It allegedly took GHD a year from sampling groundwater to releasing their modest 34 page report titled "Bench Scale Study for Biodegradation of Chlorobenzene and NDAMA". Actually from when the project was first proposed to TRAC (Sept. 2024) it took two years although of course our beloved and  besmirched MECP had to take a look at it first. What shocked me the most was the somewhat belated 37 YEARS that it took GHD or the MECP to advise citizens that chlorobenzene degrades so rapidly in shallow soils and at ground surface. I knew that it would volatolize (evaporate sort of) in the air as so many solvents do but it was only a week ago that I understood why chlorobenzene had allegedly never been found on the Varnicolor Chemical site in their Surficial Aquifer (SA) wells. It was not as I've long suspected that the Ontario Ministry of Environment actually fudged the results either by switching samples or by ordering their labs to improperly mark the results as Non Detect. It was due to the very rapid degradation of chlorobenzene by shallow soil bacteria in a well oxygenated (aerated) environment. This by the way is unusual and we were long told by Uniroyal/Crompton/Chemtura/CRA that chlorinated solvents do not degrade well by soil bacteria due to the tight chlorine bond combined with chlorine being a known bactericide (antiseptic if you will)   Now as we all know here in Elmira chlorobenzene has persisted for a very long time in our deeper aquifers and continues to do so well in excess of the Ontario Drinking Water Standards (ODWS).

 There likely is something else going on however as this study also claims on page 8 that chlorobenzene degrades under anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions. Indeed their Figures section seems to confirm that. If chlorobenzene degrades naturally on its own then why has nearly thirty years of pumping and treating not done the job? The answer is simple and this Susan Bryant is for you. It's called DNAPLS as I and Rich Clausi told  Sylvia Berg and the APTE co-ordinators in January 1994. Esther Thur, one of the three founders of APTE (Sandra Bray, Susan RUPERT, Esther Thur), knew the truth when she heard it but the others unfortunately relied on Sylvia. Chlorobenzene DNAPLS both on and off the former Uniroyal Chemical site are doing what DNAPLS do which is slowly dissolve into groundwater at greater than the ODWS and will continue to do so likely for decades and maybe much longer. 

This past Monday and Tuesday (Aug. 31 & Sept. 1/26)  I informed this Blog's readers plus about sixty other authorities (MECP, TRAC, Lanxess, Woolwich Twn., RMOW etc.)  and citizens that chlorobenzene   rapidly degraded in shallow soils. Lo and behold TWO DAYS LATER (last evening) I get the e-mail report from GHD explaining attempts to enhance degradation of NDMA and chlorobenzene combined with the data all citizens should have had decades ago about chlorobenzenes rapid natural degradation. Coincidence? If so an absolutely amazing one.  

September 15th kicks off National Hispanic Heritage Month in the U.S., a time to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

It’s also a good opportunity to reflect on how to be better allies for our Hispanic coworkers.

Rocio Medina van Nierop, the co-founder and CEO of Latinas in Tech, offers this powerful suggestion: Practice everyday acts of sponsorship.

What does that look like?

• Advocate for someone to lead a project.
• Recommend them for a promotion.
• Give them a public shoutout or glowing review.
• Put in a good word when they’re not in the room.

In other words, when an opportunity comes up, say their name.

As Medina van Nierop notes, anyone can do this if you’re present when opportunities are being discussed. “Having our name floated at a table that we are not part of can make a HUGE difference in our life and career.”

Let’s be that person. Not just during Hispanic Heritage Month, but year-round.

Share this action on Instagram, LinkedIn, or YouTube.

Sponsor 5 Ally Actions and put your brand or business in front of 40,000 caring individuals in business, healthcare, education, and non-profits.

Or, say thanks to Karen and buy her a coffee ☕.

Speaking of Hispanic Heritage Month…

What if someone’s accent makes you see them as less capable?

That happens more than we might think.

A few years ago, IBM surveyed 1,000 Hispanic leaders and found that 87% had experienced discrimination because of their ethnicity. And 63% cited specific discrimination based on their accent, language, or speech pattern.

Of course, not everyone who is Hispanic has an accent. And accent discrimination isn’t limited to Hispanic people. It can happen any time someone speaks with a non-native linguistic intonation.

The impact is appalling. As Janice Gassam Asare explained in an article for Forbes, people might view someone as less trustworthy, truthful, intelligent, or capable of doing their job simply because of their accent.

If we witness someone making discriminatory comments or exhibiting bias based on an accent, let’s address it. For example, “I don’t think someone’s accent tells us anything about their ability to do the job. Let’s focus on their skills and contributions instead.”

In honor of Gloria Steinem who passed away this week, here’s a story from my archives.

Back in 2023, I listened to Gloria Steinem on the We Can Do Hard Things podcast. She shared a story that is particularly relevant for all of us striving to be better allies.

During a field trip for a college geology class, she noticed a huge snapping turtle making its way up a road. Thinking it might be lost, she picked it up and slowly carried it back to the river. She then explained,

“Just as I had slipped it into the water and was watching it swim away, my geology professor came up behind me. ‘You know,’ he said quietly, ‘that turtle has probably spent a month crawling up the dirt path to lay its eggs in the mud on the side of the road — you have just put it back in the river.’”

Steinem felt terrible. She couldn’t believe what she had done, but it was too late.

Years later, she realized this story was a perfect parable for organizing social justice initiatives.

Always ask the turtle.

Similarly, allyship isn’t about being a savior or thinking we know what’s best for someone else.

Instead of guessing what coworkers might need and making decisions based on conjecture, let’s ask them.

Taking time off for religious observance shouldn’t feel like asking for special treatment.

Nate Shalev recently shared a reminder about the upcoming Jewish holidays, explaining that work is prohibited during them.

“Asking for time off isn’t a nice to have, it’s a necessity for observance.”

Yet Shalev also described how stressful it can feel to ask for that time off. Will coworkers think you’re less committed? Will your manager judge you?

No one should feel like their identity is a liability at work.

And making religious observance easier for our coworkers doesn’t take much. For religious holidays that aren’t part of the standard company calendar, we can:

• Avoid scheduling major deadlines, meetings, or events during religious holidays.
• Proactively remind your team that it’s okay to shift schedules or take time off to observe.
• Advocate for floating holidays so everyone can take time for what matters to them.

Shalev also pointed out the upcoming Jewish holidays to keep in mind:

• Rosh Hashanah: September 11–13, 2026.
• Yom Kippur: September 20–21, 2026.
• Sukkot: September 25–26, 2026. (This is a week-long holiday that prohibits work on the first two days.)

Tatum at CBRE in Denver told me that my newsletter has given her the confidence to speak up and shared this story:

“When my parents sold one of their cars, my dad told me that the sale had gone smoothly and he was happy the car was going to ‘a nice Hispanic family.’ I explained to him that, while I’m sure the remark was well-intentioned, he likely wouldn’t have commented on the family’s race or ethnicity if they were white.”

Her dad was grateful for the callout, and it led to some important reflection. He shared this story and his mistake in a team meeting at work to call attention to othering (where we signal someone is different from us and doesn’t belong) and its impact.

Tatum wrote,

“It can be intimidating to speak up, and I’m so glad I did. It’s helped me a great deal to remember that most people mean well and truly do want to be better.”

Thank you, Tatum!

If you’ve taken a step towards being a better ally, please reply to this email and tell me about it. And 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.

• Say thanks to Karen and buy her a coffee ☕ (Need a receipt for educational reimbursement? Reply to this email, and we’ll take care of it.)
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Say Their Name, 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.

Last year, I joined Oxford’s Women’s Leadership Programme, and one of the reasons I wanted to do it was that, after more than a decade in technology, I had accumulated far more questions about leadership than answers.

I had already experienced leadership from several different angles. I had been the engineer who wanted to stay close to the code, the technical lead trying to make architecture decisions that other teams could actually live with, the manager responsible for developing people, and the person in the room who had to translate a technically correct answer into something a client or senior stakeholder could understand. More recently, building a startup added another version of leadership altogether, where a “strategic decision” can mean discussing product direction in the morning and worrying about manufacturing details by lunchtime.

What I had not expected was how often the hardest decisions had very little to do with whether I was capable of doing something. They were usually decisions about what I was willing to give up in order to do it.

• Should I remain deeply technical or spend more time developing leadership skills?
• If I become a manager, how much technical depth will I lose?
• If I stay on the technical path, will my leadership be as visible?
• How much time should I spend mentoring other people when I am also expected to demonstrate my own impact?
• Should I keep building expertise in an area where I am already strong, or deliberately move into something new and temporarily become a beginner again?
• Is choosing stability sensible, or am I simply becoming very sophisticated at avoiding risk?

These are also the kinds of questions I hear from women I mentor, many of whom are early in their careers or have just graduated. They often ask me what the “right” decision is, and I increasingly find myself giving them a slightly inconvenient answer: there usually isn’t one.

There is a trade-off.

And then there are the contradictions that become particularly entertaining when you are a woman in technology.

You are encouraged to speak up, although preferably without appearing too confident. You should become visible, but nobody wants someone who is “self-promotional.”

You should be collaborative, supportive and generous with your time, while also making sure you own sufficiently strategic work for your next promotion.

You should become a leader, but remain technical enough that nobody questions whether you still understand the technology.

You should negotiate for yourself, mentor others, develop executive presence, stay current with AI, understand the business, contribute to the community and, according to most leadership advice, establish healthy boundaries somewhere between all of that.

Apparently, we are expected to achieve high availability with no redundancy cost.

The engineer in me has some objections.

In architecture, nobody seriously expects a system to maximize everything. We cannot simultaneously optimize cost, latency, consistency, availability, security, operational simplicity and speed of delivery without eventually discovering that physics, budgets, or both have opinions.

We start with constraints instead.

What actually matters? What are we optimizing for? What risk are we willing to accept? What becomes more complicated if we choose this option? What are we deliberately not optimizing right now?

And most importantly, what does this decision make possible that another decision would not?

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that careers work in much the same way. There is no architecture in which you can maximize technical depth, organizational influence, leadership, compensation, learning, stability, flexibility, visibility and personal time indefinitely. Something eventually competes with something else.

Yet a lot of career advice aimed at women still sounds as though we should.

That is why I have become much more interested in the trade-offs behind successful careers than in the usual list of things women should supposedly do more of. “Be more confident” is easy advice to give. It is much more interesting to ask what happens when becoming more visible takes time away from technical depth, when helping everyone else makes your own contribution harder to see, or when moving into management gives you more organizational influence while quietly taking you further away from the technical work that built your identity in the first place.

The trade-offs themselves are not uniquely female, of course. Men also decide whether to move into management, specialize, take a risky opportunity or prioritize stability.

What can differ is the environment in which those choices are made.

McKinsey and LeanIn.Org’s Women in the Workplace 2025 report shows that women make up 49 percent of entry-level employees but only 29 percent of C-suite roles. Representation narrows gradually as careers progress, which I find interesting because careers rarely change because of one enormous decision. They are shaped by many smaller opportunities, relationships, choices and trade-offs accumulating over time.

That does not mean every woman will face the same barriers, or that every career decision is harder for women. I also do not want younger women to begin their careers believing they are entering a twenty-year obstacle course.

Quite the opposite.

I think understanding the environment gives you more agency inside it. If visibility matters, you can learn to communicate your technical impact without turning yourself into a personal-branding department. If you want leadership, you can actively seek sponsorship and stretch opportunities. If you want to remain technical, you can look for organizations where senior technical leadership is genuinely valued.

That is why I prefer talking about trade-offs rather than limitations.

A limitation says, “This path is difficult.”

A trade-off asks, “What matters enough to me that I am willing to choose it anyway?”

That is a much more useful question.

Some of the biggest career decisions are really risk-management exercises wearing business-casual clothing.

Do you stay at the established company where the salary is predictable, the benefits are good and there is probably an internal wiki containing seventeen career frameworks?

Or do you join the startup where the job description is technically three jobs and someone says, “We move fast here,” which may mean exciting ownership or that nobody has configured backups?

Neither option is inherently smarter.

Large organizations can offer structure, strong peers, resources and predictable progression. Smaller organizations can offer disproportionate ownership, rapid learning, direct customer exposure and the opportunity to make decisions far beyond your title.

The same question appears when deciding whether to stay in an area where you already have expertise or move into something new. Specialization can build authority, while breadth can create adaptability. Going deeper can make you exceptional at something; moving sideways can expose you to problems you would never have encountered otherwise.

Instead of asking whether a move is simply safe or risky, I find another question much more useful:

What am I buying with the risk I am taking?

Learning? Ownership? A new industry? A stronger network? Access to a technology that may shape the next decade? A chance to operate at a larger scope?

If the upside is vague and the risk is concrete, that is probably not a particularly attractive trade.

If the upside meaningfully changes your future options, the calculation becomes much more interesting.

And choosing stability can be an intentional decision too. Not every ambitious career has to involve disruption, reinvention and dramatic announcements on LinkedIn.

Sometimes stability is exactly what allows you to do your best work.

The important thing is knowing that you chose it, rather than simply drifting into it.

There is a very specific form of career paralysis that appears when you read an interesting job description.

You meet seven of the ten requirements, and naturally your brain ignores those seven and becomes emotionally attached to the remaining three.

Within minutes, you have convinced yourself that every other applicant has spent the previous decade mastering exactly those technologies and probably configures distributed systems recreationally on Sundays.

Many roles are learned while doing them.

Nobody starts their first staff engineering position already knowing how to be a staff engineer. Nobody becomes a manager with complete confidence on day one. Nobody becomes an architect having already designed every conceivable system.

At some point, growth requires accepting an opportunity where the requirements are slightly ahead of your current experience.

This is something I especially want early-career women to hear, because “I have never done this before” and “I am not capable of doing this” are very different statements.

You are allowed to learn the next job while doing the next job.

You are allowed to become a beginner again after being an expert.

You are allowed to apply before you have collected every possible qualification.

And sometimes the most useful trade-off you can make is giving up a little certainty in exchange for a much larger learning curve.

When younger women ask me what the right career choice is, I increasingly resist giving them a formula.

Instead, I ask what they want to optimize for right now.

Learning? Technical depth? Leadership? Ownership? Flexibility? Stability? Impact? Something completely different?

Then we talk about the trade, not because I want them to become cautious, but because I want them to become intentional.

Understanding trade-offs does not make your career smaller. In many ways, it gives you permission to make bolder decisions because you stop waiting for the imaginary option where everything is perfect.

You can choose technical depth knowing that visibility may require additional effort. You can choose leadership knowing that you may spend less time coding. You can join something risky because the learning is worth it. You can choose stability because stability is genuinely what you value at that stage of your life, rather than because somebody told you ambition always has to look like disruption.

And you can change your mind later.

That may be the message I most want early-career women to hear.

You do not need to design your entire career at twenty-two, twenty-five or thirty. You only need to understand what you are optimizing for in the next version.

Requirements change. Priorities change. Technologies change. You change.

There will be imperfect choices, and there will probably be a few decisions you look back on and wonder what exactly you were thinking.

That is normal.

No good system reaches its final architecture in version one.

Neither do we.

Women in Tech: Choosing What to Optimize For was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The post Labour Day Hours appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

The post Labour Day Hours appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

A small business entity likely was given inaccurate information prior to purchasing the former Varnicolor Chemical site and embarking on an alleged ten year pump & treat cleanup. The public were misled into believing that the sole guilty party to the loss of our drinking water aquifers was Uniroyal Chemical and that they could fully remediate it within thirty years. This misconception was only exacerbated by the M.O.E.'s knowingly allowing Uniroyal to pretend that there were no accessible DNAPLS on their site that could and should have been removed, encapsulated or somehow properly remediated. This misconception was magnified by the discovery of off-site DNAPLS both at Nutrite/Yara and beside the Howard St. (Elmira) Water Tower that the M.O.E. further denied  and failed to ensure were again properly remediated. These DNAPL failures combined with other remediation failures ensured that full remediation of the Elmira drinking water aquifers by 2028, as mandated, wasn't happening.  

A deeper, likely low volume pump & treat system could also have been installed in the Municipal Aquifer beneath Varnicolor Chemical. Furthermore efforts to specifically remove the DNAPL that likely was situated either on top of the Surficial Aquitard (SAT) or on top of the Upper Aquitard (UAT) would have greatly reduced remediation time for both the Varnicolor site as well as the Elmira drinking water aquifers. Similar efforts could and should have been done on the Nutrite/Yara property to remove its' DNAPL for similar purposes. The known DNAPL at the Howard St. Water Tower was much deeper (OW57-32R) and may have required more extensive and expensive remediation. Allegedly the pumping at W4 beside it for a period of years greatly reduced it in size although that is unproven to date. 

Other ramifications concern Varnicolor's second site at the extreme east end of Oriole Parkway. The "cleanup" there was a sham and with the extent of intentional dumping there as well, DNAPLS and LNAPLS may have been an issue. PCBs were found and excavated from a drum although most of the cleanup was a superficial effort at removing surface tanks, tankers and drums. Once again both human health and the environment continue to be impacted by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) perversion of their mandate.       

♦“I had stopped believing that help would come.” – Freddy

Freddy became homeless in 2021, a year after his brother Max lost his battle with depression.

“My brother was very broken and I had always taken care of him my whole adult life,” said Freddy. “And then suddenly Max was gone, and then I couldn’t pay rent anymore. I was homeless.”

Freddy first ended up at a shelter in Cambridge, but quickly decided he needed to move on. He struggled with crystal meth and fentanyl, and wanted to find a fresh start.

“Cambridge was the place where it all went wrong,” said Freddy. “I was an addict at the time, and I was struggling to stay clean. After my brother died, there were two things I wanted – to heal and to grow in my relationship with God.”

He found himself moving from shelter to shelter during this time before eventually creating his own home in the woods.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought being homeless in a tent would be,” said Freddy. “It was actually really peaceful for me, because I would spend my days just reading my Bible.”

Unfortunately for Freddy, he was soon told by city officials that he couldn’t stay in the woods anymore.

“I had lost my apartment, and I had been kicked out of some shelters. And now I couldn’t stay in the forest,” said Freddy. “It’s like, ‘where do you want me to go?’”

When he had finally lost all hope, he found a bed at House of Friendship’s ShelterCare program.

“I had stopped believing that help would come,” said Freddy. “When I moved to House of Friendship, that’s when I found optimism for the future.”

Caring team members helped Freddy as he began to heal from the trauma of homelessness, and the grief he still felt at losing his brother.

Last fall, Freddy moved into his own apartment in Charles Village, one of House of Friendship’s Supportive Housing communities.

“It’s so peaceful having my own space,” said Freddy. “It’s a very positive change for me.”

“For a long time, I didn’t think I would make it,” said Freddy. “I thought I would end up tapping out – everything was just too hard. But now it feels like I finally have hope.”

“I don’t know what comes next,” added Freddy. “I just trust that it’ll be good.”

The post You Helped Freddy Find Hope Again appeared first on House Of Friendship.

♦

We'd been warned that severe thunderstorms -- even a possible tornado -- were in the offing later in the day. But at around 4:30 p.m., the sun was still shining, so I decided to nip out two blocks to my local Sobeys to pick up some items for dinner. I usually drive this route when collecting a large number of groceries, but I didn't need much this time, and I felt virtuous using my own two feet. There were some mounded clouds on the horizon, but I thought I'd have no trouble getting back home.

Shopping took me a half hour, and the moment I paid for my purchases was when the sky opened.

This was no ordinary rainstorm, for Kitchener. The sky went very dark, and the rain became torrential. The large roof that covered our big box store rattled with it. Then everybody's cellphone blared out an emergency alert: our area was under a tornado warning. We needed to take cover immediately.

The storm with the dangerous rotation turned out to be outside Mitchell, Ontario, but that front was moving fast. We all needed to take it seriously. And as I'd walked to the store, I had no transportation home, so I decided to shelter in place. I sat down in a seating area that Sobey's provided, with an eye on the door, places where I could duck and cover, and the path to the nearest windowless interior room (the store's public bathroom) that I could run to if needed.

Things got intense out of doors. The rain fell so hard, we lost cellular reception. That means it blocked the line of sight between my cellphone and the nearest cell towers, even though cellphones can find a signal through most walls. Visually, we couldn't see across the parking lot. Then the wind hit. I was told that someone struggling to get through the parking lot was blown back three steps for every forward step taken. Our cellphones blared multiple times, for updates to the tornado worning, for dangerous wind warnings; this wasn't to be taken lightly.

And when the employees mentioned that the windows at the front of the store were vibrating from the storm, I stood up, announced I was heading for an interior room, and strongly suggested that others follow. A store manager also mentioned that Sobeys had a basement. Who knew?

By this point, the store was mostly empty. I'd been waiting for at least a half-hour. Nobody was coming in to shop, and shoppers were gradually leaving, to try and chance things in their cars. The upside of this was that many store employees decided to walk back to the store's break rooms, which were also interior and away from the windows. A reasonably safe spot.

Things eased up after that point. We could see across the street at last. The wind died down. There was at least six inches of standing water throughout the large parking lot, rising up to Sobeys' doors, but that started to recede. My family, who had taken cover in their basement, hauling in a contractor who was working on our property to share our shelter, ventured out. Erin got the car and came to get me. I returned to a flooded driveway (which I cleared by finding and clearing the blocked drain), a partially flooded garage (with two drains that took care of the problem) and wet feet. There were some branches knocked down in our street, but there was no serious damage to our property or ourselves.

It's important to note that I respected the weather and stayed indoors, eyeing all the paths to proper shelter, because I married a Midwesterner. Erin, born in Iowa and raised in Nebraska, knows and respects severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. She knows what a bad sky looks like, and it looked like home out there today. I've never been through such a storm, though. My respect comes entirely from her hear-say, and I suspect I didn't treat this storm with the full respect it deserved (I should have been in the interior windowless room the whole time, rather than watching the waves of rain through the doors, taking the pictures you see).

But that's nothing compared to most people around me, who stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows in awe, who waded out into six inches of water to get to their cars, who ploughed through flood zones on the street raising a wake taller than their own vehicles. If things had gotten worse -- if a tornado had shoved itself through, if devastating winds or baseball-sized hail took aim at our big box roof, or if the rain had continued in its intensity for another half hour, flooding into stores and homes and floating cars into one another on the streets, we would have seen a true disaster.

Earlier today, my old friend, political jockey Warren Kinsella fired a cheap political salvo at Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow over the concerns she raised about the storm that was coming. In his words, "The sun is out and its lovely in Toronto. Good thing Olivia Chow practically declared a state of emergency and said that we were going to be facing a torrent of rain, hail and tornadoes."

Warren. I love you, but when you try to score cheap political points off of something that many meteorologists warned was coming, you're going to get soaked, and not just literally. Maybe respect the experts? Maybe, just maybe, don't go for the cheap political jab every chance you get?

But Warren's blazé attitude isn't unusual. It comes naturally to most of us without the political sidebars involved, because Ontarians don't understand how bad things can get when you get the weather that they get out in the American midwest. We've never faced the storms they've faced. We don't understand what living in Tornado Alley truly means. We gawk out of floor-to-ceiling windows vibrating in the wind.

Thanks to climate change. Tornado Alley is shifting east, and possibly north. These storms are going to happen more often, and right now, we're not prepared for them.

Unless we treat stormy weather with the respect it deserves, it's going to kill us someday.

♦

Have you ever wondered what happens when we don’t directly program a machine with the exact steps to reach an answer?

What if, instead of telling a computer exactly how to solve a problem, we gave it a way to search for a good solution on its own ?

This is what makes Genetic Algorithms interesting to me.
The idea comes from something we already see in nature : “Evolution”

In nature, organisms that are better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Genetic Algorithms take this basic idea and apply it to computational problems. The successful ones are more likely to reproduce, while random mutations introduce new possibilities i.e. to maintain diversity.

A Genetic Algorithm is an optimization and search technique inspired by the process of natural selection and biological evolution. It is used to find good or near-optimal solutions to complex problems where traditional methods may be difficult to apply. The basic idea is "Survival of the Fittest " is given a higher chance to produce new solutions.

Instead of working with one possible answer, a Genetic Algorithm works with a population of candidate solutions.

And this is where the idea starts to become interesting.

The algorithm does not need to begin with the correct answer.

It begins with possibilities.

Genetic algorithms work with a population of candidate solutions rather than a single solution. Each candidate is represented as a chromosome, which consists of smaller units called "genes".

Biological terms Genetic Algorithm term

1. Population = Set of candidate solutions
2. Chromosome = One complete candidate solution
3. Gene = Part of a solution
4. Allele = Value of a gene
5. Fitness = Quality of a solution
6. Selection = Choosing better solutions
7. Crossover = Combining two parent solutions
8. Mutations = Randomly changing genes
9. Generation = One iteration of the algorithm

At first, these terms can sound like a lot of vocabulary to remember.

But they all describe one simple process:

That is the basic idea behind a Genetic Algorithm.

How Does a Genetic Algorithm Work?

The whole process can be summarized in these steps:

Initialization → Fitness Evaluation → Selection → Crossover → Mutation → Replacement → Repeat.

Let's look at what happens at each stage.

1. Initialization: First, an initial population of possible solutions is generated randomly.
2. Fitness Function: The function measures how good each chromosome is for solving the problem. The function depends on the particular problem being solved.
3. Selection: In selection, chromosomes with better fitness are given a higher chance of becoming parents for the next generation. Common selection methods include: Roulette-wheel selection, Tournament selection, Rank selection, and Elitism.
4. Crossover: It is also called recombination and combines genetic information from two parent chromosomes to produce offspring. A crossover point can be selected randomly, and parts of the two parents are exchanged. Common types include: Single-point crossover, Two-point crossover, Multi-point crossover, and Uniform crossover.
5. Mutation: It introduces small random changes into chromosomes. For a binary chromosome, this can simply mean changing 0 to 1 and 1 to 0. It helps to maintain genetic diversity and allows the algorithm to explore new regions of the search space.
6. Replacement and New Generation: The newly created offspring are evaluated using the fitness function. They then form the next generation either replacing the old population or being combined with it according to the particular GA design.

And then the Process Repeat. After crossover and mutation, we have a new generation. The new solutions are evaluated again using the fitness function. The better candidates are selected. Crossover produces new combinations. Mutation introduces small variations.

The algorithm eventually stops when a termination condition is reached.

The goal is not necessarily to guarantee the perfect answer.

Instead, the algorithm searches for a solution that is good enough or close to optimal within the given problem and constraints.

Genetic algorithms are used in many areas:

1. Scheduling and timetabling
2. Route optimization
3. Traveling Salesman Problem
4. Machine learning
5. Engineering design
6. Feature selection
7. Robotics
8. Network optimization
9. Bioinformatics
10. Resource allocation

Conclusion: A Genetic Algorithm is an evolutionary optimization technique that repeatedly improves a population of candidate solutions. Its main components are population, chromosome, fitness function, selection, crossover, and mutation. By combining good solutions and introducing random variations, GA can efficiently explore large and difficult search.

What If We Didn’t Program the Answer? What If We Let the Machine Evolve It? was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

So let's get real here. Thirty-seven years have passed since the south wellfield in Elmira, Ontario was suddenly shut down allegedly due to NDMA contamination. There were already solvents in the groundwater at those two wells (E7, E9) at low concentrations, courtesy of both Uniroyal and Varnicolor, as per the M.O.E.'s 1989 Elmira drinking water report. Since that time a total of three companies have been proven to be environmental pigs namely Nutrite/Yara (ammonia), Uniroyal Chemical (NDMA, chlorobenzene & hundreds of others plus DDT, dioxins) and Varnicolor Chemical (NDMA, chlorobenzene, & dozens to hundreds of other solvents plus PCBs). Leaking gas stations have been culprits and possibly other larger companies may have also contributed (McKee, Sanyo, Borg etc.) but only Uniroyal and Varnicolor have actually been proven, dirty polluters of the really worst sort. 

So let me say this to Uniroyal Chemical (Lanxess), Ont. Min. of Environment (MECP) and Woolwich Township in particular. You are a pack of  lying, cowardly, bullying pieces of sh*t who have knowingly and intentionally covered up the extent of contamination and human and environmental damage caused by Varnicolor Chemical (& Uniroyal Chemical) for your own self-serving reasons. You disgust me.

Patience is key. The Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) finally have been publicly exposed for what they are. It is also my hope that certain public figures who made their reputations as members of that disgusting organization might just have citizens reexamining their support for them. I will list but two names for the moment and that would be Liz Witmer and our very own, thank God hopefully soon to be gone, Sandy Shantz. Is it coincidental that both were attractive women who had been appointed as Chair of the School Board (i.e. trustees) ? I think not. We citizens (both genders) are suckers for an attractive face and the politically motivated among us know that.

Caroline Burjowski has been a one woman wrecking crew. She through her tenacity and conviction took no crap from a bunch of ego maniacs looking for a cause to promote themselves. Furthermore long time trustees Mike Ramsay and Cindy Watson were in it for the long haul. Both have upbraided and criticized gross behaviour by their colleagues over the last few decades. They have stood out as beacons of determination against all odds. 

Last Monday's K-W Record published the following article written by Jeff Outhit and titled "Exodus at the school board".  It critiques the actions of the Board including their lack of transparency and perhaps even honesty in some matters. The Record also covered the court appearances and battles regarding Caroline Burjowski and the WRDSB bullying and intimidation attempts. The School Board really stepped into it big time and made a huge mistake thinking that Ms. Burjowski could be battered and broken through "lawfare" which is one of the ways the Board attacks and intimidates parents and other critics. The WRDSB believe that using the public's money against them in long running and grossly expensive court cases is the key to their winning every dispute. They are filth and Ms. Burjowski, I will admit with assistance from the K-W Record kicked their butts both in the media and in court and it was long overdue! It is my hope that not just the majority of idiot and biased trustees but also the slime at the top of the Board all rot in hell. This also applies to the scum at the top decades ago who protected and covered up both bad teachers and pedophiles like Ron Archer and others.  

There’s a specific kind of panic going around founder circles right now, and it usually sounds like this:

“If a bigger company with more money and a better model can build this in six weeks, what’s actually stopping them?”

It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is: usually nothing, if the product’s entire value proposition is “we put a good prompt in front of a capable model.” That kind of product genuinely is one funding round and one engineering sprint away from being replicated by someone with more resources. The uncomfortable truth most founders eventually run into is that “smart” was never the durable part.

What’s harder to replicate — and what quietly separates the AI products still standing in two years from the ones that got steamrolled — isn’t intelligence. It’s whether the product has built a real feedback loop between usage and improvement, or whether it’s just wearing a smart model like a costume.

For a while, having access to a capable model felt like a competitive advantage in itself. That window closed fast. Model capability has become a commodity that any team can license, and the gap between “using GPT-4” and “using whatever the current frontier model is” has narrowed to the point where it’s rarely the deciding factor in whether a product wins its category.

Once the underlying intelligence is available to everyone, the question stops being “how smart is your model” and starts being “what does your product know that a freshly-built competitor doesn’t.” That knowledge doesn’t live in the model weights. It lives in the accumulated, product-specific signal that only comes from real usage over time.

A feedback loop isn’t just “we collect analytics.” It’s a structural property of the product: every interaction makes the next interaction measurably better, in a way a brand-new competitor literally cannot replicate on day one, no matter how much capital or talent they throw at it.

It shows up as increasingly specific personalization. A recommendation engine that’s watched a million real decisions gets better at predicting the million-and-first, in ways a cold-start competitor’s engine simply can’t, regardless of whose underlying model is more advanced.

It shows up as error correction that compounds. A product that logs its own mistakes — and specifically the corrections users make to those mistakes — builds a private dataset of exactly where the current approach falls short. A competitor starting fresh has to rediscover every one of those failure modes independently, one at a time, in production, in front of their own users.

It shows up as domain-specific judgment a generic model doesn’t have. A general-purpose model knows a huge amount about the world and very little about your specific customers’ edge cases, workflows, and unstated preferences. A product that’s spent a year accumulating that specific knowledge has an advantage no amount of general model capability closes.

It shows up as trust earned through consistency, which is really just the human-facing version of the same idea — users returning because the product has reliably gotten better at solving their specific problem, not because it demoed well once.

The reason this kind of moat is real, and not just startup-conference platitude, comes down to a simple asymmetry: a competitor can copy your interface in a weekend, your feature list in a month, and possibly even your prompt engineering with enough reverse-engineering effort. What they cannot copy is time-in-market with real users, because that’s not a static asset sitting somewhere to be reverse-engineered — it’s a process that only exists if it’s been running.

This is precisely why “shallow wrapper” products — thin interfaces bolted onto a foundation model’s raw capability with no data loop feeding back into them — have become so vulnerable this cycle. They’re valuable exactly until someone with slightly more resources builds the same wrapper, and then the entire competitive position evaporates in the time it takes a bigger team to ship a comparable feature. There was never a compounding asset underneath to defend.

A dangerous middle ground exists here, and a lot of founders sit in it without realizing: building genuinely useful AI features, while still having no real feedback loop underneath them. Personalization, recommendations, and smart defaults can all be faked, in the sense of working well on day one without actually compounding over time.

The tell is a simple question: does the product get measurably better at your specific problem the longer you use it — not just because the underlying model got a version bump, but because of what your own usage taught it? If the honest answer is no, the “AI feature” is decoration on top of the base model’s capability, not a moat, no matter how well it demos.

This isn’t purely a data-science problem — it’s a product and engineering design decision made early, often before a team even realizes they’re making it.

Instrument the parts of the product where users correct or override the AI, not just where they accept its output. The moments a user says “no, actually” are far more valuable than the moments they say “yes, that’s right,” because they’re the raw material for the loop.

Design the product so that usage naturally generates structured, reusable signal, rather than generating a pile of unstructured logs nobody looks at. A feedback loop that requires a data science project to extract insight from six months later is much weaker than one designed to feed improvements back automatically and continuously.

Decide early which parts of the experience are meant to compound, because not every feature needs to. A utility feature can stay static forever without hurting the product. The features that touch a user’s specific context, preferences, or repeated behavior are the ones worth building a genuine loop around.

Resist the urge to over-index on the model upgrade cycle. Chasing every new model release as the primary source of product improvement is a treadmill that never produces a durable advantage — the product’s own accumulated, specific knowledge is the part competitors can’t instantly access by upgrading their model too.

“Our model is smarter” was never going to be a permanent advantage, in the same way “our servers are faster” stopped being one once cloud infrastructure commoditized compute. The products surviving past the current wave of AI hype aren’t the ones that found the cleverest prompt or the newest model first. They’re the ones that turned ordinary usage into a private, compounding advantage nobody else has access to — including, eventually, a much bigger and better-funded competitor.

✔ Identify whether your product’s AI value depends on model capability alone, or on usage-driven improvement

✔ Instrument correction and override moments, not just acceptance moments

✔ Design for structured, automatically-compounding signal rather than logs someone has to manually mine later

✔ Decide deliberately which features are meant to compound and which are fine staying static

✔ Stop treating the next model upgrade as your primary source of competitive advantage

Isn’t a great model still a meaningful advantage? It’s an advantage, but rarely a durable one — model capability tends to commoditize quickly as competitors gain access to comparably capable models. A feedback loop built on your own usage data is much harder for a competitor to replicate on the same timeline.

How long does it take to build a real feedback loop? There’s no fixed timeline, but it requires sustained real usage, not a short pilot. The core requirement is instrumenting the product early enough that the loop has time to compound before a competitor can catch up on features alone.

Can a small startup compete with a bigger company on this basis? Often yes, specifically because the bigger company usually has to start its own feedback loop from zero for any new product, regardless of its size or model access. Being first to real usage in a specific niche can outweigh a competitor’s larger resources.

• Model capability has become a commodity; it’s rarely the deciding factor in which AI product wins its category long-term.
• A genuine feedback loop — where usage measurably improves the product over time — is much harder for a competitor to replicate quickly than a feature set or interface.
• Many “AI features” are decoration on top of a base model with no real compounding loop underneath, which is why shallow AI wrapper products remain especially vulnerable to being out-built.

Building a product that compounds instead of just demoing well starts with the underlying architecture and data design, not the choice of model. 7 Pillars works with startups on exactly this kind of AI development and custom software, designing products built to get better with real usage rather than depending entirely on whichever model happens to be newest.

The Products That Survive AI Hype Aren’t the Smartest. They’re the Ones That Learn. was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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Fresh figs are a delicious and nutritious fruit that fly under the radar in comparison to their dried counterparts. Historically, however, figs have been around for quite some time, and they deserve more of our attention.

Truth be told, the little morsels were critical to early human survival: the fact that they dry very well, thereby forming a source of preserved and caloric nutrition, made figs an important food for humans in the Mediterranean and Middle East thousands of years ago. There are records of humans consuming figs dating to 9,000 BCE, and evidence of a fig “industry” in the Tigris and Euphrates area of the world known as Mesopotamia.

Ancient Greek Olympic athletes ate figs as training fuel and were awarded fig-leaf crowns in victory. There is an etymological myth that “sykon,” the Greek word for fig, was used in the context of anyone stealing the best Greek figs: the person reporting the activity – who did so in the hopes of gaining favour with the authorities – was called a “sycophant.” I don’t know if that’s true, but it sounds good!

Millennia later, figs were introduced to, and were growing in, North America when in 1769 Franciscan missionaries planted trees. It’s why we have the popular black-hued “Mission” figs. As for their first wide-scale commercial appearance, Fig Newton cookies came along in 1892.

The fig and fig trees are mentioned in Deuteronomy in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament, among other books in the Bible. It is plausible that the so-called “apple” of the Garden of Eden was actually a fig. Chapter 95 of the Quran is named “Al-Tin,” The Fig, which refers to regions of Palestine and Syria where prophets were raised. Buddha, it is said, gained enlightenment meditating beneath a species of fig tree. The tree is also considered sacred by many eastern religions, including Hinduism which calls it the “world tree.”

What is a fig? First, it’s a relative of the mulberry, of which we have plenty here in Waterloo Region. Unusually, fig trees do not produce blossoms, say, like an apple tree. The fig itself is a sort of inverted strawberry: it’s more flower than fruit, with its flesh folded in on itself.

The little seeds inside – called achenes – are actually similar to what you find on the outside of a strawberry. Small wasps called fig wasps enter a pore at the base of the fig to pollinate it. Figs are a rare fruit that will ripen fully on the tree and partially dry there.

As for nutrition, three or four figs have roughly as much fibre as a cup of cooked oatmeal and the amount of calcium that is found in a glass of milk – that’s unusually high for a fruit. They are good substitutes for sweeteners in baking and their moisture content helps keep baked goods soft and delicious. Fig puree can be used in some recipes as a substitute for butter as well.

You can find dried figs at just about any grocery store, usually in tightly packed circular packages, while a number of grocery stores have started carrying fresh figs in flats of a dozen. Look for Greek figs by September and end of October, while California figs arrive in the middle to late-summer and year-round they come in from Peru and Israel.

Figs, both dry and fresh, are great for snacks on their own, but they also can have other applications in your kitchen, including in salads with fennel, pomegranate and a little bit of arugula. The go well with stronger, firm cheeses too.

Check out my latest post Fresh figs for fall from AndrewCoppolino.com.

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Location: Toronto, Ontario. The board meets remotely and directors may be anywhere in Canada.
Seeking: Board of Directors, Volunteer
Time Commitment: 4 to 6 board meetings a year, active service on at least one committee at 2 to 6 hours a month, plus the annual meeting and annual planning session. 5 to 10 hours a month overall.
Apply By: September 25, 2026, 11:59pm ET

Our members elect the board on October 27, 2026. We’re running an open call: everyone who applies and meets the eligibility requirements appears in the candidate information sent to every member on October 1. Nobody is shortlisted or interviewed.

We’re looking hardest for not-for-profit or charity board governance, financial oversight, and fundraising, and would also value HR and employment, equity and anti-racism, and conflict resolution experience. Prior board experience is an asset and there’s room to grow into the role without it.

Apply at: flywheel.babyghosts.org/board/apply
Role description: flywheel.babyghosts.org/board/responsibilities

Baby Ghosts is a Canadian registered charity providing cooperative governance education, professional development, and open resources for marginalized creators in Canada’s interactive digital arts sector. We spread awareness and education about cooperatives, as both a business model and a grassroots movement to address the social and economic issues faced by displaced and disheartened game workers.

Our work centres marginalized artists, collectives, and cooperatives in the sector, advocating for their freedom to create work that reflects our collective cultural and social richness. We deliver low-barrier educational programs and build a supportive cross-disciplinary community where the process and work of artists historically left out of digital arts spaces is resourced, celebrated, and platformed. By providing material support and education on cooperative and worker-centric models to underrepresented artists, we add diverse stories and perspectives to the Canadian interactive digital arts ecosystem and remove barriers these creators face when entering the sector.

We are also mandated to advocate for systemic change: an ecosystem that supports cooperative and worker-centric studio models. We work with artists, funding bodies, educational institutions, and other partners.

• Support Baby Ghosts’ mission and values, and protect the organization so it can do its work.
  Set policy, direction, and strategic priorities. Work through them with staff, and allocate resources as needed.
• Act as an ambassador for Baby Ghosts. Talk about the work in your communities and bring back ideas, volunteers, and partnerships.
• Help find and reach funding through donations, grant applications, and partnerships, so the organization stays financially stable.
• Provide direction and oversight on the annual budget and grant applications.
• Review, recommend, and revise organizational policies and by-laws, and stay familiar with how Baby Ghosts operates: its plans, budget, and activities. By-law changes made by the board go to the members for confirmation, and some can only be made by the members.
• Approve the hiring and release of the Co-Executive Directors, including their employment contracts, and review their performance annually.
• Serve on, and ideally chair, at least one committee.
• Support recruitment of candidates for election by the members, onboard newly elected directors, and help build a steady team of staff, board, and volunteers.
• Represent Baby Ghosts at industry, academic, and community events, and support fundraising and community activities as you have capacity.
• Participate in the development of strategic plans and annual reviews, and in board and community training as needed.
• Ensure the organization remains in compliance with the requirements of the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act and its charitable registration in Canada.
• Contribute to the mission, vision, and values through what you already know and what you want to learn.

• Four to six board meetings a year, prepared by reviewing the agenda and materials in advance. The first meeting of the new board is November 4, 2026 at 1:00pm Eastern, where officers are appointed. The board has also fixed February 10, 2027 and April 14, 2027, both at 1:00pm Eastern.
• Active service on at least one committee (2 to 6 hours per month), and ad hoc committees as needed.
• The annual meeting of the members and the annual planning session.
• Asynchronous organizational conversations on Slack, and follow-through on assignments between meetings.

Representing Baby Ghosts at industry and community events in your region, as available.
In total, expect 5 to 10 hours a month on Baby Ghosts work, with more in the weeks around a board meeting, the annual meeting, and the planning session. The role is flexible to life circumstances, but we need board members who are willing to show up and put in the work.

Click here to apply

The post Baby Ghosts appeared first on Capacity Canada.

It now appears less likely that the Ontario Ministry of Environment (M.O.E./MECP) fudged lab results on the Varnicolor site in order to hide chlorobenzene, an extremely common solvent and paint component which absolutely would have been ubiquitous in that company's incoming liquid toxic wastes. Varnicolor were in both the solvent recovery and the toxic waste storage and reduction business. Of course they did more storage illegally than they did actual reduction. 

Other factors for its' presence include the incredible steps the MECP went to in order to hide Varnicolor's environmental disaster and mass toxic dumping on their site. They promised more and deeper monitoring wells on the site and included that requirement in their initial Control Order. They then later reneged on that requirement by removing it from the Control Order. They absolutely refused to accept witness statements regarding a buried road tanker and a buried septic tank in Varnicolor's backyard which were part of an elaborate mass toxic liquid dumping process. Once they were pressured by the public and the media they excavated the road tanker but claimed not to see the septic tank literally a few metres away from it. Myself and Richard Clausi were shown the colour photographs of the excavation and immediately accused the two Ministry employees (Papenhuzen & Robinson) of a coverup as the one employee was actually standing on top of the recently broken up subsurface septic tank and broken concrete and rebar were visible. Sure enough the septic tank was excavated a couple of weeks later and both it and the road tanker's contents and internal stains were tested and found to contain numerous different solvents and other liquid wastes. Finally we were promised that the road tanker would be preserved and carefully examined for intentional holes and leaks that would allow rapid dispersion of liquid contents that flowed into it from the floor drain inside the nearest (orange) building. Instead within a few days the road tanker was reduced to pieces via cutting torches. Also the piping from the floor drain through the building and into the road tanker and septic tank was also seen, found and photographed. 

The coverup of the extent and breadth of Varnicolor's pollution did not end there. Years later soil was excavated and removed from their west side neighbour (Motiveair) and Varnicolor's shallow pump and treat system was expanded to include contaminated groundwater that had flowed from their site over to the Motiveair property.  Again not only zero public notice but also zero notice to myself, the EH Team, APTE (Hmm?), CPAC or any other appropriate stakeholders.

Then we have the nonsense of the June 19, 2025 TRAC meeting where Jesse Wright of Arcadis Inc. showed a blurry picture of allegedly four or five businesses near the corner of First St. and Union St. who had handled chlorobenzene as well as possibly other chlorinated solvents. No company names given and no explanation as to why now in 2024 this information was being made public. Frankly it was all for show.  For many years as the pump & treat system and wells have slowly done their thing the remaining chlorobenzene plumes above 80 ppb. (drinking standard) have been reduced and moved back towards their source. You got it. Right there in both the Municipal Upper and Municipal Lower Aquifers below Varnicolor Chemical and below Union and First St. area is the highest remaining concentrations of chlorobenzene. I kind of suspect that even the slowest members of TRAC were beginning to feel uneasy about that and privately asked questions. Having Mr. Wright make his public announcement was enough to satisfy the poorly informed TRAC members and possibly they hoped to deflect myself as I'd been on the hunt for the truth literally for decades. 

The Ministry of Environment have consistently refused to make information or documents regarding Varnicolor Chemical available to me. This includes the Risk Assessment done in 2016 for Elmira Pump (i.e. the former Varnicolor). They have also refused me simple data such as new monitoring wells whether shallow or deep and their location on the former Varnicolor site.  With MECP agreement I and other CPAC members were bounced from the public advisory committee by Chemtura and Woolwich Township in September 2015. Since then the public including myself and other involved stakeholders have been refused the right to either ask questions at public TAG (now TRAC) meetings or even to make verbal presentations. Clearly Chemtura (now Lanxess) and the MECP have been doing their best to isolate and minimize the by far best informed and knowledgeable local citizen, myself. 

The Ontario Ministry of Environment with support from other local political bodies have been unaccountable and non transparent for decades. They have been caught lying and deceiving over and over again and clearly do not want local citizens knowing the truth of all the sources of contamination  to the Elmira aquifers. 

On the first Tuesday of every month, we’ll announce a new Fearless Female, including a video interview of them sharing their business story. Want to be featured as a Fearless Female?

Contact Memberships at memberships@greaterkwchamber.com for more details. The Fearless Female Program would not be possible without our Title Sponsor, Scotiabank.

To learn a little more about the Scotiabank Women Initiative, and why they’ve chosen to sponsor this program, see the video below.

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The Fearless Female we’re featuring for the month of September is Tomoko King, Chief Executive Officer & Founder of King Enishi Inc.

Tomoko King is Founder and CEO of King Enishi Inc., a Japan-Canada business advisory practice based in Waterloo, Ontario. Bilingual and bicultural, born in Ottawa and raised in Osaka, she brings over 25 years of cross-sector experience spanning corporate, government, healthcare, and education.

She spent over 15 years at Toyota’s Canadian subsidiary, leading global projects and bridging teams across Japan and North America. She went on to build enterprise project management capability in the public sector, establishing the City of Guelph’s Corporate Project Management Office from the ground up and leading a Kaizen program in Ontario healthcare that returned an estimated $1 million in annual administrative time.

Today her practice focuses on the Osaka and Waterloo Region corridor. A certified Women Business Enterprise, she is committed to building stronger ties between women entrepreneurs in the two countries. She serves on the Board of Directors of Project Management Institute, Canada’s Technology Triangle chapter (PMI-CTT) and speaks regularly through guest lectures and panel discussions.

kingenishi.com | linkedin.com/in/tomokoking | contact@kingenishi.com

To learn more about Tomoko’s journey as a Fearless Female, watch the interview below (or read the written format).

Please introduce yourself.

I’m Tomoko King. I’m the founder and CEO of King Enishi Inc., a Japan-Canada business advisory practice based in Waterloo region. 

Tell us more about your company.

At King Enishi, we bridge Japan and Canada in either direction, supporting market entry, finding and building partners, and strengthening existing relationship for better alignment. Enishi is a Japanese word for the connections between people, the sense that an encounter is not coincidence and the one that’s meant to be and my company logo is a cherry blossom and a maple leaf growing in harmony from a single stem.

What inspired you to start this business?

What inspires my career path actually goes back quite a bit, generations ago. My great-grandfather, my mother’s side, he met a missionary from Canada in Japan a long time ago and ended up becoming Christian, which was very uncommon in Japan; and that led to his son, so my grandfather, my mom’s dad, coming to Montreal to go to McGill and before becoming a ministry at a church in Japan.

And later, my mom and dad met and my father choosing Ottawa for his two-year research, and that’s when I was born. So, thinking about these generations between and within my family that had connection between Japan and Canada, that itself feels like Enishi, the connection that was meant to be, and starting this business to continue this for generations to come after mine, was a natural move for me. 

Tell us more about your professional and educational background.

On education, not just lived in both countries, I was educated in both countries, Japan and Canada. Going through a Japanese school system, which is quite unique compared to the ones in here, I gained quite a bit of discipline.

And all of my post-secondary in North America, in the States, as well as Canada, including the MBA from Wilfrid Laurier in this region; and in terms of background and experience, I talk about my experience at Toyota quite a bit. I learned so much at Toyota, honestly, from really the best, and all about operational excellence.

What really stuck with me is about the balanced need to balance the stakeholders and in terms of not just shareholders, not just about the bottom line, but about their employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, and community. And I was certified by Toyota HR Global as a certified Toyota Hosting Country Master Trainer, which is about their strategic planning process, cascading their objectives throughout the organization, and aligning their strategy and operations in people. That really equipped me with leadership skills that I was able to leverage and lead that work in various organizations that I joined afterwards.

What have been some of the highlights of your career?

I had a lot of highlight moments at Toyota and other organizations. But I must say, one of the biggest highlights is actually my recent trip to Japan. Ever since I started this business, I had kind of going back and forth between different directions, but always within Japan, Canada, bridging  Japan, Canada.

But only really recently, early this year, so eight, nine months ago, did I start to see the real potential between this region and my hometown, Osaka. So I started to speak about it every chance I got here in this region and also in Toronto and other interviews. And I plan a six week trip to Japan.

And with a lot of help from all the connections I made, who are based in Osaka, my hometown, I was able to host and speak at four different events. And a lot of the some of the people from the rooms are now my clients. To build a bridge between the Waterloo region and my hometown, Osaka, to make it a real corridor, as opposed to just talking about it as an idea, you really have to bring those people together.

So, for example, I need to get some of the Waterloo companies to go to Japan and visit Osaka and meet my contacts there and bring in Osaka companies to this region, which I’m actively working on and something exciting to share later as well. 

What are some of the challenges that you faced so far?

 Spent my childhood in Japan and all my adult life in Canada. I’ve always thought I’m not a Japanese woman.

And I’m not a typical Canadian woman. And some of the challenges I felt was at some time in my career, I felt I kind of lost my identity or didn’t know who I was, or I was supposed to be. Because each, you know, a typical Japanese woman or a Canadian woman, each of those comes with a set of certain expectations and pressure.

And I felt like I wasn’t meeting either of them. After losing my father, this kind of got harder. You know, am I Canadian? Am I Japanese? Who I’m supposed to be and where I’m supposed to be? But all of that reflection led to actually starting this business and feeling that it’s okay to be both and I’m both and wanted to actually embrace that and spread that to others who might be feeling that way.

If you could go back in time, is there something you would have done differently?

I wish I started this sooner, like 10 years ago, because there’s so much I want to do.  And there’s only enough, you know, 24 hours in a day, and I’m just cutting my sleep hours, right? And challenge when I was at Toyota, as well as now is when I try to work with both countries, the time zone, right? 13, 14 hours difference. So sometimes you’re doing double shifts.

And that’s a challenge. And having said that, that I wish I started this 10 years ago, every bit of experience to date is actually strengthening what I’m doing now. So if I started 10 years ago, maybe I wasn’t in this mindset, or I wouldn’t have had this network.

So no regrets there. And in that sense, I’m constantly taking different courses, I love, you know, lifelong learner, I am lots of certifications. One of the certifications that really opened doors for me is a PMP, project management professional, I’ve been certified since 2002.

While I was at Toyota in doing actually MBA at the same time. And at the time, project management certification or project management itself wasn’t really commonly recognized other than construction and IT fields. So getting into that early had really helped me.

Because no matter what the industry sector role you’re in, or even no matter what country you’re in, there’s always project. And (9:51) having that skill set really has been a good strategy and door opener for me.

Tell us more about Project Management Institute (PMI). 

 PMI, Project Management Institute, is a global organization, their headquarters are in the but it’s in more than 200 countries.

And you can be a chapter member of any, you don’t have to reside in that area. So for example, I’m a member of Canada’s technology triangle chapter, which serves Kitchener, Guelph, Waterloo, this area, and I’m actually serving as a board member. I’m also a member of PMI, Tokyo, Japan chapter.

They allow remote access, I, you know, visit and network and take courses from there as well. The 25th anniversary gala we had, I was able to co-sponsor or organize the event with great KW Chamber, because Ian McLean was the keynote speaker talking about vision 1 million. Because it was very much fitting where our chapter has been growing rapidly over the last 12 to 18 months.

And this region preparing for 1 million. So having him come in to share the vision, and having the industry panel of leaderships in this region, Toyota, Open Text, and Skills Wave was very fitting talking about what projects are upcoming in this region.

What does success look like to you?

Professional success, for example, for me, is something that I’m able to build for long term, as opposed to flavor of the month, whether it’s process improvement, project management, I really try to train people, educate people as opposed to doing it on behalf of others.

And hearing after so many years after I left Toyota or City of Guelph, what I’ve built such as playbook or project management structure is still in use to date, that success for me. And in my work, I am trying to focus on building a long term relationship and partnership between Japan and Canada, as opposed to a short term or one off transactions.

What are some of the core values that you have integrated into your business?

Core value for me is, as I named my company, any she the connection, I do believe people the right people find each other, whether it’s through introduction from your friends and colleagues, or through events that you bump into each other, or somebody find each other on LinkedIn.

 I do believe when when I feel the right connection, I follow through and I follow up. And typically, you know, it’s mutual feelings. And that’s the kind of connection that I really, really value and pay attention to; and that has been very helpful in terms of growing my network that is not superficial.

What are some of the advantages of establishing your business in Waterloo Region? 

 I really like this region and I love Waterloo because of the university vibe, right? When you have one university, but actually have two good universities and also a college; and so you have a lot of people from all over the world, and makes this community so unique and diverse. And great mixture of different generations, young people and people who are retiring.

I find that people who may come here for school, actually end up getting a job and staying. Which is, you know, similar experience as a lot of people I know. It’s a friendly, vibrant community, excellent universities, and having those students after graduating from university stick around.

And we have a lot of great local startups and it’s not quite the biggest cities like Toronto and Vancouver, but it’s big enough to be able to bring talent together to achieve something that’s top notch. And yet small enough, so that when you think of, hey, I need to meet this person, you can meet them within half an hour. Try that in Toronto and Vancouver, right? 

What inspires you?

What keeps me going? Definitely one of the biggest is my family in both countries, both sides. They are supportive, and they create an environment that allows me to go back and forth and to pursue my dream. But what’s really motivating currently are actually my clients.

They are taking a very big step in a territory that is totally unfamiliar, different language, different culture, different business practices, different laws, and so far from their home and that takes a lot of courage. And that’s why it motivates me to want to help them in either direction, so that from somebody who understands both sides, so that their transition or experience is smooth and pleasant and comfortable and reduce risk and actually, honestly, to have fun.

What advice would you give to other aspiring women?

As I shared earlier about a difficulty of pressure and expectations that you may have from your own cultural background, or your own family background, or others around you. One of the best advice I could give to young woman is really to embrace yourself and your authentic self and as a woman, I think there’s tendency to over-prepare.

I do that too, and be a bit of a perfectionist in some ways. But saying yes to invitations and opportunities before you feel ready, it’s hard. I kept telling myself to do that as well.

And every time I do, good things happen. And really be open-minded and share what you want to do with people you trust. Say it out loud.

And most people want to help you, and they wouldn’t know how if you don’t tell them. So yeah, be yourself and say yes before you’re ready, and tell everybody what you want to do.

What are some of your strategies for team building and collaboration?

 What makes a strong team in my industry or in my space is about collaboration. When I see individuals or professionals or companies offering similar services as my company, I don’t see them as my competitors. I actually see them as potential collaborators or partners. because we’re all working towards the same purpose and with same passion of strengthening Japan-Canada relationship.

And we all have different skills and different perspectives, different background. For example, I met somebody who may look like me, and it’s not about ethnicity, right? She’s Japanese-Canadian, but completely opposite from me. Born in Japan and raised in Canada.

In my case, I was born in Canada, raised in Japan. And we felt that we could connect on a lot of things at the same time can be complementary to each other in terms of skill sets and gaps. So if any of you who are listening to this, who are in the same ecosystem, with same purpose and same passion, if you’re open to connecting, I am very happy to chatting and finding ways to collaborate so that we can together be stronger in our services of helping Japan-Canada, whether it’s market entry or strengthening relationships.

What are some of your future goals and projects?

I have something exciting brewing. So in about 12 months from now, which is August 2027, mark your calendar, first weekend of August 2027, I’m bringing a group of Japanese leaders from Osaka and surrounding areas to this region. And it’s 12 months away, but I already have one (20:13) business individual signed on and committed to coming to this region.

 And I have three others in discussion. And I’ll be reaching out and approaching for more early, early stage with a lot of great ideas that could include things like networking events between the business leaders in the region and the Japanese leaders who are coming, B2B matchmaking meetings, collaboration between the local partners and the individual that are coming from Japan, for them to have some opportunities to showcase their business, as well as Waterloo businesses to get opportunities to showcase their businesses to Japanese counterparts, looking for local venues, local business, even food companies, cafes, restaurants, catering, government organizations and business individuals to get involved. So if you’re in Waterloo business owners, looking to get involved either as a collaborator, a participant, a sponsor or speaker, or any of the above, please reach out to me.

How can someone reach out to you directly?

I’d love to get connected to start shaping this together so that it is beneficial for Waterloo business community as much as for the Japanese people coming. It will be the best and easiest way to connect with me is through LinkedIn and just search my name Tomoko King. And my website is KingNishi.com. Nishi is spelled E-N-I-S-H-I –KingNishi.com. I’m in Waterloo region a couple times a week. I live in Guelph and look at sort of Waterloo and Guelph as you know, one big region and around and up for meeting up for in-person coffees all the time.

The post Tomoko King – Scotiabank September Fearless Female appeared first on Greater KW Chamber of Commerce.

• Who: ♦www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/
• What: Rally at Waterloo City Hall
• When: Noon to 1:00pm on Tuesday 1 September 2026
• Where: Outside the Hon. Bardish Chagger’s office at Waterloo City Hall
• Location: 100 Regina Street South, Waterloo Map
• Website: www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/sept-1-help-stop-albertas-govt-from-destroying-public-health-care/

Join us as we hold nationwide Day of Action for federal action to stop two-tier, American-style health care

Canada-wide: On Tuesday, 1 September 2026, health coalitions and allies across Canada will hold information pickets, rallies, and other actions in a National Day of Action to amplify our calls on the Federal Government to take action against Alberta's Bill 11.

With the legislation set to take effect on September 1, health coalitions are coming together to send an urgent, unified message to the federal government: there is no more time to waste. We are urging federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel and Prime Minister Mark Carney to fulfil their responsibility to enforce the Canada Health Act to protect Canada’s universal, single-payer, public Medicare system and health care for Canadians that is accessible based on need, not ability to pay.

Actions will be held in 26 communities across Canada on Tuesday, 1 September 2026.

• Alberta’s Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2025 (no. 2), formerly known as Bill 11,
  passed December 11, 2025.
• The legislation establishes an unprecedented model of two-tiered health care access in Alberta by permitting physicians to work in both the public and private systems concurrently, including charging patients out of pocket for medically-necessary services.
• No other province currently permits this “dual-practice” model.
• Legal opinion prepared by Goldblatt Partners LLP for the Canadian Health Coalition states that Bill 11 violates the principles of comprehensiveness, accessibility, and universality protected and required by the Canada Health Act, and violates the prohibitions against extra-billing and user fees.

Please help us protect our public healthcare by sharing our Social Media links.

We meet virtually using a Zoom Link on the second Monday of every month from 7:00pm to 8:00pm. Please join us in protecting and rebuilding our Universal Health Care.

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♦

An Open Letter To:
The Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada,
The Honourable Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario,
The Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Federal Minister of Transport,
The Honourable Prabmeet Sarkaria, Ontario Minister of Transportation,
Mr. Michael Lindsay, President and CEO of Metrolinx,
Ms. Tracy Robinson, President and CEO of CN Rail,
Mr. Matthieu Paquette, Interim President and CEO of VIA Rail Canada,

To paraphrase author Judith Viorst, on Friday, August 7, 2026, VIA Rail had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. For my family, it started with VIA Train 84.

VIA Train 84 left Sarnia on time at 8:40 a.m. By the time it reached London, it was 23 minutes late. The delays compounded east of London due to conflicts with CN freight trains and slow orders on CN tracks between Stratford and Kitchener. By the time Train 84 reached Kitchener, it was almost an hour late.

Erin, the kids, and I were riding VIA Rail to Ottawa for a conference. We departed Kitchener at 12:58 p.m., moving onto tracks owned and operated by Metrolinx, but our problems did not end there. Although we made good speed out of Kitchener and across the Grand River, our train pulled into a siding just east of Breslau and eased to a stop.

And there we stayed for close to two hours.

At the time, we were told that we had to wait for a GO Train to pass us. However, I had the Transit app on my iPhone, and I could see that the GO Train that was supposed to meet us just east of Breslau was actually at Mount Pleasant GO Station in Brampton, two whole counties away. That GO Train was at least 45 minutes from our position. But apparently, there was nothing we could do.

The GO Train finally passed us at 2:17 p.m., but VIA Train 84 stayed in its siding. The GO Train made its way to Kitchener, switched ends, and came back the other way, passing us again around 3:00 p.m.. The reason for this delay was because, thanks to the earlier delays caused by conflicts with CN freight runs, slow orders on CN tracks, and waiting on a GO Train that wouldn't reach us for three quarters of an hour, we'd passed our engineers' legal time limit imposed by Transport Canada for the very sane reason that they don't want tired and overworked engineers driving huge trains across this country. Thus, we had to wait for VIA to bus out a new crew to take over. We finally got underway at 3:15 p.m.

As a result, our two-hour layover at Union vanished completely. The train we had to connect to left without us, and we had to rebook the second leg of our journey on a later train. We were far from the only ones, as dozens of us lined up at the VIA ticket stands at Union. In the end, where we were supposed to get into Ottawa at 8:00 p.m., we ended up arriving at midnight, crashing into our hotel closer to 1 in the morning.

To be fair to VIA, they did their best to ease the pain. They comped us 50% of our ticket price for the journey between Kitchener and Union. Because of delays between Union and Ottawa, we received another 25% refund on that leg of the journey, which let me ride for free on VIA a couple of weeks later. Multiply this by the dozens of passengers affected, and this must have cost VIA Rail thousands of dollars. VIA's ticket agents managed a long line of harried passengers quickly and professionally and got everyone on their way. Even while waiting on the train, the seats were comfortable, the air conditioning worked, and train staff explained as much as they could and were suitably apologetic. To the credit of the riders, everyone remained polite and in good humour. So, this is not a complaint that should be addressed to VIA Rail. They had little or no control over the delays that afflicted their train and cascaded across their system (other VIA Trains saw considerable delays that day). It's the fact that VIA Rail has little or no control over the conditions their trains operate under, and their poor treatment by CN Rail and Metrolinx, that is the problem.

CN's slow orders due to poor track conditions between Stratford and Kitchener were perhaps the biggest problem. The long stretches where the VIA Train had to crawl along at 16 km/h (precisely 10 miles per hour, because that's the North American standard speed for tracks that are in particularly poor condition, and CN is a North American railway company) was frustrating to watch on VIA's Live Train Tracker, as Train 84's arrival time was progressively pushed back. Metrolinx recently extended GO Train service to Stratford, but that service, while useful, is hamstrung as it copes with these same slow orders. A trip between Stratford and Kitchener that used to take 27 minutes a couple of decades ago, now takes closer to fifty. Metrolinx's extension to Stratford won't succeed unless these poor track conditions are fixed.

Possibly Metrolinx will pay for these necessary repairs, but while CN is currently a private for-profit railroad, it was a Crown corporation from 1918 to 1995. Canadian taxpayers paid billions to maintain and upgrade CN's tracks, and it's shameful to see our investment left to rot.

But even more aggravating was Metrolinx's treatment of VIA Train 84. Bringing that train to a stop when the meeting GO Train was more than 45 minutes away boggles the mind. Surely there are other places between Kitchener and Georgetown where these trains could meet and pass each other. If not, what is Metrolinx waiting for? They initially promised that we would have two-way hourly service between Kitchener and Toronto by 2024, but that's not possible with the limited passing sidings they've built west of Georgetown.

As I said, VIA Rail compensated its passengers for the delays of that day, but it seems unjust that they should have to pay when CN Rail and Metrolinx directly contributed to the problem. Private for-profit railway or not, CN's rail infrastructure should be better maintained. While Metrolinx has a GO Train network to run, passengers are passengers, and VIA Rail's passengers shouldn't be treated as second-class citizens. The federal government and the Ontario government should hold CN and Metrolinx more accountable to ensure such a delay on VIA Rail doesn't happen again. By making sure that no trains are bogged down to 10 miles per hour, and that all passengers get through the network with minimum delay, benefits not just VIA Rail's passengers, but the economy as a whole, by speeding up freight service, and ensuring people can ride from southwestern Ontario through the GTA to Ottawa, Montreal and beyond without clogging up traffic on Highway 401.

My family deserved better. My fellow passengers deserved better. VIA Rail deserves better, and so does everyone trying to move back and forth across this province.

Fix this.

Sincerely,
James Bow

ONLY BY MASS POLITICAL AGREEMENT & COLLUSION WAS IT POSSIBLE

This of course entailed lying to citizens, residents, voters, men, women and children for the last thirty-seven years. It required gross contempt by every single municipal and regional councillor in the know as well as by provincial Ministry of Environment officials and likely provincial politicians. Is it even possible that our federal government kept a hands off attitude towards the Elmira Water Crisis all these decades because they didn't want to get their hands dirty? Hmm that seems unlikely doesn't it?

The coverup of Varnicolor Chemical's environmental disaster started early with local Min. of Environment (M.O.E.) officials lying to local media and citizens and even going so far as to claim regular passed inspections by the company. This was despite by that time four years of hydrogeological reports (Canviro Inc.) showing significant groundwater contamination with numerous solvents. Further lying and coverups regarding Varnicolor have never really stopped as a sweetheart deal between the M.O.E. and Uniroyal Chemical required Uniroyal to accept full responsibility for all NDMA and chlorobenzene in the Municipal drinking water aquifers in exchange for a very quiet free pass saving them potentially millions of dollars in removing or encapsulating the known free phase DNAPLS on their site which included numerous chlorinated solvents along with chlorobenzene. While denied at the time DNAPLS have also been found off-site in the Elmira Aquifers which source may also be shared between the two companies (Uniroyal/Varnicolor) or not. What the Ontario M.O.E. received out of this deal was less humiliation and loss of face and credibility as despite the severity of the water crisis the M.O.E. might not have survived if it had become public knowledge that there were actually multiple gross polluters operating in Elmira under their noses (i.e. Nutrite/Yara, Uniroyal , Varnicolor). 

The coverup has never ended as evidenced by the September 12, 2024 TRAC meeting in which Allan Deal of GHD Inc. on behalf of Lanxess Canada presented a report titled "Chlorobenzene Source Evaluation". He claimed that despite a report written a few years earlier by Dr. Neil Thompson (U. of Waterloo) that advised that two or three thousand kilograms of "excess" chlorobenzene had somehow entered into the groundwater regime above and beyond Uniroyal Chemical's contribution, that in fact there was no second source. Furthermore isotopic analysis done later also concluded that in most likelihood the chlorobenzene in our drinking aquifers came from different sources. Well!

Not to be deterred Mr. Deal entered his own "evidence". It consisted of analytical data showing chlorobenzene concentration results in a few different wells nearby to Varnicolor Chemical. Out of five different wells presented, three of them had nothing but Non Detects and two had these low concentrations in their Upper Aquifer. Wells CH-43 B/C both were Non Detect as was CH 68-C/D. Then CH-69 C/D had 1.42 and .67 presumably parts per billion. Well OW56-16 presented with .72  (ppb.) and finally a well on Varnicolor Chemical which allegedly is screened in the Upper Aquifer namely MW45 had a Non Detect reading for chlorobenzene.       

This is all very strange for various reasons. First of all while chlorobenzene and all contaminants in the deeper Municipal Aquifers travel horizontally for a considerable distance the same is not true for shallow groundwater especially when its' discharge point is a very nearby Creek. The norm is for little to no shallow soils or aquifers to indicate contamination away from the source. Normally pollution starts at the surface and descends downwards into the deeper soils and aquifers. From there usually the further away from the source the lower the concentration of contaminants in the deeper aquifers. At nearby surface without a source directly above we expect nothing. Hence the whole premise of looking at Upper Aquifer results off the Varnicolor (& Uniroyal ) sites is more than a little weird.

The next problem is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who have indicated that chlorobenzene usually has a very fast degradation time in air, surface waters and shallow soils that are well aerated. Deeper soils and aquifers are a different matter with sometimes incredibly long degradation times depending upon anaerobic conditions. Of course chlorobenzene in DNAPL form can be centuries and longer breaking down on its' own. What this means is that this particular compound can not be easily found via shallow soils or surficial aquifer sampling because unless there is an ongoing fresh source, the old discharges are likely long degraded.

So yours truly has been doing some digging this past weekend as well as this morning. Guess what? Nary a shallow soils or surficial aquifer or even much available in the deeper Upper Aquifer that exists in some locations below Varnicolor's Surficial Aquifer and Surficial Aquitard (and Uniroyal's on the east side). Yes of course the deeper yet aquifers and aquitards have lots of chlorobenzene but not the well aerated much shallower soils and aquifers. This explains why all the very shallow wells (Surficial Aquifer) on the Varnicolor site had Non Detect results for chlorobenzene way back in 1990. Yes one well did have a ridiculous Method Detection Limit of 100 ppb. which may have hidden some chlorobenzene detection at Varnicolor but we'll never know. I had actually begun to think that the M.O.E. had grossly fudged/corrupted the lab results back then. This explains why in the title above I wrote "LESS CORRUPT (?)".  

Mr. Deal, MECP and local politicians are all full of it. Always have been, always will be. Re-elect as many of these politicians this October at your peril. 

The post Rubble Rebels appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

The post Pebbles appeared first on Grand River Rocks Climbing Gym.

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Location: Region of Waterloo and Guelph/Wellington County
Position: Board Directors
Time Commitment: average of 2 to 4 hours per month; initial term of three years with potential of renewal for another three years

Our Foundation is seeking passionate and dedicated individuals reflective of our diverse community to join our volunteer team as members of our Board of Directors. A strong background in legal, governance, finance, accounting, investments, human resources and/or fundraising would be very beneficial to the current board and committee complement.

KidsAbility Foundation is directed by a board of up to 16 directors who have the responsibility of leading, developing and approving the strategic direction of the Foundation and establishing appropriate governance and risk management strategies to support the Foundation and its mandate. The Board meets seven times annually with a mix of virtual and in person meetings at KidsAbility sites in Waterloo and Kitchener.

• Participate in the development, approval and monitoring of the Foundation’s strategic plan, fundraising plan, annual operating and capital budgets.
• Act as ambassadors in the community to build relationships and support Foundation staff in fundraising initiatives.
• Oversee good governance and risk management/mitigation practices of the Board and Foundation.
• Hire, support, assess performance and determine compensation of the Executive Director.
• Monitor the organization’s performance against performance standards.
• Prepare for and participate in Board of Director meetings (seven per year; mix of virtual and in person)
• Typically participate on one Board Committee (approx. four meetings per year),
• Serve a term of three years and be eligible for renewal for an additional three-year term.

Successful candidates will be required to undergo a Vulnerable Sector Screening Police Check.

If you are looking for an opportunity to work with a dynamic team of staff and volunteers and support the transformative services KidsAbility provides to children, youth, and families. If you have any questions or require any accommodations during the selection process, please connect with our Foundation Office at foundationoffice@kidsability.ca

Please submit your application using this form.

The post KidsAbility Foundation appeared first on Capacity Canada.

KITCHENER - The 2026 season has come to an end for the Kitchener Panthers.

After winning its home finale Thursday, the team went 1-2 on the road to finish the campaign with a 16-32 record.

In Toronto Friday night, the Panthers and Leafs split a doubleheader. Kitchener won the first game 7-3, while Toronto took the second game 13-3.

Kitchener scored four runs in the eighth inning to break a 3-3 deadlock. Trent Lawson hit a home run in the fifth while Malik Williams was three-for-four.

Evan Elliott went the distance in that first game, giving up three runs on seven hits in eight innings of work. He walked five and struck out five.

Toronto got the jump early in the second game, scoring four runs in the first and led 9-1 after three innings.

Zane Skansi hit a solo shot in the fifth in the loss. Yosvani Penalver recorded four hits.

Saturday was a finale to forget as the Brantford Red Sox pounded the Panthers 26-3 to end Kitchener's season on a low note.

The Sox scored 13 times in the third inning alone.

Dionys Rodriguez gave up eight runs on five hits in the first two innings. Brett Reid came on with two men on in the third, but gave up five runs without recording an out. Trey Cruz gave up another five runs.

On behalf of the Kitchener Panthers, we thank you for following along all season and we cannot wait to #PackTheJack again in 2027!

Registration for the new season is well underway and we are looking forward to connecting with previous players and new players.

Summer jobs can be about so much more than what you accomplish during a few months at work. They can be a chance to try something new, build relationships, discover what you’re good at and sometimes even figure out where you want to go next.

This summer, students joined teams across three areas of KW Habilitation. Sofia and Angelina worked as Summer Job Coaches with KW Career Compass, Evangeline, Cooper, Nolan and Noah joined Our Farm as Farm Interns, and Rebecca, Bill, Sydney and Miriam spent their summer with YEP. Their jobs looked very different, but when we asked about their experiences, some common themes came through: learning, relationships, community and discovering just how much can happen in one summer.

At Our Farm, summer days have been busy with harvesting, planting, preparing beds, caring for crops, getting ready for markets and plenty of time spent outdoors. But for the Farm Interns, the experience has been about much more than learning how to grow food.

For Nolan, the summer was simply a “big learning experience,” including getting to try things he hadn’t done before, like driving the lawn mower. Cooper, a returning summer intern, found just as much value in the people around him, describing everyday life at the Farm as working with a great team that appreciates each other and spends time “over iced coffee, learning and laughing.”

For Evangeline, who has spent five summers working at Our Farm, this year offered a chance to see just how far she has come. When new team members arrived, she found herself helping to teach them and realized how much knowledge she had gained over the years. Her experience at the Farm has even helped shape what comes next. After discovering how much joy she finds in agriculture and nature, Evangeline changed her university plans and will begin a double major in Global Development and Environmental Science this fall.

“My summer at KW Hab has been rejuvenating, sparking my passion and creativity as well as my dedication.”

For the YEP Summer team, much of the summer has been spent out and about. Rebecca, Bill, Sydney and Miriam have helped participants explore Waterloo Region using GRT, try new activities and, most importantly, connect with one another.

Sydney shared one of her favourite moments from the summer. While everyone was outside, a group naturally formed a circle and started talking. Participants shared their interests and experiences and discovered things they had in common. It wasn’t a planned activity or a big event, but that was exactly what made the moment stand out.

“It was a simple moment, but it showed me how meaningful it can be when everyone feels included and connected.”

Miriam has also enjoyed seeing the direct impact of supporting people after spending years learning about it at university. The summer has introduced her to accessible places around the region she hadn’t known about before and confirmed that she wants a future career working directly with people. Bill has been building his public speaking skills, learning his way around the ION and bus routes, and says the experience has opened his mind to direct support work.

Over at KW Career Compass, Sofia and Angelina spent the summer supporting people with their employment goals. That meant everything from job searching and resume writing to interview preparation, but one of the most important parts was simply getting to know each person. Through one-on-one conversations, they learned more about people’s talents, skills and interests and saw firsthand why support needs to be tailored to each person.

For Angelina, the relationships she built were a highlight of the experience.

“An experience that stood out to me is being able to build strong connections with the people that I work with. In one-on-one conversations, I got to learn more about a person’s talents, skills and interests.”

Whether they were harvesting vegetables, navigating the community, building friendships or helping someone work toward an employment goal, our summer students brought a lot to KW Hab this year. Just as importantly, they are leaving with new skills, relationships, memories and experiences of their own.

Thank you to Sofia, Angelina, Evangeline, Cooper, Nolan, Noah, Rebecca, Bill, Sydney and Miriam for spending your summer with us. In the words of Cooper, we hope it “rocked your socks off!”

The post More than a Summer Job appeared first on KW Habilitation.

"OUNCES PER GALLON" - JIM GERMANN (Elmira Pump)

"THEY ALL LIE" - PAT POTTER (Environmentalist)

Revelations since 2000 include PCBs discovered in a buried drum on Varnicolor Chemical's infamous Lot 91 site in the floodplain of the Canagagigue Creek. Prior to 2000 PCBs were found by the M.O.E. in tanks in one of their tank farms at their 62 Union St. site. By 2004-2008 Nutrite (Yara) were firmly on the hook for Ammonia contamination within the Elmira Municipal aquifers. In 2016 a Risk Assessment presented at a public meeting in Woolwich Council Chambers for the former Varnicolor site on Union St. (now Elmira Pump) revealed six chlorinated solvents had been found beneath the site in the Municipal Aquifer. Allegedly none of them were Uniroyal chemicals which may have been a little disingenuous. In 2024 a consultant (Jesse Wright)  Arcadis Inc. announced at a TRAC meeting that six chlorinated solvents found in Elmira's Municipal Aquifers came from Varnicolor Chemical. Allegedly chlorobenzene was not one of them. Also very oddly Mr. Wright announced and showed on a map that four or five nearby industrial sources of chlorobenzene had been determined. Very odd considering that this was incredible news that should have been announced approximately thirty or thirty-five years earlier when authorities allegedly were searching for the sources of NDMA and chlorobenzene contamination to the Elmira aquifers. These nearby sources were very close to the intersection of First St. and Union St. also oddly very close to Varnicolor Chemical bounded by First St., Union St. and Howard Ave. The last revelation is that DNAPLS (chlorobenzene) were admitted to have been present by the Elmira Water Tower on Howard Ave. in the TRAC Minutes of  September 12, 2024. This is beside former pumping well W4 and monitoring well OW57-32R. 

The 2016 and 2024 revelations combined with reviews of other documents mentioned here in yesterday's Blog posting led me to yesterday's determination that NDMA being formed beneath Varnicolor Chemical at 62 Union St. in the 1980s at the least contributed to the NDMA poisoning of the Elmira population. 

At least one more revelation is likely long overdue. How is it that a solvent recycler of thirty years  experience on that site allegedly never handled/mishandled chlorobenzene like every other common paint and finishing solvents they dumped, spilled and leaked? If many of the lies and truth distortions of the past 37 years have been exposed then is their contribution to the chlorobenzene contamination next? If so then the Ontario Ministry of Environment faked the hydrogeological reports showing chlorobenzene as Non Detect on this site. That is corruption they can not survive.

 Jim Germann's quote above was stated at the public meeting in Woolwich Council chambers in 2016.

Pat Potter's quote was on T-shirts she wore to public environmental meetings.

It’s the end of August. Summer is coming to a close, and recruitment should be ramping back up. Whether you’ve just finished a degree, completed an apprenticeship or vocational programme, or are stepping into the workforce for the first time, the same message keeps landing in my inbox: “I’ve applied to so many jobs. I’m hearing nothing back. What am I doing wrong?”

You’re not imagining it. The job hunt is genuinely harder right now. I posted a single role recently and had over 300 applications land within 24 hours, most of them nowhere close to a fit. That’s not a one-off. It’s what recruiting looks like right now.

Handshake, which powers career offices at over 1,400 US colleges and universities, in its Class of 2026 Graduation Report found job postings down 2% year-over-year and 12% below pre-pandemic levels, while a separate Handshake analysis found the Class of 2026 submitting more than double the number of applications compared to peers just three years earlier. That squeeze shows up in outcomes too: for the first time since the New York Fed started tracking recent graduate outcomes in 1990, unemployment among recent college graduates has edged past unemployment for the general population.

We’re seeing fewer roles relative to where the market used to sit, and more than twice as many applications to each one.

Why are there fewer roles in the first place? Stanford’s Digital Economy Lab offers one part of the answer: employment for 22 to 25 year olds in the most AI-exposed occupations is now 19% below where it would otherwise be, a gap driven by reduced hiring and concentrated in roles where AI substitutes for tasks rather than supporting them. That’s exactly the routine, repeatable work graduates have traditionally used to get a foot in the door.

And why is each of those remaining roles getting swarmed? Because that same AI technology has made it effortless to apply to dozens of roles in an afternoon, so more people do. If you’re relying on automated tools to fire off applications at scale, you’re likely part of a very crowded, very undifferentiated pile. Before you apply, ask yourself: is this actually a role I’m suited to?

If employers are being more selective, the obvious question is: selective about what? Not simply the degree. A degree tells an employer you finished something. It doesn’t tell them what you can do with it.

What’s being asked for now is evidence of potential. Can you show that you can think, adapt, solve a real problem, and work alongside the tools your employer already uses, AI included? That doesn’t mean becoming an AI specialist overnight. It means showing you can work with it, not be replaced by the parts of your role it can already do.

September is when this becomes real for most graduates. Career fairs open back up, autumn graduate schemes launch, and the temptation is to go back to doing more of what hasn’t been working: more applications, more volume, more silence. Here’s what I’d do differently instead.

Get clear before you apply. Not just what you’re qualified for, but what actually interests you, what you’re good at, and what kind of environment brings out your best work. Skipping this step is a big reason graduates apply broadly and land nowhere.

Stop searching by degree title. Look instead at the skills your degree or programme built and the problems you could genuinely help an employer solve. That opens far more doors than a job title search ever will.

Audit your evidence. Projects, placements, part-time work, societies, volunteering. Most graduates are sitting on more proof of capability than they realise; they’ve just never been asked to list it out and name what each piece actually demonstrates.

Rebuild your CV around relevance, not volume. The shift is small, but it changes everything: not “here is everything I’ve done,” but “here is why what I’ve done makes me relevant to this specific role.”

Use AI intelligently, not indiscriminately. Let it help you research, challenge your thinking, and practise. Don’t let it write your voice for you or invent experience you don’t have. Employers are getting better at spotting the difference, and authenticity is fast becoming the actual differentiator in a flooded market.

Build relationships, not just applications. Research the people and organisations you want to work for. Ask real questions. Have real conversations. Used properly, LinkedIn is still one of the most underused tools graduates have.

Prepare for the interview before you’re in one. Don’t wait for the call to start thinking about how you’ll answer for yourself. By the time you’re in the room, preparation should already be done.

You’re not imagining it. The graduate job market in 2026 is genuinely more competitive than it looks from the outside, and the fact that a degree no longer guarantees better odds than the general population, for the first time on record, proves it. But the data doesn’t support the idea that there’s nothing out there. What’s changed is both the number of roles at entry level and how many people are chasing each one, and that means the way you approach the search has to change with it.

Fewer, better applications. Clear evidence of what you can actually do. Real relationships instead of a folder of rejection emails. That’s not a smaller job hunt. It’s a more effective one.

Elizabeth Lenihan is an award-winning Career Strategist and Recruiter with nearly 20 years of experience helping professionals navigate interviews, career transitions, and professional growth. She is the author of The Ultimate Interview Guide, The Resume Writing Guide, The Performance Review Playbook, and Navigating Your Career with the MAPS Compass, available at elizabethlenihan.com

Fewer Roles, Higher Bar: What’s Actually Changed for Graduates was originally published in Code Like A Girl on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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I thought we’d take a look at harissa, a spice paste found widely in Middle East cookery. There are several locations where you can find the spice in many grocery stores and specialty shops.

It may appear in brands with the lovely name “Harissa du Cap Bon El Manara de Djerba,” and likely makes a welcome appearance on restaurant menus too.

It’s a delicious and important condiment that has an interesting food history that flies under the radar.

The spice-blend is often made from oil, chiles, garlic, cumin, caraway, coriander and sometimes dried mint. It’s usually served with dried meats, soups and couscous.

Hailing from the Maghreb -— the northwest of Africa along the Mediterranean -— harissa is a special favourite in Tunisia.

The chiles likely came to Maghrebian cuisine by way of Spanish conquistadors to North and Central America — before they occupied Tunisia in the mid-1500s and after having been in the New World. It’s likely harissa got its start in Tunisia and Algeria at about this time.

The spicing is not particularly hot in terms of the Scoville scale and the ingredient may even be added to breakfast dishes in northern Africa. I once had harissa on a crispy duck salad that was repared with arugula, celery, cashews, citrus vinaigrette, fresh ricotta, figs and dried fruit.

Simply delicious and a good addition to your pantry. Give it a try, if you haven’t already.

Check out my latest post A bit about … harissa from AndrewCoppolino.com.