Police Chief Antje McNeely was introduced by John Farrow. John and President Ana mentioned how pleased they are to have Chief McNeely speaking at this time of International Woman’s Day with this year's theme being “Break the Bias”. 

Antje McNeely was appointed Chief of our Police Force in late 2018. Her appointment as the 17th chief and the first female police chief of the 181 year old force continued her groundbreaking career within our police force. She has led in the first of many firsts within the police force.

Chief McNeely joined the police force in 1985 following completion of a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1961, the first woman was hired by the police force,staying for 3 years. In 1966 Linda Paul was an early hire. She emphasised to Chief McNeely “Do not change who you are”. 

During her career, Antje McNeely established many firsts within the police force. In 1989, she was the first officer to go on maternity leave. With a young family, she faced many challenges with evening/weekend shifts. In 1992, Antje McNeely was promoted to Sergeant in charge of the sexual assault unit for 10 years. During this time she developed protocols for the working relationship between the  police force and community providers. 

Cataraqui-Kingston Rotary Club 2021 Fall Community Service Grants

Congratulations to these grant recipients:

Hope Gardens Greenhouse – Montreal Lake Cree Nation

Focus Forward for Indigenous Youth is a Kingston based registered charity that collaborates with Indigenous communities from across Canada on self-determined community projects that empower youth, using trades-based educational programming.  In their programmes, youth gain hands-on skills, job site training, apprenticeship hours and high school credits, all with professional mentorship. 

Rushooka Maternal Health Clinic - Uganda

From refugee camp to a thriving developing community, the story of Siriba village in Uganda.

John Farrow introduced Michelle this morning.  She has lived all across Canada, worked in hospitals and with the RCMP, now runs her own business “Ace Nutrition”.

• Michelle has a connection to Loving Spoonful – gives 3% of her daily revenue to them
• Her goal is to help prevent health issues and getting Kingston Healthy
• Michelle's website is http://acenutrition.ca/

Sutherland introduced our speaker Mara Shaw, who is the Executive Director of the National Farmers Union of Canada.  Before her presentation Mara gave us an update on her daughter Karena whom we all know.  She is attending Carleton University now, and is Co-President of their Rotaract Club.

• The National Farmers Union is not really a union as we know it, but a common voice for policy development. For example, it was this group that influenced the decision to keep bovine growth hormone out of Canadian milk.
• Our food system is fragile, and during Covid 19, farmers have been adapting. Consumers are preferring local sources and farmers’ markets are important for this.At this time, may have turned to online sales.
• The NFU is concerned about the issue of migrant workers.
• The NFU is committed to combat racism, they have called for universal child care and pharmacare, they have stood with farmers in India, and are working on climate solutions.
• Their website is www.NFU.ca.

Keep Pedalling In Pikangikum - Community Bike Shop

New Hope Community Bikes is based in Hamilton, Ontario, this is a registered charity and social enterprise that seeks to get more people on affordable, reliable bicycles and provide employment and job training opportunities for youth. "Keep Pedaling in Pikangikum" was our specific project in Pikangikum, Ontario. For details about the Pikangikum project, see https://youtu.be/PcGUqecXIJI and for an update, see https://youtu.be/3ea9Xmy53N8 .

Kingston Youth Going FARther on Pathways to Education! 

Rotary is assisting vulnerable youth in their transition from high school to post secondary pursuits.

Thanks to a $140,000 Rotary Global Grant initiated by the Rotary Club of Cataraqui-Kingston, high school graduates of the Pathways to Education Program will now have greater access to ongoing support through the new Rotary FAR Project as they move on to post-secondary education and meaningful employment!

• Member of the Rotary Club of West Ottawa since 2003
• Club President 2013-14
• Years as AG 2014-2019, 5 years
• District Legislative Committee
• Completed all levels of Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI)
• Paul Harris X 2
• Bequest Society
• Lloyd Loynes Volunteer award recipient (Rotary Club of West Ottawa)

John Farrow introduced Greg Podmore.  Greg is a member of the Rotary Club of Grand Prairie Alberta, and his club has been involved in a large Guatemala literacy project since 2004.  https://www.guatemalaliteracy.org/

Greg told us about the high need for their program among indigenous children in Guatemala.  Four out of five are illiterate.  Parents cannot afford to send them to school.  This is a large grass roots project that receives $200,000 annually from the Rotary Foundation.  There are also large donations from around the world.  Rotary works with an organization in Guatemala called Cooperative for Education.  It all started in Cincinnati by two young men who were teachers in Guatemala who thought that text books could be provided to students there.  600 Rotary Clubs around the world are now involved.  It started with text books, and then expanded to computers.  Children find the books to be exciting.  One third of indigenous people cannot read or write.  Teachers receive two years of training.  First, a story is read to the children.  Then when they understand it, they take the story back and put on puppet shows or act out the stories.  Later they learn to write their own stories. 

At first, the adults didn’t understand why their children needed this.  The books include learning about math, social studies, science and Spanish.  60% of mid level jobs require a knowledge of computers.  95% of the individuals who go through the program are able to get employment. 

There is a sustainability plan, and the schools also put in money.

RISE is a youth development program that starts in grade 7.  Students often leave school after grade 6.  Students are chosen in grades 5 or 6 for RISE.  They look for tough and determined kids, and not necessarily the brightest ones.  They are also children whose parents cannot afford their education.  Without this program, 95% will never finish high school.  They will go to work farming like their parents did. 

The Rise program is much more than books.  They gather monthly for training in things like interviewing for jobs.  They also tour places where employment may be located.  They come together to see different ways to improve their communities.  Each student has a counsellor.  They learn about good citizenship, and volunteering in their communities to help needy people.  It’s all about breaking the cycle of poverty.

How can you get involved?  Rotary Clubs can sponsor a class or a student in the Rise program.  Canada has also matched the TRF grants.

The next trip to Guatemala is planned for February 2021. 

Greta spoke about attending a Friendship Exchange in Guatemala.  John Gale spoke about a local group of Rotarians that attends the Uniendo Conference in Central America, and asked whether this project is linked to the Guatemalan stove project.  (They are not.) 

The question was asked whether they are mostly dealing with just rural populations or also cities.  They are involved in both, but mainly in the western highlands.

Heather Nogrady offered our thanks with a virtual loaf of bread.  It was interesting to hear about how this project evolved, and to see photos of children who were so obviously happy and proud, and that said a lot.

There are some 4,000 students who participate in the Food Sharing program in schools. Many of these children receive breakfast, lunch and a snack every school day between September and June. My program, Isthmus, bridges the gap between Friday and Monday for these children giving them a hamper of food for the weekend. With COVID-19, numbers are growing and will continue to do so.
When the schools closed, these programs had to rethink how to get food to these children (and their families). The FSP and Isthmus partnered sharing resources and ideas and, with the help of the Limestone District and Algonquin and Lakeshore Catholic District school boards, and with other partners like Lionhearts and Stock Transportation, we developed a new model. The education boards sought permission from families to share their addresses, phone numbers and number of children in each family. They have subsequently, through their Principals, identified families in need and received the necessary permissions. As of 3:00 pm today, almost 400 families in 31 schools have asked to participate in our food distribution program. Again, this number is sure to grow as situations become more precarious.

We held our first distribution on Friday handing out 226 hampers to 167 families. This test involved the 5 schools that my program serves. Those schools are Rideau Heights PS, JG Simcoe PS, Molly Brant PS, Centennial PS and St. Francis of Assisi CS. Food was purchased or donated on Tuesday and Wednesday. Hampers were packed on Thursday and Friday. The food was delivered between 2:30 pm and 5:30 pm on Friday. Families receiving the food were so thankful!

For this delivery, the hampers included the following items: one block of cheese, one litre of milk, broccoli, a small bag of carrots, 4 apples, 4 bananas, 4 oranges, 2 boxes of mac and cheese, a can of pasta sauce, a package of spaghetti, 2 cups of apple sauce, 2 juice boxes, a loaf of bread and 2 packages of oatmeal. Not enough food to get the family through a whole week but we assume they have other sources of food.

The bread is donated by Cobbs bakery through Lionhearts. The rest of the food is purchased at wholesale prices from Deodatos, Grants No Frills and the Wholesale Club.

Going forward, the plan is to run the Isthmus program (5 schools) one week and the Food Sharing Project the next (26 schools) alternating between the two.
Paul Elsley, Rotary Club of Kingston
P.S. Since I first wrote this note, the number of schools and families has gone up.

1. (marginal) worried about running out of food or having to buy poor food.
2. (moderate) compromised quality or quantity
3. (severe) going hungry, skipping meals

• about 12%, 1 in 8 households are affected by food insecurity, about 4 million Canadians, 1 in 6 kids.  We expect a lowering of the numbers due to increases to the Child Tax Benefit, but are waiting on the newest results.  We also know the data are lower than the reality because Indigenous peoples on reserves, the homeless, and other marginalized groups are not counted.  The highest rates of food insecurity are in Nunavuut (46.8%), and the lowest is in Saskatchewan (10.6%). In 2015 Ontario opted out, which skews data for whole country.
• Households most likely to be affected by food insecurity; those on social assistance, Aboriginal households off reserve; families with a black head of household (yes, in Canada); single moms with kids; new Canadians; those that don't own a home
• Low income rates for senior families and unattached individuals, through Guaranteed Income Supplement, fell from high in mid-70s of 35% to under 5%.  This helped seniors with pension benefits fall into the group least likely to experience food insecurity.
• The link between food insecurity and health care costs is strong - average health care costs rise dramatically as food insecurity increases, especially physician expenses and cost of prescriptions.
• In Kingston, about 15% of households are food insecure, about the same as considered living in poverty.

• using coupons, returning bottles
• odd jobs
• juggling and postponing bill payments,
• borrowing money
• selling possessions
• buying food on credit
• shopping at discount stores
• calculating costs in the grocery store
• buying grocery store gift cards when $ are available

• community discussion on the project - finding communities that want to do this.  Birket intends to connect with HIP (Honouring Indigenous Peoples) to help find communities that are interested because this is a collaboration between Rotary and the community.  The community will get Federal Government funds.
• examine deployment model, ensuring community involvement, to ensure sustainability; needs to start with proper assessment.  This opens the Infrastructure Bank to get funds.  Joseph Redhead from the West Ottawa Rotary, a retired water engineer got involved at this point to help guide the assessment.
• look at level of implementation, connecting with existing infrastructure, use a 'lego block' strategy to make things scalable.
• define the “topup” including integration with existing infrastructure to open up the funds
• decide on deployment (materials, training—who and what).  Eight people will be trained in the four categories and will need to be paid a stipend for their work.  Training is critical - a $26 million water project now sits idle in a Northern community because training was not addressed properly.
• time for delivering, installing, training, then commissioning, operating, and monitoring are all keys aspects
• the goal is to find a community with a problem, not the worst water problem, to test the concept and tweak things that can be done better
• add to list of resilient communities

1. Teaching Circle at Loughborough Public School (Heather Nogrady reporting)

2. New Hope Bikes in Pikangikum.

Her service will include participating in fund-raising through Bingo and the Auction. She was welcomed to attend all committee meetings. Jackie looking forward to meeting all the committee chairs and finding her niche for service and fellowship.

	Ana Sutherland prepares membership pin
	Ana presents Jackie her membership pin
	Jackie with her sponsor, Ana Sutherland
	Ana, Jackie, and President Rick Fiedorec

Guest Speaker, Mark Blakey, Past Grand Master, Grand Lodge of Ontario Shirley Blakey, Past Grand Chaplain Rick Fiedorec, President, Rotary Club of Cataraqui-Kingston, who thanked Mark and Shirley, presenting them with a loaf of bread, the club tradition

President-Elect Ana Sutherland introduced Mark. Ana had met with Shirley Blakey, who suggested that our club consider using the Odd Fellows Hall for meetings. That led to the Odd Fellows Hall becoming our meeting place earlier this year, and then on May 21st. It seemed a natural step to invite Mark and Shirley so that we could learn about our hosts and their organization. We discovered many parallels of values, fellowship, and service between Odd Fellows and Rotary. 

• Should the letter be a "cold call"?  Maybe contact first the person first then use the letter as a follow-up a follow-up? (Heather Nogrady)
• Bill Egnatoff – who should we contact?  Can you give us suggestions?
• Greg Mumford – personalize the letters so it doesn’t look like a form letter – agreed, it will be from the member personally.
• Anita- why are we losing members?  Health issues, relocation, long time members retire from Rotary – life has changed, and we do have the conversations (exit interview).  There is usually a huge reason outside of not liking the club.
• Ana - Friends of Rotary add a huge value to our club.  Committee chairs can use their talents.  We are already seeing that!
• Greg Mumford – what could the club do to not have someone leave?  How can we make Rotary higher priority in a busy world?
• Ana - the situation was discussed at the District Assembly – we could give people choices?  What club to belong to.  Membership Committees from all clubs might meet to help with this.
• President Rick – the next few years are going to be really exciting!  National projects, Rotary 2021, local grants, International grants, Pathways project.  We do so much as a club, and we’re reluctant to give something up.  Could we go without Nut Drive and cash calendars?  10 Nut Drive meetings for Rick.  We don’t get much from them.
• Sitting at 29 members, 4 friends, 12 Honourary Members.  3 don’t attend at all.  Maybe transition them to Friend of Rotary?
• 1 applicant for membership at present.  Still need 24 paying each week to break even.
• Bernie – wear your Rotary pin.  We’re not known so much in Kingston.

• John Gale – meetings are nice but we need to identify what motivates people.  That’s what keeps members. 
• Ana – learning about Rotary takes a long time!
• Greta – use Foundation Walks contacts to talk about our club? We would need permission first
• Heather – mailing list of donors to send updates?  Again, we need permission first.
• Anita – we need to insist on promotion when grants are given through the recipients' networks.
• Patty – ask them to please use our stickers/logo on website, plaques, naming things
• Ana – let us know when you send out letters

• Transitioning Pathways Graduates (Ana Sutherland)
  • Creating a program to mentor post-grads so that they remain in and finish their post-secondary schooling.  Hoping to fund this in it’s majority through an International Rotary partner and grants.  We have club in India looking to contribute.

• Supporting Students at SLC (Marie, Don & Rick)
• Kingston Frontenac Club already supports SLC with $30,000
• Cataraqui-Kingston Club supports bursaries with $36,000; and our bursary includes a preference for at least 1 indigenous student
• This project would support the new Student Life and Innovation Centre & top up the existing bursaries.
• 85% of SLCs grads stay in the area!
• Youth Mental Health & Safety (Darlene)
• Attempting to address the dangers currently faced by high school kids:  internet; drugs; human trafficking…..
• Make regular presentations to provide information and show how kids can protect themselves.
• Centennial Celebrations (Dave)
• 1^st event focused on Children – a BBQ at Rotary park on Sunday, July 19^th 2020.  Easter Seals, Boys & Girls Club, and any other appropriate group you can think of.  Traditional BBQ, face painting, balloons, etc. and all about having fun.
• Wrap up Dinner – June 26^th, 2021 (tentative).  A celebration of the centennial year. $100/plate.  Not a fund-raiser.  We will look for a notable keynote speaker.
• Adventurous Eaters (January 2021 for 2 years) with Loving Spoonful
• Hoping this will also be funded through global grants.  Designed to introduce kids and families in the north end to healthy foods.  Goal is to regularly bring together kids and their families and introduce them to new, healthy foods and provide a sense of community around food, as well.  At Rideau Heights Community Centre where Loving Spoonful has kitchen space already.
• Environmental Sustainability (April 2021) Wilf Sorensen
• Goal to protect and sustain our local environment.  Details have yet to be determined, but centred around tree-planting.
• Rotary Vignettes (Paul)
• Produce 52 vignettes and put one a week in the Whig and out on social media AND going to produce a book to sell as a fundraiser.
• Rotarians Supporting New Canadians (Lucille)
• Looking for ways to support new Canadians, mostly from Syria and Eritrea.  KEYS is helping with ideas and suggestions:  family support teams for each new family; looking for a community hall; career mentoring; representation at KEYS conference.  Looking for committee members to help figure this out.
• No. 9 Gardens
• Global model for developing sustainable food systems.  This project is to plant and maintain 25 apple trees at No. 9 Gardens.  This will also be a training centre for youth with respect to maintaining and caring for the trees.
• This aligns well with initiatives important to Rotary: Sustainability, the environment, education – working with Queen’s and SLC
• Skills training – hands-on workshops and educational programs; food security – growing organic food, culinary seed to table workshops; working with our youth – next generation; reconciliation – working with our indigenous partners to understand and learn from traditional indigenous knowledge about living with nature.
•  Friendship Exchange with Melbourne, Australia & Wellington, New Zealand
• 12 people will come here in June of 2021 and celebrate our 100 years in Kingston.  Need committee members to help organize and participate.

1. Why is it a good project for Kingston? It is transformative for the North End of Kingston. Alleviating poverty one family at a time. Re-imagining what they can be. Bringing hope to families.
2. Why is it a good project for Rotary? Hits all of sweet spots for Rotary. Eligible for Global Grants, linking with clubs in East Africa and India.
3. Why is it a Centennial Project? Something that will leave a legacy. Will transform the North End and what Rotary is about. More enduring than building a park.

• Affordable Meat for Shelters –  Loving Spoonful now has an app launched with local butchers to provide 50% off meat delivered to shelters.
• Grow a Row Program (private gardeners set aside a row of their garden) – Lots of participants and greens delivered directly to agencies.
• Microgreens with Micro Gardeners – programs in daycares with kids 3-5:  singing, stories, growing plants from seeds to connect children with food.
• The GROW project – 17 school gardens teaching over 660 students a year about the food system, cultivation, collaborations and community.  Four more gardens are being added this year, so they will reach over 800 kids.  A year from now their Trillium grant ends, so we may see Mara again……
• Kingston Community Garden Network – expanding and now including orchards.  C-K Rotary has helped support these initiatives.
• Circles Around the Table – a 16 week process to help folks plan to get out of poverty.  Loving Spoonful holds weekly meetings to support the implementation of the program.
• Cooking Connections – a Mental Health and Social Inclusion program including good food!  This has taken a Clinical program from Queen’s and added the sharing of a healthy meal and casual community.
• The Rest of the Menu – lots of different cooking classes:  Autism Ontario; Manly Meals; cross-cultural; ReStart, youth diversion; Medicine Wheel cooking (native language education around food); One Roof (street-involved young women).

Rotary Friendship Exchange fosters interclub collaboration, with the goal of advancing international understanding and peace through service projects and spending time together.

Bos’ district has worked on several international service projects, including a global grant project with the Rotary Club of Kalibo, Aklan, Philippines, that provided clean water.

“Participating in the exchange was the best decision I’ve made as a Rotarian,” says Ellen Waldmer, of the Rotary Club of Jefferson, Wisconsin, USA. “I had the opportunity to see a water project our clubs and others helped fund and celebrate with the children and families it benefited.

“We’ve made so many new Rotary friends while visiting our host families and clubs. It’s an experience we will treasure for years to come,” she adds.

I’ve nominated Mary Farrar to receive a Paul Harris Award for her many and varied contributions, that align with education, health, conservation, community building, and reconciliation with our Indigenous friends.

Professionally, Mary was an elementary school teacher. She retired at 55, and after that became very deeply involved in our community. 

Mary moved into the city (from a hobby farm) 10 years ago and it was only then that she began cycling. She has been part of the initiative to get all the bike lanes you see now. This supports the physical health of our people as well as health of the environment by encouraging biking and reducing carbon emissions.

She was instrumental in getting support from her city councilor and then from city staff to create the Inner Harbor Heritage Trail. With an initial dream of having a trail from the LaSalle Causeway to Kingston Mills on the west side of the Cataraqui River, our city staff suggested that she get a group together to work on possible plans. She was able to get the involvement of some influential citizens, and it went from there. In the end, staff went beyond the original suggestion and proposed that the trail come down the east side of the river as well. Council voted unanimously in favor of the project and completion is planned within the next 20 years. For Canada’s 150^th, Council approved that the Inner Harbor Heritage trail be part of a connection between the downtown and the Trans Canada Trail. This connecting trail is now complete except for one inaccessible section at the intersection of Division and John Counter Blvd. Mary and her colleagues are working with city staff to ensure that a pedestrian and cycling overpass will be put in place to solve this problem.

Mary is the President of Friends of the Kingston Inner Harbour. The trail has made the Douglas Fluhrer Park more accessible to people in the north end of Kingston. Before, they were cut off by the railroad. She taught for many years at the old Kingscourt Public School and has an affection for the people in that neighborhood. She strives to do things that will help to create social equity. 

The Kingston Inner Harbour is lively with a large number and variety of animals, including reptiles and birds. With Mary’s leadership, the Douglas Fluhrer Park has become an active place of learning, of projects to support the ecosystem, and activities that connect the settlers’ community to the Indigenous community. There have been organized family days, and many special events. Mary was aware early on in the project to support the turtle population that our Indigenous people place importance on turtles in their cultural beliefs and teaching. She has included The Mohawk Grandmothers’ Council, and The Caretakers of Belle Island. Activities at the park have included teaching about the science of turtles, and about Indigenous learning. On one occasion there was a blanket exercise held in the park, in cooperation with Four Directions and Peace Quest.

By itself the turtles project is notable. It has been going for three years now. Volunteers monitor turtle behavior and cover the nests to protect them from predators. Mary has been able to obtain grants from the Kingston Community Foundation to coordinate the volunteers, and from Trailhead to connect paddlers with the turtles and from the Community Foundation to hire students to help with educational event coordination and improve the quality of the citizen-science research they are engaged in. As well, she has obtained financial support from notable foundations outside of Kingston. Partnerships are in place with Queen's University, Carleton University, and several charitable organizations interested in turtle preservation and turtle habitat. Mary herself has been out snorkeling in the Inner Harbour to try to determine where the turtles come back to hibernate. It is known where they bask in the sun, and where they lay, but not where they hibernate. It is necessary to learn these things as part of a long-term demographic study of turtle habitat there.

On another note, most recently, Mary has begun to make the public aware of the lack of dental care provided to people in long term care. Her husband Edward has been permanently hospitalized at KGH, due to dementia, which also makes communication difficult. Mary had no idea that there is just no time for the staff to provide adequate dental hygiene, or she would have been providing this herself. Ed’s teeth were falling out, and in the end, this led to him having all his remaining teeth removed, due to neglect. Mary took her story to the Whig Standard, and the full story was reported. She stresses that she places no blame on the nursing staff, but since then, she has taken the first steps to bring about change. 

Mary is known affectionately to many as “The Turtle Lady”, so my friend Paulette Bruce who does traditional beadwork, and who is here today, designed and made something to recognize that before she receives the award.

Doug van der Horden, nominated by Ana Sutherland

Doug van der Horden is a child and youth worker and Adolescent Care Worker at Ernestown Secondary School in Odessa.  Children and youth benefit from his work. He is providing clothes in a back-pack as a comfort item during the first point of police intervention.

He works to raise awareness of human trafficking (see The Real Deal on Human Trafficking, Kingston Whig Standard) and is cofounder of the Alliance for Action to help victims.

Raymond Vos, nominated by Bill Gray

Ray has helped many in Kingston to understand the challenges faced by many people in Kenya. He and Irwin Streight presented to Rotary Club of Cataraqui-Kingston telling us about the work and its impact.

Greta introduced our two speakers, Yessica Rivera Belsham and Théo Paradis aka Red Sky, from the Kingston Drum Circle. Yessica originates in Mexico, and Théo comes from the Ottawa area. Both are indigenous people.

Yessica started Brazilian drumming in 2009, and has gradually added drums from all over the world. The Kingston Drum Circle is using drumming to bring people back to their indigenous roots. Drums can be found in every part of the world, and in this context, represent the heart beat of Mother Earth. Yessica brought a drum from West Africa, and because of Thanksgiving, the two shared a song of gratitude for Mother Earth. She explained that as you feel the vibration, you can think about things that make you feel love in your heart.

She was located at the Tett Centre for a while but can now be found at the Canadian Mental Health Association headquarters. For them, so much of what the drums can do is related to mental health. All cultures have something to share, and every voice is beautiful. She has also done programs at H’Art and at Ongwanada.

Yessica now has a total of 40 drums, and is receiving requests from schools, and from Providence Care.

From questions that followed, she talked about the drum tradition in Mexico. Drums have been used in ceremony, in war, and more frequently in celebration.

It had been suggested that she submit a grant proposal to our community grants process, to obtain drum kits for schools, but decided against this idea. For her the drums must be authentic. The drums connect many natural elements. She pointed out that just on the one drum at the meeting, it involved goat skin, wood and water. She sees it as creating a connection on a deep level to Mother Earth. It’s much more than just playing with drums. Today, many indigenous people are struggling to return to the culture that was taken away, and drumming is a meaningful way to reconnect.

Heather Kembel offered thanks to Yessica and Théo, especially for the song of gratitude at this time.

Jacob Gardner, our guest speaker, October 2, 2018, is a Radiologist at KGH and is involved in the Ranked Ballot initiative and is here to tell us about it.

I went to Ottawa when I was 17 as part of Adventures in Citizenship.

We are currently use a first-past-the-post system for civic elections in Kingston. This splits the vote across those running on the popular issue.

A ranked-ballot system is being proposed in which voters rank all the candidates, first to last, and the race is run over and over, each time eliminating the last person, until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote.

This sets up for a more civil election.

You shouldn’t have to vote "the least of the evils." There is no strategic voting with ranked ballot– you don’t have to vote for someone you don’t want.

The ranked ballot system allows newer candidates to thrive.

The referendum question will be on the ballot of the upcoming mayoral and district rep election.

For more information, see: Ranked Ballots--City of Kingston.

There has been an amazing growth in social awareness and in the number of individuals to whom The Alzheimer Society provides service. Often for talks such as this she brings a family—Bob and Laurel—to share their story, but 7am is too early! Laurel is the caregiver and her husband Bob has dementia. They say hello and may come to visit on some other occasion.

The Alzheimer Society in Kingston was started in 1981 by volunteers. Some founders are still involved. Last year recognized need for extended services in KFL&A; there are now satellites in Sharbot Lake, Northbrook, and Napanee. People shouldn’t have to drive an hour for services; services should be available close to home. The board has generously supported this expansion. Funding comes from grants, the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) and fund raising.

Dr. Dorothy Cotton--Biography

Dr. Dorothy Cotton is a forensic psychologist with a particular interest in the area of police psychology and who holds diplomate status in police psychology—the only one in Canada. She is an Associate Member of both the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and has been involved in the latter organization’s policy and program development related to police/mental health systems liaison. She consults regularly, both formally and informally, with police services across the country about issues related to development of mental health liaisons programs and committees. Dr. Cotton also provides pre-employment and fitness for duty assessments to a variety of police services.

Dr. Cotton is also an adjunct faculty member at Queen’s University, is Past President of the College of Psychologists of Ontario (the regulatory body for psychology), has served on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) and is also a Fellow of CPA.  She served on the Mental Health and the Law Committee of the Mental Health Association of Canada.  In 2012, she received a Diamond Jubilee Medal recognizing her work in relation to interactions between police and people with mental illnesses and in 2018 she was invested into the Order of Ontario for her work in this area.