About this Event
Spend an evening rethinking what leadership looks like when it's built on connection instead of hierarchy. Make the most of your Connect IRL experience by coming before or staying after the featured event. Grab a drink or snack at the bar. Try out tonight's Conversation Station: The Common Ground, where you can take a moment or two to connect with a stranger around the topic of staying in relationship across difference.
Join us at the Toronto Reference Library's Appel Salon for The Inbetween Leader, with Indigenous leader and former justice minister of Canada Jody Wilson-Raybould, alongside internationally-renowned lawyer and peace-building educator Roshan Danesh. Together, we'll take apart the assumption that unity requires sameness, examine what it means to stay connected to people you don't always agree with, and talk about why so many of our leadership models are actually failing our need for connection. Expect to leave with a clearer sense of what it looks like to hold a room — or a workplace, or a community — together without flattening what makes it diverse. What does connection actually require of a leader, beyond charisma or authority? How do Indigenous governance traditions offer a different model for staying in relationship through disagreement? And in a culture that treats leadership as something you perform from the top, what would it mean to reclaim it as something built collaboratively, in the in-between spaces of everyday interaction? Wilson-Raybould and Danesh, drawing on Indigenous governance traditions and integrative worldviews in The Inbetween Leader: Cultivating Courage and Unity in a Complex World, offer an alternative to competition-based leadership models — one that fosters interconnectedness, empowers diverse teams, and maintains unity without erasing difference. Building on their national bestsellers True Reconciliation and Reconciling History, they show how leaders in workplaces, communities, and families can create environments where everyone feels valued and genuinely connected. Come for a thoughtful conversation about the relationships that make real leadership possible.
Q&A and book signing to follow. Books available for purchase.
About this event’s guests:
Jody Wilson-Raybould
Roshan Danesh
Farah Nasser
Read more:
The Inbetween Leader
Indian in the Cabinet
Reconciling History
***
Conversation Station | 6:00–7:00 pm & 8–9 pm The Common Ground A conversation station exploring the relationships that keep us connected even when we disagree: When has staying in a relationship with someone been harder than walking away — and what made it worth it? Who has shown you what it looks like to lead with humility? What's one thing you wish more people understood about connecting across difference? This station invites you to swap stories with the strangers next to you about the everyday work of staying together.
is not your average series of events, workshops and activities, but a real chance to connect with other Torontonians in meaningful and sometimes unexpected ways. Through conversation stations meant to spark one-on-one conversations, or hands-on engagement activities and workshops before the featured event, participants can explore the value of connection and community.
***
PLAN YOUR VISIT:
Location: Bram and Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street), 2nd floor
Time: Doors open 6:00pm, Event starts 7:00pm.
Tickets: Free registration required.
Ticket policy: We oversell these events to ensure that the greatest number of people have an opportunity to attend. Tickets guaranteed until 6:45pm or until capacity is reached. Seating first come, first served.
Accessibility: TPL is committed to accessibility. If you are Deaf or have a disability and would like to request accommodation for this event, please contact [email protected] or 416-393-7099 at least three weeks prior to the event.
***
This event is part of our signature Salon Series, where we host local and international authors, artists and thinkers in conversation about their new books and big ideas.
***
Information Collection Notice: The personal information on this form is collected by the Toronto Public Library under the Public Libraries Act, sections 20(a), 20(c), and 20(d). The information will only be used for event and program registration, delivery and evaluation. Registrants may be contacted to fill out a brief survey following the program. Questions about how the library handles your information can be directed to Answerline staff at [email protected], 416-397-5981, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M4W 2G8.
Agenda
🕑: 06:00 PM
Doors Open | Conversation Station
🕑: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Main Event: Jody Wilson-Raybould, Roshan Danesh, and Farah Nasser
Event venue & nearby stays
Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library, Toronto, Canada
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.