The Leadership Workshop facilitated by the OC Regional Directors, drew over fifty attendees for engagement in learning and development for club presidents. The Friday Reception followed with drumming and guest artist Cathy Elliot who entertained with music and stories. S'mores and folk songs brought back memories of past camp fire nights.

 

Tara Benson Williams lead the assembly in a Team Building exercise as we explored what it means to be on an executive. Conversations on team building are encouraged for executives as you begin a new year. What does it mean for you to be on a club executive? What is important for an executive to work in a collegial, collaborative manner?

 

 

I would like to highly commend the Chair, Ingrid Sproxton and the Local Arrangement Committee. For it is in the preparations and hard work that success is achieved. Thank you for giving so generously of your time, expertise and creativity. Thank you also, to the many volunteers from CFUW Orangeville & District who provided support for the timing, the tellers, the recorders, photo taking and session hosts.

 

I am grateful for the opportunity to have met you and members across Ontario and the country.   To have visited your clubs, celebrated your anniversaries, and joined in your fundraisers. Your invitations have been most welcomed.

 

I have appreciated the opportunity to work on your behalf to promote our OC advocacy policies, meet with provincial ministers, policy advisors, participate in provincial consultations and prepare briefs and letters on issues of concern.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to represent Ontario on the CFUW National Board, be a voting delegate to the IFUW Triennial 2013 in Istanbul and represent CFUW at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York this year.

 

Then we started our weekend journey to build bridges and create connections with a traditional drum ceremony, led by Cathy Elliott, First Roots Aboriginal Program Associate for the DAREarts Foundation for Children and a member of the Dufferin County Cultural Resource Circle. Cathy was joined by Deb Egerton from CFUW Orangeville & District and Carol Tyler from CFUW Guelph.

"The Drum represents Earth, Mother, Creation. It is made for or by a person and belongs to that person until it is gifted to someone else.  The life force of the animal that gave its skin is honoured whenever it is played. There are different approaches all over Turtle Island, different systems, beliefs and protocols. Not all Nations on Turtle Island use a skin drum. Some use hollowed out trees, bark, and at times, the ground itself. The drum is still a universal voice. When you feel the vibration of a Big Drum hit your chest, you can't help but feel something familiar ... your heart beat."

The drum ceremony was followed by welcoming remarks from two Dufferin-Caledon dignitaries, the Member of Provincial Parliament for Dufferin-Caledon Sylvia Jones and the Warden of Dufferin County and the Mayor of the Town of Mono Laura Ryan. Then Ontario Council President Brenda Robertson delivered Ontario Council's welcome message and awarded 17 anniversary and fall gathering certificates. The speeches were followed by a wonderful presentation by Cathy Elliott that included a
photographic display on a circular screen and 4 beautiful songs about Cathy's experiences working with First Nations youth in remote communities.

On Saturday, we kicked into high gear with four exciting and informative sessions:

• OC business meeting - AGM and voting on the OC Age Discrimination in Ontario resolution
• 1st plenary Building Bridges - Creating Connections to Honour the Truth and Reconcile for the Future
• 2nd plenary Building Bridges - Creating Connections to Reduce Poverty
• 2 concurrent break-out sessions focused on education and learning to become an ally to an indigenous Canadian or to someone living in poverty 

Apart from the Ontario Council business meeting, the goal of the Saturday sessions was to increase awareness of the issues facing indigenous Canadians and Canadians that are struggling to overcome poverty.

The speakers for the 1st plenary session were Jodie-Lynn Waddilove and Dr. Susan Dion. Jodie-Lynn is an Anishnabe (Ojibway) and Lenni Lenape (Delaware) lawyer currently acting as Legal Counsel with the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General, Aboriginal Justice Division. She shared her life story with us including growing up on a small First Nation-Munsee Delaware-in southwestern Ontario, and later attending the University of Sheffield in England where she received her M.A. in International Criminology and Law. After returning to Canada, Jodie-Lynn obtained her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Ottawa. She was called to the Ontario bar in 2004 and the Alberta bar in 2006. There was no school or library in the Munsee Delaware community-indeed there still isn't-so Jodie-Lynn, her brothers and the other kids had to travel out of the community each day to attend school. There was plenty of racism from both teachers and fellow-students-all of the Munsee Delaware kids experienced it. For many, the stress of being subjected to a different culture with no respect for their own traditions, was an obstacle too great to overcome. In Munsee Delaware, as in many First Nation communities, it is still a big accomplishment to graduate from high school and to go on to obtain a post-secondary education. Jodie-Lynn made up her mind that she was going to become a lawyer-she felt that by so doing, she could obtain the education and skill set she needed to help her community. She has accomplished that and much more.

Dr. Susan Dion is an indigenous scholar (Potawatami/Lenape) with York University. Unfortunately, because she was late arriving, her presentation had to be cut short. However, she was able to share with us the film stories of two young indigenous Canadians that illustrate the challenges of building bridges across the indigenous/non-indigenous divide

The speakers for the 2nd plenary session-Building Bridges - Creating Connections to Reduce Poverty were Karen Glass and Laura Cattari.

Karen Glass is the Executive Director for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Office in Ontario and has over 20 years of experience in social policy. Ontario's Poverty Reduction Strategy - Realizing Our Potential, aims to be a comprehensive and flexible approach to reduce poverty in the province. At this plenary Karen gave us an update on objectives achieved and goals established since the initiative was introduced in 2014. Karen reviewed the 4 pillars of the current strategy: breaking the poverty cycle with a stronger focus on families; employment, income security and support of meaningful work; ending homelessness; and evidence based policy development. The evidence based policy development combines experience, expertise and evidence, and is implemented through cross ministry collaboration and coordination.

Laura Cattari was our second speaker in this plenary. Laura is a writer and community advocate, and Vice President on the board of Canada Without Poverty - an organization calling for sustained action to combat the structural causes of poverty in Canada. Laura was nominated in 2013 as a Woman of Distinction in Hamilton, Ontario.  Laura continued on the subject of evidence based policy development and human rights. She reminded the audience that the International Convention on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights was ratified by Canada on May 19, 1976.
Economic, social and cultural rights (ESCR) include the rights to decent work, an adequate standard of living, housing, food, water and sanitation, social security, health and education. ESCRs are thus as essential as the freedom of expression or the right to a fair trial for ensuring human dignity.

Laura then outlined Bill 185 Ministry of Community and Social Services Amendment Act (Social Assistance Research Commission), 2016. Bill 185 aims to form a standing research committee to define regions of Ontario on the basis of economic geography and determine the cost of living in different parts of Ontario. The Commission will be composed of 9 experts, including one person with lived experience of Ontario Works, and another person with lived experience of the Ontario disability Support Program. Laura has been invited to be one of these experts. She closed by saying that she will stay in touch with CFUW and will ask for our support in the adoption of Bill 185.

At the Truth and Reconciliation break-out session, 4 CFUW clubs-North York, Owen Sound, Southport and Vaughan-presented ideas and actions they have taken to educate themselves about indigenous issues and to reach out and advocate. Jodie-Lynn also joined this break-out and contributed a number of ideas including support for cultural competency training for anyone who works with indigenous Canadians, celebrating Orange Shirt Day in September, and visiting a residential school. Each presenting club compiled a resource list, as did CFUW Orangeville & District. These lists will be made available to all Ontario clubs.

 

At the Poverty Reduction break-out session, we learned about the Circles program in Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph. The Circles program matches low-income leaders-Canadians who want to break out of the poverty cycle-with middle or upper-income allies. The goal of the program is not to reduce but to eradicate poverty through community. "The opposite of poverty is not wealth but rather community." A resource list to educate ourselves about poverty was compiled by CFUW Orangeville & District; the list will be made available to all Ontario clubs.

And finally, I'd like to mention the infographics that were on display throughout the AGM & Conference, just outside the main meeting room. The infographic displays were created by four young women who are attending two local secondary schools and participating in the Dufferin Historian Program, which was created and developed by teachers Neil Orford and Asher Kirk. Each of the students created one display for four different topics-Violence Against Women, Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women, Indigenous History in Ontario and Poverty in Dufferin.

Ingrid Sproxton
Chair, Local Arrangement Committee