Established in the late 1980s and shuttered in 2008, the Speakers’ Corner video booth is an undeniable icon of Toronto media.

Located at Queen West and John, the booth was created by Citytv initially as a means to record letter-to-the-editor-type videos reacting to news stories, but it became so much more. Everyone from Madonna, Weird Al Yankovic, to former premier Jean Chrétien slipped a loonie into the slot and recorded themselves for 120 seconds. Some videos ended up on MuchMusic, CityPulse or Space. The booth even helped spark the career of the Barenaked Ladies when the band played their song Be My Yoko Ono in it.

Booths spread across the country and footage was compiled for a weekly TV show.

But then social media happened. Rogers Media, which acquired Citytv owner CHUM, cancelled Speakers’ Corner in 2008.

Since then, footage from the series has resurfaced on YouTube and now Instagram.

Aaron Williams, an actor from Toronto, created a nostalgic Instagram account @cornerspeakers dedicated to Speakers’ Corner. You’ll find saturated videos from the 90s and early 2000s of people joking around, sharing music and chatting about issues like homelessness and drug use – issues that continue to be relevant more than 20 years later.

Williams scours the Internet – YouTube, links in old articles, random websites – to find old clips of people talking in a booth.

“People had things to say and it was a good outlet for them to comment on whatever it was,” he says. “Whether it was a social issue or political issue or something that happened on the street that they saw – it was kind of like Instagram pre-Instagram but it was on television.”

Williams says the account will post a “mixed bag” of old and new footage. The goal is to inspire Torontonians to create their own clips expressing opinions, sharing stories and everything in between. But for now, he’s relying on the nostalgia and homey feel of the videos to grow followers.

He notes that social media users are used to expressing their opinions in videos online. There are other Instagram accounts dedicated to Toronto pop culture and news, but they fashion themselves after World Star Hip Hop, which Williams calls low-brow content.

“Kids from all over the GTA are doing things that are going to get them on 6ixBuzz, and I’m not saying it doesn’t have its place, but I just don’t think that vein should be the only representation of the city,” says Williams.

Obviously, Williams doesn’t own the content – Rogers Media does, so the account runs the risk of being reported and removed.

“My hope is that before it gets there I could get enough leverage through a large following – which would make them think twice about that – and hopefully want to partner in or use the account for themselves,” says Williams.

He also hopes that one day Toronto will get the booth back. William’s calls that his loftiest goal.

“It’s an interesting and unique thing specific to Toronto that we once had,” he says. “I don’t see any reason why we can’t have it again.”

@mariannalozo