Quarterly Calls to Action - Spring 2026

Spring is in session and that means it’s another Quarterly Calls to Action penned by my partner Alyssa Erin. We hope you find action that resonates.

Spring is often a seasons of anticipation, growth, and fresh starts. It can feel energetic! Yet, the context we find ourselves and the world is laden with grief, fatigue, and what seems like unstoppable destruction and death. It is okay to go slowly and allow grief, allow rage. It is okay to rest. And we must find rhythms that are sustainable. Here are a few ideas...

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Read and Reflect exercise (with emphasis on Canadian experiences)

First, I invite you to take 5 deep breaths - inhale and exhale slowly, if possible. Or try some gentle squeezes up and down your arms to remind yourself you are in a body and it is here and now. Let your shoulders and jaw relax, if possible. Notice the weight of your body pressing down. Repeat as needed as you read.

“I am so glad I am Canadian”.

Babe, wake up. It’s Canada’s armored vehicles, guns, security contractors, surveillance tech & digital platforms being used to suppress resistance south of the so called border & everywhere from Sudan, to Palestine, to Haiti.

It’s Canadian mining companies invested deeply in exploiting Indigenous land & people everywhere. From the unceded unsurrendered land inside its so called borders to Sudan, to Congo, to Ghana, to Burkina Faso, South Africa, Zambia, Greenland, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador & beyond.

It’s our long standing traditions of indefinite migration detention & our growing border spending & security apparatus. It’s the home grown “Proud Boys” white supremacists, fascists & neo nazis that we export south of the so called border.

It’s our banker-cum-prime minister, whose “leadership” in the financial sector made him an architect of austerity & economic violence.

It’s our judicial system which targets Black & Indigenous people at staggering rates. It’s our federal women’s prisons which are 50% Indigenous women. It’s our “child welfare system” & family policing which is responsible for mass child apprehension, racism & intergenerational trauma.

It’s migrant workers growing our food, working in our factories & caring for our elders who get exploited & discarded with no pathways to citizenship.

It’s our neighbors who end up on the streets because of predatory developers & their greedy political friends. It’s our community infrastructure being defunded in favor of bloated police budgets, increased border & military spending.

One only needs to look at the neighborhood apps/pages on social media to see that the fascist narrative of “remigration” & calls for mass deportation are alive & well in so-called Canada.

The usual Canadian facade of politeness & moderation has been shed & rabid racists are unchallenged & unchecked.

I could say so much more.

We are being called to meet the moment. Courage begets courage, we make each other brave.

- by Rania El Mugammar @rania.writes

Have you ever said or thought “we are not as bad as the USA” or “I’m so glad I’m Canadian“ or any other similar version?

Who does this common Canadian response serve? How might it contribute to harm, marginalization of people in so-called Canada?

What happens in your body when you consider Canada perpetuates the same harms in our own way and directly upholds the harms caused by other world powers?

Do you notice defensiveness? Reactivity? Is there shame or guilt beneath it? Recall: shame and guilt are simply emotions. And they can be useful when paired with action; when we allow them to move us to change.

Do something with it:

- Practice catching yourself when you feel the reactive urge to defend Canada and its harmful systems. Instead, practice truth-telling and critiquing these systems with yourself, if not with others you trust.

- In what ways do you hold privilege? What identities do you hold that are protective and allow you to disengage, deflect, or ignore certain issues? How might you use those privileges to right wrongs in your communities?

Resources for learning how to build community differently, with those most marginalized centered and having their needs served, requires unlearning, relearning, and acting on it. Here are some great resources for a) truth-telling and challenging what we think we know, and b) considering alternative ways.

(3:42min video)

Desmond Cole on the CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency) and ICE: Canada’s Border Agents Don’t Deserve A Pass

(each ~3-5mins)
Being a Villager: essay by Sahaj Kaur Kohli, MAEd, LGPC

A related post with excerpts from the essay on her Instagram @browngirltherapy

12 Things to Do Instead of Calling the Cops: https://ia600405.us.archive.org/30/items/12ThingsToDoInsteadOfCallingTheCops/12things-screen.pdf

On how police intervention endangers rather than helps, in this related post by ProjectLets.

Source. “If you call the police on someone in crisis, you may be complicit in their death. This isn’t rhetoric. It’s reality.” Black text on off-white background. ProjectLets logo in bottom right corner in green and blue.

“Police are not trained to care for people in psychiatric distress, altered states, withdrawal, disability-related crises, or trauma responses. They are trained to control, restrain, and enforce. When we involve police in moments of vulnerability, we are introducing weapons, incarceration, and lethal force into situations that require care, patience, and relationship.” Black text on off-white background. ProjectLets logo in bottom right corner in green and blue.

“Many people have died because someone ‘just wanted to help’. Calling the cops is often framed as the only option. But that belief is produced by systems that have systematically defunded community care while expanding policing and psychiatric incarceration. When we default to police, we participate - knowingly or not - in a carceral response that has a long, documented history of killing disabled, Mad, Black, Indigenous, unhoused, and neurodivergent people.”

“This does not mean people are evil for making that call. It means we must be honest about the consequences.”

“If this post makes you uncomfortable, sit with that. Ask yourself: Who benefits from police being framed as ‘Help’? Whose lives are treated as expendable in the name of safety? What would it take to build real support before crisis hits?

Full post of slides here

1) Sign up for the Migrant Rights Network email list: MigrantRights.ca

Keep up to date on accessible actions you can take to support migrants and resist rising anti-migrant rhetoric and policy in Canada. They don’t email too often, their communication and actions are clear & concise, and their action campaigns are quite accessible for those of us with energy and time constraints.

2) March is Long COVID Awareness Month and March 15th was Long COVID Awareness Day. Check out the Museum of Vancouver Long COVID exhibit, which includes virtual options: a brief video tour and a lookbook of each exhibit panel. My photography and writing are part of this exhibition on view until May 27th.

Take care and Free Palestine,

Alyssa