HSA Equity Summit

1. Circles of Solidarity – Building Community-Care for Equity and Reconciliation

Discrimination impacts us all, and solidarity is the key to building a more equitable world. This keynote explores how organizations can shift from self-care to community-care—an ancient Indigenous practice—to foster cultural safety, reconciliation, and allyship in the workplace.

Drawing on Indigenous traditions, Len Pierre will share practical strategies and insights to help participants:
•    Integrate Indigenous mental wellness teachings into team practices.
•    Mobilize community-care for inclusive and equitable workplaces.
•    Deepen their understanding of allyship, solidarity, and unity for transformative change.
Through an engaging and empowering presentation, discover how Circles of Solidarity can help you and your teams build resilience, connection, and a better future—together.

Len Pierre is Coast Salish from Katzie (kate-zee) First Nation. Len is an award-winning entrepreneur, professor, consultant, TEDx Speaker, social activist, change agent, & traditional knowledge sharer. 
 

2. Union Solidarity in a Diverse Working Class

3. Equity, Empowerment and Solidarity: Building from the Ground Up

What role can unions and labour organizations play in reducing racial inequality in workplaces and society at large? Winnie Ng and Salmaan Khan will speak to the ongoing challenges facing racialized workers, and the best practices that unions need to adopt in order to effectively challenge systemic racism in a rapidly changing Canadian labour force.

Winnie Ng, PHD is a labour rights activist and scholar with a deep commitment to anti-racism, equity and worker empowerment. She is the former Unifor National Chair in Social Justice and Democracy at Toronto Metropolitan University, the first and only union-endowed Chair at a Canadian university. She began her activist work in the labour movement in 1977 as a union organizer with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union; and later on with HERE Local 75. She served as the Ontario Regional Director with the Canadian Labour Congress for 8 years before returning to the academy to complete her doctoral program at OISE/University of Toronto. She is the recipient of numerous distinctions, including the Urban Alliance on Race Relations Leadership Award, the United Farm Workers’ Cesar Chavez Black Eagle Award and the YWCA Women of Distinction Award. She is a founding member of the Asian Canadian Labour Alliance and the former co-chair of the Good Jobs for All Coalition.

Salmaan Khan, PHD is an Assistant Professor (Limited Term Faculty) in the Department of Criminology at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research interests are interdisciplinary and can be framed along three avenues: 1.) a broad focus on the gendered and racial dimensions of capitalist production; 2.) critical epistemologies and methodologies of the social sciences; and 3.) critical pedagogies and engaged learning practices. His research is underpinned by a political commitment to intersectional, anti-oppressive politics and a desire for social justice.
 

4. Why should our union care about political action and equity?

Trade unions are important drivers of economic prosperity for members and their communities. Union organizing, collective bargaining, and enforcing collective agreements are central parts of our work. But unions are also powerful engines for progressive social change which ultimately benefits everyone.

This workshop shows why unions must be more than containers for grievances. Through a celebration of our historical collective gains as trade unionists, we will see that union demands like employment standards, workplace occupational health & safety regulations, parental leave, public education, and human rights, help everyone inside and outside our union when governments write them into law. We will consider how unions do political action to get our message to government. We will also discuss the role of equity group participation in trade unions, and ways we can organizer more effectively.

Adrienne Smith is a transgender human rights activist and social justice lawyer. They argued a BC human rights case which clarified employers’ obligations to recognize correct pronouns for transgender and non-binary workers. Adrienne appeared at the BC Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Canada where they argued about the deleterious effects of mandatory minimum sentences for women, Indigenous Peoples, and drug users, and made submissions in defence of transgender children under section 15 of the Charter. As a trade union activist, they advocate for transgender inclusion in our unions and workplaces.