Here are the Candidate Profiles for the four nominees for the OPIRG Guelph Board of Directors.
There are three open Community seats and six open Student seats.
The election will happen at our Annual General Meeting, on March 29th, 6:30pm (online). To register for the AGM and get the Zoom link, email mandy at organizational@opirgguelph.org before Friday March 26th at 12pm noon.
Rachel Vear
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Community Member
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I have sat for two years on the board and have experience on the program and funding committee as well assisting the staff during the student choice initiative. I also have experience working directly with the community in Guelph who are experiencing homelessness and substance abuse issues. As well as being a member of Guelph Anti Pipeline, an action group of OPIRG’s.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
To be a part of an organization that is making direct impacts on the community and social justice initiatives.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
1. I would like to see more financial support towards anti racism and anti colonial organizations, groups and programs
2. More student involvement and outreach to students
3. More programming in the upcoming school year
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, 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 has a massive effect on all of the work that OPIRG does and should be a forefront conversation at all times. Anti oppression work and social/environmental work is intertwined and one cannot exist without the other. There is a long history of oppression in this work and as the work often involves freeing the oppressed, we have to ensure we aren’t limiting one group in the hopes of gaining ground for another group’s cause. Our freedom is intersectional and intrinsically intertwined and this must translate practically and through OPIRG’s funding, programming and policy.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
I have completed several anti oppression training through the years and mostly recently last week through OPIRG. I am also on the anti-oppression committee at my place of work and assist with new policy and training there. I also work closely with many marginalized populations and advocate for them at a systems level daily. I hope to implement the recent recommendations of diverse hiring processes at OPIRG as well as continued and more robust programming.
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Miriam Kearney
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Community member
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I have 2 years of experience on the GRCGED collective, 1 year on the CSA board representing OPIRG, and have been an OPIRG board member for a couple of months. I have experience in fundraising and promotions and have run events and organized with Guelph Anti Pipeline for 5+ years.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I’m interested in becoming a board member because I want to help support OPIRG. OPIRG events, action groups, and the people of OPIRG Guelph have helped me learn so much and have been a huge part of shaping my view of the world and my activism. I want to help support opportunities for that to happen for others as well.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board?
1. Action groups be supported in returning after the eventual end of COVID
2. The completion of an audit of the job descriptions to allow for a more diverse candidate pool
3. Support staff in running a symposium that doesn’t leave everyone burnt out
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, 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 can affect our work on social and environmental justice through affecting who’s voices are being heard. It can affect the opinions and views we have and the change the level of risk associated with things for different people. Oppression also affects our work in that it’s something that needs to be continuously considered in everything we do.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
Through working with GAP, GRGCED, and OPIRG I have been to many different anti-oppression trainings, I talk a lot and think alot about it. I’m still learning but I think that no one can ever truly be completely anti-oppressive so it will be a lifelong thing that I’ll need to continue to actively work on.
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Paul Costello
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
I am running for re-election as a Community Member of the Board.
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I spent much of my life in sales and food distribution.
In 1998 I decided to spend my last few years (12) in the working world, owning and operating two taxis in Guelph. It was something that I did from time to time on a part time basis over the years and eventually decided that it was something that I would enjoy on a full time basis.
Sitting in the taxi, I got to talk with a lot of people who were courageously fighting their way through some daunting but ordinary challenges. Someday, I said, I would get out of the taxi and try to help.
For the last year I have been volunteering 3 plus days per week at the Guelph Food Bank and for over 2years, I’ve been supporting Ed Pickersgill’s Bench, visiting weekly with donations and conversation. Before the pandemic, the conversations were much longer. I look forward to seeing that again .
The hands on volunteering came after years of political activity:
Wellington Water Watchers since 2009,
Council of Canadians since 2011, (Board member since 2011)
Guelph Against Pipelines (GAP) since 2012
Fossil Free Guelph from formation (2015?)
Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice since 2015
Hamilton350.org since 2017.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
I have been interested in the OPIRG Board since becoming active in the action groups in 2012. I was even part of Symposium cooking crews before becoming a Board member. You could say that I’ve worked my way up from the slop pail.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
Our main goal from here is to understand that a post pandemic OPIRG will be, like similar organizations that survive, a reinvented OPIRG . It will be easy for a well funded organization to think it’s doing fine because the lights are on and the door isn’t locked. Finding a way to be visibly more radical without breaking from funding criteria will be a challenge, while we toil under this extremely oppressive provincial regime. Building blocks and new goals will appear, while we move the goal posts without apologies. By definition, a Community Board Member’s task is to maintain and improve OPIRG’s relationships with other people and organizations who will be in the same thralls of post pandemic reinvention.
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, 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?
This extremely oppressive provincial government must face the wrath of action groups like others that have been inspired and nurtured by OPIRG in the past. Also, the core of Extinction Rebellion Guelph is ready and waiting. Another member of the Board and I were active with them when they were full throttle.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
In the past few (4-5) years, I have developed mobility issues that make ableism a personal issue. I could add ageism to that.
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Laura Wilson
1. Are you running as a student or community member?
Student member position
2. What kind of skills and experience (volunteer, work, life) would you bring to the OPIRG Board?
I recently worked on a political campaign team, was a camp counsellor, and have been involved with Fossil Free Guelph during meetings and events the past few years. As a result, I am an excellent team player, and I know how and when to follow instructions, and when to take the lead. In my studies, I take a lot of classes that have given me a formal education on the history and effects of colonialism, world systems, social institutions, poverty determinants, etc. which has provided me with a lot of insight into the mechanics working behind the scenes with many of the issues at hand at OPIRG.
3. Why are you interested in becoming a Board member?
OPIRG holds values similar to my own and I believe that I could offer the organization a lot thanks to my determination and passion, and I am eager to learn a lot from existing board members and community members. I really want to find my place in the Guelph community to serve, and I believe that my skills of leadership, teamwork, collaboration, passion and organization would best fit in this position.
4. List three goals that you would like to see accomplished by the OPIRG Board.
1. Encourage more involvement and collaboration between community members and students
2. Lay foundations for future student-run coalitions
3. Advocate for the removal of anti-choice ads on Guelph Transit buses
5. OPIRG is continuing to work on issues of anti-oppression, which include, but are not limited to, 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?
While working in social and environmental justice, the most important voices of the most effected are often the most ignored due to their status as belonging to a marginalized community. This results in research results and conclusions being skewed, and therefore, solutions will often either not fix the problem in the first place, or it can even make the situation worse. It is so important to address oppression in the work we do so that we can then find a way to together, deconstruct the effects it has on our work and move forward together, constructively.
b. Do you have any experience(s) or ideas that you can contribute to our work on anti-oppression?
Currently in Guelph, there is an opioid crisis, and I believe that through collaborations with other local organizations, we can advocate for better and safer services that meet the needs of drug users in Guelph. In addition, our unhoused population faces more extreme weather conditions as the threat of climate change increases. I think that advocating for better housing services for Guelph’s unhoused population from the city would be a good investment into the future of our community.