Some of you know me because of a daily political newsletter project I ran in 2017-2018 centered on American politics. I am eight years older and wiser, with much more clever and original ideas, so I come to you now with a new project: a weekly political newsletter slash website centered on Toronto.

The project is called Show Up Toronto, and it launches today. The scope may be smaller geographically but it’s not any less ambitious, just more focused. My current goal is to aggregate public organizing, mutual aid, and advocacy events from around the city, so that it’s easier to discover how to get involved in organizing even if you’re not already plugged into the right social media circles. I am also actively interviewing organizers in the city for a related research project, and if you are an organizer in Toronto I would love to hear from you.

On the advice of a smart friend, I wrote a manifesto for the project to serve as my own north star, which I’m reposting below. I think it’ll be clarifying and engaging even for people who don’t live in Toronto. If you do, sign up for the newsletter or RSS feed and tell your friends.

I love Toronto. No matter who you are or want to be, there’s a community in Toronto that’s ready to embrace you. It is a city of a thousand nations.

Toronto is not always an easy city to love. The gridlock, both literal and metaphorical, can be incredibly demoralizing. It’s a city that should represent the best of what multiculturalism can be, but it’s held back by a dam of small-minded thinking and regressive politics. Between antiquated and racist zoning laws, the ghost of amalgamation haunting Lake Ontario, the greed of Bay St driving up inequality and capturing our elected representatives, our very own homegrown tech oligarchs getting in the way of genuine human connection, and a media ecosystem that feeds into moral panics about the most vulnerable among us, sometimes it’s hard not to feel a little helpless.

I believe more people are good than not. In moments of crisis, in natural disasters, when the chips are truly down, our natures shine through and most of us can’t help but want to help. I also believe that more people are scared than not. We live in scary, unprecedented times, and our fears can drive us to be people we don’t recognize, restrict our imaginations of what’s truly possible.

I believe the best way to fix this is to get off our phones and meet our neighbours in person, to talk face-to-face about our challenges and hopes. Unfortunately, that same vibrant diversity I love about Toronto can also feel overwhelming and alienating. There’s an incredible amount of good organizing work happening in Toronto, and there is a vast group of people who want to be part of that work who don’t know how to get started.

Show Up Toronto is a small part of solving this puzzle. My goal is to highlight public organizing events across the city from the hundreds of excellent groups that are already doing the boots-on-the-ground work. If you’ve ever read about something upsetting and wanted to do something about it, or gone to a protest and wondered okay now what?—I hope Show Up Toronto can be a gateway for you.

I’m not an organizer, but I’ve spent a lot of time talking to community organizers in Toronto about their work and how to get involved. I want to do my part to amplify their reach and help others benefit from my research. I also want to reclaim a little bit of our technological agency from the American monopolists who surveil and divide us, and offer a path for getting involved in what’s happening in this city even if you’re not behind the walled gardens of Instagram or Facebook.

This is not an apolitical project. There is no such thing as an apolitical project, only a project that does not acknowledge its politics. I believe in indigenous sovereignty, in bodily autonomy, in trans rights, in Palestinian liberation, in disability justice, in housing as a right and not a commodity, in climate justice, in harm reduction, in prison abolition, in wearing masks and in public health, in labour power. We don’t have to agree on all the same goals or tactics, and we don’t have to be friends. In fact, I believe it’s important for a broad-based coalition to not work in lockstep, for there to be healthy tension among us as we navigate our values. But none of us are free until all of us are free, and we leave no one behind.

If the long arc of history ever bent towards justice it’s only because ordinary people like you and I have gotten our hands dirty and pulled. If our collective power were not so frightening, the billionaires would not need to spend so much money and energy convincing us we’re powerless.

I believe in us, and I believe in Toronto. I hope you’ll roll up your sleeves and join me.