REIMAGINING SAFETY @ The Redwood Theatre, Friday, March 6, 2026

Start: Friday, March 06, 2026•07:00 PM

Location: The Redwood Theatre• 1300 Gerrard Street East, Toronto, ON M4L 1Y7 CA

Host contact info eastendacts@gmail.com

Racial profiling, brutality, and rampant corruption in Toronto Police. ICE abductions and murders. Genocide in Gaza.

They all share an infrastructure of state-sanctioned violence that enforces hierarchy and racialized disposability with complete impunity. Abolition insists that no one is free until we are all free—and calls us to dismantle these carceral and militarized systems.

In Los Angeles-based filmmaker Matthew Solomon's Reimagining Safety, 10 experts discuss how policing and incarceration create more harm than good. Join with your East End neighbours to discuss how we can build safety through justice, community care, and collective liberation.

Interviews include:

Dr. Jody Armour - The Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California

Nikki Blak - Sociologist, anti-racism educator, and Inglewood born and raised

Sennett Devermont - "Mr. Checkpoint," police auditor and founder of the AFTP Foundation

George Gascón - Los Angeles County District Attorney

Jose Gutierrez - Licensed social worker, therapist, and Restorative Justice practitioner

Dr. El Jones - Professor at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, N.S., journalist and co-author of "Defunding the Police - Planning the Way Forward for the HRM" and "Abolitionist Intimacies"

Hadiya Kennedy - Former detective, The Los Angeles Police Department

Hawk Newsome - Co-founder of Black Lives Matter NY and Black Opportunities

Gina Viola - former LA Mayoral candidate who ran on an abolition platform

Alex S Vitale - Professor, law enforcement expert, and author of "End of Policing"


After the film, we will be joined by some very special guest speakers: Rania El Mugammar, Mskwaasin Agnew, Desmond Cole, and director Matthew Solomon.

East End Acts for Palestine is a grassroots solidarity group made of community members from the Toronto-Danforth & Beaches-East York neighborhoods, mobilizing to create political and social change.

There will be a bake sale offering sweet and savoury treats, as well as keffiyehs and other items. The venue offers bar service.

All proceeds from tickets and the bake sale will be donated to Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction, mutual aid for families in Gaza, the Toronto Community Justice Fund, and East End Acts.

Please bring one non-perishable food item to contribute to Community Fridges in the east end.

If there is a financial barrier to purchasing a ticket, please email us at eastendacts@gmail.com

The Redwood Theatre is wheelchair accessible. There is a single stall, accessible all-gender washroom. There is an industrial HEPA air filter in use. Masks are encouraged and will be provided. Street parking is free after 6 p.m.