Robb Johannes
Robb Johannes was Executive Director of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug User (VANDU), the organization responsible for opening InSite, North America’s first supervised injection facility. During this time he was involved in successful Supreme Court challenges affirming harm reduction practices and the safety of marginalized women in sex work, as well as allowing homeless citizens the ability to vote in federal, provincial, and municipal elections. Johannes coordinated Justice Studies at the Native Education Centre (NEC), Canada’s longest-running Indigenous post-secondary educational institution, and taught in the School of Criminology and Department of Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University, where he earned his Master of Arts. He spent eight years coordinating the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a restorative justice-based conflict resolution initiative in federal women’s and men’s prisons. He currently works in health promotions and program development with Fred Victor in Toronto, co-chairs the St. James Town Service Providers’ Network, sits on the advisory council for the Arthur Sommer Rotenberg Suicide & Depression Studies Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, and is an Adjunct Lecturer at the Factor-Inwentash School of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Sometimes referred to as “Toronto Bono” (as he for ten years has been vocalist of the acclaimed independent rock band Paint), Robb has recently begun working with Bono’s ONE campaign in advocacy for women’s rights internationally and Canada’s involvement in foreign aid.