Earth Day Celebration — Special Screening of Beyond Crisis at KPL, Tuesday 22 April 2025 at 5:30pm

What: Film Screening: Beyond Crisis
a story of hope for a rapidly changing world
(Movie poster showing a man sitting on the roof of a barn, with water nearly up to the peak of the roof. There are several award logos at the bottom of the poster, and credits below that (both too small to make out at this resolution) Beyond Crisis
When: 5:30pm to 7:30pm on Tuesday 22 April 2025
Where: Kitchener Public Library, Main Branch, Auditorium
Location: 85 Queen Street North, Kitchener, Ontario Map
Register:Eventbrite Tickets

In honour of this year’s Earth Day, Kai Reimer-Watts has arranged a special screening of his 2018 documentary Beyond Crisis. You and your friends are warmly invited to this rare, free public screening of a powerful Canadian documentary on climate! Please register in advance so we can keep track of numbers, and share widely.

The event hosted by our local MPP Aislinn Clancy, and held in the film theatre at Kitchener Public Library (Main Branch, 85 Queen Street North). The one-hour documentary will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker (Kai) and MPP Aislinn Clancy. There will also be light food and refreshments. It is a non-partisan event for the broader community, to draw attention to climate change at this crucial time here in Canada, and while we are in a federal election.

Also, if you haven’t yet, please check out the Vote for Climate campaign led by the Waterloo Region Climate Collaborative! Non-partisan lawn and window signs are still available this election.

About the film

Beyond Crisis was a three-year filmmaking adventure led by Canadian climate activists, seeking to capture growing movements for change here in Canada and around the world advocating for bold climate action and a just response to the climate crisis. It launched at Princess Twin Cinema in Waterloo in 2018, and has since been screened in festivals, theatres, classrooms and community venues around the world, as a galvanizing story of our current ‘climate moment’ and the many possibilities we have for collective response. While it remains honest about the gravity of climate change, it is ultimately an uplifting and inspiring film about people, and the power of people to transform our realities and together forge brighter futures. It is highly artistic, creative and meditative in sections, and packed with insights from over 50 changemakers – many of whom are Canadian.

The film is only one hour long, split into five connected chapters: The Language of Change; A Dangerous Addiction; Feelings of Change; A Brighter Future; and Building a Movement. Each chapter has its own areas of focus, and together, they tell the story of many thousands of people all over the world working to change our current climate reality for the better. The film was designed in this way to keep chapters short, and to better stimulate ongoing audience engagement and community dialogue after each screening. Kai has received many positive responses by viewers on the film, its emotional/intellectual impact, and unique structure. You can check out the trailer on YouTube to see if it resonates with you.

Thank you for your ongoing support for Divest Waterloo and for your part in our collective action to raise awareness and engage our community on issues related to climate change, our pursuit of a low carbon economy, and our movement towards a just and sustainable future.

Maamawi Revisited, 7pm Wed 8 Dec 2021

Maamawi Revisited

Wednesday December 8th

7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Divest Waterloo and Faith & the Common Good are partnering with Terre Chartrand and Heather Majaury of Pins and Needles Fabric Company to present an evening of music and storytelling on December 8th in the Victoria Park Pavilion, as the culmination of the Maamawi Revisited project.

Maamawi is an Ojibway word meaning “bringing together” or just “together” as it applies to things that are alive water, plants, animals, birds and fish and humans.

Maamawi Revisited has created opportunities for local emerging Indigenous artists to connect with the land, local knowledge keepers, musicians and mentors, and with each other to grow and create together.

December 8th will be an evening of “bringing together” of storytelling and music that will feature Rene Meshake and musical performances by the artists who participated in this project.

Rene Meshake is an Anishinaabe elder, residential school survivor, visual and performing artist, award-winning author, storyteller, flute player, and a Recipient of Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. He shares his love of the Ojibwe language through his stories, poetry and spoken word performances.

Tickets are free (and required); please register here as space is limited to comply with COVID protocols. Donations will be accepted at the door to support Pins and Needles Fabric Company – an Intersectional Inter-Arts Collective in Waterloo Region – to provide programming for Indigenous youth.

Pipeline project is not in the national interest

Re: Trudeau must act on Trans Mountain pipeline promise — April 11

The evidence of our destabilizing climate continues to mount across Waterloo Region, where residents recently braced for what Environment Canada anticipated as a potentially historic ice storm — this after extreme heat and flooding events this past year. The costs of climate change are increasingly obvious to us in this region. The solutions are also well known: we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by pricing carbon, transitioning to renewable energy, using energy efficiently, and slowing the extraction and use of fossil fuels.

That’s why Canada’s intention to proceed with the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion — a project that would serve to expand Alberta’s tarsands production — is so alarming. Increasing emissions from the tarsands represent almost 60 per cent of the total projected growth in Canadian emissions between 2010 and 2030, completely undermining Canada’s commitment to reduce emissions by 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Instead of supporting pipelines that lock us into increasing emissions and climate crises, Canada can demonstrate leadership by phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, winding down fossil fuel extraction, and investing in a low carbon future. This pipeline is not in the national interest — rapidly reducing emissions while respecting Indigenous communities is.

Henriette Thompson
Waterloo

Laura Hamilton
Kitchener

Angela Carter
Kitchener

Opinion | Pipeline project is not in the national interest | TheRecord.com

The Age of Consequences: Screening and Panel Discussion — Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Climate change may no longer be a choice, but we still have a choice of consequences. What will we choose: War or Peace?

THE AGE OF CONSEQUENCES – THEATRICAL TRAILER on Vimeo

THE AGE OF CONSEQUENCES investigates the impacts of climate change on increased resource scarcity, migration, and conflict through the lens of US national security and global stability.

Join us for a screening of this compelling documentary by the award winning directors of REQUIEM FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM. Participate in an engaging discussion with a panel of distinguished experts, to explore the implications of climate change from a peace and justice perspective.

Through unflinching case-study analysis, distinguished admirals, generals and military veterans take us beyond the headlines of the conflict in Syria, the social unrest of the Arab Spring, the rise of radicalized groups like ISIS, and the European refugee crisis — and lay bare how climate change stressors interact with societal tensions, sparking conflict… Whether a long-term vulnerability or sudden shock, the film unpacks how water and food shortages, drought, extreme weather, and sea-level rise function as ‘accelerants of instability’ and ‘catalysts for conflict’ in volatile regions of the worldâ€¦ The film’s unnerving assessment is by no means reason for fatalism — but instead a call to action to rethink how we use and produce energy.

(The Age of Consequences, Synopsis)

Panel members:

Rick Cober Bauman, Executive Director – Mennonite Central Committee Ontario. Rick has served with MCC for 26 years, including 3 years in Labrador in the Innu Community of Sheshatshit, and the last 7 1/2 years as Executive Director of MCC Ontario. This experience has brought him into contact with many stories of relief, development and peace around the world. Rick works in the Kitchener office, but is available across Ontario.

Simon Dalby, CIGI Chair in the Political Economy of Climate Change, Balsillie School of International Affairs. Simon is also the Acting Chair of the Master in International Public Policy program, and Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. His published research deals with climate change, political ecology, geopolitics, global security, environmental change, militarization and the spatial dimensions of governance.

Jessica West, Program Officer at Project Ploughshares. Jessica is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Global Governance program at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University, who is pursuing a specialization in conflict and security studies. She has a Master’s of Arts degree in International Affairs from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Jessica managed an international research project on space security and served as the editor of its annual publication as part of her role at Project Ploughshares.

When: Tuesday, 28 March 2017 6:30pm-9:30pm

Where: Conrad Grebel University College, 140 Westmount Road North, Waterloo Map

Please register at Age of Consequences – Film Screening and Panel Discussion Tickets | Eventbrite

This is a free event. Refreshments will be served.

Events – Divest Waterloo

Global Climate March — Sunday, 29 November 2015

Join us to send a powerful message of encouragement and hope in support of decisive action in COP21 — Poster

This year a massive coalition of environmental, social justice, faith, labour, community, student and indigenous groups, as well as families and concerned citizens are building an unprecedented global mobilization in support of climate justice.

On Sunday, 29 November 2015 people from across Waterloo Region will join with voices from around the world to show our support for ambitious and real action against climate change at COP21, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, is our most important climate conference yet.

Come together with neighbours and friends to send a powerful message of encouragement and hope in support of decisive action at COP21. Sound your drums and raise your voices in solidarity with people from around the globe. Be part of an historic event at this most important juncture in the climate movement.

Join us on 21 and 22 November 2015 to make posters and art for the march (location to be determined).

WHAT: Peaceful family-friendly march in advance of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, 30 November to 11 December 2015.

WHEN: Sunday, 29 November 2015 2:00pm

WHERE: Start at Waterloo Public Square, 75 King St S, Waterloo Map
End at 22 Willow Street.

Register at Avaaz: Peoples Climate March Waterloo Region to receive updates about the march and the art build, or to volunteer.

This event was forwarded to me from several sources; this text was taken from the Divest Waterloo Events web page.

If you’re on Facebook, you can join the event at Global Climate March – Waterloo Region | Facebook.

–Bob.