Greetings and welcome to the People’s Union of Cowichan–Malahat-Langford, within the Quw’utsun, Malexel and W̱sanec territories.

Over the last decades the word ‘union’ has taken on a different meaning, as it has been corporatized and politicized and signifies and identifies more in the realm of a group of workers of a large corporation or governing body. Here, this is not the case, The People’s Union is one of unification of community, of sovereignty and of personal freedom through human connection. This is a Union of freedom’s proclamation of each sovereign being of Canada, a unification of the autonomous men and women and children of a nation whose rights and freedoms are meant to be just that.

I invite you, as the District facilitator, to reclaim what is naturally and inherently yours, your freedom. I invite you and challenge you to claim your freedom through innovative, courageous and creative ways and to stand strong within your beliefs, morals and ethics. This being said, there must be space for each person to express these beliefs, morals and ethics without prejudice, without unfair judgments, without narrow-mindedness. Therefore, as the Union grows with each new person, there is room to grow as a community towards a stronger, genuine freedom. This can only take place when there is space for everyone to claim the freedom they stand for without being oppressed or diminished for their own personal beliefs. Unification doesn’t mean segregation due to differences, we unite with our differences, we love and accept with our differences, we heal with our differences, we see and acknowledge our differences and we let them be free.

I, Christopher, will do my best to support your freedom by claiming my own: I am free. I will support you by listening and showing up for you without judgment, prejudices or ideologies. I will show up humble, compassionate and grateful for your personal freedom and how it needs to be manifested. Together we will unite and together we can question everything, question authority, question legislation, question laws and bylaws and grow to expand our local awareness to create a stronger and freer community.

Christopher Bertrand