News Releases

In the June 26 Toronto mayor by-election, former NDP MP and city councilor Olivia Chow ran as an independent. She won with the embarrassingly vague slogan “We can build an affordable, safer and caring city.” She captured 37.17 per cent of the votes cast, topping former city councilor Ana Bailao at 32.45 per cent.

Thank you for your conscious decision to endorse a socialist for mayor of Toronto. I am truly proud of the members of Municipal Socialist Alliance and everyone who braved the moody wet weather to cast the ballot. You have invested your vote to bring the change you want to see in our community. You chose to lit the candle than to curse the darkness. Hence, I am hopeful that socialism will prevail.

There is no doubt that Toronto is mired in a deep and severe housing crisis. This is reflected in the growing encampments as many are left homeless, overcrowding in apartments, high rents that have forced tenants to go on rent strikes, and cries to build more affordable housing.

Cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, study shows that increase use of cannabis among 25 years and older in a safe way. However, cannabis use among under 19 years did not increase due to ID requirement.

Homelessness is a situation in which an individual, family or community lacks safe, proper, and stable housing. The reasons behind homelessness are: systematic or societal barriers, financial instability, lack of employment opportunities, lack of affordable housing, mental health and addiction, physical and cognitive disabilities, sexism, racism, and classism.

Among the 102 candidates in the June 26 Toronto mayor by-election, former city councilor and MP Olivia Chow is certainly not the worst. Among the establishment contenders, she appears slightly to the left of Liberals Ana Bailao, Mitzie Hunter and Josh Matlow. But Olivia, who ought to know better, is treating the electorate to a virtual re-run of her failed campaign for mayor in 2014. It is marked by mind-numbing mediocrity and evasion of clear policies needed to address a mega-city in crisis.

Traffic fatalities are on the rise, advanced technologies are not helpful and Toronto cannot afford road repairs but progressive punishment model is a win win solution. Exclusive program offered by Municipal Socialist Alliance candidate for mayor Kiri Vadivelu.

Most often, we strive to fight against the system that degrades humanity but at some point, we lose energy and motivation to fight. Thats the way our status quo system is designed so no change can happen from the grassroots. Working class people have no choice but to fight till the end or surrender to the status quo.

Socialism is an economic and political system based on collective, common, or public ownership of the means of production.

The Municipal Socialist Alliance Toronto Mayor By-election campaign, featuring MSA candidate for mayor Kiri Vadivelu, will present its policies on housing and transportation today. Please join us on Saturday, May 20, 1:30 p.m. for a rally at Christie Pits Park, Christie subway station at Bloor Street West.

No doubt, it is good to see some Canadian political leaders address the suffering of the fast growing and resilient Tamil community in Toronto. As the socialist mayoral candidate, I am skeptical of the formal statements from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Pierre Poillivre, supposedly in support of Tamils. We need more than words professing sympathy.

Rising inequality has caused many people to demand a hefty tax on big wealth. According to a June 2020 report by the federal Parliamentary Budget Office, the top 1 per cent collectively own about a quarter of Canada’s total wealth, $2.6 trillion. In 2018, 87 families alone had a combined net worth of $259 billion, equal to 15% of the country’s entire GDP for that year. Meanwhile, over five million people in Canada then lived below the poverty line.

Every year, on May 18, thousands of Tamil-Canadians commemorate the Mullivaikkal Massacre, the mass killing of tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils in 2009 during the closing days of the civil war.

The release of the Ontario Ombudsman’s new report on the province’s Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) warrants reflection on the primary role of the tribunal: evictions.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of Al Nakba, the violent settler colonial project and catastrophic ethnic cleansing through which the Israeli state was created.

On May 7, CUPE 5089 announced its endorsement of former Toronto Police Service (TPS) chief Mark Saunders for mayor of Toronto. I consider this an act of working class betrayal, and I write this as a former longtime CUPE member—including CUPE 3903 in Toronto, CUPE 4600 in Ottawa, and delegate to the CUPE-Ontario convention.

Justice Must Be a Home! A poem by the Canadian parliamentary poet George Elliot Laureate.

City of Toronto politicians, senior officials, big landlords, land developers and the construction industry have blood on their hands! The Municipal Socialist Alliance is pouring, onto City Hall Square, a representation of the blood of 187 victims of the worsening houselessness crisis.

Long before garnering international attention as a “pandemic-era folk hero,” carpenter Khaleel Seivwright built a tiny insulated shelter in a Toronto park with a painted sign boldly stating “Anyone is Welcome.” It would be the first of many.

Hundreds braved persistent cool showers to celebrate International Workers' Day at the south-west corner of Toronto's City Hall Square on Sunday, April 30.

Back again, live and in-person at The Free Times Cafe after a three-year hiatus, the 37th annual Toronto Socialist Action May Day Celebration on April 29 was a resounding success. It was co-sponsored by the NDP Socialist Caucus, the Workers' Action Movement, OPSEU Region 5, and the Municipal Socialist Alliance.

After three years of living with, and responding to, a pandemic, Toronto Public Health is releasing Toronto’s Population Health Profile: Insight on the Health of Our City PDF at a critical time in the City’s history.

What is MSA position on moving the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place?

Recently, the Economic and Community Development Committee supported a motion to extend tourist exemptions for holiday shopping to three new locations: Yorkdale, Scarborough Town Centre, and the St Lawrence Market. The item (EC3.17) will come before City Council on May 10. What is your position on opening up shopping on public holidays in these and other commercial areas?

In November, Doug Ford’s Conservative government avoided a potentially fatal confrontation with Ontario’s unions by repealing its anti-union bill. Bill 28, a piece of legislation that stripped 55,000 education workers of their right to strike and would have forced them to accept a contract, was so odious that it moved the entire Ontario labour movement into action. Bill 28 provoked a call for a general strike, which was only called off after Ford backed down entirely on the proposed legislation.

Low-income homeowners pay five times more in property taxes relative to their income compared to high-income homeowners. "This is simply unjust and perpetuates economic inequality," says Kiri Vadivelu, the Municipal Socialist Alliance candidate for Toronto mayor.

The Gardiner Expressway has long been a feature of Toronto' s transportation horror-scape. It blocks Torontonians from enjoying easy access to Lake Ontario and has become a blight on the waterfront.

On April 13, Toronto Police marked the second anniversary of the release of the Report of the Independent Civilian Review into Missing Persons Investigations (Missing & Missed Report), which found that systemic discrimination against the LGBTQ, new immigrants and refugees, and other racialized and marginalized communities, led to significant failings of Toronto Police concerning its missing persons investigation.

A bevy of bourgeois councilors and wannabees flocked to Toronto City Hall early on April 3 to register as candidates for the municipality's top job in a hastily called by-election. An exception to the Dishonor Roll of 28 servants to the status quo was the Municipal Socialist Alliance candidate for Toronto mayor, Kiri Vadivelu.

The NDP Socialist Caucus in Ontario congratulates you on your resounding electoral victory, winning with 54 per cent of the votes cast, on March 16 in Hamilton Centre.

The Municipal Socialist Alliance, at its monthly convention held on March 20, selected Kiri Vadivelu to be its candidate for mayor of Toronto in the current by-election.

Today, Toronto Public Health (TPH) released data related to the deaths of people experiencing homelessness in 2022. Overall, homelessness continues to negatively impact health outcomes of individuals, resulting in 187 reported deaths in 2022. This total is lower than the 223 deaths reported in 2021 but remains higher than the 128 deaths reported before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.

People across the political spectrum agree that Ontario’s healthcare system is in crisis, but what are the causes and what are the solutions? For the Ford government the cause is public healthcare, and the solution is private healthcare. This is based on a series of old myths that predated the current crisis, and that continue to be reused every time governments want to push further privatization. Here are 7 myths used to justify healthcare privatization, and how to bust them.

The Municipal Socialist Alliance says 'NO' to the proposed increase to the Toronto police budget. The notion that the hike is a step towards enhanced public safety is completely ill-conceived.

On the first Monday of 2023, Jan. 9, the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) held a special meeting to discuss and vote upon a proposed $48.3 million CAD increase to the Toronto Police Services (TPS) operating budget in 2023, which represents a 4.3% increase over the bloated 2022 operating budget.

In response to recent public safety incidents Toronto Mayor John Tory used his authority to inject millions of tax-payer dollars into the police department, which has already seen major budget increases while medical and education budgets are slashed.

Until recently, for a motion to carry at Toronto city council, a majority vote is required. But with the Better Municipal Governance Act, mayors like Toronto’s John Tory now can pass bylaws with the support of just one third of council. It gives the mayor powers to veto budgets, committee decisions and By-Laws.

Supporters of the Municipal Socialist Alliance distributed hundreds of pieces of literature to transit riders outside a busy subway station on a sunny Tuesday afternoon. The message "Free Public Transit.

Protest to take place at Toronto Star, 1 Yonge Street, on Thursday, October 6, 12:15 p.m. Why did the Toronto Star fail to report on the campaign and candidates of the Municipal Socialist Alliance?

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) quietly adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) defintion of antisemitism in 2018. Since then, the state of Israel bombed Gaza multiple times, destroyed hundred of Palestinian settlements, and murdered both children and journalists.

The financial reports includes the City’s consolidated financial statements and statistical information. It also includes the financial condition and performance, credit ratings and the performance and benchmarking reports.

In most of the liberal discussions of the recent police killings of unarmed black men, there is an underlying assumption that the police are supposed to protect and serve the population. That is, after all, what they were created to do.