Monday 4 April 2016

Town Hall Meeting: Gentrification and the Future of Moss Park




What’s happening to our community? Gentrification and the future of Moss Park 


Come to the Community Forum and Supper to discuss these issues. What can we do about it? How can we as a community respond? 

When April 7, 2016, 6pm - 8pm

Where John Innes Community Centre, 
150 Sherbourne near Shuter Street, Toronto

Wheelchair accessible

ASL, food, childcare and TTC tokens provided.

Major changes are proposed for Moss Park, the John Innes Centre, George Street and other neighbourhoods in Toronto’s Downtown East.

- What are we hearing about the new recreation centre at Moss Park?

- What is really behind the City of Toronto’s and the 519 Community Centre’s redevelopment plan?

- What will the City do to address the loss of shelter beds?

- How will the new condo developments affect the neighbourhood?

- What are the implications for sex workers?

Mced by Anna Willats (long-time Toronto social justice activist/educator) and Gaetan Heroux(a long time anti-poverty activist with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) who has worked as a social worker in East Downtown Toronto for more than twenty-five years).



Speakers include:

Monica Forrester is a queer Trans sexworker, advocating for the equality and rights of street based sex workers. Currently working with Maggie's Sexworker Action Project, the longest running agency for sexworkers. Also working with StreetHealth on the Safety First Project for sexworkers reporting bad clients and the violence they experience through their work. Executive Director and founder of Trans Pride Toronto since 2004, bringing awareness, accessibility and inclusion to Trans people in the community.



Sigrid Kneve (OCAP).



Helen Jefferson Lenskyj who has been a community activist since the 1970s, and has written extensively on gender, sexuality, sport and the Olympics (QTCD),



Río Rodríguez.



Syrus Marcus Ware.


Across the city we have seen gentrification negatively affect poor and working class people. We are told that developer investment and affluent homeowners will bring us prosperity and “economic development”. The City of Toronto and 519’s plan for Moss Park uses language such as “resiliency,” “inclusiveness” and “vibrancy” in order to assure us that we will also have a “seat at the table” and an equal share in the benefits when all is said and done.

However, rising rents and costs of living, increases in police violence, cuts to public services, racism and discrimination are what actually follows.

How do we fight back? Communities across Toronto are forming tenants unions, mobilizing against the police, forming grassroots community groups and other forms of resistance. Many queer and trans people are coming together to say that gentrification cannot take place in their names. We hope this community forum can help build a broad opposition to gentrification of our communities.

Sponsoring organizations:
Queer Trans Community Defence - Toronto, OCAP Toronto, Opirg Toronto, Queer Ontario

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About Queer Trans Community Defence:

Queer Trans Community Defence exists to defend and build people power within our communities. This way we can defend our neighbourhoods from the City, the developers and to challenge those in the Queer/LGBT community who are participating - knowingly or not - in projects that will drive out poor people from their homes. We reject the invoking of LGBT rights to try to prevent opposition to various‘ revitalization’ schemes and especially to the rapid gentrification of the DTE (Downtown East).