About Us

Humanize Toronto is the humanist voice of city activism. As such, it is focused on the issues of Real Democracy, the Environment and Human Rights at the municipal level.

A project of the Humanist Movement, HTO began in 2000 with a campaign to field candidates in the city elections. Seven candidates ran under the common platform of a Toronto of Human Rights, raising the issues of homelessness, childcare and real democracy.

Coherent with our belief that democracy is something that needs to be fostered permanently, and not just mentioned during elections, in Jan. 2001 HTO began its first annual "Experiment in Real Democracy" a door-to-door campaign to gather public input into the city budget.

This campaign, inspired in part by the Participatory Budget process of Porto Alegre, was repeated in early 2002. This year, over 400 respondents indicated that public transit should be City Council's top budget priority - and so we then began a campaign for real funding for the TTC. And not surprisingly, people also expressed an overwhelming desire to have more of a say in the budget process.

City Hall likes to complain that it has no power, that it is a puppet of the upper tiers of government, and overall this complaint is valid. But if the City really believed in democracy, it would begin to treat its citizens with the same respect that it demands for itself.

Humanize Toronto is working for a Toronto of Real Democracy, a healthy Environment, and Human Rights - a city in tune with the needs of its residents, and with the local power to make those needs reality. Join us.

Find out more about the Humanist Movement that started Humanize Toronto.