Small Conversations for a Better World Podcast

Season 5 of the Small Conversations for a Better World Podcast is coming up in January 2022! This season, we're doing something a little different. We're dedicating this entire season to conversations about decolonization. And we want you to join us!
Here's the plan:
Hosts Gillian McCormick and Susannah Steers are currently completing the Indigenous Canada course, created by the University of Alberta's Faculty of Native Studies. Indigenous Canada is a twelve-week long MOOC (massive online open course), available free through coursera.org. As we proceed through the course, we'll be talking about what we're learning, how it might be different from Canadian history & social studies we learned in school, and how what we're learning might relate to things we see in the current environment. We invite you to register for the course and participate with us!
During each episode, we'll talk about what we've learned in two weeks of the course. We'll embark on some wide ranging conversations from the perspective of two settler women who have a lot to learn. We want to know better, so we can do better.
Here's how to join us:

1. Sign up now for the FREE Indigenous Canada course at www.coursera.org. Start working your way through the course, at your own speed. If you have thoughts and questions, send them our way at [email protected] - or connect with us on social media.
2. Join us Friday, January 7th, 2022 for Season 5, Episode 1, when we'll get started discussing the first two weeks of the Indigenous Canada course. If you'd prefer just to listen in, without taking the course - we welcome your ears!
3. Join us every second Friday after that for more about what we're learning in the course each week, and for conversations with knowledgeable indigenous voices on topics of history, culture, health, and reconciliation.

The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast is created inside the ancestral, traditional, asserted, and unceded territory of the Coast Salish nations, including the territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh).
Links you Need!

Indigenous Canada on Coursera
Email your thoughts and questions to [email protected]
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Find Susannah Steers at www.movingspirit.ca and on social media @themovingspirit.

Find Gillian McCormick at https://physiogillian.com/ and on social media @physiogillian

Candyce Kelshall is using her organization, CASIS-Vancouver, to create a proactive model of disorder in the near long term. Why is this important and how does it relate to our COVID-19 global pandemic reality?

About Candyce Kelshall
Candyce Kelshall is a seasoned, in-theatre operational director and has worked extensively with militaries and advising police forces around the world as well as designing and delivering training to specialist units.
She is a former senior diplomat who is comfortable liaising with governments and operating at all levels within parliamentary and military contexts She has taught vocational (police, law enforcement, military and intelligence) as well as academic programs in over 17 countries. She has been teaching in a university professional program context for the last 10 years.
Kelshall has extensive experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate programs in international relations, geo-strategic security, intelligence, risk & threat assessment. She has 30 years experience in diplomacy, law-enforcement and military professional training, and ten years as military and police advisor in the UK. She has previously served as a diplomat, naval officer, specialist advisor and consultant in disaster response, critical incident and terrorist response, national emergency management and multi-agency joint operations architecture, as well as training design for intelligence fusion centres. She is currently teaching at Simon Fraser University as an Adjunct Professor of Criminology. Her current research interests lie in violent transnational social movements and their role in fifth generation war, the evolving nature of contemporary conflict, post-structural perspectives on human security, and subaltern realism in developing countries.
Kelshall is currently the President of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) - Vancouver , which encourages and promotes the study and practice of intelligence and security through its research projects, instructional teams, the biannual publication of the Journal of Intelligence, conflict and Warfare, roundtable events and the annual CASIS West Coast Security Conference. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intelligence, Conflict and Warfare, which publishes practitioner-focused briefing notes and articles on contemporary Canadian security issues. Kelshall is also a board member at the Canadian International Council - Vancouver, which is dedicated to advancing Canada's place in the world. Kelshall currently serves as the Director of DA-IC, which conducts specialist training to military units and police officers.

Website: CASIS - Vancouver
Find CASIS on Social Media : @CASISVancouver
Candyce Kelshall on Twitter: @CKelshall
Dr. Patrick Neal on Twitter: @patrickneal1
Natalie Arch on Twitter: @N.Arch

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Find Susannah Steers at www.movingspirit.ca and on social media @themovingspirit.

Find Gillian McCormick at https://physiogillian.com/ and on social media @physiogillian

Emily Rugel PhD speaks with us about smart city planning that includes natural spaces to not only enhance our mental health but to treat mental health disorders.

About Dr. Emily Rugel:

Emily Jessica Rugel recently received her doctorate from UBC's School of Population & Public Health, where her dissertation developed a comprehensive model of natural spaces across metro Vancouver and applied it to prescription data and to health surveys that have assessed social ties and mental health. More broadly, her work explores health-promoting urban design, with the aim of developing scientific evidence that can be embedded in sustainability plans and in policies that advance equity. She has remained in academia as a postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Forestry, but firmly believes in the acquisition of knowledge through chance encounters as well as classroom instruction.
Find Emily Rugel online.
And on social media @BrainsOnNature

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Connect with Gillian McCormick at www.physiogillian.com.
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Last year on the podcast, we learned that health and security are a lot more closely linked than we ever imagined. The Covid19 pandemic amplified that fact exponentially. We realized that we had some big questions about systemic racism, misogyny and intolerance in Canadian policing. We also wanted a better understanding what it might actually mean to defund the police.

We reached out to BC RCMP Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan for her take on things, and for a Canadian, and an historical context. In the aftermath of the Bastarache Report, Jennifer brought us her perspectives on where the RCMP has been, where the organization is now, and where it's headed. Join us for this wide-ranging conversation that explores everything from RCMP training, to police handling of culturally sensitive issues, to intolerance within the force, and what's being done to make things better.
For PDF copies of the Rainbow Project Initiative and the RCMP Guide to Supporting Transgender, Non-Binary and Two-Spirit Employees, mentioned in this episode, email us at [email protected] and we'll send you the PDFs.
About Deputy Commissioner Jennifer Strachan
With 32 years in policing, D/Commr. Jennifer Strachan spent 14 of those in a broad range of front-line policing roles in British Columbia. She has also worked in administrative duties at the Provincial and National level, in addition to completing a Peacekeeping Mission in Haiti in 1996. She also served as the desk officer responsible for peacekeeping deployments to the Former Yugoslavia.

Her frontline policing experience started with her first posting in Whistler, BC and then Westshore Detachment. She was commissioned in 2002 to the role of Executive Officer to the Deputy Commissioner of Corporate Management & Comptrollership and since then some of her postings have included: Officer in Charge of the National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre; Detective Inspector in Charge of Montreal Drug Section; and, Officer in Charge of Operational Policy and Programs in Contract & Indigenous Policing at National Headquarters. She served as a District Commander, Criminal Operations Officer, and as the Commanding Officer in "O" Division, Ontario, and the Deputy Commissioner responsible for Specialized Policing Services.

D/Commr. Strachan holds an Undergraduate degree from the University of Ottawa as well as a Master's degree from Royal Roads University. She is a graduate of the Canadian Police College Executive Development in Policing program and is an Alumni of the Leadership in Counter Terrorism Association. With a passion for supporting others in realizing their career goals, D/Commr. Strachan is a proud recipient of the 2014 Ontario Women in Law Enforcement - Mentor of the Year award as well as the 2014 International Association of Women Police - Mentor of the Year award. In 2016, she was invested as an Officer of the Order of Merit for Police Forces (O.O.M) by the Governor General of Canada.

She manages competing demands between work and home, thanks to the unwavering support and commitment of her husband and son.
BC RCMP (English)
GRC en CB (Français)
Find D/Com Jennifer Strachan on Twitter:
@RCMP_GRC_EDIVCO
Find BC RCMP on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter
@bcrcmp (English) ; @grcencb (French)
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Our world is demanding a different kind of leadership to solve complex problems. Join us for a conversation with Candyce Kelshall on her experiences with leadership, and how we can mentor effective leaders in a way that develops confidence, connection and empathy.
About Candyce Kelshall
Candyce Kelshall is a seasoned, in-theatre operational director and has worked extensively with militaries and advising police forces around the world as well as designing and delivering training to specialist units.
She is a former senior diplomat who is comfortable liaising with governments and operating at all levels within parliamentary and military contexts She has taught vocational (police, law enforcement, military and intelligence) as well as academic programs in over 17 countries. She has been teaching in a university professional program context for the last 10 years.
Kelshall has extensive experience teaching both undergraduate and graduate programs in international relations, geo-strategic security, intelligence, risk & threat assessment. She has 30 years experience in diplomacy, law-enforcement and military professional training, and ten years as military and police advisor in the UK. She has previously served as a diplomat, naval officer, specialist advisor and consultant in disaster response, critical incident and terrorist response, national emergency management and multi-agency joint operations architecture, as well as training design for intelligence fusion centres. She is currently teaching at Simon Fraser University as an Adjunct Professor of Criminology. Her current research interests lie in violent transnational social movements and their role in fifth generation war, the evolving nature of contemporary conflict, post-structural perspectives on human security, and subaltern realism in developing countries.
Kelshall is currently the President of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies (CASIS) - Vancouver , which encourages and promotes the study and practice of intelligence and security through its research projects, instructional teams, the biannual publication of the Journal of Intelligence, conflict and Warfare, roundtable events and the annual CASIS West Coast Security Conference. She serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intelligence, Conflict and Warfare, which publishes practitioner-focused briefing notes and articles on contemporary Canadian security issues. Kelshall is also a board member at the Canadian International Council - Vancouver, which is dedicated to advancing Canada's place in the world. Kelshall currently serves as the Director of DA-IC, which conducts specialist training to military units and police officers.
(Interesting note: In this interview, Candyce talks about the stunning record Abby Wambach set as the world leading soccer goal scorer in international competition EVER - male or female. We recorded this interview in late 2019. In January 2020, Canadian soccer player Christine Sinclair has now broken that record!)
Website: CASIS - Vancouver
Find CASIS on Social Media : @CASISVancouver
Candyce Kelshall on Twitter: @CKelshall
Discover Small Conversations on Social Media
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Find Susannah Steers at www.movingspirit.ca and on social media @themovingspirit.

Find Gillian McCormick at https://physiogillian.com/ and on social media @physiogillian.