People to Know

Ariel Garten
[ www.ted.com/speakers/ariel_garten ]

Masaru Emoto
[ www.masaru-emoto.net/english/e_ome_home.html ]

Devon MacPherson
[ http://givingfor31.com/about/ ]

Hannah Taylor ::: The Ladybug Foundation
[ www.ladybugfoundation.ca ]

When Hannah was 5, she saw a man eating out of a garbage can on a frozen winter day. Hannah was immediately filled with sadness and questions. "Why, why, why?" she asked. "If everyone shared what they had, could that cure homelessness?" Since that defining moment, Hannah has learned about hunger and homelessness. Where society sees a problem, Hannah sees a person.
By 8, Hannah had founded The Ladybug Foundation Inc., a registered charity, and had become the innocent face of the homeless, seeing their plight with the clarity of a child and speaking out for them across Canada, and elsewhere in the world, to one person at a time and to groups as large as 16,000. Hannah has spoken to more than 175 schools, organizations and events. Hannah believes that everyone deserves a roof over their head and enough food to eat, as basic human rights.

Craig and Marc Kielburger Founders of Free the Children and the Me to We movement
[ www.metowe.com/personalities/marc-and-craig ]

Toronto's Poet Laureate Dionne Brand
[ www.toronto.ca/culture/poet_laureate.htm ]

Dr. Bonnie Burstow
[ www.toronto.ca/civicawards/2003winners.htm#3 ]

Dr. Bonnie Burstow has been in the forefront of efforts to support, advocate for and empower women who occupy the margins of Toronto's society - psychiatric survivors, homeless women, imprisoned women, drug-addicted and refugee women. For 25 years she has devoted her life to this task as an outstanding scholar, teacher, community activist, innovative therapist and therapeutic consultant.

She successfully challenged the abuses of electroshock, including the disproportionate and sexist targeting of women. She has authored a number of books including, Radical Feminist Therapy: Working in the Context of Violence and Shrink Resistant: The Struggle Against Psychiatry in Canada. She produced the video When Women End Up in Those Horrible Places and a television series for Maclean Hunter Cable in Toronto.

Dr. Burstow has been honoured with such awards as the Canada Council Explorations Grant, Brandeis Award and the Russell Gold Medal in Philosophy, as well as community awards including Rebel of the Year from the Elizabeth Fry Society. Dr. Burstow is a senior lecturer in the Department of Adult Education and Counselling Psychology at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education (OISE) and Associate Director of the Transformative Learning Centre at OISE