Art and Resistance –  Indigenous Struggles

Indigenous art and storytelling are powerful acts of resistance—decolonizing, defying colonial narratives, and telling truths. In the spirit of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we invite you to a conversation on how art fuels resistance, amplifies Indigenous struggles, and builds solidarity between Indigenous sovereignty and workers’ movements. 

Through storytelling, visual expression, poetry, and activism, artists are reclaiming space, challenging colonial power, and inspiring change.

Date: Wed. Oct 1st @ 7 pm (EST)

To register click here

Speakers:

Tannis Nielsen is a Danish, Anishnawbe-Red River Métis woman whose maternal grandparents, Catherine Boucher and Joseph Monkman, were born in the Metis settlements of St. Louis and Halcro district, Saskatchewan. Her Mother, Jenny aka/Merle Monkman, was born in Goldfields, Saskatchewan, and her Father, Paul Nielsen, was born in Aalborg, Denmark. Tannis was born in Red Deer, Alberta, and has lived in t’koronto for more than 35 years, though she still calls herself a prairie girl.

Tannis has over twenty-five years of professional experience in the arts, cultural, and community sectors, and fifteen years of teaching at the post-secondary level. As a visual artist, Tannis’ practice includes public art, drawing, painting, new media installation, sculpture, and performance. Since entering the academy, her research interests have mainly focused on enacting a variety of decolonial methodologies through the study and praxis of Indigenous Arts, History, Theory, Governance, and Pedagogy. 

On September 30^, 2024, as part of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Tannis installed a permanent public artwork, commissioned by the city of Toronto and Council Fire Native Cultural Center, to honor “The Indian Residential School Survivor (IRSS) Legacy Project”. For this, Tannis designed a Metis voyageur canoe titled “Manitou’s Canoe”, which is 36 feet long and made of mirrored stainless steel, which can be viewed at the new “Spirit Garden” located at Toronto City Hall, Nathan Philips Square. 

Today, Tannis continues to teach at OCAD-U where she also serves as Chair for The Indigenous Education Council. 

Eve Saint is a Wet’suwet’en land defender and mother of two, and a leading organizer in the movement urging RBC to divest from Coastal GasLink and the fossil fuel industry. Eve is the daughter of Chief Woos, one of Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs. In 2020, Eve was at Gidimt’en Checkpoint during the RCMP’s militarized invasion of unceded territory, where dozens of unarmed Indigenous people were arrested at gunpoint, including many elders and women. Eve has continued to resist Coastal GasLink since then, and in recent years has focused on financial pressure as a strategy to stop CGL Phase 2 and to force the financial system to respect Indigenous rights. Eve has organized an international delegation of Indigenous Land Defenders to RBC’s annual general meeting for the past three years, which has contributed to policy shifts at the bank related to respect for Indigenous rights and funding renewable and clean energy. Eve is the Co-founder and lead co-ordinator of 8th Fire Rising, a network of Indigenous Land Defenders/Leaders opposing the recent onslaught of annihilating federal/ provincial bills such as Bill C-5, Bill 5, Bill 14,15 etc. 

Eve lives in Tkaronto, where she cares for two beautiful children. 

Faith Nolan is a singer/songwriter with a deep history of queer, women’s and anti-poverty activism. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, her parents and extended family were coal miners in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia of African, Miqmaq and Irish heritage. She later grew up in Toronto’s working-class Cabbagetown. Her commitment to social justice comes from her life experiences and the people she grew up with, and she works through the cultural tool of music. Her music is her political work, a politics firmly rooted in her being working class, a woman, African Canadian and queer.

Faith is the founder and director of three different choirs in Toronto, Singing Elementary Teachers of Toronto; CUPE Freedom Singers , the Women of Central East Correctional Centre; Sistering Singers. produced a film, Within These Cages, about women in prison; and continues to fight for a better understanding of how poverty has created a disproportionate representation of poor women, especially black and First Nations, in Canadian prisons.

Radical Thought in a Time of Crisis

This timely and important webinar with prominent scholars from the USA, Dr. Jodi Dean and Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly, co-editors of the acclaimed book, Organize, Fight, Win. The discussion will be geared to labour folks and those involved in or interested in collective organizing. Webinar details: Radical Thought in a Time of Crisis: Date: Wed. May 21st Time: 6 pm EST. Zoom Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Lh2cnZhsQIaQKVFfE0dZ0w Through the lens of radical Black and Communist traditions and the interconnection of internationalism, socialism, and anti-imperialist resistance, we will discuss the crises of capitalism, the legacies of racial violence, and the possibilities for collective liberation. Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly –  A professor of Black studies at Wayne State University. She received a PhD in African Diaspora Studies in 2016 from the University of California, Berkeley. Her areas of specialization include race and political economy, Black political theory, antiblackness and anti-radicalism, and Black radical thought. She is the co-author, with Dr. Gerald Horne, of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History, and is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled Black Scare/Red Scare: Antiblackness, Anticommunism, and the Rise of Capitalism in the United States. Dr. Jodi Dean – teaches political theory in upstate NY and is actively involved in grassroots political organizing. Raised in Mississippi and Alabama, she went north for college, earning her BA at Princeton University and her MA and PhD at Columbia University. Initially, her focus was on Soviet area studies. In her second year of graduate school, she switched to political theory. Her books take up questions of solidarity, the conditions of possibility for democracy, communicative capitalism, and the necessity of building a politics that has communism as its horizon.

Freelancers Preparing for Taxes

Tax Season Prep Starts Here! Register here

Get ready for an informative webinar with Jonathan Carter, CPA, CMA, CPB, Founder, and Principal Accountant at KATA Accounting Solutions, as he walks you through essential tax tips and updates.

When: Thursday, February 20th, 2025, at 7:00 PM EST

What to expect:
Key tax deadlines for RRSP contributions, payments, and filing
Understand tax installments
Best practices for recording and organizing your files
How to use CRA My Account effectively
Maximize your return with key deductions, benefits, and expenses
Important updates for 2024 and what to prepare for in 2025

Inquiries:  organizer@canadianfreelanceunion.ca

Webinar: Storytelling for Impact and Engagement

Stories are our most potent vehicles for engaging others to share information, teach, convey values, persuade and connect our hearts and minds toward common goals. Journalists, writers and other communicators have always known this – so how might we build on our our own storytelling skills to connect to potential clients, and strategic partners and share the impact of our collective work? This short, interactive session is fun, and interactive, and offers a practical foundation for amplifying impact and connection, whether through public speaking, ‘elevator pitches’ or other ways of connecting with with key stakeholders. We’ll cover the value of stories for our work as communicators, the criteria for and elements of effective stories, and ways to cultivate a story-gathering practice to build our own internal ‘menus’ of stories for different audiences and contexts in our work. Plus, we’ll all have the chance to practice and offer one another in supportive small groups.

Facilitator: Suzanne Hawkes is a White, equity-centered facilitator, leadership trainer, coach and management consultant committed to helping leaders and teams unleash the collective power and wisdom of diverse perspectives and talent.

When: Thur. Jan. 23, 2025

Time: 7:00 PM Eastern Time.

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwscOCtqDkqH9eh21DhBxa1jVW7fzE8g4Ev

Events

Webinar: Media Workers, Independent Journalism, and Palestine

Attacks on media workers and independent journalism in Palestine by the Israeli state have been widely reported and condemned by international human rights organizations. The killings, censorship, arrests, and ban on independent media reporting have severely restricted reporting on the war and presented a pro-Israeli slant in mainstream media newsrooms.

Journalists in Palestine and the broader Middle East face significant online harassment, threats, and smear campaigns when their work challenges mainstream narratives. The silencing of Palestinian voices and perspectives has created a media chill effect that will extend far beyond Gaza.

UNESCO and international human rights organizations, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), and Human Rights Watch (HRW), have condemned attacks on journalists in Palestine, calling for accountability and protection for media workers.

Join us for a discussion with Abby Martin with moderator Aminah Sheikh, a local union organizer and member of the Canadian Freelance Union. Nora Loreto, a Canadian journalist and President of the Canadian Freelance Union, will give opening remarks.

Please send questions for the discussion portion, we want to hear from media workers. This event will focus on media through the lens of workers.

The event is co-sponsored by: labour for Palestine and Spring Magazine.

To register click here 

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