Tooker TV – An Activist’s Life on Video
The playlist above is a temporary placeholder. It will contain all the videos of Tooker Gomberg that have been posted on YouTube. And here’s a link to the Tooker TV website.
The Tooker Gomberg Memorial Library
Tooker Gomberg Memorial Library Opening August 2008. 800+ books of Tooker’s collection from the 1960’s onwards are being made available to the public. Topics include transportation, health, cities, waste, food, nuclear, peace, nature, politics, fiction, kids, development, energy, globalization, advocacy and much more.
Visit the library any time during office hours and sign out Tooker’s books. Read the classics by Jane Jacobs, Ivan Illich, Abby Hoffman, Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, E.F. Schumacher, and many more. At the Centre for Social Innovation, 585 Dundas St. E, 3rd floor, Toronto.
Centre for Social Innovation, Greenspiration.org.
A Friction to the Machine: The Writings of Tooker Gomberg
This 334-page book is a composite of Tooker’s writings. More than 100 newspaper and magazine articles, blogs, and more. Tooker wrote on an endless array of subjects, from sustainable transportation to nuclear disarmament, renewable energy, ecophilosophy, social justice, equity issues, and more. Tooker was a feisty activist with an encyclopedic knowledge on just about any issue. Brilliant writing. $20 plus postage ($3). Order from angela at cleanairalliance.org.
- 2004 Environmental Articles
- 2003 Environmental Articles
- 2002 Environmental Articles
- 2001 Environmental Articles
- 2000 Environmental Articles
- 1999 Environmental Articles
- 1998 Environmental Articles (written while in Edmonton, Alberta)
- 1997-1998 Environmental Articles (while traveling in Vietnam, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan)
- 1996-1997 Environmental Articles (while traveling in various parts of North America, including Cuba)
Take the Tooker!
Toronto activists initiated a campaign in 2005 to establish an east-west bicycle expressway along Bloor/Danforth in central Toronto as a living legacy to Tooker. They called it Take the Tooker. It morphed into Bells on Bloor (which documented the history). To date (Feb. 2024), 20 km of bike lanes have been installed along this route – and growing!
Memorial Funds
Following Tooker’s passing, two memorial funds were set up to receive donations. The Tooker Gomberg Greenspiration Fund had charitable status but is now defunct.
The Tooker Gomberg Activist Fund does not have charitable status.
It was set up to support activist-oriented activities that also fall within the overall objectives of the Greenspiration Fund.
Donations for either fund can be made to:
Tooker Gomberg Activist Fund, 160 John St, #300, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 2E5
Since 2004, the following projects have been funded:
The Otesha Project has been awarded $1000 for their Coast-to-Coast bicycle tour. Otesha is a group of youth enabling and empowering the next generation to take action towards a sustainable future. This summer they will be presenting to 40 communities across Canada, reaching 10,000 youth.
Boiling Frog promotes and distributes activist and independent media committed to issues such as: environment, social justice, poverty, human rights, war, peace, globalization, direct action, etc.. We are honoured to contribute $1000 to their ongoing Canadian tour.
Riverdale School in Edmonton is creating a natural labyrinth in their school yard. In the center will be a large rock with a plaque dedicated to Tooker’s memory. We are pleased to contribute $800 to this project.
Rise up Productions was awarded $500 to help produce At Dharavi’s Doorstep — a film about a homeless woman in Bombay, and a homeless man in Toronto. By interviewing homeless persons, social activists, academics, politicians, authors, builders, and other crucial players, this film follows our central characters through two distinctly different continents to reveal the common threads behind systemic urban poverty and the universalism inherent in people’s movements that are fighting back. In comparing the Indian housing crisis to the Canadian housing crisis, institutional nuances may vary but the tools of control, gentrification and police brutality, are the same. Coming Soon…
Rainbow Bridge Community Channels was awarded $2300 to begin the process of producing a video documentary of Tooker’s life and work — through his eyes. He left behind an archive of 600 hours of videos that document his work, journeys, and thoughts, within the broader context of over 15 years of activism in Canada. During this initial Phase 1 they will review all the video material, catalogue it, and develop a treatment for a biographical documentary (Phase 2). They will also produce a short promo video that will be used for fundraising for Phase 2.
The Tooker Gomberg Memorial Library will be hosted by the Centre for Social Innovation. 800+ books of Tooker’s collection from the 1960’s onwards are being made available to the public. Topics include transportation, health, cities, waste, food, nuclear, peace, nature, politics, fiction, kids, development, energy, globalization, advocacy and much more. $1500 has been contributed by TGGF to this legacy project.
The Healthy Mind Body Planet Tour was awarded $1800 for their 2006 23-city cross-Canada multi-media educational tour, tabloid and video documentary focusing on the concerns around antidepressant drugs and big pharma.
Depression Expression was awarded $1176 to reprint 5000 additional copies.
A modest honorarium of $600 was contributed to Hamish Wilson for his exceptional bicycle advocacy work with Take the Tooker.
A contribution of $1000 was made to Boiling Frog for their development of audio and video podcasts related to the Healthy Mind Body Planet Tour.
$1000 was contributed toTooker TV, a DVD compilation of nine of Tooker’s own videos.
A modest no-strings-attached honorarium of $500 was gifted to Dave Meslin for his years of dedication building grassroots movements in areas of cycling, democracy, independent media, public space, and more.
A total of $500 was contributed to the Active Peacebuilding Training series to subsidize low income participants.
We contributed $500 to Chocosol, a youth-driven community based pedal powered chocolate fair trade social enterprise, to develop their pedal powered market stands.
A $500 contribution was made to PsychOUT, a 2010 conference for organizing resistance against psychiatry.
A $500 grant was given to P.E.D.A.L., a 16,000 km. bicycle tour and environmental education and media project documenting sustainable living models.
Bells on Bloor has been given two $200 contributions to support their advocacy rides for bike lanes on Bloor Street, Toronto. The rides brought out 1500 and 2000 cyclists respectively ringing out for an east/west bike route along Bloor..
Ride for Renewables received a donation of $200 to support the bike ride which visited 6 Toronto green energy locations.
Stay tuned for more projects to be funded in the future. We thank all those who have contributed to these funds in Tooker’s honour.