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Rebecca Hennessy teaches jazz trumpet at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music (2024-present).

Jean Yoon was born in Champaign, Illinois, on May 4, 1962, and subsequently raised in Toronto.

Yoon began her acting career in the 1980s but soon quit in frustration over the lack of opportunities for Asian Canadians and went on to complete an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto in 1989.

For a decade, she advocated for more opportunities for actors of colour and would not return to the theatre scene until 1991. Yoon created her own theatre company called Loud Mouth Asian Babes, which committed to the development of new Canadian drama by, for, and about Asian women. She wrote and produced plays characterized by aggressively irreverent humour, with a particular focus on the Korean diaspora. She has written several poems and essays, including The Yoko Ono Project, an award-winning multimedia performance art comedy.

Yoon is best known for originating the role of Umma in the 2011 play Kim's Convenience and in the award-winning CBC Television series adapted from the play, for which she won an ACTRA Award (2017) and a Canadian Screen Award (2022).

In 2022, Yoon was designated an honorary ambassador on the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Canada and South Korea.

She currently resides and works in Toronto.

Kerri Sakamoto was born in Toronto in 1960. She grew up in the mostly white suburban Etobicoke of the 1960s and 70s.

Her family was subjected to the internment of Japanese Canadians and forced to live in its camps, losing the homes and businesses they worked hard to acquire. Kerri’s parents often avoided talking about Japanese internment camps and their Japanese culture and history, as the family had been subjected to racial taunts throughout their lives. Kerri was unaware of the internment camps until she read about them in a magazine article at the age of twenty and subsequently worked with Joy Kogawa in the redress movement for two years.

She studied English and French at the University of Toronto and completed a Master’s in English from New York University, where she began writing her award-winning debut novel, The Electrical Field. She is the recipient of the Commonwealth Writers Prize for best first book and was a finalist for a Governor General’s Award. Her novels often explore the experience of Japanese Canadians and are published in translation internationally. Kerri has also written essays on visual art, screenplays and collaborated with filmmakers.

She has served as a judge of the Governor General’s Literary Awards, a member of the Canadian jury at the Toronto International Film Festival, and a Distinguished Visitor at University College in the University of Toronto.

She works and resides in Toronto.

Josephine Shuk-Fong Cheung was born in Hong Kong in 1954.

She was first introduced to the practice of art when she moved to Canada to attend St. Lawrence College. In 1975, she transferred to the Ontario College of Art, where she studied drawing, painting, and lithography and was influenced by abstract expressionism. Her talent was recognized; she received the Loomis and Toles Scholarship in her second year, followed by the New York Scholarship in 1979 which brought her to New York City. There, she was inspired by the city’s street art, and exposure to artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf led her to move away from abstraction.

In 1983, Cheung worked as a social worker in Toronto for refugees from Indochina and assisted families rebuilding their lives in Canada. During this time, she created her figurative series Faces of Enigma, exhibiting at venues such as the Hong Kong Art Centre and the Barbara Gladstone Gallery. By 1986, she was represented by T.R. Gallery in Los Angeles and travelled extensively across Asia.

Cheung was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1989 and died shortly after, at the age of 35. Her paintings were left scattered between Toronto and Québec and under the care of her husband. They would not be seen until 2021, after his death.

Momoye Sugiman was born in Toronto and grew up in the Bloor West neighbourhood. Her father was one of the 25 Japanese labourers sent to Premier Mitchell Hepburn’s farm during World War II.

She holds a Bachelor of English literature from York University, a certificate in teaching ESL, and a Master of Immigration and Settlement Studies from the former Ryerson University. She is a Toronto-based sansei and feminist passionate about Japanese Canadian history.

Momoye's work as an adult ESL teacher with the Toronto District School Board has influenced her creative process and its immersion in the lives of immigrants. As a freelance editor, she has contributed to Breakthrough: A York Feminist Magazine and the book, Japanese Canadian Redress: The Toronto Story. She has conducted interviews for the Landscapes of Injustice oral history project, and worked on the Shoe Project, a memoir writing workshop empowering immigrant women.

Keibo Oiwa was born in 1952. He is a cultural anthropologist, author, translator, environmental activist, and public speaker.

He moved to North America in 1977, where he studied in various universities in Canada and the United States and earned a PhD in anthropology from Cornell University. Shortly after, Oiwa relocated to Montreal as a research fellow at McGill University.

In 1991, he returned to Japan and began teaching at the International Studies Department of Meiji Gakuin University, retiring in 2020. He is the founder of the Sloth Club, an ecology and “Slow Life” non-governmental organization, giving lectures and workshops on social and environmental issues.

Oiwa is an award-winning author and editor of over 20 books in Japanese and English. He has collaborated with authors such as David Suzuki and Joy Kogawa. Four of his books have been translated into Korean, and Stone Voices: Wartime Writing of Japanese Issei won the 1992 Canada-Japan Book Award. Oiwa regularly contributes to Japanese monthly magazines Be-Pal and Ecocolo.

He currently resides in Yokohama, Japan.

Jean Eng was born in Sudbury, Ontario, and graduated from Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario. Following graduation, Jean worked as a freelance illustrator before becoming a painter. Her work has been shown in galleries across Canada, the United States, and Japan. Several private collections, as well as the Government of Ontario, house many of her artistic pieces. Jean is also a writer, with her poetry and short fiction published in numerous literary journals internationally. Her debut collection of poetry, Festival of All Souls (2020), was published by Inanna Publications.

She resides and works in Toronto.

Vivian Chan Moy was born in Victoria, British Columbia. She relocated to New York City to study at the Fashion Institute of Technology and Parsons School of Design. After graduating, she stayed in the city to serve as art director for Estée Lauder and Elizabeth Arden.

Sudha Thakkar Khandwani was born in Mumbai in 1933. As a child, she started learning the classical Indian dance, Bharatanatyam.

She studied the dance form while pursuing a bachelor's degree in philosophy at Elphinstone College in Mumbai. At a time when dance was considered vulgar and not pursued by girls from respectable households, she helped start an academic program teaching Bharatanatyam at R.D. National College.

In 1953, she established Kalanidhi, an institute of fine arts, in Mumbai. Suddha was deeply interested in Indian folk arts, travelling to remote Indian villages to document indigenous life and artistic expressions with her creative collaborator, Abdullah Khandwani.

The couple immigrated to Toronto in 1971 where they wed in 1978. Sudha then studied filmmaking at York University and later directed a 26-minute documentary film called A Tale of Two Mosques, which aired in 1984 on CBC TV's Canadian Reflections, a showcase of independent short films. Sudha and her partner founded Kala Nidhi Fine Arts of Canada in 1988 with a mandate to present the contemporary face of South Asian classical dance at public festivals while also paying homage to its rich tradition. Suddha served as the organization’s artistic director.

Sudha moved back to Mumbai in 2011 where she died on November 3, 2016.

Olivia Chow was born in Hong Kong to mother, HO Sze (1928-2020), and father, Wilson Wai Sun CHOW (1924-2018), and raised in a Chinese Baptist household.

Chow’s parents were from modest backgrounds in China, but well-educated. Her mother obtained her teacher training certification in 1964 and worked as a schoolteacher. Her father graduated in 1947 from Sun Yat-sen University with a degree in biology. He worked as a teacher, then in education administration until his retirement from Hong Kong public service as a school superintendent in 1970. During this time, he also studied and taught singing as a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music, and sang and performed in a church choir.

The family immigrated to Canada in 1970 when Olivia was thirteen. They lived in the Toronto neighbourhood of St. James Town. In Canada, her father had his teaching service recognized by the Ontario Department of Education for a time, but he worked odd jobs. Her mother’s income as a seamstress and maid supported the family.

Chow attended Jarvis Collegiate Institute, and studied fine arts, philosophy and religion at university, graduating from the University of Guelph in 1979. She worked as an artist and sculptor, and taught community development at George Brown College.

Chow’s career in politics began in 1985 when she was elected as a trustee to the Toronto Board of Education. She became the first Asian-born woman elected as a Metro Toronto councillor in 1991, serving through to 2005. She was re-elected several times to city council by wide margins, advocating for the homeless, public transit, and other issues affecting Canada’s largest urban centre and its diverse communities. Chow was further elected to the House of Commons in the 2006 federal election, serving as the New Democrat Party (NDP) Member of Parliament for Trinity-Spadina. She resigned her seat in 2014 to run for Mayor of Toronto, placing third. In 2023, Chow was elected Mayor of Toronto, becoming the first Chinese Canadian and racialized individual to win the office.

Chow married Jack Layton in 1988. The couple forged a remarkable political partnership that lasted until his death in 2011.

Katherine Adachi was born in Ontario in 1951. She studied research psychology at the University of Toronto but spent most of her career working in graphic design and editing. In between working her jobs, she took design courses at the Ontario College of Art, George Brown College, and other computer design companies. She also took editing courses with the Editors’ Association of Canada. She is a photographer based in Toronto.

Adachi served as the publication designer of secondary and elementary school courses for the Independent Learning Centre, Ontario Ministry of Education, where she directed photography and illustrations used in the courses and produced brochures, newsletters, and other publications. From 2000 until 2014, she was a legislative editor at the Office of Legislative Counsel, Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

Sachiko Okuda is a Japanese Canadian Sansei who was born in Verdun, Québec. During World War II, her parents were subjected to the internment of Japanese Canadians and forced to live in its camps.

She earned an undergraduate degree in anthropology from McGill University and a master’s degree in library sciences from the University of Montreal. She has over two decades of experience working as a research librarian. Okuda is the former president of the Ottawa Japanese Community Association (OJCA).

She currently resides in Ottawa.

Danny Yung was born in Shanghai on November 21, 1943. He relocated to Hong Kong with his family at the age of five and then moved to the United States at the age of seventeen.

He studied mathematics and dance at Pacific University, Oregon, then studied architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a master's degree in urban design and urban planning from Columbia University in 1969.

Yung co-founded the Basement Workshop in New York City in 1971, an Asian American political and arts organization for writers, visual artists, dancers, and activists.

In 1979, Yung returned to Hong Kong and held his first one-man cartoon exhibition. He became involved in all aspects of the arts, including experimental films, conceptual art, installation, video, and performing arts. He is widely recognized as an experimental art pioneer and an influential artist in Hong Kong. He formed the avant-garde arts collective Zuni Icosahedron in 1982 and has served as its artistic director since 1985.

Yung currently serves as chair of the Hong Kong Institute for Contemporary Culture, as well as a part-time member of the Central Policy Unit, a Hong Kong government think tank.

Alexis Sumi Nishihata was born in 1964. She is the daughter of Japanese Canadian film director and producer, Jesse Nishihata.

She currently resides in London, United Kingdom.

Bassanio Ghose received a law degree from Queen’s University and a master's degree in social work from Carleton University in Ottawa. Ghose has specialized in immigration law.

He is a former adjudicator with Immigration Canada and has worked as a human rights officer for the Government of Alberta, an appeals officer for the Information and Privacy Commissioner's office, and a policy analyst with the Worker's Compensation Board in Ontario.

Leonard Van was born in Vietnam. He lived and worked in various countries, including Hong Kong, Europe, and the United States, before settling in Canada in 1972. Leonard pursued photography at Humber College. He later studied political science and architecture.

He has worked as a freelance photographer in Toronto.

Carson Young studied communication and design at the Ontario College of Art. After graduating, he worked as a graphic designer, then an art director.

Sunao Urata’s family was subjected to the internment of Japanese Canadians and forced to live in its camps. His family originally lived in Vancouver, but were forcibly uprooted to Vernon, BC.

Urata is regarded as one of Canada’s early pop artists. His artistic background is diverse, spanning graphic design, animation, and stone and wood carving. Sunao has held teaching appointments at George Brown College and with the Toronto Board of Education.

Tin-Yum Lau was born in Hong Kong in 1941. He is a multidisciplinary artist.

Lau first studied art at the Hong Kong Institute of Fine Arts and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, later completing a master’s degree in visual arts at the University of Quebec. He settled in Montreal in 1969 where he practiced painting, printmaking, photography, calligraphy, and installation. His works are influenced by the point of contact between the ancient East and the modern West where their confrontation and assimilation meet. He has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally.

Lau is considered a key figure of Montreal’s artistic community, where he was a founding member of the Quebec Engraving Council and Atelier Circulaire. Additionally, he has contributed to the development of art spaces as director of the ESPACE gallery.

Belinda Li studied sociology at the University of Toronto. She has taught Chinese for the Heritage Language program.

Gene Chu was born in the Guangdong province of China in 1936.

He studied at the Ontario College of Art and the Art Students League of New York, later completing a master's degree from Claremont Graduate School in California.

Chu specialized in printmaking and often worked with lithography. His awards include the Government of France Medal in Painting. His works have been featured in various exhibitions, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and Decordova Museum.

Chu retired in 1995 from teaching printmaking and drawing at the University of Guelph. In 1997, the University of Guelph’s print collection was named in honour of him and fellow professor Walter Bachinski.

Wayne Lum was born in Toronto in 1943. He graduated from the Ontario College of Art, focusing on sculpture and commercial art.

Wayne began his career as an art director with CIII-TV and CTV, later joining CBC-TV and the National Ballet of Canada where he created graphic and set designs. Wayne then worked with Feature Factory, a Toronto-based firm specializing in architectural features. His sculptural work are installed in numerous buildings across the Greater Toronto Area and internationally.

In addition to his artistic practice, Wayne held teaching appointments in drawing and sculpture at George Brown College and with the Toronto Board of Education.

Wayne Lum died on March 6, 2006.

Cheuk Kwan was born in 1950 and grew up in Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the United States before immigrating to Canada in 1976 and settling in Toronto.

Well-educated, well-traveled and multilingual (English, Japanese, French, and several Chinese dialects), Kwan was engaged in and helped lead the community activism of Chinese Canadians in the late 1970s as the first generation of Chinese born in Canada were coming of age. The Asian American movement had reached its peak over the past decade and inspired development of the Asian Canadian identity needed to affect racial, social and political change in the country.

In 1978, Kwan co-founded (with Tony Chan and Paul Levine) The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine dedicated to the promotion of Asian Canadian arts, culture and politics. The following year, he helped lead a national fight for equality for Chinese Canadians and their representation in mainstream news media following CTV’s airing of the W5 segment called ‘Campus Giveaway.’ The segment depicted all ethnic Chinese students as foreigners taking up “Canadian” spots at university campuses across the country, regardless of their citizenship status as Chinese nationals or as Chinese Canadians.

Kwan was a member of the ‘ad hoc committee against W5’ championed under the Council for Chinese Canadians in Ontario (CCCO), then served as the organization’s President. The fight started locally and involved a lawsuit against CTV filed by University of Toronto students shown in the segment. The issue grew into a national movement that was successful in soliciting public apology from the national television news network. A major outcome included creation of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Equality (CCNC) in 1980, on which Kwan served as a director in its founding year. The anti-W5 movement has since been recognized as a watershed moment in the development of Chinese Canadian identity and consciousness.

Other significant activism includes Kwan’s long involvement with the Toronto Association for Democracy in China, including as Chair from 1992-2016. Formed in 1989 in response to the June Fourth Incident (六四事件) in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, the organization is dedicated to memorializing the event annually, and promoting human rights and democracy in China.

In 1998, Kwan undertook filmmaking and film production through establishing Tissa Films. His Chinese Restaurants film series that brings together his love of food, travel and appreciation of Chinese diasporic culture inspired Have You Eaten Yet? published by Douglas & McIntyre in 2022.

He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Abdullah Khandwani graduated from the College of Art in New Delhi, India. He is a Muslim painter, photographer and filmmaker.

For many years, Abdullah travelled to remote Indian villages to document indigenous life and artistic expressions, with his creative collaborator, Suddha Thakkar.

The couple immigrated to Toronto in 1971 and wed in 1978.

Together, they founded Kala Nidhi Fine Arts in 1988 to present and promote Indian dance in Canada. Abdullah serves as the organization’s vice president.

The Erindale College Photography Department operated at Erindale College (later renamed the University of Toronto Mississauga) within a broad capacity to provide photographic services for campus community members including faculty, staff, and students. Occasionally the group was also commissioned to do photographic work for local community groups.

In 1969, the Graphic Arts department included in its responsibilities various campus photographic work, specifically staff portraits, events photography, and publication support. The department employed photographer Steven Aivars Jaunzems (1944-2016), and graphic artists Norm White and Georgie Anderson (aka "Mrs. Graphic"), who led the department until her retirement in (ca.) 1986. Anderson was succeeded by Brandon James Besharah. Alison Dias joined the department as "Assistant University Photographer" in 1987.

For much of its history, photographer Steven Jaunzems was responsible for photography on campus and operated within the Technical Services Department. Technical Services at Erindale College additionally included the Greenhouse, the Machine Shop, Animal Vivarium, Electronics Shop, Micro Computer support, Audio-visual, Graphics Arts, Stores & Receiving, and Teaching Lab Technicians. With the dissolution of Technical Services in the 1990s, photography (under the name Erindale Media Services) was transferred to Infrastructure and Facilities, headed by Director Sol Kessler. In 1997, Erindale Media Services was renamed Instructional Media Services. Since the 2016, official campus photography has been under the purview of the Office of Communications.

Emma Schmiedecke is a cello instructor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music (chamber music coach 2020-present; sessional lecturer, 2025-present).

Warren Keith Bissell was born in Meaford, Ontario on February 12, 1912 and died in Newmarket, Ontario on May 9, 1992. He was a Canadian composer, conductor, and educator.

Steven Aivars Jaunzems was the campus photographer for Erindale College / University of Toronto Mississauga from ca. 1969 to 2005. In the late 1960s, he joined the Graphic Arts department at Erindale College (UTM) as a photographer. He was the primary photographer for Erindale Media Services which operated at Erindale College within a broad capacity to provide photographic services for campus community members including faculty, staff, and students. Photographic work shifted to the responsibility of the Technical Services Department; with the dissolution of Technical Services in the 1990s, photography services were transferred to Infrastructure and Facilities, headed by Director Sol Kessler. In 1997, Erindale Media Services was renamed Instructional Media Services. Jaunzems retired in 2005.

Miah Im, piano, was a lecturer, principal coach, and conductor in the opera division of the University of Toronto Faculty of Music (2008-2013).

The Asianadian Resource Workshop was formed in Toronto in 1978 to publish and distribute a quarterly magazine called The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine. The magazine ran original work concerning the Asian experience in Canada. It solicited submissions in the form of critical essays, community news and articles, poetry, artwork, short stories, and reviews, thereby providing a platform for emerging Asian Canadian scholars and creatives.

Founders and members of The Asianadian were largely university students who had developed cultural consciousness of their Asian Canadian identity. In its own words published in its opening pages, The Asianadian’s aims were to find new dignity and pride in being Asian in Canada; to promote an understanding between Asian Canadians and other Canadians; to speak out against those conditions, individuals and institutions perpetuating racism in Canada; to stand up against the distortions of [our] history in Canada, stereotypes, economic exploitations, and the general tendency towards injustice and inequality practised on minority groups; to provide a forum for Asian Canadian writers, artists, musicians, etc.; and to promote unity by bridging the gap between Asians with roots in Canada and recent immigrants.

The concept for The Asianadian was conceived by co-founders Anthony Chan, Cheuk Kwan, and Paul Levine under the pseudonym Lau Bo. They served as some of the first members of the editorial collective under which the grassroots magazine was structured, moving on to other personal and community projects. Members came and went, moved into different roles and/or contributed work for publication.

The Asianadian was active through the late-1970s/early-1980s alongside other grassroots publishing efforts in North America. Inspired by various human and civil rights movements, its members sought to call out the unacknowledged histories of Asians in Canada and the persistent Orientalism of the late 19th century. In its time, the publication was considered the first and only anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-homophobic social justice magazine in Canada, tackling themes around sexuality, women, and youth. Magazine issues dedicated to Quebec and Vancouver reflect the organization’s national reach and perspectives.

The Asianadian Resource Workshop operated as a registered non-profit organization. Over its run, it produced a total of 24 issues of The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine before ceasing operations in 1985.

The Asianadian (magazine) had a short-lived prototype under the title 海外述林 The Crossroads. The publication was conceived as a monthly, Chinese-language Hong Kong news magazine catered to the large number of Chinese in Canada from Hong Kong. The magazine solicited Chinese-language articles, then decided to add English-language articles in the back aimed at reaching a growing population of Canadian-born Chinese. The bilingual publication ran a handful of issues in 1977 before being abandoned and re-conceived the following year as The Asianadian.

Note: The sole purpose of the Asianadian Resource Workshop was to publish The Asianadian: An Asian Canadian Magazine. Often used in shorthand, “The Asianadian” usually refers to the magazine, or to both the magazine and its publishing body as little to no distinction was made between the two.

The 11 O'Clock Jazz Orchestra, so named because of its rehearsal time, was one of the jazz ensembles at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Past directors include Phil Nimmons (1993-2003), Terry Promane (2003-2006, 2012), and Jim Lewis (2004, 2008-2020).

The 10 O'Clock Jazz Orchestra, so named because of its rehearsal time, is one of the jazz ensembles at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. Past directors have included Paul Read, Ron Collier, Terry Promane, Gordon Foote, and Shirantha Beddage. Under Foote's direction (2013-2024), it was predominantly known as the University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra or UTJO.

Mina Wong lived in British Columbia and Alberta before relocating to Toronto and calling the city home. In Toronto, she has worked in public health and in the Chinese community.

Nancy Tong was born in Hong Kong in 1953 and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from York University. The Children’s feature of the Asianadian was inspired by her film, We’re Just Children (1978).

After graduating, she returned to Hong Kong and worked as a documentary producer for television. In 1981, she relocated to New York City and became an active member of its Asian American film community. Nancy has produced many documentaries across American television networks, such as PBS, and has been nominated for numerous awards, including an Academy Award and Peabody Award. Selected works by Nancy are on permanent display at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York.

Since 2000, Nancy has held teaching appointments in documentary film production at the City University of Hong Kong and the University of Hong Kong, while also conducting masterclasses in Iran, Pakistan, and Indonesia. She is currently based in New York from which she serves as a consultant and advisor to a new generation of documentary filmmakers in Hong Kong.

William Tse came to Canada at an early age. He holds a Master’s degree in Engineering (Mechanical Engineering).

Wenxiong Gao has lived in Hamilton and has researched extensively on the disappearance of Hamilton’s Chinatown.

Voltaire R. de Leon has worked as a co-editor for Tinig (likely Tinig ng Plaridel (TNP), the official student publication of the University of the Philippines College of Media and Communication). He was an active member of the International Association of Filipino Patriots, an anti-imperialist, anti-Marcos organization active in the 1970s and 1980s in opposing the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship.

V. Padmanabhan hails from Toronto. He has worked as a freelance writer, often writing about the problems that Indian immigrants face in Canada, such as job discrimination.

Kaushalya Tinni Bannerji was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, and is the daughter of Himani Bannerji. She moved to Canada with her family in 1969.

Bannerji studied law at the University of Ottawa and is a widely anthologized poet who has published two collections of poetry. Her work often delves into personal and collective experiences, blending introspective reflection with broader social commentary.

She currently resides in Toronto and has been involved in numerous local social justice initiatives.

Gay activist, educator and writer, Tim McCaskell has been politically active since the late 1960s. McCaskell has been involved in countless grassroots movements and has advocated for LGBTQ2+ rights, the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, and anti-oppressive change within Toronto’s education system and beyond.

McCaskell has been a founding member or contributor to numerous groups including but not limited to, The Body Politic, the Right to Privacy Committee, the Simon Nkodi Anti-Apartheid Committee, the International Gay Association, AIDS Action Now!, and Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. Additionally, McCaskell has spent over twenty years with the Toronto District School Board’s Equal Opportunity Office. In 1996, he received the City of Toronto Award of Merit for human rights work.

McCaskell was born in 1951 in Beaverton, Ontario. His political involvement began in high school with the 1968 Federal Election. McCaskell established a small Action Trudeau group of youth and doorknocked for the local Liberal candidate. McCaskell quickly became disillusioned with the party after the election and penned a letter denouncing the Liberal Party which was sent to the party headquarters.

McCaskell was enrolled at Brock District High School during the height of the Vietnam War. While attending a Phil Oakes concert in Toronto he picked up an anti-war leaflet, returning to Beaverton he requested more leaflets, which he distributed to fellow students.

In 1969, McCaskell began his Undergraduate Studies at Carleton University immersing himself in left wing anti-war politics. He was involved with the Young Socialist Club, protested the Vietnam War, and called for lower tuition. After a year of enrollment, McCaskell dropped out and purchased a $200 plane ticket to Europe. His trip eventually ended in India. During his travels, he continually encountered anti-imperialist politics wherever he went.

McCaskell then returned to Toronto and for a short time, sold Guerilla newspapers on the street corner, until he started writing for the publication.

A friend’s father offered McCaskell a job at Quaker Oats in Columbia. Enroute McCaskell and his friend stopped in Miami coinciding with the Republican Convention to renominate President Richard Nixon. McCaskell was tear gassed during a protest against the renomination. McCaskell went on to work in Columbia for a year, then spent another year hitchhiking across South America, where he became committed to Marxism.

In 1974, McCaskell returned to Canada. He began working at the Centre for Spanish Speaking People as a bilingual legal secretary, preparing and translating documents for the legal staff.

That same year, McCaskell came out after attending a gay liberation rally in Riverdale Park. Shortly after coming out, he began volunteering with The Body Politic and was listed as a contributor in the 1974 September/October Issue 15. He was a collective member of The Body Politic for 12 years, working on international news for most of that time.

McCaskell joined the Marxist Institute in 1974, where he focused on the intersection between gay liberation and marxism. In 1975, McCaskell met his long term partner, Richard Fung at the Institute.

In 1976, Fung, John Manweering, David Gibson, McCaskell and his sister Lisa rented out a 5 bedroom house at 188 1/2 Seaton Street in Cabbagetown.

In 1979, McCaskell started working at the Riverdale Intercultural Council where he began doing anti-racist work in education. His role was created largely to respond to the racism towards the growing South Asian population in Riverdale. McCaskell organized education programmes in the community and at local schools, producing audiovisual resources on immigration and racism. In 1980 McCaskell left the Riverdale Intercultural Council to complete his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto. However he quickly returned to anti-racist activism , when the Ku Klux Klan opened an office in Riverdale. McCaskell along with other activists established the Riverdale Action Committee Against Racism which canvassed a petition against the KKK and organized a protest starting in Riverdale Park. Shortly after the protest, the Toronto KKK relocated to Parkdale before disbanding.

McCaskell got a job with the Cross Cultural Communications Centre where he researched, scripted, and produced a half hour video tape on Toronto’s Latin American community.

In 1982, McCaskell received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto.

In the early 1980s, the Toronto District School Board hired its first advisor on race relations, Tony Souza. Souza worked to implement new policies challenging racism within the education system. One initiative was a race relations camp for high school students and in 1981 McCaskell was hired as a camp facilitator. In September 1983, he was offered a part time contract as a Student Programme Worker at the Toronto District School Board’s Equal Opportunity Office. McCaskell developed and delivered programs for students and teachers on equity issues related to racism, sexism, homophobia, disability, class, immigration and more. He organized student and teacher workshops on anti-racism, ESL and Latin American camps, worked with student groups, provided training for teachers, and developed resource materials. McCaskell also co-facilitated a weekly LGBTQ student support group. McCaskell left the Toronto District School Board in April 2001 and documented his and his coworker’s work in his first book Race to Equity, published in 2005.

Through his work in education reform, McCaskell was also involved with the Organization of Gays and Lesbians for Education and Education Against Homophobia.

From 1981 to 1983, McCaskell was involved with the Right to Privacy Committee. The RTPC led the legal fight against the police raids on several Toronto bathhouses. The RTPC organized demonstrations, raised thousands of dollars for legal aid and financial assistance for those arrested in the raids, and established the Gay Street Patrol to address the queerbashing that had increased following the raids. McCaskell served as the Chairperson for the RTPC Public Action Committee, which was formed to leverage and direct the outrage inspired by the raids. As the PAC chairperson, McCaskell helped organize many protests and played an integral role in coordinating the national fundraising campaign to purchase a full page advertisement in The Globe and Mail. During this time, the Seaton Street House became the central site for RTPC organizing, until McCaskell and his housemates were evicted by their landlord without notice. The RTPC operations relocated to Jearld Moldenhauer’s house down the block at 139 Seaton Street. This house was a hub for gay organizing and became the new unofficial headquarters for the RTPC.

In 1986, McCaskell was involved as a founding member of the Simon Nkodi Anti-Apartheid Committee. The Committee was responsible for organizing anti-apartheid solidarity work and the Simon Nkodi North American Tour. Prior to hearing about Simon Nkodi, McCaskell, Fung, and Lisa McCaskell were already involved with the Toronto Committee for Liberation of Southern Africa. They had supported the growing boycott movement and McCaskell had helped organize demonstrations.

That same year, McCaskell left The Body Politic collective. At the time, he was enrolled in the Master of Education Program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, was working full time with the Board of Education, and working towards his black belt.

Under the direction of gay activist Michael Lynch, AIDS Action Now! was established in 1988. McCaskell, along with other activists and healthcare workers, were founding members of the Toronto based group. AAN! fought for the improvement of treatment, care, and support for people living with HIV/AIDS. McCaskell served as an AAN! chairperson from 1988 to 1990, and sat on the steering committee for many years.

In 1996, McCaskell received the City of Toronto Award of Merit for his human rights work.

In 2009, McCaskell was asked by Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) to give an address on his experience with the Simon Nkodi Anti-Apartheid Committee. QuAIA sought to highlight and challenge to the pinkwashing of Israel and their use of LGBT rights to distract from their violation of Palestinian human rights. In McCaskell’s address, he stressed the importance of solidarity with groups fighting for human rights and social justice. The event was emceed by the 2009 Pride Grand Marshall El Farouk-Khaki. Although the event went well, there was blowback against QuAIA, Khaki, and McCaskell from groups such as the B’nai Brith and politicians. McCaskell and Fung continued their involvement with QuAIA.

In 2016, McCaskell’s Queer Progress: From Homophobia to Homonationalism was published.

The Women’s Press (also known as the Canadian Women’s Educational Press) was founded in 1971, by a subgroup of the Toronto Women’s Liberation Movement, one of the first feminist political organizations in Toronto. The initiative for a feminist press grew out of a dissatisfaction with the mainstream publishing community which had rejected Women Unite!, the first compilation of Canadian contemporary feminist writing. Their mandate was to provide an alternative means of making feminist ideas widely accessible and continue their involvement in the growing Canadian women’s movement. The Canadian Women’s Educational Press, more commonly known as the Women’s Press, was started officially on a grant from the Toronto Local Initiates Project (LIP) as a socialist feminist collective publishing feminist fiction, non-fiction and non-sexist children’s books.

In 1988 the Women’s Press began public discussion of an internal dispute regarding a proposed anti-racist policy. The discussions ended in a split within the Press with some original members departing to form the ‘Second Story Press’.

Women’s Press is Canada’s oldest English language feminist publisher. For over forty years, Women’s Press has played an integral role in the proliferation of high-quality Canadian writing in the fields of gender, sexuality, and women’s studies.

Teri Chan has worked within the Toronto Board of Education as a special education teacher at College Street Secondary School, at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (now the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), and as an art education consultant.

Ted Lo was born in Hong Kong and graduated from the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He later relocated to Canada and has been active as a community psychiatrist in Toronto. Lo was a staff psychiatrist at North York General Hospital.

Lo has held teaching appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto and is a visiting faculty member at the University of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, helping the development of services in various parts of the country.

He was one of the three founding members of the Hong Fook Mental Health Association, which strives to provide culturally sensitive services in five Asian languages and address the stigma of mental illness in the Asian community. He founded a charitable organization, FACT (Friends of Alternative & Complementary Therapies), to promote education for the public and mainstream healthcare professionals. Under the China-Canada Medical Education project, Lo produced a TV series, Prescription for Health, which has been broadcast across many channels in China.

For his contributions to the psychiatry field in Canada, he was made a member of the Mental Health Commission of Canada and was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Award.

Taliba was a newsletter published by the Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship (CAMD), a North American-based anti-imperialist organization that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the dictatorship of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos from the 1970s.

CAMD changed its name to Committee to Advance the Movement for Democracy and Independence (CAMDI) in February 1986, after the People Power Revolution toppled the corrupt and brutal Marcos regime.

T.Y. Ho has written for the Chinese Students Association at the University of British Columbia for publication in Journal.

Sylvia S. Jong is a second-generation Chinese Canadian born in Toronto in 1956. She completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto. Sylvia has been a classical guitarist and a massage therapist interested in the integration of the healing arts, music, and movement.

Susan Carter has worked as a freelance publicist, producer and arts administrator, particularly related to the careers of Asians in theatre.

Stephen Matthew Gill was born in Sialkot, Pakistan, in 1932 and raised in India. He studied at Agra University in India, Oxford University, and the University of Ottawa.

Gill held teaching appointments in Ethiopia, then relocated to England, and finally settled in Canada. As an award-winning writer, his main works have been composed in English and published globally. He also wrote poetry in Urdu, Hindi, and Punjabi.

Gill is author of over twenty books, including novels, literary criticism, and poetry collections. He was founder of Vesta Publications and a member of the Writer’s Union of Canada.

In the mid-1970s, Gill ran twice for election as an alderman (municipal councillor) in Cornwall, Ontario, but was unsuccessful.

He died in 2022.

Siu-Keong Lee was the co-ordinator of Montreal’s Ad Hoc committee for the W5 movement.