Equal Routes Turns One

It’s been a year…..from ideation to incorporation we’ve come a long way baby. 

Corporations Canada is telling us we have to file our yearly non profit status report on June 20 2024, so we’ll use that date as our ONE YEAR anniversary! Hurray for us! 

The Equal Routes journey began for us, Andrew and Eli, as broken advocates coming from big enviro. We were disappointed, demoralized, and about to be decommissioned (to use a shipping term). But as we often say to each other, we had to put our big boy/girl pants on, pick ourselves up, and use our anger and outrage for the good. 

At the start we both took on separate consultant gigs working with industry, Indigenous organizations, NGOs, and community groups all the while realizing that just delivering services for hire didn’t quite cut it. Yes the work was fulfilling but being untethered and freelancing only did so much for our advocacy itch. And, in the global marine shipping space, following the status quo isn’t likely to lead to significant reform. 

It was at this stage that we dove into actually entertaining the idea of ‘doing our own thing’. The core of that thing has always been human rights, equity and a more expansive view of knowledge. We wanted to bring ourselves to our work and be transparent with our motivations and evidence, and be clear with who we are and who we say we are. 

Equal Routes came out of all of this and the people who saw themselves in this journey all jumped in to co-create with us. 

We’re looking forward to bringing a sense of humour to the important and serious work anticipated for year two, and being comfortable with messy and difficult spaces and conversations which will no doubt arise. Wish us luck!

🎂