West Toronto Junction Historical Society

The WTJHS Annual General Meeting will be held on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. in the lower level auditorium of the Annette Street Library. Please plan to attend.

The AGM agenda will include the following major items:

• Election of a Board of Directors in accordance with the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act bylaw;
• The 2025 Financial Statements prepared by our accounting firm;
• A proposed 2026 budget;
• The 2025 WTJHS Annual Report, the primary resource for reporting on our 2025 activities.

Call for Nominations for the WTJHS Board of Directors

A 13-person Board of Directors will be voted on at the AGM. Several current Directors have indicated their desire to remain on the Board. However, there are vacant positions that still need to be filled.

This is a Call for Nominations for any of the following vacant Director positions. 

Chair of the Board

Secretary

Engagement Facilitator

Detailed role descriptions of these positions are found on the WTJHS website under Volunteer Opportunities – Board of Directors.

Volunteers are also needed to fill other vital roles which do not require election. Details of these roles are found on the WTJHS website under Volunteer Opportunities – Other Volunteer Roles.

A Nomination Committee has been formed to compile a slate of Director nominees to present to members for election at the AGM. If you are interested in serving as a Director for one year, or are available for other roles within the organization, please submit your request to the Nomination Committee at junctionhistorical@gmail.com by April 23, 2026.  We will be in touch.  

Video recording now available.

Zahra Ebrahim will lead us in a part reading, part talk, and part discussion, highlighting essays from the book she co-edited, Messy Cities: Why We Can’t Plan Everything. Zahra will be sharing the inspiration behind the book, the tensions of “messiness” and giving a richer context of the stories shared about our west end community.

📅 Date: Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Annette Street Library

Zahra Ebrahim is the Co-Founder of Monumental. Her work has a deep focus on community-led approaches to policy, infrastructure, and service design. Over the last two decades, Zahra has worked with communities to co-design towards better social outcomes, leading some of Canada’s most ambitious participatory infrastructure and policy programs. 

Zahra is currently an Urbanist-in-Residence at the University of Toronto’s School of Cities, and an Adjunct Professor at the Daniels School of Architecture. She is also Vice-Chair of the Toronto Arts Council, and Chair Emeritus at Park People. She is the co-editor of the book Messy Cities, and her newest book, Women, Walking, is set for release by Coach House Books in September 2026.

Video recording now available.

John Beram will take us on a fascinating tour of the former industries of the West End of Toronto and the connections some of these companies had with the West Toronto Industrial Athletic Association and the sports leagues and facilities they supported, such as the Ravina Gardens Arena, and their lasting impact on our community’s character.

📅 Date: Thursday, March 5th
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Annette Street Library

John Beram grew up in the Junction Area and attended public and high school locally. He has a keen interest in the west Toronto industrial history and has spoken on many occasion on these local employers and their history.

A video recording will be provided after the talk.

Video recording now available.

Scarborough author, the award-winning Sheila White will give an illustrated talk about her biographical novel, The Letters: Postmark Prejudice in Black and White.  Drawn from diary accounts, familial correspondence, photos, and artefacts, the story revolves around a community’s opposition in the 1940s to the interracial courtship and marriage of the author’s white mother, Vivian Keeler, and Black father, “Billy” White, who went on to become a decorated Canadian. Their wedding took place in Toronto in June 1947. In the lead-up, an extensive letter-writing campaign, orchestrated by Vivian’s mother, tried to stop the union on racist grounds, but failed. Vivian, an intelligent, attractive and determined woman from a tight knit, Nova Scotia family defies convention to marry the man she loves – a charismatic and gifted member of a prominent and historically famous Black family from Halifax. A slide show is followed by Q&A. Books will be available for sale and signing.

A video recording will be provided after the talk.

📅 Date: Thursday, February 5th
🕖 Time: 7:00 PM
📍 Location: Annette Street Library

Sheila White is an award-winning community leader whose background includes local news reporting and editing, political and media work, and environmental activism. She is Music Director at Don Heights Unitarian Congregation, and a licensed Lay Chaplain. Sheila is a published songwriter and leads an open choir that performs mostly her original material. Sheila’s awards include an African Canadian Achievement Award, a Canada 125 Medal, an Urban Hero Award, a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal and a King Charles III Coronation Medal. A lifelong Toronto resident Sheila lives in Agincourt with husband Alex. The Letters is her debut novel. It was taught in the African-Canadian Literature course at the University of Toronto in October 2025.