What: Power Up! Rally
When: 1:00pm on Saturday, 4 November 2023
Where: Carl Zehr Square, Kitchener City Hall
Location: 200 King Street West, Kitchener Map
You and your family are invited to the Power Up! Rally where we’ll bring clarity not only to the anticipated near to medium term impacts and implications of climate change on Southwestern Ontario, but also explore the progress being made on Waterloo Region’s Transform WR Plan (to achieve 50% reduction of fossil fuel use in the Region by 2030). In addition, there will be brief presentations by experts in solar power,heat pumps and geothermal projects to highlight clean energy options, and a local federal Member of Parliament about federal initiatives and programming. The Rally will end with ‘what WE can do NOW’ presentations by a variety of local activists and experts.
This Rally is being organized by 
350.org in partnership with 50×30, Council of Canadians, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, and Faith Climate Justice. We hope you’ll encourage your children and grandchildren to have fun creating signs, solar panels and heat pumps out of craft materials that they could bring and showcase. Also, please feel free to share this invitation and the graphic below widely through your personal and professional networks. The impacts of climate change are coming at us faster than we may have ever imagined but, together, we can work to ensure the ongoing security and quality of life of people in Waterloo Region.
Edit:
Our first Speaker is Kathryn Bakos from the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation. She will talk about the expected climate impacts for Southern Ontario, the urgency for transition off of fossil fuels, and steps we can take to enhance energy efficiency, flood and fire protection, while saving money on energy and home insurance premiums.
A variety of speakers will highlight local or nearby climate solutions, such as West 5, which is Ontario’s first mixed-use Net Zero community, and Heather McDiarmid about the potential of Air Source Heat Pumps. We will also have Aislinn Clancy and Deb Chapman give their perspectives on local initiatives, and Mike Morrice, MP, will talk about Federal initiatives.
The rally will end with “What We Can Do Now” to support local initiatives and join local groups. One action is to sign a petition calling on the Federal Government to apply a 15% windfall profit tax on fossil fuel companies operating in Canada, and directing that revenue to support further action on climate change and improve affordability for Canadians, such as investments in public transit, retrofitting buildings and greening the electricity grid.
Bergie: The term “bergie” is a South Africanism that refers to people that are homeless. This short film presents the view with a problem — a law enforcement officer has to remove homeless people sleeping on a path in the city in order to make way for a 10km fun-run. To do this, he has to wrestle with fundamental questions about the dignity of human life.
When We Fight: In the second largest school district in the United States, in Los Angeles, California, 98% of the teachers vote to authorize a strike. Watch as one of the largest educator strikes in modern U.S. history unfolds in real-time, highlighting the stories and leadership of some of the women who led it, from union leaders to classsroom teachers. When We Fight goes behind picket lines, documenting how and why teachers strike. 
Not Another Ballet Story: Choreography is traditionally a male dominated occupation. In this inspiring documentary, a small contemporary dance company in San Francisco provides dancers, many of them female, with the unique opportunity to choreograph modern ballet productions. The hope is that this experience will give rise to more female creators, leaders, and choreographers.
Where Are You From? This film depicts a true story based on the producer’s life. A young woman goes to an interview and is asked a simple question — one commonly asked in Canada. Her not so simple answer gives us a personalized glimpse into the often complicated histories, experiences, and identities of refugees, migrants, and immigrants. 
Box Fox: In this exciting animated film, a intrepid fox-adventurer travels through a dangerous fantasy world to find a enigmatic girl whose face appears in a a mysterious token. Is this really an adventure, or is this just a job?
We Are The Earth: A powerful short animated poem that takes us from anxiety and fear about the current state of our world to empowerment and hope for the future. It is is call to collective action.
Whitewash: Whitewash looks at the pressure felt amongst Iranian immigrants tin Canada to change their given names to Western names to increase their chance of getting a job, and the consequences that develop due to this act of cultural and identity erasure. 
Grand River Writers & KW Writer’s Alliance
