Lola will be performing in the show “Mosaic” by the Only Human Dance Collective (OHDC). It’s at Hart House Theatre at 8pm, Thursday March 21st, Friday the 22nd, and Saturday the 23rd. Admission is $20 except it’s $15 on Thursday, and there’s also discount for groups of 8 or more. It’s a really fun and inclusive group of dancers with a lot of different backgrounds and styles! She says the show is really fun this year. There’s a decent amount of contemporary, hip hop, and ballet, and then a lot of dancer/choreographers bring traditional dances from their own cultures too. And yes, there is also K-pop!
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
This Sunday our featured speaker, Catherine Francis, will take a retrospective look at the treatment of sexual assault cases in Canada’s criminal justice system, the Jian Ghomeshi trial and the rise and influence of the “me too” movement.
Catherine Francis
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
Sam Tudor
Our musical guest this Sunday will be Sam Tudor. Sam’s 2014 album ‘The Modern New Year’ got tucked into the airwaves of campus radio stations across the country, quietly earning him the beginnings of a cult following for his lo-fi pop music. Most recently, Sam released the album Quotidian Dream, a quiet collection of idiosyncratic folk songs which became a critical hit in Western Canada and beyond. Sam’s songs are soft spoken and clear, poignant and thoughtful. His webpage is https://samtudor.bandcamp.com.
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Ryan Zhang
Canadians are among the top producers of waste in the world, generating about 720 kg per capita of waste per year, which is 7% higher than that of the U.S. With the Greater Toronto Area’s population set to grow to 9.7 million people by 2041 and Toronto’s current landfill predicted to close by 2040, there is a need for all of us to reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill. This week our guest speaker, Ryan Zhang, will talk about the importance of proper waste management, give an overview of what the City of Toronto’s waste management policy and rules are like, and will also provide a demonstration of how to properly sort waste.
Ryan Zhang is currently a second-year student of the Environmental Technology Program at Georgian College. He aspires to become a professional in the environmental field when he graduates and enjoys keeping fish, learning about nature, listening to history podcasts, and obsessively reading Wikipedia articles for fun.
Smythe and Taylor
Our musical guests will be Smythe and Taylor (http://www.facebook.com/ smytheandtaylormusic). Smythe and Taylor started their musical journey playing at open mic nights in Houston, Texas. After they both retired from the oil and gas business, they began playing professionally, and have since won several national awards for both performance and original song-writing. Over the last 20 years, they’ve performed for audiences across the USA, Poland, England, France, and the Netherlands. They are currently based in the tiny town of Silver Cliff, Colorado where they volunteer for their local community radio station, and continue to produce symbiotic harmonies, humorous lyrics, and a ‘3-D’ brand of guitar playing.
For this week’s Community Moment we will have Katelyn Strauss.
The Community Moment is a chance for one of our own to share their journey, thoughts about life, or something personal about themselves. It could be light and silly or it could be emotionally heavy. Either way, you’ll learn more about a valued person in our community. Interested in presenting your own Community Moment? Contact Tania at 416oasis@gmail.com.
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Phil Cheney
Our featured speaker this Sunday 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.
Phil’s talk at Toronto Oasis will be a personal recounting of his own journey both with pride and humility. He will talk about how authenticity is acting consistently with who we are, but who we are is balancing between YIN and YANG. Phil will talk about how our spiritual journey requires an understanding of energy and its role in our life. He will also touch upon the mystery of mind, some questions and ideas, all pointing towards holistic unity. This should make for an interesting Q&A session with our community comprising of many atheists, naturalists and skeptics! We look forward to a respectful dialogue and discussion that promotes mutual understanding between skeptics and the more spiritually inclined.
Our featured musicians will be Steven Karst and Cassie Norton. They will be leading us in secular sing-alongs! Steven comes from a musical family and was classically trained in piano and bass trombone. He learned guitar from his dad and picked up bass guitar at age 35. His tastes and musical experience cover a wide spectrum of genres from classical and opera to heavy metal and classic rock. His varied tastes have given him the opportunity to tour internationally and play in a variety of venues from churches to dive bars.
Steven Karst
Having led congregational singing in a religious space, Steven began to wonder how it would work in a secular environment. With the support of Cassie Norton and the Oasis leadership team and those who made song requests, Steven has put together a few enjoyable songs that are easy to sing and hopefully create a memorable experience.
Cassie Norton
Steven will be joined by Cassie Norton, the music director of Toronto Oasis and a Toronto-based singer-songwriter. She is a classically trained violinist/folk leaning tunesmith with a punk rock heart. She has recorded two full length albums, Little Strength (2009) and Quiet Wilderness (2010). She teaches a variety of private and ensemble classes at Regent Park School of Music, and at her private studio. Check out her website: www.cassienorton.com
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Sandy Donaldson
This Sunday we will have a discussion on the drawing of legal, moral, and social lines with respect to speech and criticism of religion in a free and democratic society. Our featured speaker on this topic will be Sandy Donaldson. Sandy is a labour lawyer in Toronto, specializing in human rights for a large provincial union. He is a co-founder of the Atheist Community of Toronto meetup group and co-hosted the “Salmon of Doubt” atheist podcast.
Emilyn Stam and John Williams
Our featured musicians will be Emilyn Stam and John Williams. Emilyn and John merge the melodic voices of violin and clarinet, creating a modern sound steeped in tradition. Not limited to original music, their repertoire often has a strong connection to traditional dance, and explores a wide palette of sound through various combinations of violin, clarinet, accordion, harmonica and piano. They first started playing music together as members of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra. Currently John also leads the 6-piece old-time jazz band The Boxcar Boys and Emilyn tours with Italian diatonic accordion virtuoso Filippo Gambetta. Their website is https://emilynandjohn.com/
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Factory farming has wide-ranging impacts: on health/nutrition, animal welfare, social justice, environment/sustainability, women’s rights/gender issues, economics, and world politics. Our featured speaker Sangeeta Kumar will try to touch upon all these issues and help to stir up a dynamic and educational conversation about the topic we all love – food!
Sangeeta Kumar
Sangeeta Kumar has been an advocate for social justice for over 30 years. In high school she began teaching students about the impact of their choices on the planet. Influenced by the works of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., her passion for social justice and education led to a degree in Environmental Leadership and a M.Ed. in Humane Education.
She has spoken to schools all over North America educating students about the environmental impact of our food choices, the philosophy behind animal welfare and how to make choices which are kinder to animals. She has been invited to speak in schools across North America such as Stanford and Princeton University. Nothing excites her more than the idea of inspiring people to leave this world a more compassionate place. Her website is http://inspireducation.ca
Kathryn Merriam
Our featured musician this Sunday will be Kathryn Merriam. Described by audiences as ‘other-worldly’ and ‘transcendent’, Kathryn Merriam’s songs interweave melismatic melodies with soaring lyricism, evoking flavours of Joni Mitchell, Vashti Bunyan and Kate Bush. Accompanying herself on the harp, Kathryn explores the intersections between folk song tradition and mystical music – making subtle observations of the natural world, and reminding listeners to widen their lens and see life with curious, awe-filled eyes.
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Did you know that competitive athletes’ contracts prohibit them from accessing their own countries’ courts? Because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the self-proclaimed ‘supreme authority for world sport’, athletes must bring any dispute over gender, doping, eligibility, contracts or other sport-related issues to an arbitration body that it established in 1983, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). CAS has close ties with the IOC and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), and there are serious conflict-of-interest and other ethical concerns arising from these linkages. In short, CAS decisions often penalize innocent athletes while guilty ones go free, and what happens at the highest levels of sport has impacts throughout the system. Thanks to the mainstream media, sport celebrities are admired and emulated by young and old, whether or not they deserve the status of moral exemplar (or in mediaspeak, role model).
Helen Lenskyj
Speaking on this topic, our featured speaker this Sunday will be Helen Jefferson Lenskyj, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto and author of the book Gender, Athletes’ Rights, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Helen Jefferson Lenskyj 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 iswww.helenlenskyj.ca
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
The Bruce Trail is Canada’s oldest and longest marked footpath running along the Niagara Escarpment in southern Ontario from Niagara to Tobermory. The Bruce Trail spans almost 900 km of main Trail and over 400 km of associated side trails and is a UNESCO World Biosphere. It is recognized for its diverse natural landscape that supports a variety of ecosystems located in the heart of Canada’s most densely populated region. It is home to an outstanding assortment of flora and fauna including 36 species of reptiles and amphibians, 53 species of mammals, 90 species of fish and more than 350 species of birds.
Graham Allen
This Sunday, our featured speaker, Graham Allen, will highlight the importance of the Bruce Trail to preserving Canada’s biodiversity, its history and the many ways you can enjoy the Bruce Trail. Graham Allen is Vice President of the Toronto Bruce Trail Club (TBTC), one of the nine member clubs that comprise the Bruce Trail Conservancy. He has been involved with the Bruce Trail since 2011 and completed hiking the entire trail in 2014. The TBTC is the largest of the nine clubs with over 3000 members. Graham’s other pursuits include volunteering with Mountain Equipment Co-Op, white water canoeing and skiing. Graham joined the Ontario Public Service in 2007 and is a Manager, Procurement and prior to that worked in Global Supply Chain for a Canadian mining company. Graham is a graduate of UBC’s Sauder School of Business and lives in Toronto.
Julia Fedec
Our featured musician this Sunday will be Julia Fedec. At 21 years old, Julia Fedec has kicked off her music career with works that have been carried with her for years. For Julia, music has been the outlet through which she explores herself and the world around her – the only outlet that seemed apt to express the beauties and pains of vulnerability, finding inner strength and the complexities of life. Julia only started performing publicly in 2018, and is in the process of writing and recording new music to release. You can check out a sampling of her music here: https://soundcloud.com/ueds/tracks
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Come early for coffee and conversation at 10:30 am.
Resilience is a vital aspect of human flourishing. It encompasses many skill sets and capacities, both mental and physical. Let’s discuss resilience and how to grow more resilient, so as to avoid burnout and stagnation, and increase the likelihood of finding fulfillment in life.
Laval Martin
Our featured speaker will be Laval Martin, a corporate trainer on topics such as resilience, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and mindfulness (lavalmartinconsulting.com). Holding a Master of Social Work degree, he also provides psychotherapy and relationship therapy (wisemindtoronto.com). Additionally, Laval has practiced various martial arts and self-defence systems since 2001, with a focus on avoiding and de-escalating conflict. He is a full-instructor of Senshido and also holds an instructor certification with Safe International. Laval has been hosting a monthly Beer and Philosophy Night for over four years.
