Angelo DiCaro
Angelo is a national staff representative in Communications with the Canadian Auto Workers union (CAW), the largest private sector union in the country. Angelo is also the CAW young workers liaison and sits on the Executive Council of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition (CYCC). He received his Masters of Industrial Relations degree from the University of Toronto in 2006 and holds a degree in Labour Studies and Sociology from York University (2004). A labour activist prior to coming on staff, Angelo held a number of elected union positions as a member of CAW Local 414 while working as a part-time meat clerk at Dominion Stores in Toronto.
Tria Donaldson
Tria loves building community through activism. And Karaoke, but luckily for you Power Shift involved activism, and not karaoke – because her conference organizing skills are much more well honed then her singing skills. Tria first got bit by the organizing bug in elementary school, where she sat on a committee to naturalize her schols land scapes. Since then she has worked a numerous social justice and environmental causes – like access to education, anti-racism, and campus sustainability. Tria is very passionate about addressing climate change in a fair an equitable manner that also addressing systemic oppression and inequality. She is an active volunteer with several organizations, including the Sierra Youth Coalition and CYCC. She has recently been accepted to be part of the Canadian Youth Delegation to COP 15 and she is very, very excited. In her spare time, Tria works for goBeyond, a youth driven climate project that works with 12 post-secondary institutions in BC. Tria spends too much time working and is currently taking time off of her Bachelor of Journalsim at Thompson Rivers University. And she likes trying to grow food. I am very passionate about addressing climate change in a fair an equitable manner that also addressing systemic oppression and inequality. Green jobs, and a just transition to a clean energy economy are integral pieces to climate solutions. I am also lucky enough to have a green job of my own – I work for goBeyond, a youth driven climate project that works with 12 post-secondary institutions in BC.
Jeca Glor-Bell
Jeca is the President of the Sierra Club Canada National Board (2007 – present) and is working with the UBC Sustainability Office on the university’s Sustainability Academic Strategy. Jeca is currently on the Budget Allocation Board for the Energy Action Coalition, a coalition of more than 40 organizations from across the US and Canada, which she co-founded and led with other youth seeking to help support and strengthen the student and youth clean energy movement in North America. . She also co-founded the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition in 2006, to mobilize a united front of youth from across Canada to tackle the biggest challenge of our generation, the emerging climate crisis. At that time she was working as the Boreal Network Organizer for Greenpeace Canada’s Kleercut Campaign – a hard-hitting grassroots campaign that is putting pressure on Kimberly-Clark to improve its business practices and stop destroying ancient forests. . She worked for the Sierra Youth Coalition (2003-2005) as the first Ontario Regional Coordinator for the Sustainable Campuses Project helping to build that project nationally through fundraising, program development, and staff training. Why does she do it? To build a community of active citizens who have the knowledge, tools and support to change our world and make it better for people and the planet.
Andrea Peart
Andrea has been a committed environmental and political activist for all of her life. Formerly the Director of Health and Environment with the Sierra Club of Canada, one of Canada’s foremost environmental organizations, Andrea has intervened in two Supreme Court of Canada cases, helped a number of communities pass by-laws restricting the cosmetic use of pesticides among other successes. Andrea has worked with the Canadian Labour Congress for 4 years working primarily in government relations, energy policy and on women’s issues before setting in as the National Representative, Health Safety and Environment. She is an labour and environmental researcher and advocate who has been focusing on green job creation and the urgent need for Canada to act on the climate crisis.Often looking broadly at greening our economy, Andrea has long advocated for green job creation in Canada. Firmly believing that we live in an unsustainable economy which is already starting to have a devastating effect on nature, human health, well-being and employment; Andrea advocates the need to move to a sustainable economy to achieve a sustainable environment that is local, low-carbon and toxic free. Andrea focuses on ensuring green jobs are decent family-supporting jobs not wind farms on Walmarts. This includes emphasizing food security, green jobs for women and women’s economic equality along with strong anti-globalization perspective. Andrea lives in Ottawa.
Ben Powless
Ben is of Mohawk and Ojibwe ancestry, having grown up in Ottawa. He is in his 6th (yes, 6th) year of his undergrad degree, having switched programs and universities four times before settling on Human Rights, Indigenous and Environmental Studies at Carleton University. Way back when, he was even a co-founder of the CYCC, and went on to start a successful Ottawa chapter before it went dormant. He has been employed by and sat on the board of the Youth Environmental Network (now defunct), and the National Council of the Canadian Environmental Network. He works as well with the Indigenous Environmental Network on issues of climate justice. He applied and was recently accepted as a Green For All Fellow, where he took a training program focused on campaigning and communicating the Green Jobs message. Since then, he has been pushing for strong green jobs and green economy campaigns and programs in Canada, especially focused on First Nations communities. He is often found hopping from meeting to meeting around the world, taking photos as he goes. He also loves learning languages, speaks Spanish and a reasonable amount of Brazilian Portuguese and French.
Lynzii Taibossigai
Aanii, boozhoo! Lyndsay Taibossigai ndizhnikaz, M’Chigeeng First Nation miinwaa Mnidoo Mnis ndoo jibaa. Anishnaabe kwe ndaaw Hi, greetings! My name is Lyndsay Taibossigai, I’m from M’Chigeeng First Nation and Manitoulin Island. I’m an Anishnaabe woman. I’m 26 years old and currently studying Indigenous Environmental Studies at Trent University. In recognizing the lack of environmental stewardship in my home community, especially in regards to waste management, I founded the Love Shkakmig-kwe (Mother Earth) Project in Spring of 2008. It has created more environmental awareness at a grassroots level through community presentations, events, and action. This Spring, a youth component was added, the Love Shkakmig-kwe Youth Action Team. We learn together about sustainabilty, alternative building and energy and continuously strive for a better waste management program within our community. Our most significant event this year was the Earth RUN/WALK which was held on Earth Day, in conjunction with the Earth RUN in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa … it was a great success! I have a big family and loads of friends whom I enjoy visiting as often as I can, I love being gojiing (outside), photography, craft making, music & dancing and ultimate passion is learning! I love to travel and have been all over Ontario, central Canada and Costa Rica, Italy and Guyana – where I completed a 6 month youth internship through Ghost River Rediscovery and taught at the Bina Hill Institute, in the North Rupununi. I hope to share my enthusiasm, hope and love of Shkakmig-kwe with youth from all over this beautiful world, miigwech.
Daniel T’Seleie
Daniel is a K’asho Got’ine Dene from Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. He was raised in Fort Good Hope and Yellowknife, and spent much of his young life on the land with his family. After graduating from Sir John Franklin High School, Daniel left the north to study mathematics and physics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He graduated in 2007 with a BSc in Mathematical Sciences. Daniel’s past employment experiences have been varied and interesting; he has worked in the north as a labourer in a diamond mine, a photojournalist, a government policy officer and a math teacher. In 2008 Daniel settled into a job at Ecology North, a small, non-profit NGO based in Yellowknife that supports sound environmental decision making. In his role as a climate change planner, Daniel is working with the Tlicho Government to help Tlicho communities prepare climate change adaptation plans. As a Sahtu Dene and lifelong northerner, Daniel is dedicated to preserving and protecting the land that he loves. He regularly takes time off work to go hunting with his father and brother, and has traveled and hunted in many regions of the NWT. Daniel also enjoys reading, writing and music.