awareness

Call for digital literacy

The federal government must develop a comprehensive national digital literacy program aimed at protecting young people from a wide range of online harms, because current efforts are fragmented and insufficient, according to B’nai Brith Canada.

The national advocacy group is proposing a major national project on this front, something that emerged after B’nai Brith’s appearance before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage last December. The committee was studying the impact of social media on young people.

In its submission, B’nai Brith focused on the risks of online extremism and radicalization. However, testimony before the committee revealed a much broader problem.

“We heard compelling testimony … from those confronting the impact of exploitation, sex exploitation, financial exploitation, misinformation, disinformation, really the gamut of online harms,” said Richard Robertson, the organization’s director of research and advocacy.

In response, B’nai Brith launched a campaign in late 2025 calling on Ottawa to fund and implement a national youth digital literacy program. The goal is to consolidate existing resources and ensure they reach young people across the country.

Robertson stressed that the issue extends beyond education policy and requires a coordinated national response.

“We don’t believe this is a curriculum issue. We don’t believe that this is an education issue. This is a national issue,” he said, adding that the problem “transcends provincial borders.”

The proposed program would bring together existing tools and expertise developed by various organizations and make them more accessible and impactful. Rather than building entirely new materials, the focus would be on refining and distributing what already exists.

Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B’nai Brith Canada. (photo from BBC)

“There’s a lot of great resources out there … what we need to do is ensure that those resources are getting to our youth,” Robertson said.

The campaign is also calling for federal funding – potentially through the next federal budget – to support both the development and promotion of the program. B’nai Brith envisions using the same channels that already reach young people, including social media and other digital platforms.

Campaigns targeting specific demographics “are not novel to our society,” Robertson noted, and similar strategies could be used to deliver digital literacy content effectively.

The organization has begun developing a framework for the proposed program and is seeking to collaborate with experts in Canada and internationally. Early endorsements have come from groups including the Canadian School Libraries Association and the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab at American University.

While some jurisdictions, including Australia, have restricted young people’s access to social media, B’nai Brith argues that education remains essential regardless of regulatory approaches.

“You can try to restrict their access … but they will find their ways to interact with it,” Robertson said. He added that online harms extend beyond social media to video games, forums and other platforms that are difficult to regulate.

The organization’s position is that education should complement – not replace – regulatory efforts. B’nai Brith has been engaging with government on digital regulation and plans to participate in an upcoming parliamentary study on artificial intelligence.

Robertson said his group has received a positive initial response from policymakers and is hopeful that funding could be included in the next federal budget, either through new allocations or existing programs.

Beyond federal action, B’nai Brith is also encouraging provincial governments to take steps, particularly within school systems.

“We do an excellent job of … making sure [youth are] literate with technology,” Robertson said. “We need to make sure that their use of technology is a positive experience by also devoting attention to the dangers.”

B’nai Brith is seeking support from civil society organizations and individual Canadians as well, as it builds momentum for the initiative.

The campaign comes as concerns continue to grow about the impact of digital spaces on young people. For B’nai Brith Canada, the urgency is clear: online risks are evolving quickly, and a coordinated national response is needed to help youth navigate them safely.

Deep belief in Courage

Left to right: Champion rower Silken Laumann, then-Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan and Courage to Come Back chair Lorne Segal. Sullivan, who broke his neck in a skiing accident when he was 19, has since founded many nonprofits, held various public offices, and more. He received the first-ever Special Courage Award, in 2006. (photo from Coast Mental Health)

This year’s Courage to Come Back Awards, which took place May 7 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, celebrated four people for having overcome great adversity and giving back to their communities. First as an attendee, and then as chair of the awards for 20 years and counting, Lorne Segal knows firsthand the inspiration these award recipients offer.

“I was inspired by the incredible stories of resilience and recovery that define the Courage to Come Back Awards,” Segal told the Independent. “From the beginning, I was moved by the courage it takes to not only face adversity, but to come through it with strength and purpose. The opportunity to support mental health through this powerful platform felt both meaningful and necessary.”

Segal, who is president of Kingswood Properties Ltd., is legacy chair of the annual awards event and co-chair is Eric Carlson, core founder and chief executive officer of Anthem Properties.

Segal took on the role of chair because he “believed deeply in the mission and saw the potential for the awards to grow and reach more people.

“I’ve stayed,” he said, “because of the lives it touches – both those we honour and those who are inspired by them. Each year brings new stories, new hope and a renewed sense of purpose. It’s been one of the greatest privileges of my life.”

This year’s awards were given out in four categories and the recipients were Stanley Price (addiction), David Chalk (mental health), Louisa Bridgman (medical) and Omar Bseiso (young adult).

Price overcame childhood trauma, addiction and gang involvement, and now works in addictions and recovery, as well as being a volunteer with KidsPlay Foundation. Chalk, who hid that he couldn’t read until his 60s, has become an AI expert and entrepreneur – he is currently developing an AI-trained platform that will help others build literacy. Bridgman, a disability rights activist, lives with cerebral palsy, and has faced childhood abuse and systemic discrimination. Bseiso has faced poverty, as well as physical and mental health challenges, and gone from being a struggling student to a University of British Columbia scholarship recipient, with the goal of becoming a doctor.

“The awards shine a spotlight on hope and recovery, challenging stigma and encouraging conversations about mental health and other challenges,” said Segal. “They remind people that they are not alone. By celebrating those who have overcome incredible odds, we inspire others to keep going – and we build a stronger, more compassionate community.”

Segal himself has been changed by his involvement with the awards.

“It’s made me more empathetic, more grateful and more aware of the quiet strength people carry,” he said. “Being surrounded by such resilience has profoundly impacted how I see the world and how I approach adversity in my own life. It has grounded me and continually reminded me of the importance of kindness and perseverance.”

And it’s a family endeavour.

“It began 27 years ago when my parents, Joe and Rosalie Segal, attended the first Courage to Come Back Awards and were inspired to help found the Joseph and Rosalie Segal and Family Health Centre at Vancouver General Hospital,” said Segal. “My wife Melita and our children, Matthew and Chanelle, have supported me every step of the way – attending from a young age and sharing courage stories in their own lives. Their belief in this cause has made my work all the more meaningful.”

photo - Lorne and Melita Segal at the 2018 Courage to Come Back Awards — Lorne and Melita Segal at the 2018 Courage to Come Back Awards. *(photo by Alex Law from Coast Mental Health)*

The cause is mental health in general, but also Coast Mental Health specifically. The Courage to Come Back Awards raise money for the organization.

“Coast Mental Health is one of the quiet pillars holding up those who often feel unseen,” Segal explained. “In the broad landscape of mental health care, we often think first of hospitals, doctors and medication – the primary care that is essential and often life-saving. But what happens after that first step toward healing? Where does someone go when they leave the hospital but still need support, still need connection, still need hope? That’s where Coast Mental Health steps in.

“Coast is not just a service – it is a sanctuary,” he said. “It offers that vital second tier of support: stable housing, meaningful training, compassionate community. It provides a roof over someone’s head, but also restores something far less tangible and even more precious – dignity. With job training programs, resource centres and drop-in spaces where a kind word and a warm hand can change the course of someone’s day, Coast wraps its arms around people who are trying, day by day, to come back.

“Mental health recovery doesn’t happen in isolation, and it doesn’t end at the hospital door. Coast Mental Health understands that healing is holistic. It happens in the safety of a home, in the encouragement of a support network, in the pride of a new job and in the trust of a human connection.

“This is the quiet, essential work of Coast Mental Health – and it is work that changes lives,” Segal said. “It is not just about surviving. It is about returning to life with dignity, with purpose and with courage.”

There have been so many memorable Courage to Come Back moments for Segal over the last two decades. “There are countless,” he said. “Standing ovations for recipients who once struggled to leave their homes, families reunited in tears and the thunderous applause of a community coming together. But perhaps the most memorable moments are the quiet ones: personal notes from recipients saying, ‘You helped me believe in myself again.’”

photo - Lorne Segal has chaired Coast Mental Health Foundation’s Courage to Come Back Awards for 20 years — Lorne Segal has chaired Coast Mental Health Foundation’s Courage to Come Back Awards for 20 years. *(photo from Coast Mental Health)*

Under Segal’s stewardship, the annual event, which began in 1999, has grown to be Western Canada’s largest gala, with more than 1,700 people attending. It has raised more than $27 million for mental health and celebrated 153 British Columbians. But its success wasn’t guaranteed.

“One of the greatest challenges the Courage to Come Back Awards faced was simply staying alive in its earliest days,” said Segal. “I still remember stumbling across the event 27 years ago – not really knowing where I was going or what to expect. I sat down at a table, noticed a Kleenex box in the centre, and quickly understood why it was there. The stories I heard that evening moved me to tears. These weren’t just stories – they were everyday miracles. I walked out of that room thinking: everyone needs to hear this. Everyone needs to feel this hope.

“But, at the time, there were only a few hundred people in the room. The organization was struggling, and the idea of shutting the doors on the awards was very real. There simply wasn’t enough awareness, enough support or enough belief that it could become more.

“That night lit a fire in me,” he said. “I started telling everyone I knew – sharing the stories, the impact, the emotion. And, slowly, over the years, the event grew.”

As for what keeps him involved, Segal said, “Because it matters. Because it changes lives. Because I’ve seen firsthand the power of sharing stories of resilience, the ripple effect of one person’s courage igniting another’s hope. For two decades, I’ve had the privilege of helping shine a light on individuals who prove, year after year, that no matter the hardship, comebacks are possible. It’s not just about honouring the brave – it’s about showing others what’s possible. And that purpose, that impact, keeps me coming back, too.”

The work gives back more than it takes, he said. “In a world full of noise, the Courage to Come Back Awards are a rare and powerful reminder of what truly matters: resilience, humanity and hope.”

To learn more about the impacts of the awards, which are presented by Wheaton Precious Metals, visit coastmentalhealth.com.

Family hopes to save lives

At the Sept. 26 event Bridging Hope, which takes place at King David High School, Noah Bogdonov, left, and his parents, David Bogdonov and Elana Epstein, will speak about their family’s experience with addiction. (photo from Bogdonov-Epsteins)

“We want to share our experience, strength and hope with addiction,” said David Bogdonov about what he and his wife, Elana Epstein, and their son, Noah Bogdonov, will talk about on Sept. 26 at Bridging Hope: Science and Testimonial in the Fight Against Addiction.

The Independent spoke with the Bogdonov-Epsteins recently, to get to know them a bit before the event, which is being presented by Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, King David High School and Vancouver Talmud Torah.

David is an engineer and works for a company that builds waterparks, while Elana, who has a social work background, has been a yoga teacher for about 20 years and a wellness/spiritual coach for about 15 years. “Currently, I am supporting a ton of moms in the addiction community,” she said.

The couple has three sons. “Boys R Us” quipped David. “Noah is the firstborn, at 28 years old; Tal is our second, at 24; and Benjamin is our youngest, at 22.”

It was in October 2022 that they became sure that Noah was struggling with addiction. “Before that,” said Elana, “about three or four months before the ‘awakened moment,’ we knew that he had been struggling but he was telling us he had gotten it under control, not to worry, then it went downhill, crashing very fast.

“He started in high school – not unlike the vast majority of kids in high school – using weed and alcohol,” she said. “We didn’t like it, but we assumed it was part of his teenage years and that he would grow out of it and come to his own realization of how to find balance in life and, sadly, that never happened.”

Initially, it was Noah’s friends who tried to help.

“They held an informal intervention and asked him to get it under control,” said David. “That was in May of ’22, and that’s when we became aware of it, but he pulled the wool over our eyes and convinced us that he had it all under control. That’s when we started to make sense of all the red flags we had seen for a long time.”

Months later, when David and Elana were in Whistler, Noah was slower than usual to respond to a text message. “I woke up one morning and said that we need to go home, something is not right. He was staying at my brother’s apartment, who was away, and we knew. I said, we need to go, and we went, and we found him, and he was in dire straits,” said Elana. “But, he said, ‘I don’t want to live like this anymore.’ We asked, ‘Does that mean treatment?’ He said, ‘Yeah.’ We got the ball rolling, and he went right in, no hesitation, no more denial. He was ready, we were ready, and that was the beginning of the rest of his life.”

It’s been almost two years since Noah has been in treatment. He spent about 100 days at the Last Door Addiction Recovery Treatment Centre, in New Westminster, then was in transition housing, where he had a relapse that lasted two months, said David. It’s been 16 months since Noah’s relapse.

“David and I never stopped going to the weekly meetings, doing our own work,” said Elana, even while Noah was relapsing. The Last Door has family group meetings, which they’ve been attending regularly since Noah was two weeks into treatment, said David, calling their participation in the group a “very key element” of their own recovery.

Noah is working at Maintain Recovery, a sober living house, which he manages. “It’s a common story for many recovering addicts to get immersed in the life of recovery,” said David. “They often start to work in the organizations and so on. It’s part of what keeps them clean and keeps them on the path, which is really wonderful to watch.”

David and Elana are being so open about their family’s experiences because, said David, “We take quite seriously that part of the overdose crisis is caused by the stigma surrounding drug addition and we subscribe to the notion that addiction is a disease and should be treated like any other disease. You don’t shame someone for having cancer, you shouldn’t shame someone for having the disease of addiction. So, we are both passionate about that.”

“For me,” added Elana, “it goes beyond the stigma…. I really feel like if there were more language, more community, more education, more connection around this, you know, if I had had someone … approach me and say, listen, this is what addiction looks like, your son seems to be starting down a path that gets worse before it gets better…. In Noah’s life, we had no knowledge of addiction, we did not know what it looked like, we were totally blindsided,” she said.

“We don’t have trauma, there was no story he was hiding and trying to make peace with,” added Elana. “He was a boy who got caught up in using recreational drugs, like everyone else, [but] he was the one who was the addict who couldn’t stop. The moment when, with Noah’s permission, it became clear that we had a role to play in our community, where there’s a lot of shame and we don’t talk about it, so the kid dies. That’s not, on my watch, ever going to happen. If I can touch one family’s life because of our story, I will continue to do this till the day I die.”

Bridging Hope takes place at King David High School. Discussing the science of addiction will be Dr. Yaron Finkelstein, a professor of pediatrics, pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Toronto and a staff physician at the Hospital for Sick Children (known as SickKids); Dr. Yonatan Kupchik, senior lecturer and director, department of medical neurobiology, Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada (IMRIC), Centre for Addiction Research (ICARe), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Dr. Rami Yaka, head of HU’s School of Pharmacy. For tickets to the event ($18), visit register.cfhu.org/bridginghope.

Prevention is ultimate goal

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day will be marked with a community-wide event hosted by Jewish Family Services, in partnership with many other agencies. (photo from nvrc.ca)

According to a World Health Organization study, half the world’s population bears a prejudice against the elderly. Jewish Family Services in Vancouver, which shares that statistic on its website, notes that roughly 17% of people over the age of 60 worldwide are victims of elder abuse. The agency also notes that about 20% of Canadians believe older people are a burden on society, and that approximately 80% of Canadian seniors report discrimination in health care.

On June 15, at 10 a.m., JFS will host a free community-wide event in recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Wosk Auditorium. Rights Don’t Get Old: Let’s Unite Against Elder Abuse will cover what can be done to prevent – what many recent studies have shown to be – a growing problem. Featured speakers include Michael Lee, MLA for Vancouver-Langara and shadow minister for Indigenous relations and reconciliation; Isobel McKenzie, British Columbia’s seniors advocate; and Linda Youk of Seniors First BC.

“A very important element of elder abuse is that it can happen to anyone,” said Cindy McMillan, director of programs and community partnerships at JFS. “We shouldn’t make assumptions about who is at risk and who is not. Awareness that it exists, and that there are supports out there … is what June 15 is all about.”

For JFS, “a nonprofit that supports up to 1,200 seniors annually to live at home safely and with dignity, elder abuse prevention, detection and response is an essential part of support,” she said. “This year, following several years of COVID, and subsequent isolation of many older adults, I felt it was very timely to bring the community together to create more awareness around this issue.”

Elder abuse comprises varying forms of mistreatment, the most commonly reported being neglect, followed by emotional and financial abuse. Physical abuse is also prevalent, with 8.8% of abused seniors experiencing physical violence, according to data provided by JFS. Elder abuse can occur in numerous settings, including within the home, at care facilities and in the community. Most reported cases involve family members, with adult children and spouses being the most common perpetrators.

A Statistics Canada report released in 2019 stated that nearly one in five seniors had experienced some form of abuse. A report from the Office of the Seniors Advocate in British Columbia, using data from 2017 to 2021, found a 49% increase in neglect and self-neglect, an 87% increase in reported physical abuse and a 49% increase in financial abuse over that five-year period.

Neglect is often underreported, both because of a lack of awareness as to what constitutes neglect and the potential stigma associated with the admission of neglect, explained McMillan. Neglect can manifest in different ways, such as providing insufficient food and water, failing to administer medication, leaving an older adult in dirty and unsafe living conditions, and not seeking medical attention for the elderly person when it is needed.

Financial abuse, or the exploitation of older adults for monetary gain, can have serious ramifications. Despite numerous laws in place to prevent it, B.C. seniors lose an estimated $50 million annually because of financial abuse, with only one in five cases reported.

WEAAD was launched in 2006 by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations.

“JFS has always been involved in WEAAD, primarily through our Better at Home program, where we have partnered with different community organizations to have smaller events that promote awareness,” said McMillan. “Our involvement stems from our connection with the Marpole Community Response Network, who is at the forefront of providing information and education on elder abuse.”

Better at Home is a JFS-coordinated program, administered by the United Way, which helps seniors in Kerrisdale, Oakridge, Marpole, Southlands and Dunbar with non-medical, day-to-day tasks such as housekeeping, transportation, grocery shopping, visits and handyperson repairs. The program’s objective is to assist seniors so that they can continue to live independently in their own homes and remain connected to their communities.

This year’s June 15 event will have numerous resource tables located in the atrium of the JCC. Among the groups presenting are the Alzheimer Society of British Columbia, JQT Vancouver, Kerrisdale Oakridge Marpole Community Policing Centre, L’Chaim Adult Day Centre, ASK Friendship Society and ReAct Adult Protection Program of Vancouver Coastal Health.

In a statement to the Independent, JFS said it “was very grateful to have partners like the Jewish Federation, the JCC, the Better at Home Program and Seniors First BC coming together to put on such an important event.”

To register for Rights Don’t Get Old: Let’s Unite Against Elder Abuse, visit jfsvancouver.ca. Refreshments will be provided.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.