Date: April 12, 2024

Time: 7-9 PM (ADT) \\ 6-8 PM (EDT) \\ 5-7 PM (CDT) \\ 4-6 PM (MDT) \\  3-5 PM (PDT)

Location: Hybrid, Online (Zoom, Register Here) & In-Person (Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, 16 Spadina Rd , Toronto, ON M5R 2S7)

Join Indigenous Climate Action on Friday, April 12 from 6-8 PM (EDT), for a free, hybrid panel discussion: The Financial Risk of Ignoring Indigenous Rights, featuring Black and Indigenous panelists following their participation in the Royal Bank of Canada’s Annual General Meeting.

RBC’s AGM is a major opportunity for shareholders and other interested parties to discuss the company's finances, policies, and plans for the future. Panelists will share their experiences and concerns regarding RBC's financing decisions involving projects affecting their lands and communities, discuss the realities of what they’re enduring at the hands of the fossil fuel industry, RBC’s financing of global human rights violations, and recapping their participation at the AGM, and present opportunities and next steps within the Indigenous Divestment movement.

This panel discussion will be livestreamed on through a Zoom webinar and ICA’s Facebook account. A recording of the panel discussion will be available on our YouTube channel in the following days after this event.

Speakers:

Courtney Wyne (EmCee)

Courtney Wynne (they/she) comes from an Anishinaabe and Ililiw woman, and is early on in their journey of building a deeper relationship with their paternal DNA. Courtney is a child welfare survivor, she was raised and taken care of by family and community. 

Vanessa Gray

Vanessa Gray is Anishinaabe Kwe, the Divestment Campaign Coordinator at Indigenous Climate Action and is well known for her environmental justice work on pollution in Ontario’s Chemical Valley – a petrochemical hub on her territory and surrounding her community of Aamjiwnaang First Nation. She is the co-founder of Aamjiwnaang and Sarnia Against Pipelines (ASAP), Porcupine Warriors, and co-lead of the Environmental Data Justice (EDJ) Lab, which produces tools to visualize the relationship between colonialism, data, and pollution such as the Pollution Reporter App. Aamjiwnaang community member’s constant exposure to harmful emissions results in some of the highest mortality rates for cancers and respiratory diseases in Ontario. Vanessa has dedicated her life to challenging colonial violence and its impacts on environmental health.

Kolin Sutherland-Wilson

Kolin Sutherland-Wilson is from the Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit Wilp of the Gitxsan people, also known as the house of Tsi’basaa. He holds the name of Hooxi’i, meaning “One more” in the Gitxsan language. Currently he works as a Lax’yip Protection Specialist, upholding the inherent jurisdiction of Gitxsan law on Gitxsan land. He is also serving as the elected Chief Councillor for the village of Kispiox. He is a writer and researcher with a focus on Gitxsan law and the environment. Kolin has always been a supporter of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Houses that continue to resist the unlawful trespass of Coastal GasLink onto their homelands, as the Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en share the same ancient system of House-based governance.

Juan B. Mancias

Juan is tribal is the Tribal Chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas, was born and raised in Plainview, Texas. He is the eldest born to a father and mother Carrizo Comecrudo. Juan received his higher education at the Incarnate Word University, receiving a Pastoral Studies certificate, and at Texas Tech University, earning degrees in both Political Science and Sociology.

With a background in business leadership, he has managed finance institutions and insurance companies, and has held leadership roles as an Assistant Tribal Administrator with the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas and Tribal Administrator of the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California and the Alabama Coushatta Tribe of Texas.  In recent years he played a major role in putting together marches against the Dos Republicas Coal mine, which produces a substandard coal that is sold to Mexico where there are no EPA standards (the coal is burned just across the border, polluting the air, and then drifts back into the US through the air particulates). In the mid 1990’s, he worked alongside the Sierra Club, protecting prairie dogs and their habitat from urban encroachment in the Lubbock, Texas area. He has also initiated two inter-tribal organizations that are still viable and thriving today.

Currently, he is building resistance to the fossil fuel industry and the devastating impact they bring to the environment, raising awareness of the dangerous impact of border wall construction, organizing efforts to assist asylum refugees, and reclaiming and protecting his tribe’s ancestral lands. Most important to him is his work trying to bring his tribal history to the public forefront by doing extensive research on Texas Native history. 

Juan considers himself a protector of the true Texas people lifeways. He speaks from what he knows and from the teachings that are common to many tribal people. His work today focuses on decolonizing both tribal people and others. He has written a 12-step decolonization program and presents it frequently at conferences and seminars. 

Representative from Gidimt’en Checkpoint

Speaking about Coastal Gas Link + Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) build out and TC Energy.

Tori Cress

• Headshot:

• Bio: Tori Cress (Beverly - supporting comms) Speaks to impacts of tar sands on water. RBC finances companies active in the tar sands including Enbridge, Suncor, Exxon Mobil, Chevron on behalf of Keepers of the Water.

• Communications Manager, Tori Cress

• G’Chiminssing, Williams Treaty Territory

• Tori is Anishinaabe (Ojibway and Pottawattami) from G’Chimnissing, an island community on the shores of Georgian Bay in Williams Treaty territory. She has brought her passion for communications work and grassroots community engagement to Keepers of the Water as our communications manager. Her role includes communication strategy development, managing and maintaining the Keepers of the Water website, developing and publishing a quarterly newsletter, managing social media and expanding, and regular email updates to our subscribers Tori also brings her Anishinaabe worldview, cultural values, and dedicated support of the Water is Life movement to the Keepers of the Water organization.

Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Time: 11 AM PDT \\ 12 PM MDT \\ 1 PM CDT \\ 2 PM EDT

Location: Zoom, Register Here

Hosted by YouthREX | Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange. Join "Supporting Youth Wellbeing in the Climate Crisis" – an exploration of critical understandings and hopeful practices to support youth wellbeing in the climate crisis, featuring an engaging discussion with special guests – including practitioners, researchers, and young changemakers – on how these understandings and practices can be taken up and applied in our work with youth.

Speakers:

• Swelen Andari, Senior Manager, Climate Resilience & Youth Mental Health, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)

• Laura Glover, Youth Worker, Therapist, Researcher, and PhD Student, School of Social Work, York University

• Willo Prince, Education Coordinator, Indigenous Climate Action

• Mariam Sarikaya, Youth Climate Collective, Lakeshore Arts

• Abhay Singh Sachal, Founder & Executive Director, Break The Divide

• Fraser Thomson, Staff Lawyer, Ecojustice

This event will also feature a performance by poet Robyn Kaur Sidhu.

Panel: How UNDRIP is Changing the Duty to Consult and the Evolving Meaning of Consultation

Date: February 21, 2024

Time: 10:30 AM MST (local time)

Location: Matrix Hotel, Edmonton, AB

This panel discussion, as part of the Western Indigenous Consultation & Engagement conference hosted by The Canadian Institute, will include:

1. Examining a “then and now” review of treaties in Northern Canada on the 30th Anniversary of the Modern Northern Land Claims Agreements

2. Examining the federal government’s efforts to develop resources in First Nation communities

3. Decolonizing the process of engagement and consultation

4. Communicating information throughout the entire community

Speakers:

1. Eriel Deranger, Executive Director, Indigenous Climate Action

2. Jay Telegdi, Manager Government Relations, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

3. Brian Fung, Manager, Government Relations, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

4. Dale Swampy, President, National Coalition of Chiefs