Archived events

September 16 to 19, 2024 @ Vancouver, BC

Meet the panelists

Sonia Furstenau studied at the University of Victoria, where she completed her BA and MA in History, and her Bachelor of Education degree. She has worked as a small business operator, a bookkeeper, as the National Administrator for Results Canada, and as a high school teacher in Victoria and Shawnigan Lake.

Sonia's advocacy in protecting her community’s drinking watershed led to her election in 2014 as Area Director for Area B of the Cowichan Valley Regional District. In 2017, Sonia was elected as the first B.C. Green MLA for Cowichan Valley and in 2020 was elected as the new leader of the B.C. Green Party. After two terms in Cowichan Valley she has returned home to Victoria and is running to be MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill.

David Eby is the MLA for Vancouver-Point Grey, first elected in 2013. He became leader of the BC NDP in 2022.
Before he was elected, David was the Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, an adjunct professor of law at the University of British Columbia, president of the HIV/AIDS Legal Network, and served on the Vancouver Foundation's Health and Social Development Committee.
An award-winning human rights lawyer, he has been repeatedly recognized in local media as one of British Columbia's most effective advocates and has appeared at all levels of court in BC.
His years of legal advocacy at Pivot Legal Society to protect the human rights and dignity of homeless and under-housed residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside were recognized in 2011 by the UN Association in Canada and the B.C. Human Rights Coalition with their annual award.