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While I have discussed a variety of environmental and political issues here since last December; three issues have been predominate for which no apology is required based upon their significance. FIRSTLY as has been obvious literally since May 2010 when I started this Blog I have spoken to the Elmira Water Crisis from day one. SECONDLY since last December I have also focused upon the Region of Waterloo Water Crisis which I commend the K-W Record for following in detail for weeks and months after December 2025. Unfortunately despite their own research and hard work it was absolutely amazing to me as to how they dropped the issue like a hot potato literally five minutes after the Region of Waterloo self declared their victory over the water shortage. This despite my sending them (and many others) detailed and specific information as to which wells, which wellfields, dates and locations thereof as well as naming specific contaminants in those wells including the industrial sources they came from. THIRDLY  I have discussed the incredible chutzpah, arrogance and blatant contempt of citizens, residents and taxpayers by the Region of Waterloo and Wilmot Council regarding the mostly secret land acquisition of 770 acres allegedly for some out of this world, beneficial to all, industrial megagiant who is too shy to reveal their name. Please feel free to lie to us, steal our money, farmland, drinking water but peeing in our faces is too much. I am about to advise you the readers and public as to whom out of approximately 60 recipients of my close to daily Blog /e-mails have responded, commented, denied or agreed with my Blog postings.  The following groups are the near daily recipients with the number in brackets indicating how many individual recipients for each group. These have gone to the Ont. Min. of Environment (4),  a very few to Mike Harris M.P.P., Woolwich Council (6), Waterloo Region Council (16), TRAC (8), Lanxess Canada (2), GHD (1),  GREN (4),  Green Party (1), Susan Koswan, K-W Record (5), Woolwich Observer (3), CTV (1) and CPAC (9). The last one, the Citizens Public Advisory Committee (CPAC) has been the only one to comment/respond since last December. 

Please note the various government bodies municipal, regional and provincial who have NEVER so much as asked for clarification, discussion or even a meeting. I include TRAC as a government body because they are not in charge of their own Agenda, membership etc. as they are a committee of Woolwich Council totally controlled by them. While disgusted by the three tiers of government blindness and deafness I also am appalled by our local media's seeming willingness to be good little boys and girls and not rock either the government or corporate boat.  

P.S. It took decades of lying, disrespect and contempt by the polluter, regulator (MECP) and other government bodies to hone me into the chiseled, acerbic and disrespectful to authority individual I am today.    

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Frankly I'm in a quandry. I am optimistic simply because Sandy Shantz is done. She has been a disaster environmentally as she continues swallowing the crap coming from both the MECP and Lanxess Canada. Look where twelve years of that has gotten us as in exactly nowhere. Back in 2012 the new CPAC (Dan Holt, Sebastian S. A., Viv Delaney, Ron Campbell, Graham Chevreau along with Rich Clausi, Henry Regier and myself as sub-committee members advised Council and the public that the 2028 cleanup wasn't going to happen. Chemtura/Jeff Merriman/Conestoga Rovers lied like dogs six months later claiming that they would TRIPLE  the amount of pumping of groundwater in order to achieve full cleanup. They never even got close to Doubling much less Tripling. Sandy took over in 2014 and eliminated CPAC via dirty tricks including throwing out our formal renewal applications and then demanding new ones. That is precisely how lying pieces of crap operate and she did it on the demands of Chemtura and the Min. of Environment.

The failed cleanup has been official for several years now as Lanxess have made a few admissions that their lying, self-serving predecessors' never did  This last council did not appear willing or able to demand public transparency or accountability on the Uniroyal/Lanxess file. Maybe they will depending on whom is the new mayor. I have to admit that I do not know either candidate well although there are things that I like about both of them. Being an old phart myself, if I have a bias it's probably towards the older more senior of the two namely Eric Schwindt.  Again however I can't point to anything negative with Evan Burgess. One positive in his favour is how he smoothly handled public criticism from his fellow councillor Nathan Cadeau.  Nathan and I got off on the wrong foot early as he from a position of zero knowledge attempted to lecture me by e-mail on groundwater and cleanup issues. Basically as questions and answers went back and forth it became clear that he had a proxy answering for him which most likely was CAO Dave Brenneman. God there's one that really needs to go along with Nathan. 

TRAC has been abysmal only partly due to high turnover over the years. Far too many good ones with potential have walked while along with some dead wood still there are newer members with brains but zero long term background on the Elmira issues. Sycophants  like Tiffany and Eric are no help and Sebastian admits how overmatched TRAC is by Lanxess, MECP and GHD (consultants) and how deferential TRAC are as a result. Master manipulater Pat Mclean thank goodness is long gone. Too bad she didn't take her wingman Susan with her. TRAC are simply a cheerleading team for Lanxess and the Ministry (MECP) and they are protecting their interests not Woolwich residents.     

.  

Why didn’t someone type “Dudes, we’re not doing this” into the group chat?

Why didn’t someone intervene?

I’m thinking about the alleged gang rape at a Cornell University fraternity house that took place about two years ago. Recently, the victim filed a civil lawsuit against the university and the men she said attacked her, and earlier this week, prosecutors reopened their investigation.

The Guardian reports that while two people were sexually assaulting her, someone posted in a fraternity Snapchat group that there was “free pussy upstairs.” In her lawsuit, the woman says at least five other members joined in.

The case raises an interesting question for bystanders. Why didn’t anyone intervene, raise an alarm, or stop the behavior?

We can face much smaller versions of this dynamic at work, especially in private group chats and backchannels. It might look like:

• Making sexist and objectifying comments about a potential client’s appearance in a backchannel group chat mid-meeting. Source: Pedestrian
• Spreading rumors that a colleague is trading sexual favors for career advancement. Source: Latitude Management
• Discussing an interview candidate’s physical attractiveness in a private Slack thread instead of evaluating their qualifications. Source: personal conversation.

So if you see a group chat heading somewhere harmful, please don’t assume someone else will say something.

Instead, push back. It could be as simple as, “We don’t do that here.”

Share this action on Instagram or LinkedIn.

This week’s Better Allies content is sponsored by:

Inclusion starts with the documents you share. Every inaccessible PDF leaves out a colleague or candidate using a screen reader. Grackle PDF helps you change that easily: drag, drop, done. Start your 14-day free trial, no cost, at app.gracklepdf.com.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), a month to celebrate and recognize the achievements of disabled people.

A few years ago, I remember reading in the 2023 Women in the Workplace Study, produced by McKinsey and LeanIn.Org, about the experience of women with disabilities. For example,

• 32% reported that others get credit for their ideas, compared to 21% of women overall and 14% of men.
• 35% said they’re interrupted or spoken over more than others, compared to 22% of women overall and 10% of men.
• 14% reported they’d been mistaken for someone more junior, compared to 9% of women overall and 5% of men.

Let’s make sure disabled coworkers (of any gender) get credit for their ideas. E.g., “I like that idea a lot. In fact, when Ana brought that up last week, I remember her saying …”

Let’s challenge ourselves to notice and act when they’re interrupted in meetings. “I’d like to hear Bob finish what he was saying.”

Let’s speak up when a colleague assumes that someone with a disability holds a position lower in status or expertise than they actually do. “Deepa is heading up that initiative. Let’s meet with her.”

Sometimes, we might think we’re being supportive, yet we’re unaware of the harm our actions cause.

In But it’s for Your Benefit: Benevolent Ableism in the Workplace and Its Impact on Autistic Individuals, Ludmila Praslova, PhD, points out how a manager, once learning about someone’s diagnosis, might start micromanaging their work, exclude them from high-stakes decisions and assignments, and generally operate on “the misguided belief that the individual might not be up to the task — even if they have a strong record of success.”

By “protecting” an employee, a manager essentially denies them the opportunity to develop their skills and advance their career.

Praslova recommends a few actions to truly support autistic and other neurodivergent individuals:

• Understand that autistic adults are adults and do not need decisions made on their behalf.
• Avoid assumptions and ableist stereotypes. Ask employees what kind of support they might need.
• Learn about neurodiversity and the varied abilities and potential of autistic individuals.

I’ll also suggest checking out Praslova’s book The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work.

More than 100 years ago, psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike documented what became known as the halo effect: the tendency to let one positive impression of someone influence how we perceive other qualities. For example, when commanding officers were asked to rate their subordinates without speaking to them, they rated taller, more attractive people as smarter and better soldiers.

Now, a new Harvard University study shows that four leading AI large-language models (LLMs) can make similar judgments.

The models made assumptions about people’s competence and trustworthiness based on facial features. In the study, these biases appeared at higher magnitudes than those measured in humans.

It’s a reminder that AI can reproduce, and potentially amplify, human biases.

As I’ve shared in previous newsletters, don’t let AI make decisions about humans unchecked.

Instead, advocate for a short pause step in the hiring or talent management process:

“Before we finalize the top performers, let’s review the AI-generated materials for possible biased assumptions.”

About five years ago, subscriber Matthew Fieldman co-founded Rekindle to drive meaningful social change by fostering collaboration between Black and Jewish American leaders. Today, it’s active in 20 cities across the US.

He encourages all of us on the journey to be better allies to actively search for and join one of the rising number of bridge-building organizations. Doing so can strengthen our allyship muscle by helping us meet people from different backgrounds or ideologies, challenge our own worldview, practice civil dialogue, and learn new perspectives.

In addition to Rekindle, Matthew also recommends these outstanding organizations based in the US:

• Braver Angels, which brings political conservatives and liberals together to lower political contempt and build consensus around where we agree.
• StoryCorps — One Small Step, which matches two people with different views for a recorded 50-minute conversation about their lives, not politics. You enter a zip code, fill out a 10-minute questionnaire, and get paired.
• Inheritance Theater Project, which creates original theater focused on increasing intercultural understanding at the local level.
• Urban Rural Action, which brings Americans together across differences to solve urgent local problems, with locally led hubs in six states and collaboration-skills workshops elsewhere.

I bet there are wonderful bridge-building organizations located in other parts of the world, too. If you belong to one, please tell me about it. I look forward to hearing from you.

And if you’ve taken a step towards being a better ally, please reply to this email and tell me about it. Please mention if I can quote you by name or credit you anonymously in an upcoming newsletter.

That’s all for this week. I’m glad you’re on this journey with me,

Karen Catlin (she/her), Author of the Better Allies® book series

100% written by me. I use AI for researching a personal archive of my books and past newsletters, and for light editing.

Copyright © 2026 Karen Catlin. All rights reserved.

Together, we can make a difference with the Better Allies® approach.

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Challenge The Group Chat, and Other Actions for Allies was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

• Presented by: Waterloo Region Friends of Palestine ♦
• What: We Belong to the Land
• When: 7:00pm to 9:30pm on Saturday 3 October 2026 (doors open 6:30pm)
• Where: St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church
• Location: 54 Queen Street North, Kitchener Map
• Register: www.eventbrite.ca/e/we-belong-to-the-land-tickets-1999437436195
• Contact: wrfriendsofpalestine@gmail.com

A unique event of words, drama, music and more to celebrate our belonging to the land from Turtle Island to Palestine.

On the third anniversary of October 7, we look to the land, the common element uniting all Indigenous peoples. From Turtle Island to Palestine we celebrate belonging, resilience and cultural resistance. We recognize Indigenous ties to the land and honour good stewardship of the land.

Join for an evening of community sharing to raise urgently needed funds to help feed families in Gaza. The night includes speakers featuring Elder Myeengun Henry, Robert Massoud, Healing the Seven Generations, dramatic reading of an original play specially written for this event. And much more.

Funds will be collected on site by IDRF, a Canadian registered charity which will issue tax-deductible receipts.

♦

There are two items in today's K-W Record that all citizens/voters should read but likely will not. The first is by Luisa D'Amato titled "The municipal elections are really all about money. Your money". The second is a Letter to the Editor by Pam O'Rourke titled "Stand up for clean water and prime farmland". Both are exhorting citizens to make informed decisions in the upcoming municipal/regional elections and vote for candidates who will support clean water, secure farmland safe from developers, and good fiscal management versus constant staff increases and higher taxes exceeding cost of living increases.

Ms. D'Amato has given us specific reasons and voting records regarding municipal and regional candidates. This I must admit is superior to my recent blanket condemnation of all our regional councillors when I suggested getting rid of the lot of them. My method would be helpful albeit there likely are at least two or three worthy of staying out of sixteen in total. Ms. D'Amato also suggests that the proposed 770 acre megasite in Wilmot could contaminate part of the Waterloo Moraine. She is correct however she and other media have been informed by me, without advising her readers, as to which wells and wellfields in Waterloo Region are already industrially contaminated and have been for decades. 

Ms. O'Rourke appropriately hammers Premier Doug Ford for his environmental stupidity and political interference here in Waterloo Region. His fingers are in the Wilmot Land Grab as well as his appointing our next Regional Chair. Gosh would it be considered undemocratic if Waterloo Region citizens politely advised Ford's appointee that we are currently collecting a wooden rail, pails of tar and a bucket of feathers to welcome him/her to our lovely Region? Never let it be said that unelected provincial appointees aren't given a rousing "welcome".  Maybe at the very least we could have a new fashion "sit out" versus a "sit in".  Regional councillors could refuse to sit at the table whenever the Doug Ford appointee shows up and in fact councillors could go and sit on the picket lines along with their own striking workers. Now that would truly be labour solidarity combined with a political middle finger extended to our good friend Doug Ford. Let the revolt start here!