So if creating an environment where people are treated fairly is the objective, what are the alternatives to trying to fight perceived unfairness with perceived unfairness?

Well, I think language matters.

So I will first say that the unfairness that we are talking about was real.

The history of our country has created a history of discrimination, racism, exclusion.

So it was real and documented and it is still happening.

And DEI was created to address that.

But I will say that I have never... dismissed anyone's unfairness, no matter who they are.

Which warning signs should executives examine before strong employees start leaving?

Yeah.

Because...

That's what it turned into.

That's what people, and that's why I said DEI was misunderstood and therefore misexecuted.

We never, I don't believe in quotas.

That's in commandment to unlearn the bullshit.

That's one of the things in there.

pillars to the gas strategy.

What is the scalability lie?

Oh, so yes, that's what I called it when people were saying, were making excuses pretty much of, I can't do this work because I don't have the type of culture that you had or I don't have the leadership team you had or my company is way bigger than yours.

It's more complex.

It has more levels, more this, more that.

So I can't do it.

And I felt like it was just excuses because If you've already said you can't do it before even trying, then you've already lost.

So I say that if you can scale like toxicity scales, right? Politics scales, bad leadership scales.

You don't need to list them all, but tell us what some of them are and tell us how you came up with this framework.

Like, we're in one territory, but all of the territories are connected, you know, and the fish coming through there are the fish ending up here.

Just think of all the languages when we go out and we do our first salmon ceremony, and these salmon are swimming through our territories, that even that first run, the early Stuart, that run of salmon has heard probably eight to 10 languages spoken to it, you know, blessings being said to, uh, this run, you know, since time immemorial.

My name is Michelle Edwards.

I'm a St’át’imc woman.

I'm a previous leader, a chief of Secwepemc community, which is one of the 11 communities in the St’át’imc Nation.

Um, right now I work with the St’át’imc Chiefs Council as the community coordinator or the coordinator of the land.

They hear all these languages being spoken, and so that's one run of salmon.

It's 80 years when we're talking about mule deer winter range.

These fires are gonna kill our way of life if we actually don't get in there and really assert our voice and our authority to make those changes on the ground.

Is it gonna put it out? Is it gonna stop it?

And the one thing that was really heartbreaking when I first heard about the back burns when they were first just, they were blowing up and burning everything out there is how our people felt watching them, knowing that they were burning their wildlife habitat, that the deer were gonna be dying in these fires, that the bear, that they were actually ruining their hunting grounds, their gathering places.

Michelle Edwards, I'm the T’inzeeké coordinator for the St’át’imc Chiefs Council.

Over even Adam's Lake, oh, the wind's gonna pick up at 4:00, so what do they do? They light, they light the fire at 3:45, and away it goes.

There goes the fire.

That whole community just about burnt down.

So please welcome Michelle Edwards.

Thank you, David.

Hello.

My name is Michelle, and I'm a recovering shy girl.

As long as I can remember, I've struggled to control my nervous system.

As a toddler, if a person looked at me, I would cry.

If a person tried to talk to me, a stranger tried to talk to me, I would cry and hide underneath my mother's skirt.

win the speech