Elder

  • is an Elder and Knowledge Keeper from Animkii Wajiw (Thunder Mountain) which is more commonly known as Mount McKay located in Fort William First Nation in the Robinson Superior Treaty Territory of 1850. Her Spirit name is Niibin Giimiwan (Summer Rain), and she is from the Turtle Clan. She picked up her hand drum in 2014 and now leads the “Sisters of Turtle Island” Women’s Drum Group where songs, teachings, and knowledge are shared as well as the sharing of the group’s community initiatives which support important indigenous community events. Sheila shares awareness and teachings to support “For Love of the Rivers” water walks in Thunder Bay. Sheila also continues to build her relationship with the traditional medicines that she has learned about during her 4-year commitment studying under the guidance of Kathy Bird, Medicine Women, from Matootoo Lake Medicine Camp located in Peguis FN.

Steering Committee

  • has been a climate activist since high school, when she joined a group of youth suing the Ontario government led by Doug Ford for violating their charter rights by reversing climate action targets. She is currently a Forestry student at Lakehead University as well as a leader with the Food Security Forum and was one of the organizers of the Anemki-Wiikwedong Climate Justice Movement Visioning Discussion in Thunder Bay November 2022.

  • is a climate activist in Thunder Bay with CUSP-Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet. He teaches climate change education to BEd and MEd students as an associate professor at Lakehead University and spends as much time as he can on Lake Superior in all seasons - almost always with a camera.

  • hosts and produces the podcast www.SomethingDifferentThisWayComes.ca. She is a former CBC radio host and documentary journalist, a songwriter, composer, published author and recording artist. She is a Certified Financial Planner and a Responsible Investment Specialist. She and her family grow much of what they eat, and are delighted with the heat pump and improved energy efficiency of their old farmhouse financed through the Greener Homes Grant & Loan this summer.

  • is an MPH Student at Lakehead University and joined the Steering Committee shortly after learning of the Gathering and has since been tirelessly helping with marketing, administration, registration and coordinating volunteers.

Leaders

  • is a Social Justice Studies Program Advisor at Lakehead University specializing in Community Organizing. His break-out session is a workshop on Building your Personal Narrative.

  • is an environmental studies student, activist, and novice photographer of mixed settler-Anishinaabe heritage. Her ancestors are from Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg territory, but her family has lived in Thunder Bay for three generations. Through her photography, she seeks to explore how we might live in better relations with water, land, sky, and the many non-human beings that inhabit this Earth.

  • is a high school science teacher and union guy with a passion for history. He's been lucky enough to support student involvement with the 'Green Team', the Climate Action Field School, and the Climate Change Forum. His break-out session is about how (and when) to engage with climate change deniers and the psychology involved in changing minds.

  • is the Thunder Bay Chapter Lead of Protect Our Winters Canada and  a third year law student at Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law. His research focus is on the intersection of environmental law, Indigenous rights, public lands defense and international law.

  • is the Sustainability Coordinator at the City of Thunder Bay. Upon joining the City in January 2020, Summer led the development of Thunder Bay’s Net-Zero Strategy and now works to advance climate action across the Corporation and community through education, policy, and program development. Summer is an Ontario Certified Teacher with a passion for science communication, community engaged climate action, and lifelong learning. She will be leading a workshop on how to speak with Thunder Bay City Council and provide feedback on city projects as a break-out session. 

    Find Thunder Bay’s key climate reports & commitments here:

    https://www.thunderbay.ca/en/earthcare.aspx

    https://www.thunderbay.ca/en/city-hall/reports-studies-policies-and-plans.aspx

  • is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Environment and Geography and the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Bernauer's research uses a political economy approach to conflicts over resource extraction in Northern Canada. He is originally from Red Lake and is a non-Indigenous advisor to Stand Up For Land.

  • catered the main dishes served at the Gathering, as well as the beverage service. Their contributions are complemented with a potluck by some attendees. Willow Springs offers a customized, accessible & innovative employment training program in food service for adults with disabilities, and partners with community organizations or groups to provide fundraising baskets, educational workshops or to cater events like this one. Check out their soup & bread extravaganza, pizza & salad program & more here:

    https://willowspringscreativecentre.ca/food/

  • has organized a break-out session on winter cycling with the Biking Vikings- held outside. He is a long time cycling advocate pushing for safe complete streets for active transportation users and a proud electric vehicle owner who has taken a lead in organizing Thunder Bay’s electric vehicle show.

  • is developing a guide to climate action from daily decisions to political actions.

  • is the founder of the Thunder Bay Repair Cafe. She is a communications specialist and long time Parks Canada employee.

  • an entomologist; however, to obtain that degree he also became a professional agronomist. At the time, he had no idea that both of these disciplines would serve him well in his almost lifelong pursuit of growing food organically and sustainably with his partner Lucie in an urban setting.

  • is a founding member of both Superior Seed Producers and EcoSuperior, where she was a program coordinator for over twenty years. She and her partner Ken Deacon have been trying to minimize their impact on the planet for decades. Growing (mostly in their urban garden) and keeping much of the food they eat is an act of love for the planet and resistance to conventional industrial agriculture.

  • is a partner at Osler law. He is a project development lawyer specializing in construction and infrastructure practice with over 25 years of experience advising owners, engineers, contractors and government across Canada in various sectors including alternative fuels, renewable energy, infrastructure, mining and health care. He is on the faculty of Osgoode Hall law school, and a leader in his field.

  • is an International Business, Sustainability, and Leadership Expert. She is a Co-founder and President of CSR-in-Action, a group made of a consulting firm, a think tank and a training institute dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG management, policy development, advocacy, empowerment and sustainable development in the region. She was, until March, a Board Member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Amsterdam, becoming the first Black person, the BCSDN affiliated to the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and other leading organisations, including bespoke investor relations and communications firm, Zenera Consulting. She is also an International Business Management Program Advisory Committee Member at Confederation College.

    Bekeme is a sought-after public commentator and prolific writer and curates a newsletter reaching over 30,000 on catalytic and strategic business approaches towards managing environmental and social impact. Under her leadership, CSR-in-Action has promoted sustainability measurement and reporting using the GRI Standards specifically – the world’s most recognised framework for sustainability – since 2011, and has catalysed the adoption of sustainability strategies and transparency.

    CSR-in-Action produces the pioneer sustainability investment report, The Corporate Sustainable Investor Report, endorsed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and supported by United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in 2012; a first of its kind report which includes analyses business sustainability performance. Bekeme regularly engages stakeholders throughout the economic value chain – government, business, civil society organizations and communities – for clients and advocacy and her passion for development led to the initiation of the annual Sustainability in the Extractive Industries (SITEI) Conference, the largest development-focused gathering for extractives, has nurtured it into its 12th year with strong key stakeholders’ participation, and on which platform she and her team developed a first-of-its-kind Community Engagement Standards a conflict mitigating and management tool for the extractive industries of developing economies which was adopted by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources in 2018. Amongst other sustainability-driven networks, Mrs Olowola was contracted to establish the BCSDN in May 2014, and the TTSWG (Telecommunication and Technology Sustainability Working Group) in 2021. She produced an internationally acclaimed and award-winning documentary on challenges faced by Indigenous extractive women, Earth Women, and leads the CSR-in-Action Canada Office, dedicated to serving companies, communities and government agencies, as well as facilitating transnational transactions

    between Canadian and Africa business enterprises. She was producer of The Good Citizen Radio Show, which has averaged 400,000 listeners every month. She has won many industry awards and recognitions, including Sustainability Professional of the Year, Industry Recognition Award for Contributions to Growth of CSR and Sustainability in Nigeria, Marketing Communication Personality Leadership Prize Winner of the Year 2017’ Award, and many more.

    Bekeme has a Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Lagos, a Masters from Queen Mary University of London, and a Certificate in Leadership from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

  • works collaboratively with Indigenous peoples and organizations, local and national conservation groups, plus industry and governments to protect Canada's boreal forest. She has a PhD in forest sciences, where she researched approaches to mitigate the impacts of industrial logging on boreal caribou. She has taught in the Indigenous Learning department at Lakehead University and is committed to supporting Indigenous rights to self-determination, Indigenous-led conservation, as well as advancing land back initiatives. Boan works remotely from her office just outside of Thunder Bay, Ontario.

  • is a freelance land use  planner experienced in sustainable community development and natural resource protection in Minnesota and Northern Ontario. She co-owns and works a reclaimed farm parcel in Oliver-Paipoonge, producing buckwheat and honey using sustainable agriculture practices. Thora is on the board of Thunder Bay Field Naturalists Club and also is an active member of

    https://www.momsstoptheharm.com

  • is a committed seed saver, a long-time member of the national non-profit organization Seeds of Diversity Canada, and an original member of Superior Seed Producers. She and her family live on a hilly piece of bedrock in rural Thunder Bay and ‘farm’ on a very small scale, incorporating chickens, honeybees, vegetables and plants for seed into the mix.

  • is an associate professor at Lakehead University and has been a part of the Thunder Bay Remedial Action Plan since 2008. Much of the clean-up and restoration of the Thunder Bay harbour involves re-establishing, and re-creating spaces for fish and wildlife habitat and the restoration of ecological services along rivers and coastal zones. Most recently he produced a habitat strategy for Thunder Bay that includes 5 major restoration sites coordinated by a range of local partners such as the City, LRCA, LU, ConCollege and FWFN.

  • is an Anishnaabe / Cree Artist from Aroland First Nation who has lived in Thunder Bay most of her life and is a graduate of Lakehead University’s Fine Arts program. Through involvement with community-engaged organizations and projects, she uses multi-disciplinary mediums to express and share her holistic feelings and perceptions.

  • is a transplanted Canadian settler visual artist and activist/engaged citizen, a restorative yoga teacher, and she’s currently a student in the Indigenous Learning program at Lakehead University. She uses least-toxic and found materials to create 3-D statement works that no one wants in their living space.

  • Elizabeth Pszczolko is a writer living in the woods outside Thunder Bay, Ontario. As a child growing up in Northwestern Ontario, she kept scrapbooks filled with drawings, musings, poems. Now that she has retired from her medical laboratory work, she is dedicating more time to her writing.

    Her blog, A Wondering Little Voice, is the digital revival of those old scrapbooks. The drawings have been replaced with photographs but the musings are still about Nature and how we see and interact with it.

    She is a member of the poetry group The ParaTactics. She has had poetry published in NOWW's magazine and the Walleye, and her play "The Decision" was produced as an online reading in 2020 by 10x10 and Come Play With Me Tbay.

  • is a multi media artist. She is an avid outdoors enthusiast and yoga teacher. A reverence for the land is evident in her collection of rocks, fossils, shells, cones, seed pods, feathers, wasp nests, lichen and a 400 year old hammer store. Come and see this amazing collection of what Mother Earth has to offer. Share Kathleen’s love of the outdoors by checking out her intriguing photos on her fb page. She wants to inspire us to look more closely at the wonders of nature.

    Photo credit: Rachel Kovachis

  • is a retired lawyer who worked at Kinna-Aweya for 25 years, while teaching part-time at Confederation College Indigenous Community Advocacy Program. She is currently involved in Environment North’s research project on lithium mining and processing.

  • wrote new lyrics to a familiar tune and invites us all to sing together to start Sunday’s event. Peter is an active member of CUSP and has led opposition to Nuclear Waste in Northwestern Ontario for about 40 years.

  • is a teacher, principal & former special agent at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She has run as a federal candidate.

  • is a geographer experienced in weather forecast at complex forest fires and in sustainable energy futures. He is currently VP of Environment North.

  • is a long-time member of Environment North who was an active part of their engagement around Synfuel.  She was also a member of the EarthCare Thunder Bay Energy working group.

  • owns Sleepy G Organic Farm with his wife Marcelle Paulin. They donated some of the veggies you enjoyed at this Gathering this weekend.

  • is the coordinator of the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy and is passionate about food sovereignty and literacy.

  • has years of experience in Leadership roles in our community. She has won Awards from One Woman FEARLESS - Overcoming Adversity and the Beendigen for Women First Nations Womens Day Award. She recently ran for City Council (Councillor at large 2018 & 2022) in Thunder Bay along with being a Federal & Provincial Candidate for the Green Party of Canada Thunder Bay - Rainy River District (2021). She has overcome DV/SA & numerous other traumas. She assists with organizing MMIWG Walks, Trees of Hope, OBIPP Rally's/Marches. She sings in Obijwe & Oji Cree. She has certificates from Oshki Pinnache O Win the Wenjack Institute for Empowered Women for Community Wellness to Mental Health First Aid, Safe Food Handling, St John's Standard First Aid, Anger Management, Women Living Free from Violence, Leadership training through Positive Leaderahip Development Institute for People Living with HIV/AIDS. . Tracey is an HIV/AIDS Activist. Survivor.

  • (she/her) is Niizhiwag (Two-Spirit) Anishnaabekwe, Wolverine Clan, from Opwaaganisiniing (Red Rock Indian Band/Lake Helen First Nation). She’s also French & English. She lives here in Anemki-Wiikwedong (colonially known as Thunder Bay) which is in the traditional homelands of the Fort William First Nation. She founded Climate Justice Thunder Bay in 2019 as a response to the call for solidarity from the Secwepemc & Wet'suwet'en Nations out west, who are defending their homes from the TMX & CGL pipelines respectively. She’s been on the board of directors for Blue Sky Community Healing Centre since 2011. She’s an active volunteer with Diversity Thunder Bay and sits on a number of city committees in order to help advocate for those most marginalized by this city. https://sacredcolours.ca

    We thank Cyn Nault for hosting the online discussions this weekend.

  • lives in beauty in Gimli, Manitoba with his partner Sharon and their son Ethan. He worked in education, community organizing. In retirement, Bill, with family and lots of friends, built a straw bale house on the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Recently, he has become involved in working for electoral reform and is looking for ways he might help to create new ways of being in our world. Bill believes that we are all connected and that we are soul, another word for which is love.

    We thank Bill Martin for hosting the online discussions this weekend.

  • is the former E.D of CAHEP (Community Arts & Heritage Education Project) and curator of the Fort Frances Museum, an Artist who is dedicated to community development and loves to get out in the wild. She volunteered to coordinate information displays and the potluck and we are so glad!

  • is a multidisciplinary land-based artist, educator, and environmentalist, who offers stewardship of land and water shaped by her Cree and Eastern European heritage. She has been a part of informing and shaping this event since the very first meeting back in August, ensuring that we strive to include not just those here to talk about change, but those who more quietly walk the change they seek. We aim to follow her example and use reciprocal and relational ways of holding conversations and connecting.

    We thank Betty Carpick for informing & shaping this event - although she could not attend

  • is an interdisciplinary health researcher trained in public health and environmental health. She is the Canada Research Chair in Social-Ecological Health, and an Associate Professor at Lakehead University whose work spans the social, natural, and health sciences and aims to bring together multiple perspectives in order to comprehensively understand, and collaboratively address, complex social-ecological challenges, with a focus on climate change.

    We thank Lindsay Galway for informing & shaping this event - although she could not attend

  • is a Forest Ecologist and Environmental Consultant & one of the principals of Northwinds Environmental Services. She helped prepare this topic with a great email, but can’t join us today.

    We thank Triin Hart for informing & shaping this event - although she could not attend

  • is a Communications and Development Specialist at Water First Education & Training. He has recently joined the board of Environment North.

    We thank Mason Prout for informing & shaping this event - although he could not attend

  • is a graduate of Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin School of law, a member of Fossil Free Lakehead (which successfully led the University to divest its assets from Fossil Fuels) and a member of Stand Up For Land opposing the proposed nuclear waste storage facility in Ignace.

    We thank Elysia Peterone-Reitberger for informing & shaping this event - although she could not attend

  • works and teaches at Lakehead University. She moved to Thunder Bay in 2018 from Fargo, North Dakota. She will be supporting the Planning Progress activities that conclude each topic on Saturday and Sunday morning.

  • is the founder and leader of Common Good Food Gardens which grows food for the Dew Drop Inn one back-yard and one volunteer at a time.