Category: DROKACADEMY

A submission to BC’s Post-Secondary Review — and an invitation to collaborate globally. Dear Colleagues, Leaders, Educators, and Everyone Who Cares About Students, Something extraordinary is happening in British Columbia right now. The provincial government has launched a sweeping review of its entire public post-secondary system. The reason is stark: 20 of 25 institutions are…

There are Saturdays when you stand in the cold and wonder if anyone notices. There are Saturdays when the wind bites through your gloves and the traffic rushes past without slowing down. And then there are Saturdays like today — Saturdays that remind you, with absolute clarity, why you have never missed a single one.…

Whether you’re a researcher, educator, practitioner, or student — 2026 is packed with opportunities to connect, learn, and grow. Here’s a comprehensive, chronological guide to social work conferences happening across Canada and around the world. Pictured above: my wooden conference badge from a recent event in Salzburg, Austria. Before we dive into the 2026 calendar,…

Documenting the Killing of Alex Pretti and the Machinery of State Narrative Control On January 24, 2026, federal Border Patrol agents killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse who cared for American veterans at the Minneapolis VA hospital. What followed was a precise demonstration of how authoritarian power operates: not just through violence, but…

Every Saturday at 3:00 PM, a small group gathers near Kamloops City Hall for our weekly Stand with Ukraine gathering. We have been there since February 24, 2022—through snow, rain, and summer heat—bearing witness to a people’s struggle for freedom against authoritarian violence. Today, I write to extend that same solidarity to the people of…

How a Simple Act of Writing Connects Hearts Across Oceans The Power of a Postcard In the age of instant messaging, email, and video calls, who would have thought that a simple 4×6 inch piece of cardstock could carry such profound power? Yet, as I listened the Postcards to the Front presentation on a December…

When displacement meets vision, and community becomes the answer A post appeared recently in the Facebook group Ukrainian Canadians | Українці Канади that stopped me mid-scroll https://www.facebook.com/groups/canadaua/permalink/3293229447515054 . It wasn’t the polished pitch of a developer or the fundraising appeal of an established organization. It was something rawer: a displaced Ukrainian dreaming out loud about…

A Critical Reflection on PM Carney’s Davos Speech Through the Love, Care, Share Framework On January 20, 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered what may become one of the most significant Canadian foreign policy speeches in a generation. Standing before the World Economic Forum in Davos, he invoked Czech dissident Václav Havel’s famous essay The…

The Echoes of 2014 In February 2014, Russian forces seized Crimea from Ukraine in what became the first forcible annexation of European territory since World War II. The European Union’s response was tepid at best—sanctions that many characterized as symbolic, diplomatic protests that faded into bureaucratic inertia, and a collective hope that perhaps Putin would…

My Mama once told me how, when Stalin died, something quiet but powerful happened. There was official mourning—but behind closed doors, in kitchens and hallways, many families felt relief. Not joy at death. Relief that fear loosened its grip. That truth could begin to return. People breathed differently. Later, when the USSR collapsed, that relief…