WHO WE ARE

Jonny Sopotiuk (he/him) is the Managing Director of the Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI) and a founding member of several creative sector union cooperatives. As a professional artist with over 2 decades of community and labour organizing experience, Jonny’s current organizing practice focuses on organizing precarious workers towards a new economy based on the principles of mutual aid, solidarity, reciprocity, and redistribution. 

As a political and community organizer, Jonny has managed labour union and political campaigns organizing tens of thousands of workers. As the Organizing Coordinator at the Health Sciences Association of BC, he led the provincial campaign that had over 14,000 members take action on workload issues across the province. Most recently, he managed the Burnaby Citizens Association Campaign, managing a team of over 80 staff and electing 13 of the 15 candidates for office at both the School Board and City Council.

Jonny brings his skills in political, labour, and community organizing along with his background as a professional visual artist to message and creative director roles for value-aligned projects that seek to build community and worker power and elect progressive leaders to all levels of government.

Robyn Pekar (they/them) lives and works on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. They are new to cooperatives and the labour movement, but are excited to bring their love of printing to the Collective Print Shop as the Print Shop Coordinator.

Robyn completed their undergraduate degree at SFU in World Literature and continues to be an avid reader. They are also a member of IATSE 118 through their side gig of bartending at the Cultch. Outside of work, Robyn co-produces a comedy show with their wife called Moon Based Comedy, and enjoys cuddles with their two cats, Archie and Gertie.

David Ng (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, activist, and academic. He is the Co-Artistic Director of Love Intersections, a media arts collective of queer artists of colour with a mandate to share intersectional stories through art.

He is a Research Associate for Hello Cool World Media, a social justice communications firm, and he is also the project lead for Cultivating Kin, which is an initiative to decolonize the Canadian art system by putting Indigenous arts practices at the centre, through the leadership of Indigenous artists, supported by artists of colour.

David has been a filmmaker for 22 years, and his films have screened internationally at over 60 film festivals. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia. He holds a Master of Social Sciences from the African Gender Institute at the University of Cape Town.

Daphane Nelson (she/her) is grateful to live in unceded Secwepemcúl’ecw, the land providing her family with nourishment, livelihood, and recreation in Kamloops, BC. Daphane has close to twenty years’ experience advising businesses as a lender, administrator, and most recently, small business and co-operative developer with CoActive Developments Worker Co-op and the Union Cooperative Initiative. 

Daphane is also a CCUA accredited Credit Union director and completed the Governance Professionals of Canada designation in 2021. Her board and committee experience spans the past two decades with many grassroots organizations including the Kamloops Food Policy Council, Art’s Council, Community Futures, and most recently an appointment to the CoopZone board. She was elected to the Interior Savings Board of Directors in 2016 where she discovered her passion for the cooperative model and seeks to support co-operative development in the BC Interior.

Kevin Millsip (he/him) is the Executive Director of the BC Libraries Cooperative. He has co-founded two capacity-building organizations, Next UP and Check Your Head, and helped found the organizing projects Canroots and Organize BC. He is an advisor with the Columbia Institute and UPstream.net.

He serves on the boards of the Wilderness Committee, For our Kids, the BC Civil Liberties Association, and PeaceQuest. Kevin lives and works on the territory of the Coast Salish Peoples, including the territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Tiffany Ottahal (she/her) is the Labour Partners Portfolio Manager at Vancity Savings Credit Union. For the past five years Tiffany has led the credit union’s engagement with labour partnerships in community on issues of the changing economy and the rise of precarity, good green jobs and climate justice, as well as working with internal stakeholders to understand and meet the banking, service and support needs of the labour community.

Tiffany recently joined Vancity’s Government and Stakeholder Relations team to lead engagement with labour and to mobilize a multi-sectoral universe of stakeholders with the networks, influence, and resources to leverage a shared commitment to social justice. Vancity is a core funder of the UCI and Tiffany is an active member of the advisor network.

Monivoi (she/her) is a dedicated community organizer with over 8 years of experience in empowering communities and fostering positive change. Rooted in a passion for justice and equality, Monivoi has channeled her efforts towards faith-based community organizing and outreach, specializing in social justice initiatives in the United States.

Monivoi has seamlessly integrated faith-based principles into her community organizing approach. By leveraging the values of compassion, justice, and community service, she has fostered collaboration among diverse religious communities to address common social challenges and build bridges of understanding.

Looking ahead, Monivoi remains committed to the pursuit of a more just and inclusive society. Her vision includes continued advocacy for racial justice, educational equity, and affordable housing, with a focus on fostering community resilience and empowerment.

Sussanne Skidmore (she/her) was elected BCFED president in 2022 after being elected as the federation’s Secretary-Treasurer in 2018 and 2020. Sussanne was an early champion of the union cooperative model as a pathway to unionization for precarious gig workers.

A well-known human rights, social justice, and queer rights activist, she served as Executive Vice-President of BCGEU for 5 years. She has co-chaired the BCFED’s Human Rights Committee and is active in the federation’s Women and Gender Rights Committee.

Jen Sungshine (she/her) is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary artist, community facilitator, and cultural producer based in Vancouver, BC. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Love Intersections, a media arts collective producing intergenerational + intersectional QTBIPOC stories through documentary film and artwork.

Her works include “Yellow Peril: Queer Destiny”, winner of the Gerry Brunet Memorial Award for best BC Short; and “The House of 9 Dragons”, an oral history exhibit in Chinatown. She curates public programming at The Polygon Gallery, and co-produces Hot Pot Talks, CURRENT: Feminist Electronic Art Symposium, and Seize the Means of Production Video Cooperative.

Elvezio (aka “Elvy”) del Bianco (he/him) is the Co-Executive Director of the BCCA and has served as the Director for Co-operative & Government Relations since January 2022. He works to build partnerships with governments, allied trade unions, post-secondary institutions, and other civil society organizations to realize a strong enabling environment for the development and growth of cooperative enterprises.

Elvy has almost twenty years’ experience in the cooperative sector as a consultant, co-op developer, and as Vancity Credit Union’s Cooperative Portfolio Manager, where he led numerous study tours exploring the cooperative economy of the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. Elvy has been a core and active supporter of the UCI and the precarious gig worker organizing through the union cooperative model.

Chiyi Tam (she/her) is an Advisor with the UCI, and managing director of the Toronto Chinatown Land Trust. She is currently a visiting expert with the School of Cities’ as an Early Career Canadian Urban Leader. Chiyi serves on the advisory board of Montreal Chinatown’s JIA Foundation, the steering committee of the Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts.

She frequently supports groups from all corners of Turtle Island exploring community ownership and shared wealth building as an anti-displacement strategy for racial & economic justice. Her goal is to reciprocate knowledge and wealth into community ownership.

Nadia Santoro (she/her) has been a union and community organizer for over 12 years. Her organizing practice is aimed at worker-lead, whole-person, horizontal, democratic organizing. She has facilitated successful union drives across BC in the public healthcare and film sectors. She has also facilitated unionized cooperative development in the arts and cultural sector.

Nadia strongly believes in the importance of building collective worker power through an anti-oppression framework, and she believes unionized cooperatives are a key space where we can transform systems of power into equitable, solidarity-based alternatives that can meet the most serious challenges of our time.

Nadia’s passion for organizing is driven by our ability to tell a different story, one where we can make a more just world together. It’s no surprise that outside of organizing, she is often immersed in books, film, and music. She loves playing guitar and hanging out with her friends, family, and her cat, Mia.

Patrick Wong (he/him) is the Screen Printing Co-Coordinator for the UCI Print Shop. Patrick is a visual artist based in Vancouver, on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. He completed his master’s degree in Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

He is passionate about printmaking and hopes to apply his artistic experiences with silkscreen printing into commercial screen printing through the UCI. He believes in the importance of community building and to work towards a sustainable economy that provides autonomy and equality for workers.

Rifat Islam (he/him) is a skilled professional, excelling in labour relations, negotiating union contracts, and fostering community growth. As a Union Organizer at SEIU Local 2, Rifat adeptly navigated negotiations and mediated discussions, showcasing expertise in labour laws and collaborative workplace environments. 

His roles as a Community Organizer at BC ACORN and Creative Content Creator at Reeloop Digital Pvt. Ltd. highlight Rifat’s proficiency in strategic community engagement, leadership development, and high-quality content creation. Academically equipped with an MBA and a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Studies and Journalism, Rifat offers a decade of diverse expertise in digital media, social engagement, and negotiation strategies.

Marla Gagnier (she/her) is joining the UCI as an outreach team member. Originally from Montreal, Marla fell in love with the West Coast’s natural beauty and now calls Vancouver home. She is passionate about the union co-operative and labour movement in BC and Canada.

As a worker with the BC Co-operative Association, she is excited to bring her knowledge of co-ops forward to help UCI’s mission to build an economy that works for all. When she is not working with co-ops, she loves to be outside – hiking and skiing, or inside creating fibre art.