GVAT Newsletter - Join GVAT at United for Old-Growth on Sat Feb 25th & More
In this newsletter:
Join GVAT at United for Old-Growth on Sat Feb 25th
GVAT Meets Mayors about Affordable Housing & More
GVAT Volunteer Profile: Amalia Schelhorn
GVAT Member Group Profile: Broadview United Church
1. Join GVAT at United for Old-Growth on Sat Feb 25th:
GVAT signed the United We Stand Declaration together with 190+ organizations across the labour, health, education, and environmental sectors, in solidarity with First Nations. This sent a unified call to the BC New Democratic Party under Premier David Eby to accelerate action on Old Growth.
On February 25, GVAT members will join a united movement of thousands of people from all walks of life to send another clear message to the provincial government: Keep your promises and protect old-growth forests.
This peaceful march and rally will begin at Centennial Square (City Hall) in Victoria (Lekwungen territory) at noon, proceeding to the lawn of the Legislature for a rally at 1:30 p.m. featuring powerful speakers and performers. Please join us!
Come out and join the fun. This is a rare opportunity for GVAT to be together in person. The walk to the Legislature from Centennial Square along Government St. begins at noon and will be parade-like, with giant puppets, musicians, people dressed as endangered species and bursts of surprise creativity. The rally will feature performers and speakers, including David Suzuki.
Join GVAT in the walk behind our GVAT banners. Find us by looking for these banners. CHANGE OF GVAT MEETING SPOT—meet by the permanent stage (bottom of Centennial Square along the side of McPherson Theatre). Find out more about the Declaration here and the March and Rally here.
2. GVAT Meets Mayors about Affordable Housing & More
Between Jan. 9 and Feb. 3, GVAT representatives met with the mayors of the four core municipalities, to follow up on the pledge they made at the Oct. 2 Homes for All Community Assembly – to support our Municipal Housing Policy Platform. We discussed how elements of this Platform fit in with their council's emerging priorities, how GVAT could help to advance their implementation, and the connections to GVAT’s Climate Justice and Mental Health and Addictions priorities.
Among the issues raised: identifying city-owned lands which could be developed into affordable housing, amending bylaws which would allow more people to fit into existing housing (eg. allowing secondary suites and boarders), protecting tenants and existing rental stocks, reducing required parking minimums for new housing developments (to reduce construction costs and greenhouse gas pollution), densification of housing within easy walking distance of frequent transit routes (good for both affordability and climate).
All four meetings were friendly and productive. GVAT was encouraged to continue providing feedback and attending council meetings. Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto suggested another meeting solely on the issue of transportation and expressed strong interest in meeting with the GVAT Mental Health and Addictions ART.
3. GVAT Volunteer Profile: Amalia Schelhorn
I choreographed this dance to help The Elders for Ancient Forests call attention to old growth logging that, sadly, continues in BC. February 25 I will stand with the Elders, my church, GVAT and many others to ask Premier David Eby to save this precious resource for us all.
I choreographed this dance to help The Elders for Ancient Forests call attention to old growth logging that, sadly, continues in BC. February 25 I will stand with the Elders, my church, GVAT and many others to ask Premier David Eby to save this precious resource for us all.
My activism journey began in 2021 when I read Richard Power’s compelling novel, The Overstory. Then I visited Fairy Creek. My awe when walking through the magical forest at Eden Grove was matched by my horror at the many clearcuts scarring the hillsides all around. It was chilling to realize those forests could never regenerate. After I helped gain some media coverage from my first protest dance set to Bruce Cockburn’s song, “If a Tree Falls…” held at the BC Legislature, Jim Jordan, a quiet mover and shaker whom I know from my First Unitarian Church, invited me to the GVAT forestry team.
After the passionate, de-centralized anarchy at Fairy Creek, it was quite a contrast to experience the protocols and discipline under which GVAT operates. I believe both approaches are important and complementary. I am still learning the patience needed to explicitly state intentions and follow methodology, and to consider ALL of the relationships at play. GVAT is an organization that creates the pre-conditions for positive change for the long haul.
I didn’t expect that my abilities might be valuable in social or environmental transformation. I am just a dancer after all. Now I can see that whatever skills we have cultivated are needed. I see that finding a community of people with common purpose, like GVAT, is essential for building power to influence policy-makers and, on a more personal level, to sustain one’s own resolve. My background in the performing arts, my Unitarianism, and my environmental ethics all came together around protection of the old growth forests. It has been exhilarating to find a role at this critical moment for the Earth.
4. GVAT Member Group Profile: Broadview United Church
Name of organization - Broad View United Church
Where do your members live?
Saanich, Victoria, Oak Bay
How many members do you have in your organization?
About 350 households
How does your organization see its participation in GVAT as helping advance its own work?
Social justice is a foundation of the United Church
How has participating in GVAT helped your organization?
I think it has helped to identify a core group of people interested in advancing the social justice agenda of the church, and strengthened our ability to take action through collaborating with others
Do you have a specific story about that to share?
We hosted a Delegates’ Assembly in 2018 and the Saanich Housing workshop in April 2022. Both of these events involved a core group in organizing and participating, which helped to identify and solidify shared interests.
Any further information to other organizations thinking about joining GVAT?
GVAT membership helps any community organization to think not only about its immediate interests but also about its long run values and how those values are shared in the wider community. We often take for granted those things that are important not only to us but to others around us. GVAT offers a way to articulate some of those things and to take concrete actions together to make them happen.
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GVAT External Communications Team - Jane Welton, Eric Doherty, Peggy Wilmot, Amalia Schelhorn & Patricia Lane
We recognize GVAT conducts its business on the lands of First Nations across this region: Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees) and Xwsepsum (Esquimalt) Nations in the core area, the W̱SÁNEĆ Nations {W̱JOȽEȽP (Tsartlip), BOḰEĆEN (Pauquachin), SȾÁUTW̱,(Tsawout) and W̱SIKEM (Tseycum)} on the Saanich Peninsula and Gulf Islands, Sc'ianew (Beecher Bay), T’Sou-ke, and Pacheedaht in the west , and MÁLEXEȽ (Malahat) in the north.
