Board Elections are coming up folks! Come vote for your Board of Directors on Monday, March 25th any time from 11-4pm in the UC courtyard or in the OPIRG Guelph head office (24 Trent Lane).
Meet your 2019 Board Election Candidates!!
Candidate Profile Questions for OPIRG Board Elections
**Daniela Mendivil, running for a student seat**
- Are you running as a student or community member?
I am running as a student.
- What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
Being a first-generation immigrant from South America and a lesbian, I feel I could bring a unique perspective to the board as a minority. Additionally, I have worked extensively with communities in Guelph and Cambridge in food banks, disabled groups, as well as student life, so I could provide those connections to the OPIRG Board.
- Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I love learning about the ins and outs of programming and funding. I want to be able to provide a platform for activists, especially in times like these.
- List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
I would love to see OPIRG make it through the student choice initiative coming next year. Additionally, I would want to see more promotion for OPIRG, so people know the amazing things we do here and how they can get involved. Lastly, I would want OPIRG to do more outreach. Aside from promotion, touching base with oppressed communities in Guelph seems like a very important task for an organization such as OPIRG.
- OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, anti-racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism.
a)What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
Oppression affects anyone taking part in social and environmental justice that is not a white-able-bodied-heterosexual man. In countless ways, you may not be listened to, or opportunities to bring about social and environmental justice may be ignored if you are not part of the privileged groups in society. Because of this, we must resist.
b) Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
I am a first-generation mixed immigrant from South America, who also happens to be a lesbian. I have experienced homophobia, racism and have had opportunities taken from me due to mental health. I will fight and stand for anyone in any of those communities.
**Rachel Vear, running for a community seat**
- Are you running as a student or community member?
I am running as a community member
- What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
As a member of OPIRG’s action group Guelph Anti-Pipeline (GAP) I have firsthand experience organizing in the community and being apart of the programming that OPIRG helps to fund. This experience has also given me the opportunity to participate in anti-oppressive workshops a few years in a row which are always enlightening, immersive and crucial. I am also apart of the collective for Guelph Resource Centre for Gender Empowerment and Diversity (GRC GED). Through GRC GED I am able to sit on the Central Student Association’s Board of Executives as their representative, as well as interviews on CFRU Radio, and take additional workshops such as consensus training and advanced anti-oppression training. I also work in the community as a peer worker in the Overdose Prevention Site where I am able to provide care and safety for at risk individuals. Through Guelph Community Health Centre I have completed Indigenous Cultural Competency Training, which would greatly benefit this work in social and environmental justice.
- Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
To have a more active role within this community organization that mirrors my own values. I would also love the experience to gain insight on how this well-oiled machine functions!
- List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
1) Given the current climate due to an oppressive provincial government, I would love to see OPIRG’s Board connect with the community and students alike to raise awareness for its immense contributions toward social and environmental justice and equity. As a board member I would feel a responsibility to preserve these nearly 40 years of work and continue the growth and resilience in the face of adversity.
2) Increase youth involvement and support in all areas of OPIRGs work, especially environmental activism.
3) Help to increase promotion and support towards to Summer Institute.
- OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, anti-racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism.
a)What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
First and foremost, recognition of our privilege in every unique situation is essential. This is especially true in environmental work, where often in Canada and across Turtle Island the dangerous work of Land Defense is done by Indigenous folk who are risking their lives to remain on their land which was stolen. It is necessary that their voices are heard and uplifted. Additionally, we must continually check our privilege in every situation and context to ensure the most marginalized and oppressed voices are given highest priority and accessibility to the space.
b) Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
When it comes to anti-oppression, the best idea is to allow marginalized and oppressed folks to speak for themselves, and do what is required to hold ourselves responsible for our contribution to their adverse experiences. This is continual work that is ongoing and evolving constantly so we must be open to hearing criticism and feedback regarding how we can do better as an organization to serve a diverse population.
**Blakeney Smith, running for a student seat**
- Are you running as a student or community member?
I am running as a student.
- What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
Having worked extensively as a community organizer, conflict mediator, and facilitator with grassroots community based initiatives, I have an intimate knowledge of, and passion for, building relationships with diverse networks of dedicated partners. Professionally, I have worked in areas of Restorative Justice and Transformative Community Justice. On the basis of extensive research and analysis, I have developed numerous course proposals, outlines, and syllabi for the Guelph-Humber Community Justice Services Program, and the Transformative Community Justice program. Additionally, I have created a four-day workshop dedicated to Restorative Justice principles and practice. Importantly, I will bring to the board a sophisticated, and empathic use of restorative and transformative justice sensitizing principles.
- Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
It would be a privilege to learn from, and contribute to, a campus organization dedicated to challenging injustice, inequity, and oppression at various levels of intersectionality.
- List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
Problematically, I think the rhetoric of the ‘goal’, (something that can be permanently accomplished) assumes a panacea for social and environmental injustice. Instead, I tend to believe the struggle for justice is on-going and will always require, at the very least, a delicate maintenance. Nonetheless, it would be useful to:
- Continue to bridge the gap between activism and the academe.
- Expand and develop OPIRG’s Environmental and Social Justice symposium.
- Develop OPIRG’s presence in student awareness and student life.
If OPIRG is dedicated to responding to the public’s interest; we ought to help develop an interested public.
- OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, anti-racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism
a)What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
As a person of privilege my concern is always to remain cognizant of the ways I may inadvertently participate in the continuation of systems of violence and domination through activism. That is, I must strive to be cautious of an activism which may intensify systems of domination from which I (and perhaps not others) can extricate myself through financial or symbolic capital.
b) Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
Given my positionality, my contribution will take the form of allyship. I hope to learn from, resist with, and challenge white-able-bodied-heteronormative-patriarchy without obfuscating the resistance of those who are most impacted.
**Obehi Okaka, running for a student seat**
- Are you running as a student or community member?
Student
- What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
My existence is resistance. I will bring that to the board.
- Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
There is a need for board members so I want to support that.
- List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
- Be a force that unites progressives in Guelph.
- More engagement from community members, facilitating better ties between the university community and the Guelph community at-large.
- More education, using accessible language.
- OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, anti-racism, heterosexism, classism, sexism, ableism, and ageism.
a)What are some of the ways that you think oppression can affect our work on social and environmental justice?
Not everyone is allowed to engage with activism in the same way because their marginalized identities may make them hyper-visible, they may be limited in terms of how much time they can commit to in terms of work, etc. We have to be cognizant of that and make engaging in this work accessible, and also recognize the importance of background work and pay of respects/thanks to those who that work because they are often forgotten (usually because the people who occupy these positions are of marginalized identities).
**Paul Costello, running for a community seat**
- Are you running as a student or community member?
I am running as a community member
- What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board