 Okay, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the Great Lake St. Lawrence Regional Gathering. We're going to begin our meeting with an acknowledgement that we are on Aboriginal land that has been inhabited by Indigenous peoples from the beginning. As the host region here in Durham, we acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of Skugug Island First Nation. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties. As we are all joining the meeting from many regions across Ontario, I invite participants, if they wish, to make their land acknowledgement through the chat option on their Zoom screen. So I am next going to introduce to you Pastor Ben Pelts from the Peterborough area, and he's going to lead us in a reflection to start us off on the right side. Ben, over to you. Anin, hello. My name is Ben and I greet you from Peterborough, Ontario, which is traditional Mississauga Anishinaabek territory. And before the arrival of settlers was known as Nogo Gwinong, the place at the end of the rapids. I have the honour of pasturing a church at Curve Lake First Nation, as well as serving Cree youth and youth leaders in Northern Quebec. I'm grateful for the Indigenous people in my life and this region for their friendship and leadership, particularly surrounding the environment and relationships across people groups. I'm also grateful to the leaders of this gathering for inviting me to participate as I and some of my friends explore the possibility of starting a Peterborough-Carros group. As I'm sure all of you are aware, this has been both a hard and a hopeful year for my First Nations friends. There's a lot of hardship that's come out of the discovery and uncovering of mass graves outside of residential schools, which serve as a reminder of the historic injustices and harm that's been done to Indigenous people. But alongside this, there's generally this sense that things continue to lag that should have been dealt with years ago. At the same time, it is hopeful in the sense that it does seem like more people than ever are paying attention to the issues facing Indigenous people. And alongside that, it's my observation that more Indigenous voices are being heard and invited to speak around things like the First Truth and Reconciliation Day across our land. And so that's a hopeful thing. At the same time, this too is a bit of a mixed blessing. My observation would be among my Indigenous friends that there is very much a fishbowl effect, where sometimes there's this sense that a lot of people are looking at me and staring in and paying attention, but only because of the fact that they see me as a cause. It's because I'm Indigenous, not because I'm cared for as a person or because of care for my people. And this to me serves as an important reminder that the end goal of our political movements and advocacy efforts is always, always, always renewed relationships. This is true individually. I've come to learn that we're not really called to fix people. We're called to befriend them and to serve them as invited within our relationships. And this is true as well, communally and nationally. Ultimately, we're not primarily called to fix communities. We're called to rebuild the nation-to-nation relationships that were established in our original treaties. This to me is the heart of reconciliation, renewed relationships. And these renewed relationships are the antithesis of colonialism, which only valued people in as much as they contributed to the colonists' goals. This is something I try to keep in mind in my personal work, to remember that the members of my organization are people first and members second. And of course, this sounds really obvious, but I still know many leaders that are prone to forget that today. And so it's something I try hard to keep in mind myself. And this is something that I think we all need to be mindful of as we gather in this virtual setting to talk about the many good things and many ways that people are advocating for Indigenous people across this land. Ultimately, the people we advocate for are people first and causes second. Thankfully, everything I've seen about Cairo so far suggests that this group gets that. So this is what I'd invite us all to and something that I'm mindful of as I gather with you for the first time at a formal Cairo's event, that as we do so, let's pray and hope that it leads us towards this goal of renewed relationships, first and foremost. Let that be the thing that guides and shapes all of our time together as we talk and reflect about the things that we can do to support our Indigenous friends across this land. Miigwetch, and thank you again for having me with you today. Okay, thank you very much, Ben. Now we'll move on to, I want to thank Ben really for his words to get us off on the right foot and thank everybody who has put in the chat box the traditional territories from where they are attending this event. So I'm now going to introduce to you Dave Mowat. Dave has spent over 30 years working in various capacities in First Nation level in Winnipeg, Wabasimong, I didn't probably didn't say that right, Skugog Island and Alderville and he's currently Chief at Alderville First Nations, which is just a little bit northeast of Peterborough for those of you who don't know. Dave has a broad range of interests and expertise including a blues singer and musician and also a wild riced harvester and a staunch defender of aboriginal rights across Alderville's treaty areas. He currently sits on Queen's University Indigenous Elders Advisory Committee and the Sir John A. MacDonald History and Legacy Working Group for the City of Kingston. So his expertise is on the treaties and that of course is what he is going to speak to us today and so without further ado I'd like to introduce to you Chief Dave Mowat of Alderville First Nations. Dave. Okay, it's a pleasure to be here. I want to thank Betty Ann for her diligence in helping to coordinate this and I mean diligence could work there but yeah. So I'm going to give you a sort of an overview of the treaty area that we are living within here in southern Ontario, so central Ontario and I'm not going to inundate you with a PowerPoint and I'll let somebody else kill you by PowerPoint today. I think Shannon that's her job today. So I don't wish to do that. I'm going to put up a map and I'm going to speak to the map and speak around the map and speak over and under the map but I first want to, well just as a bit of a background I was elected chief in 2019 here in Alderville I was working in the Skogog Island First Nation for the previous seven and a half years as in consultation and I was also on the Alderville Band Council for eight years between 2007 and 2015. I was also an employee of Alderville First Nation beginning in my first stint in 1990 and then I moved home from Winnipeg. I was in Winnipeg from 1982 to 1995, moved home from Winnipeg in 1995 and I started working for Alderville. I was a staff member for 11 years and then on the Band Council for eight years so a lot of experience working for Alderville First Nation and again in years previous I was all over the map and one of the most enlightening things that I ever took up was Blues Harmonica. I'm an avid Blues Harmonica player and singer and I work with a band and I play out of Toronto and wherever they'll have us but the pandemic cut into that so we're just sort of getting back into that groove. So I'm going to first put up a photograph of a man that is very important in my life and he's my great grandfather from Alderville First Nation and he's the reason I became interested in history. His name is Fred Simpson and he was a marathon rudder between 1906 and 1911, 1912 and he raced for Canada in the 1908 Olympic Marathon along with Tom Longo from Six Nations and Louis T. Monina was the Hopi from Arizona. They were the three North American indigenous runners who participated in that Olympic Marathon and it's one of the most famous marathons in Olympic history. It is the race in which Durando Pietri the little Italian came into the stadium delirious and collapsed four times and was helped over the finish line. It was caught on camera. It was the first Olympiad in which it was filmed and my great-grandfather was caught on film at the start of the race and Durando Pietri is caught on camera staggering into the Olympic stadium and so I grew up with that story and I grew up with the oral tradition of my great-grandfather and it's through his story and through that famous story that I then became increasingly interested in the overall overarching history of Alderville First Nation. He was sort of the window through which I looked and started to research and better understand our history. He was born in 1878. My mother remembers him well, grew up with him. My mother was born in 1932 here in Alderville. He died in 1945 so she remembers him very very well. A very humble man but he lived and died in Alderville. He actually was living in Hiawatha where he married Susan Musgrat and they raised a family there between 1899 and 1923 and then he moved back to Alderville and so I have first-hand understanding and knowledge of him as a person and it was through my research and my dedication to the sort of to his story that I was able to extract a lot of his story that was never known. He was lesser not as well-known and not as famous as Tommy Longboat but I can say that on July 24th 1908 he beat Tommy Longboat. He beat Louis T. Winina and he beat let me see he beat 49 other competitors in that famous race and he and so he's a hero. He's a boy but a hero wine. He still remains a hero and I have you know centered a lot of my community history work and my life around his presence in my mind and in my heart and so I want to put up a picture here. Okay this is a this photograph is 1907. This is when Fred he actually started kind of late in his life. Tom Longboat was 10 years younger than Fred so Tom was just about 20 years old when he raced in the 08 Olympic marathon. Fred was just shy of 30 years old and so there was that 10-year difference but this photograph here is after he placed second in the Hamilton-Herald road race of 1907 and it was that it was the 1907 Hamilton-Herald road racing which Fred now came into the limelight and gained notoriety that would lead to him being invited to participate in the Olympic trials both at Provincial and then the National in May and June of 1908 and so this this Hamilton-Herald road race was very important to him in so far as his short amateur career. The trophy that you see beside him sits on my mantle in my my own home that that trophy was bequeathed to me by my grandmother. She passed in 1973 his daughter and and I was given the trophy and it's been in my life for I don't know whatever that is 45 years or something like that close to 50 years it's been in my in my life and I have another trophy from the 1908 Hamilton-Herald road race it's also in my possession as well as one of his medals that he won in the race or a competition against the Irish Canadian Athletic Club. So I just wanted to share that brief story of Fred Simpson. He is the reason I have become interested in all of his history. He's the reason I have become interested in the overall overarching Mississauga Nishinabek territory history and from him I've become interested in our military history in our social history, political history, treaty history, etc. So now I believe I stopped that share. Okay now what I'm going to also do is I'm going to put up a map that I will speak to. I want to I want to explain to you some of the early treaty history that affects Alderville First Nation and ultimately that affects the Williams Treaties First Nations, which include Alderville First Nation, Curve Lake First Nation, Hywatha First Nation, Skugog Island First Nation, Georgina Island First Nation, Rama First Nation, and Osele, which is situated in Georgian Bay. We are the seven First Nations that are also known as the Seven Williams Treaties First Nations of Southern Ontario, South Central Ontario. If you look to the right of your map you will see a green shaded treaty area called the Crawford Purchase. Everybody see that? Okay that that is dated October 1783 and in 1783 1783 is a very important year for the history of what would become up in Canada. It was the end of the American Revolution and it saw the influx of who become known as United Empire Loyalists and we've probably all heard of United Empire Loyalists in our public school education, certainly hopefully by the by the time we got to high school we we knew what United Empire Loyalists were. So I'm going to delve into some of the history around the Crawford Purchase but I want to also just go back even before that. I don't need to show you any maps or anything like that but our people the Mississauga Nation, they were in this area for a long time preceding the Crawford Purchase of 1783. Our people were also at the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701. They played they have played an important role in some of the most important historical events in eastern British North America that most people know nothing about. The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701, one of the most important events in eastern North America. Gilles Havard, Gilles Havard, H-A-V-A-R-D, he wrote a great book called The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701 and he wrote that in the early 2000s. He went to the French archives in Versailles in Paris, Versailles and he researched out the French document and the French record to write that book about the dynamic that was occurring in this area and in the basically in eastern North America and he writes a great book about the events that lead up to the Great Peace of Montreal of 1701. It's an important historical event that brought peace to this area and it's something that most people know nothing about. Another important event is the Niagara Treaty. If we fast forward to 1753, 1764, the Niagara Conference and the Niagara Treaty of 1764, July 1764. Most of us will have heard of the royal proclamation of October 1763. That was proclaimed by the King, King George III and it was issued at the end of the Seven Years' War and the Seven Years' War was a violent conflict in eastern North America. In fact, the Seven Years' War was the first global war. It wasn't just, it's known in America as the French and Indian War, but the Seven Years' War was the first global conflict in fact and it involved conflicts around the war, around the world, in Europe, in India, in the Caribbean, in North America and so it is not just confined to eastern North America. The Seven Years' War, this is where George Washington cuts his teeth and this is where some of the great First Nations leaders cut their teeth. This is where the, this is where the royal proclamations stops settlement from moving westward over the Appalachian mountains and this is where the first major conflicts arise between the colonists, American colonists and the British. So that, that occurs in 1763. In 1764, the British, under the guidance of Sir William Johnson, they confer at Niagara and they meet upwards of 2000 chiefs and warriors and what they basically do, what their objective is, is to shop that royal proclamation around. What the intent is, is to bring the former enemies of the British, the former allies of the French or even loose allies of the French, to bring them on side. If Great Britain is going to gain a foothold in eastern North America after the defeat of the French, they need the Anishinaabic nations on side in order to do that. And a great man by the name of Pontiac, I'm sure everybody's heard of Pontiac. In fact, a lot of you might have even drove Pontiacs. I know I drove a Pontiac. Pontiac was a great, a great man. He, he rose up against the British fearlessly and basically reminded the British that you may have defeated the French, but you did not defeat us. And what, what Pontiac did with his allies as he took over and waged siege war against a lot of the British forts in eastern North America. And it was Pontiac's influence that sort of forced the hand of the British to come down with a royal proclamation. And what the proclamation did is it, it's aim was on the one hand to quell the violence on the frontier. And it was also aimed to stop the influx of settlement over the Appalachian mountains. And what it also did was establish a treaty process, a modern treaty process. In 1764, when the British invited the Anishinaabe nations to Niagara to discuss the royal proclamation, what they also had done by that time was created the future plan for the management of Indian affairs in 1760, in North America, 1764. This was a 42 point plan that drilled down further than what the royal proclamation had said. And it established how the Indian trade would take place between settlers and the First Nations. It established how the colonies, the new colonies of Quebec, West and East Florida would be administered. It, it really laid out how that, how the administration and, and how the governance of the new French possessions would take place. And it also, it also drilled down and established how a treaty making process would occur. So the, the arrogance of the British was such that when they defeated the French, they claim sovereignty right to the Mississippi River. And this has been a problem ever since. When we put a claim in against the government, we basically assume or we basically have to accept or we have to argue with, with the crown around its assertion of sovereignty. And this is an underlying problem and has been an underlying problem in treaty making. But at 1764, the British deliver a wampum belt to the Anishinaabe nations called the Great Belt of the Covenant Chain. And William Johnson employed First Nations diplomacy to gain the alliance of the Anishinaabe on to the British side and to bury the hatchet, quote, unquote. So 1764 at Niagara is a very important event in Eastern North America, one that you also know very, would know very little about, I'm sure. Because as I was belliegged, the education system has failed the general public and the general student bodies over time as to what really occurred in the treaty history, what really occurred in colonial history of Canada. The history that has been taught has been very, very spotty, if you will. So these events, these events throughout the 18th century lead up to what becomes a treaty making process in our case at 1783. So at 1783, the British now are obligated to resettle the loyalists that remained on the side of the king during the American Revolution. The American Revolution is born out of the royal proclamation and it's also born out of the Quebec Act of 1774. The American colonists had had enough of the British and the reposition of taxes and the imposition of imperial legislation, etc. And they threw up the yoke and they fought for their own independence. And we're probably still dealing with the American Revolution when you think about it. So the American Revolution sees the British lose the hold, lose their hold on the American colonies and now they are in a retreat mode, if you will, and they have to settle upwards of 50,000 United Empire loyalists. Now that resettlement occurs in and around the St. John River in what is now New Brunswick, it occurs within Quebec, the province of Quebec, not the province of Quebec that we know today, the province of Quebec as it was understood at 1783. And also there were groups that wanted to come west of the province of Quebec into the Bay of Quinney area. And most of you know the Bay of Quinney area, around Belville and around Desirado and Napa Nii and all that area. So the British military send out troops and they send out people to start surveying the lands around the Rideau area and the upper St. Lawrence River area and then into the Bay of Quinney. So the Crawford Purchase and it takes his name from an unknown British officer by the name of William R. Crawford. His job was to meet with the Mississauga people at Carleton Island and to hammer out the sort of process in which settlement would be allowed to come into the Bay of Quinney area, primarily at Kingston at this time. It was Kingston, Kingston was the first township that was surveyed in what becomes Upper Canada. So it was around Cataraqui and what becomes Kingston that the first influx of settlement into the Bay of Quinney area takes place. And so this occurs in October 1783. Now here's the important thing to remember, the Crawford Purchase was steeped in mystery and history and there were no defined boundaries. There were no firm boundaries that were set down within the lands that were being discussed. There were no terms of conditions that were set down. It was a failure in so far as what the Royal Proclamation and or what the Future Plan for the Management of Indian Affairs in North America, what it had perceived as the treaty process, the Crawford Purchase would be a complete failure. And so it becomes problematic right from the beginning because when we hear about honoring the treaties or we were all treaty people, I have a bit of a hard time with that term, that we are all treaty people. If we were all treaty people who would not have allowed this to happen. So what happens at Crawford and the principle that comes out of Crawford is the Northern boundary was to be established as far as a man could walk in a day. Now that's pretty harebrained in so far as treaty making is concerned. And there's so many variables attached to that principle. And you have to ask yourself, well, where does the man supposed to start from? Was he a big man or was he a tall man? Was the wind to his back? Was the wind to his face? Was he going to walk through streams? Was he going to walk across a river? Was he had to swim across a river? Did you have to walk through swamps? Did you have to climb up rocks? You can just imagine the problems that ensued for that man who was supposed to walk north in one day. It's insanity. That's what is the underlying principle in the Crawford purchase, how far a man could walk in a day. What you see here in Crawford is a boundary that is was basically that this is Ontario's interpretation of those boundaries. Our interpretation of the Crawford purchase does not look like this. When we went to court in 2013, we presented evidence that showed our interpretation of the Crawford purchase, which does not look like this. We also, in Crawford, were concerned with retaining access to our burial sites, access to our harvesting sites, wild racebeds, fishing sites, fishing stations, you name it. In Crawford, the government was concerned with bringing people in to resettle them. It was not concerned with targeting our harvesting rights or targeting our harvesting sites. It was not concerned with that. It was only concerned with gaining our blessing, if you will, to allow settlement to come into the territory. That's what occurred. Settlement comes in. In 1783, it begins to come in. Also out of this is established the Tyana-Nagamohawk territory near Deserano, or at Deserano, actually. By removing the title, if you will, off the political map, it gives the British the opportunity to bring settlement in and also to resettle a certain portion of the Six Nations who did not wish to go to the Grand River, but who wished to come to the Bay of Quinney. If you look at the settlement of what becomes Upper Canada, you will know that the Haldeman tract and or the Six Nations of the Grand River tract to the west of our treaty areas, and Tyana-Nagamohawk communities further east at Aquasasine, and in that area, they created a real strong buffer for the British, militarily, a very strong buffer. Our people were lesser in numbers. And so the Mohawk or Six Nations communities created a very strong military buffer for the British. So Tyana-Nagamohawk, I believe Tyana-Nagamohawk was at its extent upwards of 92,000 acres. It was whittled down over time. And so that's a substantial part of this whole graphic purchase piece as well. And what the problem for us is that outside of acquiring a 428 reserve, quote unquote, for as an Indian burying ground at the Moria River, which became encroached upon immediately, our people were left to wander, our people were left to eke out a living in the face of settlement. And so at those important harvesting sites, like the Moria River or, you know, all of the rivers and the small streams and rivers that flow into the Bay of Quinney or the Lake Ontario or the Upper St. Lawrence, they become sites of settlement. And so there is then this sort of conflict, if you will, or an intersection, if you will, between traditional economy and the new agrarian economy. And that was never conceived in the early Crawford Purchase, for instance. That was never conceived of. That was never thought out, that was never analyzed as to how that conflict would affect our people's ability to stay on the land and remain, you know, healthy and remain strong. So the Crawford Purchase is a failure insofar as the early treaties were conceived. So that's 1783. If we move westward, now the British have an objective to create an unbroken line of settlement along the Lake Ontario frontier. And so we're only going to be concerned with Lake Ontario. If we move westward, you'll see the purple gunshot treaty area. And west of the gunshot treaty area, there is no shaded area. That's Toronto. And that's the Toronto Purchase, treaty number 13. That's not one of our treaties. And so that's why it's not identified on this map. But gunshot and the Toronto Purchase, they become the next objective of the British 1787-1788. The gunshot treaty that you see, this treaty here, this is the modern post-Williams treaties demarcation of what's known as gunshot. The gunshot treaty area, if you look at those lands below Lake Simcoe, Newmarket, Stovill, et cetera, they were not included in the original gunshot treaty. The gunshot treaty area was another ribbon of land along the Lake Ontario frontier that here's another harebrained principle upon which this treaty or land purchase was designed. The Northern boundary would be established as far as a common musket could be heard. Now that's insanity. If I stood 66 feet or one chain off of the shore of Lake Ontario and I fired a 10-gauge shotgun into the air, I would not hear that as far as the south side of Rice Lake. It's impossible. I might hear a cannon, but I would not have heard a common musket. Suffice to say, that is the principle that was employed. And so the gunshot treaty took land along the Lake Ontario shore, north, probably 12 miles plus. And that became known as the gunshot treaty. And again it employed a principle of treaty making that was never conceived of or was never identified or was never formulated in the Royal Proclamation. Never did the Royal Proclamation or the future plan for the management of Indian Affairs in North America, never did those two documents say that a man would stand on the shore of any lake and shoot a gun in the air and decide that wherever the, this is what you have to think about. This is what we've had to deal with. So if I'm going to stand in, oh I don't know, if I'm going to stand at King and Division Street in Coburn and shoot a common musket in the air. Now was there a man standing every 100 yards and did he raise a flag? Yeah, I can hear it. And then the next man at 200 yards did he raise a flag and say, yeah, I can hear it and 300 and 400 in a mile and 12, two miles and three miles. When you think about it is pretty apparent. And so that gunshot treaty was, it was lost to history as to how it would have actually really occurred. Robert Potash from High Office said they must have used a cannon because he took all of the land. And it might sound comical, but he was being probably, his sarcasm should be well noted. And so the gunshot becomes also a problematic treaty that factors into the 1923 Williams treaties all those years later, 150 years later for their boats. In the same period of time, then the trauma purchase occurs treaty number 13. And it is 28 miles deep by 14 miles wide in a rectangle. And it involves the credit, Mississaugas. Mississaugas are the credit. And that's why we are not a part of that. But what it encompasses is the eastern arm of the Toronto carrying place, the Rouge River. And it involves the Humber River. And the Humber is where the old Toronto carrying place was. And the British wished to secure the old Toronto carrying place so that they would be able to move settlement up and into the backland or the back country. So if you take the Humber River, you follow the Humber River and you catch it up, take it up and catch the Holland River, the Holland River will take you into Cooks Bay, which is the leg of Lake Simcoe. And then, of course, you can take Lake Simcoe then over to Kempentfeld Bay at Barrie. You could jump across a nine mile portage at Barrie, or what became Barrie. And then you could catch the Nautabusaga River up into Georgian Bay. Or you could take Lake Simcoe and you could take Lake Simcoe right up to the narrows, what we know today as Aurelia at the Lake Simcoe narrows, which was between Lake Simcoe and Lake Kuchaching. And those narrows, you could then catch the old cold water portage up into Georgian Bay. And so it was very important militarily for the British to secure the Toronto Caring Place. And that's what occurs at the 1787 Toronto Purchase. I don't speak to the Toronto Purchase, but it was fraudulent. It was full of error immediately. And the early colonial government, Peter Russell, et cetera, those early upper Canadian, upper Canada leaders were concerned with the errors that were inherent in the Toronto Purchase. So that's three early land surrenders that are full of error and full of problems right from the beginning. And so these, but they allow settlement to come into the area. Gilbert Patterson, he wrote his master's thesis in around 1912 on the settlement of upper Canada. And he identified that between 1783 and 1788 upwards of 17,000 settlers had moved into the area. So it's a daunting number given the fact that the Mississauga people were much less in number. And so it would have been daunting at that time. And another ugly part of all this is the early racism that is documented. I sit on the John A. McDonald Legacy Working Committee for the City of Kingston. And we hear about McDonald and racism and all this kind of stuff. And John A. McDonald moved to Kingston in 1820, when he was five years old for their boats. By the time he was a young man in Kingston and Napa Nih, the racism in the Kingston area in the Crawford Purchase territory was so thick that nobody can hang racism on the neck of John A. McDonald. There's documented evidence to suggest there's the show that our people were treated as dirtier than the settler's cleanest hogs. And that's pretty derogatory. In the early 1790s, Lieutenant Governor Simcoe's wife, Elizabeth, she wrote that our people were a dirty, drunken, unwarlike, idle tribe who walked up and down the streets of Kingston like they owned Kingston. And I've laughed at some people because, well, we did own Kingston. It was every right to walk up and down the streets of Kingston. But when you read into the documented history, just in and around there, just in and around Kingston, you will see that the views of settlers towards our people was derogatory. It was racist. And it was undermining to their ability to carry on a traditional economy in the area. In 1791, Upper Canada is created. And then the treaty making process ensues. But it's not until the War of 1812 that the further treaty making process kick starts and really takes up millions and millions of acres of First Nations land. The War of 1812, which was called Madison's Little War, not really treated as a major conflict globally, but it certainly had a lot of destruction. And it certainly had a negative impact on the First Nations in the area. And our people, the Mississaugas, were at the Battle of Chrysler's Farm on November 11, 1813. And for a long time, there was discrepancy as to whether our people had been involved. However, I was able to decipher some of the early record along with the assistance of former archivist Patricia Kennedy out of the National Archives of Canada, and actually Trish Ray from the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinney to determine that, in fact, some of the warriors, the Mississauga warriors that were at Chrysler's Farm, eventually became founding fathers of Alderville First Nations. And as for that reason, that in 2016, myself and former Chief Jim Bob Marsden, we were able to, we were invited to Rideau Hall to meet with the Governor General to accept the Defense of Canada flag and the Defense of Canada medal for our Defense of Canada in the War of 1812. So I'm able to proudly, or any Chief of Alderville is able now to proudly wear the Defense of Canada medal in our remembered state ceremonies. So it's the War of 1812 that decimates the First Nations abilities to hold onto their lands in southern Ontario. And we can see in this map on the left, Treaty Number 18, blue, Treaty Number 16. There's Treaty Number 5. And then there's Treaty Number 20, the Salmon Colored Treaty Area that encompasses Curve Lake, Hiawatha, and Scugok, Peterborough, Lindsey, basically the Quartho Lakes. And then there's Treaty Number 27 and 27 and a quarter on the right of the map above Crawford. Could I just get a time check, Betty, yeah? How long do I have till? 140 or 145? 145 I think. 145. That's right, Dave. Good. Okay. And so these treaties, Number 18, 16, 20, 27, become very important in the lives and survival of our people. Treaty Number 20 is an important treaty. It takes place in 1818. So post War of 1812, very important treaty. It allows for the settlement of what becomes Peterborough or Ngojuwano. It becomes the treaty area in which a lot of the towns that we are familiar with in the Quartho Lakes area, Lindsey, Bob Cajun, Fenlon Falls, Kirkfield, all these little villages and towns scattered throughout the Quartho Lakes area and the Peterborough County area. They find their ability to become created, founded, and settled because of Treaty Number 20. It's the Mississauga who are actually denoted as Chippewa in the actual treaty terminology. They are the signatories to this treaty. And so the modern day signatories to Treaty 20 are Scuba Valley First Nation, Curve Lake, and Hiawatha. And the importance of Treaty Number 20 plays out 150 years later in 1976 when two men from Curve Lake were charged for harvesting bullfrogs in Crow Lake. And one of them, an elder from Curve Lake, is still with us today. And his partner during this was, he's now deceased, but it became known as a bullfrog case. In 1977, around that period of time, around that period, 76-77, Ontario created a closed bullfrog harvesting season. They got charged by the M&R and they were charged with not having a license to harvest bullfrogs. And they said, well, we have a treaty right to do that, to do so. And so this case becomes known as R versus Taylor and Williams. And Doug Williams is the elder, he's still with us in Curve Lake. He was the one defendant in the case. And in that case, they established that they had a treaty right by virtue of the minutes that were taken during the treaty negotiations in November of 1818. The negotiations, which took part, by the way, at Port Hope, or what's presumed to be the Port Hope area. These treaty areas along here, the negotiations didn't take place within the treaty area. It took place at the Lake Ontario shoreline, somewhere along the shoreline. So treaty number 20, it comes back into the sort of mind of the court. And it becomes historically important 150 years later, by virtue of the case involving Doug Taylor or Doug Williams and Wayne Taylor. And they took it to the Ontario Court of Appeal. And the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in 1981 that, yes, indeed, they do have a treaty right to harvest. And so when we look back at this, the Canadian, the Constitution Act, 1982, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and section 35, they come down in 1982. And section 35 says that all treaty and Aboriginal rights are hereby affirmed. So that was a treaty right that should have been hereby affirmed and recognized. And thank you very much for coming out in 1982. Well, it didn't really occur that way. So you have to consider, this is the most important economic hub in Canada, Southern Ontario. God forbid if we have Indians running around the land exercising their treaty and Aboriginal rights, we can't have that. Forget it. They're in the way. God forbid we can't have Indians running around the land. They're in our way. They're obstructing progress, which is a bunch of hogwash. But that was the thinking at the time. And so this whole treaty area and this whole treaty history is one of racism. It's one of undermining our people's access to country food. As Doug Williams said, all we wanted was to maintain our access to country food and a healthy diet. That's how simple it really is. And that's how simple it was. Access to the land, access to the resources that the Creator put on this earth. And so this whole treaty history of Southern Ontario is steeped in racism. It's steeped in oppression. It's steeped in unconstitutional practices by the government. If we move to the right to Treaty 27, 27 and a quarter, above the Crawford purchase, the reason it's called 27 and 27 and a quarter is it was conducted. The first provisional treaty was established in 1819, May of 1819. It was a provisional treaty. In 1822, the confirmatory surrender comes down and that's why it's called 27 and a quarter. The confirmatory surrender of 1822, also known as treaty number 27 and a quarter. You can find all of these treaties in the Indian Surrenders and Treaties book. It's a three-volume set that can be actually accessed on the internet now. But Treaty 27, that takes in lands that are lesser populated today, but above and encompasses the Rideau River, Rideau Canal, Rideau River. It also encompasses the Mississippi River where we harvest wild rice at the Ardok area. It's Marmara to the west and lesser known communities, the Northbrook, the Denby area. These are all small areas, less populated, but it goes up to the Ottawa River. It does not take in Ottawa proper, but it goes up to the Ottawa River. As you can see, it's sort of a strange shape. It follows a linear which again does not reflect how our people use the land. Our people didn't use the land in such ways. Our people used the watersheds, some watersheds that didn't use land and draw straight lines on the land, but this was a British imposition in the treaty-making process. Treaty number 27 and treaty number 20, they are the treaties post-4 of 1812 that established the annuity system. The annuity system was that every year a treaty money or goods and services would be paid out every year. So it's the annuity system that comes out of 20 and treaty number 27. Treaty number 27, the enumerated warriors and chiefs at 27 and 27 and a quarter are ancestors of who eventually come to all of the First Nation. All through this period of time in the early 19th century, into the latter part of the 19th century, our people begin to see encroachment on their harvesting rights, on their harvesting sites, and eventually after confederation, things get worse. So in 1867 confederation, the government takes authority over lands and reserve lands or over Indians and lands reserved for the Indians. In 1876 the Indian Act comes down and so there is this desire to get our people off of the land and it is around that time that our people start to grieve by letter to the government about the encroachment on their harvesting sites and on their rights and their access to the land. And so over a period of about 60 years up to 1922, it is in that period of time that the government then decides that it better come and talk to our people about their claims. So that is what gives birth to the to the Williams Treaties Commission of 1923. And its mandate was to talk about the lands that you see above these treaty areas, above treaty 20, above 27, above 16. You see on that map Algonquin Provincial Park that huge swath of land is what is known as the Northern Hunting Grounds. And that was the mandate that the Williams Treaties Commission had to discuss. Our people were claiming hunting and harvesting and access into those lands. They came, they talked to the seven First Nations communities in September of 1923 and they took evidence. It is fascinating evidence actually. It is just under 300 pages of evidence and you can pull it up on the internet. I can actually send a link if you are ever interested in reading this. I can send a link to Betty Ann or whoever. And you can read a fascinating account of how the Chippewa communities of Georgina, Ramah, and Beausoleil and the four Mississaic communities, how they used the land, where they went, what some of the old practices were, is quite fascinating. The government takes evidence. It would not allow a lawyer to sit with our people. It would not allow our people access to the archives. It came and it sat at all of them for one day and it took evidence. It may have sat at Ramah or sorry, Georgina or Christian Alon, Beausoleil, it might have sat there for two days. But in general, it was only one day in the communities. It took the evidence. It went back to Toronto when it drew out the Williams Treaties map. And if I'm really lucky here, I'll be able to quickly pull up a Williams Treaties map. And what it did probably won't concern myself with that. So it went back to Toronto. It drew out the Williams Treaties map. And it included in the map the clause one lands above the old treaty areas, including Algonquin Park. And then in the purple gunshot treaty area that you see below, that is the modern today's Williams Treaties clause two lands. The commission was told by people at Skugog and, uh, primarily at Skugog and, um, and Hiawatha, uh, Johnson Potash, that the lands that you see below Lake Simcoe, Newmarket, Stilville, Bucksbridge, those lands had never been surrendered and they were known as the Western Hunting Grounds. And so they became a part of the Williams Treaties clause two lands. If you read the Williams Treaties clause one sets out the boundaries of the lands above the old treaty areas. Clause two sets out the boundaries of that purple area. And then in clause three, clause three was a basket clause. And what it said that if you ever had any claims previously, if you have claims now, and I'm paraphrasing, and if you ever have claims in the future, they're all not avoid. Don't come back to us. You signed everything away. And that's what our people had to live with from 1923 onward. By the 1930s, they were being chased off, continued to be chased off the land. They're being charged. They're being fined. And they were being driven into, uh, into poverty. Uh, it's a sad state of affairs when a government is so inclined to, uh, to beat down, uh, indigenous people that they actually go into poverty and, and that they become hungry. And so that is how the government treated our early treaties. They did not honor them. This is all modern language in my view, honoring the treaties. If we were all treaty people, you would not have wanted to be a treaty person at that time. You wouldn't have been hungry and you would have been oppressed. And so the early treaty history of Southern Ontario was one of oppression, one of racism, and one of unconstitutional practices in my view, in my words, by the governments of Ontario and the governments of Canada. Fast forward, 1992, the Williams Treaty's First Nations launched a lawsuit and they take the government's to court over the Williams treaties. And it is out of that 26 year period of time between 1992 and 2018 that this map is created. In the Williams Treaty settlement agreement of 2018, our, our communities, our communities had gone to court in 2013, finally. Uh, and then, uh, and then both governments had a mandate, uh, a mandate to negotiate by 2016 by 2000, 2018, the Williams Treaty settlement agreement comes out. And this is the map that then is created out of that settlement agreement. And what the settlement agreement did is it reaffirmed, reestablished our treaty rights in these shaded areas. These are the pre-confederation treaty areas. It, uh, gave us a financial package of $1.1 billion that was, uh, shared amongst the seven First Nations. And it also gave us an illegal entitlement to 11,000 acres per First Nation, which means, uh, we don't have a treaty land entitlement. We have a legal entitlement to purchase land to add to the reserve. So in, in all of the, in all seven communities case, we all have the ability to seek out and purchase land and add it to the reserve. That will take probably upwards of 20 to 30 years. I'll be long gone by that time. So let's just hope that the people coming up in our communities can, can successfully make that happen. I've slowly been, uh, working to purchase additional lands to our community. But if you've ever purchased property or land, you'll know how slow and ponderous it can be. And now living in a post-COVID world, the prices of land and property have gone through the, through the ceiling. So that's where we're at post-Williams Treaty settlement agreement of 2018. We are poised to be able to add reserve land. But it will be a long, arduous, frustrating process to do that. And we have secured a sizable amount of money and put it in trust so that financially we are a very strong community. And our people are also able to, to, to harvest back on the land. However, harvesting on the land today is not what it was like 30, 40, 50 years ago. Our lands are being run over with new highways and byways. You have a provincial government that does not respect our section 35 harvesting rights. It does not respect the duty to consult. It does not respect your duty to be informed. Through the public information process when it comes to development projects running across Southern Ontario. Doug Ford would like to see Highway 413 become a reality. Just think of what that's going to do. Just think of what another three or four million people coming into this area is going to do to our land, to our resources. For me, I'm not anti-development, but I'm certainly anti-urbanization. And I don't, I don't hold out that we're going to have a good ecology or a strong environment to rely on. So, you know, I hope everybody starts to gain their voice back. If we're all treaty people, if we are all treaty people, if non-Indigenous people take that to heart, we can shut this province down if we have to, when we have to. So just think about that. We are all treaty people. I'm a treaty Indian. And for that, I have certain rights and a certain voice. But when I hear that we are all treaty people, I think one has to really consider what that really means. So, I have a lot of concerns as in the chief of my community, as chief of my community, I have lots of concerns. I have lots of grave concerns for what's going on within my community, just as much as what's going on without my community. We're not all sitting here in Alderville First Nation in a group hug, sitting around the fire. That isn't happening. We are inundated by cannabis. We are inundated by the Indian Act. We still do not have clear legal authority at the First Nation level to allow us to look after our lands on reserve. We are still governed by the Indian Act. And so, it is a very daunting task to move forward and to establish a strong legal authority within the First Nation territory. Never mind what's happening outside, but what's happening within the community, that is my ongoing daily concern. And it is a, sometimes it's a daunting task. And sometimes it is overwhelming spiritually and emotionally. And so, one has to be strong and one has to be dedicated to doing the right thing. So, there's a lot of pressure bearing on us in this day and age. And so, with that, I'm just going to leave it at that. It's 1.44 p.m., not too bad. Pretty good timing there. I could have been a teacher, as my mom says, but I never want it to be. So, I'll leave it at that. And I want to thank you for coming out and supporting live entertainment today. Thanks, Dave. I think we have time for a couple of questions. I have a question from Sherilyn about wild rice tarvist. Yes. And can you respond a bit to that, Dave? Yes. The important thing is that this is an aboriginal rate, not a treaty rate. And so, we harvest rice within the Williams Treaties territories and outside. In the map, I showed, I harvest at the Mississippi River. It's been quite thin over the last four years. It's under a lot of pressure, the wild rice at the Mississippi River. There are other stands within and outside the Williams Treaties areas. And it's an aboriginal right. It's never been impacted by treaty. It's not a treaty right. And so, it's our, in my view, it's our race. We look after it. And nobody can tell us when, where, or how to harvest. It's an important staple. I do it traditionally. I do it out of a canoe. I do it the old way. Sort of an old guard in that way. But it is under pressure. It continues to be under pressure. It's cyclical, though. And so, at the Mississippi River, I've harvested there. And it's been just lucrative. But in the last three years, it's been under a lot of pressure. And there's a number of things that can be attributed to that, climate change, invasive species. And so, the only way we know how the rice beds are joined is we have to go at every year and monitor them. And it keeps me in shape. Yeah. I have another question from Claire. What do you know about the treaty that is being ratified with the Algonquin of Ontario? From what you just told us, does it not impinge on the Mississauga's treaty rights? It impinges on our, not our treaty rights, but it crosses over our treaty lands. And so, it'll be another layer over those treaty lands that you saw, treaty number 27, for instance. It comes down from the north base or the south side of Lake Tampasing. And it follows the Highland through the Algonquin Park. And it comes down following the Highland. And then it catches a couple of municipal boundaries in southern Ontario and makes its way over to around Gannonokway. And so, it actually comes through the boundary line, the Algonquin treaty line comes through Crawford, 27, and the Williams Treaty's Clause 1 lands on northern hunting grounds. We are informed, we kept, we are informed and keeping informed through Ontario on this. And it, it's a bit of a concern for myself. I won't speak to it any, any more than that, but guess we're very well aware of it. But when it comes to meeting or discussing this, we, we, we meet as a collective as the Williams Treaty's First Nations as a collective. We, we want to have a strong voice when it comes to speaking to the government about the effect of this potential treaty. And of course, it's still a ways out as far as ratification goes. Okay, I have another question here from Cheryl. First, about First Peoples getting out from under the Indian Act, First Nations walking through post-colonial door. The federal government framework to support this provide mechanisms and change to facilitate. Now, that's a big, that's a big question. Is it getting any easier as the final? Okay, getting out from the Indian Act. Okay, that's a huge issue. We deal with the Indian Act and the Indian Act was designed with eradicating self-government. That was its design. And, and, and it's the worst thing to deal with. It's the worst thing to have to deal with. We have to use the Indian Act to get out from it. And I'll give you an example. We are now in the First Nations land management process. The First Nations Land Management Act is a piece of federal legislation that allowed First Nations to get out from the 40 provisions that are in the Indian Act related to land. And so it's a, it's best termed a sectoral self-government agreement. And if, if it's ratified at the First Nation level, then, then the First Nation takes over the authority, the governance of its own lands, reserve lands. And Skugog Island First Nation and Georgina Island were the first, were two of the first 14 bands to sign on back in the late 90s. And so we're involved in that process when it comes to, and it'll have to go to a community vote. And then if it's successful, then we take over the authority that is now currently vested in the Indian Act. It's a very complex process when, and what we have the support of the federal government to take us through that process. It's about a two-year process that leads up to ratification. Another example of getting out from the Indian Act is, is so far as leadership selection. And we have two avenues that one is the First Nations Election Act and the other is a custom code. And we are inclined to start talking about a custom code, which will establish our own way of leadership selection. Currently, under the Indian Act, we, we have a mandate for only two years. And so you govern for about a year and a half, and then you got to start thinking about the upcoming election. And that's not a really good way, productive way, to govern in any community or municipality or what have you. And so that's, that is something that we're actually discussing now. One of the things that also is inherent within the Indian Act is that anybody could run for chief. On my screen, I'm seeing Gary. I don't want to give any hints, Gary, but you could run for chief of all the First Nations under the Indian Act. Yeah, not a word of a lie. And that is, that's the reality of living and dealing with the Indian Act. It was never concerned with our own ways of governance. It was a new position on top of our heads. And we have to use it, though, to get out from it. So good question, by the way. Here's a question from Henriette. What are your thoughts about the growing land back movements across Canada, including the Williams Treaty areas? Yeah, land back. I'm not really up to up on land back. I don't even know what it means really. I'm concerned with trying to meet the legal entitlement that came out of the Williams Treaty settlement agreement. I have had some discussions with Ian Atridge. Some of these might know Ian. He works on this file somewhat. So, you know, I'm not really too up on that. I don't want to speak to more than that. If you want to give any land back to what it means, hand it over. Gladly take it. You know, there's one thing I get annoyed with. I'm not going to name the federal department, but I've been in a lot of meetings with one particular federal department who always talk about we are grateful for you allowing us, when they speak to us, allowing us to meet on your land. Well, if it's our land, give it back to us. If it's our land, give it back to us. Quit talking to us like that. Don't say that you're grateful to be on our land when you're not going to give it back to us. So, I have a huge problem with some of the languages being floated out there in this day and age. Same with land acknowledgments. I respect the intent, but when I have to deal with the Indian Act in trying to govern my own land in my own community, then when I see what the Indian Act is allowed to create in my own community, it's pretty hard to swallow a land acknowledgement, and it's pretty hard to speak to a land acknowledgement in Colberg or Port Hope or Port Perry or what have you or Peterborough. It's all well and good, but I really feel that sometimes I should be playing violin when I hear the land acknowledgement, because you would not want to experience what I'm experiencing in my own community. The Indian Act has allowed the pillaging of our lands in our community. It has allowed the underside, not the oversight of the environment of our ecology. It has created the worst nightmare. If you care about the land like I do and the ecology and the environment, you would not want to have to deal with the Indian Act. It's the worst thing that ever happened to First Nations people in the history of Canada. We have a bureaucracy that kicks that can down the road. We have a bureaucracy. We have people that have made careers on kicking that can down the road and shame on them for making careers on the backs of our First Nations communities and on the backs of our First Nations people. I don't mention any words as a chief. If nobody likes what I say, they can just turn me off, but I'm going to keep saying it's the worst thing that ever happened to all the First Nations. As long as I'm alive and as long as I'm here, I'm going to keep fighting for our rights outside of the community just as much as I'm fighting for our rights inside the community. Thank you very much. Well said, Dave. I don't know if Lynn, Jacqueline, Lynn, are you here? Okay. Well, anyway, Dave, I want to thank you so, so much for your presentation today. It really seems we have a long way to go to get justice. The few of us that are here wish you well and keep fighting because you have that right to do that. We wish that things would be different and that we get out of our historical things that we have done wrong and want to write them and want to stand with you as you work to do that. Thank you once again for everything that you've shared with us today. Thanks again for coming and for spending your time with us and sharing your insights and your wisdom. Thank you very much, Betty Ann. It's been a pleasure today. I look forward to helping in the future. And if anybody wants any links to resources, just let me know, Betty Ann, and I can furnish you with links and or additional information. Please to do that. Great, Dave. Thank you so much. Okay. Everybody have a good day. You too. Thank you, Dave. Thanks so much. Okay. Bye-bye. Okey-doke. Shannon. Okay. So I guess we're good to move on. Aisha is coming at about two. I believe she's here. Is she here? There she is. Hi, Aisha. I will spotlight you so everyone can see you. Okay. There she is. Welcome, Aisha. For all of you people who are Kairos people, Aisha is the new executive director of Kairos and we're happy to have her to just bring her greetings to us as we meet today. So I'm going to hand it over to you, Aisha. Thank you so very much. I was able to join earlier than I thought I was going to be able to join today and what an awesome opportunity it was to hear Chief Dave Mowat share today. That was absolutely amazing and I think very much in line with some of the things that we've been talking about at Kairos and some of the direction that we're going to be moving in, I think. So thank you everyone for having me here. I'm absolutely honored to be here. I'm not going to be taking up too much time. I just wanted to bring greetings and see who all of you were who are part of the Great Lakes, St. Lawrence Regional Committee and also get you to see my face as well. So today feels like such a great opportunity for me and it's really a pleasure to meet all of you, virtually of course, in the work that is being done with you on behalf of Kairos in the regional capacity and perhaps beyond that. I'm still learning quite a bit and that's why I was so excited about the information that I was able to hear and learn from the Chief this morning but I'm still learning and coming into a keener understanding of the scope and the reach of the work of Kairos and I'm really interested to learn more and hear about the efforts on the ground local to where you are in the impact and reach that you're having. I hope to have an opportunity at some point as things begin to open again to come and do some of these meetings or to meet with you in person or to work alongside you in different capacities to be able to actually see the work on the ground. I truly believe that Kairos is coming into this moment similar to the message that we just heard of doing things differently, thinking of things differently, learning differently, feeling differently about the work that we're doing, behaving and doing that work differently and positioning ourselves in that work differently and there's a lot of work to be done. I know that Kairos has been active in advocacy and activism across so many different important concerns around justice and yet we still have so much work to do. We still have so much to learn which was evidence today and you know that is a part of the direction that we're moving in and the things that we need to have at the forefront of the work that we're doing. For me I think that there's three key areas of focus for Kairos in this moment. Number one is the identity of Kairos and so that's really looking at the roots in our heritage of Kairos. We just last week celebrated our 20th anniversary and I'm sure some of you may have been a part of that and you know went through those three days with us celebrating you know the heritage of Kairos you know where we're at right now and where we're headed. So with the identity it's really this idea of looking at our roots looking at our relationships looking at all the resources that are ahead of us and you know our rites of passage where we're at at different stages of our identity and when I've thought about this because my mind often thinks of things anecdotally or through analogies and I was thinking of you know when you are a coming into you know that young adult phase of your life and I feel like you know 20 years of Kairos that's where we are where we had you know some really structured informed ways that were given to us in our childhood and then you know we went into the teenage years and we were trying to gain some independence and see see the world through different lens and now those two things are emerging and as young adults we come into this formation and fullness and confidence of who our identity who we are and so you know that is a really important integral piece of where Kairos is at right now is this really strong confident voice of you know how are we doing the work what does that work look like and how do we stand for that work and or examine the ways that you know we need to do that work differently and better. The second piece is around the maturity so attached to the identity it's this idea of the development and our preparedness for the times that we're in you know 2021 we know that there's so many things going on there's so many things that we're living through that are you know historical pieces that are coming to the forefront in this modern moment but also you know pandemics and the recoveries of indigenous children and you know this fight against racism that is happening in our world today and we're constantly confronted with these different things that we have to be dealing with and addressing and there's a maturity that is required in order to respond and so you know really it is this moment for Kairos to really develop and be prepared to respond to the things that we've been responding to but then you know how do we need to maybe pivot or evolve or mature to also in respond to the intersectionality of a lot of the other pieces that are coming to the forefront and or have always been there but now driving more attention on how we do that and then lastly I think clarity so you know greater focus and deeper impact is what I think about when I think of clarity and listening to the chief just beforehand you know it's not that we haven't started to do the right work around indigenous rights for example and yet you know this learning that we have to do this clarity of you know what does that work look like and what is the work that still needs to be done and what is the work that hasn't been done because we've been focused on doing a particular part of the work and so Kairos is in this moment where we get to really look at through our strategic planning processes through some of our internal reviews of the organization and external impact you know looking at all of those different pieces of information really get very clear on where we need to show up and how we're going to show up in those spaces that we show up to really begin to or continue to I should say not begin because the work has begun and it's Kairos has had such significant and great impact but continue to do the work and round it out perhaps or make it more holistic where that is warranted so I really do look forward to being a part of Kairos I often mark the different events that I attend connecting it to my time at Kairos and I'm about five and a half months in and so you know I feel that I've I'm gaining ground in being a part of Kairos but there is still so so so much to learn and so so so much to do and I'm just thrilled that I get to be a part of what Kairos is doing and to offer you know whatever I can offer to contribute to the beauty and the brilliance of what I believe Kairos is and will continue to be so thank you all for having me here today I look forward to working with you and learning more about the work that you're doing and I hope soon we can do this in person thanks Aisha it's really nice to put a face to the name of the new executive director and I really wish you well and in your journey through Kairos and hopefully we'll all meet fairly soon and be able to get to know each other a little better so thanks for dropping in today and being with us well it is time for the staff presentation and traditionally or maybe originally this was the time in a fall regional gathering when the staff would present to you unveil for you the unified year-long fully resourced single Kairos annual campaign that you had not yet seen here I was so confident that my slides were ready there we go but now 20 years old 20 year old Kairos in the age of fast-moving digital media no longer plans a single main campaign per year and if there are resources developed to support one of multiple campaigns you would find them on the website or through social media long before you make it to a regional gathering so why am I even here right what I can offer you today is to highlight certain stories connect a few dots perhaps and hopefully along with what Betty Ann and Ben and Aisha and Chief Dave have already shared and the regional sharing circle hopefully to inspire you to dig a little deeper and become more involved or to maintain your deep commitment for another year like the I like the image of this backdrop the water drops perhaps we are all just a drop of water or perhaps each action is like a drop of water but many drops of water is what makes the streams of justice flow I have five sections to this presentation looking at the breadth of Kairos work highlighting a few different points of different but interwoven program areas and ending with a challenge the first of four different key areas in Kairos that I want to talk about today is migrant justice I wonder if there are a few in this room who recognize this these pictures great like St. Lawrence was among the first to really pick up on the migrant justice theme that we were trying to highlight back in 2016 2017 so this is a workshop that happened in Berry in January of 2017 and the conversation from this January meeting grew to something perhaps more of you heard about a fall regional gathering in 2017 that was entitled unknown neighbors stories of migrant workers I'm actually getting a little choked up here because I think it's it's just really telling about the power behind the Kairos movement and the local folks all working together and Elaine is with us today and was key to these decisions and movements and it was a great event in 2017 lots of people there lots of different speakers and and a number of folks getting really committed to the work with migrant justice workers and so that developed there were some some smaller after events in terms of visiting some farms and keeping in touch with workers there were also some partnerships in terms of at this 2017 event there was a professor from Lakehead University and so there were some presentations with his class and class doing work together and so the connections were made and grew some of them existed before this and when Kairos received federal money to work with particularly agricultural workers in the temporary foreign worker program of the federal government and particularly during COVID-19 a new organization was born and it also is called unknown neighbors and so you can see here just a little bit of who they are and what they're about with some resources in berry but also cullingwood and further afield and a hired coordinator and then some additional staff to offer services to migrant workers around the area and this was a hole in the services in that region and so unknown neighbors with really a Kairos foundation spraying up to fill that hole and you can see bright green bags are welcome bags that the migrant workers receive would have some food items and some information about staying safe during COVID and about how to get support as well as perhaps some PPE during COVID times some extra masks and things so very exciting look up unknown neighbors if you are not familiar with them I noticed that it was even that it is today as we are meeting that they are doing a pop-up vaccination clinic lots going on there this is all part of the empowering temporary foreign workers during COVID-19 and there are about 15 partners that are working on this project and actually we are still welcoming new folks into this and my hesitation here is that I'm trying to drop something in the chat at the same time so there's a link just to an article about the newest partners in the attempt empowering temporary foreign workers during COVID-19 Stacy Gomez is a staff with one of the organizations one of the partners in this project she has been a long time Kairos connection and we were happy to have her as part of the Kairos 20 gathering last week where we looked at the past and at the present and at the future where we've been where we are right now and where we're going to and Stacy was talking particularly about where she would like to be 20 years from now Stacy says I would like to live in a community where migrant workers are not going hungry where they don't have to make the decision between eating well themselves or sending money home so their families eat well where they are not separated from their families and I would like to see more community dinners migrant worker gardens just more vibrance Stacy highlighted the struggles faced by migrant workers under Canada's temporary foreign workers program and the important role of this Kairos empowering temporary worker temporary foreign workers project in helping grassroots migrant rights organizations reach more migrant workers I'll be quoting today from a number of folks who spoke at the Kairos gathering those videos are just about ready for release if you missed it you'll be able to check those out in a couple of days the next piece that I want to talk about is ecological justice of course this is not divorced from migrant workers concerns many migrant workers are here because of the ecological injustice in their home communities that are not supporting their farms back home anymore another strong voice that I want to share with you is from Jessica Steel Jessica followed Stacy in the panel presentations that are looking forward towards 20 years in the future even as we mark 20 years that Kairos has already existed Jessica's a climate activist ocean conservationist youth engager a member of the primates world relief and development fund youth council as well as the Kairos ecological justice circle and so as a young activist she acknowledged that it's scary to think where we might be in 2041 given the current unambitious global climate targets our challenge now she said is to be hopeful she ended with a message about the impact of the small scale and this is the part that I want you to think about today as we each are in our own places and thinking about how we might be part of a justice movement Jessica says when things get too existential for me we're too big for me I come back to the ideas that come out of Adrienne Marie Marie Brown's work around emergent strategy strategy she says that how we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale small actions and connections that we create here in our local communities create complex patterns that become ecosystems that become societies and become our and become our world and so I started thinking about what are the small actions that we are taking that we are hoping will form our world here are some folks who are actually taking some bigger actions for the love of creation is a group a coalition that has come together to work on climate issues in particular and in this past week and this week to come they are attending COP26 the UN conference on climate change so these eight people here are attending the COP gatherings on our behalf they are attending virtually which I think is doubly hard so they're sitting in their homes and have switched their biological clocks so that they can be on Glasgow time even though they're sitting in Canada and are listening and listening and listening some more and then writing and sharing and spreading around Canada the news of what is going on at COP of what they are hearing and what they are not hearing so if you look at the for the love of creation website you can find blogs that they have written you can also follow for the love of creation on social media this is a joint delegation with the United Church of Canada which has standing at COP and so you will find it in their news sources as well reading and sharing and thinking about what's going on at COP is one of the small things you and I can do for the love of creation offers lots of opportunities for folks to get involved there are action campaigns at different points and there are some celebrations some online events there's also encouragement to take care of ourselves and to connect with nature right now there's a new resource that for the love of creation has put out called creation care as self-care it was also an event in the spring but there is a resource that allows you to take those thoughts and ideas on a walk through the park as you perhaps with your headphones listen to some meditations or perhaps you listen later and those resources can all be found at the for the love of creation website so I encourage you to just think about what will feed your desire to be involved in climate work perhaps some of the resources offered here will support the work that your group or that you as an individual or a family are already thinking about I want to share some thoughts from Ivan Yanis as well Ivan is the current president and one of the founding members of action ecological in Ecuador a long time chiro's partner a chiro's partner since the very beginning 20 years and more ago Ivan said to the gathering we see that organizations of the north are not empathetic enough and people are saying that at COP this week too perhaps it's hasn't changed as much as we would like Ivan continues fortunately with Carlos it's the complete opposite she was gracious with us there has always been a very intimate relationship in all the paths we have taken together in 2003 with chiro's we published a small book called no more looting and destruction we the people of the south are ecological predators Ivan continues it was important at that time because action ecological and chiro's were working together to talk about environmental debt in the world it was very symbolic that chiro's coming from Canada was coming together with us to work on this idea we were also recognizing that the industrialized countries of the north in this case Canada owed something to a country like Ecuador it would not have been possible to walk together without the help of the late chiro's employee John Dylan so John was our representative in that case working with Ivan and others to publish this book and to spread the ideas about environmental debt ideas that I think we would be well served to revisit at this time of climate change as we think about our small drops we think about letters and petitions and what we can do there is an ecumenical letter of solidarity with the wet sweat and land defenders that has recently been signed aisha signed it on our behalf and posted on the chiro's website and this is just one of the examples where the areas that chiro's works are interwoven this is both an ecological issue and an indigenous rights issue a human rights issue as we think about what sort of future this globe will have for all of us as aisha mentioned indigenous rights is not a new thing that for chiro's this has been core to the work of chiro's throughout the past 20 years and to some very significant coalitions prior to that such as the the Aboriginal rights coalition arc and a number of people addressed that and I want to share a quote from sister Priscilla she shared a story about the chiro's indigenous rights circle meeting in north bay Ontario in 2011 that for her became a turning point in the relationship now I started with chiro's at the end of 2012 and the ripples were very much alive for this turning point I think it wasn't only for sister Priscilla that this was a turning point this was a real turning point for many especially the steering committee or board and the people on perk the indigenous rights circle so she said that members of the chiro's board and staff presented to Kirk that's our short form for chiro's indigenous rights circle chiro's campaign for the year remember this is back when we did have one campaign so they can they presented a campaign plan and a five-year strategic plan and this caused dissatisfaction and unease among Kirk members the concern was that they were being asked to rubber stamp a plan that had already been prepared after a lot of discussion I this is sister Priscilla speaking realized that we were trying what we were trying to say was we needed chiro's to work with indigenous people not for us that was a real shift in consciousness it was a chiro's moment she says because the staff and board members present really heard that message and recognized that change was needed the meeting put us on a new path a small committee was established to strategize on how to educate the board and the staff about developing a new kind of relationship with indigenous people and you may wonder why I would share that bit of history I think for one it is something to always remind ourselves of and and something we must never forget the working with rather than working for and to be checking how it creeps into our language or our actions but also to share it as a backdrop for the kind of work that is happening now it's a tannamook is someone that we have worked with often and we are gratified that both sister priscilla and gets a tannamook are people who have stood with chiro's on many many occasions giving us their gentle wisdom gets a tannamook is a knowledge keeper and a long-standing member of the chiro's indigenous rights circle as well and he emphasizes alignment with creation we've been grateful for his voice in the four of the love of creation work as well it's a tannamook said last week we are more than what we are right now and have yet to realize our full capacities and potential when we align ourselves with creation and to the divineness that is within and around us we manifest what needs to be done and should be it's a tannamook referred to chiro's says embrace of indigenous voice recognition of the realities of living in someone else's homeland as chief dave was talking about and acknowledgement of the territories that were never given away he left us with a message of great hope quoting again despite the harm callousness and the meanness embodied all around us there lying before us is the embrace of divine love and the deep profundity of transformed life for everything and in our remembering one of our drops of water our acts that make the streams of justice flow is to have courage and the courage to learn from our mistakes paul gears didn't outline a specific instance when he talked about he used a story from the bible to talk about the disciple peter who tries to walk on water out to jesus and paul didn't mention specific mistakes he didn't mention when needing to learn from mistakes but i know that he was present at the meeting that sister priscilla talked about and he took it very much to heart and was the person that i heard the story from first that that was a place to learn peter attempts to walk on the water in the bible story and scared by the wind starts to sink jesus hauls him out of the water and asks ye of little faith why do you doubt so a disciple sitting in a boat in a storm i'm quoting paul gears here the disciple sitting in a boat in a storm cold and wet and embarrassed pondering a failed attempt to demonstrate faith and surrounded by community this is one kind of moment of transformation peter's action is simultaneously bold and somewhat of a failure chyrus is at a place where it can be bold and follow its calling to seek justice love kindness bold space for healing and walk humbly with god paul continues as chyrus we need to learn from our mistakes and our successes and we are going to need help from everyone in the community to find our courage to do our learning to discern opportunities for spirited action for justice and to recognize the presence of the holy in the world when thinking about how we engage with indigenous people in advocate advocacy around indigenous rights paul's words rang true for me and i thought for repeating key to the indigenous rights work that chyrus is doing at this point is the chyrus blanket exercise this is a very in person thing which relies on being in place beside others and so everyone wondered what would happen when the pandemic lockdowns began well the chyrus blanket exercise team hunkered down and got creative this is something that people had asked for in the past and they came up with the virtual chyrus blanket exercise which you all know about of course because it was an option for tomorrow's workshops in fact there are a couple of spots left if anyone hadn't decided on a workshop for tomorrow and would like to the mapping exercise is full but the chyrus blanket exercise still has maybe four or five spots so this exercise i wanted to show you an image of it without any people's faces this is something like what you might see tomorrow on the the kbe as we call it zoom call where it is not physical blankets but virtual backgrounds that show who is still on the land and who has gone to the ancestors in the stars i'm going to give you the link to that um where you can read more about the exercise and also the link where you could nab one of those four spots if you wanted so migrant justice ecological justice indigenous rights which are all interwoven and the fourth area that i want to talk about and the the final area that i want to talk about is gender justice and women of courage and do a quick time check here i think we're doing okay we're going to have time for questions at the end so be thinking of them you could even if you want to put them in the chat i won't see them until i stop my screen share so here i want to share something from one of our partners a partner in columbia and their youth program the youth of barrenca the romea greet you on your anniversary and for me this is a bit of an extension of the anniversary if you haven't noticed yet i'm going to stop this screen share so i can show you a little bit of a video como entretenernos aprender conocernos y saber el talento que tenemos es algo con lo que podemos llegar a contar historias no perdernos en otras cosas las cuales no nos convendrían muchísimo y la ser arte es como tú mismo te expresas tú mismo sueltas como lo que llevas por dentro sales de la monotonía totalmente la que tienes de sales de ese entorno en el cual te abstruyes tanto y en el momento de que tú haces arte logras completamente estar en otro mundo el desarrollo para nosotros obvios ya que a veces no encontramos algo para hacer gracias a la partir con otras personas es algo supremamente importante ya que cuando yo le doy me entrega y estamos haciendo una retroalimentación y esa retroalimentación mantiene nuestro cerebro activo y un cerebro activo vive mucho más tiempo es decir es benéfico para nuestra salud y en general para todos entonces yo diría que eso es lo que quiero ese es el mensaje que le doy a su compañero y que that was a video that the youth in the organization femenina popular in colombia made especially for us for the kairos anniversary and the youth event that was held on october 24th i am going to go back to the slideshow and just for a moment i am just to be able to share with you a thought from natty at natty has been a long term kairos partner she was part of the canadian truth and reconciliation process she was an honorary witness and she has been an inspiration to many over the years she also was looking forward and said in the next 20 years we want all communities to have access to well-being we want to protect biodiversity so that all living beings have a dignified life we want a life of equality we want there to be access to health and food for all communities and healthy food especially we want women to participate at all levels that is what i dream of a life free of violence for all women and all communities the youth that we saw were so vibrant and you could just see their vitality pouring out of them and yet they live in a very violent country and today i'm going to do something a little bit different and invite you to at least different from regional gatherings invite you to a moment of action there is a petition that we have been sharing in our advocacy work for our government to speak out about what is happening in the columbian situation and so i'm going to share a link with you of how you can add your voice if you choose to demand an end to the massacres targeted assassinations and police brutality in columbia ask prime minister truto to demand the full implementation of the 2016 peace accord and condemn the massacres targeted assassinations and police brutality in columbia since the signing of the peace agreement between the columbian government and the farc gorilla in november 2016 but without its full implementation violence in columbia has grown exponentially this is a sad message to hear and so i would invite you to add your voice this is a moment for action something that we do often in ecological like climate rallies and the youth have taught us this gives you a moment to be involved so i've put a link in the chat and i'm going to take just a moment of pause if you click on that link you will see a petition that asks our government to speak out against the violence that is happening in columbia and i noticed last night that there were 456 signatures on the petition and it was still the same this morning with a goal of 500 we could make that a whole lot closer to 500 today if you take a moment to sign the petition if you feel comfortable with that so thank you for those of you that decided to take action today or who will do it later when you have easier access to the link we are thinking about the violence against women in columbia we know that it's not only women you saw many boys faces young men's faces in those pictures as well um but as this month progresses we will think particularly of the violence against women gender-based violence and i wonder if any of you i won't be able to see your nods here maybe i can do it this way i wonder if any of you were at an event in in toronto in 2018 where we had many of our global partners together and um had an event called orange the world that is a phrase that has been used for the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the global 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign launched by the center for women's global leadership cwgl at its first women's global leadership institute in 1991 this campaign has been used worldwide to call for the elimination of gender-based violence it runs annually from November 25th which is international day against violence against women to December 10th which is international human rights day this each year kairos and partners have used these 16 days of activism as a moment to mobilize networks highlight the work of partners and advocate with governments for systemic change to end gender-based violence this year to commemorate the anniversary kairos will be highlighting 16 stories of courage from our women of courage partners between November 25th and December 10th i put two links in the chat now one for an article that gives you a little bit more information about the upcoming 16 days of activism campaign that'll start on November 25th if you follow us by email surely you will get those announcements as well and i put a donation link at the end there and i would just invite you to think about the women around the world where violence against the earth begets violence against women as this quote says support women working for human rights and your gift will be tripled in the women peace and security program the federal government is um has a matching grant that triples our gifts and gives that much more to our global partners so we ask you to give generously if you can so folks i'm just about to wrap up and my fifth section of this presentation today is to get you to think about what it means to be part of a movement where do you need courage where do you need learning where are you ready to jump in how can you be prepared helen not was the key note speaker in we are unstoppable the kairos youth event as i mentioned before she's an author and an activist and she used on the word kairos i think of it like double dutch with the two skipping ropes and you're waiting for that moment to jump in preparing for that moment in life helen said to illustrate her point helen shared a story of overcoming her fear of public speaking to prepare herself for jumping in when called to do so that moment came when she delivered her poem on missing and murdered indigenous women and girls at a public event in her own community her poem eventually made its way to carlum and hill and was used in the preface of a report to the federal government by a special committee on violence against indigenous women helen says i think of these kairos moments sometimes they seem very small but you don't know where it's going to lead and it may take years to even know that impact and you might not even know the ripples it causes in the minds and hearts of people that are there end of quote so i encourage you take a leap of faith jump right in start small and let it grow act now to make your world our world more like the world you want to pass on to the next generation today please stay up after me are some very creative and dedicated kairos volunteers who are here to show you just how possible acts of justice making are on a local scale so i thank you for listening and i believe we have about 10 to 15 minutes for some questions is that good betty and or andy lane or do we want to save a little bit more time for the next section i'm good for a couple of questions if any come through yeah yeah sure that's that's fine ryan did you have a question oh do i have to unmute you thank you um you you had shared a letter uh that was dated november the fifth on the screen about the wet sweat and land defenders an ecumenical letter supporting um can we get a copy of that letter because i would like to see it and it's just recent obviously just two days ago so uh our day yesterday so i'd like to get it the easiest way to find it is to go to the home page of the kairos website and scroll all the way down to the news and you will find it there the news is always flows by date so are you encouraging congregations or communities to you know reproduce the letter in one way or another and send it as well that i would have to i haven't heard the encouragement um but i can check in with beth about that i believe she managed that sign in sign on unless aisha has any other information if she's still here um i can check in with that though okay thanks i'd like to at least share it with the congregation and or our local kairos group you know well i think it's definitely a public letter so to share it is is welcome and um what the organizers wanted or were hoping for i'm not quite sure yet so we'll check in i hope i should be able to put that in my follow-up email next week charlin asked if i could share another story of support from empowering temporary foreign workers during COVID-19 oh pick one well let me share a couple of things that are maybe not quite so much story but first of all a relatively new thing for kairos is that we are doing airport direct services so kairos actually has staff teams of staff that are working at the airport and are there to greet temporary foreign workers as they come off the airplanes sometimes they know ahead of time which flights are coming with farm workers and sometimes they're doing their best scouting to to see who looks like they need a welcoming hand and uh just most of the team many of the workers are coming from Mexico and so there is a Spanish speaking person on each of their teams and so they are there to translate to direct to offer the welcome bags that have further information and to connect them to our partners so that's that's one new story and then just to say that in general terms that um the the partner organizations have been there with direct contact on the ground that workers have come to rely on as they've grown and gotten to know these people so that when issues come up um when someone gets sick or um has a conflict with an employer or something they are a listening ear and a listening ear that knows all sorts of uh resources and what can and cannot be done in certain situations and so um I think of one particular and this actually is another unknown neighbor's story but I was I was really struck by the fact that the coordinator there is also Spanish speaking um and um realized that when the workers first arrived in the spring they were expected to quarantine for and they were expected to check in with public health every day except that the automated telephone system where they were expected to check in only had French and English at the beginning and so um so she was actually calling folks and then getting a three-way call going every morning so that she could interpret for them and um make sure that their health check happened every day that they were in quarantine um since then another benefit of this program is that um Kairos now actually has a very close ear with the government representatives and so because of the funding some might fear that um when you get funding your advocacy is curtailed but in this case it actually has perhaps had the opposite effect and that is because of the close working relationship that particularly Connie Sorio who manages the program um but also a few other staff have been brought in um have been with the government uh representative so that was a case where they were able to say what this is ridiculous many of the workers are Spanish speaking and you need to put this service into Spanish as well um and and there are other translation issues that into other languages not all of the workers are Spanish speaking and so um our partners on the ground are um able to pinpoint which languages are needed and and have written information translated into different languages thanks for the question Sharon yeah thank you so folks I think you know how to get a hold of me if you have questions I will just drop my email in the chat um again many of the emails you get come from me um but you can always reach out to me that way that's the easiest way to find me and if you have questions going forward feel free and happy to direct you to various resources and campaigns and actions so thanks very much folks and I'll turn it back to you Betty Ann okay thank you Shannon for that update and sharing those great stories from our partners worldwide it seems um so anyway thanks so much again and we are going to um move ahead to the business part of our meeting and um Elaine will be doing that so Elaine are you there I am I am are we ready to go yes welcome everyone I want to thank you for staying for this regional sharing circle as we meet on the traditional lands of many First Nations people in Ontario my name is Elaine and I've been the chair of Great Lake St Lawrence Kairos Coordinating Committee for the last two years and for those of you that are new to Kairos gatherings let me give you a short explanation or or context for this meeting Kairos is a multi-layered movement on the one level the one that we know well it's a national movement guided by a steering committee and a dedicated staff who do such amazing research and advocacy for social justice all that all the good things that we see on the Kairos website but on another level it's a grassroots movement with people in cities and towns and rural areas across Canada getting together and saying let's work together here in our community and and take some Kairos actions together so that grassroots movement that's us it happens in five regions across Canada in Atlantic Canada in Great Lake St Lawrence region which is our region in Manitoba Northwestern Ontario in Prairies North and in BC UConn and today we're meeting as a group of of communities spread across Great Lake St Lawrence region and this is a chance for us to connect with each other and be inspired by each other by what we're doing so I'd like to start the meeting by asking Keith Boyer from Simcoe County Kairos to offer an opening reflection. Well hi everyone and it's good to be here so as Elaine mentioned I'm from Simcoe County Kairos and so for the reflection today I want to use something that I recently received from a blog by Richard Rohr now Father Richard Rohr is an American Franciscan Roman Catholic priest perhaps many of you are familiar with him already but PBS has called him one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world and so in a recent blog it happened less than a week ago he shares the importance of both justice and charity to bring about what he calls the common good and this is what he writes charity was traditionally considered the highest value popularly thought of as a kind of magnanimous voluntary giving of ourselves preferably for selfless motives as long as we rose to this level occasionally by donating food gifts or money at the holidays or in times of crisis we could think of ourselves as charitable people operating at the highest level of virtue there is also the virtue of justice justice and charity are complementary but they are also inseparable the giving and caring spirit of charity both motivates and completes our sense of justice but the virtue of charity cannot legitimately substitute for justice persons capable of doing justice are not justified in preferring to do charity oh this although this has been taught on paper I would say it is the great missing link in the practical preaching and lifestyle of the church we have ignored the foundational obligation of justice in our works of charity for centuries we've been content to patch up holes temporarily making ourselves feel benevolent while in fact maintaining the institutional structures that created the holes in the first place now it has caught up with us in unremitting poverty massive income disparity cultural alienation and human and environmental abuse jesus preaches a social order in which true charity is possible a way of relating by which cooperation and community make sense jesus offers a world where all share the spirits power each according to their gift and that spirit is given to each person paul wrote for the sake of the common good that is the key to community and social justice it's not a vision of totalitarian equality nor is it capitalist competition domination of the fittest it is a world in which cooperation community compassion and the charity of christ are paramount and to which all other things are subservient and i think in terms of our reflection today that this insight from richard roar reflects really a core kairos value thank you keith that was great the kairos mission statement expresses the core values of all our groups and let's continue to center ourselves before we start this meeting by listening to the statement being read today by john and yeti juice of southwestern ontario kairos sorry folks uh we were practicing our mission statement you didn't know we'd be up so soon so i don't know if you can see us yes see yeti anyway that's best so um can you hand me my uh my briefcase tell you that here if you if you a couple of seconds if you like john i could put it up on the screen no we're good okay put it up on the well it's quite long i wasn't going to read the whole thing elaine but would you like me to oh i was thinking of just the very first uh part of it um uh let me let me share what i thought would be uh just the the the half page sort of overall can you see that oh you're talking about the mission statement i thought you were going to do we were going to do the the the summary of our activities for sure so uh if you could just we have it here we're we were practicing as as we came on okay is is that what you had in this is what i had in mind for the mission statement so here we go okay yeah mission statement we are indigenous settlers and newcomers in canada working with people of faith or conscience all over the world for ecological justice and human rights kairos faithful action for justice and peace kairos unites canadian churches and religious organizations in a faithful ecumenical response to the call to do justice to love kindness and to walk humbly with your god mica six verse eight informed by biblical teaching kairos deliberates on issues of common concern striving to be a prophetic voice in the public sphere inspired by a vision of god's compassionate justice kairos advocates for social change amplifying and strengthening the public witness of its members responding to christ by engaging in social transformation kairos empowers the people of god and is empowered by them to live out our faith in action for justice and peace joining with those of goodwill in canada and around the world thank you so much john and yeti that was great i think um all all of our groups can relate to that to that statement um so now what i would like to do is propose a motion that um janice of um and janice elser it's ye of ottawa kairos b are recording secretary for this gathering and for us to do uh votes over the internet the uh i've been told by shannon that the best way to do that is to use the hands up um icon on your screen so maybe we could just do a practice run of that if everyone could uh go to the bottom of their screen under reactions and click on the raise hand icon that is the best way for us to vote yes everybody's got it i think we've been doing zoom now for a whole year so everybody's got the hang of it so you can yes a few people have done applause instead of raised hand so you'll notice that the applause disappears after a few seconds so the raised hand stays longer so just look a little bit lower when you click on your reactions um look below the applause button to put your raised hand and that one stays until you take it down or until i take it down for you um so that just gives us another minute if we need to count yeah the thumbs up and the applause will um disappear so we can lower our hands now okay thank you very much shannon for that so everyone's hands are down so now if i could repeat that motion that janice elser who has agreed ahead of time to be our recording secretary for this gathering so if i could ask someone to a second that motion by clicking on the hands up option on the screen that would be great do we have a seconder great sharelyn has seconded that and now if i could ask everyone to raise their hand in agreement that would be uh excellent um shannon i don't know if uh we probably all we don't need to count the hands so much as we need to um have to have a majority to say that we have yes so if you could let me know uh i can't see everyone uh to see that it's carried that would be great right there are a few people that may have stepped away from their screens but i believe we certainly have all of the folks that have their faces showing and yes now we have all of we have 18 oh okay 26 yep there we go 19 okay and um i haven't heard from uh janice but janice uh i hope uh you have um you're able to uh follow all this i see that your your mic is muted but you'll be our secretary correct i've i've been taking notes since i got on this uh since i got on the zoom call because i have to take them from me anyway so yes that's fine okay super that's great um so um i should mention that uh we do have an agenda the agenda will be put in the chat box by shannon and that we have three important segments that we need to cover in this meeting the first is the sharing circle the second is a response segment where people could pass motions if they like and the third is an election segment that will be quite short as you as you will have noticed you all receive the nomination slate and uh almost everyone is going to stand for another two-year term so that will be short so let's start with the sharing circle we've uh been having this meeting every two years for the last a while and in the past of the last one was in october 2019 so we were still able to meet in person in in Ottawa and you received by email the minutes of that meeting and you received a financial statement um if anyone has any questions about those two items uh you could ask them now please by raising your hand possibly if not i would pass a motion to approve the minutes from the 2019 meeting and also the financial statement and i would need someone to second that motion please elaine i think there is a question yeah um i'm sorry but since i'm doing minutes and i'm a stickler for the rules of order technically when you are sitting in the position of chair you cannot make a motion someone else can make the motion and then someone else will second it you can speak to it but you may not move it those are the parliamentary rules of order okay thank you janice could someone please um suggest the motion that we accept the minutes and the financial statement please i will do that elaine sharelyn okay you're also chair oh aren't you aren't you listed as co-chair you can't do it either all right thank you janice okay i'm a pain in the butt don't know that's good janice good i think brian is on the chair of this meeting okay i see that brian has raised his hand brian macintosh to make the motion and um okay uh elizabeth makes another point if we weren't there last year we're not able if we weren't there in 2019 we wouldn't be able to approve and to pass that motion and i think you're correct lis so um someone who was there in ottawa in 2019 could that person please um pass or make the motion i can do that elaine okay so i will make the motion to accept the minutes and the and what else was there the financial statement the financial statement yes okay and someone make that motion okay and someone who was there to um to second the motion please oh i was there i can do it okay thank you janice and uh unless there's any discussion i think we can move to vote so if you would please put your raise your hands to um show that you have approved that shannon do we have enough hands we have 11 13 out of 25 give it a moment here 14 out of 25 that passes okay that's probably because most people weren't in ottawa in in 20 uh in 2019 okay thanks everyone so please lower your hand and we can move on um so um i'll say a few words as the co as the coco chair coco by the way is an abbreviation for coordinating committee um first i'd like to thank betty and flat and other people living in durham region who organized uh the gathering today and who who helped to make it a success thanks so much uh betty and and your team i'd also like to thank shannon for all of her behind the scenes help and continuing help during this meeting the coco meets twice a year and since the pandemic of course we've been meeting by zoom which has been quite good because uh transportation has not been as big a problem i'd like to thank a few members that were part of coco but who have left us nest pritchard retired last year she was for at least 15 years the communications coordinator for the coco and she was such a valuable member of coco and i think nest i'm not sure if nest is still with us but she was here earlier in the um i am still here i am still here i don't know why i have this background but it's very appropriate well anyways nest thanks so much for everything that you've done for coco you were uh an excellent uh member of coco for all that time and i wanted to thank you for that thank you um two other people this year are stepping down uh kathy finley from simple county kairos has been our social media coordinator for the last two years and did a terrific job but she's got other obligations now and nancy le bonte was uh our link to kebac as a member of koshia the social justice movement in uh french speaking kebac so we have a vacancy in that area so that's all i wanted to say as as the chair and now i'd like to invite sherilyn to speak in her role as the our representative in coco to the national network sherilyn thank you very much elaine and greetings to everyone thank you for staying for the this part of the meeting when we have more of a business but also a sharing time uh so i've been very blessed to and it's a privilege to have been on the uh the regional representative to kairos national network uh and this is a network from across canada from halifax to vancouver people that i've been meeting with are committed to learning advocating and seeking faith inspired justice before the pandemic started regional reps met virtually a few times starting in may of last year with the pandemic restrictions in place janin newfield uh member relations and network coordinator organized monthly local and regional leadership seminars these still continue and i've covered such topics as the virtual blanket exercise prayerful activism protests against the trans mountain pipeline and empowering temporary foreign workers during the pandemic that we heard janin speak about at each gathering we also share our regional news and upcoming events from kairos canada i am thankful for the zoom platform to facilitate seeing and speaking to kairos folks from across canada you can know that we have a strong ecumenical presence across canada thank you elaine thanks sherel in and now uh we'd like to hear from all the groups around the region there are more than the 10 that are going to speak today uh but the 10 there are some groups that had to give their regrets because they couldn't make it or maybe we're nine it could be nine or 10 and i thought we would uh present in alphabetical order to make it as fair as possible and when you speak please introduce yourself say where you are in ontario and maybe talk about one issue that your group has been passionate about or or something that you've done i know that it's been tough in the last two years to do very much because of the pandemic but i know that some groups have continued to to do things virtually during that period of time so when i call your name if you'd like to you know unmute yourself and say a few words that would be great starting with jurum jurum region betty an would you like to say a few words please thank you elaine well um most of the work we've been doing together has been around this meeting um i'm happy to say that we've had quite a few people involved tomorrow the um um the uh the exercise for tomorrow one of the the um exercises that we're doing or the um shoot i can't remember the name of the uh mapping exercise the mapping exercise thank you i've just lost my train of thought yet anyway the mapping exercise is being delivered by um a member of our local region and her two um compadres or uh things and they'll be uh delivering that workshop they uh we did have that workshop live a couple of years ago here in in oshawa and um it was so successful and such a good exercise that i asked her to uh present it sharel to present it at this meeting and so she has and i think we have a fairly good number of people registered for tomorrow so um that's really great the other thing i wanted to mention is that there is a new group starting in peter burrow um ben pelts who uh led the um the the prayer at the beginning of the meeting is working at it with a group in the peter burrow area they're just getting off the ground so they i don't think they've had any uh formal meetings yet but they're um they're working towards it and um hopefully things will get going there um are in in the durham area we don't have a formal group but we have a number of people that work on kyros activities within their faith communities so we sort of keep a loose connection and we can pull together um for different events if they as they come up so anyway i think that's about all i have to share about the durham peter burrow region thank you betta yann uh liz snel please in in wealth um hi uh in the past year we've been focusing on indigenous rights and on climate action um we've got three experienced blanket exercise facilitators two of whom are indigenous on our committee um they're now gearing up with the schools it was of course less with covid uh and kyros squad member uh bruce weaver invited civic leaders to an outside blanket exercise on september 30th so we there were we had four city counselors several faith leaders social agency leaders took part about 35 in total and that led to several follow-up requests including from the guelph police on climate action uh two two members john lawson a retired united church minister and i developed a climate conversation from uh for the love of creation resources and had five zoom events to include including people from all the united churches and guelph and then a broader invitation to all the churches and somehow all the wealth churches and somehow a participant from florida turned up i can't i didn't follow how that happened but anyways um we so we included a science section and a theological reflection section and then with chances for participant input and now we're working on a youtube version shorter that would that we could share we also joined several uh environmental and civic groups in guelph to urge accelerated climate action and one campaign was to encourage anterios phase out of gas fire power plants which council that voted almost unanimously in favor and then a current campaign we're working on is to urge council to move up wealth net zero target to 2040 from 2050 uh interim targets and reporting for each council term and incorporate climate action into all aspects of the official plan that's great thank you so much uh les uh i don't see uh maria chauvas here is maria maria still here maria was going to uh talk about the manitoulin chai rose group and she may have had to leave too bad that we missed that so there's a new group uh that is a year old they started last january in manitoulin island um so maybe uh they will have a written report at least in the minutes um the niagra region uh representative had to give his regrets george couldn't be here today um janice uh were you going to report from auto for ottawa region okay thank you i'm wondering if i could just let my written report stand okay sure just so people know that there is a group in ottawa chai rose that is active um ben you were going to say a few words for for peter bro sure yeah uh as betty and mentioned we're exploring the idea of starting a new group we've got some people together through my church connections who are uh interested already doing some work and advocacy with first nations people uh and uh and and interested in the idea of starting something so i'm here largely just kind of getting the lay of the land getting to meet some people seeing what kind of things have been happening throughout the region and exploring you know what that would mean for us as we get something going for me the motive is largely you know again i work with first nations people from the church side of things but i've always had a passion about where faith and justice intersect and so i saw that shared value here in the chai rose group and and so for me it was kind of like well maybe there's some way that i can be linking in with what chai rose is doing and encouraging more of the advocacy side of things and and educational side of things outside of the church here in this region so that was my motive in being here with you today thanks for having me thank you van the next group is from shellburn the orangeville chai rose group and penny couldn't be here with us today but jim i see that you're here did you want to say a few words yes i'll say a few words um we haven't been meeting during the covid but we're back now we've had three meetings and uh um we meet on the third wednesday of the month then she'll burn and and uh our next meeting we'll be viewing the uh the video the doctrine of discovery and uh and uh getting some reflection on that so that will be coming up i just like to also mention uh that um i was wanting to get away from my job as uh as the sub region rep and i i thought i had somebody that was willing to take over his name was uh pradeep gurrah and uh and a pradeep was was quite interesting and now uh yeah his wife's parents took sick and she went to india to care for them and uh now she has taken sick and he's gone to care for her and so he's no longer he's no longer available but um i thought the idea of having uh him as part of our group would give us another viewpoint and so i haven't i can't i really can't speak for him now so that so thank you very much thank you jim there are a couple of young women in brampton who would like to start a kairos group uh with pradeep so uh that there's still a hope there but i didn't know that i i knew something yet had to happen because pradeep didn't answer my calls so he had to go to india and that makes that makes complete sense so thank you for that information um from simcoe county uh keith boyer could you see a few words about simcoe county i'd be glad to elaine um good to see you today we see each other about monthly usually simcoe county kairos has had monthly meetings almost throughout the pandemic with a couple breaks over the two summers that the pandemic's been on but um our individual members have been very involved in a number of advocacy efforts we've met with mpp's regarding promotion of trc 62 point one we've been an advocate for a proposed supervised safe consumption site here in barry and we're hopeful that will uh happen open in 2022 it's gotten through city council and uh so it's now with the federal and provincial governments for approvals uh there are two things i'll mention i think specifically already shannon has spoken so well about unknown neighbors and that has been a project that uh that came to birth through simcoe county kairos but you've heard a lot about that but the two things i think i'd mention is one we have now done two virtual good friday walks for justice and the first one was live streamed and so it was sort of new to us to try to do that and and so it probably wasn't as seamless as we might have hoped but this past year or this past uh good friday we did a a a walk for justice which was done pre-recorded on youtube and it had 450 views so we've learned something through the pandemic uh when we did it live we probably had 50 maybe maximum participants walking the streets of barry but with uh with our virtual youtube a lot more likely participation the final thing i'd mention which has really been an amazing event here in our community and it really began with one of our members reverend susan eagle who is at grace united church here in barry and she initiated back uh at the beginning of the year back in january a zoom conversation with a few folks from local churches to raise concerns for particularly those who are homeless and living rough and cold and needing a warming center and that zoom call that began on a monday morning now happens weekly and it includes members uh from the city and the county uh that is staff from city count county local churches and a number of social surgeon uh service agencies meeting weekly to address the ongoing needs that are we deal with in relation to homelessness here in barry and uh it's it's continuing now and it's really all thanks to a passion that has shown up i think in simcoe county kairos for those who are vulnerable and uh and so i hold that before you as something maybe someone else would like to take on because it was amazing to see how open city staff and county staff were to participating in concerns this conversation about these concerns thanks thank you kief those great uh john juice uh speaking about southwest uh ontario kairos good afternoon everyone um say elaine am i last or not no no there's a couple more people after you okay so i should try to summarize a bit we are based in london southwestern ontario is a pretty large area the counties that we cover are middle sex and mainly our middle sex and oxford and sometimes lampton okay so we come from various towns mainly based in london if we would have a meeting which we haven't had an organized meeting for say six months or so uh usually there would be about 10 attendees but we do have a mailing list that that has about 20 names on it we've been in existence for quite a long time we we were much more active uh you know in our in our previous era than we are now as a group having said that we have some quite a few members who are quite active in various aspects of social justice work the main person that carries on i think uh you know a kairos emphasis would be kathleen lifty who lives in london she's a sister of saint joseph and she has been very very active in promoting and facilitating blanket exercises in the london area okay thank now i will just write her because i asked for summaries a bit i want to apologize for that that that was my fault where where is john now i can take a hint elaine oh no that wasn't i i could just hear janice speaking and i tried to mute janice and it didn't work i'm so sorry go ahead okay i was just about to read kathleen's she's been very active in the blanket exercise program and has facilitated many events in the london area until uh you know of course that was interrupted by uh by covid but the emergence of another platform for telling the story of truth of canada she's been quite involved in and she calls them the sharing circles they consist of using kevin moinehan's five 20 minute videos illustrating the trc and are called to collectively called they came for the children some of you may be familiar with those she hosted a series of those in the spring for us us as a kairos group since then she's been doing quite a number of sharing circles with others as well with other groups the circles are kept at 25 to 30 participants a land acknowledgement a presentation of tobacco and an indigenous presider who introduces herself and gives a brief teaching and explains the importance of the tobacco tie and the circle this is followed by the short video a short video viewing then a sharing by the indigenous presider who then closes the circle the sharing circles have been sponsored by her religious community the sisters of st. joseph in canada and in july september and october they've proven to be very effective uh education means for so many who have no idea of the truth that has been hidden for many years and another group of women have chosen to do this series together uh so that's kathleen who's carrying on um her program by substituting the blanket exercise with um with the sharing circles also another member of ours um just returned from uh advocating on behalf of the wetso wetton people in bc and his name is david jansen and so he writes uh shannon referred to the wetso wetton uh issue a while back on october 1st i as part of a four member member christian peacemaker team arrived at one of the camps for the wetso wetton efforts against the coastal gas line company cpt has been invited to act as legal observers the cgl of the gas line company continues to build pipeline through the territory against the wishes of the hereditary chiefs this 10-year battle came to a head again the week of september 26 when the protest test group blocked roads and prevented the removal of two excavators david goes on to describe how it actually got quite violent and uh he was appalled because they have sort of a um another group of a security group that comes in rather than the police who treat the people very very poorly and doesn't get reported very well by the media um all of us have been involved to a greater or lesser degree with uh sponsorship of refugees and so there are a number of ongoing programs uh and sponsorships um and uh there are reports of those that i have sent a little bit to janice and to elaine i think and if anybody would like more details about those sponsorship uh sponsorships uh you could uh you could get that document um lots of success stories great success stories and people from various countries i'll just end by sort of doing a bullet uh quick quick bullet summary of some of the other activities as board members of oxford people against landfills some of you have heard about that issue near ingersaw we were successfully able to get walker invited by an mental to withdraw its proposal for a mega landfill in a local limestone quarry that was a huge victory for us now that's not directly a kairos project or program but we were quite quite quite connected with our kairos group in in advocating uh that we stopped that uh that uh that proposal transitions to less waste is another transition uh have made submissions to the town of ingersaw's five-year strategic plan process encouraging the development toward becoming a sustainable community also uh facilitated facilitated a community garden demonstrated in support of the homeless in oxford county specifically in woodstock where the town council now has passed by laws to restrict in fact they've taken all the park benches out in the in the entire town because they're trying to discourage the uh the the homeless from gathering at the park bench areas and so that's become quite an issue and you might it might blow up into a sort of a national issue the way it's headed anyway um promote kairos and other faith faith social justice group programs and initiatives to our local churches and communities one of the things we try to do is insert a uh an item in each bulletin each week church bulletin so that people become more aware of whatever issue social justice issue kairos and other social justice organizations are involved with and volunteered with local initiatives and community groups for example the cycles of life to provide food and clothing to homeless persons we have for a long time now developed a relationship with local migrant workers who have been arriving in our area for at least 20 years so that's a long term relationship that we've developed with them and then supported the christian uh indigenous christian fellowship by providing tobacco uh for ceremonial purposes i will leave it at that sorry for taking so much time elaine that's okay thanks i i i did uh i some people took me to heart and just mentioned one or two things but i like your enthusiasm uh toronto west i think um jan o'hearn had to leave us but uh brian mackintosh has offered to say a few words go ahead brian thanks yeah and i give jen's regrets she just had to leave here at the last second um and just very quickly over two years uh i feel for jen because you just took over as our chair local carstrona west chair just before the pandemic started and uh it's been difficult to kind of organize us we we have had uh historically two workshops a year we had mary joe leddie lined up for a couple of weeks after the pandemic started and had to cancel that but we've we've worked on climate change in particular and indigenous issues in the climate change uh issue we've been part of a a series of people a number of people in etobicoke area to pull together to form an etobicoke climate action group and we're still a part of that group with representation on that group through myself but uh we've also collaborated with them and ecu links to do something around uh climate with a workshop on using some of the resources from for the love of creation and also uh local uh input uh in other areas like housing and retrofits and so on so uh it was a good workshop attended by about a hundred people actually which is great on zoom and um and we also were active during the federal election um hosting along with a couple of other groups ecu links and so on which is a an etobicoke-based ecumenical justice group so sort of very similar to kairos but kind of a partner for us um and we've we've uh we hosted a candidates meeting on climate and on social justice issues and that went pretty well we had over a hundred people on that one i think 140 or something um turned out for a local candidates meeting um and lastly i wanted to mention that uh for the first national day for truth and reconciliation on september the 30th we had a a gathering out front of uh my church bluirdale united for a um at our shoe memorial which we've had up since may of last year when oh yeah this year when there were uh the beginnings of the discoveries of remains of children tragically um we we had a uh a gathering that where the community was invited we had about 50 or 60 people out front i would say uh of our church and uh remembered the children and um acknowledged the day and i just want to say that we invited our federal rep for that day and he knows me and he didn't show up he was away it was shortly after the election but similar to our prime minister they were rather absent that day and i think that's shameful i just wanted to say that thanks thank you brian thanks a lot and last but not least your region sharilyn could you say a few words for your region yes thanks in a for your region at the beginning of the pandemic we did not meet but we zoomed virtual meetings using the kairos and zoom account on the fall of 2020 we organized a book club discussion of the papo and sycracle for tally toody in the spring of this year we engaged in three evenings with the book indigenous rights by chelsea vall we are now meeting three times to discuss the essays in how how we go home voices from indigenous north america by sarah sinclair book club discussions have given us a safe forum of meeting each other and have fostered further learning about indigenous issues lives and hardships participation participation in our group has waned recently our members are faithful people very involved in their communities churches and religious organizations they often have challenges in their lives and we used to continue to support each other thank you elaine thanks very much sharilyn and thank you to everyone for giving us news of your region i think it uh it helps to uh inspire local groups to maybe uh take new ideas to their groups so thanks for that elaine can i just interrupt for one moment sure i forgot to say that we were lucky enough to actually book aisha the the new ed of kairos for an upcoming workshop in early december on zoom and uh so we're gonna that's our first attempt at sort of doing a solo workshop on zoom oh that's super we'll have to uh we'll have to have to advertise that across the network for sure um so on to the the next two uh segments uh that should not take too long i think we should be able to finish it for 15 the way we hoped in the next segment we ask anyone who has a motion to bring to the floor to make a motion i have a motion to to bring forward but now i understand from janice that i can't make that motion so i might just say it and see if anyone feels the same way i do and is willing to uh to make to to bring that motion forward and that's the fact that the coco or the coordinating committee for great lake st laurence up to now has been restricted to uh regional representation but over the last uh 10 to 15 years the number of there's been a large number of kairos members that have retired um and are have are aging and so we need we need some new people we need young people to join kairos if we're going to keep it alive as a movement at the grassroots level and one way to do that i think would be to open up representation to all groups all of the new groups that are forming forming across the region so my motion is this that we include representation from every group in the province in the coco we meet only twice a year so it is not an onerous thing and it might help to revitalize us is anyone interested in uh proposing that motion lane i don't know what you mean by every group what do you mean by that uh well for instance uh in in um dufferin county jim limsey was tasked with representing a very very large area and within that area there was his home group of um of shellburn or orangebell orangebell yes and as well now there could be a group forming in brampton there was a group uh in uh in the north of that area i think it would be good if one person in each one of those groups was able to attend a coco meeting and be connected to the other groups in the uh province in the region i think you're willing to move that sure uh okay so and i'd second that i think it was always the intent to grow and you've outlined ways that it can grow so yeah yeah i i agree tom it was at one time it it helped because we were very large but the numbers have shrunk in the last few years so it might be a way to uh have more people involved for instance the manitoulin kairos group in uh which is part of my region uh they have their own sets of issues to bring to the table so i'm really happy to hear that is there any other discussion on that motion does anyone feel uh one way or the other about this i i agree with the motion but i i don't think it's ever been not able to be done whoever you know we can always have members on the coco and it doesn't really matter it's not established that it has to be that area so okay i buddy can be a member that's that's good to hear but in the last two years we haven't had the smaller groups be part of it and i thought it needed a motion for in order for it to happen um so now that we have a someone to put her hand up as well okay elizabeth please go ahead um i it would be a lot easier i would think for some of us maybe further if it can be by zoom even after covid or is it no i agree uh elizabeth because we're so spread out and it was so hard to find one spot where everybody could go uh if you're in uh ingersault like john and yeti are to get to otawa or to get to uh toronto it's it's not always easy so yeah i think that's a great idea elizabeth i second that motion too i just want to ask you a question elaine about the west island of montreal david miller was on this call is somebody from the west island on the coco at the present time not at the present time we had nancy labonte who was representing the hosiep and uh david miller is two uh oh he's still on the call he can speak for himself yeah go ahead david oh you're still on mute david you're muted him yeah i think things are still difficult in montreal because we've got a lot of people who are cautious about covid and uh roger ship is having some difficulties so i'll have to let you know that's a good answer but i i hope that we can find someone from english-speaking kebek to be on the panel on the coco for sure um maybe before yeah go ahead just one more thing um i did have a talk with sister fora magrath last week at the kairas 20th and there's a possibility that we can have some kind of kind of an event in like next few months i cannot myself take on this kind of thing because i'm already a rep to to kairas uh writes a partnership so i can't i can't do everything you can't you can't juggle i've got kairas i've got q i've got roger i've got religions peace and i have to be able to take a day off every now and then yes we agree we know we know where you're coming from thank you very much before we forget about that motion let's uh let's have a vote on that motion please so if you're in favor of having um every group in the region have a representative on coco please raise your hand all right i've got 13 out of 19 okay that's great thank you very much shannon and now if i can ask everyone to lower their hand um because i think we have one more uh one more um now i i wonder having the meetings by uh zoom what lis was talking about i'm not sure that we need to have a motion to do that i think we will do that lis we'll continue to have our meetings online so that everyone in the region can easily access them for sure thank you for mentioning that the next final section is the election section and you all received by email from shannon the the slate and as you can see we have um well one vacancy for social media coordinator um and we have also a vacancy for kebek and i think at this point we need to look for those people um if you want to go to your groups and find out if there's someone in your group interested in taking on the role of social media coordinator up to this point uh kathy has been taking care of our facebook page she did a terrific job of taking care of our facebook page if that is something that you'd be interested in or that someone in your group would be interested in that would be uh fantastic um same thing for the reps for the additional groups that we have in brampton wealth manitoulin peter bro shulburn if you want to go back to your group and find someone who would be interested in coming to the uh coco meetings that would be super so i think we will leave leave that out of the the present vote what we need to vote on now is the acceptance of the slate of people who have decided to remain we have someone who is willing to make that motion i'd be happy to make that motion okay next okay thank thank you nest and janice um and now if uh there is any discussion no in that case then i would ask everyone to uh show their approval of that slate of candidates by raising their hand many thanks how many people is that shannon that's 13 out of 18 and note that i'm abstaining as a staff person okay thank you um thank you all for um staying with us right to the um to the bitter end i uh i have but just just one thing that i'd like to say is that next uh fall we'll try and have an event uh for the whole region as we did before but our next meeting like this one will take place in two years this year durham regions uh organized it uh if your group would like to organize it that would be wonderful um the Ottawa took their turn last year the year before it was simcoe county so we're always looking for another group so that we can spread the joy around the whole region so to close i would like to read my favorite prayer from the marionist social justice collaborative maybe universal spirit bless us with discomfort at easy answers half truths and superficial relationships so that we may live deep within our hearts may the universal spirit bless us with anger at injustice oppression and exploitation of people so that we may work for economic justice for all people may the universal spirit bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain hunger homelessness and rejection so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy and may the universal spirit bless us with continued foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world so that we can do what others claim cannot be done yeah amen amen amen amen thank you thanks for that prayer and can i just say your leadership has been terrific and thank you to all who've allowed their names to stay on but now approved slate i think it's wonderful and uh i feel the energy of this this virtual meeting thank you thank you brian everybody okay goodbye everyone