Speakers and Facilitators

Cogie Cogan

Starfish

Cogie is an award winning environmentalist and animal welfare advocate, who is making an impact on the world. Currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Globalization Studies at Huron University College, they have a deep understanding of the complexities and interconnectedness of global issues. They founded Western Environmental Business (WEB), a club at Western University that teaches students about how business leaders can practice environmental sustainability in their careers. They have previously served on the Youth Advisory Council for Jane Goodall Institute of Canada , they were the Huron Sustainability Commissioner, and an Ocean Bridge Ambassador. As Sustainability Commissioner they successfully campaigned to make Huron a Blue Community, thus ending the commodification and sales of water on their university campus. Cogie's work has brought them to four countries delivering over 15 talks to youth on issues pertaining to climate justice.

Harmony Eshkawkogan

Assembly of Seven Generations

Harmony Eshkawkogan ndishnikaaz, Wiikwemikong ndoonjiba, Ottawa ndonji. Ginoozhe ndoodem, Niishdana ashi nishwaaswi ndisbiboonwei, Anishinaabe Midewiwin-kwe ndaww.

Hello, My name is Harmony Eshkawkogan, I am from Wiikwemikong and live in Ottawa. My clan is Pike and I am 28 winters old. I am a part of the 3 Fires tribe and use she/her pronouns. I am a helper with Assembly of 7 Generations (A7G) an Indigenous youth organization on the Algonquin territory. I work at A7G social enterprise an Indigenous store called Adaawewigamig (a place of trade) and a youth leader that helps take care of the community garden.

Leticia (Ama) Deawuo

SeedChange

Before joining SeedChange as executive director in 2021, Ama spent fifteen years as a leading activist for food sovereignty and food justice, and four years as the Executive Director of Black Creek Community Farm, where she worked towards greater food justice with the Toronto community of Jane-Finch. She was instrumental in the creation of a number of initiatives in Toronto, including Jane Finch On The Move, Jane Finch Action Against Poverty, Jane Finch Political Conversation Café, Black Creek Food Justice Network, and Mothers-In-Motion.

Betty Plewes

Climate Legacy

Before her retirement, she worked in international development with a focus on African development, gender relations and civil society organizations. She was Overseas Director of CUSO, CEO of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, and participated in the creation of Partnership Africa Canada, the Voluntary Sector Roundtable and the McLeod Group. Her experience in the voluntary sector includes serving on boards, editing a journal, and writing on many aspects of sector work.

Michael Adamson

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

Michael holds a B.A. in Environment and Development from McGill University and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Toronto. During his studies, he worked on a variety of issues which intersect community building, social movements, and policy-making. This includes research on the use of participatory methods in international development, fossil fuel divestment at North American universities, and the digitalization of Capitalism. In his current role with the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, Michael helps organize CAPE's Regional Committee’s in Ontario and Maritimes in their efforts to advocate on environmental issues through a health lens.

Tina Nicholson

Ottawa Climate Action Fund

Tina Nicholson has over 15 years of experience in the energy sector both in electricity and gas strategic initiatives and partnerships. She has led delivery of energy efficiency and conservation programs for residential, commercial, institutional and industrial sectors, including activities encompassing a broad set of technologies, program market interventions, promotional efforts and evaluation aimed at lowering or shifting customer’s demand, energy use and carbon emissions. Tina co-chaired the Technical Evaluation Committee for Natural Gas Demand Side Management initiatives in Ontario, resulting in the development of the first Ontario Natural Gas Technical Reference Manual used to assist in planning and evaluation of energy conservation programs. She is passionate in brokering relationships and partnerships to advance solutions to combat climate change.

Laïs Maurilio

City for All Women Initiative

Laïs helps CAWI communicate clearly and purposefully with women, members, partners, clients and municipalities. She’s passionate about tackling social inequalities and fostering change at an institutional level. Laïs was born and raised in Brazil. She worked as a news producer at the country’s biggest TV network, TV Globo. She also worked as a press advisor at Rio de Janeiro’s provincial government and at the non-profit Social Service of Commerce. In Brazil, Laïs studied Black women’s participation in politics. Her research analyzed the work of Marielle Franco, a councilwoman from Rio de Janeiro, who was murdered a year after being elected. Laïs came to Canada in 2018 to complete a Master’s degree in Feminist and Gender Studies at the University of Ottawa. You can find Laïs being very active on Twitter, where she speaks mostly about Brazilian and Canadian politics and pop culture. Laïs speaks Portuguese, Spanish and English. She’s currently learning French and her goal is to speak seven languages.

Matt Lie-Paehlke

Environmental Defence

Matt Lie-Paehlke is an engagement manager at Environmental Defence with a background in grassroots activism and academia. In 2018, he founded Climate Pledge Collective with his partner Myrtle Millares. By 2020, the urgency of the climate crisis had driven him out of a PhD in urban planning and into full-time activism.

Ma Myriah Peace

Photograph taken by Katherine Takpannie.

Myriah is an Inuk, L’nu, and Scottish mother and poet who was raised on unceded and unsurrendered Anishnaabe Algonquin traditional territory.

Myriah has had a lifelong love of the natural world. Learning about organic vegetable gardening with her mother from an early age, Myriah has journeyed deeper into her passionate curiosity and respect for plants and our Earth.

Myriah's dedication to community and culture have led her through many natural expressions of these passions, from grassroots activism and artistry to seeking higher education and work experience that aligns with her generous nature and community-minded spirit. Further inspired by her belief that all humans deserve food security and food sovereignty; Myriah is continuing to live her values by studying Therapeutic Horticulture; a means to work within community by facilitating workshops through the social enterprise, “Root In Nature.” There, Myriah is holding space with youth, vulnerable peoples, and elders as a certified Indigenous Community Service Worker.

She is providing a space to learn about and to connect with nature, to grow food, and to remember our place within the web of life.

Myriah is approaching 10 years of practical experience with a variety of Indigenous healing modalities. She holds value in her spirituality and traditional teachings. She is a Drum Carrier, a Feather Carrier, and a Helper within some Indigenous communities here in Ottawa.

Laura Shantz

Ottawa Transit Riders

Laura Shantz is a policy and advocacy professional and has organized in support of marginalized residents in Ottawa for over a decade. Laura holds a PhD in criminology from the University of Ottawa and has studied older women’s marginalization and homelessness. She has worked as a university professor, front-line intervention worker, policy analyst and researcher, as well as in civic engagement. In her spare time Laura volunteers with local and provincial advocacy groups, focusing on public transit and disability justice. She enjoys running and cycling, and spending time with her two sons.

Gabrielle Fayant

Assembly of Seven Generations

Gabrielle Fayant is an off-Settlement Metis woman, whose family is from Fishing Lake Metis Settlement, AB, one of the 8 land-based Metis Settlements in Canada. Gabrielle is an award winning woman for her work in community, youth empowerment, and Indigenous rights awareness. She has worked with several Indigenous and non-profit organizations and is currently a Helper and Co-Founder of Assembly of Seven Generations (A7G). A7G is an Indigenous owned and youth-led, non-profit organization focused on cultural support and empowerment programs/policies for Indigenous youth while being led by traditional knowledge and Elder guidance. Gabrielle is passionate about cultural resurgence and justice for all Indigenous peoples.

Gabrielle is known as a mobilizer and organizer for social justice movements and climate justice movements in Ottawa. Gabrielle has been organizing rallies, marches and non-violent direct actions since 2011, from Idle No More to MMIWG2S+ to Land Back. Gabrielle is also a hide tanner, medicine picker, fisher and land-based learner and teacher.

How-Sen Chong

Toronto Environmental Alliance

How-Sen has been working in the climate and climate justice movements for almost twenty years.

Over the past six years, How-Sen has dedicated his work to pressuring governments and corporations to stop fossil fuels. He was a Digital Campaigner at Stand.earth, where he worked under Indigenous leadership alongside environmentalists and citizens to oppose the Trans Mountain Pipeline on Coast Salish territory. He’s worked with many environmental organizations and groups, including the United Nations Development Fund, Greenpeace, Environmental Defence, and Indigenous Climate Action.

How-Sen was born and raised in Etobicoke. He holds environmental studies degrees from McGill and Yale, and is certified in greenhouse gas accounting. He lives in downtown Toronto.

Ked Neptune

Sustainable Eastern Ontario

I’m the Executive Director for Sustainable Eastern Ontario, Canada Eco-Action and ACA-FAMV. I lead the Réseau Francophone des Organisations Environnementales de la Capitale Nationale (RFOECN) and co-leader of the BIPOC fellowship program through Sustainable Eastern Ontario. I have accumulated 20 years working in the sustainability sector. Throughout my career I have been involved in several leadership roles in different International Organizations and governments. I have a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture Extension, a Specialization in Watershed Management and a Certificate in NonProfit Management. I have coordinated projects on reforestation and ecological conservation, climate change's action and watershed management natural disasters in different countries in the world. I’m an environmental leader who is passionate about engaging and mobilizing communities to promote biodiversity, sustainability, and resiliency.

Ian Borsuk

Environment Hamilton

Ian is the interim executive director of Environment Hamilton. Prior to his current role, Ian was EH's Climate Campaign Coordinator, and is passionate about advocating for a resilient and adaptable Hamilton in the face of a changing global climate through good municipal policy on growth, transit, green infrastructure, and more. Ian is deeply invested in empowering others to engage with local governance. He can also be found wearing other hats organising and taking action beyond his work at EH on issues of environmental, economic, and social justice.

Daniel Buckles

Daniel Buckles is a community animator living in Kitchissippi Ward, on Anishinaabeg unceded territory. He holds a PhD in Anthropology and worked for decades on food sovereignty, land rights and biodiversity conservation initiatives in Asia, Latin America and Africa, before settling into urban sustainability activism. Daniel is the author of 10 books, Including Participatory Action Research: Theory and Methods for Engaged Inquiry (Routledge, 2019). He plants trees in neglected public spaces and contributes to the Peoples Official Plan Coalition in Ottawa.

Bryanna Brown

Bryanna Brown is Inuk Nunatsiavut, Labrador. She is the originator of the “Land Back Movement” to advocate for sovereignty in BIPOC communities, and to promote land ownership and reclamation as a means of environmental protection, and self-determination. Bryanna is a policy advisor, traditional storyteller and knowledge keeper and a professional public speaker who has held speaking engagements across Canada and internationally. She is on Indigenous Climate Action’s National Steering Committee and Climate Policy Advisory Council. It is important to her that she continues to always advocate for the rights of women, Indigenous Peoples, MMIWG2S+, environmental justice in relation to MMIWG2S and persons with disabilities (as someone with lived experience), with efforts to change public policy.

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Speakers and Facilitators

Cogie Cogan

Starfish

Harmony Eshkawkogan

Assembly of Seven Generations

Leticia (Ama) Deawuo

SeedChange

Betty Plewes

Climate Legacy

Michael Adamson

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

Tina Nicholson

Ottawa Climate Action Fund

Laïs Maurilio

City for All Women Initiative

Matt Lie-Paehlke

Environmental Defence

Ma Myriah Peace

Laura Shantz

Ottawa Transit Riders

Gabrielle Fayant

Assembly of Seven Generations

How-Sen Chong

Toronto Environmental Alliance

Ked Neptune

Sustainable Eastern Ontario

Ian Borsuk

Environment Hamilton

Daniel Buckles

Bryanna Brown

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