Speakers

Cathy Jones Cathy Jones

At 18 years old, Cathy joined Tommy Sexton, Greg Malone, Mary Walsh, and Dyan Olsen in Toronto to look for work in theatre and there in the fall of 1973, they formed the infamous comedy troupe CODCO. In 1992, Jones, comic Rick Mercer and former CODCO co-stars Mary Walsh and Greg Thomey created a new television series, This Hour Has 22 Minutes. She plays many unique characters on the show, and is known for playing both men and women often at the extreme edges of gender identity. Some of her more well known characters include Mrs. Enid, Babe Bennett, and Joe Crow. As of 2005 Jones is the only remaining original cast member of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Cathy has been a Green supporter for many years and has offered her services to the party on a few occasions.

Kevin Page Kevin Page

Kevin Page is the current Jean-Luc Pepin Research Chair in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ottawa.  He was Canada's first Parliamentary Budget Officer from 2008 to 2013. He has 27 years of experience in the federal public service with most of those years spent at three central agencies responsible for budgeting including the Department of Finance, the Treasury Board Secretariat and the Privy Council Office. He was the Assistant Secretary to Cabinet for Macroeconomic Policy before becoming Canada's Parliamentary Budget Officer. He has a Master's degree in Economics from Queen's University. He is married and a father of three children.

Michael MacMillan Michael MacMillan

Co-founder and Chair of Samara

Michael is the co-founder and chair of Samara, a non-partisan charity that works to improve political participation in Canada. In 1978, Michael MacMillan co-founded Atlantis Films Limited with fellow Queen’s grads Seaton McLean and Janice Platt. He was Chairman and CEO of Atlantis (which later became Alliance Atlantis) for almost 30 years. Alliance Atlantis owned 13 Canadian television networks including HGTV Canada, History and Showcase and produced television series including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In the early years, the company won an Oscar for its short film Boys and Girls. The company was sold in 2007. In 2011, Michael co-founded and is CEO of Blue Ant Media, a new Canadian media company. Blue Ant owns eight Canadian specialty television channels, as well as digital media properties and magazines, including Cottage Life.  He is also the co-owner of Closson Chase Vineyard and Winery in Prince Edward County, Ontario.

David Coon

David was elected leader of the New Brunswick Green Party on September 21, 2012. He and his wife Janice live in Fredericton with their two daughters Caroline and Laura. Holding a Bachelor of Science from McGill University, David worked as an environmental educator, organizer, activist and manager for 33 years, 28 of those years with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick (CCNB). While at the Conservation Council he spearheaded initiatives to establish community-based approaches to fisheries and forest management. His work to safeguard drinking water in New Brunswick helped the organization earn the United Nations Environmental Programme's Global 500 award and resulted in the passing of the Clean Water Act.

On the national level, David has served as Chair of the Canadian Climate Action Network, the Canadian Environmental Network, as well as the Official Board of the Oak Bay Pastoral Charge of the United Church of Canada. He is a founder of the New Brunswick Community Land Trust. David has also been the Director of the Ganong Nature Park. David was elected to serve on the Green Party's federal council on 2009 and again in 2011.

Bruce Hyer Bruce Hyer

Bruce Hyer's past professions include terrestrial ecologist, caribou biologist, bush pilot, ecotourism entrepreneur and consultant, forester, businessperson, environmental analyst, and adjudicator for the Ontario Environmental Appeal Board. He was elected to federal Parliament as an NDP member in 2008 and 2011.

After Jack Layton's death, the party punished him for standing up for his constituents on several issues. He decided he could better represent his constituents as an Independent MP and left the NDP caucus in April 2012. On December 13, 2013, he joined the Green Party as their second MP and Deputy Leader. His reasons are that they have the best platform, the best leader, and are the only truly democratic party in Ottawa to allow him to vote primarily in the best interests of his constituents.

Bruce has introduced more legislation than all the previous MP’s from Thunder Bay-Superior North… combined. He is particularly focused upon electoral and parliamentary reform, along with Carbon Fee and Dividend as a good way to reduce CO2 while also providing a minimum income to every Canadian.

He is pleased and proud to be married to Margaret Wanlin, a well-known consultant and facilitator in governance, strategic planning, and natural resource management. Their son, Michael, attends Carleton University.

Holly Dressel Holly Dressel

Best-Selling Author, Teacher, Environmentalist and Researcher

Best-selling author and researcher, Holly Dressel is an Adjunct Professor at the McGill School of the Environment and one of Canada's most recognized names in teaching, health care, environmental studies, economic concerns and aboriginal issues.

Dressel is best known for her work with celebrated environmentalist David Suzuki on film and radio programs, as well as the three books they have written together: From Naked Ape to Super-species, Good News for a Change and More Good News. Holly Dressel is also the author of the only comprehensive research work on the history and current status of the Canadian health care system, Who Killed the Queen? The Story of a Community Hospital and How to Fix Health Care. She is also the writer, producer, broadcaster or researcher for many radio and television series and documentaries on nature and social issues, mostly done for CBC and the NFB. Professor Dressel is a journalist, public speaker and media expert on a variety of subjects, including public health, economic systems, biodiversity and habitat preservation, indigenous and traditional systems, and the dangers of industrial agriculture, including genetic engineering.

Dressel has worked for many years with native and traditional communities around the world, from the Quebec Cree and Mohawk to the people of Colombia’s Choco, West Africa and the Kerala region of India.

Thomas J. Duck Thomas J. Duck

Atmospheric science, Environment, Science policy

Tom Duck earned his Ph.D. in Physics (1999) at York University, where he studied the dynamics of the Arctic stratosphere. After spending two-and-a-half years at MIT Haystack Observatory in Boston, Massachusetts, he joined the faculty at Dalhousie University where he is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics and Atmospheric Science.

While at Dalhousie he co-founded the Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC) which operates the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) in the High Arctic at Eureka (Nunavut). His research group built an advanced remote-controlled lidar (laser radar) system for PEARL that is used to study climate change processes and Arctic pollution.

He was an International Science Team Co-Investigator and lidar specialist on the Phoenix Mars Scout mission that detected water and snowfall on Mars in 2008.  Over the past few years he has been an advocate for science and evidence-based policy making. His work on raising awareness about federal government cutbacks and the loss of scientific capacity at Environment Canada, and in particular the closure of its world-renowned ozone group, earned him the 2011 Neil J. Campbell medal from the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Thomas Duck is a fellow of the Broadbent Institute.

Chris Lea Chris Lea

Chris Lea, B.E.S, B.Arch., M.Ed., M.R.A.I.C. is a design creative who advocates for well-proportioned low-energy buildings. Chris has had an interest in the environment since he was a teenager. After developing a taste for politics as a volunteer with the infamous gay magazine The Body Politic in the early 1980s, Chris joined the Greens in 1987, serving as Leader of the Green Party of Canada from 1990 to 1996 and then as its Chief Agent for a couple years after that. He organized an election for the World Green Coordination in 1992. For the last decade he has helped to run the Toronto City Opera, first as VP, now as President. Chris gets around a lot, using many types of transportation technologies, some of which give him eco-guilt, which he offsets with various investments in green technologies that reduce carbon pollution. Chris likes biking and swimming, and has recently become somewhat involved with Toronto’s Kaiser Cleats soccer club.

Passive House Past and Future: Chris Lea will tie Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring with the 1973 energy crisis and the rise of green parties to the development of buildings that have the ability to radically reduce carbon pollution from the most carbon-polluting sector of the economy, doing this without much impact on people’s lifestyles other than creating environments that are healthier to live, play or work in than the vast majority of the buildings we are building now.

Brenda Sayers

As Hupacasath First Nation’s portfolio holder for the Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), Brenda Sayers lives on Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

Her large family includes 2 sisters and 2 brothers. After helping to raise 3 of her 9 nieces and nephews, Brenda’s 84 year old father now resides with her.

As the Financial Administrator of Haahuupayak School, an independent school teaching Nuu-chah-nulth language, song and dance to First Nations children, Brenda has a deep respect for First Nations education. In 2012, following a sixteen-year struggle, Brenda and her colleagues finally achieved full funding for the community school she cherishes.

Alerted to the Canada-China FIPA via Elizabeth May’s website, Brenda was astounded that our Federal Government would enter into such a dangerous agreement. She noted how Premiers of every Province, empowered to challenge FIPA, were not coming forward to protect their citizens.

Once Brenda learned First Nations rights and title could be impacted by FIPA, she approached her Chief and Council to examine the risks for her nation and later to begin a major court and public awareness battle.

Hupacasath First Nation is currently challenging the federal government for failure to consult under Section 35 of the Constitution. As well, Hupacasath’s “We Stand Together” campaign continues to work to protect the rights and freedoms of ALL people of Canada.