John O'Connor

Hello, Bonjour, my name is John O’Connor, my pronouns are he/him/his, and I live and work in what is currently known as Halifax, Nova Scotia, and my childhood home in what is currently, Ajax, Ontario. Ajax is the traditional territory of the Anishinabewaki, the Haudenosauneega, and the Mississauga peoples, and was ceded to the Government of Ontario by the 1923 Williams Treaties. Reading into the history of the Williams Treaties, I learned that the Nations who signed into them were inadequately compensated for their land, and were denied the rights to freely harvest from their own property. My childhood home on this land is a dairy farm that has been in my family for 6 generations, which has feed and provided income for many branches of my family tree, including my own immediate family. It is because of this land and my family’s ability to freely use it that I was able to have many of the opportunities of my life, like attending post-secondary education and having the finical stability to have time to volunteer. I am grateful for the privilege I have I will use it to bring attention to the injustices which others, like the Anishinabewaki, the Haudenosauneega, and the Mississauga peoples, have faced in the past, through unfilled treaty promises, and currently face in the present, like the court injunctions facing protestors at 1492 Land Back Lane.I am an able bodied, cis-gendered, heterosexual man of Irish-Italian settler ancestry. With these points forming the basis of my world-view, I will not attempt to speak on behalf of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour or for the LGBTQAI2S+ communities, as I do not have the lived experiences which people from these positions and intersectionalities could bring to the conversation. My aim, through the creation of social media graphics, is to amplify voices from these communities wherever possible and to use my time and space to draw our audience’s attention to issues which they may not be aware of due to their own privileges, positions, and experiences. I have much to learn and unlearn on the subjects which we discuss and I am thankful to the QTBIPOC individuals who have created countless resources and texts which have impacted my worldview and advocacy.