David Meslin is a Canadian community organizer and activist. Originally living and active in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

he's now living in

Eugenia, Ontario Eugenia is a small community in the municipality of Grey Highlands, Grey County, in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, located just north of the community of Flesherton. An unincorporated hamlet of Artemesia Township for most of its history, Eugenia ...

Life and career

Meslin is the founder of the

Toronto Public Space Committee The Toronto Public Space Committee (TPSC) is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that defends the city's public space from corporate and private forces, including cars and outdoor advertising. The TPSC argu ...

, Cycle Toronto (formerly the Toronto Cyclists Union),

City Idol {{more citations needed, date=July 2010 City Idol was a contest and part of a 2006 initiative called Who Runs This Town, a project to boost citizen interest and participation in municipal politics in Toronto. Overview Who Runs This Town and Cit ...

, the

Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto ''Ranked Ballot Initiative of Toronto'' (RaBIT) is a Canadian grassroots, public policy and advocacy group that supports reforming the municipal electoral voting system in the city of Toronto from a first-past-the-post voting system to instant run ...

, and the magazine Spacing. At TedxToronto 2010, he presented "The antidote to apathy", a

TED (conference) TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

talk on barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities. He delivered the convocation address at

Carleton College Carleton College ( ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1866, the main campus is between Northfield and the approximately Carleton ...

in 2012. In 2019, Meslin published the book ''Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up''. A review in the ''

Literary Review of Canada The ''Literary Review of Canada'' is a Canadian magazine that publishes ten times a year in print and online. The magazine features essays and reviews of books on political, cultural, social, and literary topics, as well as original Canadian poet ...

'' by

David Berlin David Zafrir Berlin (born May 14, 1951) is a Canadian editor, writer, politician, educator best known for being the co-founder and first editor of ''The Walrus'' from 2003 to 2004 and former editor and owner of the ''Literary Review of Canada'' f ...

described the book as "a primer best suited for the activist at heart." In 2022, he was the subject of the documentary ''The Billboard Squad'' focusing on a 15 year campaign against illegal billboard signs in Toronto ‘corporate garbage’. In 2024 he hosted ''Unrigged'', a six-episode

TVO TVO (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station CI ...

documentary series based on ''Teardown'' which profiled various new innovations in democratic politics and governance."Local author/community organizer Dave Meslin's book is now a TV series premiering this Sunday"
''South Grey News'', September 10, 2024. The series received a

Canadian Screen Award The Canadian Screen Awards () are awards given for artistic and technical merit in the film industry recognizing excellence in Canadian film, English-language television, and digital media ( web series) productions. Given annually by the Academy ...

nomination for Best Political News Program or Series at the

13th Canadian Screen Awards The 13th Canadian Screen Awards were presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television from 30 May to 1 June 2025, to honour achievements in Canadian film, television and digital media production in 2024. The main gala was held on 1 Jun ...

in 2025.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian activists Canadian television hosts 21st-century Canadian non-fiction writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Canadian political writers Canadian male non-fiction writers {{Canada-tv-bio-stub