standing on the mountain

International Women's Day, which this year has actually spanned a number of days, has been busy, but a wildly impactful one for me.

Over the last few days, I have had the honour to hear from incredible speakers, have conversations with some people that I greatly admire, and was reminded of why, in 2026, it is critically important that we continue to gather to celebrate our achievements and lift each other up.

Here are some of my highlights:

Councillor Jessica Bradley's annual International Women's Day Breakfast highlighted one of my favourite topics: legacy. The event was started close to thirty years ago by her predecessor, Councillor Diane Deans, in her apartment. I grew up in Councillor Deans's ward, a community she served for 28 years. I can remember my Mom volunteering for Deans when I was young during her re-election campaigns, always talking about her tenacity, her commitment to community issues, and her role as a strong female role model.

Councillor Bradley invited my boss, Caitlin Morrison, to give the keynote speech at her breakfast this year, and as a result, I have had the opportunity to get to know her a little more. Having worked for Deans prior to being elected, Councillor Bradley espouses many of her same qualities. She is kind and approachable, thoughtful and intentional. You can tell that she cares deeply about the work she does in her community.

Caitlin delivered a heartwarming and incredibly relatable speech. She even had me in tears. For the first time publicly, she spoke about her own substance use journey, and how it intersected with Matthew's. She shared how getting help allowed her not only to be present in her grief and for her family in the wake of Matthew's death, but to find meaning through the work we are doing together at Matthew Perry House. 

She also spoke about our work with CAPSA, a small but mighty team of educators, researchers, clinicians, and policy analysts whose own lived and living experience — coupled with what they hear from thousands of people with lived and living experience (PWLLE) across the country — informs everything they do. Working with this team has been one of the highlights of my career. The work we are doing together is truly groundbreaking, including tackling the systemic discrimination mothers face when forced to choose between accessing in-patient treatment and their children.

From that conversation about courage and advocacy, I found myself in another room that week that reminded me just how much momentum is building.

Enter Jenny Chen: an incredible force and someone I have long admired. We connected in person a while back and just clicked. She is a boss. Not only does Jenny call things like she sees them, but she takes action to make this world a better place. She opens doors and lifts people up. She creates opportunities for people and organizations and champions causes.

When Jenny invited me and Matthew Perry House to Elevate's IWD Day and Gala on the Hill, I said yes without hesitation. I knew it was a room I wanted to be in. Solange and her team at Elevate did not disappoint. It was incredible.

Perhaps the most hard-hitting message of the evening came from Judge Albert Wong. His address went beyond allyship. Justice Wong set the standard for men. He noted that the dangerous, criminal actions we are seeing today from very powerful men are a testament to the fact that the patriarchy is alive and well and a cautionary tale of what happens when we allow power to go unchecked. He reminded us all that women alone cannot dismantle a system that was built to limit us. Then, quoting my favourite T. Swift, he said it was indeed time "to f*ck the patriarchy."

The gala was an amazing evening of celebration and empowerment. I was grateful to be seated with an incredible table of women, and my colleague and friend Jay Wouters, who kept us all laughing all night.

I left that room full — full of energy, full of purpose, and thinking about the little girls in my own life.

As a mother to two young daughters and an aunt to two nieces, I take tremendous pride in the strong, fierce, brilliant young women these girls are becoming. They are independent and rooted in a solid foundation of where they come from. Watching them, I am always drawn back to my favourite Rupi Kaur:

i stand
on the sacrifices
of a million women before me
thinking
what can i do
to make this mountain taller
so the women after me
can see farther
-legacy

That is exactly what it feels like to raise daughters in this moment. It is also the lens through which I understand my own story.

I was born into a very matriarchal family. Feminism is basically ingrained into my DNA.

Both my parents were raised by single mothers. Like many families of that era, alcohol and abusive households were realities of both their childhoods. My mom's parents divorced when she was a pre-teen, after a very tumultuous relationship. My dad immigrated to Canada with his mom and two sisters when he was 13 years old. The family was escaping my abusive grandfather without him knowing. They got to Canada thanks to Aunt Sharron, who had come to Canada only years earlier at just 18 years old and worked to create a safe place for my grandmother, my dad, and his sisters to call home.

These women, my grandmothers, my aunts, my mom, are the mountain I stand on. They are also the women my daughters will one day stand on too. My daughters are loved and lifted by these women and the other women that surround them: their grandmothers, Aunties, great-Aunties, cousin-Aunties, and chosen-Aunties. Women who refuse to let them forget where they come from.

I was always taught that women were equal. That where we stood mattered. That we had not just a place, but a right to be at the table.

That is the legacy I carry. It is the legacy I am watching these girls step into. And it is the reason that, no matter how much progress we make, I will never stop showing up.

Happy International Women's Day.