RPIRG News & Events

In a lecture given after both RPIRG and SCIC’s Annual General Meetings, on Saturday, September 25, renowned author and activist Stephen Lewis gave a lecture to a packed house at the University of Regina. As the long-standing head of the UN’s fight against AIDS, his talk moved from laughing about how he had never earned a degree the “old fashioned way”, to a focus on how Canada needs to change its practices and foster a more engaged civil society:

“Everywhere you go in the beleaguered countries, people are immensely hungry. It’s just unbearable. How do you reach a point in 2010 where there is such unfathomable injustice? The G7 countries … are not making a difference.”

Great steps forward have been made in the world wide hunger crisis and AIDS crisis, he argued, but there is still much that needs to be done. Why isn’t Canada truly stepping up to the international plate and making its contribution to a world that so desperately needs it, whether by fulfilling millennium goals or by making larger contributions to the fight against AIDS? These questions – as well as a sentiment of hope that the younger generation would realize the critical importance of these issues, were the highlights of his engaging and much-needed discussion.

RPIRG is really excited to have recently held their first successful Annual General Meeting! On September 25th, 2010, members and the board of directors met to pass the constitution of the organization, financial statements, and annual report from the board, and received an update from our most prominent working group, Regina Books through Bars. We would like to thank everyone who came out to participate, volunteer, and support us in this seminal organizational meeting, and look forward to it again next year!

At the beginning of 2010, the Saskatchewan Council for International Cooperation (SCIC) and the Regina Public Interest Research Group (RPIRG) began a conversation to explore the benefits of collaborative programming for young people in Saskatchewan. The conversation was framed off the synergies between the youth focused education and skills training programming that SCIC has been funded to deliver an experiential learning program that RPIRG has envisioned allocating significant resources to. Together the groups strategized about working together as partners to educate, train, and organize a movement of young leaders working for social and environmental justice!

Generating Momentum: Activist Leadership Training Camp was the result. This four-day, camp-style retreat in the Qu’Appelle was an enthusiastic success, thanks to our amazing participants and countless dynamite facilitators from across Saskatchewan. A sense of community was quickly established amongst the various activist and advocacy groups represented by all of those involved. A few of the broad issues discussed included globalization and trade agreements, food sovereignty, anti-oppression, and citizenship. Primarily, however, much of the camp was spent learning skills and tactics participants can use in the real world. We aimed to create a safe, inclusive, challenging, self-reflective, dynamic, interactive and creative space within which all participants could gain an understanding of ways to fight all forms of oppression. At the end of the three days, we had an inspired crew of passionate, young Saskatchewanians, who are already taking steps to go out and make their worlds a better place.

This event was funded by RPIRG and organized by OXFAM and WUSC Regina. What a success! Thanks for coming out everyone!

RPIRG gave funding to the U of R Best Buddiesprogram so that U of R students could facilitate a field trip that enabled citizens with (dis)abilities to travel out of town for a day.

To find out more about the UofR Best Buddies visit their website: bestbuddiesregina.tripod.com