Latest / Inspiring Stories / Maria Mach is helping Charities Work for Our Community

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Maria Mach is helping Charities Work for Our Community · Inspiring Stories

0:04
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the picture of the radiant.
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Speaker 2: Rat.
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Speaker 3: You readything to me?
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Speaker 4: Oh well, well say, oh well, not a bad stop.
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Speaker 1: Alone.
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Speaker 2: I just see.
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Speaker 4: Sow smash start along.
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Speaker 3: Is it says?
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Speaker 1: All right? Welcome back, welcome back to inspiring stories here
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and depictions of media. Well, we all, at one time
1:49
or another either work with or maybe we get services
1:53
from a charity or a charitable organization that we see
1:57
the work that nonprofits do in our community that helps
2:03
others live a little bit better. So our next guest
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is a lawyer and her whole entire practice is based
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on helping charities become charities and helping them stay, stay
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and maintain that charitable status. Marie enjoys serving a wide
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variety of charities and nonprofit businesses and individuals and helping
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them achieve long term objectives. She also volunteers by serving
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on the boards of directors of charitable organizations and speaking
2:45
at legal education seminars. With her experience as in house
2:50
counsel with the charity, Marie has a strong understanding and
2:57
being in the client's position and the day to day
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challenges facing charities. As a result of Maria's diligently seeks
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to provide clients with practical and quality assistance, serving those
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who want to do the charitable work needed.
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Speaker 3: Something we can.
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Speaker 1: So, Maria, welcome to the show. You I think you're
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probably the coolest kind of lawyer ever because you really
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are helping make sure that that charitable business is serving
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the people and needs to be served, right, So, and
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that's that is really cool work. My hat's off to you.
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You should take your bowels and all that kind of stuff,
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because you're probably truly a community hero. Now that I've
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boasted you up pretty good. What actually got you started
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working with charities to begin with? Because you said something
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about you were in house council for a charity in Alberta.
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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, So I started practicing law and it was
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helping individuals where there was state planning and a state administration,
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and also small businesses so it was in real estate,
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so it was kind of a mix of things.
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Speaker 3: And I was doing that for that for about five
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years and then.
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Speaker 2: Just just yeah, there was an opportunity to serve with
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in the charitable sector, which I wasn't really planning, but.
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Speaker 3: I just like, I think it was an important thing.
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Speaker 2: To do to contribute to the community and to to
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serve others and you know, life like work is important,
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but there's you know, there's many.
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Speaker 3: Different considerations and so this was.
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Speaker 2: Not necessarily about making the most money, but you know,
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what kind of impact can you do? How can you
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help others serve others. So I, yeah, I switched and
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I was working in house with a charity. So I
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was working on staff, helping to promote, you know, further
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further their goals. And and that was how I got
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into that because I didn't have previous experience and charity law.
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But you know, there's things that still like there's still
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there's crossover there. Every charity still has employees and they
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still have contracts, and there's there's still a lot of similarities.
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And then I was, yeah, serving with that organization close
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to ten years and then went and then ended up
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coming back into private practice and now serving a whole
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variety of different charities, not just one, but all sorts.
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And it's yeah, so it sort of I didn't plan
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it this way, but it's I'm thankful because it's it's
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such a good fit.
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Speaker 3: And sometimes it's hard to know.
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Speaker 2: I think other people you probably found that too, like
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you don't necessarily have everything all planned out, know what's
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gonna happen, but you kind of just keep moving forward
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and you're open to different things and.
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Speaker 3: You know, wanting to help others, and opportunities will just arise.
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Speaker 1: With that being said, there's something that I found, there's
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different ways of being wealthy, right, And to kind of
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answer what you're saying is, I found that sometimes that
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monetary wealth is less important than human spirit wealth, right,
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And so when you're working with charities, you want you
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it's like it's so fulfilling seeing that human spirit thing
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when somebody's spirit comes is like, hey, I fix something
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for them, right, I truly help them, and there's something
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something special happens inside of you, right.
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Speaker 2: Hmmm, Yeah, that's a good way to put it. It's
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people who some of the people who have a lot
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of money are super generous and there are a lot
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of them that start charities are involved, but a lot
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of people with a lot of money are Yeah, it's
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not the money in itself isn't fulfilling, and so that's
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it's not usually people in the charity sector. It's it's
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not their main ambition or the main driver. It's more
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of a tool to use it's a resource to steward.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, you talk about the fulfilling part. So what
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about working with with with nonprofits actually fulfills what part
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of the of of that actually fulfills you?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I think there's yeah, probably a few different ways.
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Speaker 3: One way is I guess probably all people.
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Speaker 2: Like to do things that they're good at, so finding
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that right role and so I feel like it's a
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good fit just helping people and organizations problem solve and
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helping them achieve their goals and in the way like it,
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I wouldn't necessarily be the best person maybe to lead
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the organization, but helping them, ah, you know, manage the
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risks and have you thought about this, and setting them
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up and steering them in in.
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Speaker 3: Their perhaps uh planning and compliance.
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Speaker 2: So that's for me fulfilling just doing something that it's
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a good fit for me. And then of course it's
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also helped seeing the amazing work that they do and
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a helping them avoid perhaps like a costly mistake that's
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really fulfilling, Oh saved you some money there and some
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problems there, and and then seeing the amazing things that
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they accomplish, whether it's here in the local community or
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across Canada or internationally.
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Speaker 3: Is it's so encouraging.
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Speaker 2: And then also the people who work for those organizations,
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whether they're donors or their volunteers or staff, they're serving
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on the.
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Speaker 3: Board, they are just.
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Speaker 2: Generous and they're optimistic, they're positive. I mean, no one's perfect,
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but it's the really great people to work with. So
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it's it's lovely to work with these organizations and these people.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I like that. Nobody is truly perfect, right, Yeah,
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So when you when you're setting up a charity, legally
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it's still a corporation, right.
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Speaker 3: Most charities. Yeah, that's usually.
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Speaker 2: The way that organizations are set up, so there's still
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sort of the corporate procedures and by laws and things there.
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There's you know, there's some that are unincorporated, but that yeah,
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usually those are maybe older you know, might be an
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older church that was set up decades ago and it's unincorporated,
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or it could be a trust.
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Speaker 3: But those that's hard, Yeah, those aren't the minority.
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Speaker 2: It's typically either a society or uh corp not for
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profit corporation, and that it's kind of.
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Speaker 3: A good structure too.
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Speaker 2: You know, you can have a bank account, you can
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own property and you can enter into contracts, and you've
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got your membership, your directors. So it's just, yeah, it's
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a nice kind of way to structure the organization.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and the reason why I bring that up is
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because it's it's that it's a structure, so you you
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actually help them build that structure.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, so acts and legal ease and all that kind of.
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Speaker 3: I know, yeah, people most people don't.
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Speaker 2: They're not thrilled with the structure and the biolus and everything.
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But yeah, and sometimes people try and do it themselves,
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and I mean that's that's perfectly acceptable, although sometimes it
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can sometimes often it's just easier for me kind of
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set them up to begin with, because sometimes they'll kind
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of incorporate themselves and then they'll come to us to
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help them perhaps apply for charity applications.
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Speaker 3: Then they kind of have to redo a lot of
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the stuff. So and.
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Speaker 2: That's yeah.
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Speaker 3: I can't remember what else I was going to say
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about that point, but there's.
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Speaker 2: There's Yeah, it's just about setting people up to also
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have good long term relationships. So dispute resolution membership, so
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for example, you want to make sure that you have
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due process and that the people who are entitled to vote,
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they know what the rules are and there's a way
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to fairly appoint the directors, and people want to have
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a say if there's a significant perhaps decision to be made,
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and even just things like okay, well having how many
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men who should be a member, you know, and controlling
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that and making sure again that it's it's a fair
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process if someone's membership is can be taken away. And
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so we do unfortunately get involved sometimes in disputes because
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people maybe don't think about these sorts of details about
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dealing with membership and disputes until they have a dispute.
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So if you can kind of get ahead of that
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and have just some clear and just keeping clear even
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clear records who is a member. Sometimes people just that
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gets some uh over overlooked, and then when there's a dispute,
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they suddenly realize we don't actually.
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Speaker 3: Even know who's who's a member.
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Speaker 2: Oh that kind of Yeah, it's not people, it's not
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usually the thing that people are most passionate about. But yeah,
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I guess we just try and help people keep allieve
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those problems so they don't run into those, so that
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they can pursue their their the reasons that they're that
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they exist in their charitable purposes.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would ever thought that one of the things
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that you would actually do for for a charity. I
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know that for for a corporation, uh, that you a
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general corporation for profit corporation that they legal team helps
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keep clean records of who's who, which employees are doing what,
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maybe that sort of thing. Uh, But I would never
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thought of that with the charity. So there's something serious
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to think about, right, Yeah.
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Speaker 2: And some charities are very small, so they might not
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have any employees, but some charities can be large and
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have thousands of employees. And so then yeah, you run
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into yea, all the same issues of you know, employment
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break relationship breakdown and making sure that you have good
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practices you treat people while you've got good policies.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So when you're working with with charities, it's like
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we hear this all the time with with larger corporations.
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The culture of the direction in the motto and all
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that sort of stuff. Is that's still still extremely important
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with or more important than with the charitable charitable organization
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or it's kind of.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's interesting.
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Speaker 2: I I don't often get involved in that side of
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sort of the vision planning and the that's uh, sort
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of the overall direction that they that they want to
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go in the culture.
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Speaker 3: But it's I mean, I do serve on the board
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of directors.
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Speaker 2: For for some organizations, so I guess I do see
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it from that perspective. But yeah, I would say that
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that is perhaps some charities that might even be a
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little bit easier because people have a passion and that's
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why they typically join or they want to serve, because
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they're passionate about that purpose.
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Speaker 3: And that vision.
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Speaker 2: So I mean, I haven't really thought about that before,
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but it it is pretty that's usually yeah, I think
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that's usually the kind of the driving force, but I
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suppose that they have.
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Speaker 3: There might be there's always you know, there's always room
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to improve and.
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Speaker 2: Perhaps clarify what your vision is, or maybe you change
17:39
directions and you want to start a new program. That
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that's often the case that charities are growing and they're
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adding things on or maybe they're thinking, okay, maybe we
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actually need to narrow things down or start you know,
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a second organization, or there's also yeah, and that's a
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cool thing about the charity sector is that maybe they're
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they're really cool operative and so they're working. They call
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them partnerships, even though they might not be legal partnerships,
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but they're kind of collaborating with each other and helping
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each other and working together with different projects. So that's
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really neat. How there's this cooperative spirit and that's yeah.
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So I would say that's that's a little bit different
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than the for profit sector that there's I guess, I'm
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sure there's still a bit of competition, but it's I
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find it's much more collaborative.
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Speaker 3: So that's wonderful.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and it seems like you enjoy the more the
18:38
collaborative than the competition.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I do.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's why I know. I'm not I don't go
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to court unless it's I'm contested. I typically don't go
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to court, but yeah, sometimes there are I mean there's
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still we do have litigators that you might still have
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to go to court if there is a dispute. Yeah,
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but I do. Uh.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I appreciate working on projects where.
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Speaker 2: Everyone wants the same everyone has the same goal and
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like how can we how can we achieve this? So
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that's that's nice.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, some people really like the you know, I
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mean that's great. Everyone's different, right, and so it's great.
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Some people just like to uh be in a more
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contentious situation. But like the people that in our firm there,
19:29
they come to it from the perspective of, like, how
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can we resolve this dispute in an efficient way? So
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it's not like they're trying to make the program the
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problem worse. They're they're trying to find uh, you know,
19:41
uh practical solutions. And that's unfortunately we all run into those,
19:47
you know, at some point in life. We we often
19:49
end up in that kind of situation where you need
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someone who can help you, you know, with practical legal solutions.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, practical solutions you usually usually work best
20:03
for me also, So yeah, so it sounds like it
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sounds like is when you're working with people, it sounds
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like you're a guide. Not it's like, and let's make
20:24
sure that oh wait, hold on a second, that I
20:27
rate there wasn't dot it correctly, nor was his t cross,
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so let's make sure we do that. It sounds like
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you're that type of a guide to make sure that
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everything is in order. So I imagine you have a strong
20:45
attention to that detail to make sure things go smoothly
20:49
for for your.
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Speaker 2: Clients, right, Yeah, yeah, so I think that goes back
20:55
to what I said earlier, just it's a good fit
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and that I am detail oriented, but I do try
21:02
and also be practical in the sense that you kind
21:10
of have to nothing is I mean, you can't usually
21:15
reach perfection, so you have to be like, well, what's
21:18
good enough? And people don't necessarily want to spend one
21:23
hundred hours on something, right, It's so it's what what
21:29
things are essential, and what things are good, and what
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things are you know, you can just maybe uh look
21:37
at it a different time or just you'll just have
21:40
to pass on that.
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Speaker 3: Uh So prioritizing things.
21:43
Speaker 2: So I do try and uh just focus on on
21:49
key issues for people because otherwise it's it's overwhelming and
21:55
it it can just be too costly and take too
21:59
much time to try and be perfect on everything. Yeah,
22:03
but that's that's kind of yeah, it's always kind of struggle.
22:09
Speaker 3: To balance those two and that's what that's what we
22:12
aim to do. That's what I need to do at least.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but that's also part of the part of businesses.
22:19
It's like how exciting is it when you find that, hey,
22:22
this is gonna work moment it's not perfect, but it's
22:27
gonna work, it's gonna be effective. Yay, Yeah, I think that.
22:34
I don't know if you made we agree that finding
22:39
a moment where hey, I'm going to be effective. I
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got something that's really going to help somebody. I can
22:47
refine it later. Moment it is it's so important, right
22:53
mm hmmm.
22:54
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I suppose.
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Speaker 2: I suppose everyone has that in in different ways, and
23:02
so that yeah kind of bring you sometimes it brain
23:07
storm for a while, you think you different options. But yeah,
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it is exciting when you, oh, I think, I think
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I've found something that will work, and yeah, that is.
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Speaker 3: That's nice to reach that point.
23:17
Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes perfections overrated.
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Speaker 2: Yeah I suppose. Yeah, maybe maybe you run into that
23:30
as well. With with the work you do. It's you
23:33
can probably never reached something that's one hundred percent you're
23:35
satisfied with.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well okay, So comparing work, I usually try to
23:43
find that that moment of uh I had I had
23:52
an effect on you kind of thing. Right, So, how
23:57
many of those charities have you have you actually worked
24:00
on where later on you saw it had a true effect.
24:06
Did they did they were actually doing something that that
24:10
that because you helped fill in all that paperwork that
24:13
they were actually now doing something that was actually changing lives.
24:19
Speaker 3: Yeah.
24:20
Speaker 2: Sometimes, yeah, it's it's kind of more concrete and easy
24:23
to see that. So like if you're incorporating and setting
24:27
up a new organization, perhaps you've helped them apply for.
24:32
Speaker 3: Charity status and got that.
24:34
Speaker 2: That's really clear, like yay, now they now they can
24:38
they're registered as a charity and they can issue donation
24:42
receipts and that obviously helps with fundraising, and so that's
24:47
really yeah, nice to see that clear.
24:51
Speaker 3: That's clear accomplishment.
24:54
Speaker 2: Sometimes there's also yeah, there could be like organizations that
24:59
are ging or amalgamating or some sort of like perhaps
25:04
a housing project that they've that could take years, and
25:10
but that's exciting when that when they know you see
25:12
the milestones and see the achievements.
25:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's exciting.
25:18
Speaker 2: And then there's other times where it's maybe you don't see.
25:24
Speaker 3: Like you're kind of like maybe we're viewing a.
25:26
Speaker 2: Contract and you're saying, well, watch out for this could happen,
25:29
and you're you don't know what you've avoided sort of,
25:33
but you're thinking of possible risks, the risk management and
25:39
you don't know which risks will happen, and so that's.
25:42
Speaker 3: A little bit harder to measure your results or to
25:48
see your accomplishments. But I guess.
25:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, as lawyers, we see often kind of we do
25:56
see worst case scenarios and so we kind of have
25:59
that in the back of our mind, like when we're
26:02
working on a different file, we think, oh, I know
26:05
this could happen, and this can happen, so you just
26:07
kind of always want to protect people from that.
26:11
Speaker 3: So that's yeah, a little bit harder to measure, but we.
26:18
Speaker 2: Obviously, yeah, we see the potential issues that other people
26:22
might not see, and it's it's still important to us,
26:25
and we even even though it might not be there.
26:29
Speaker 3: Might not be like a big ceremony as a result
26:32
of that or.
26:34
Speaker 2: Like a clear accomplishment, but it's yeah, it's it's still
26:39
really important.
26:43
Speaker 1: You we brought up the idea of protection, So how
26:48
is it that it's not to me people think of
26:54
how why would a charity need a protection? Tore charity? Right,
26:58
who would want to horror the charity? But what are
27:02
just some of the ways that you have seen that
27:04
you actually helped uh an organization avoid a pitfall? That
27:10
would have been like disastrous or organization ending sort of thing.
27:18
Speaker 3: Mm hmm. Be here.
27:31
Speaker 2: There are sometimes really like the contracts which no one
27:38
likes to read through. But it could be you know,
27:42
for government, like a government contract. And then and it's
27:46
important for the government to have accountability. And when they're
27:51
giving grants or loading money it could be for housing
27:55
or for health care facility, then it's important that that
28:02
they have these contracts in place to make sure the
28:05
money is spent properly. So you might, yeah, in those cases,
28:11
we'll go through everything and.
28:15
Speaker 3: Make sure that and so there's a lot of compliance
28:19
things to follow, and it's important that they access this finding.
28:23
Speaker 2: But then you need to make sure that they have
28:26
a whole bunch of things in place, whether it's.
28:30
Speaker 3: Their structure, their.
28:33
Speaker 2: Policies, maybe they need to change some of their policy
28:39
or the way they operate, or maybe you know, sometimes
28:42
like you don't really have a lot of negotiating power
28:45
of the government, but sometimes there's just like a mistake
28:49
and so you need to say go back and say, actually,
28:53
this this is just isn't gonna work. Just it does
28:59
it doesn't actually reflect the project. And and so just
29:04
being mindful of Okay, this is so understanding the project
29:10
and the kind of the all the legal ease as well,
29:13
and making sure that it.
29:17
Speaker 3: The it's it's just.
29:19
Speaker 2: Done accurately, I suppose, is what I'm trying to say.
29:22
Just making sure documents are accurate and and yeah, actually
29:28
we review like a lot of leases as well, and
29:32
those can be you know, It's it's sad sometimes you
29:36
see situations where people have these unfortunate surprises, like they
29:41
might be the tenant, the organization might be the tenant,
29:43
and suddenly they have this big repair bill and they
29:45
didn't know that they're responsible for certain type of repair
29:50
or maintenance.
29:51
Speaker 3: And so if we can kind of want to get
29:54
into that long term contract, we'll say, oh, just so
29:57
you know, like this is what you're possible for, or.
30:00
Speaker 2: We can advise them okay, this is these are the
30:03
changes you should make so that you.
30:07
Speaker 3: Aren't stuck in a bad position in this in this
30:11
lease or.
30:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, just sometimes like it might be a long term
30:17
project with another organization, and just making sure that they
30:23
think of like what what if things what if circumstances change,
30:26
like if the market changes like we see it now
30:29
with housing providers or developers, the market has really changed,
30:36
costs have gone up, and still making sure that they
30:42
that there's dispute resolution mechanisms or there's exit strategies that work.
30:50
And even though they're not you know, in it for profits,
30:58
they they still want to be sustainable and uh it,
31:04
they still need to make sure that the projects that
31:08
they're entering into are viable and that they're they have
31:14
that they're not entering into something that isn't going to
31:20
work for them, or or that they don't have a
31:23
way to appropriately kind of resolve issues that come up.
31:30
I don't know if that's kind of helpful to paint
31:34
a picture.
32:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I may me y mm hmm.
33:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, just in general, so there'd be quite a few
33:09
different stakeholders excuse me, including BC Housing as the excuse me,
33:17
the lender, and then you'd have you know, your your
33:22
perhaps project manager, and then you would have you know,
33:28
the construction company and different you know, the engineers, all
33:34
sorts of stakeholders, the local community and yeah, and so
33:40
sometimes there's there's a there could be multiple organizations working
33:45
together and uh it's even just yeah, just being creative
33:54
to like, well what could we do and how could
33:57
we work together?
33:59
Speaker 3: Navigating that and so that's exciting. But yeah, it is.
34:03
Speaker 2: There's a lot of moving parts, so a lot of
34:06
different people working together.
34:08
Speaker 3: But it's nice because people are sorry, excuse me people,
34:15
Uh I, well that's what happened. I choked on I
34:21
choked on the water.
34:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that kind of backfired, okay, Yeah. And the municipalities, Yeah,
35:08
that's another big player, another big stakeholder that has a
35:12
lot of different requirements. So a lot of time is
35:16
is kind of navigating those requirements.
35:18
Speaker 3: And again there's not a lot of Usually when the
35:20
government has.
35:23
Speaker 2: Decision making power, they there are not a lot of
35:26
room to negotiate, but sometimes they yeah, they there are
35:33
some areas where there's room for flexibility and how the
35:37
project will take shape and different options. And so just
35:42
working cooperatively with the with the municipality and and trying
35:48
to meet their different requirements is an important part of
35:55
the housing sector. Maybe not the most exciting, but necessary.
36:56
Speaker 1: No.
36:56
Speaker 2: I in my mind, I kind of think that people, oh,
36:59
like you say, Hollywood, they make it.
37:00
Speaker 3: They make a lot of professions look.
37:02
Speaker 2: Like, you know, like a Porsche or a Ferrari, and
37:07
really it's maybe more like a John Deere tractor kind
37:11
of just grinding along, so it's not not so glamorous
37:15
but but but tough.
37:32
Speaker 5: H yeah, yeah, m hmm. Yeah.
38:34
Speaker 3: And I can't pick like one thing. There's so many
38:38
amazing things that they do. I think one thing something
38:43
gets me more excited is things that are often overlooked.
38:49
So for example, I think often seniors can be overlooked.
38:57
Speaker 2: You know, it's you know, people can get really pasted
39:00
about kids, which is obviously super important, but you know,
39:04
perhaps caring for like a senior who's isolated and just
39:10
really vulnerable, that's maybe not as exciting for a lot
39:14
of people, but it's it's so important to care for
39:19
our elders. So I really get excited about some of
39:24
the just quietly, the way they'll serve someone who's at home,
39:30
isolated by themselves, just getting groceries for them, reaching out
39:36
to them, being an emotional support, and be just caring
39:42
for them and honoring them, which is Yeah, I.
39:46
Speaker 3: Think it is a beautiful thing.
39:47
Speaker 2: So I think that's really special.
39:53
Speaker 3: And for when.
39:56
Speaker 2: I think of international work, like outside of our immediate community,
40:01
I've really been excited about the work that charities do
40:08
to serve people with disabilities and of course we do
40:11
that in our community too, and that's super important as well.
40:14
But I think the difference being is that there are
40:19
supports in our society. So for example, if you have
40:23
a child who has a disability, they can attend school
40:27
and hopefully there's a program for them or supports. I
40:31
mean there should be, because I know sometimes there's Our
40:34
school system isn't perfect, but the premise in our in
40:37
our society is that all children should go to school,
40:41
even if they have disabilities.
40:45
Speaker 3: But that's not the case in.
40:46
Speaker 2: A lot of countries and a lot of cultures, a
40:48
lot of cultures, it's there's no school available, you're you're
40:53
not educated, you're neglected. And so charities will step in
40:59
and say, oh, we will set up special needs programs
41:05
so that children with disabilities can get educated, will support
41:09
them in their education, will teach teachers how to serve
41:14
children with disabilities, will help the family support the kids.
41:18
Speaker 3: So things that we all have here, they don't have.
41:21
Speaker 2: Any of that, And so that's I think extra special
41:26
because it's helping really the most disadvantaged people, because those
41:31
are often people that are in poverty as well. If
41:35
you have a disability, you're more likely to experience poverty.
41:40
So I think that's extra special when we're really helping
41:44
the people that are often overlooked.
42:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, yeah, considering who who is it you really
42:27
serve as as a lawyer, it's gonna be a more
42:32
meaningful question. If you had the opportunity to create a
42:41
in your eyes, a more beautiful or more perfect world,
42:45
what would that look like?
42:50
Speaker 3: That is a very interesting question. Okay, m h m hmm.
43:06
I would like to Yeah.
43:09
Speaker 2: I well, I think we have to begin with so
43:12
much to be thankful for in Canada, and we have
43:17
so many things that other people living in other countries
43:23
don't have.
43:24
Speaker 3: So, but yes, there's always room for improvement. Of course,
43:33
we are by no means perfect.
43:38
Speaker 2: I I think one important piece is education, and I'm
43:47
really thankful that I have that opportunity to have been
43:52
educated and so, but.
43:56
Speaker 3: I don't take it for granted that in the.
43:59
Speaker 2: Past, not too long ago, like as a woman, you know,
44:03
you weren't able to go to post secondary or access
44:07
certain professions or perhaps even vote. So I I'm grateful
44:15
for that, and I think it's important for yeah to
44:20
protect that and enable people to access education and quality education.
44:25
Too useful education, and I just think, uh, just looking
44:34
outside of Canada and places where there's not that same access,
44:38
I would love to have more people have access to
44:43
education in that because it's so important for like, you know,
44:48
being able to think critically and you know, get a
44:51
job so that you're you can support yourself and your family.
44:56
It's you're less likely than to be living and poverty.
45:01
Speaker 3: But it's also just for so many different aspects of
45:06
our society.
45:06
Speaker 2: It's important too, so that you you know, if we
45:11
think of our your democratic.
45:12
Speaker 3: Institutions and people participating, you.
45:16
Speaker 2: Know, if you you don't, if you haven't maybe been
45:21
received education, then you might not know history or understand
45:27
kind of the value.
45:27
Speaker 3: Of of.
45:31
Speaker 2: The institutions in our country, or you might not be
45:34
aware of a lot of things that are happening. So
45:39
I that's something that I think is important for us
45:46
here in Canada and also internationally. And it's I think
45:53
also something we have to you can't get too complacent
45:57
about because we can see in different places in the world.
46:02
We kind of took it for granted that our democratic
46:08
institutions are solid, but maybe they aren't as solid as
46:12
we thought they were. So just having quality, yeah, quality
46:18
education is I think so foundational.
46:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're making sense. And I got to ask you
46:29
one last question that was with you the last question,
46:33
but you brought up another question. Yeah, what about the
46:40
apathy that exists in our society right now? How do
46:44
we how do we get people to come back and
46:48
be involved and really just care.
46:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a good question.
46:53
Speaker 2: You know, I was actually kind of thinking about, maybe
46:55
not in the exact same way today, but I was thinking,
46:58
like about when I was thinking about the amazing work.
47:02
Speaker 3: That charities and nonprofits do.
47:09
Speaker 2: And there's so much neat and I don't know if
47:13
this exactly answers your question, but I was thinking, you know,
47:16
everybody has.
47:20
Speaker 3: Something to contribute.
47:22
Speaker 2: Not everybody has money to contribute, but if they do,
47:25
you know, they might have a small amount, they might
47:27
have a large amount, they might not.
47:29
Speaker 3: Have any, but they might have time to volunteer.
47:33
Speaker 2: They're so like if you just Google search a volunteer everything,
47:37
when you type in the name of your community there
47:39
things will pop up, and there's so many different ways
47:44
to volunteer and serve, and that's helping others, it's also
47:49
helping yourself because it's just it's so fulfilling and rewarding
47:56
to serve and.
47:58
Speaker 3: Then just you might have a skill.
48:02
Speaker 2: Uh so you can volunteer by or I was just saying, yeah,
48:05
you can volunteer, but you might.
48:11
Speaker 3: Have different Yeah. So it's I'm kind of sorry not
48:21
being super concise here, but different ways of serving depending
48:29
on what you're gifted in and that.
48:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's I mean not everybody, I suppose will be interested,
48:40
and I recognize that it's it's a challenge, but hopefully
48:45
if everyone can just do a little bit, and then
48:49
they might find oh, this is this is super fulfilling
48:53
and then perhaps that just taking that first step will
48:56
perhaps spark greater uh, greater action and greater service.
49:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
49:05
Speaker 2: I don't Yeah, I don't have unfortunately the answer to that,
49:10
but I suppose that ties into the work that you do.
49:12
You you you're that bridge perhaps and getting getting the
49:15
word out.
49:18
Speaker 1: True, Uh that that is one one of one of
49:20
our goals is to is to get that word out. Okay,
49:25
So for those of those of us who want to
49:30
to get our chaterble organization or maybe just a normal
49:35
run of the mill kind of a corporation sort of thing,
49:38
if that really exists, what's the best way to get
49:42
a hold of you so that people can work with
49:44
you and experience the the work did you actually do
49:50
for people?
49:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's uh.
49:54
Speaker 2: Well, our office is here in Cloverdale and Surrey and
49:58
also really close to Langley, so people can reach out
50:02
in person or by email or phone, and we also
50:07
have a lot of we serve a lot of clients
50:10
in other communities and other provinces. Sometimes we're in touch
50:15
with people internationally as well. They're located in different places,
50:20
so nowadays it's easy to reach out kind of no
50:24
matter where you are, and we can.
50:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're happy to.
50:32
Speaker 2: If they just have some initial questions, happy to have
50:36
a chat about ideas or questions that they have and
50:41
see how what we can do to help them.
50:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Rity, thank you for joining us today. Everybody
50:52
is Marie Lock and the law firm you work with
50:57
is al Johnson Law Group and they're based in Cloverdale, Surrey, BC.
51:05
So if you're in those areas, look for Marie and
51:10
she will be more than willing to help you out
51:12
with with your legal needs in setting up your business
51:15
or your charvitable organization.
51:19
Speaker 3: Thanks Marie, Thanks Michael, but.
51:46
Speaker 1: I don't know this is days.
52:08
Speaker 4: A reason to.
52:15
Speaker 1: Save me.
52:18
Speaker 3: Little job in the wall shows we can't trust.
52:26
Speaker 1: Wait, so, the show has been produced by Depictions Media.
53:49
Please contact us at depictions dot media for more information.
54:00
Speaker 2: No