The Latest News From Canada's Worker Co-op Sector
September 2020 Volume 12 Issue 9
In This Issue

  • Executive Director's Report, by Hazel Corcoran
  • Co-op Sex Shop Invites People to Come As They Are, by Kenzie Love
  • Co-op Care Offers a Better Way Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic, by Kenzie Love
  • Webinar: Building a Resilient and Equitable Economy Post-Covid
  • What's New on CWCF's Social Media
  • Camino Baking Products Have a New Look
  • Social Enterprise Moves Into Neechi Commons
  • Learn Good Governance in 6 Weeks or Less
  • The Post-Pandemic Future: Food Couriers Will Run Their Own Delivery Apps
  • Update on Sale of MEC
  • IRP Deadline Approaching
  • A Worker Co-op Conference for the Work of the Future!
Executive Director's Report

By Hazel Corcoran
Read about the latest on the Parcours training program, ongoing supports to our members during the pandemic, opportunities to serve on CWCF's board, and more.
Co-op Sex Shop Invites People to Come As They Are

By Kenzie Love
Come As You Are (CAYA) opened in 1997 with a mission: to provide Toronto with an ethical, feminist, sex-positive sex shop. Inspired by San Francisco’s Good Vibrations, which at the time was a worker co-op, CAYA’s founders had all previously worked in the industry as sex educators, retailers, or as manufacturers of related products.

Co-op Care Offers a Better Way Amidst Covid-19 Pandemic

By Kenzie Love
The pandemic has affected both care recipients and those who care for them, both groups that are already often marginalized. There are arguments on the need for a new, improved approach, if not unanimity on what that approach should be. But the co-op model may offer a way forward, one that could better serve both the seniors or people with disabilities receiving care, and the workers providing it, often women and people of colour.
Webinar: Building a Resilient and Equitable Economy Post-Covid
New Date: Friday, October 23, 12 pm ET

Worker co-operatives, and co-operatives in general, are more resilient than corporately and privately owned businesses to many economic challenges. How have they done in the midst of a global pandemic, an economic and climate crisis? There is good news here for renewing our commitment to the growth of worker co-operatives in Canada and various other countries. Presented by Eric Tusz-King.
What's New on CWCF's Social Media
Have you ever heard the "Teach a Man to Fish" parable? In this video, Ed Whitfield of the Fund for Democratic Communities explains why it's deceptive and why who owns "the water holes and the fishing poles" is important. Check it out and if you're not already following us on Instagram and Facebook, be sure to do so now for lots more great content!
Camino Baking Products Have a New Look
This new design highlights the points you said were most important to you – "small-scale farmer grown", "organic", "simple / clean ingredients", and "sourced by a Canadian worker co-operative", La Siembra Co-operative. We love this fresh and vibrant look, and we hope that you will too!

 Social Enterprise Moves Into Neechi Commons
A social enterprise is taking over a vast space that formerly housed a worker co-op that served as an Indigenous grocer, art and cultural hub in Winnipeg's North Point Douglas area. Self-starting Creative Opportunities for People in Employment — which goes by the abbreviation Sscope — is the new tenant of the Neechi Commons building.
Learn Good Governance in 6 Weeks or Less
To be successful, co-operative shareholders should be able to answer this basic question: who gets to decide what? This is governance. Learn how to do just that by taking this unique online course.
The Post-Pandemic Future: Food Couriers Will Run Their Own Delivery Apps
As the people who make food delivery happen, couriers must be the ones to reform the industry. We need to rewrite the rules to give gig workers the same protections as everyone else. We should be the ones to control delivery platforms—not wealthy stakeholders in Berlin or San Francisco. We have built our own network through union organizing. We know the industry best, and can work with restaurants to design a superior platform.
Update on Sale of MEC
Many in Canada's worker co-op sector and many other MEC members are concerned about the sale of Mountain Equipment Coop, Canada's largest consumer co-op, to a US private equity firm without any meaningful consultation or permission from members (see the joint statement from Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada and the BC Co-operative Association). You can act on your concerns about this sale by signing a petition to stop the sale of MEC, by calling for an emergency general meeting of its members (anyone who has ever shopped at MEC). The more members who sign, the stronger the chances. Visit the Save MEC/Sauvons MEC Facebook page for updates.
IRP Deadline Approaching
Funded by the Government of Canada, the Investment Readiness Program (IRP) supports social purpose organizations as they contribute to solving pressing social, cultural and environmental challenges across Canada. Community Foundations of Canada is proud to serve as one of the IRP’s national funding intermediaries. Applications for the second and final round of funding for CFC’s IRP program are now being accepted until October 9, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. PT.
A Worker Co-op Conference for the Work of the Future!
Over 1,700 people from across the US, across industries, and across the world joined the US Federation of Worker Co-operatives and the Democracy at Work Institute for The Worker Co-op Conference 2020. The proposition of co-ops - that working people can together own, control, and benefit from owning our livelihoods - is the work of the future. It is the work of actively co-creating and expanding our possibilities, the work of contending or power, the work of forging solidarity. It is the work of building, the work of healing.

The Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation (CWCF) is a national, bilingual grassroots membership organization of and for worker co-operatives, related types of co-operatives (multi-stakeholder co-ops and worker-shareholder co-ops), and organizations that support the growth and development of worker cooperatives. CWCF's e-newsletter is available free of charge to anyone with an e-mail address and an interest in worker co-operative developments in Canada. Please send any comments and suggestions, or news about your co-op, to:  

Kenzie Love
Editor of CWCF Newsletter 
(403) 276-8250 
CWCF | 104 402 30 Ave NE, Calgary, AB T2E 2E3 | 403-276-8250 |