Emcee – Michelle Eliot  

Award-winning CBC journalist  

Michelle is the host of CBC British Columbia’s weekday call-in show, BC Today where she engages in conversation with listeners on the day’s top stories and on issues important to British Columbians.  

Michelle was born in the Philippines and moved to Canada at 12-years-old, settling in North Vancouver. Her experience as a young immigrant inspired a yearning to tell the stories of people whose lives are changed by new circumstances.  

Active in the community, Michelle has hosted numerous events and forums throughout the Lower Mainland, including panel discussions on proportional representation, basic income, costs of caregiving, and anxiety and motherhood. 

Opening – Dennis Thomas  

səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) Councillor and Executive Director of Indigenous Business Initiatives & Engagements with UBC Sauder School of Business 

Dennis is a member of səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) in Deep Cove, North Vancouver. He also has ancestral ties to Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish Nation), Welsh ancestry and close familial ties to xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam Nation). Dennis is deeply connected to his community and culture, where he serves as an elected councillor for his Nation.  

Dennis prides himself on bringing people together and is committed to leaving a legacy that strengthens Indigenous peoples and, in turn, strengthens our entire society. Dennis has won several awards for his work, including the 2022 Enduring Award from Capilano University Alumni Awards of Excellence, 2021 Business in Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40, 2021 Award for Planning Excellence in the category of Planning for Reconciliation by Canadian Institute of Planners for the Heather Lands project. 

Keynote – Shachi Kurl 

President of the Angus Reid Institute, Canada’s non-profit foundation committed to independent research 

Shachi works with public opinion data to further public knowledge and enhance the national understanding of issues that matter to Canada and the world. She is often found offering analysis on CBC’s “Power and Politics”, in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Globe and Mail, and on the editorial pages of the Ottawa Citizen, among other places. In October 2020, she moderated BC’s only televised provincial election debate, presented by the British Columbia Broadcast Consortium. 

Shachi is a recipient of the prestigious Jack Webster Award for Best TV Reporting. Along with former Australian and UK Prime Ministers Julia Gillard and Margaret Thatcher, she is an Alumnus of the US State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. She is a national co-chair of the Canadian Cancer Society. 

Panelist – Aftab Erfan  

Executive Director of SFU Centre for Dialogue and Associate Member at SFU School of Public Policy 

Prior to joining SFU, Dr. Aftab (she|her) served as the City of Vancouver’s inaugural Chief Equity Officer, and Director of Dialogue and Conflict Engagement at UBC.  

She holds a PhD in planning from UBC, a master's in planning from McGill, and a BSc in environmental sciences from UBC. Aftab has extensive experience as a facilitator and in hosting dialogue on contentious issues. Her experience spans 15 years and five continents. She holds numerous honours, including BC500 most influential business leaders in BC (Business in Vancouver), Research for a Better Life: The Storytellers Challenge (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council), and Best Published Paper Award Shortlist (Association of European Schools of Planning).   

Panelist – Andrea Reimer  

Adjunct Professor, UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs 
Founder & Principal, Tawaw Strategies 

Andrea is a former three-term Vancouver City Councillor and Metro Vancouver Director, one-time school trustee and former National Green Municipal Fund Council member.  During her decade on City Council, Andrea spearheaded Vancouver’s framework for reconciliation and led efforts to become the world’s Greenest City.

After leaving municipal politics, Andrea was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design where she studied and taught about urban policy and strengthening democracy. She now teaches about how power works in practice at UBC and SFU, and works with local governments, First Nations, non-profits, and mission-driven businesses to support bolder action on climate and social policy through her consultancy, Tawaw Strategies.    

Panelist – Ginger Gosnell-Myers 

Fellow focused on Decolonization and Urban Indigenous Planning, SFU Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue 

Ginger is member of the Nisga’a and Kwakwak'awakw Nations and served as the City of Vancouver’s first Indigenous Relations Manager. She was central to advancing Vancouver as the world’s first official City of Reconciliation, and created the City’s reconciliation framework to ensure Indigenous identities and worldviews were included in City plans. Ginger was key to the Vancouver City Council’s official recognition that it is on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh homelands – the only government in Canada to do so.  

Ginger has also served as the Project Manager and Public Engagement Director for the Environics Institute’s Urban Aboriginal Peoples Study, Canada’s largest research study on Aboriginal people living in cities, focusing on their values, aspirations, experiences and identity. 

Panelist – Rachael Segal  

Political Strategist and Founder of Beyond a Ballot 

Rachael is on a mission to make politics and government more accessible to women in Canada. With her background as a lawyer, university lecturer, and seasoned political strategist, she's uniquely equipped to educate and empower Canadian women in political engagement.

Rachael, a graduate of the University of Victoria with a BA in Political Science, holds a Master of Law (LL.M.) from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. She spent years on Parliament Hill in various policy roles for Members of Parliament, Ministers and Senators. Rachael has led political organizations and worked as a Campaign Strategist on campaigns at all levels of government across Canada.  

In 2023, Rachael launched Beyond a Ballot, a multi-partisan initiative aimed at empowering Canadian women in politics through media, education, and community engagement. Beyond a Ballot’s signature podcast, co-hosted by Rachael, has enjoyed remarkable success since its inception.

Reading – Fiona Tinwei Lam 

Poet Laureate 

Fiona is Vancouver's 6th Poet Laureate and has authored three poetry collections and a children’s book. Her poems have been featured in Best Canadian Poetry, BC’s Poetry in Transit, as well as in award-winning poetry videos that have screened internationally. She edited The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poems about Facing Cancer, and co-edited two nonfiction anthologies. Shortlisted for the City of Vancouver Book Prize and other awards, her work appears in over 45 anthologies. Fiona teaches creative writing at SFU Continuing Studies.