When Peggy Garritty was appointed Chancellor in 2020, she could not have anticipated the many challenges that would face the University of Alberta throughout her term.

In order to reflect on her four years as the U of A’s 22nd Chancellor, Peggy asked her friend and former colleague Glenn Kubish to take on the role as show host and interview her.

In her final episode as Chancellor, Peggy reflects on her term and recalls some of the remarkable people and events that helped make it an enriching experience. Her interview with Glenn marks a period of her time at the U of A—and not a semicolon!

The outgoing chancellor isn’t certain what the future holds for her, but she considers the U of A—between its students, faculty, staff and administrators—to be in good hands.

Following Chancellor Garritty’s interview with Cheryl Whiskeyjack from Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society and Jordan Reiniger from Boyle Street Community Services about Edmonton’s housing crisis and what we can do to support unhoused people, it’s the audience’s turn.

Folks who attend the live recording session tell their own stories and ask more questions of the panel, seeking to understand where the resolve and funding is to help people on Edmonton’s streets find permanent shelter.

There are an estimated 3,000+ unhoused people living on Edmonton’s streets, a number that has increased significantly from where it was before the pandemic.

University of Alberta Chancellor Peggy Garritty interviews Cheryl Whiskeyjack from Bent Arrow Traditional Healing Society and Jordan Reiniger from Boyle Street Community Services about this housing crisis.

Cheryl and Jordan share stories about the clients they work with every day, and the Chancellor asks them what can be done to address this issue, especially in light of the number of folks who have died over the past few months.

University of Alberta Chancellor Peggy Garritty chats with Adrian LaChance, a renowned Plains Cree dancer, singer, and helper, about Indigenous drumming, and what it means as a creative and cultural expression. LaChance plays a few songs on his hand drum and describes music as ceremony and a connection to the Creator.

University of Alberta Chancellor Peggy Garritty interviews Edmonton musicians Ben Spencer, Ellen Doty and Biboye Onanuga about all things music: how inspiration strikes them, how they write songs, and how they know when a song is finished.

Then, the Chancellor passes the mic to the audience who ask the musicians questions about criticism and the experience of writing music without lyrics.

University of Alberta Chancellor Peggy Garritty interviews David Marples, a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History and Classics at the U of A; Oleksandr Melnyk, an academic from Ukraine studying at the U of A with the Canadian Institute for Ukrainian Studies; and, Lyudmyla Honcharova, one of 80 Ukrainian students studying at the U of A who arrived here from Ukraine on August 20, 2022. 

Along with her guests and members of the audience, Chancellor Garritty explores the stories behind the conflict, and what an end to this war might look like.

Following Chancellor Garritty’s conversation with Lana Cuthbertson from Areto Labs, the audience was invited to ask questions and share their own insights. 

This was a topic that resonated with the folks who attended the talk, and there was a variety of questions from whether or not trolls are a true reflection of society to the notion that perpetrators of online abuse could be anyone, not just a certain kind of person.

Link to The Chilling: Global trends in online violence against women journalists: https://en.unesco.org/publications/thechilling

University of Alberta Chancellor Peggy Garritty interviews Lana Cuthbertson, one of the founders of Areto Labs, a company that is finding ways to identify and mitigate online abuse and hate. Areto Labs is a Canada-based, women-led company that started out of conversations the founders had with other women about how “online toxicity was getting in the way of gender equality in politics - women were stepping back and deciding not to run for office because of the online hate.”

In this conversation, Chancellor Garritty asks Lana about the state of online discourse, the effects that online abuse has on people, and what we as individuals—and Areto as a company—are doing to make the online world a little less fraught.

Following Chancellor Garritty’s conversation with Doug Stollery about the landmark Delwin Vriend case, the audience was invited to ask questions and share their own stories. 

Along with one of Chancellor’s Conversations producers, the Chancellor examines these questions and stories from the conversation that evening and reflects on not only what Vriend did for gay rights in Alberta, but also on the work that still needs to be done to educate people and grow acceptance for members of the 2SLGBTQ community.

In her inaugural episode, University of Alberta Chancellor Peggy Garritty interviews Doug Stollery, KC, one of the lawyers who took Delwin Vriend’s human rights case all the way to Canada’s Supreme Court. Vriend was fired in 1991 because he is openly gay, and at the time there was no protection in Alberta’s Human Rights Act against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. 

The landmark case, long-fought, was a key decision that enshrined gay rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and eventually led to changes in Alberta’s own human rights legislation. While the protections are there in law, in reality, discrimination still occurs and the words of the Supreme Court decision are perhaps more important than ever.