk about how nuclear reactors work when things are normal, how we use nuclear energy, and what types of reactors there are and how to handle them with care.

Alex studied physics in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He did his Ph.D. in theoretical physics in String and Field Theory. He taught physics at the high school and university levels in Ukraine and Germany. Alex still enjoys teaching physics!

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

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

This will be our fifth online meeting. Please review our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions

Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am. Volunteers please join by 10:30am.

Our featured speaker will be Catherine Francis. Her presentation will be a discussion of the background and implications of Quebec’s Bill 21 banning certain government employees (including judges, lawyers, police and teachers) from wearing religious symbols.

Catherine Francis holds 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. Catherine was raised in a secular household with a strong belief in equality rights and is keenly interested in legal issues affecting the interests of non-believers and the separation of Church and State. Her website is: https://www.mindengross.com/our-people/details/catherine-francis

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

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