Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada heard the Federal Government's Appeal of the decision to allow the Insite supervised injection facility to continue to operate. Tomorrow, May 17th, join Pivot Legal Society, the SFU Woodwards Community Engagement Office and moderator Donald MacPherson for a forum exploring what this case is all about and what the Supreme Court's decision will mean for people living with addictions and for the future of Canadian drug policy.
We will see footage straight from the courtroom in Ottawa. We will hear from Monique Pongracic-Speier, lawyer on the case and a representative from Insite. Dr. Thomas Kerr of the Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Maxine Davis, Executive Director of the Dr. Peters Aids Foundation with offer an assessment of the health impacts of this decision. Plaintiff Dean Wilson will reflect on his journey through the court process and Downtown Eastside activists Bud Osborn and Dave Murray will talk about what the fight for a legal supervised injection facility has meant to them and their community.
Doors open at 6pm. Suggested Donation $10. No one turned away.
Bella is the newest addition to Hello Cool World, enlisting for the cause at the end of 2010. A graduate of BCIT's Broadcast Communications for TV program, she's worked in all aspects of production and has a knack for new media & technology.
Heading off to OpenGovWest this weekend in Portland to be on a marketing panel. Check out the full schedule here.There is still time to register!
When asked to be part of this conference by the organizer Sarah Schacht who I met a few years ago at Hollyhock i began to think about Hello Cool World and what we might have to do with the idea of 'open government'. As it happens, of late our main clients are government agencies. The work we are doing would have been unthinkable even a few years ago.
Specifically we are creating grassroots campaigns, that engage real people as advocates using all the lovely tools social media now has to offer. And we manage databases that intersect issues and encourage involvment. Plus our websites don't look at all like the standard issue government fare. Two examples of this are the LACE Campaign we created for BC Cancer Agency, Cervical Cancer Screening Program, and our most recent is the I Have Immunity campaign for ImmunizeBC. We've also been doing some interesting work with BC Transplant, as official distributors of the film 65_RedRoses.
Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
Hello Cool World is thrilled to be a communty partner for the upcoming DOXA screening of Raw Opium on May 7. We think this film is a timely and much-needed look at the impacts of the war on drugs, from our own DTES 'hood to the case study of Portugal as a decriminalization success story.
And of course we also are big supporters of InSite Safe Injection Site. Now that Harper's conservatives are in again, we really need to go to battle keep InSite open. the story of insite is woven through the film Raw Opium, and we hope the film will spark debate over this issue. And of course we hope people will want to take action!
To this end we are working with the filmmakers to engage audiences as the film launches. Please JOIN US and help us in getting the word on the street by printing and distributing some flyers:
DOXA is presented by the Documentary Media Society, a Vancouver based non-profit, charitable society devoted to presenting independent and innovative documentaries to Vancouver audiences. The society exists to educate the public about documentary film as an art form through DOXA Documentary Film Festival, a curated and juried festival comprised of public screenings, panel discussions, public forums and educational programs. The 2011 DOXA Documentary Film Festival runs from May 6 to May 15, so consider DOXA for your next film. Might I suggest Raw Opium?
If human rights, drug policy, harm reduction, and the war on drugs are topics that interest you, don't miss out on the world premiere of Raw Opium. The screening takes place this Saturday May 7, 12:00pm at Pacific Cinematheque (1131 Howe St) followed by a post-screening discussion with Rebecca Ambrose, owner of the Vancouver Seed Bank; Dr. Ronald Joe, Medical Manager for Inner City Addiction with Vancouver Coastal Health; and Peter Findlay, filmmaker.
Please show your support for this film and tell us you'll be attending on Facebook.
Bella and Michelle came down with a table full of goodies to attend the Opt Sexhibition, a part of the Opt 50th Anniversary Celebration. We chatted with some lovely attendees about our sexual health campaigns, including LACE, Around the Kitchen Table, and I Have Immunity. Then we thought we would make a little video to share with everyone!
PS - We know our video text is backwards but we did that deliberately. Just to be interesting.
Want to see who else was at this event? Read more!
Heading off to 
Katherine Dodds AKA "Kat" is the founder of Good Company Communications and HelloCoolWorld.com. Trained in renegade advertising & branding through her work with Adbusters in the '90s, Kat's early induction into the possibilities of the web-world was inspired by the term hypertext, which she immediately found comforting. She is dedicated to cause-related communication and to the development and use of tools that promote democratic processes.
