Hey Everyone,

Can you believe it’s been a full year since the very first edition of The Toronto Vegan Insider landed in your inbox? Time really does fly. I want to take a moment to thank each of you for reading, sharing tips, and supporting this project along the way.

This edition is a bit of a long one, as I’ll be out of the country for a few weeks, so it’s designed to carry you through while I’m away, with a roundup of things to keep on your radar and a few highlights worth planning ahead for.

Stay warm and I’ll see you in late February.

Week of January 29 - February 25:

News:

• Rumours that PLANTA might add meat or other animal products to its menu circulated widely in recent weeks, fuelled by reports of a customer survey asking hypothetical questions about menu changes. The speculation prompted concern within the vegan community, particularly given PLANTA’s long-standing identity as a fully vegan restaurant group. In response, PLANTA addressed the rumours directly in a public Instagram post, stating that while asking questions is part of staying connected to their audience, their commitment to plant-based food “still stands” and that their menu will “always be 100% plant-based.” The post emphasized that PLANTA has no intention of moving away from its plant-based focus.

Events:

• Toronto Vegan Drinks – New Year Edition
  📅 Date: Friday, January 30
  🕒 Time: 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
  📍 Location: Nuttea – Nut Mylk Café, 637 Bloor Street West

  Toronto Vegan Drinks kicks off 2026 with a cozy winter meetup at Nutteaon Bloor St. This monthly social event takes place on the last Friday of each month and is open to vegans and non-vegans alike. Expect a relaxed evening with 100% plant-based food and drinks, plenty of conversation, and a welcoming space to reconnect with familiar faces or meet new people.

• Winterlicious
  📅 Date: Friday, January 30 - February 12

  Winterlicious is the City of Toronto’s annual prix fixe dining promotion, and reservations are already open. For 2026, the City says there are “more than 240 restaurants” participating, with multi-course prix fixe menus at set price tiers: 

  On the City’s official Winterlicious restaurant finder, restaurants can be filtered by dietary options including vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free and when you click vegan there are still 44 restaurant options.

• Seriously Delicious Comfort Food – Cooking Class
  📅 Date: Saturday, January 31, 2026
  🕒 Time: 5:00–7:30 p.m.
  📍 Location: 100 Broadview Avenue
  🎟️ Tickets: $85 per person

  This hands-on cooking class invites participants to learn how to make hearty, vegan comfort food with Chef Tanya Spasic from Animal Liberation Kitchen. The small-group session focuses on interactive learning and shared conversation while preparing four dishes: creamy mushroom stroganoff, fully loaded mac and cheese, savoury sweet potato and bean burritos, and baked potato hash brown loaded waffles. Participants will cook, eat together, enjoy a mocktail, and leave with recipes, practical tips, and strategies for building flavour in plant-based cooking.

• PaintPix & Chill
  📅 Date: Sunday, February 1, 2026
  🕒 Time: 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
  📍 Location: Wishbone Animal Rights Lab, 600 Bay Street (Suites 305, 307, 308)
  A relaxed, bring-your-own-materials (or use what’s there) community art afternoon at Wishbone, listed as open to all skill levels.

• An Evening of Short Films on Animals
  📅 Date: Tuesday, February 10
  🕒 Time: 6:45 p.m.
  📍 Location: Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Ave

  We Animals presents an in-person screening of three short documentaries exploring the interconnected lives of humans and animals within systems of animal agriculture. The program includes Moving Animals (2020), which follows Jo-Anne McArthur at the Bulgarian–Turkish border where animals are transported to slaughter, along with the premieres of Permission to Harm (2025), examining shared human and animal exploitation in an Ontario agricultural community, and Maria and the Flock (2025), a portrait of a sanctuary caregiver devoted to rescuing and advocating for chickens. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with special guests.

• Learn Veganic Online Gardening Course
  📅 Date: February 11 to March 30, 2026
  🕒 Time: Optional live sessions on Wednesdays from 12:00 to 2:30 p.m. ET (Feb 11–Mar 25) plus optional Q&A meetups on Mondays from 12:00–1:00 p.m. and 8:00–9:00 p.m. ET (Feb 16–Mar 30)
  📍 Location: Online
  🎟️ Tickets: Registration required (early bird pricing available through January)

  Learn Veganic is a multi-week online course focused on growing fruit and vegetable gardens using fully veganic methods, without chemical inputs or animal-based fertilizers such as manure or bloodmeal. The course covers topics including veganic fertility, soil health, composting, permaculture, biodiversity, perennials, and techniques suited to a wide range of growing spaces, from balconies and community plots to backyards and homesteads. Participants receive 14 hours of lessons, 7 weeks of optional live Q&A sessions, and access to an online learning platform with course materials available for a full year after the course ends. The program is open to gardeners of all experience levels and is designed to be followed live or at a self-paced schedule.

  This event sounds really interesting. I first learned about veganic gardening from my dad when he transitioned his garden to a fully vegan approach a few years ago. It was eye-opening to see how deeply animal agriculture shows up in places you wouldn’t expect, and to learn that there are practical ways to avoid it.

• Vegan Valentine’s Potluck and Games
  📅 Date: Sunday, February 15
  🕒 Time: Arrival from 12:15 p.m.; eating starts at 1:00 p.m.; event runs until 5:00 p.m.
  📍 Location: Scarborough Village Community Centre

  This community potluck hosted by Scarborough Vegans invites attendees to celebrate Valentine’s Day together with food and games. Guests are encouraged to wear pink or red and bring a vegan Valentine’s-themed dish to share, enough for 4–6 people. To avoid duplicates, participants are asked to note what they plan to bring in advance. The afternoon begins with food, followed by games (bringing a game to share is welcome). Attendees should bring their own plates, utensils, cups, and are responsible for their own clean-up. The event is open to vegans, vegetarians, and veg-curious folks, as long as all dishes brought are fully vegan.

• Kizomba @ La Vegan
  📅 Date: Sunday, February 15, 2026
  🕒 Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
  📍 Location: La Vegan Ethiopian & Eritrean Vegan Cuisine
  🎟️ Tickets: $20 online, $25 at the door; $35 combo ticket (also valid for V’Day Urbanbeat Kiz Night)

  This Valentine’s-weekend dance event features Kizomba, Semba, and Tarraxinha, with music by DJ VLAD, DJ Kafé, and DJ Piocota from Montreal. The night is presented by Kizomba com Kizomba and La Vegan. Free parking is available on side streets, with Danforth Avenue parking free after 9 p.m., and the venue is a five-minute walk from Greenwood or Coxwell subway stations.

• Waistline & Waffles
  📅 Date: Saturday, February 22
  🕒 Time: 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. EST
  📍 Location: 915 Midland Ave
  🎟️ Tickets: $45–$55

  Waistline & Waffles is a soca-inspired fitness and food event hosted by Melanated Vegan, combining movement, music, and a Caribbean-style plant-based brunch. The event begins with a 60-minute soca fitness class that’s open to all levels, followed by brunch and time to connect with the community. The fully plant-based menu includes plantain waffles, hot honey fried oyster mushrooms, tofu scramble, fresh seasonal fruit, and smoothies, with hydration provided throughout.

• Three Course Ramen Tasting
  📅 Date: Wednesday, February 25
  🕒 Time: 6:00–9:00 p.m.
  📍 Location: Pluto: Fourth Space for Community, Co-Creation, & Coworking, 60 Sumach St (ground level)
  🎟️ Tickets: $65 standard / $40 Plutonian (approval required)

  This evening tasting event offers a cozy, plant-based three-course ramen menu served at shared tables, with an emphasis on relaxed conversation and community. Hosted by Animal Liberation Kitchen, Siki Spasic and in collaboration with Pluto, the menu includes a pan-seared lion’s mane mushroom steak, spicy creamy sesame-miso ramen with seasonal vegetables, and a peanut butter banana brownie served with vanilla ice cream. The event is designed as a social, sit-down experience centred on comforting food and connection.

  
  (Please note: Event details are shared as accurately as possible at the time of publishing, based on information provided by organizers or publicly available sources. While listed events are intended to be vegan, I’m not always able to independently verify every ingredient or claim. Details may change, so for the most up-to-date information or specific dietary concerns, it’s best to confirm directly with the event organizer or venue.)

Activism:

• Sobey’s Free the Hens This Valentine’s
  📅 Date: Saturday, February 14, 2026
  🕒 Time: 1:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m.
  📍 Location: Sobeys – 22 Fort York Blvd
  An in-person action listed on Animal Rights Toronto’s calendar focused on urging Sobeys to publish a time-bound cage-free plan, timed for Valentine’s Day.

• Ontario is advancing proposals to ban medically unnecessary cosmetic surgeries on companion animals, including the declawing of cats and cosmetic procedures like ear cropping and debarking in dogs, as part of updates to the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act that would allow these surgeries only when deemed medically necessary by a veterinarian; the move has been backed by animal-welfare advocates and organizations who say such procedures cause unnecessary pain and harm to animals, and reflects a broader shift in animal protection policy in the province.

• There is a Canadian petition calling on Parliament to legally recognize animals as sentient beings rather than property. It explains that, under current federal law, animals are treated as assets without legal recognition of their capacity to feel, with Quebec being the only exception after amending its civil code in 2015 to acknowledge animals as “sensitive beings,” though protections remain uneven across species. The petition, open to Canadian citizens and residents until March 17, 2026, is supported by academics, veterinarians, animal advocacy organizations, and national animal protection groups, and urges federal reform to align Canada’s laws with contemporary understanding of animal sentience.

World Vegan News:

• In his most recent newsletter Ed Winters speaks about the viral story of Veronika, an Austrian cow documented using a brush as a tool to scratch herself, marking the first recorded case of tool use in cattle and showing flexible, purposeful behaviour previously observed only in a few species. While the discovery is scientifically significant, the author argues that Veronika’s ability was only observed because she was spared slaughter, lived a long life, and had access to a stimulating environment, conditions rarely afforded to farmed animals. The article critiques how research on farmed animals prioritizes productivity over understanding their intelligence, and how society downplays their cognitive capacities to justify exploitation. It warns that celebrating exceptional animals like Veronika risks reinforcing the idea that animals must do something extraordinary to deserve compassion, when moral consideration should instead be based on sentience alone, regardless of intelligence or utility to humans.

In the Near Future:

*(more info will come closer to the dates)

• Animal & Vegan Advocacy Summit Canada

  📅 Date: Thursday, May 21 – Sunday, May 24, 2026

  🕒 Time: (multi-day conference; specific daily times not listed on the event page)

  📍 Location: Sheraton Centre Toronto, 123 Queen St W 

  ART’s listing links out to AVA International’s event site and notes it’s a multi-day gathering for advocates, researchers, organizers, and others working on systemic change for farmed animals. 
  

Do you have a business or event that you think should be listed? Email us at [email protected] to submit a request.