CASLPO News

Upcoming E-Forum: Towards Accountable Action on Equity, Allyship, and Peacemaking in Healthcare

CASLPO is committed to supporting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in healthcare. As part of that commitment, we are continuing our DEI E-Forum series and are excited to partner with the College of Opticians of Ontario (COO) for our next session, Towards Accountable Action on Equity, Allyship, and Peacemaking in Healthcare. This program will take place in two parts.

Session Details: 

CASLPO and COO welcome guest speakers Tecumseh/Dr. Ed Connors and Dr. Stephanie Nixon to discuss the concepts of privilege and oppression, and how these conditioned behaviours impact the delivery of healthcare. 

In the first session (March 31), the speakers with discuss the Coin Model of Privilege and Critical Allyship as a framework for helping answer the question, “What is my work to do on equity, inclusion and justice?” This conversation will introduce mind-maps that can impact the delivery and receipt of health care within a colonial-built system.

We return to the second session (April 28) to receive Indigenous teachings that offer alternatives to a “power-over mindset in order to build new habits of mind toward peacemaking.” Our speakers will offer different ways to understand and interact with our diverse and complex society in a way that supports inclusive healthcare.  

Session Dates & Registration Links:

About the Speakers:

• Dr. Ed Connors, also known as Tecumseh, is of Mohawk ancestry from Kahnawake Mohawk Territory and of Irish ancestry. He is a retired psychologist who has worked with First Nations communities across Canada since 1982 in both urban and rural centres. His work over this time has included Clinical Director for an Infant Mental Health Centre in the city of Regina and Director for the Sacred Circle, a Suicide Prevention Program developed to serve First Nations communities in Northwestern Ontario. Tecumseh/Ed’s recent work has involved development of Indigenous Life Promotion projects, including Feather Carriers Leadership for Life Promotion. While developing this service, Tecumseh/Ed worked with Elders and apprenticed in traditional First Nations approaches to healing. Today his teaching incorporates traditional knowledge about healing and his experience as a psychologist. His current work includes consultation and community training to assist First Nations in the development of Restorative Justice programs.
• Dr. Stephanie Nixon (she/her) is head of the leadership consulting firm, Stephanie Nixon and Associates Inc. She is also a Full Professor, Vice Dean (Health Sciences) and Director (School of Rehabilitation Therapy) at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. She completed her PhD in Public Health in 2006 at the University of Toronto, and a post-doc at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa in 2008. Stephanie is a straight, white, middle class, able-bodied, cisgender, settler woman who tries to understand the pervasive effects of privilege. Stephanie developed the Coin Model of Privilege and Critical Allyship as a way to translate core ideas about anti-oppression and anti-racism to people in positions of unearned advantage. She has conducted workshops on the Coin Model with more than 100 groups including universities, hospitals, community-based organizations, and professional associations across Canada and internationally.
• “Future Building”: Together, Tecumseh/Ed and Stephanie co-lead “Future Building”, which translates and enacts teachings in anti-oppression and peacemaking for people and organizations everywhere. This collective sheds light on the unjust and intersecting systems of inequality we’ve inherited in order to take action toward our collective liberation from oppressive systems. Future Building is an inclusive, flexible, collaborative initiative that draws on the wisdom of many who have come before. They strive to transform systems through caring, accountable relationships and the good mind in action. This 2-part series warmly welcomes participants to join in change-making that creates a healthier, safer, and more equitable future for all.