On Thursday, March 26 2026, the CAFES Ottawa team was pleased to participate in and help facilitate David Suzuki and Tara Cullis' Stronger Together Tour. CAFES was able to secure invitations for a large number of the local leaders in our member organizations, filling almost half of the attendance!
Grand Chief Verna Polson of the Algonquin Anishinabe Nation opened the event and mayor Mark Sutcliffe gave welcoming remarks. An eminent panel then engaged on the topic of how our communities need to adapt and become climate resilient. We heard from Tara Cullis, David Suzuki, Dr. Mili Roy, Andrea Telfer, and Julia Robinson.
The message of this tour is that more severe weather events, which are a direct result of climate change, are now a reality that we have to face. The way to build resilience is through a stronger community built on community connectedness, social networking and emergency preparedness. To this end, the floor was opened to all participants to share what they and their organizations are doing, and their calls to action. A Stronger Together Whatsapp group for the Ottawa area was also shared, for anyone to join.
After a quick lunch break, the attendees participated in a role playing game called Resilientville, created by Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW) to demonstrate the importance of social networking and prior-planning in preparation for a community response to an emergency event. CAFES staff and board members participated in a training and served as table facilitators. If you/your local organization would like to run a Resilientville session in Ottawa for your members please contact Mitzi at info@cafesottawa.ca.
It was incredibly special to be able to hear David Suzuki speak in person - a life-long memory for many of us who grew up listening to his inspiring messages and science-based climate activism! David celebrated his 90th birthday in Ottawa last week.
