Embark Sustainability, in collaboration with the Centre for Climate Justice UBC and the Pacific Institute of Climate Solutions, proudly presents Climate Career Night: Land-Centred Livelihoods.

Join us for an enriching evening where you’ll have the chance to listen and connect with seasoned professionals from diverse sectors, including advocacy, organizing, legal defense, and more. Guest speaker bios can be found further below.

Enjoy catered refreshments as you engage with industry experts and like-minded peers, and take concrete steps towards shaping a more just and sustainable future. RSVP now to secure your spot here!

NOTIcE OF FILMING AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography, audio, and video recording may occur during this event. By attending this event you consent to such recording media and its release and publication. If you do not consent, please email programs@embarksustainability.org or speak to an event organizer upon arrival so that we can make accommodations.

Land Acknowledgement

This event takes place on the unceded homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and kʷikʷəƛw̓əm (Kwikwetlem) Nations.

About the facilitators

Tara Olivetree, Educator and Organizer

Tara Olivetree (they/them) is an educator, teaching secondary math in the territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples (Greater Victoria) and facilitating union workshops across the province to colleagues in the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF). Tara is currently a member of the BCTF Committee for Action on Social Justice, as well as the BC Federation of Labour Climate Justice & Jobs Committee. They also represent the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association (GVTA) as a Local Representative to the BCTF, and sit on the GVTA Climate Justice Committee. In addition to union work, Tara also works extensively with community based climate justice organizations, including the UBC Centre for Climate Justice, the West Coast Climate Action Coalition, Parents 4 Climate and Climate Justice Victoria. A life long trade union activist, Tara is excited to work with others to strengthen relationships between labour and the community so that we can collectively build the power to change the world.

Katie Perfitt, Organizer & Campaigner – David Suzuki Foundation’s Climate Team

Katie Perfitt is an organizer and campaigner currently based on the unceded and unsurrendered land of the Algonquin Anishinaabe peoples, otherwise known as the Ottawa Valley. She cut her teeth in organizing during her time living in K’jipuktuk (Halifax) with Divest Dal, a fossil fuel divestment campaign at Dalhousie University, and in the decade since, has been a part of dozens climate and social justice campaigns. She led distributed, base-building organizing across Atlantic Canada that pushed dozens of municipalities in the region to recognize the Right to a Healthy Environment. She spent 7 years with the 350.org Canada team to build people-power to confront the power of the fossil fuel industry and to build public support for Green New Deal scale ambition to tackle the climate crisis. She has trained hundreds of organizers through Olivia Chow’s Institute for Change Leaders, and was a part of the core organizing team who had Joel Harden, MPP for Ottawa Centre, first elected. She now works for the David Suzuki Foundation’s Climate Team, working to grow support for climate-saving clean energy that leaves no one behind. In her spare time she likes to spend time with her dogs, in nature, or tending to her chickens and her garden on her hobby farm.

Samantha Myran, Lawyer – West Coast Environmental Law

Sam Myran (she/her/ikwe) was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is from Giinooshkoodeyang, now known as Long Plain First Nation in southern Manitoba. She came to pursue law as a direct result of the Idle No More movement which opened her eyes and influenced her to become a part of advocating for change. Following that winter, Samantha returned to post-secondary studies to earn an Associate of Arts in Aboriginal Studies from Langara College, a Bachelor of Arts in First Nations and Indigenous Studies from the University of British Columbia, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Manitoba. During her academic career, Samantha became a member of many student groups including the Alliance of British Columbia Students through her role with the Langara Students Union as the Aboriginal Students Advisor, the Langara Aboriginal Students Association, and the Manitoba Indigenous Law Students Association. In community she has been a part of planning such events as elders’ trips, an Aboriginal Veteran’s Day Pow Wow, and family days in the Central Park of Winnipeg. Samantha takes pride in her experience working in areas of Indigenous governance within her home community, restorative justice initiatives (as a research practicum student at Onashowewin Justice Circle), as well as in customer service.

Navjot Jassar, Lawyer – West Coast Environmental Law

Navjot Jassar (she/her) is a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. She provides legal support to First Nations who are establishing Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCAs) or are otherwise revitalizing Indigenous law to protect their territorial land, air and water.

Paige Gorsak, Organizing Manager – Dogwood

Paige (she/they) is a queer, white settler living on unceded and unsurrendered Musqueam, Tsleil Waututh and Squamish territory in Vancouver. Born and raised in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton), she is passionate about climate justice, anti-colonial solidarity, and collective liberation. Earlier in her career, Paige worked in public libraries and completed her master’s degree in Gender and Social Justice. But after a period of climate despair and depression, she found a home in climate movement. She first cut her teeth organizing sit-ins, marches, and blockades in support of land-based resistance movements, and later campaigning for free public transit as a climate and racial justice intervention. Once upon a time, she even ran for federal office with a campaign for a just transition to 100% renewables. As Dogwood’s Organizing Manager, Paige is hard at work building grassroots power in the Lower Mainland toward bold climate action. She is enthusiastic about bringing art and creativity into organizing and supporting the participation of young people in the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Event Accessibility

Embark Sustainability events are free and open to Embark members which includes Simon Fraser University undergraduate and graduate students, as well as Embark Associate Members.

This event will be held indoors in room #4200 of the Student Union Building (SUB), SFU Burnaby. Accessibility details include:

• The fourth floor of the SUB is accessible via elevator and hosts accessible washrooms, including a single-stall all gender washroom. In addition, the space itself (room #4200) is also wheelchair accessible.
• We aim to host a scent-free space. Please refrain from wearing scented products in attendance of this event.
• Unfortunately, we cannot provide ASL interpretation at this time.
• Sturdy, armless chairs will be available for those looking to sit during this event.
• As we’ll be addressing sensitive topics, it’s important that our attendees are able to address their needs in the moment. Attendees are free to opt in and opt out of activities as suits their needs throughout the event, including exiting and re-entering the event space.

 We aim to make our events accessible to as many of our community members as possible. If we can take further action to make this event accessible to you, please contact our Food Justice Coordinator at food@embarksustainability.org.

Health & Safety

Participants who register are agreeing to release Embark Sustainability Society from any liability related to COVID-19.

Community Agreement

By registering to attend this event, you are agreeing to be respectful when listening to and communicating with others, and be mindful of the space you are taking up amongst your peers.

Embark Sustainability does not tolerate violence or aggression against others on the basis of race, ethnicity, place of origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or ability. Please also refer to people using the introductions they provide and do not assume pronouns/gender/knowledge based on someone’s name or appearance.

If these agreements are broken by someone, we will have to ensure the safety of our community members by removing them from the event.

Questions

If you have any questions about this event, please contact Embark Sustainability’s Food Justice Coordinator at food@embarksustainability.org.