Why Should I Care?

Election Participation

Post Date October 16, 2019

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Category Civic Engagement, Videos

Mining Injustice: Donate an old cell phone

Post Date May 09, 2017

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Category Civic Engagement, Justice

We were so moved by our special guest, Evelyn, that we want to help in what small ways we can.

The Mining Injustice Solidarity Network (MISN) is heading a campaign to gather cell phones and cameras so that Joycelyn and Everlyn can distribute these documentation tools to women in the villages surrounding the Porgera Mine. As they both noted during their visit here, there is a lot of stigma around being raped in their culture, so women are easier to approach than men when it comes …

A Change of Heart on having Municipal Political Parties. (Credit Adam Smith)

Post Date March 23, 2017

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Category Cities, Civic Engagement, Government

Adam Smith was kind enough to share his thoughts from WSIC’s talk on adding parties to municipal politics. Like many of us, he was staunchly opposed to the idea at first.

Thank you Adam for showing us why we do these talks. If we are willing to discuss ideas, we can change minds and (hopefully) have better governance.

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I have to say, I came into this event staunchly opposed to bringing partisanship into a municipal system, I gotta say, those guys were patient with my outbursts and …

Support local farmers every meal

Post Date October 14, 2016

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Category Civic Engagement, Economy, Environment, Rural Communities

Why is local food so expensive? On September 19th we had a discussion about the Economics of Local Food, featuring special guests Cookie Roscoe, Wychwood Barns farmers’ market manager, and Carolyn Young, lead consultant at Organic Council of Ontario.

Roscoe started by recalling that when she was a kid in the 1960s, her father would drive around town every Saturday morning with the grocery flyers, looking for bargains and buying loss leader products. While it used up gas to drive from store to store, savvy shoppers …

Black Lives Matter. Period.

Post Date April 04, 2016

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Category Cities, Civic Engagement

On March 9, Why Should I Care hosted an event about the Black Lives Matter movement to explore why it’s important to us in Toronto. We brought in an expert panel including activists Akio Maroon and Andray Domise and lawyer Gordon Cudjoe.

Akio Maroon started off the panel. Earlier that day she had been given acknowledgment at Queen’s Park for her work on Bill 132, Sexual Violence and Harassment Action Plan Act.

Akio gave a rousing speech, asserting that we should care about the Black Lives Matter …

Innovation needs government support, not red tape

Post Date February 08, 2016

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Category Civic Engagement, Economy, Financial, Government, Science

Continuing our technology-inspired series at our Uptown branch, our January focus was why we should care about investing in innovation. We were joined by guest speakers Tim Hudak, MPP for Niagara West—Glanbrook and former leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, Rachel Zimmer, co-founder and Partner of 5Crowd, Sonia Strimban, Manager of Venture Operations at MaRS, and Kelsey Spitz, Senior Associate at Social Innovation Generation.

Taking centre stage was the elephant in the room; Uber. Disruptive technologies tend to illicit strong opinions. Tim Hudak shared his …

Creating Pedestrian Zones In Toronto —Not just a walk in the park.

Post Date February 01, 2016

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Category Cities, Civic Engagement, Transportation

Car people versus foot people. Driving lanes versus sidewalks. With an average of 20m of space to work with on most city roads, planning can get quite tight. The downtown core of Toronto is growing into a community hub for local citizens and tourists, and with that is a rising number of pedestrians. Many new condo buildings have underground lots that stay empty, save for a few resident cars. New residents complain about having to pay for a parking spot that is not being used, …

Electoral Reform – Australia’s Experience

Post Date January 18, 2016

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Category Civic Engagement, Government

In October, just a few weeks before the federal election, Why Should I Care was happy to welcome two electoral reform experts to discuss the importance of electoral reform and what (if any) changes would be brought about if this system was adopted in Canada.

Mr. Antony Green, an Election Analyst for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation discussed the Australian context, (which uses what they call “Alternative vote”: ranked ballots in single member ridings) while Dr. Dennis Pilon, Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at …

How do we decide which Refugees deserve care?

Post Date May 12, 2015

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Category Civic Engagement, Financial, Immigration

On April 20 WSIC held our regular downtown event at a special location. We were at our North York location, the Rose and Crown (2335 Young St) to discuss refuge health care. Sam Green, a physician who work with refugees and Chantal Desloges, Ontario Bar Association’s resident expert on refugee law formed our panel on the issue of refugee health care.

Sam Green began by describing her personal experiences with refugees in Canada. Firstly, as a society, we need to recognize that people who arrive here as …

Limitations of Freedom of Speech

Post Date March 09, 2015

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Category Civic Engagement, Government, Thoughts and Opinions

On Wednesday March, 4 WSIC Uptown held their first event at their new location: the Rose and Crown at Yonge and Eglinton. There was a huge turnout and the audience was clearly excited to discuss the limitations on free speech, the challenges of protecting free speech and some of the free speech-related conflicts happening in the world today.

Kathy English, the Public Editor for the Toronto Star, kicked off the discussion. Kathy began by explaining her complex responsibilities: it is her job to act as a …

Election Participation

Mining Injustice: Donate an old cell phone

A Change of Heart on having Municipal Political Parties. (Credit Adam Smith)

Support local farmers every meal

Black Lives Matter. Period.

Innovation needs government support, not red tape

Creating Pedestrian Zones In Toronto —Not just a walk in the park.

Electoral Reform – Australia’s Experience

How do we decide which Refugees deserve care?

Limitations of Freedom of Speech

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