Leadership Blog - Articles - BGC Canada - Page 3

A field of vibrant red poppies blooms under a clear blue sky with light, wispy clouds.

Leadership Blog

Remembering

Today is Remembrance Day. I’ve written about Remembrance Day in the past, and how important it is that we connect youth to our past, to the sacrifices made by previous generations to ensure we are free to build a society that...

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Two young children play on a green and blue outdoor climbing structure on a sunny day.

Leadership Blog

Letting go

By Owen Charters My kids are overprogrammed. For my wife and me, our life outside work is a mad blur of activities: coordinating, registering, driving, finding new gear when old gear is too small or worn out. The boys rotate...

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An illustration features a woman playing the violin, an Indigenous dancer in traditional regalia, and a man playing a drum against a background of flowing green and blue lines and a golden sky.

Leadership Blog

Eden Valley

By Owen Charters I’ve just returned from visiting the Eden Valley Reserve, which has a population of 700, and is part of the Bearspaw First Nation, again part of the Stoney Nakoda nation. I attended the graduation of two youth from...

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A 3D illustration shows planet Earth melting like a scoop of ice cream from a waffle cone onto a pink surface.

Leadership Blog

The next generation of environmental guardians

By Owen Charters The environment remains a vital topic. Spring has brought major flooding in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick, and leaders are now declaring that this will be a routine event given climate change. We need to consider our impact...

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An illustration shows a man and a woman in business attire standing on a stack of books and looking through telescopes in opposite directions.

Leadership Blog

What do you do?

By Owen Charters When I visited our Boys & Girls Club in Cornwall, Ontario about a year ago, I met the after school homework group—teenagers who gathered after school to participate in our RBC Raise the Grade program, which boosts...

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A group of people sit in a circle on the floor, holding onto a web of white string that connects them across the room.

Leadership Blog

Address to the National Association of Friendship Centres

By Owen Charters Earlier this year, I was honoured to attend and speak at the opening ceremony of the National Association of Friendship Centres Annual General Meeting in Ottawa. It was a wonderful experience—I was part of the Grand Entry,...

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A field of vibrant red poppies blooms under a bright blue sky filled with fluffy white clouds.

Leadership Blog

Lest we forget

By Owen Charters In the last couple of months, I’ve been wrestling with the issue of my boys playing with army toys and toy guns. It seems that no matter what a pacifist parent might try to control or contain,...

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A map of Canada displays various provinces shaded in different tones of red, with numerical values indicating the number of victims of firearm-related violent crimes per 100,000 people in each region.

Leadership Blog

Let’s empower youth to step up and speak out

By Owen Charters *this op-ed was recently published in the Toronto Star, Maclean’s, and Huffington Post. Brazen. Public. Daylight. More and more these words are showing up in news reports about gun crime. Shootings are happening on playgrounds now, and we know kids...

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