Speakers and Workshop Leaders
Dr. Samuel Epstein - Jerry Mander - Holly Dressel - Adrienne Maree Brown
Mary Jane Lamond - Greg Malone - Richard Buxton - Percy Schmeiser - Heather Eaton
Ransom Myers - Bill Phipps - Steven Shrybman - Guy Dauncey - Ron Colman
Mary Evelyn Tucker
Laura Westra - Rachel Plotkin - Stuart Myiow - Stephane Bruneau - Angela Rickman
Tim Morris - Tony Maas - Ted Reeve - Rod Muir - Dorothy Goldin-Rosenberg - Daniel Green
Diana Cartwright - Jenn Hoffman - John Bennett - Colin Campbell - Liz Armstrong
Rosa Kouri - Stephen Hazell - Paul Falvo - Lindsay Telfer
Elizabeth May is an environmentalist,
writer, activist, and lawyer. She has been Executive Director of the Sierra
Club of Canada since 1989. She is a former member of the Board of
the International Institute of Sustainable Development and is former vice-chair
of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. In 1999,
Dalhousie University created a permanent chair in her honour, the Elizabeth
May Chair in Women’s Health & the Environment. She has received
numerous awards, including the United Nations Global 500 award and 2 honourary
doctorates. She is the author of four books. In 2005 Elizabeth May was honoured to be appointed as an
Officer to the Order of Canada.
Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada's largest citizen's advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada as well as the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works to stop commodification of the world's water. She is also a Director with the International Forum on Globalization, a San Francisco based research and education institution apposed to economic globalization. Maude is the recipient of numerous educational awards and has received honorary doctorates from six Canadian universities for her social justice work. In addition to being nominated for the "1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005" she is also the recipient of the "2005/2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship". Most recently she received the prestigious "2005 Right Livelihood Award" given by the Swedish Parliament and widely referred to as "The Alternative Nobel." She is the best-selling author or co-author of fifteen books. Her most recent publications are Too Close For Comfort: Canada's Future Within Fortress North America; Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theift of the World's Water (with Tony Clarke), now published in 40 countries; and Profit is Not the Cure: A Citizen's Guide to Saving Medicare.
In 1972, Watson co-founded the Greenpeace Foundation (GP) in Vancouver, BC. From 1971-77, Watson served as First Officer on all GP voyages, and on a campaign against Russian walers he implemented his idea of putting activists in a zodiac between the harpoon and the whale. From 1976-77, he led all of the GP expeditions to protect harp seals on the ice floes of eastern Canada. In 1977, Watson left GP because he felt the original goals of the organization were being compromised, and because he saw a specific, global need to continue direct-action, conservation activities on the high seas by an organization that would enforce laws meant to protect marine wildlife. That same year, Watson founded Sea Shepherd Conservation Society - dedicated to research, investigation, and the enforcement of lawas, treaties, resolutions, and regulations established to protect marine wildlife and their habitats worldwide.
R.H.
Thomson
studied at the
Dr.
Epstein is Professor emeritus of Environmental
& Occupational medicine at the He is the recipient of multiple awards including the 1990 Rachel Carson Legacy Award, for “Significantly Advancing Medical Research Into Effective Toxic Chemicals and Bringing His Knowledge Forcefully to World Attention;” the 1998 Right Livelihood Award (the Alternative Nobel Prize) for “International Contributions to Cancer Prevention;” and the 2005 Albert Schweitzer Golden Grand Medal for “Humanitarianism and International Contributions to Cancer Prevention.” His extensive media experience includes national and international radio, TV, documentaries, including the multiple prize-winning 2003 The Corporation.
Jerry Mander is the founder and former President
of the International Forum on Globalization (IFG). In addition to his
role at IFG, Jerry Mander is the program director for the Foundation for
Deep Ecology, and is a senior fellow at Public Media Center. Back in the
1960s Mander was president of a major San Francisco advertising company
before turning his talents to environmental campaigns that kept dams out
of the Grand Canyon, established Redwood National Park, and stopped production
of the Supersonic Transport. His books include Four Arguments for the
Elimination of Television (1977), In the Absence of the Sacred (1991),
The Case Against the Global Economy And For a Turn Toward the Local, co-edited
with Edward Goldsmith (1996), and Alternatives to Economic Globalization:
A Better World is Posssible.
Adrienne Maree Brown is the Executive Director of The Ruckus Society (www.ruckus.org). Over the past few years, she cofounded the League of Young Voters and filled various training, alliance and communications roles as the organization grew. She is currently an advisor to Wiretapmag.org, the New Orleans Network, and a writer for www.grist.org and Clamor Magazine.
Mary
Jane Lamond is a sharer of songs, stories and
spirit.Mary
Jane's latest recording " Storas”
(Gaelic meaning "a treasure") is
a beautiful interpretation of some of the Scottish Gaelic songs that
have
become part of
Mary Jane
is an experienced and internationally respected artist within the
Celtic and
world music genres. She is a leader in the preservation of Celtic
heritage, and
her expertise in the Gaelic culture has garnered her critical acclaim
worldwide. She has
earned several Juno and East Coast Music Award nominations and
awards for
her unique style that combines traditional Gaelic songs with modern
musical
arrangements. Mary
Jane also composes and produces music for television, feature films and
specialty projects. Mary
Jane has developed a worldwide
audience touring extensively throughout the United States ,
Canada
and the
Greg
Malone is a
cynic philosopher in the tradition of Diogenes and Lenny Bruce and, as
one of
the original founders of CODCO,
is
perhaps best known for the CODCO
TV series and his wicked impersonations of political icons like
George
Bush, the Queen and, of course, Barbara Frum.
He has received many awards for writing, performing and directing,
including a dozen Gemini Awards. His wildly funny one man special for
the
Comedy Channel, Pocket Queen,
picked
up the Gold Award for Comedy
at the 1999 Houston International Film and
Television Festival.
As a
political activist, he is
recognized across
Richard Buxton heads up
a small firm in Cambridge, England specialising in environmental and public
law, mainly for claimants annoyed by the activities of others, usually
from intrusion from built developments of all sorts, and aircraft and
other noise nuisance. Controlling unlawful development has involved a
string of cases relating to environmental impact assessment, including
a very recent (May 2006) decision of the European Court of Justice which
the Court of Appeal six years ago had said involved a proposition that
would “turn planning law in England on its head”. His firm
continues concerned with night flights at Heathrow and many noise nuisance
problems, ranging from an all-night store beneath a client’s bedroom
to Britain’s best known theme park, Alton Towers. He is presently
disputing whether the safety of a huge project to import liquefied natural
gas (LNG) into the UK has been looked at properly, displeasing the authorities,
two consortia of oil companies, and the courts themselves. Work has brought
some fairness in favour of claimants to judicial review time limits, and
his firm is now focussed on other-side’s-costs issues including
protective costs orders and the requirements of the Aarhus Convention.
Percy Schmeiser is a farmer
from Bruno Saskatchewan Canada whose Canola
fields were contaminated with Monsanto's
Round-Up Ready Canola. Monsanto's position was that it didn't matter
whether Schmeiser knew or not that his canola field was contaminated
with the Roundup Ready gene, or whether or not he took advantage of
the technology (he didn't); that he must pay Monsanto their Technology
Fee.
Heather
Eaton
Professor, Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in ecology, feminism and theology from the University of St. Michael's College, Toronto School of Theology, and a Master's of Divinity.
Engaged in religious responses to the ecological crisis, particularly the relationship between ecological, feminist and liberation theologies. Committed to interreligious responses to ecological crisis.
Taught courses in these areas at St Michael's College, T.S.T.; Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University; and Saint Paul University.
Involved in conferences, workshops, teaching and publishing in these areas.
Dr. Ransom A. Myers (RAM) was recently selected by Fortune Magazine as one of the world's "Top Ten to Watch": people who will change the way the world operates over the next 75 years. The prominent business magazine predicts that Myers' work on fish population dynamics and the depletion of sharks, tuna and other fish species will foster "new and better ways to husband the wealth beneath the sea." Dr. Myers has carried out fundamental work on the causes of the collapse of fish stocks, with a particular focus on the cod stocks of Eastern Canada. The author of over 150 scientific publications, Dr. Myers is currently working on models for the extinction of salmon, sharks, and marine turtles.
Bill Phipps is currently one of the ministers at Scarboro United Church in Calgary. He was Moderator of the United Church of Canada (1997-2000) and is an International President of the World Conference on Religion and Peace.
Bill has had a varied career as a lawyer, community organizer, hospital chaplain, adult educator, and minister. He served two congregations in Toronto before moving to Alberta in 1983 to serve in an administrative position for the United Church of Canada. He has an abiding involvement in social justice work, particularly with interfaith partners. He is one of the founders of the Faith and the Common Good network, an effort to bring together interfaith partners in seeking the common good. He serves on the Boards of the Parkland Institute and the United Church Observer.
Steven Shrybman iis a partner in the law firm of Sack, Goldblatt and Mitchell and practices international trade and public interest law in Ottawa, Canada. Mr. Shrybman has practiced environmental law for over twenty years, and immediately before establishing practice in Ottawa, served as the executive director of the West Coast Environmental Law Association.
Mr. Shrybman has been retained to provide advice and
representation to a diversity of civil society and labour groups, both
nationally and internationally. A significant portion of his practice
is devoted these days to the defence of public services, from water
treatment facilities in Vancouver, health care institutions in several
provinces, to Hydro One in Ontario.
Guy Dauncey is an impassioned speaker, author, and sustainable communities consultant who works to develop a positive vision of a sustainable future, and to translate that vision into action.
He is author of
the award-winning book Stormy Weather: 101 Solutions to Global
Climate
Change, and other titles. He is currently co-authoring a new book
entitled Cancer:
101 Solutions to a Preventable Epidemic?, which will be published
in Spring
2007, and he is co-chair of Prevent Cancer Now, a new Canadian
non-profit
society.
He is President
of the BC Sustainable Energy Association (www.bcsea.org),
and Editor of EcoNews, a monthly newsletter that promotes the
vision of
a sustainable
Dr.
Ronald Colman is founder
and executive director of
Mary Evelyn Tucker is a co-founder and co-director of the Forum on
She is the author of Worldly Wonder: Religions Enter Their Ecological
She received her PhD from Columbia
Mary Evelyn is currently a Research Associate at the Harvard-
1997-2000.
Rachel
Plotkin
decided to become a forest campaigner while living in
Stuart Myiow Jr. was born to the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk national and is a representative of the Mohawk Traditional Coucil. He has been working with community and environmental issues for the past twenty years.
Stephane Bruneau works for Parks Canada as a Senior Heritage Presentation Specialist for Species at Risk. He recently collaborated with the Canadian Wildlife Service in developing and delivering an introductory training on social marketing for species at risk recovery teams.
Tim Morris is a PhD student in the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia. He received a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Exeter, UK, and a Master of Laws from the University of British Columbia. His research to date has focused on international and domestic law and policy relating to the allocation of groundwater in the Great Lakes Basin. Following his work in this area he was awarded a Water Policy Fellowship from the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation, a fellowship designed to connect university research with the environmental NGO community. Pursuant to this fellowship, Tim partnered with the Canadian Institute of Environmental Law and Policy, with whom he co-authored a number of articles and policy reports relating to groundwater issues in the Great Lakes Basin. The focus of Tim’s PhD research is the connection between water and democracy, in particular, how concern for effective water governance is leading to the development of new and evolving democratic mechanisms.
Tony Maas 
has been involved in water issues for over a decade. Early in his career Tony spent a number of years in the water treatment field working on projects in China, the UK and throughout North America. He earned the Governor General’s Silver Medal while completing his Bachelor of Environmental Science (2002) at Royal Roads University. In March 2003 he joined the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance at the University of Victoria, as a research analyst with the group’s Sustainable Water Policy Team.
Currently, Tony splits his time between his work with POLIS and his graduate studies in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo where his research focuses on water governance; in particular, on policy and planning for addressing ecosystem needs for water. In 2006, he took the plunge and entered Federal politics, running as the Green Party Candidate in the riding of Kitchener-Centre.
Rev. Ted Reeve, ThD is a religious social ethicist with special interests in economics, health and ecology. He is Program Coordinator, Leadership & Theological Education, The United Church of Canada and Executive Director of Faith & the Common Good. He tries to practice what he preaches by doing some organic farming with fish, berries and vegetables.
Rod Muir is a recovering marketing executive in the foodservice and grocery industries, (great exposure to packaging and organics) and the individual responsible for Kentucky Fried Chicken home delivery service (garbage collection tough ha! - try 30 minutes or it’s free), Rod Muir brings a unique perspective of the solutions to the challenge of diverting residual solid waste.
As the Founder of Waste Diversion Canada and the Waste Diversion Campaigner for the Sierra Club of Canada, Rod is hoping to put his evil powers to good and is providing recommendations to various levels of government regarding their waste diversion efforts - he just wishes they would listen more!
Diana Cartwright has promoted environmental initiatives and sustainability in various faith communities across Ottawa. She is on the national advisory committee for Faith and the Common Good (FCG), an interfaith organization focussed on re-establishing our sacred relationships with the Earth and with each other, and was a founding member of the local Ottawa chapter. She represented the Baha'i Community of Canada at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 and continues to advise on sustainable development issues.
Diana works at Environment Canada as a senior policy advisor for the Sustainable Consumption Branch in the National Office of Pollution Prevention. Previously she worked for the Delphi Group, a consulting company, where she managed The EXCEL Partnership, an organization of business environmental leaders from across Canada.
Prior to obtaining a degree in Environmental Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, she performed across Canada as a professional dancer, actor and singer.
Dorothy Goldin-Rosenberg