We Were Children

Synopsis: The profound impact of the Canadian government’s residential school system is conveyed through the eyes of two children who were forced to face hardships beyond their years. As young children, Lyna and Glen were taken from their homes and placed in church-run boarding schools, where they suffered years of physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the effects of which persist in their adult lives. We Were Children gives voice to a national tragedy and demonstrates the incredible resilience of the human spirit.  (This film does contain some disturbing content of sexual abuse and is not recommended for persons under the age of 16). 

Thank you to the panelists and to everyone from the community who attended!

Event Details

Date: October 1, 2024

Time: Screening & Panel Discussion 6:30 – 9:30pm

Location: Five Points Theatre, 1 Dunlop St W, Barrie, ON L4N 1A1

Panelists:  

Heather McIntyre: Heather is an Indigenous Life & Wellness Coach that works with individuals, and groups to provide healing space for them to transform fear, trauma, and stuckness into truth allowing the clarity for personal power, expansion, and growth in all areas of life! Heather uses the connection of her cultural teaching to further the awareness of self and cultivate transformational healing and power to the individuals that she serves. Through a variety of life-changing experiences and business opportunities, she has taught the value of life lessons, resilience, and self-power as an asset and prerequisite to living life on your own terms and shining brightly while doing it! She has acted as a Community Liaison for Wellness, Recovery & Expansion through a variety of in-person, digital, and cultural promotions within her town that have been designed and delivered to a variety of ages youth through adulthood.

Dawn Tabobondung: Dawn is a proud member of Wasauksing First Nation, part of the 1850 Robinson Huron Treaty, serves as the Program Coordinator for Rosseau Lake College’s Indigenous Seven Generations Program. She brings extensive experience from her background in finance and leadership roles within her First Nation. As a mother of three Rosseau Lake College graduates, Dawn shares her First Nation teachings with students and staff, emphasizing cross-cultural values and lifelong skills. Having overcome Intergenerational Trauma and as a former Ryerson Indian Day School student, she imparts invaluable life lessons and Indigenous culture that resonate beyond the classroom.

Joyce Tabobondung: Joyce, an Anishinaabe Kwe from Wasauksing First Nation, is a lifelong advocate for Indigenous peoples. She has served as Chief and now advises First Nation organizations as an Elder. Joyce has been involved with the Parry Sound Friendship Centre since its founding in 1967. She has also contributed as an economic advisor to Highway 69 corridor First Nations and helped establish the Waabnoong Bemjiwang Association Tribal Council. Joyce supported the creation of Niijaansinaanik Child and Family Services. As a respected Elder, she continues to guide Anishinaabe leadership and is a proud grandmother of 27 grandchildren.

Jeff Monague: Jeff is a former Chief of the Beausoleil First Nation on Christian Island, former Treaty Research Director with the Anishnabek (Union of Ontario Indians), and veteran of the Canadian Forces. Monague, who taught the Ojibwe language with the Simcoe County District School Board and Georgian College, is the Manager of Springwater Provincial Park. Elder Jeff writes for Orillia Matters and helps to shine the light on Indigenous awareness through advocacy. His column appears every other Monday. Elder Jeff is from Eagle Clan and his Indigenous name is Myiingan Minanaakwhe which translates to Wolf Shoots Well. Elder Jeff is also a Day School Survivor with the generations before him being Residential School Survivors. His dedication and care shines through in every flight he takes as he brings awareness to what we need to know about the past.

Traffick On 401

Synopsis: Traffick on 401 explores the sex trafficking world in Ontario and Michigan by speaking to a survivor, the Windsor Police Service, and advocates. Victoria Morrison, a sex trafficking survivor, tells us her story of what she went through for three months with her trafficker in Winnipeg, Canada.

Thank you to the panelists and to everyone from the community who attended!

Event Details

Date: June 6, 2024

Time: Screening & Panel Discussion 6:30 – 9:30pm

Location: Theatre Muskoka, 100 Clearbrook Trail, Bracebridge, ON P1L 0A3

Panelists: 

Amanda Fellows: Manager, Community Programs at CFS Counselling + Wellbeing. She has worked for CFS for 12 years both in front line work and in management. Over the course of her career Amanda has supported the development of many different programs including the YouthCALL program which supports transitional aged youth across Simcoe County. Amanda’s skills include program design and development, facilitation, community engagement, building strategic partnerships and a genuine passion for community work.

Selina McCallum: Social media manager, filmmaker, photographer, and videographer passionate about digital storytelling, music, and social justice. She was raised in Toronto by her Tanzanian mother and Jamaican father. She graduated from the University of Windsor in 2019 with a double degree in Digital Journalism and Communications Media and Film. She won a national award for her videography work in her short documentary “Marley’s Journey,” featured in Windsor Shorts 2019 on CBC GEM. Her most recent completed documentary, “Fitriya: Muslim On and Off The Court,” was selected for film festivals nationally and internationally, and won best documentary at one. She has also successfully managed communications and social media projects for organizations and businesses.

Kaitlin Odom:  Kaitlin oversees seven programs that support unique individuals within the County of Simcoe and District Municipality of Muskoka. Efry’s mission is to prevent and reduce homelessness, criminalization, marginalization, racialization, and poverty by addressing systemic causes through advocacy and services. Kaitlin has a diverse background in psychology, music performance, financial planning, social work, and management, which has led her to the Not-For-Profit world. Kaitlin strives to empower those at risk of, or experiencing homelessness, to feel seen and heard, as often they have spent most of their lives being silenced.

Samantha Bigley: Samantha has dedicated 21 years to the Bracebridge detachment, working on the front lines and as a youth officer, providing education and support to local students. She deepened her community commitment as a mental health outreach officer for three years, partnering with a CMHA crisis worker to offer essential support, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, she serves as the community safety and media officer, maintaining her focus on the well-being and safety of the community.

Eva Zachary: Executive Director at Muskoka Victim Services, a victim’s advocate, and a mediator. She is also a member of the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee with the Office of the Chief Coroner (Ontario), and member of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police, Victim Assistance Committee.

Desarae Doolittle: Desarae is a mother of three who is currently finishing her last maternity leave with the support of her partner. Together, they support her pathway of community advocacy in the areas of Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, Mental Health, Addictions, Midwifery, and Adaptive Sports. Desarae holds various professional and community responsibilities, including MiND AID Navigator, Director of Indigenous Services at the Canadian Mental Health Association, Board Member for MPSSAS, School Council Chair, and member of both Adaptive Sports Canada and Friends of Muskoka Midwives.

Four Feet Up

Synopsis: Twenty years after the promise of the House of Commons ‘to eliminate poverty among Canadian children,’ eight-year-old Isaiah contemplates what ‘less fortunate’ means as he finds his voice through his own magical drawings and photographs. This profound documentary invites us into the lives of this determined family, revealing an intimate and touching experience of child poverty in one of the world’s richest nations.

Thank you to the panelists and to everyone from the community who attended!

Event Details

Date: March 26, 2024

Time: Screening & Panel Discussion 6:30 – 9:30pm

Location: Simcoe Street Theatre, 65 Simcoe St Studio 7, Collingwood ON L9Y 1H7

Panelists:

Samantha Jones: Program Manager at My Friends House – Women and Children’s Shelter. Samantha has been in the Social Services field since 2007. Her career began working in Mental Health and Addictions with individuals who also had complex physical health issues. She transitioned from this role into more focused work around women’s counselling, leading into her now role at My Friends House where she has been overseeing Programs and Services for abused women and children fleeing domestic violence in the South Georgian Baya area since 2017.

Vanessa Hurley, RD, BscHN (Hon), MHSc.: Public Health Nutritionist in the Chronic Disease Prevention Program at the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.  She has over twenty years working as a Registered Dietitian and is very involved in household food insecurity and food affordability work in her current role in public health. She is also a member of the Simcoe County Food Council and has recently taken on the Chair role. She is single mom of two boys (and a dog) with a father who was able to break the cycle of generational poverty. She is passionate about child health and reducing household and child food insecurity rates in our region.

Doug Linton: Broker with the Linton Whitton Group part of Royal LePage Locations North. He brings considerable knowledge of the South Georgian Bay housing market.

Ten Dollar Death Trip

Synopsis: A new synthetic drug is killing more than gun crime, homicide and car accidents combined. 100 times stronger than heroin, the deadly opioid fentanyl is cheap, potent and small enough to send in the post (from China via the dark web). These market forces have seen it replacing the heroin supply, spreading unprecedented death, destruction and misery. And now, due to its strength and low cost, the drug is also starting to appear in party drugs, such as cocaine and cannabis – with fatal results. We visit the epicentre of the fentanyl epidemic to meet with health care workers, activists, fentanyl dealers and people who use it, and learn what we should expect if the fentanyl epidemic spreads outside of North America.

Thank you to the panelists and to everyone from the community who attended!

Event Details

Date: August 28, 2024

Time: Screening & Panel Discussion 6:30 – 9:30pm

Location: Midland Cultural Centre 333 King St, Midland, ON L4R 3M7

Panelists: 

Amanda Fellows: Manager, Community Programs at CFS Counselling + Wellbeing. She has worked for CFS for 12 years both in front line work and in management. Over the course of her career Amanda has supported the development of many different programs including the YouthCALL program which supports transitional aged youth across Simcoe County. Amanda’s skills include program design and development, facilitation, community engagement, building strategic partnerships and a genuine passion for community work.

Dominic Streeter: Dom is the founder of international production company Hide&Seek Media. Since founding Hide&Seek Dom has directed and produced documentary projects in Europe, North America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. Humanitarian crises, conflict zones, public health and societal issues are recurring themes that thread through his films. His work has led to extensive research in the areas of addiction, drug policy and mental health; areas that he is considered to now be a leading journalistic voice. His 2020 Australian film, Half A Million Steps triggered a AUD $305 million dollar funding pledge into treatment and harm reduction by the New South Wales government. Dom is currently directly a film which looks at mental health and PTSD in the emergency services, a film about Scotland’s alarmingly high rate of overdose deaths and a UK film following London’s biggest NHS Trust throughout Covid-19. Dom lives in Battersea, South West London, with his fiancé.

Kaitlin Odom:  Kaitlin oversees seven programs that support unique individuals within the County of Simcoe and District Municipality of Muskoka. Efry’s mission is to prevent and reduce homelessness, criminalization, marginalization, racialization, and poverty by addressing systemic causes through advocacy and services. Kaitlin has a diverse background in psychology, music performance, financial planning, social work, and management, which has led her to the Not-For-Profit world. Kaitlin strives to empower those at risk of, or experiencing homelessness, to feel seen and heard, as often they have spent most of their lives being silenced.

Christine St. Amant:  Christine is a Public Health Nurse and has worked for the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit for 22 years in the Midland area. Christine started in the Healthy Babies Healthy Children program which involved supporting individuals and families to optimize newborn and child healthy growth and development. After 16 years of working in this program, Christine transferred to the Substance Use and Injury Prevention program, and for the past six years, she has been supporting various topic areas including opioids, harm reduction, substance use prevention, cannabis, and alcohol. Christine has lived in the Midland/Penetanguishene area for 32 years and is passionate about serving her local community.