This webinar will profile a few prominent mutual aid organizing efforts underway in Canadian communities and also explore the implications of Mutual Aid governance models on the work of Community Land Trusts. 

In responding to COVID-19 communities across the world have been implementing mutual aid projects. In organizational theory, mutual aid is a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Mutual aid projects are a form of political participation in which people take responsibility for caring for one another and changing political conditions. Mutual aid is rooted in anti-colonial and anti-capitalist struggles. Mutual aid transforms the impacts of systemic violence and acute crisis through affirming and building reciprocal, restorative and caring relationships and systems. 

Speakers :

• Ana Teresa Portillo - Parkdale People's Economy & Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust
• Alykan Pabani is a Tenant Organizer in Parkdale (Toronto) and a pod leader with Mutual Aid Parkdale.
• Emily Brotman (she/her) is an elementary school teacher and a pod leader with Mutual Aid Parkdale. She is a guest on Turtle Island and is of Chinese and Eastern European descent.
• Beryl-Ann Mark is a pod leader with Mutual Aid Parkdale and co-founder of the Women’s Leadership Group in Parkdale. She is working with Parkdale People’s Economy as a Community Engagement Lead.
• Therea Padua is a pod leader with Mutual Aid Parkdale and a Personal Support Worker.
• Nathan McDonnell lives, works, and organizes in the Milton Parc neighbourhood of Montreal, which hosts the largest community housing project on a community land trust in North America. Nathan is a volunteer community activist and Vice President of the Milton Parc Citizens’ Committee.
• Dimitri Ok lives in the Plateau next to Milton Parc and teaches activism and empathy in literature among other topics in a college in Montreal. A member of Milton Parc Citizens Committee organizing mutual aid networks in different capacities.
• Samuel Moir-Gayle is a Political Science and Canadian Studies student at McGill and resident of Milton-Parc, working with the Mutual Aid group as a volunteer in several capacities.
• Su Tardif is a mother, white settler, and ex-NGO industrial complex worker, who has lived in coop housing in the Milton-Parc Trust area of Tio’tia:ke for 18 years. In 2015, she co-founded Solidarité Milton-Parc, which encourages reciprocal relations, advocacy, education, and organizing in the community and beyond. For more information, please visit solidaritemiltonparc.ca
• Desiree Wallace has been organizing in Langley, BC in alliance with Coming Together Vancouver and just moved to Montreal. She works as a documentary filmmaker and is currently making a film called, "Not Going Back".