Does the Provincial Government of British Columbia Legally Recognize the Existence of Any Lobby?
The Executive Director of the Urban Development Institute Capital Region, told View Royal Council during public input: “UDI is not a lobbying group.” Not only is the UDI a legally registered lobbying group, according to the BC Lobbyists Registry but the Executive Director…
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Creatively United 2023 Wrapped
We connected with more of you in 2023 739 Instagram followers 1574 YouTube subscribers 3.3k Facebook followers 30,000 unique website visitors gave our website 165,000 hits 279 organizations on CreativelyUnited.Org ‘s PairUp Directory We reached new heights with our... Read More
Reflecting On 50 Years In The Service Of Good Health, With More To Come
The end of the year is always a time for reflection, but more so this past year, which has been significant for me in four key ways. First and foremost, I turned 75. That’s three-quarters of a century, and that’s given me pause for thought — I really am getting old!
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Neoliberal Elite Need a Christmas Carol-Style Conversion
It’s that time of year, when Charles Dickens’ story of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Cratchit family is everywhere. But it’s not just a charming story of how a mean old curmudgeon sees the light and becomes a kindly old gent and a generous benefactor to his employee, Bob Cratchit.
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Sustainable Gift Guide 2023: For Family, Friends and Loved Ones
Here is our list of sustainable gift ideas for this holiday season! There are lots of ways to show the people in your life that you care while being conscious of your consumption and environmental impact Leave us a comment below with your ideas USEFUL • Break the... Read MoreAmnesty International Condemns Canadian Government and RCMP
Amnesty Canada has just issued a research report that documents and condemns a years-long campaign of violence, harassment, and racial discrimination inflicted upon the Wet’suwet’en Nation in British Columbia (B.C.). The land defenders at today’s press conference have... Read More
What To Watch, Read, & Listen To – Climate Action and COP28
WHAT IS COP28? COP is attended by industry stakeholders, politicians, researchers and scholars, Indigenous stakeholders, NGOs and other members of civil society. However, these groups are not given the same representation and privileges at COP events and negotiations.... Read MorePublic Narrative Managed by Marketing Firm
I just finished a stellar expose of the world’s most powerful global consulting firm with claims to be the most prestigious – McKinsey and Company. The book, When McKinsey Comes to Town, by New York Times journalists Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe, is a... Read MoreRemembrance Day For Refugees
A call to care ever more deeply, widely. To see the interelated critical issues facing the world: Seven young activists who refuse to remain silent and inactive. A call for all of us to support them in their passions.
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Non-Profits Save Big with Fee-Free Service
Do you know of a non-profit organization that could use a break when it comes to credit card, event and donation fees? Creatively United has saved a small fortune in these types of fees thanks to a wonderful service we discovered called Zeffy. Zeffy is the only... Read More
Our Planet No Longer Has the Privilege of Supporting War
Our planet no longer has the privilege of supporting war- the waste, the proliferation of exploded armaments, the damage to infrastructure. War in 2023 should be illegal from a planetary safety point of view. The world should not allow War to destroy the fragile... Read MoreA Powerful Message on Old Growth Protection
A powerful message on protecting BC’s last remaining old growth forests (and biodiversity), featuring Elder Bill Jones. (…with a working link to a 5 min video of the ‘Protest Art’ Exhibit/Event at Metchosin School, Sep. 28.) Feel free to... Read More
Joe Brewer, Cultural Evolution and Bioregional Regeneration
I first came across Joe Brewer’s work some years ago in an article he wrote critiquing the failure of universities to address in a comprehensive manner the complex ecological, social and cultural challenges we face. He began his 2017 article “Why Are Universities Failing Humanity?” with this statement…
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Where the Olive Trees Grow
The Wisdom of Tree Symbology, a poem. Living on the plains of hope and dotted throughout the hills, The ancient olive tree is standing oh so still, Its roots have survived over all these years, Bearing fruit that when pressed cries salt free tears, A national tree shared by two feuding nations…
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Thinking Globally, Acting Locally — and Bioregionally
I have spent the last couple of months exploring the global polycrisis and the set of responses — great turnarounds — proposed in the Earth For All report. But what, you might reasonably ask, does this all mean for us here in the Greater Victoria region? How can its concepts be translated into local action?
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The Economy Must Serve the People and Respect the Earth’s Limits
Earth For All is the title of a September 2022 report from the Transformational Economics Commission to the Club of Rome. It is also “an international initiative to accelerate the systems-change we need for an equitable future on a finite planet.”
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Zoning is the Magic Wand of Local Government
Last month, a Leger poll showed only six per cent of Canadians blame the country’s onerous housing costs on municipalities. As local government, we must remember we are the most powerful level of government for affordability and environmental sustainability because of... Read More
Artist, Speaker, Community Engagement Specialist
Get the tools you need to use collaborative art to ignite change in your communities! This virtual Masterclass explores the transformative power of art and how it can create change in your school, community, city, and beyond!
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Earth For All Requires The Empowerment Of Women
The report’s authors stress the need for improvement in “women’s access to education, economic opportunities and dignified jobs, and all life’s chances that these bring.” The education and empowerment of women and their involvement in the economy, they note, is strongly linked to reduced fertility rates and a reduction in population size.
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News Is Blocked On Social Media in Canada… Now What?
Did you hear? Meta and Google are blocking news in Canada in response to the Online News Act (Bill C-18). It’s scary living in a time when companies have so much power over what news we take in online. We aren’t exactly sure what to do about it, but here are some... Read More
Toward A Just Transformation To Earth For All
In the past few weeks, I have been stressing the need for a rapid transformation of our society if we are to ensure people around the world can have good lives within planetary boundaries. A recent article in a (British) Royal Society journal by Prof. Timothy Lenton, a leading Earth-system scientist…
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The Great Transformation We Need Must Be Socially Just
Last week I looked at the 1977 Science Council of Canada report “Canada as a Conserver Society.” The report recommended “Canadians as individuals, and their governments, institutions, and industries, begin the transition from a consumer society preoccupied with resource exploitation to a conserver society engaged in more constructive endeavours.”
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Transforming Communities with Art: A Toolkit for Educators & Leaders
This Masterclass explores the transformative power of art and how it can create change in your school, community, city, and beyond! Are you struggling to create real impact in the communities you serve? In this free 3-day virtual workshop we will give you the tools... Read More
Ecological Sanity Must Be Linked to Social Justice
More than a decade ago, a group of Earth system scientists developed the concept of planetary boundaries. They identified a set of a dozen or so Earth systems and proposed thresholds for each system beyond which it was likely that the system’s stability and resilience would be compromised.
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June 21st is National Indigenous Day
Today is #nationalindigenouspeoplesday It is a day to celebrate indigenous heritage, cultures and art, but it is also a day for settlers to get educated, give back, and join in solidarity Appreciating other cultures is important, but it is our responsibility as... Read More
One Planet Student Challenge Winners Celebrated
A total of $1,000 was handed out to the winners of the One Planet Student Challenge competition during a ceremony at the Cedar Hill Golf Course on June 8. Part of the One Planet BC initiative, the challenge is in collaboration with the District of Saanich and... Read More
AI — The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
There is much discussion about the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for humanity. Many of its impacts are likely to be good — AI has already helped develop new and better antibiotics — but not all of them, and some may be downright ugly.
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A Well-being Society Values All Four Forms of Capital
We may be economically better off, but we are not much better off in human and social development terms, and we are eating away at the Earth’s life-support systems on which we ultimately depend. Clearly, we need a new economic system, one based on growing all four forms of capital — natural, human, social and produced (or economic) capital — simultaneously.
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Edge Prize Announcement
Local Salish Sea activists Brandon Letsinger and Clare Attwell, announced as the Systems and Governance Edge Prize Winners – for their recently launched Regenerate Cascadia initiative.
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Maybe we should try real capitalism for a change
The mistake is to see capital largely or only in economic terms, either as financial capital (money, stocks and bonds etc.) or as produced capital — the stuff we produce and own, from trinkets to cities. Hence the heavy focus on the economy, on GDP, on economic growth and the price of stocks and shares, on wages and benefits.
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Asian Heritage Month
Ella here to talk about #asianheritagemonth ! Asian Heritage Month started on May 1 and “ends” on May 31 (although it is important to think about Asian history every day of the year). It has been celebrated in so-called Canada since the 1990s! The theme for 2023 is... Read More
Elders for Ancient Forests May 2023
We’re on the cusp of seasons changing, saying goodbye to spring and moving into summer. Farewell fawn lilies, orchids, shooting stars, flowering red currant. Welcome sword ferns unfurling towards sunlight, the delicate white bottle brush flowers of vanilla leaf,... Read More
Red Dress Day
Today, May 5th, is Red Dress Day, a day to honour the spirits of #mmiwg2s and to take action to bring them justice. If you are a settler in so-called Canada, please take today to read the findings from the national inquiry into MMIWG and to learn the calls for... Read More
Eat My Dust: Bikes Beat Cars at Commuter Challenge
At 8:30am “The Race to The Leg” concluded – and what a race it was! Mayors, Councillors, Ministers, and local celebrities raced for glory to see who would cross the finish line first– the bike or the car? The result: 17 bike wins, 1 car win , and 2 teams tied! The... Read More
Continual growth is completely unsustainable and heightens inequality
Last week I discussed some of the problems that result from our focus on the economy rather than on ecologically sustainable human and social development. This week, I turn to a more in-depth exploration of the impacts of continual economic growth, and in particular the way in which growth, if unchecked, will dramatically increase inequality.
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Where We Are and What’s Next
It’s been three weeks since the RBC AGM and our national fossil fool’s day mobilization. What did we collectively achieve, and what’s next? We went from 8% of shareholder support to … 26% At last year’s RBC AGM, a single resolution called for the bank to clarify its... Read More
We need to get over our obsession with the economy
I recently came across an eloquent and powerful passage by Carl Sagan, the famed cosmologist, written in response to an image of Earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990, from beyond the planet Neptune. The Earth was just a pale blue dot, which inspired the title of his 1994 book from which the following passage is quoted. Sagan wrote: “You see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us…
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Population growth is only part of the problem
In last week’s column, I discussed the findings of the recent report from Earth4All concerning population growth. Judging by several thoughtful and concerned responses from readers, I fear I did not do a great job, so I will revisit the report’s ideas and, I hope, somewhat clarify what is a complex issue and argument.
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A Local Guide To Participating in Earth Week
Highlighting actions and events related to art, nature, and social justice happening in Victoria, in BC and remotely! Check out the events below and browse the Community Events Calendar for more! What is Earth Week? • The first Earth Day, inspired by protests of the... Read MoreMove the dial on biodiversity at your city council!
This is a key moment for us to ensure the many plants and animals that call B.C. home can thrive. And you can help! Local governments have the power to adopt or amend bylaws that support greater biodiversity, and it is up to us residents to urge them to take action.... Read More
Creatively United Earth Day Events
Special Film Preview Creatively United for the Planet, in partnership with Climate and the Arts, presents the special Earth Day preview of our newest film, Changing Course: A River’s Journey of Reconnection. This 60-minute documentary features stunning footage by... Read More
Migrant Rights Protest
On Sunday March 19th, 2023, protestors in Vancouver, Victoria, Edmonton and other provinces across Canada, came together to demand rights for all migrants. The protest was put on by the Migrant Rights Network, and in Edmonton (where I was in attendance, photos below)... Read More
One Planet Challenge 2023
The Capital Regional District, District of Saanich and City of Victoria are very pleased to invite all Middle and Secondary School students (Grade 6-12) in Greater Victoria to participate in the One Planet Living Student Challenge. This One Planet BC contest is led by... Read More
United for Old Growth Rally Recap
Thousands of people from all over Vancouver Island and the Mainland braved the cold to show their support for protecting and preserving British Columbia’s at this week’s Old Growth Forest Rally. Douglas and Government Streets in Victoria were closed down for more than 45 minutes as people streamed in filling the streets from the length of City Hall to the Parliament Buildings.
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Why you should know and be concerned about C-IRG
C-IRG emulates and supports a structure of quasi-fascism within Canadian government and policing, however many citizens are unaware of this government funded group. This post hopes to raise awareness and gain community support.
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Voices in Motion choristers serenade local little free library
On Wednesday, February 22, 2023, the Voices in Motion Choral Society and Greater Victoria Placemaking Network launched region-wide distribution of I Remember, a book by student author Priscila Kumar that focuses on the power of singing and what it can do for those... Read MoreRSVP for our Youth Climate Corps event!
This event, featuring Anjali Appadurai, Seth Klein, Naomi Klein, Juan Vargas Alba (& others to be announced), will be a place to learn more about this campaign and plans to win a Climate Corps (nationally and in BC and Alberta). Plus, we will be debuting an... Read More
Whose Land is This, Anyway?
Welcome to Home on Native Land, a self-guided course about Indigenous justice in Canada. Through a series of 10 videos, cartoons & lessons, take a walk down the back alley of history — and the frontlines of legal action — with Anishinaabe comedian Ryan McMahon.... Read More