Mike Balkwill is an independent community organizer (the job Obama
made famous) currently co-ordinating the Put Food in the Budget Campaign www.putfoodinthebudget.ca
Mike has thirty years of experience in
community organizing around issues such as housing, health, education, social
justice and the environment.
Janet Dassinger is a Researcher at the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE) and a PhD candidate (ABD) in the McMaster University
School of Social Work. A long-time union activist and educator, Janet's
key research interest is Canadian labour market policy, particuarly as a
neoliberal mechanism to diminish expectations and regulate the conduct
of unemployed workers and their unions. Her broad interest is the the
need for radical renewal among North American unions, and organizing
models that develop sustained rankand file activism and leadership and
transformative labour-community alliances.
Bill Lee, MSW, Ed.D, is an associate professor (retired), McMaster
University School of Social Work. His work has focused on community
organization with a range of populations, Indigenous groups in Canada,
environmental groups in El Salvador and woman's groups in Uganda. He is
presently doing community development training with Anishnawbe Health
Centre Toronto. He is the author and co-author of three books and a
number of articles on community organization and development as well as
numerous outraged letters to the editor. He is the father of three
children and grandfather of six, soon to be seven and lives in Toronto
with his long suffering wife Cecelia.
Cecelia Lee has been active for many years around areas of social
justice. She has worked with many groups in trying to advance their
various agendas. Some of her activities include volunteering for and
worked at a somewhat edgy Indigenous magazine, involvement in fund
raising for Indigenous youth scholarships, an Indigenous organization,
an environmental organization in El Salvador and in providing shelter
for American war resisters. She also volunteered and acted as co-chair
for a number of years in her local community neighbourhood associations.
When she travels to places like Uganda or El Salvador she attempts to
document some of what she sees and experiences. She lives in Toronto
with her husband.
Ernie Lightman is professor emeritus of social policy at the University of
Toronto where he taught in the Faculty of Social Work for 37 years. With
a PhD in
economics from the University of California, Berkeley, he is the author
of Social Policy in Canada
(Oxford UP) and numerous scholarly and popular articles.
Dan Mossip-Balkwill Dan is currently a social worker, working with homeless people in the
city of Toronto, and has been involved with this work for just over 3
years. Prior to this Dan facilitated workshops with high school
students around social change. He has a background in environmental
studies, and his claim to fame is interviewing Noam Chomsky about the
current state of the environmental movement in 2010.
Barb Nahwegahbow is Anishnawbe from Whitefish River First Nation which is situated near Manitoulin Island, Ontario, the largest freshwater island in the world. Her parents raised eleven children and were excellent role models for Barb with their traditional values, solid work ethics, and their commitment to community.
Barb worked in Toronto’s Native community for 35 years as a social and cultural activist, and community developer both in front-line positions, as an Executive Director of non-profit Aboriginal agencies, and as a consultant. She’s had her own business, Blue Dawn Consulting Inc., for the last 15 years and has worked with Native organizations in program development and evaluation, strategic planning, policy development and community research. Barb is a jewellery artist (
www.bluedawnjewellery.com) and also writes for Windspeaker and Anishinabek News.
Jim Ward was born at an early age, in an industrial Yorkshire town. He
spent his adolescence and his 30s in Australia. He earned a living -when
he worked at all - as a crop-picker, dairy farmer, sailor, labourer and
university lecturer. Whilst in Australia, in his earlier years, he
flirted, very unsuccessfully with making a living through robberies.
Since he found, in his limited experience, that crime does not pay, he
has been a law-abiding citizen of various nations throughout his
post-adolescence years. He has spent several periods in Canada and the
United States as a teacher, social service provider and university
student. He has been a board member for several non-profit organizations
and continues to be so. (Hence the picture of him in the role of
chairman.) He has two adult daughters and one wife. He currently lives
in Toronto and has done so for the past 30 years. He is getting pretty
old (72 this year) but still considers himself to be 'with it', whatever
that means. He has published a couple of books on the issue of
homelessness in Canada, Australia and the United States and a book on
small town life in Australia. He has published a number of articles on
social issues and continues to write articles on such issues, most of
which never see the light of day. He considers himself to be something
of a poet, although his poetry is mostly of the doggerel variety
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