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.
Alex Beckmann
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!
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
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
Toronto Oasis will run our fourth online meeting this upcoming Sunday April 12th. 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 10:30 am.
Typically, on long weekend Sundays we have a potluck lunch instead of having a featured speaker. Now that we are meeting online (and we can’t have a potluck lunch), we’ll have an open discussion format, maybe mingle in rotating breakout rooms, do Community Moments etc.
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.
Helen Lenskyj
Our featured speaker will be Helen Jefferson Lenskyj. Helen will give a talk about her recently released book The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach, with the following blurb on its cover:
Do the Olympic games really live up to their glowing reputation? As the biggest global sport mega-event, The Olympic Games command public and media attention, while Olympic mythology and ritual obscure their underlying function as a profit-making business enterprise. In contrast to terms such as ‘Olympic movement’, and ‘Olympic Family’, the concept ‘Olympic Industry’ focuses on sport as an economic and political enterprise, its beneficiaries including sponsors, media and politicians. Negative impacts on host cities and countries disproportionately threaten the lives and welfare of disadvantaged populations.
Citizens’ resistance campaigns have been addressing these issues for decades, with some success. Recent activism focuses on anti-doping initiatives and sexual abuse of young women. Female athletes with ‘differences of sexual development’ are targets of the discriminatory gender policies of the International Association of Athletics Federation that disqualify them from women’s events.
Helen Jefferson Lenskyj is 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; and Gender, Athletes Rights, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
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
Our program will run from 11 am to 12:30 pm but you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45 am.
For this second online meeting, we will be having a featured speaker! Our featured speaker will be David Chernushenko, a writer, educator, speaker, film producer and explorer of ‘living lightly’ in our personal and professional lives.
He was twice elected to Ottawa city council (2010-18), where he chaired the Environment and Climate Protection Committee and played a major role in promoting a renewable energy transition, active transportation, complete streets, public health and supportive housing.
He
served as a member of Canada’s National Round table on the
Environment and the Economy, the International Olympic Committee’s
Sport and Environment Commission and as deputy leader of the Green
Party of Canada.
He
has written three books on sustainable management practices, and
produced three films: Be the Change; Powerful: Energy for Everyone;
and Bike City, Great City. He recently published his first novel,
Burning Souls, an “eco-political thriller.”
Can
we move from fearing climate breakdown and grieving
ecological destruction to fostering love and determined action? In
a time where evidence and personal experience point to our Earth’s
natural systems continuing to degrade rapidly, many of us search for
our place in this big mess. What is my role? Does it still matter?
We’ll explore together how we might face the truth straight on, and
chart a path as full of love, compassion and beauty as we can manage.
As individuals and as a community.
Toronto
Oasis will be piloting our first online meeting this upcoming Sunday
March 22nd.
Thank you to Clive
Hannah,
our volunteer social media manager, for setting up and organizing
this for us! Clive will be hosting this meeting and will be our MC.
Our program will run from
11 am to 12:30 pm but
you can join in to the meeting starting at 10:45
am.
For this first online meeting we will have some familiar Toronto Oasis Sunday elements. We will have “Joys & Concerns”, Helen Lenskyj will do the Community Moment and there will be some music (a very timely Tom Lehrer song). Then, instead of a featured speaker, we will run a session of the Toronto Oasis Book Club. To explain how that works, I’ll quote Michael Dorman who typically hosts our Book Club meetings: “We don’t read the same book together. Bring what you are currently reading or have read: books, magazines, comic books, blogs, journals, news articles, fiction and non-fiction and share with others”. Of course, you are welcome to join us regardless of whether there is something you want to share during the Book Club part of our meeting.
All Toronto Oasis in person meetings have been cancelled until further notice due to the COVID-19 situation. We hope to re-book our speakers and musicians once this crisis is over. In the meantime, we may be able to connect via video conferencing using a platform such as Zoom. We will keep you posted.
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Social 10:45am – 11:00am.
Tim Grant
Since
Confederation, Canadian cities and towns have been seen as creatures
of their provinces. To this day, virtually any decision made by
a municipal council can be overturned by a provincial government.
After Doug Ford upended Toronto’s municipal election in 2018,
a group of Torontonians consulted widely before developing a
two-pronged solution to this longstanding lack of local control.
In his presentation, our featured speaker, Tim
Grant,
will highlight the key features and engage those in attendance about
what services empowered cities should be providing.
Tim
Grant is a member of the Steering Committee of Charter City Toronto.
He has run 4 times as a Green Party candidate in the riding of
University-Rosedale and for seven years, he chaired the Harbord
Village Residents’ Association (i.e. the neighbourhood immediately
west of the Koffler House).
Citizen Jane
Our
guest musicians will be CITIZEN
JANE,
a Toronto-based folk-pop duo that evocatively weaves powerful
vocal harmonies with innovative string textures to create an
emotionally charged soundscape.
The
duo consists of married couple Reenie Perkovic (vocals, guitar,
mandolin) and Lea Kirstein (viola, fiddle, cello, vocals), who met
while studying classical music on the west coast of Canada. The
ladies have since made a home in Toronto’s vibrant music scene.
Reenie
grew up in the Toronto area, after her family escaped the civil war
in her birthplace, Sarajevo, Bosnia. Reenie was a semi-finalist in
the 2016 UK Songwriting Contest, and has released 3 solo albums. She
has opened for Juno-nominated Alysha
Brilla,
and Annabelle
Chvostek (Wailin’ Jennys).
Lea
is an acclaimed violist and fiddler, who grew up in Victoria, BC,
where she studied viola and music education at UVic. Classical
musician by day and fiddler by night, Lea discovered new ways of
melding the two styles into one. Her passion for these genres took
her across Canada & the U.S. with the Folk
Arts Quartet.
She has recorded with Juno-nominated artists Oliver
Schroer and Teresa
Doyle.
Our event starts at 11 am on the 2nd floor of the Koffler House (569 Spadina Avenue). Social 10:45am – 11:00am.
Genessa Radke
This
week our featured speaker will be Genessa
Radke. Genessa
has had a life long passion for jewellery. In 2013 she graduated the
Jewellery Methods program in fulfilling a life long dream to become a
goldsmith. She has a passion for wax carving and jewellery history.
Nico Paulo
Our guest musician will be Nico Paulo, a Portuguese/Canadian singer song-writer. Her debut EP ‘Wave Call’, released earlier this year in January 2020, is a compilation of songs that fit in a landscape of sounds that convey lo-fi Art Folk with a fusion of European and North American folk – it is dreamy, nostalgic and full of harmonies. Check out her music: https://nicopaulo.bandcamp.com/releases
Paul
Kaplan will do
the Community Moment. 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). Social 10:45am – 11:00am.
This
week our featured speaker, Clive
Hannah, will
give a talk about how one IT Consultant went from feeling isolated
and alone in our big city of Toronto, to feeling like everywhere he
goes is like a cuddle party.
Clive Hannah
Clive
is a Toronto Oasis volunteer, helping us manage our social media. He
has a passion for community building. In addition to his volunteer
work with Oasis, Clive is also an organizer for Toronto Adults with
ADHD Support Group and volunteers his time with a men’s group
called MasterHeart. Professionally, Clive is an independent software
consultant in IT Enterprise Architecture. All of Clive’s work,
professional and volunteer, is driven by wanting to create his life
rather than letting life happen to him.
Clive’s
talk is an example of one of our own sharing their learning and
growth with our community. If you have a topic you have learned
about and could give a talk on, contact Tania at 416oasis@gmail.com.
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/
