An overview of the program can be found here!

Equal Voice is committed to anti-racism, equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. We recognize that delegates come to DOV with different lived experiences and different levels of training in anti-oppression and anti-racism. Therefore, we are requiring all delegates to participate in a small group training session, facilitated by an EDI consultant, prior to DOV. This will ensure that all delegates come to DOV with an understanding of anti-oppression and anti-racism.  

In addition to being mandatory, we hope the training will be an enriching personal and professional development opportunity for delegates.  We have received great feedback on this training in the past, and having completed anti-oppression anti-racism training is an important benefit as delegates move to future employment or other opportunities.

Equal Voice recognizes that Indigeneous and Black women face unique intersectional barriers and experiences in politics. As such, these forums are closed to delegates who identify as Black and/or Indigenous and provide a closed and safe space to discuss issues and share lived experiences in greater depth. Each forum is led by an organization working with these communities, and facilitators with personal lived experience.

Equal Voice recognizes the unique and intersectional experiences that women face based on their race, religion, sexuality, abilities, language, and/or other identities and factors. While it was not possible to engage organizations representing all intersectional and complex identities, we hope that the range of organizations participating in DOV will provide an opportunity to reflect on intersectionality and what that means for political engagement.

These organizations will be providing workshops and/or participating on panels and/or running forums for delegates during the DOV 2021 program to not only help us bring more voices to the program, but also to highlight the important work they are doing.

Multi-partisanship is a pillar of all of Equal Voice’s work. Every effort is made to ensure all federal political parties are engaged and represented in the program. Whether this be through keynote addresses, panel discussions, breakout sessions, or general content - DOV aims to expose participants to all major political parties. Delegates will also have the opportunity to meet representatives from the federal parties to learn more about their platforms, becoming party members, and getting involved as volunteers - or even learning how to run as a candidate!

We have delegates participating across all of Canada’s many time zones. so the majority of the program will start at 12:00pm EST / 9:00am PST. However, for the Virtual Parliament day, the earlier start time was necessary to coordinate the availability of the political party leaders and the sitting of MPs in the House of Commons. We are grateful to delegates on the West Coast for rising early on the occasion of  International Women’s Day!

Every aspect of the program will be bilingual from the platform, speakers, and content. Simultaneous translation and closed captioning will be provided for all plenary sessions, where there are unilingual speakers. Breakout sessions will be organized by language and will be closed captioned.

Delegates will sign up for a parliamentary committee of their choice on a first-come first-serve basis.  Each model committee will discuss an actual ongoing or recently completed study being undertaken by a House of Commons committee (e.g., the Public Safety Committee (SECU) study on Systemic Racism in Policing). For a full list of committees and their work visit https://www.ourcommons.ca/Committees/en/Home  

Each Committee will have a Chair and two Vice-Chairs. MPs will be invited to observe Committee proceedings, and all DOV Committees will be recorded and posted to YouTube following the event.

• Technology supports: We are working with delegates to ensure they have the necessary tools and devices to access the virtual program. 
• Child care: Delegates who require child care should contact [email protected] if they have not already done so. 
• Peer Mediation: access to confidential peer mediators for any conflicts that may arise
• Ombudsperson: an impartial third party ombudsperson to resolve any conflicts that cannot be solved through peer mediation. 
• Well-being coaches 
• Media training if requested prior to any external media requests 
• Daily end of day open de-brief for all delegates, and reflection spaces