U of A campus & Livestream • November 15–17, 2024

Saturday

Saturday, November 16

Plenary 1

9:00-10:15 AM

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Strategic Response Workshop: Countering Far-Right Populist Tactics and Coordinating Collective Action

Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah

This presentation will provide an overview of far-right tactics and strategy, and how progressive movements can coordinate collective action to respond.

Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah is the Co-Director of Policy and Advocacy at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights. Before joining Action Canada, she was the Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Gender & Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) and has been instrumental in advancing the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ youth and communities. She has held several advocacy and policy-oriented positions in government and non-profit organizations, including Oxfam Canada and Global Affairs Canada.

Breakout Sessions

10:45 - 12:00 PM

Session 1a
Labour in Alberta: Where Now? with Quinn Benders and Kim Siever
Kim Siever

Alberta Workers are Falling Behind

Kim Siever

Highlight the state of labour legislation and bargaining in the province, specifically for the public sector, identify current challenges and pressure points, and offer suggestions for improving conditions going forward.

Kim Siever is a labour journalist with The Alberta Worker, an independent, startup media outlet that focuses on labour and politics. He also uses his platform to advocate for the working class.

Quinn Benders

Perspectives From the Front Lines: Bargaining in Alberta, 2024

Quinn Benders

This talk will offer a look at the challenges and strategies faced by Public-sector unions in Alberta as they navigate the bargaining landscape in 2024. Drawing on experiences from the frontline, the discussion will highlight key issues such as government-imposed austerity measures, secret bargaining mandates, and threats to the constitutional right to strike. Speakers will explore how unions are standing firm in their fight for fair wages, job security, and respect for workers' rights across public sectors. The talk will emphasize the importance of solidarity, strategic alliances, and grassroots mobilization as unions confront these challenges and demand a fair deal for their members in the face of mounting political pressure.

Quinn Benders (he/him) is currently serving his second term as President of the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA), bringing years of union involvement to the role. His leadership is defined by a focus on member engagement, promoting equity and access, democratic renewal and building strategic alliances. Additionally, Quinn has a long-standing passion for community organizing with the hopes of fostering meaningful change.

Session 1B
Conflict Revolution: A Workshop on Embracing Conflict, with Julie Hrdlicka and Katie Loutitt
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Conflict Revolution: A Workshop on Embracing Conflict

Julie Hrdlicka

Today, our relationships are filled with friction and frustration as we struggle to discuss critical issues like climate change, inequality, and democracy. How can we engage in meaningful conversations in such divided times? How do we stay grounded when our instincts push us to either fight or flee?

In this workshop, through storytelling and group discussions, we'll explore skills that help us approach conflict with greater strength, clarity, understanding, and choice.

Julie Hrdlicka (she/her) has spent the past 25 years dedicated to community work, using her skills to build, collaborate, and organize for social change. She has lived and worked in Israel, served as a human rights observer in Iraq in 2003 and 2005, and was elected as a School Board Trustee for the Calgary Board of Education (CBE) in both 2015 and 2017. In 2024, she launched Conflict Revolution, a mediation and facilitation business.

Plenary 2

1:00-2:15 PM

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Can We Save Canada's Social Safety Net?

Nora Loreto

In the 1980s, Canadian politicians rejected an older economic order and gleefully embraced neoliberalism. Today, Canadians are living under the consequences of those decisions – an affordability crisis, a housing crisis and the rush to make more money than corporations in Canada have ever made before. How can we turn the tide against these forces? Nora Loreto will talk about the need to rebuild movements that can re-balance democratic power against corporate power if we are to have any hope in building better futures for us all.

Nora Loreto is a writer and activist based in Quebec City. She’s the editor of the Canadian Association of Labour Media and a freelance writer who writes for magazines and online platforms across North America. The Social Safety Net (Dundurn 2024) is her fourth book. Nora co-hosts the popular podcasts Sandy and Nora Talk Politics with Sandy Hudson and The Daily New.

Breakout Sessions

2:30 - 3:45 PM

Session 2A
The State of Democracy, with Jared Wesley and Brad Lafortune
Jared Wesley

Polarization and Democratic Backsliding

Jared Wesley

Politics are polarizing throughout many parts of the world, including Canada. Driven and amplified by demographic, environmental, economic, and cultural shifts, these dynamics coincide with the erosion of core democratic norms and institutions. These forces are evident in Alberta, where the polarization of the provincial party system has brought with it challenges to the bedrock principle of political pluralism. In this talk, Dr. Jared Wesley explores the intersections of polarization and democratic backsliding, illustrating that – the more divided we become, the less we can rely on norms of liberal democracy to hold us together.

Jared Wesley is Associate Dean (Graduate Studies), a professor of political science, and member of the Black Faculty Collective at the University of Alberta. He leads the Common Ground research team, which is examining the intersection of public opinion, political culture, and public policy in Western Canada.

Quinn Benders

On the Frontlines of Democracy: Responding to the UCP and Rightwing Populism

Brad Lafortune

Alberta’s democracy is under attack by the UCP government and Public Interest Alberta is on the frontlines forging new coalitions and strengthening existing ones. From housing and public services to pensions and 2SLGBTQ+ rights, our common cause as Albertans has never been more apparent. The question before us is: “How do we continue to come together to build something new?”

Bradley (he/they) is a passionate community organizer, settler, and advocate for social justice, human rights, and the public interest. Born and raised on the prairies, he has spent the last 20 years in Edmonton. In the past, Bradley has worked with community organizations, labour unions, and advised leaders and politicians from all levels of government. His favourite part of advocacy is working with good people helping make big change happen.

Session 2B
Carissa Halton

Storytelling for Change

Carissa Halton

In this hands-on mini workshop, join author and story teller, Carissa Halton, to explore the ways storytelling personalizes debate and can uniquely and profoundly influence change. We’ll look at examples of story-driven communications and workshop how to find the story with the most impact. You’ll come away understanding some basic principles about storytelling, as well as how to use it to spur social change from the human-centered perspective.

Carissa Halton is an award-winning writer, speaker, and facilitator. Her writing has appeared in Today’s Parent, CBC, Postmedia newspapers and more. Her 2018 book of essays, Little Yellow House: Finding Community in a Changing Neighbourhood, explores the resilience of her downtown Edmonton neighbourhood where she lives with her family. In Fall 2025, her novel about the women at the forefront of clashes between Communist, Fascist, and government forces in the Crowsnest Pass will be published by NeWest Press.

Afternoon Plenary

4:00 - 5:15 PM

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At What Cost? Surgical Privatization and the Threat to Public Health Care

Andy Longhurst

Surgical outsourcing is on the rise in Alberta and across Canada. This presentation reviews developments in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario. Federal and provincial legislation that maintain publicly financed provincial health systems, free at the point of delivery, are threatened by the incursion of publicly funded corporate providers and unlawful patient charges. Some governments, physicians, and for-profit providers rationalize outsourcing as a benign form of private sector involvement that maintains public health care, free at the point of delivery, and compliance with the Canada Health Act.

This presentation reflects on the costs to patients and citizens as governments pursue privatization instead of evidence-based policy strategies that improve timely access to care.

Andy Longhurst, MA, is a health policy researcher, political economist, and PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at Simon Fraser University. He is also a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.